Showbiz History: Doris in Peril, Daniel Craig as 007, and the Goldblum/ Davis Split

8 random things that happened on this day, October 14th, in showbiz history

1930 The Gershwin musical Girl Crazy opens on Broadway, introducing the standards "Embraceable You" "But Not For Me" and "I Got Rhythm" into the American songbook. Future movie star Ginger Rogers was in the original cast! It was adapted to film twice, first in 1932 and then with Mickey Rooney & Judy Garland in 1943.

1960 Did you know that Doris Day didn't only make comedies? A thriller called Midnight Lace, was new in theaters that weekend with Doris in danger!

Rex Harrison, John Gavin, Myrna Loy, and Roddy McDowall co-starred and Doris Day was nominated for Best Actress, Drama at the Golden Globes. How about that? If you've seen it do tell...

Click to read more ...

Doris Day (1922-2019)

by Nathaniel R

"Legend" and "Icon" and "Classic" are all overused words in showbiz prose, and we're as guilty of anyone at letting those words fly out with abandon. But they're nothing like overstatements when it comes to the career of Doris Day, one of the 20th Century's most beloved and successful stars. She began her career as a teenage big band singer and nine years later debuted on the big screen in her most regular genre, the romantic comedy (with or without songs) via Busby Berkeley's Romance on the High Seas (1948).

She was an instant hit with audiences but it took a few more years for her true classics to emerge...

Click to read more ...

Howard Keel Centennial: "Calamity Jane"

We're celebrating musical star Howard Keel's Centennial this week. Here's Tim Brayton...

Presenting a musical in which Howard Keel plays the obnoxious gunslinger love interest to a famous woman from the Wild West. My apologies if you feel a little bit of déjà vu from that logline: Nathaniel did, after all, just write about Keel's breakout performance in 1950's Annie Get Your Gun, about which every word of that sentence equally applies. And that's absolutely no accident. Warner Bros. had fought to get the rights to that stage musical as a vehicle for its up-and-coming singing star Doris Day, but lost out to MGM. When that film proved to be a hit, Warner's responded by developing an original Western musical based - oh so very loosely - on the life of Calamity Jane, famous frontierswoman and scout.

So eager was the studio to recreate that Annie magic that they even went to the trouble of borrowing Keel from MGM for the span of this one production. Not that you could tell any of this just by looking at 1953's Calamity Jane...

Click to read more ...

Hot Rumor Alert: The Return of Doris Day?

Doris Day a year ago when she was turning 90Clint Eastwood has supposedly convinced Doris Day to return to the movies. She hasn't been in one since... (gulp)... the summer of 1968 when the romantic comedy With Six You Get Eggroll premiered. It had a plot not entirely unlike The Brady Bunch which premiered the following year.  Day's character even had three sons she was bringing along into the new blended family.

This rumor seems suspect. If they can't convince the legend to spend even one night at an industry event honoring her, which is often the rumor in regards to the sore subject of the annual Honorary Oscar selections -- why would she be willing to spend weeks in front of a movie camera and all the promotion that that would then entail, including surely, more events than just one honoring her to promote it when it premiered!

I'm not sure I believe this rumor at all though it's cute to think of Octogenarian Eastwood strolling across the street or the lawn or what have you in Carmel to hand the 91 year old legend a movie script. Does she even remember what they look like? There's no word yet on what the movie or the role is but Clint Eastwood always has a lot of projects simmering so it could be anything. I suddenly pictured her in the cast of that probably aborted Eastwood-helmed A Star is Born remake with Beyoncé. Heh.

UPDATE: Doris Day has since denied this but then she would. 

Related Post: 200 Oldest Living Screen Stars of Note

Curio: Suspect and Fugitive

Alexa here with your weekly arts and crafts.   Nathaniel's banana Bond boredom from last week reminded me of a project that Seattle-based artist Kris Garland/Rakka Deer did back in 2008.  Titled Suspect and Fugitive, the series involved making one item a day from suspect (questionable) and fugitive (non archival) materials. This involved Rakka combining pop culture portraiture with food (and sometimes other materials) in new and clever ways every day for one year.

Like this pancake Cate Blanchett...

Pancake Blanchett

Maybe Nathaniel should try this.  Favorite actresses and foodstuffs maybe?  In any case, here is some more inspiration courtesy of Rakka from Donnie Darko to Doris Day after the jump

Click to read more ...