Showbiz History: Lady Godiva, RMS Titanic, and a Good Girl Gone Bad

15 random things that happened on this day, May 31st, in history as it relates to showbiz...

1279BC Ramasses II becomes Pharoah in ancient egypt. He grows up to look like Yul Brynner in the 1950s. yum. 

1057 Lady Godiva takes a naked ride. 898 years later Maureen O'Hara fills her shoes...er... saddle (she weren't wearing no shoes) in an G-rated wig in Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955)

1790 President George Washington signed the first US copyright act into law...

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Sunset Boulevard. Should we worry or rejoice?

by Nathaniel R

As you have no doubt heard, the 1993 stage musical Sunset Blvd., Andrew Lloyd Webber's adaptation of the film noir classic Sunset Boulevard (1950) now has a green light for the movies. The stage musical premiered in London in '93 with Patti LuPone in the lead role before a legally-fraught switcheroo to Glenn Close for its Broadway debut in '94. The musical would go on to win 7 Tonys (including Best Musical and Best Actress) and roughly ever since then (we're talking 25 years now!) there's been talking of adapting it back to the screen, its original home and subject matter. This wouldn't be the first time that's happened of course. The most recent example is Hairspray which proved a hit in all three incarnations: 1988 / 2002 / 2007.

This project has been talked about for years and now a sudden green light with shooting scheduled for October. Was it Glenn Close's year long comeback of sorts as she undoubtedly came close to winning that elusive Oscar that finally did it...

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Best Dressed Best Actress? (...and a look at the whole decade, too)

Mandatory Red Carpet Lineup Poll!

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P.S. In case you've forgotten about our Oscar doll fantasy (You haven't, right?) the whole collection is embedded after the jump. Just think - there's only one more Oscar season to go to complete the decade in film !!! Then we can do all sorts of silly stuff with statistics...

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Caption This: Glenn's Gaze

Nathaniel has already done the job of lamenting Glenn Close's sad loss again at Oscar's big night, so let's take some joy in one thing she did win that night: the internet. The spirit of goodwill and love for the screen legend has been everywhere online this season, from sharing selfies with Chalamet to her dog Sir Pippin of Beanfield's Instagram. But last night she gave us a genius bit of viral performance when she caught the eye of co-nominee Melissa McCarthy on the red carpet. The results were glamorous and... sexual (?) in nature.

  

Reader, tell us: what is Glenn Close thinking?

On Glenn Close's Oscar Curse

by Nathaniel  R

At this point in her long and celebrated career, Glenn Close surely has reason to wonder. Consider it a reverse Sally Field: 'You don't like me? You really don't like me?'

There are many familiar time-tested ways to win an Oscar and Glenn Close has tried them all. She's tried the debut performance that makes everyone's jaw drop with 'who is THAT?' wonder (World According to Garp). She's tried being the actor who becomes a kind of symbolic representation of an entire film and cast (The Big Chill). She's tried having the necessary momentum, twice actually, with three consecutive supporting nominations ending in The Natural  early in her career, and then two consecutive lead nominations a few years later (ending with Dangerous Liaisons). She's tried having the kind of blockbuster zeitgeist hit that can carry you to win even when you aren't deserving though she certainly was (Fatal Attraction)...

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