Showbiz History: Maureen O'Hara, Bruce Lee, The Wizard of Oz...

7 things that happened today in showbiz history...

1920 CENTENNIAL Maureen O'Hara, inarguably Ireland's biggest 20th century female movie star, was born in Dublin. She went on to a career filled with numerous classics -- many of which we've written about here at TFE. We *finally* have another Irish female star of her magnitude (probably) in Saoirse Ronan provided she doesn't burn out early (which we don't think she will)...

Click to read more ...

10 years ago on this very day...

...remember when Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) lost the Globe to her ex husband James Cameron (Avatar) at the Golden Globes. Before he even began thanking his team, he name-checked her to her apparent delight in the crowd as the camera held on her.

I'm actually not well prepared because frankly I thought Kathryn was going to win this --  I'm kind of winging it here. She richly deserves it...

Of course by the time the Oscars rolled around the situation reversed and The Hurt Locker was the favourite film and Bigelow became the first female director ever to win the Oscar. The Globes gave a Best Director trophy to Barbra Streisand for Yentl (1983) two decades earlier so perhaps they didn't feel any need to make history since they already had? Anyway we figured this anniversary was worth noting because the awards trouble for female directors has also haunted this Oscar season. 

Jumping to the now... What is going on with Kathryn Bigelow? She has no new projects listed on IMDb apart from producing Pablo Larrain's next project The True American. We hope that Detroit (2017) doesn't prove to be her last feature!!!

"True Lies" at 25

by Mark Brinkerhoff

On July 15, 1994, the re-teaming of James Cameron, fresh off the monstrous success of his previous film (1991’s groundbreaking Terminator 2: Judgment Day), and his Terminator star Arnold Schwarzenegger, not so fresh following the flameout of The Last Action Hero the year prior, debuted in theaters across the U.S. In one of those packed theaters that day: a teenaged me eagerly anticipating the ballyhooed, $100+ million spectacle. 25 years later, has True Lies held up? For that matter, have I? Let’s dive into one and the other, n’en parlons pas...

Click to read more ...

goodness gracious, great links of fire

• Variety Susanne Bier to direct Nicole Kidman in the miniseries The Undoing about a therapist whose husband goes missing
• Paste Kyle Turner on the "literary drag" of Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Decider Julia Roberts 'queen of comebacks she never had to make'
• Pajiba an ode to Missy on Big Mouth (also my favorite character on the show)
• AV Club Emma Thompson wore sneakers to her damehood ceremony
• IndieWire it's foolish to bet against James Cameron even if you think the idea of four more Avatars is insane

• Remezcla why was the Cuban submission Sergio & Sergei left off the Oscar Foreign Film list?
• THR will Netflix caving on an exclusive theatrical window for Roma mean more films will get that treatment?
• Vulture on the extreme closeups in this season's awards contenders
• i09 interesting piece on why we need more utopian fiction (it's all dystopias out there currently)
• Vulture unexpectedly good article "in defense of the medicore music biopic" on Bohemian Rhapsody, Great Balls of Fire, The Doors, and more...
• People Idris Elba named "sexiest man alive" for 2018
• Gizmodo MoviePass didn't kill the dream of subscription-based moviegoing. A new competitor Sinemia has lots of tiered pricing options and a $24 monthly charge if you want unlimited one non 3D movie a day.
• /Film Nothing ever stays dead onscreen. Breaking Bad will now get a film version with Aaron Paul expected to return (as a sequel to the series)
• Broadway World Angela Bassett and Cicely Tyson named honorary chairs of the 60th anniversary gala of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater

Post Election Blueishness
• Slate offers a practical optimistic way to look at the election results yesterday
• New Yorker "Putin Loses Control of the House" - funny piece!

Showbiz: Norma's Win, Gwyneth's Breakthrough, and Sam Rockwell's 50th

10 random things that happened on this day (Nov 5th) in showbiz history...

1930 The 3rd annual Academy Awards are held for films released between August 1, 1929, and July 31, 1930... they hadn't yet settled on the easier full calender year system. The anti-war masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front took Best Picture and Norma Shearer, the First Lady of MGM, won Best Actress for scandalous pre-code classic The Divorcée (which you really should see).

1935 Parker Brothers launches board game classic "Monopoly". Remember when Ridley Scott was going to do a movie version? That was so weird...

Click to read more ...