Beauty vs Beast: Gold Medal Mamas

Jason Adams from MNPP here trying to think cold on a 95 degree day in New York City - let's step back in time then to the cool months of this past winter, known around these parts as Awards Season, and onto the ice, for it is Margot Robbie's birthday today and we never did a "Beauty vs Beast" for I Tonya if you can believe it. I'm a little shocked myself that we never had 'em duke it out. So here, in one corner we have Tonya Harding (Robbie), who fits this boxing talk like a glove, and in the other corner her mother LaVona (a statue-snatching parrot-wearing Allison Janney), who... is also perfectly comfortable existing inside this metaphor of the boxing ring. 

free polls

PREVIOUSLY Last week's contest also tackled an antagonistic mother-daughter duo with Dolores Clairborne, and it was Dolores herself came up on top with a whopping 80% of your vote. Said W.J.:

"That film is a flat-out masterpiece, no joke. Awe-inspiring, fully realized performances all the way around, stirring cinematography and visual effects that stand the test of time. Glad to see it get some love."

Beauty vs Beast: Total Eclipse of the Drunk

Jason Adams from MNPP here with this week's dose of "Beauty vs Beast" fun. The great Kathy Bates is turning 70 on Thursday, giving you a couple of days to craft your love letters to her on Twitter - until then let's celebrate one of her great roles, the other Stephen King one, 1995's Dolores Claiborne. The film was underrated when it was released and the film remains underrated today if you ask me, but I think it's got a diehard contingent of fans - it's top-shelf King, mainly due to its two leading ladies, Bates as Dolores and Jennifer Jason Leigh as her estranged daughter Selena. And now I am the jerk who makes you choose...

bike tracks

PREVIOUSLY Last week we climbed on the city bus with Keanu Reeves and Sandy Bullock and then we quickly proceeded to run right the hell over Dennis Hopper - Keanu won the Speed poll with 74% of the vote! Those biceps... I totally get it. Said Tom G:

"Jack ends up with Sandra Bullock. He wins."

Feud: Bette and Joan "More or Less"

Previously
1 "Pilot"
2 "The Other Woman" 
3 "Mommie Dearest" 

by Eric Blume

Episode 4, “More, Or Less” marks the halfway point for Feud: Bette and Joan, and this episode focuses on power and limitations, not only for its title characters, but for everyone surrounding them.  

This episode sees both lead actresses confronted by a lack of offers after the completion of shooting Whatever Happed to Baby Jane?.  Susan Sarandon’s reaction to meeting her new young agent is priceless, and Jessica Lange has a “fuck you fellas” scene that feels right out of Mommie Dearest.  

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Feud: Bette and Joan. "The Other Woman"

Previously on episode 1

On the second episode, Bette and Joan fight for the affections of Robert Aldrich, Hedda Hopper has a feud of her own, and Kiernan Shipka goes full Sally Draper. Here's Jorge Molina...

Your autograph please Ms Crawford

For both of his latest anthologies, Ryan Murphy has tried to focus every episode on a different aspect of the overall theme of the series in question. With People vs. OJ, we got racism and sexism-centric episodes. On Feud it seems we'll be exploring different sides of the destructive Hollywood machinery. This week that's how women in the industry are pitted against each other for monetary and publicity gain.

The second episode also gives us an excuse to call Stanley Tucci "Big Daddy." Not that we needed one...

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Oscar Horrors: Kathy Bates in Misery

Boo! It's time for "Oscar Horrors". Each night at 7 we'll look back on a horror-connected Oscar nomination until Halloween.

by Jason Adams

There are a lot of images that probably flash across one's mind when one thinks of Kathy Bates' Oscar-winning performance in Rob Reiner's film Misery. Images as great and big and terrifying as those mountain peaks that line Annie Wilkes' farmland like prison-bars. Maybe you hear words like "cockadoodie car" call out, or maybe you see Annie swinging that sledgehammer with tears of love tipping her eyelashes and a swell in her heart - I certainly wouldn't blame you; that's a shock that leaves a mark, on Paul Sheldon and the audience both.

But when I think of Misery I immediately think of one scene, every time, and it's the quietest (and for that maybe the most terrifying) moment in the film...

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