Beauty vs Beast: Sister City, Sister Bumpkin

JA from MNPP here with today's very special Labor Day edition of our "Beauty vs Beast" series. Whether you're employed crunching numbers and dodging bitchy CEOs in the big city offices of Moramax or you've opted for the more laidback homey halls of the Hollowmade factory down in Jupiter Hollow, West Virginia, I hope we can all take a breather from doing the work we love today to unite over one indisputable fact - Lily Tomlin, who is turning 75 today, is a national treasure.

Clearly we've chosen 1988's twin comedy Big Business as this week's theme - as I was eleven and deep in a Bette Midler phase when this film came out I hope you'll forgive me for admitting this movie means a lot to me. (I have previously done an extensive appreciation over at my own site.) Rewatching it for the possibly one millionth time this weekend it's impossible for me to tell if it's actually any good or if it's just so deep-seated inside of me I can't see the forest for the Plaza Hotel.

But man does it make me laugh, and I go back and forth each time between who's funnier: Lily Tomlin as City Rose (slapstick with muffins and dogs in elevators) and Country Rose (Rattlesnake bracelets and water-tight frog asses) or Bette Midler as Country Sadie (Lee Press On Nails and UFOs) and City Sadie (Blood Clots and Tiaras). So I'm making y'all pick!

poll by twiigs.com

Before anybody says anything yes I was torn between doing the poll this way and asking you to choose Country Sisters vs City Sisters instead, but a showdown between the two actresses ultimately won that dispute in my mind. If you'd like to offer up your cases whichever way in the comments though, feel free! You have seven days.

PREVIOUSLY Last week we were wishing Sean Connery a happy birthday by dipping our Goldfinger into the James Bond pool, and sure enough it's that wascally secret agent who floated to the top with a whopping 77% of the vote. Said Henry:

"Seriously? Put Bond against Bond or Villain against Villain and you might have a fight, but there is no way a Bond can lose against anyone but an equal and Bond has no equals."

Curio: Lily Tomlin, Movie Fan

Alexa here. To celebrate Lily Tomlin's 75th birthday tomorrow I dug up this 1983 issue of the ill-fated "The Movies" magazine from my collection. In it, Tomlin shares her film memories, especially those during her time as a teen usherette. The lengthy diary-like piece, filled with teen snapshots and written with wife and longtime collaborator Jane Wagner, reveals Tomlin to be a true film obsessive, discussing various modes of screen charisma ("inner glow" versus "outer twinkle"), her sexual awakening via B-movies, the damage Brigitte Bardot did to her, and her feminist critique of Annie Hall. Here are some choice excerpts.

Click to read more ...

Where My (Legendary) Girls At: Jane, Lily, Diane, and Debbie

Any 24 hour period that has wonderful news about four film legends is a good day, at least in part. We have to grasp at happy straws considering the "real" world outside of the arts. So, let's start with the best best actress news of the day week month...

first still (since pulled it looks like it)

JANE & LILY
That Jane Fonda & Lily Tomlin Netflix series "Grace & Frankie" is really happening and Jane Fonda wrote about it while sharing the first still and behind the scenes photos yesterday: 

I had a brief hard spell the first day, moving away from my Leona Lansing-Newsroom mode and into comedy. Comedy requires different muscles, a subtle shifting of gears, of attitude. It’s harder, in my opinion. This kind of comedy has to be real, the comedy has to come out of reality, out of pain, yet it has to be funny... 

Some actors don’t like to watch dailies (the footage you shot the day before). I, on the contrary, benefit from watching them, and not just the footage that I’m in. I’m one of the producers on this series and I need to see everything. Besides, it helps me calibrate my performance.. 

Jane Fonda would make the best Smackdown guest because she takes acting so seriously, articulates it well and still has curiousity about it; my heart practically burst at a Fonda event a year or two ago when she mentioned her plan to go back to acting class for reasons that there's always more to learn about your craft. This from a two time Oscar winner who, at her best, is pretty untoppable in terms of acting magic. It reminded me of Madonna taking vocal lessons in the 90s and then guitar lessons in the 00s -- Mega-successful people who still stay humble about their talent and seek to improve are a rare breed and deserve enormous respect. One of the great dangers of success is laziness and coasting, you know.

As for Lily, her 75th birthday is next month and we'll be sure to celebrate it somehow.

Debbie Reynolds & Diane Keaton after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

Jane & Lily are "Grace & Frankie"

Lily & Jane together in 2006 for a Nine to Five party (photo: Steve Granitz/WireImage.com)In the greatest news that ever existed today, Netflix has revealed that Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin will co-star in their the forthcoming original series "Grace & Frankie". The show's premise sounds hilarious (at least for a short run) as it's about two enemies whose husbands leave them for each other. Grace & Frankie slowly becomes friends.

There's no word yet on when we'll see it, but it joins about 4 other new shows Netflix has ordered in the wake of their smash success creating original programming: Orange is the New Black and House or Cards are both sensations and apparently even Hemlock Grove generated strong numbers despite being shamelessly terrible. 

 The new comedy is created by Marta Kauffman. If that name sounds familiar it's because she's brought the world "Friends". With two formidable and now underused comic talents like Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin on board this could be really special.

The only logical question that remains...

Who do we have to sleep with to get Dolly Parton on the show? 

Creative Arts Emmys: Lily & Melissa & Liberace

The Emmys have 5 bajillion categories so they can't announce them all on their PrimeTime ceremony (next Sunday! We'll live blog or something?) so last night they did their 'not ready for primetime' prizes for shows on... uh... primetime

And the winners are...

Guest Actress, Comedy: Melissa Leo as "Laurie" on Louie
Guest Actress, Drama: Carrie Preston as "Elsbeth Tascioni" on The Good Wife
Guest Actor, Comedy: Bob Newhart as "Arthur Jeffries/Professor Proton" on The Big Bang Theory
Guest Actor, Drama: Dan Bucatinsky as "James Movack" on Scandal
Voice Over: Lily Tomlin, An Apology to Elephants (HBO) 

File it under "if only it were a triple crown". Before 30 Rock popularized the notion of the "EGOT", the only multi-prize haul that the general public cared about by nickname was "The Triple Crown" (Oscar, Tony, Emmy) which still makes more sense as an aspirational haul for celebrities. Anyway, Lily Tomlin adds another Emmy to her trophy haul which includes 2 Tonys and a Grammy so the only thing preventing her EGOT is that she lost the Oscar for Nashville... (sniffle).

The LEOgend, Liberace, and more more more after the jump

Click to read more ...