Curio: McDermott & McGough

Alexa here. David McDermott and Peter McGough formed an artistic partnership during the 80s in the East Village, dressing as turn-of-the-century dandies in the scene that included Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat. Known as McDermott & McGough, they've worked in photography, painting, sculpture and film.  They continue to collaborate, even though McDermott lives in Dublin and McGough in New York (in quite the apartment).  

 

I thought their latest work, photorealistic paintings that celebrate actresses in classic films, would be of interest to TFE readers.  The work often pairs actresses from different films together in moments of intense emotion, or nestles them in modernist compositions with other elements of pop culture.

Here's a selection... 

Click to read more ...

Liz & Link

Film.com Our friend Joe Reid debuts his Oscar column and explains why Oscars are good for us
Winnipeg Free Press interviews Kim Morgan on her Marilyn Monroe essay for Playboy
Huffington Post will Les Misérables virgins enjoy the film? Mike Ryan did.
Actors & Crew the best iPhone apps for filmmaking 
Natasha VC Feel all your feelings about James Spader (now appearing in Lincoln)
NY Times extensive audio & text piece on the sound design of Killing Me Softly. I love educational web goodies

The Atlantic worries that the conversion to digital will cost us deeply when it comes to the classics. Some of them may never look or sound the way they were intended to again. (With commentary from the brilliant editor Thelma Schoonmaker)
In Contention Can Beasts of the Southern Wild return to the Oscar fray? 
In Contention The "Oscar Bait" got good
Coming Soon photos from the set of R.I.P.D. with Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds. They don't look much like zombie police officers to me?
Movieline Did you know that Steven Spielberg was once turned down when he asked to direct James Bond!?
The Carpet Bagger is back and looking at how the new Oscar schedule may change release dates and campaign strategies 

Linds & Tricks
Gawker the wordless acting of Lindsay Lohan in Liz & Dick
TFE Mean Girls predicted the future! 
PopWatch the best lines from Liz & Dick 
Huffington Post 100 Twitter Reactions... their layout is really messy/annoying but if you scroll down the post title can be found in a slide show that looks like an ad... but it's actually the content of the post after a long intro. 

And no... I haven't yet watched Liz & Dick. I know. I didn't have the energy, wasn't in the right mood to see Liz defiled (easily among the top five best celebrities who ever lived -- in multiple senses of "best") and maybe you had to be there at the online viewing internet party anyway!

'you are an odd one, aren't you?'

Leslie: You are an odd one, aren't you Jett? But I like you.
Jett: I like you too. 

I guess you're about the best looking gal we've seen round here in a long time -- I think the prettiest in I think I've seen... down here. 

Leslie: Why thank you, Jett. That's a very nice compliment.

...And I'm going to tell my husband I met with your approval.

Click to read more ...

A Drowning Woman Takes Down Those Nearest

JA from MNPP here. Well it's official! As rumored slash threatened, Lindsay Lohsan will be playing Elizabeth Taylor in a Lifetime channel bio-pic centering on Liz's back-and-forth paparazzi-bait romance with Sir Richard Burton. I thought maybe this would go the way of Linds playing Lovelace and end up no more than hot air, but it appears it's for real, and she's maybe cleaned her act up enough...?

I'm forced by the sheer weight of the past several years sordid history to end that sentence with a question mark. Nevermind if this is even a good idea or not - skepticism regarding any project involving LL has become too deeply ingrained in me. Until this thing's actually on my TV screen, I will doubt.

What say y'all? Is it too soon after losing the legend to even contemplate this? Does Lindsay have what she needs to nail this... or to even walk away unscathed? Is it a gutsy move on her part or just a symptom of derangement? And who would you cast as Dick? So many question marks.

'oh, oobee doo. i wanna link like you-oohooh ♫'

Empire Eddie Murphy could play Washington mayor Marion Barry for Spike Lee in a new biopic.
Carpetbagger wonders if Meryl Streep is the oldest person to ever grace the cover of Vogue? We assume she is, unless some male designer once posed there with an 18 yr old supermodel. 
Movie|Line 5 pieces of Elizabeth Taylor's Memorabilia worth paying for...
Time profiles Tilda Swinton

Indie Wire because Martin Scorsese hasn't won enough awards in the past several years, the Santa Barbara Festival is going to honor him with the American Riviera Award 
Yahoo Movies a rundown of awardage thus far. No consensus really.
Rope of Silicon lists the top five movie tattoos. I was happy to see Seth Gecko.
Awards Daily Sasha gets angry at the Shame haters. The movie not the emotion. Feel free to hate on shame the emotion. It's an annoying one. 
Guardian in "Obituaries of 2011" has Shirley Maclaine's memories of La Liz. 
24 Frames The Hollywood Blacklist... hottest screenplays 

Hero Complex on Anthony Lister's Rise of the Planet of the Apes mural at Melrose Avenue.

Love it, don't you? How many pictures do you think are going to be snapped there every day while it's up. 

And finally congratulations to the directors cited by Variety as "10 to Watch". In case the pay wall traps you like it did me they are:

• Zal Batmanglij (Sound of My Voice)
• Valérie Donzelli (Declaration of War) -French Oscar submission
• Gareth Evans (The Raid)
• Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar) -Canadian Oscar submission
• Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala) -Mexican Oscar submission
• Matt Piedmont (Casa de mi Padre)
• Michaël R Roskam (Bullhead) -Belgian Oscar submission
• Lynn Shelton (Your Sister's Sister)
• Benh Zeitlin (Beast of the Southern Wild)
• The Bandito Brothers (Act of Valor)

Off Cinema
in case you need a wee break in which case what the hell are you doing here?
Pitchfork Top 100 Songs of the Year 
Billboard The Year in Music
Stale Popcorn Madonna's greatest soundtrack hits. (Okay that one is not totally off cinema I suppose.)