When Meryl Met Anna... and Other Stories

Salon Sandra Bullock to play Texas senator Wendy Davis, who famously filibustered an anti-abortion bill for 12 hours. Oscar #2?
Variety interviews actor/playwright Tracy Letts who is really having a good year you must admit. Lady Bird is a hit in theaters and his new play just opened in Chicago
Hollywood Reporter has a good interview with Steven Soderbergh
Instagram Lupita Nyong'o loves her natural hair and is upset with a magazine for airbrushing it away
Variety Replacing Kevin Spacey in All the Money in the World is going to cost at least 2.5 million
MNPP Do Dump or Marry: Thor Ragnarok edition

Stage
Deadline this is a surprise the Tony Awards have declared the recent production of "1984" ineligible for prizes. They have not stated why exactly.
Playbill reviews are in for Broadway's new musical The Band's Visit, based on the Ronit Elkabetz film of the same name if you remember that one
Theater Mania photos of Kelli O'Hara and Patrick Wilson rehearsing for Brigadoon. Hope it's swoon-worthy
Playbill Jake Shears (of Scissor Sisters fame) joining Kinky Boots on Broadway next year. Damn, I guess I'll have to see it a third time

Harassment Epidemic Updates
AV Club on Hollywood's long overdue moral reckoning
New Yorker Emily Nussbaum has a terrific piece on Louis CK's comedy through the lens of recent allegations
New York Times Louis CK has confessed to the claims against him "These stories are true"
Medium Actor Anthony Edwards has come forward to say he was molested by a producer when he was underage
Guardian Ellen Page has detailed homophobic remarks director Brett Rattner made to her during the production of X-Men: Last Stand
Washington Post showing their utter depravity GOP officials are now citing the bible to justify Roy Moore's sexual assault on an underage girl. And just think, last month they were slamming Hollywood for its depravity with Harvey Weinstein.

Oscar Campaigns Heat Up
Awards Daily Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman) to receive Rising Star award at Palm Springs
Variety Willem Dafoe (The Florida Project) to receive Vanguard award at Santa Barbara

And cheeky Meryl Streep met with Anna Wintour (who she sent up in her Oscar worthy work in Devil Wears Prada) to promote her new star vehicle The Post

"The Post" on Our Doorstep

Chris here. I was just mentioning the other day that we had yet to see any real goods on Steven Spielberg's The Post, and voila: we just got a new trailer and poster. And the promise of the film being a potential major Oscar player has just gotten a whole lot more intense.

If we thought this one aims to capture the zeitgeist, the first look makes good on that and then some. Gender equality, journalistic integrity, a lying government, etc. The Post seems to hammer all of these in a graceful way to make for what looks to be a richly entertaining drama. There has been steady buzz for this first look online (and not just from movie obsessed folk like us at The Film Experience) since dropping late last night, so we may also have a big box office hit on our hands.

So what Oscar questions might have been answered here? For starters, Streep is definitely a lead performance, landing both top billing and the majority of the trailer's attentions - so the Best Actress race just got definitively more crowded. Giggle at the various hairpieces, but it's worth pencilling this next to other Makeup and Hairstyling hopefuls.

Of course with any reveal, there is also inevitably more questions. In The Post's case, which of these featured supporting male actors could be a contender? Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, or Bob Odenkirk perhaps? Might Sarah Paulson's earnestness get her an awaited first nomination or is she more of a crucial bit player? Give us your first impressions and burning questions in the comments!

First Image from "The Post"

Chris here. Luckily this year only has a few late-breaking Oscar hopefuls, with the highest profile being Steven Spielberg's The Post. The film has been another snappy production for the director after beginning production earlier this year, a strategy that worked out just fine for the director with Munich. The rush carries an added weight this time as the film details the release and fallout of the Pentagon Papers, a subject of great topicality in our current administration. Add in the first cinematic pairing of Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep (not to mention an ever expanding cast) and you've got a can't-miss assemblage.

We will hopefully see a trailer any day now since its Christmas Day limited release date is getting closer. For now, we have this first image of the newsroom and its various hairpieces to ponder over. Or in the case of Carrie Coon's beehive, to worship over. So let's do an old-fashioned Tag Yourself - I'm Tony-winning Jessie Mueller peeking out behind some white guy. Tag yourself in the comments!

I'm fluent in "Cher"

I discovered that I can read if not speak Cher fluently. So if you are not so blessed I shall translate this tweet for you after the jump...

Just finished Song🎂
Think Benny will Like it.
Think Ol will Love it
Think ML will laugh & Dance around with me👻👻

— Cher (@cher) October 23, 2017

Click to read more ...

Beauty vs Beast: Sisterly Sensibilities

Jason from MNPP here using this week's "Beauty vs Beast" to wish a happy birthday to one of our favorite directors, the great Ang Lee. In a strange coincidence I spent some of this weekend talking Ang on Twitter even though I hadn't realized it was about to be his birthday today, so I'd say Fate chose this week's contest. And because more than anything a battle between actresses livens you folks up, let's face down the Sisters Dashwood of Ang's 1995 classic Sense & Sensibility.

And no before anyone asks I don't think Kate Winslet or Emma Thompson to be beastly in any manner. But seeing as the film itself pits their two ways of existing at odds with one another for the majority of its run-time (only to eventually decide, with fine wisdom, that the sisters could clearly stand to learn a little from one another) it doesn't seem completely far-fetched to pitch them against one another here. They are, for all their adoration of one another, each other's main antagonists once the who's who of romance falls away.

PREVIOUSLY Even though Angela Lansbury's original Manchurian Candidate performance won somewhat decisively over Meryl Streep's in the remake (she took 74% of the vote) it was a real battle in the comments. Said Jono:

"I am surprised this never came up before. I voted for Meryl because Angela will get more votes, and I love both performances. The Demme version is kind of underrated - everyone in it is uniformly great. But the original with Angela is impeccable."