Curio: Michelle Pfeiffer Turns 56

Alexa here. Like Nathaniel I adore Michelle Pfeiffer and can't pass up the chance to mention that she is turning 56 today. Oh if only she were as ubiquitous a presence during awards season as Meryl Streep, with all the plum non-ingenue roles going her way!  Whether it be a lack of willingness or opportunity, the sightings are far too infrequent.

Here are some curios to wax nostalgic over her heyday; if only we could conjure her a brilliant third act.

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Links: MTV Movie Awards and More...

The Guardian asks a really good question. Had James Dean lived would he have been a Newman or a Brando?
Nerd Approved swapping the genders on Disney characters
Comics Alliance one minute of the opening battle from X-Men Days of Future Past. Looks exciting
The Guardian an interview with the disfigured actor from Under the Skin
Vox 21 Times Stephen Colbert has dropped his satiric character and been himself 
Telegraph an unusually candid confession: Pierce Brosnan doesn't think he was good enough as James Bond
Empire Harrison Ford talks Bladerunner sequel 

MTV Movie Awards
I "forgot" to watch. But the internet provides the highlights anyway. Like Zac Efron getting his shirt ripped off. The masses have now seen his chest approximately in everything but it still excites them (More is more?)

Comics Alliance one minute of the opening battle from X-Men Days of Future Past. Looks exciting
Towleroad Jared Leto's AIDS focused speech. Yes he won another award for Rayon "Best Transformation"
YouTube they aired a commercia lfor A Million Ways to Die in the West. Charlize Theron's look is very Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead, right? Only with humor.
In Contention has a best and worst list from the night
Variety has the complete winners list which were awful... Mila Kunis terrible terrible villain in Oz: The Great and Powerful won (there were such better options like my Best Villain Nominees). Yikes. For what it's worth Hunger Games: Catching Fire won Best Movie and both lead actor prizes. Yes, Josh Hutcherson too! Since this is, you know, MTV and Twilight no longer exists.

This Weekend's Miracle
Michelle Pfeiffer left the house!

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We always have to report on it since it's so rare. She was at Coachella in California this weekend with an undetermined friend.

Today's Watch
Awesomely talented Laura Benanti explains the current Broadway season. (I don't understand why a great TV series doesn't snap her up. She was so good on the short-lived Playboy Club and in The Sound of Music: Live and surely she deserves better than a Law & Order franchise. Especially since the bitch can sang.)

25 Years Ago Today... Marquise & Madame

These pictures were literally shot 25 years ago today - Michelle Pfeiffer & Glenn Close at the Governor's Ball for the 1988 Oscars on March 29th, 1989.  

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Pfeiffer Leaves Her House!

It's so rare we have to report on it every time. Yesterday Michelle Pfeiffer was on the arm of her husband David E Kelley attending the 23rd Television Hall of Fame Inductee Gala. 

Kelley was one of a handful of new inductees. He's not the TV force he once was with hit after hit on the air but he's behind the new Robin Williams / Sarah Michelle Gellar sitcom "The Crazy Ones". It used to be more common to see Pfeiffer at the Emmys than the Oscars due to being his plus one now for 20 years.

Congratulations to David E. Kelley on this well deserved honor. But Mr. Kelley, now that your schedule is lighter than it once was, your daughter is 19 and your son turns 18 this summer, can you please convince Mrs. Kelley to go back to work? Seriously what does she do with all her time? I can't fathom it. 

Interview: Joanna Scanlan on 'The Invisible Woman' and Working with Icons

Photo via Beige PlusThere's a wonderful little moment in Notes on a Scandal (2006) in which a well meaning but unwelcome teacher by the name of Sue Hodge advises her fellow schoolteachers (played by Dami Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett), who are struggling with their students to "concern yourself with the gems". I'm shamelessly borrowing that line right now to talk about the British actress who utters it, because she is one.

Joanna Scanlan co-wrote and starred in the BBC series Getting On (now enjoying an American remake) and has played witches, nurses, schoolteachers, and more yet she's largely unknown to American audiences. She's got her best cinematic showcase yet in The Invisible Woman as Catherine Dickens, the neglected depressed wife of the famous writer Charles Dickens (Ralph Fiennes). Her husband may neglect her and the Oscar conversation did, too (despite its ostensible purpose being to, well, concern itself with the gems) so we're picking up their slack.

She's remarkable in the movie and though the title does not literally refer to her character, we like to think it has a double meaning. The movie business is not a meritocracy but it there's any justice Joanna Scanlan won't be an 'invisible woman' much longer but will be popping up in more roles worthy of her. I eagerly telephoned her to discuss her role in this Oscar nominated picture (Best Costume Design) and her nifty habit of acting opposite true icons like Dench, Fiennes, Pfeiffer, and Blanchett. 

Our conversation is after the jump...

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