i know all there is to know about the linking game... 🎵

Your host (c'est moi, Nathaniel) is weeks behind his movie game. So here's part 1 of a massive link roundup to try to catch up. Twenty-five mini stories in this one, let's go...

EW celebrates Idris Elba on their cover
The Vulture a profile of the screenwriter of The Post who was inspired to write it after reading Katherine Graham's memoir "Personal History" Meryl Streep will play Graham in the film (which is not based on that memoir but on one event in Graham's career.)
Awards Daily laments that big box office hits like Get Out and Wonder Woman are not considers shoo-in for Best Picture nominations
Variety Darren Aronofsky tapped as keynote speaker for next spring's SXSW festival
The Hollywood Reporter Disney is not moving forward with its Jack and the Beanstalk animated film named Gigantic
Playbill Glee's Lea Michele finally met Barbra Streisand
People Dan Amboyer who plays the twin of Hilary Duff's deceased fiance on Younger (long story) has come out as gay
Mirror Rob Collier believes his gay under-butler role on Downton Abbey has made it difficult for him to find other roles

More after the jump including  Weinstein harassment fallout, agressive Netflix recommendations, Jonathan Groff's penchant for singing on set, and more...

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Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017)

by Nathaniel R

Jeanne Moreau in BAY OF ANGELS (1963)

The greatest French New Wave icon Jeanne Moreau has passed away at 89 years of age. I didn't immediately understand the fuss over her in my earliest years of cinephila. That's no reflection on the silver screen goddess herself but rather a byproduct of my uncommon disinterest in François Truffaut's classic Jules et Jim (1962) in which Moreau is the object of both titular men's affections. That movie reliably excites almost everyone who shares the affliction of cinephilia so I can't say why it did so little for me!

But one day, nine years ago, my dear friend Vern who had been experiencing back pain and whose wife was off travelling somewhere brought over Bay of Angels (1963) for me to watch...

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Sam Shepard (1943-2017)

by Eric Blume

Sam Shepard in the early days of fame

Although it’s been well over a decade since we’ve had a major contribution from Sam Shepard, his death yesterday at age 73 feels momentous.  He’s our only American playwright to have won a Pulizer Prize as a writer and then gone on to an Oscar nomination for his acting.  He was a symbol of masculinity and a man of great mystery...   

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Susan Hayward's Final Oscar Appearance

SUSAN HAYWARD CENTENNIAL

by Nathaniel R

We're doing our Susan Hayward party all out of chronology and will end with an early role. It's our way of saying that the big movie stars never really die but live on in their films. But for the penultimate stop in this Hayward fest, let's take a lot at the 1973 Oscars. She made her last public appearance on April 2nd, 1974 when she presented Best Actress with Charlton Heston at the Oscars. They were contemporaries at the peak of their stardom in the 1950s (and both won leading Oscars in the late 1950s) but Heston's career was still going strong at this point while Hayward had only intermittently working... 

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Dead Men Share No Links

Top o the monday morning to you.

• NPR there's a new Marlene Dietrich exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery in DC so check it out if you're passing through or live there. They say it's "dazzling"
• /Film John G Avildsen (RIP). The director of cultural phenomenons Rocky and the Karate Kid has passed away at 81. He'll always be remembered for those two pictures but we have to also thank him for trash cult fav A Night in Heaven as well as launching the career of Susan Sarandon in Joe (1970)
• THR Comedy Actress roundtable with Emmy Rossum, America Ferrera, Minnie Driver, Kathryn Hahn, Issa Rae, and Pamela Adlon

More after the jump including controversy in Oscar's animation branch, Patti Lupone, Captain Underpants, Lambda Awards, etcetera...

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