Mucho Miscellania, Ya Dig?

MNPP reminds us that today is the 15th anniversary of American Psycho, Mary Harron's masterpiece. True story: I used to get her confused with Mary Lambert as if the same person made Madonna's "Like a Virgin" Hee!
WOW was Dennis Quaid losing his shit on a film set real or staged?
MTV Which Avenger deserves a solo film most? The answer is obvious and Joss Whedon knows it. Weird that Marvel doesn't 
i09 the real reason we didn't get a third solo Hulk film has been unveiled
Comics Alliance the Avengers playing Family Feud on Jimmy Kimmel.
Awards Daily Director Michelle McLaren has left the Wonder Woman picture 
Variety revisits the Sony Hack (remember that? seems so long ago) and the minefield of legal questions its opened up 

I'm sorry there's so much superhero bizness lately but that's all the news feed is ever offering up of late

Biggest Tease
Josh Gad says he can't wait for you to "Be Our Guest"... yep, it's the cast of Beauty & The Beast (2016). Or some of them at least. 

Can't wait for you to be our guest.

A photo posted by Josh Gad (@joshgad) on Apr 14, 2015 at 11:37am PDT

Is that Luke Evan with the suddenly pointy twink hair? If so he looks so different with shorter hair. No Audra McDonald (Wardrobe) or Emma Thompson (Mrs Potts) in this photo though. Grrrrr

Earth's Mightiest Illustration
Love this. Well done Stephen Byrne 

Earth's Mightiest Hipsters #AgeOfUltron pic.twitter.com/BoMck8j61y

— Stephen Byrne (@StephenByrne86) April 14, 2015

  

On The Political/Theatrical Stage
BuzzFeed points out the delightful Hillary Clinton 404 page
MNPP as if those of us with tickets to this summer's Little Shop of Horrors event weren't excited enough. Jake Gyllenhaal is announced as Seymour!
Dissolve Magic Mike franchise may be heading to the stage next
New Hedwig <-- this is my favorite reaction to the first image of Darren Criss as Hedwig. 

Small Screen
Must Love Movies the story of Daredevil's opening credit sequence.
The Playlist Cary Fukunaga doing The Alienist as TV miniseries. That book freaked my shit out back when it was a best seller but I am sad that we've lost Fukunaga (Sin Nombre, Jane Eyre) to the overworked land of the serial killer procedurals. Did he really need to do another after True Detective? David Fincher isn't likely to be dethroned as king of the genre so let's have some other genres for our talented rising auteurs! 
Pajiba shares the VERY welcome news that Katee Sackhoff is taking her career into her own hands by creating her own series since Hollywood is far too stupid to notice her gargantuan charisma. It's called Rain and its sci-fi.

Madonna Screen (aka Nathaniel's Brain)
The Daily Beast surveys the rampant bald ageism and sexism that's greeting Madonna's every move this past week or two. It's all become very Freudian with the world's collective fear of 'all consuming female sexuality.'
Watch What Happens Live Andy Cohen invites Sandra Bernhard to watch the latest Madonna video "Ghosttown" (previously discussed) and it is a joy... especially when she sees Terrence Howard cooking beans and hunting Madonna with a rifle.

He's going to barbecue the bitch!

...Get me a rib. Get me a meaty rib" 

LOL. Also on my 130th view I was looking around Madonna's beautifully lit apartment (with dirty mattress) and realized that we'll still have electricity after the apocalypse! Whew, that's a relief

Exit Video
This made me laugh so hard that I now feel bad about myself. Apologies world, I am terrible. (P.S. I'm really hoping Trixie Mattel is the queen that RuPaul brings back that shashayed away too early on this season of RuPaul's Drag Race)  

A Spoonful of Linkage Helps the Blogging Go Down

Todays Must Reads
Matthew Scott, cinematographer, has a great detailed piece on Roger Deakins Oscar nominated work on Prisoners
The Wire Joe Reid ranks all seasons of all Ryan Murphy shows. Hot messes they are!

Linkage
Yahoo Movies Tom Hiddleston originally auditioned to be Thor, not Loki
The Wire Jennifer Lawrence ate Doritos in her American Hustle gown 
The Dissolve talks to Sandra Bernhard about her performance in The King of Comedy (1983). Oscar robbed! 

Fandor on why Sally Hawkins should win Best Supporting Actress for Blue Jasmine 
/Film talks to Chris Evans on the set of Captain America: Winter Soldier 
The Dissolve the SXSW lineup  

Music Break
Kenneth in the (212) Oliva Newton John will be doing a Las Vegas residency! You have to believe she is magic.  
Vanity Fair Madonna and Miley's "We Can't Stop/Don't Tell Me" duet. So cute it is

Tough Topics / Soap Boxes
Gays vs the Grammys an article articulating the most disturbing social media trend of the past few months - gays viciously attacking their allies. It wasn't just the Grammys and it needs to stop. I particularly hate the way Madonna is treated by young gays since she stood by the gay community when it was NOT cool (sorry but Lady Gaga, who I enjoy, was not risking anything by supporting us) and it cost Madonna a lot and then to see everyone turn on her? Sick-making. And also just another boring reminder that ageism is still rampant and hip and also the very dumbest prejudice since it's basically self-loathing in advance. 

The Daily Beast publishes a must-read, unpleasant as the topic is, about the internet's desire to prosecute Woody Allen for Farrow's allegations. The list of top ten widespread assumptions of fact that are wholly and provably false in the beginning of the article is fascinating.

excellent courtroom drawing from 90s Woody/Mia custody battle. ©Marilyn Church

I love this top ten falsities lede because it basically apply to all divisive topics in this age of (mis)information...

Every time I stumble upon this topic on the internet, it seems the people who are most outraged are also the most ignorant of the facts.

It's also telling of how little facts matter to the internet and pop culture at large. I didn't even know some of this stuff and I was a mega fan of both Mia & Woody when all of this went down (and boy was it depressing and remains so because they're both great artists who made at least a few masterpieces together). The reveal that Mia Farrow approved her clips in Woody's Globes tribute is also an eyebrow raiser. Anyway it's a great read and kinder to Mia and Ronan than you'd think given its conclusions. A sad but mitigating reminder: Woody and Mia had an odd but long relationahip, probably non-monogomamous and definitely non-idyllic, and they both have a history of messy and controversial romantic relationships with collateral damage.  

Top Ten: Non-Nominated Best Supporting Actresses, 1980s Division

Whew. That title is a mouthful. I know you already know what I mean though, you golden fiends. This very impromptu post is brought to you by a recent Tribeca revival screening of Martin Scorsese's indelible King of Comedy (1983) and this Movie Line interview with Sandra Bernhard herself -- to whom I'm dedicating the list -- who couldn't make it but definitely helped make the movie what it is. My one and only back and forth conversation with Sandra -- over Twitter, the sometimes leveler -- involved how freaking robbed she was for an Oscar nomination for that movie. I couldn't believe I was talking to her but I was not the least bit in doubt that she'd agree with me.

10 Best Non-Nominated Supporting Actress Performances of the 1980s

Honorable Mentions: I think Rosanna Arquette's "Surrender Dorothy" bit in After Hours was quite memorable though the rest of the movie has long since faded; I cherish Martha Plimpton in just about anything but mostly Shy People (1987) and Running on Empty (1988) back in her vibrant teenage River Phoenix-adjacent days.

I Apologize To: Kathy Baker in Street Smart, Mona Washbourne in Stevie (1981), Vanessa Redgrave in Prick up Your Ears and Jamie Lee Curtis in Trading Places who all won devoted fans for those performances in their respective years (and some awards buzz though not enough for Oscar) but, believe it or not, I haven't seen any of those movies!

10 Bridget Fonda, Scandal (1989)
and nine more divas after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Top Ten: The Greatest People/Things Born on June 6th!

They say it's your birthday.♬ ♩♬♩♬ it's my birthday, too. 

Herewith, in semi off the cuff order, the greatest peoplethings born on this day in history. Happy June 6th!

Honorable mention...
Jason Isaacs -The impossibly hot 49 year old actor studied to be a lawyer but if he had stuck with it we would have never had his Captain Hook, or his Lucius Malfoy, or his bickering married screenwriter in Friends With Money, or even known who he is. Tragedy averted.

VC Andrews - not for writing the ridiculous "Flowers in the Attic" but for inspiring the ridiculous genius of Parker Posey's Waiting for Guffman scene in which the brilliant comic actress uses it for her small town theater audition.

"and who's on top and who's on bottom now? Huh?!"

TOP TEN JUNE 6TH BIRTHDAY PEOPLETHINGS!

10 Levi Stubbs
From the Four Topps to Audrey II.  I ♥ Little Shop of Horrors, don't you.

09 Chantal Akerman
I feel such guilt that I still haven't seen Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles

08 Billie Whitelaw 
She hasn't appeared in a movie since Hot Fuzz but the BAFTA winning actress and Samuel Beckett muse has been giving it on stage and screen since the 1950s in everything from Quills, to Hitchcock's Frenzy to Charlie Bubbles and was even the voice of crazy ass eyeball dropping muppet astronomer Aughra in The Dark Crystal. 

 Fun trivia: Billie Whitelaw played the evil nanny of that little toddler Anti-Christ in The Omen, whose birthday was also June 6th. Not So Fun Triva: When I was little I snuck into the living room to watch The Omen on TV by myself. I was so scared I could barely sleep for the next two nights and since I was also a June 6th baby, I had to search my scalp for the mark of the devil afterwards! 

07 TETRIS!
The video game turns 28 years old today. Nine time out of ten its geometric puzzle descendants are the cel phone apps that I accidentally become obsessed with. I would have placed it much higher but for all the months of my life it has consumed... and for what?

I'll never have those months back! Curse you Tetris.

06 Aaron Sorkin
For A Few Good Men, The American President, Moneyball  and especially The Social Network. If he cared a little more about writing great female characters to go with his tremendously interesting male characters he'd be just about the perfect screenwriter. 

05 Aleksandr Pushkin
For being such a crucial figure in Russian and, hell, world literature. The Russian noble and poet's legacy can't be denied. He even inspired one of the great Oscar Best Picture winners Amadeus (1984) with his short work "Mozart and Salieri"

04 Harvey Feirstein
The inimitable croaksqueak voice, the great wit, the wonderful plays and movies, the multiple Tony Awards, the homo bravery. Such a trailblazer, such a great performer and man. Edna Turnblad (#2) forever! See: Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage Aux Folles, The Sissy Duckling, and more. 

03 Sandra Bernhard 
For her Oscar nomination worthy brilliance in King of Comedy (1983). For one of the best and bravest concert films of all time Without You I'm Nothing (1990). And for just being her own inimitable self. The best stars are always irreplaceably singular.   

And though the Sandra/Madonna days are long gone *sniffle* I just have to share my single favorite talk show appearance of all time... I watch it at least once every couple years. It is serving up 1988 authenticity. It is time machine realness.

02 The drive in movie theater! For reals. On June 6th, 1933 the first one opened for business. Thank you New Jersey. I have rarely been to the drive-in in my life but I love the concept and I love drive-in scenes in movies even more than the concept.

The first movie I ever saw at a drive-in was this (incidentally the only time I ever remember my mom and dad taking me to the drive in *sniffle*) and the best time I ever had at a drive-in was this (college was so fun. sigh) and the last one I ever saw was this. Point being: it's hard to forget going to the drive-in.

me, plotting eternal youthful middle age01 Me 
I'm turning 40 (ugh). Again! I'm so happy that people can legally discriminate against me in the job market now. Wheeee. If you'd like to soften the blow, take the subscription rush challenge and I'll see you again on June 30th. 

Since Wisconsin's citizenry tried to ruin my birthday last night I'm turning to actresses for solace, as I am wont to do: An Evening with Jane Fonda tonight and Jane Krakowksi live this weekend. Yes.

recent top 10s
tennis @ the movies, who for avengers 2?, best of 2011

The Linking Cure

Incredible Suit is on the Goswatch to detail four upcoming chances for Ryan Gosling to continue his awesomeness into 2013.
Collider Great news for Viola Davis fans - a second lead role cometh. (Of course she had to make it happen herself.) She'll produce and star in a biopic about the first African American elected to the Texas senate. It's based on the Mary Beth Rogers book Barbara Jordan: An American Hero.

Vanity Fair has a gallery of backstage photos of film/theaters stars in their dressing rooms by Simon Annand including beautiful shots of Rachel Weisz, Tom Hardy, Daniel Craig and Cate Blanchett.
Flavorwire 40 of the best lines from Mad Men's Don Draper (Jon Hamm) or his writing team, rather. Someone make this into a super cut please. One my my all time favorites is:

You don’t cover for me. You manage people’s expectations."

In Contention on the ongoing success and controverseries surrounding Asghar Farhadi's amazing Oscar winner A Separation.
Kenneth in the (212) thinks Rosie's interview show on Oprah's new network is great. Apparently she and Sandra Bernhard talked King of Comedy quite a bit. Ugh, love that movie. (Damnit does this mean I have to DVR another show?)
Boston Review a former president of the American Psychiatric Association reviews A Dangerous Method. Interesting review and it takes time to detour into the theatrical production of "The Talking Cure" (the play that preceded the movie) wherein Ralph Fiennes starred in what became the Michael Fassbender role.
ioncinema oooh, the first photos I've seen from Laurence Anyways the new Xavier Dolan picture. This one stars the wonderful Melvil Poupaud as a man who decides he wants to be a woman.

Today's Must Read
Moviefone's Mike Ryan calls a "John Carter" in 50 states to see if they're seeing John Carter this weekend. Insane, funny, awesome.