The Phantom Link

• The Atlantic "Fear of a Black Hobbit" insightful piece about politics and 'nostalgia' franchises
• Boy Culture the latest updated edition of "Encyclopedia Madonnica" (one of our all time fav showbiz books) is out. Buy one if you haven't yet and love Madonna. It's a treasure trove.
• Vulture looks at Baz's tortured artists from Moulin Rouge! to Elvis

Very significant Broadway news regarding The Phantom of the Opera, A trans riff on Gotham City characters, Superman II cosplay, and more after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Ned Beatty (1937-2021)

by Nathaniel R

Oscar, Emmy, and Globe nominee Ned Beatty (Network) passed away on Sunday, just a few weeks shy of his 84th birthday.  It's a mark of his sturdy career and reliability as as character actor that all three of those showbiz institutions honored him for different performances. Since he was always more of an actor than a celebrity, we thought it best to look to his characters to commemorate. After the jump, eleven key roles from his impressive career...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: Superman's premiere, Middle Earth's arrival, Bollywood's physique

Six random things that happened on this day, December 10th, in showbiz history

1966 "Good Vibrations" by The Beach Boys, considered on of the most influential and important compositions of the rock era, hits #1. Remember when Paul Dano did such amazing work playing Beach Boys genius Brian Wilson in the biopic Love & Mercy (2015) and then got such a shabby awards season response (though at least we nominated him here!)?

Click to read more ...

Horror Actressing: Glenda Farrell in "Mystery of the Wax Museum" (1933)

by Jason Adams

Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away we once went to The Movies. Otherwise known as The Picture Show, it turned out in 2020 there was indeed, as the prophet Peter Bogdanovich foretold, a Last one for us all. The subject of what was everyone's Last Big Picture before the COVID quarantine shut movie-going down has been a popular one -- personally I've kept that information close to the vest because mine (sigh) was the godawful horror twist on Fantasy Island, and let us never speak of that again. 

Let's instead focus on one of my best big-screen cinematic experiences of the so-far short-lived year in such things, which was MoMA's January screening of the drop-dead-stunning restoration of the Pre-Code two-color Technicolor fright-flick Mystery of the Wax Museum. Michael Curtiz's 1933 film, was lost for decades until a pair of prints miraculously appeared and got cobbled together beautifully. Mystery stars Fay Wray (just a few weeks before her romantic wrangle with that big monkey) playing the love-struck, shriek-prone Charlotte Duncan. But even better as far as I'm concerned there's Glenda Farrell, the subject of this here week's episode in our "Great Moments in Horror Actressing" series...

Click to read more ...

Almost There: Ben Affleck in "Hollywoodland"

by Cláudio Alves

Ben Affleck may be one of Hollywood's A-listers, but he's not quite respected as an artist. More precisely, he's not often celebrated for being a performer, having otherwise received plenty of acclaim for his work as a director and producer. Just look at his awards history. He's gotten very little love for his acting skills but won two Academy Awards, for writing Good Will Hunting and for producing Argo. Had he been nominated for directing the latter, as it was widely expected, he'd probably have added another little golden man to his collection. It's difficult to feel bad for the fellow, but, at the same time, Affleck's reputation as a subpar actor isn't completely warranted. 

While it's true his range is narrow, when cast in the right role, Ben Affleck can be quite impressive. You'll find no better example of that than 2006's Hollywoodland…

Click to read more ...