Showbiz History: The Love Boat, The Social Network, Nevermind

10 random things that happened on this day, September 24th, in showbiz history

Alison Pill and Tom Hiddleston as the Fitzgeralds in "Midnight in Paris"

1896 F  Scott Fitzgerald born in St Paul Minnesota. Though he only lives 44 years, plagued by alcoholism and ill health, he leaves behind a rich legacy of novels and short stories that other artists have riffed on or adapted ever since, most notably The Great Gatsby, The Last Tycoon, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. He's been recently played onscreen by Tom Hiddleston (Midnight in Paris) and David Hoflin (Z: The Beginning of Everything)

1976 Oh! Calcutta! opens on Broadway (after a successful run Off Broadway in 1969) becoming a controversial musical hit (with explicit nudity) and eventually the 2nd longest running revival of all time, running for 13 years (Chicago is #1 by a mile, still playing and about to hit its 22nd anniversary) 

1965 Marriage on the Rocks opens in movie theaters, the last leading men screen pairing of Frank Sinatra & Dean Martin. I have to share this nutso poster for y'all...

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Beauty vs Beast: Wakanda Forever

Jason from MNPP popping in from between Tribeca screenings to quick give us our Monday afternoon "Beauty vs Beast" fix -- I figure it's a Marvel Week what with that lil' Avengers movie opening in a couple of days and so what better time to step one step back and tackle their most recent smashing success, Ryan Coogler's Black Panther, which is still sitting pretty in the Top Ten, box-office-wise. 1.3 Billion dollars! I figure some of you have seen it? So let's face down its titular hero (Chadwick Boseman) and The Best Villain Marvel Has Given Us Yet Eric Killmonger (Michael B Jordan), which is totally that character's official name now.

survey solutions

PREVIOUSLY Mark Zuckerberg did even better than I expected with last week's The Social Network poll - he managed a whopping 14% of your vote, getting comfortably trounced, as well he should, by Rooney Mara's Erica. Said IanO:

"This is one Sorkin’s most electrifying scenes. I’m Team Erica because sometimes you see someone become a star (of a sort...) right in front of your areas, and it’s one of the greatest pleasures cinema. Plus she delivers that kiss-off line magnificently, with just a hint of pity and sadness colouring the brutality of the line. So even though I’m Team Erica, you have to give it up for Eisenberg too, who charts the journey from clueless arrogance to awful realisation beautifully. It’s one of favourite performances of the decade."

Beauty vs Beast: Defriended

Jason from MNPP here wishing the great Rooney Mara a happy 33rd birthday (it's tomorrow) - do you think she will have birthday pie? I like to think that once she got a taste of pie filming A Ghost Story she hasn't been able to stop. Eat all the pie, Rooney! You've earned it. Anyway I've had Rooney on the brain over the past few weeks (more than usual anyway, which is always some) thanks to the presence of Mark Zuckerberg in our lives - who can look at his face and not want to re-visit all of her take-downs in The Social Network? You're a stronger person than me if you don't find yourself muttering "Good luck with your video-game" to yourself a couple times a day. In that spirit then this week's "Beauty vs Beast"...

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PREVIOUSLY I really though y'all would have to give it to Jake Gyllenhaal for his performance in Stronger but every time I doubt your commitment to actresses I get proven hella incorrect - you picked Tatiana Maslany (and I mean no knock on her, she's terrific) with 60% of your vote. Said Bushwick:

"Team Tatiana for her patience - Jake’s reluctance and sassiness and Miranda’s indoor smoking seemed much more unbearable than losing my legs!"

On This Day: Glenn Close Born, Ben Kingsley Knighted, Sean Connery Bonded

Programming Note: Apologies that we're off schedule on episodes of Pfandom and Three Fittings. Performance anxiety (aka writer's block) at Film Experience HQ. While Nathaniel course corrects...

On this day in showbiz history...
Here are a few cinematic things to think about today March 19th. Which will you feel most festive about?

1859 Charles Gounod's Opera Faust premieres in Paris. There are multiple Faust operas just as there are multiple film versions of the 
1897 Betty Compson (The Barker, 1928), the only Best Actress nominee born in Beaver, Utah (I mean, she'd have to be, right?) enters the world. 
1915 Happy 102nd birthday today to 40s star Patricia Morrison (Dressed to Kill, Song of the Thin Man). Yes, she's still alive!
1947 Glenn Close is born in Connecticutt. 70 years later she still hasn't won her Oscar! She's back on Broadway in Sunset Blvd at the moment...

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Andrew Garfield: free from Hollywood's web

For our impromptu and informal Actors Month, members of Team Experience were free to choose any actor they wanted to discuss. Here's David on Hollywood's outgoing Spider-Man.

Andrew Garfield wasn't made for Hollywood; an interview with Vulture last year saw him raging at the very convention of interviews themselves, tired of the constant insistence on self-analysis and invasion of privacy. He was, however, born in Los Angeles, with a father who dreamt of Hollywood - but the Garfield family moved back to his mother's English homeland when Andrew was just four years old. Now he is, by his own admission, firmly transatlantic, "equally at home in both places". He has fulfilled his father's latent dreams of movie stardom, but Garfield grew up on the British stage, an arena where character comes first and celebrity is a rare imposition. Many commentators have made note of how many British actors have taken on major roles in Hollywood franchises, but none seem so conflicted and contradictory about their place there as Garfield.

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