(Tap) Dancing With the Links

The Mary Sue Cupcakes in case you'd like to eat The Hobbit or his dwarf friends!
Towleroad the 50 most powerful 'coming outs' of the year
Atlantic the review of Les Miserables that I wish I'd written. Just beautiful
Gawker That guy who cyberstalks actresses is sentenced to a whole bunch of prison time. Somewhere ScarJo is smiling
MTV Jamie Foxx on Electro in Spider-Man 2 (the second one... so I guess Spider-Man 5?). I hate the pride that the costume will be sleek black. Electro has a dumb costume but sleek black Matrix wear for superhero movies is SO dull and overused now.

Carpetbagger Eddie Redmayne is Hollywood's new crush ... and an Oscar contender?
The L Magazine chooses the top 25 films of the year from Looper through Magic Mike and Lincoln
David Poland what the hell as GQ done to Channing Tatum?
Awards Daily Sasha shares the figures of AMPAS branches

The Black List is out. The annual list of well liked unproduced screenplays. See any synopsis that make you restless to be watching an actual film?
In Contention Kris Tapley's top ten list. Amour and Moonrise Kingdom do make a fine double, don't they?
Next Projection on ten favorite scenes of the year from Haywire to Holy Motors
Slate on Dexter. I made the mistake of tuning in to this last episode after having finally given up the series earlier this year and found it so reprehensible that I wish I hadn't accidentally tuned in. Used to be a good show. Now I'm just embarrassed for the actors ...especially Jennifer Carpenter who has tried so valiantly to make sense of a now nonsensical character.

Finally... have you read Reese Witherspoon's tribute to Naomi Watts in The Impossible? She really goes all out with the praise name-checking Meryl Streep's Sophie's Choice and Sally Field's Norma Rae. But this is my favorite part:

If I have anything to do with it (and I will literally tap dance on Sunset Boulevard for you!), you will be holding every beautiful statue that exists by the end of February."

OMG. Do it, Reese, do it.

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Do you share food with your pets?

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Which is yummier?

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Curio: Glinda the Good Witch

Alexa here.  Today is Billie Burke's birthday.  Billie was a Broadway star, a Ziegfeld girl (literally: she was married to Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. until his death), and a silent movie actress who made a successful move to the talkies.  But she is most remembered for her embodiment of Glinda the Good Witch in The Wizard of Oz. I was thrilled at the casting of Michelle Williams as the prequel version of the sorceress; of anyone out there I think she would project the same angelic charm Billie did. (That trailer was great, but where was Glinda's bubble? She'd better have a bubble.)

Here are some artsy creations to celebrate Billie's canonic version of Glinda.

Diorama of Dorothy and Glinda in Munchkinland, by Natasha Burns.

Typographical illustration of Glinda's words by ChattyNora.

cookies & dolls & artwork oh my... after the jump

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Curio: Gypsy Rose Lee

Alexa here.  In honor of Magic Mike opening this weekend and Nathaniel's Stripper Week -- yes, the blog is going there -- I thought I'd celebrate my favorite film stripper, Natalie Wood as the titular Gypsy Rose Lee (née Louise Hovick). Of course, the film is far from one of the best musical adaptations put on film; if only Ethel Merman had been given the chance to put her Broadway signature performance of Mama Rose on screen (Rosalind Russell was such a drag).  But it is probably the rabid Natalie Wood fan in me that can't see anyone else as Gypsy.

Here are some curios (and one of my own) in celebration of the charming ecdysiast.

My vintage tie-in paperback, complete with striptease filmstills.

Click for more including a gorgeous illustration and a bizarre marketing tie-in from 1962.

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