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Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSPoison.Former talk show host and current digital media emperor Conan O’Brien will host the 97th Academy Awards. He has previously hosted the Primetime Emmy Awards and the White House Correspondents dinner, twice apiece, as well as the Fifth Annual NFL Honors ceremony in 2016.Director Todd Haynes is set to head the jury of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival in February. Haynes’s feature film debut, Poison (1991), won the festival’s Teddy Award.The UK arthouse theater chain Curzon Cinemas has been sold to the New York investment company Fortress for $5 million as part of a foreclosure auction of assets owned by Cohen Realty Enterprises. The Curzon group reportedly believes that Fortress is “more likely to invest...

Ahhh, fall. It’s finally here. The leaves are dropping, pumpkin spice is in the air (and everyone’s coffee), and the holidays are close enough where we’re all either rushing to get our work done before the end of the year or starting to wind down in hopes that people will soon stop bothering us. It’s a magical time, especially with new awards contenders like “Anora” and “Conclave” finally releasing to wide audiences, but let’s not forget that older films deserve some love too. Especially around Thanksgiving, a holiday specifically designed for reflection. What better way to celebrate than looking back on some classics of cinema, both the widely seen and the obscure.

While October may have provided the spooks in New York and Los Angeles repertory theaters, November aims to calm things down with light offerings for youngsters like “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,...

Anybody who has watched even one Zack Snyder film will tell you that the director approaches his work in a very particular and, to put it mildly, unusual way. Snyder leaves you with mixed feelings; some see him as a visionary, while others see him as a failure. Although he has directed some of the most famous comic book films ever, he has also produced a number of absolute failures.

Snyder has a very personal approach to his movies. It is gritty and dark, but it can also be campy and exaggerated, which is difficult to achieve given that campy and gritty are rarely compatible. While some of his works are well-received, others are panned, as the recent example of Rebel Moon illustrates.

But, aside from Rebel Moon, Zack Snyder has another epic failure in his filmography, a film that he himself views as a misunderstood masterpiece, while almost everyone...

Jessica Lange plays the type of women you best keep your guard up around. Step carefully, or she could hurt you with a turn of phrase so gutting because it locates all your insecurities. But that’s also because these women are broken, too, and played with the rare cocktail of vulnerability, resolve, and brio that the two-time Oscar winner is known for on stage and screen.

In Paula Vogel’s (“How I Learned to Drive”) “Mother Play,” a “play in five evictions” now on Broadway as part of Second Stage Theater, Lange is Phyllis, a hardheaded, chain-smoking, martini-swilling matriarch and — oh, when hasn’t Lange played a hardheaded, chain-smoking, martini-swilling matriarch, or at least a complicated woman with a gamut of dependency and emotional issues? Stage roles in Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie” or “A Streetcar Named Desire,” and Eugene O’Neill’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” put...

Jessica Lange came by her restlessness naturally. Born on April 20, 1949, to a stay-at-home mom and a traveling salesman father who moved the family all over the state of Minnesota, she quickly became acclimated to the process of re-acclimating. Eventually, the need for stabilization lost its appeal. Three years into studying art and photography at the University of Minnesota, she married Spanish photographer Paco Grande, at which point their shared wanderlust took them all over the United States and Mexico. The pair split upon moving to Paris, where Lange discovered Étienne Decroux and corporeal mime -- which departs from the conventional white-faced japery you're familiar with, and seeks to find abstract poetry in the movement of people and things.

Lange possessed the soul of a poet, but found this form of performance emotionally unrewarding, so she decamped for New York City to study acting with Mira Rostova at Hb Studio. She...

A revolutionary, an alien, an actor in drag, a missing journalist and an alcoholic lawyer. It was a mixed bag of Best Picture nominees at the 55th Academy Awards ceremony, but in the end there weren’t a lot of surprises. The epic film with the most nominations won the most awards; however, a fantasy film that garnered a surprising nine nominations won the hearts of millions and cemented a place in film history. The Best Director and three of the four acting winners were first-time nominees, and the fourth acting winner was on a record-setting streak that would last decades, while a couple nominees were on losing streaks. The hosts were also a bit of a mixed bag, with Liza Minnelli, Dudley Moore, Richard Pryor and Walter Matthau joining forces to steer the event. Let’s flashback 40 years to the ceremony on April 11, 1983.

The esteemed British filmmaker Richard Attenborough...

What do the 55th annual Academy Awards which took place April 11, 1983 have in common with the upcoming 95th Oscars?

Steven Spielberg and John Williams.

Back in 1983, Spielberg’s beloved “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” was nominated for nine Academy Awards including film, director and score. This year, the 76-year-old Spielberg and Williams, 91, are both nominated for “The Fabelmans.” The filmmaker’s semi-autobiographical drama is in contention for eight Academy Awards including film, director, screenplay and score.

The 55th Oscars made history with Ben Kingsley becoming the first actor of Indian descent to win the best actor Oscar for his extraordinary portrayal of “Gandhi” while Louis Gossett Jr. become the first black actor to win in the supporting category with his iconic turn as tough-nosed D.I. in “An Officer and a Gentleman.” This year, history could be made again in the best actress category. Malaysian Chinese performer Michelle Yeoh has the chance...

Better Things‘ last season is upon us, and this is bad news. Very bad news. The silver lining: Beginning Monday, 10 brand new episodes are heading our way. Relish them, fellow TV fans, because in just a nine weeks’ time, we’ll be bidding farewell to one of the best characters currently on TV: Sam Fox.

In the Season 5 premiere, we once again ride shotgun throughout a day in the life of Pamela Adlon’s Sam. On a call with her mom, Sam promises to pick her up for “the thing” (which turns out to be a genealogy test), but Phil...

Let’s shout our approval of this foursome of vintage noirs, all of which have been scarce since Eddie Muller was old enough to rob candy stores. Three Paramounts and one Universal give us four notable directors and a gallery of attractive stars, including a swoon-worthy array of actresses: Marta Toren, Loretta Young, Susan Hayward, Gail Russell, Frances Farmer and Marina Berti. The selection includes one of the key ‘just prior to the official style’ titles, a thriller with supernatural overtones, a ‘woman in jeopardy’ story and a gangster tale reportedly inspired by Lucky Luciano.

Kino Noir Times Four

Blu-ray

Among the Living, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, The Accused, Deported

Kl Studio Classics

1941-1950 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / Street Date November 16, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / Separate Purchases / 24.95 each

Starring: Albert Dekker, Susan Hayward; Edward G. Robinson, Gail Russell; Loretta Young, Robert Cummings, Wendell Corey; Jeff Chandler, Marta Toren.

Directed by Stuart Heisler,...

Last year we watched as Renee Zellweger followed the yellow brick road all the way to the Wizard of Oscar as Judy Garland in “Judy.” Can lightning (or a tornado) strike two years in a row? That’s surely the hope of Andra Day, looking like a strong Best Actress Oscar contender for her title role in “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.” Like Garland, Holiday rose to stardom in the late 1930s. She also had multiple marriages, faced financial woes and struggled with drugs and alcohol. The question is: can the role in this Hulu release deliver the Oscar to Day?

Before making a decision, keep in mind that the academy has a long history of recognizing actresses for portraying other actresses or entertainers. And the more drama, trauma and tragedy the better. Even raging and hysterical divas are welcome. Let’s look back at some prime and primadonna examples from Oscar’s history.

The star and the writer/director of Sea Fever talk about a diverse array of influential films in a double episode.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Sea Fever (2020)

Soldier (1998)

Unforgiven (1992)

Blade Runner (1982)

Gladiator (2000)

The Ice Harvest (2005)

Wonder Woman (2017)

Ordet (1955)

Ditte, Child of Man (1946)

Frances (1982)

The Accused (1988)

The Deer Hunter (1978)

My American Uncle (1980)

8 ½ (1963)

Ikiru (1952)

Heaven’s Gate (1980)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974)

Europa (1991)

Diva (1981)

The Sacrifice (1986)

Saturday Night Fever (1977)

The Party (1968)

Westworld (1973)

The Searchers (1956)

Alien (1979)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Contagion (2011)

Idiocracy (2006)

The Company of Wolves (1984)

Mona Lisa (1986)

King Kong (1933)

Arrival (2016)

In The Cut (2003)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Mandy (2018)

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

Dune (1984)

Dune (2020… maybe)

Bright Star (2009)

Basic Instinct (1992)

Innerspace (1987)

American Gigolo (1980)

Thelma and Louise (1991)

Wild Things (1998)

Ginger Snaps (2000)

Life of Pi (2012)

Hulk (2003)

Die Hard (1988)

The Hurt Locker (2009)

Psycho (1960)

1917 (2019)

Shane (1953)

Other Notable Items

Brendan McCarthy

David Peoples

Kurt Russell

Lars Von Trier

Carl Theodor Dreyer

Bjarne Henning-Jensen...

Before she was an actor, a movie star, a two-time Oscar Winner, an Emmy winner, the recipient of a Lincoln Center gala tribute and the muse to one of the most prolific showrunners currently working in TV, Jessica Lange was a shutterbug. “I originally signed up for a photography class in college because I couldn’t get a painting class,” she says, crossing her legs and leaning back in her chair. Lange is sitting in her publicist’s office in midtown Manhattan, wearing an immaculately tailored suit despite the fact...

Jessica Lange hasn’t been a regular on American Horror Story in four years, but all it took for her to snag her ninth Emmy nomination was just a few minutes on screen over two episodes in Season 8, Apocalypse. For this short but brilliant turn reprising her Season 1 role as Constance Langdon, Lange could potentially win her fourth Emmy statuette, adding to the two Oscars on her mantelpiece. American Horror Story has put Lange on the Emmy map as a repeat winner—she already won for the chain-smoking, nosy neighbor Constance role in 2012, and in 2014, took home the gold for playing Fiona Goode in American Horror Story: Coven.

In Apocalypse, you play a character that you left behind many seasons ago. Did you think you’d ever go back to Constance?

Never. No, because the premise was, you do one season, you would play that character, and then that was it.

Since the introduction of the supporting categories at the 9th Oscar ceremony, 11 performers have contended in both acting categories in the same year, with seven of them prevailing in one of their races. At the 2019 Academy Awards, Oscar winner Nicole Kidman and Oscar nominee Steve Carell are hoping to make history and join this exclusive roster of double nominees.

Kidman has earned rave reviews for her turns in “Destroyer” and “Boy Erased.” The former finds her portraying a troubled Los Angeles detective, determined to bring down an old nemesis, while the latter has Kidman in a supporting turn, portraying the mother of a young man (Lucas Hedges) who is pressured into enrolling in a gay conversion therapy program. Kidman has previous Oscar nominations for “Moulin Rouge!” (2001); “The Hours” (2002); “Rabbit Hole” (2010); and “Lion” (2016), winning for “The Hours.”

Also coming on strong this Oscar season is Carell, whose lone nomination to date came for “Foxcatcher” (2014). This year,...

10 random things that happened today, September 19th, in showbiz history

1913 Frances Farmer born in Seattle. She becomes a movie star and is eventually committed to an asylum as told in the movie Frances (1982) -- See, American Horror Story wasn't the first time Jessica Lange won awards for living in an asylum. 

1927 Happy 92nd birthday to Tony winner and Oscar nominee Rosemary Harris! We thank her for all her fine performances and for bringing another great actress, Jennifer Ehle, into the world...

Roseanne Barr, following through on her pledge to bypass “stressful & untrustworthy” TV interviews, has posted a promised YouTube message to explain “what happened & why” with regard to her tweet about Valerie Jarrett – the one that compared the former Obama aide to a Planet of the Apes character and torpedoed Barr’s sitcom Roseanne.

“I thought the bitch was white,” Barr screams at the top of her voice, directly into the camera, in this short video. “Goddammit! I thought the bitch was white!”

If the intention of the YouTube video is to lay blame on emotional distress or prove her acting chops – is Barr merely staging a mad scene? – mission accomplished. Or perhaps she’s genuinely distraught, and the outburst a sincere, impromptu reaction. In any case, ABC execs, including ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey, are probably feeling reassured in their decision to cancel Roseanne and leave the actress out of the planned The Conners spin-off.

Charlie Rose faced internet wrath after the New York Post reported Wednesday evening that someone was shopping a #MeToo redemption series which would star the disgraced CBS anchor.

Per the Post, the plan would call for Rose to interview various men who have seen their careers toppled in the sexual harassment reckoning that has whipped around media, Hollywood and politics. The Page Six report said some of the possible interview subjects included Louis C.K and Matt Lauer.

Writing for the Post, Ian Mohr said that Vanity Fair and Daily Beast alum Tina Brown had been approached to produce the potential series but had turned it down.

Also Read: Charlie Rose Makes Cryptic Return to Twitter, Gets Mobbed by Fans: 'I Miss You, the Alternatives Are S--'

Rose was ousted from his perch at CBS and PBS over several accusations of sexual misconduct, and the internet is not ready for a comeback tour.

Can Charlie do it in a thong? Because Charlie Rose in a thong, that I would tune in for. https://t.co/oHLPKTThgE

— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) April 26, 2018

"Disgraced CBS anchor Charlie Rose is being slated to star in a show where he’ll interview other high-profile men who have also been toppled by #MeToo scandals." https://t.co/f4H4Ut4sHQ

My Reaction ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/7ZvuNeWRvA

— Yashar Ali ???? (@yashar) April 26, 2018

"Disgraced CBS anchor Charlie Rose is being slated to star in a show where he’ll interview other high-profile men who have also been toppled by #MeToo scandals." https://t.co/OKUrim3SV6

— Dana Rubinstein (@danarubinstein) April 26, 2018

What about the show where we hear from all the women whose careers were derailed by Charlie Rose & men like him?

…and the women who didn't pursue the careers they wanted to because of men like Charlie Rose?

…and the women whose lives were destroyed by men like Charlie Rose? https://t.co/eQHKR9h3HC

— Caroline O. (@RVAwonk) April 26, 2018

We read every week, it seems like, about good reporters losing their jobs having done nothing wrong except work for a paper owned by the wrong hedge fund. That seems like a more urgent problem than whether Charlie Rose ever gets to do another interview.

— Alex Burns (@alexburnsNYT) April 26, 2018

Charlie Rose show idea is weak sauce. I’m holding out for a TV series where Oj Simpson interviews other people who killed people and kinda-sorta got away with it and how they struggle with the stigma.

— Jonah Goldberg (@JonahNRO) April 26, 2018

Literally every woman in my entire feed is filled with massive rage over this Charlie Rose news right now. My feed is just anger and fury all up and down.

— Erin Biba (@erinbiba) April 26, 2018

I am only up for this Charlie Rose show if it is a reality competition called The Reckoning & it is hosted by the angry ghost of Frances Farmer.

— Emily Nussbaum (@emilynussbaum) April 26, 2018

Elevator pitch: buddy comedy with Oj Simpson and Claus von Bulow. (Is von Bulow still alive?)

– Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) April 26, 2018

Charlie Rose interviewing Matt Lauer while both wear nothing but loosely fitting bathrobes is going to be a ratings hit https://t.co/9a10ZDjBHJ

— Roland Scahill (@rolandscahill) April 26, 2018

Read original story Charlie Rose Faces Backlash Over Proposed #MeToo Redemption Series: ‘My Feed Is Just Anger’ At TheWrap...

Just three years after winning an Academy Award as a supporting actress, Meryl Streep took another Oscar home as Best Actress. Watch the video above as Sylvester Stallone announces her name for the 1982 film “Sophie’s Choice,” and the pregnant Streep drops her speech at the podium before she receives the trophy. Sly refers her to as the “marvelous” Meryl Streep when opening the envelope.

SEEOscars flashback: Meryl Streep exclaims ‘Holy mackerel’ winning her 1st Oscar for ‘Kramer vs. Kramer’ [Watch]

When Streep first heard that William Styron’s novel about a Holocaust survivor who befriends two eccentric young men in New York City was being turned into a film, she knew she had to play the part. She reportedly begged writer/director Alan J. Pakula for the part on bended knee. Only after Ursula Andress, Magdalena Vasaryova and Liv Ullman proved unavailable, was Streep granted the role of Sophie Zawistowski.

This article marks Part 4 of the 21-part Gold Derby series Meryl Streep at the Oscars. Join us as we look back at Meryl Streep’s nominations, the performances that competed with her, the results of each race and the overall rankings of the contenders.

After “The French Lieutenant’s Woman” in 1981, Meryl Streep lined up two exciting projects for the following year, both lead turns and both given prime late-year release dates for Academy Awards consideration.

First on tap was Streep’s much-anticipated reunion with “Kramer vs. Kramer” (1979) director Robert Benton. “Still of the Night” would mark her first big screen thriller to date, pairing Streep with two-time Oscar nominee Roy Scheider. Exciting, right? Well, the Benton picture came and went that November in the blink of an eye, failing to even crack the box office top 10. Not only were reviews for the film itself lukewarm but critics argued both...

Triumph over adversity is drama defined, and Oscar nominations often go to actors whose characters find victory over physical or mental afflictions. The earliest example goes back to 1947; that was the year that non-pro Harold Russell won Best Supporting Actor and a special award for “The Best Years of Our Lives.” Russell was a WWII veteran who lost both of his hands while making a training film. Of note: Of the 59, 27 of these nominations went on to a win. This year’s roster of stars playing afflicted characters includes Jake Gyllenhaal as bombing victim Jeff Baumer in “Stronger,” Andrew Garfield as polio survivor Robin Cavendish in “Breathe,” Bryan Cranston as a millionaire quadriplegic in “The Upside,” and Sally Hawkins in two roles, as an arthritic painter in “Maudie” and a mute lab worker in “The Shape of Water.”

Check out Oscar’s rather astonishing legacy of afflicted contenders below.

Blind...

Triumph over adversity is drama defined, and Oscar nominations often go to actors whose characters find victory over physical or mental afflictions. The earliest example goes back to 1947; that was the year that non-pro Harold Russell won Best Supporting Actor and a special award for “The Best Years of Our Lives.” Russell was a WWII veteran who lost both of his hands while making a training film. Of note: Of the 59, 27 of these nominations went on to a win. This year’s roster of stars playing afflicted characters includes Jake Gyllenhaal as bombing victim Jeff Baumer in “Stronger,” Andrew Garfield as polio survivor Robin Cavendish in “Breathe,” Bryan Cranston as a millionaire quadriplegic in “The Upside,” and Sally Hawkins in two roles, as an arthritic painter in “Maudie” and a mute lab worker in “The Shape of Water.”

Check out Oscar’s rather astonishing legacy of afflicted contenders below.

Blind...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Jessica Lange, who’s at the height of powers at age 68, revealing depths of emotion as fading Golden Age star Joan Crawford in FX’s mighty Emmy contender “Feud: Bette and Joan.”

Bottom Line: Jessica Lange has matured from a gorgeous movie ingenue to a theater and screen character actress with extraordinary range who keeps surprising audiences with what she can make them feel.

Career Peaks: From the start, Lange impressed people even when she was in the clutches of the Dino De Laurentiis incarnation of “Kong Kong.” She followed that up with her performance as a sexy waitress who seduces Jack Nicholson on a kitchen table in Bob Rafelson’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1981) and with a weighty dramatic role as the depressed...

Welcome to Career Watch, a vocational checkup of top actors and directors, and those who hope to get there. In this edition we take on Jessica Lange, who’s at the height of powers at age 68, revealing depths of emotion as fading Golden Age star Joan Crawford in FX’s mighty Emmy contender “Feud: Bette and Joan.”

Bottom Line: Jessica Lange has matured from a gorgeous movie ingenue to a theater and screen character actress with extraordinary range who keeps surprising audiences with what she can make them feel.

Career Peaks: From the start, Lange impressed people even when she was in the clutches of the Dino De Laurentiis incarnation of “Kong Kong.” She followed that up with her performance as a sexy waitress who seduces Jack Nicholson on a kitchen table in Bob Rafelson’s “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1981) and with a weighty dramatic role as the depressed...

On this day in history as it relates to showbiz...

1040 King Duncan is killed in battle and King Macbeth succeeds him. Shakespeare fictionalizes everything later for Macbeth. So many theatrical productions and movies follow. Out damn spot!

1932 The 1932 Summer Olympics end. This is the Olympic year when gorgeous Buster Crabbe became a gold medalist (pictured left). Hollywood then snatched him right up for movie serials and action adventure franchises including Tarzan The Fearless

1945 Japan surrenders during Ww II (the six year war will last only two more weeks.) but movie makers all over the world have never stopped telling the war's infinite stories. On that same day Steve Martin is born in Waco Texas. It only takes him another 68 years to get the Oscar he totally deserved

1946 Two actor birthdays: Blacksploitation actor Antonio Fargas who became "Huggybear" on TV's popular Starksy & Hutch and Susan Saint James TV of McMillan & Wife...

Alfred Hitchcock assembles all the right elements for this respected mystery thriller. Joan Fontaine is concerned that her new hubby Cary Grant plans to murder her. But Hitch wasn't able to use the twist ending that attracted him to the story in the first place! Suspicion Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1941 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 99 min. / Street Date , 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Joan Fontaine, Cary Grant, Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Auriol Lee, Leo G. Carroll Cinematography Harry Stradling Art Direction Van Nest Polglase Film Editor William Hamilton Original Music Franz Waxman Written by Samson Raphaelson, Joan Harrison, Alma Reville from the novel Before the Fact by Francis Iles (Anthony Berkeley) Produced and Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Some movies don't get better as time goes on. Alfred Hitchcock got himself painted into a corner on this one, perhaps not realizing that in America,...

It's sweet, all right, not to mention sentimental and corny -- As Adeline Schmidt, Irene Dunne leaves her father's beer garden to sing in New York, where she falls prey to a predatory playboy. Set in nostalgic 1898, this Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical features several unfamiliar but marvelous songs. Dunne shows the film world the voice that brought her fame on Broadway -- "Why Was I Born?", "Lonely Feet" -- supported by Donald Woods, Louis Calhern and Dorothy Dare. Warners' new restoration makes this a must see for Irene Dunne fans. Sweet Adeline DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1934 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 87 min. / Street Date October 20, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 18.95 Starring Irene Dunne, Donald Woods, Louis Calhern, Hugh Herbert, Ned Sparks, Wini Shaw, Joseph Cawthorn, Dorothy Dare, Noah Beery, William V. Mong. Cinematography Sol Polito Film Editor Ralph Dawson Art Director Robert Haas Ensembles Director Bobby Connolly...

The 1994 film Blue Sky is something of an anomaly from the mid-90s. Filmed in 1991, it would be the last film feature of British auteur Tony Richardson’s career, who had been working in television for several years prior, ever since his coolly received 1984 adaptation of John Irvine’s The Hotel New Hampshire. Then, due to the bankruptcy of Orion Pictures, the film’s distributor, the final product was shelved for three years, at long last released in the autumn of 1994, going on to snag actress Jessica Lange her second Academy Award. Now, twenty years later, it’s a prestige that would seem near impossible to attain for a feature treated to the same fate in today’s market. This distinction potentially sets the film up for failure, which perhaps explains the lack of continued enthusiasm surrounding it.

Nuclear engineer Hank Marshall (Tommy Lee Jones) is forced to uproot his...

Actress Amber Tamblyn'snewest book of poetry, a collection called Dark Sparkler, is out this week, and mostly centers around dead or otherwise fabled Hollywood starlets. There is one who committed suicide by breathing carbon monoxide in her garage, one who jumped to her death off the "H" in the Hollywood sign, one who was strangled by her jealous ex-boyfriend in the driveway of their home. You'll already know the stories of some (Dana Plato, Jayne Mansfield, Brittany Murphy), but others (Dominique Dunne, Frances Farmer, Heather O'Rourke) will send you down a dark Wikipedia spiral through Hollywood's most tragic demises. There's one living soul included in Tamblyn's collection: Lindsay Lohan. Vulture got the exclusive to excerpt the poem, then spoke to Tamblyn about what it meant to her and what it was like writing this book.You are going to get a lot of questions about the Lindsay Lohan poem...

American Horror Story is the gift that keeps on giving for Jessica Lange. The two-time Oscar winner has taken home two Emmys for her work on the FX anthology series. In addition to the prestigious awards, American Horror Story, now in its fourth season with Freak Show, has given Lange some of her most well-rounded characters in years, rock star like moments with people buying her songs on iTunes and her first action figure. "Oh my god. No! Are you serious?" Lange said when asked if she's seen her American Horror Story: Coven toy. "That's just insane…Yeah, I don't think there was a Frances Farmer action figure [Laughs.], or a Blanche DuBois action figure. No, I hadn't heard that....

So the phone rings, and I answer it, and it's Mel Brooks. That's an actual thing that happened. That's now something I can say. And even better, the 40 minute conversation that followed me answering the phone is one of my favorites in recent memory. How often do you get to talk to a comedy legend about one of the pinnacle moments of not only their career, but of film comedy in general? I was told I'd have about 15 minutes originally. Time was tight. And if you get offered 15 minutes to talk to Mel Brooks about "Blazing Saddles," you take it, right? We ended up having a really fun back and forth about that film, about films he's produced, about his partnership with Gene Wilder, and about the ways Hollywood failed the great Richard Pryor. The only reason we wrapped it up is because we had to, and it would have...

Previously On Warehouse 13.

Now that Paracelsus has been vanquished (for the time being?), we get back to Warehouse business, with the return of Team A and Team B stories. Let’s take a look at Team A, who are, of course, Claudia and Steve, as Claudia has had it up to here with Artie‘s evasiveness about her sister.

Are we really trusting the episode to … Tom Paris? Okay, that’s not fair, as Robert has had a very successful career as a director post Voyager, but still … this is the man who turned into a Mutant Lizard, had Mutant Lizard sex with Mutant Lizard Janeway, and had Mutant Lizard babies.

Anyway, Claudia and Steve are in her room, staring at her laptop, discussing the plan to find her long-lost sister Claire. She discovered that the death of her parents looked suspiciously like a Warehouse case, as their death...

Lance Bass is pleasant. Very pleasant. And likeable. How can you not like him? He’s a very pleasant and likeable person, like the post-Hollywood Frances Farmer.

But sometimes …

In this well-meaning but cringy PSA for Southeners For The Freedom To Marry, he and fiancé Michael Turchin talk about their love for Mississippi and the lack of hostility they’ve encountered.

“People do support gay marriage. They really do. I mean, we’re here. Our feet are planted here in Mississippi, and we can tell you from experience that there’s tons of support down here. It’s just that confusion. I think everyone deserves that freedom to marry, that freedom to love who you want to love, and that’s much supported down here!”

Lance, is it possible that’s because you’re rich, white, and famous?

The post Watch! Lance Bass Is Well Meaning In This Eye-Rolling Equality PSA appeared first on thebacklot.

Amber Tamblyn has signed with Harper Perennial for a new book of poetry, her third. Video: Jimmy Kimmel Grills Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Titled Dark Sparkler, it will be a haunting and provocative collection of poetry -- some personally inflected -- about the lives and untimely deaths of well-known actresses, including Marilyn Monroe, Jayne Mansfield, Frances Farmer, Sharon Tate, Thelma Todd and Brittany Murphy. Less familiar subjects include In the Heat of the Night's Quentin Dean, Poltergeist's Heather O'Rourke and Anissa Jones from Family Affair. The book will also include specially commissioned art from David Lynch, Marilyn Manson and her father,

read more...

Google has marked the 116th anniversary of Edith Head's birth with a Google Doodle.

Head, who was born on October 28, 1897 and died on October 24, 1981, won a record eight Academy Awards for costume design.

Of 35 nominations, she won 'Best Costume Design' Oscars for The Heiress (1950), Samson and Delilah (1951), All About Eve (1951), A Place in the Sun (1952), Roman Holiday (1954), Sabrina (1955), The Facts of Life (1961) and The Sting (1974).

Head designed outfits for actors including Mae West, Frances Farmer, Ginger Rogers, Ingrid Bergman, Bette Davis, Hedy Lamarr, Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Hepburn, Grace Kelly, Rosemary Clooney, Doris Day, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Kim Novak, Sophia Loren, Tippi Hedren and Katharine Hepburn among others.

She is the only costume designer to have been given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, placed at 6969 Hollywood Boulevard.

Watch Edith Head win an Academy Award for The Facts of Life below:...

Zap2it: Since the show's title is "American Horror Story: Coven," did you think it was a given that you'd be playing a witch?

Jessica Lange: Some of us play witches. Some play historical characters. I do play a witch. You know, we move back and forth in time, so it encompasses a lot of different stories.

Zap2it: Last time, "American Horror Story: Asylum" offered a very clear example of how much your character could shift in one season. Did that spoil you for future seasons?

Jessica Lange: Well, with that character ... I mean, you know, the thing that was really interesting to me when it was first kind of presented was exactly that, that you have these extreme shifts in character.

You know, you've got a drunken nun with a sordid past who gets incarcerated and goes mad and then finds some kind of redemption in...

American Horror Story: Coven may have just started, but Jessica Lange is already discussing the fourth season of the horror series. During a recent interview, she confirmed that she’ll be a part of Season 4, but also mentions that it will be her last. At this point, a fourth season has not been made official, but the premiere of Coven was a record-breaking episode for American Horror Story and FX, so it’s pretty much a given at this point.

When discussing Coven with BuzzFeed, Jessica Lange said that she’ll do one more season, but “That’ll be it.” While she didn’t give a reason for wanting to stop after the fourth reason, she told them that it had nothing to do with the dark material:

“Whether or not Lange continues a writing career, she knows for certain that American Horror Story Season 4 will be the end of one era for her.

The Weinstein Company has set Aug. 16 to release "The Butler," Lee Daniels' historical drama about a White House staffer (Forest Whitaker) who served through eight administrations. Oprah Winfrey, Robin Williams, John Cusack, Jane Fonda, Alan Rickman, James Marsden, Terrence Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr. and David Oyleowo all star in "The Butler," a title that may very well find itself among films mentioned for the 2014 Oscar race. Unless it changes titles.

According to Deadline.com, Warner Bros. has begun attempts to prevent The Weinstein Company from calling Daniels' film "The Butler" when it's released next month. The issues stems from the fact that Warner Bros. has a film in its library with the same title. HuffPost Entertainment reached out to TWC for comment on the title fight, but has not yet received a response.

As Deadline.com notes, the tangle mostly amounts to a high-stakes example of gamesmanship between the two studios.

Noah Baumbach has admitted frustration that his 1995 film Kicking and Screaming is often confused with Will Ferrell's 2005 comedy of the same time.

Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming is the story of a group of college graduates who struggle to move on with their lives after school, while Ferrell's movie satirises children's soccer leagues.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Baumbach admitted that he wishes the producers of Ferrell's film had come up with a different title.

"It was very annoying. The same year, Crash came out too - or right around there - I imagined David Cronenberg was annoyed as well," the director said.

"I mean, actually, that was something that I was very conscious about because an obvious title for our [new] movie was Frances. And there's a very good movie with Jessica Lange called Frances about Frances Farmer."

He continued: "It kind of pushed Greta [Gerwig] and me to...

We've all got to do our part to help with the Scotus situation today, kids. I know I'm doing mine: Here are eight fabulous female performanes in courtroom movies to inspire you for the day ahead. Even if they drive younuts, you still qualify to look glamorously insane like Frances Farmer.

1. Meryl Streep in Kramer vs. Kramer

Joanna Kramer ditched her family not because she was bored of parenting (which I would've completely understood), but because her despair was so significant that she felt it best to remove herself from the home she shared with her obnoxious husband and tolerable son. Later, when she wanted custody of the scamp, she delivered a tearful monologue about painting clouds on bedroom walls and the misery of the Kramer household, concluding with the defiant line, "I am his mother." Meryl famously wrote most of this great soliloquy, and knowing Meryl's talents, she probably also sewed her own costume,...

Let's talk about jilted actresses, boys. 

The Oscars are next Sunday, and we still have plenty of Academy history to reinspect like amateur Clouseaus. Today's cold case: the 10 greatest Best Actress-nominated performances that didn't win an Oscar. Apologies to my other sentimental favorites like Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys, Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole, Anne Bancroft in The Graduate, and my darling Elizabeth Hartman in A Patch of Blue because I could only pick 10. Here they are.

10. Natalie Wood in Splendor in the Grass

Look, I hear you. Natalie Wood: not so inspiring in Rebel Without a Cause; barely survivable in West Side Story. But what she achieves in Splendor in the Grass, is to me, the absolute best kind of melodrama. As heartsick teen Deanie Loomis in this epic adaptation of William Inge's play, Natalie Wood jumps from lustfulness (since she's dating a young,...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Warner Archive continues its string of burn-to-order releases of "Poverty Row"  B movies that were originally produced by other studios. The latest release, I Escaped From the Gestapo, is a real hoot that was originally produced by Monogram Pictures, which afforded budgets to directors and producers that were only slightly more extravagant than those spent on home movies. The film is primarily remembered as a would-be vehicle for actress Frances Farmer, who was not able to continue filming due to her legendary mental breakdown that resulted in her being institutionalized. Beyond that tragic association, however, the movie is a relentlessly upbeat, over-the-top propaganda film that afforded a rare leading role to Dean Jagger. The opening plot device is actually rather clever. It finds Jagger as Torgen Lane, a master forger and counterfeiter who is doing time in a federal prison. He finds himself the center of...

[Spoiler Alert If You Haven't Watched The Latest American Horror Story: Asylum]

It’s getting down to the final episodes of American Horror Story: Asylum so it’s not surprising that we’re starting to see characters bid adieu. Last night, devil-possessed nun Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe) and former Nazi Dr. Arden (James Cromwell) both bit the dust. Also, within this hour, is a clue to the super-secret season three storyline of American Horror Story as EW reported earlier. Murphy dishes to EW exclusively about more potential deaths as well as some hints as what next year’s Ahs will look like.

Entertainment Weekly: I love the musical number. It’s...

Ann Rutherford, best remembered as Scarlett O’Hara’s younger sister Carreen in Gone with the Wind, died earlier this evening at her home in Beverly Hills according to Rutherford’s friend, actress Anne Jeffreys. Rutherford, who had been suffering from heart problems, was 94 as per the Los Angeles Times obit (as per most other sources, she was 91). [Recent Ann Rutherford photos, Ann Rutherford and Marsha Hunt.]

In 2010, Rutherford told the Times that MGM mogul Louis B. Mayer was unwilling to loan her out for "a nothing part" such as Carreen in son-in-law David O. Selznick’s mammoth adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel. Mayer changed his mind when Rutherford burst into tears.

Gone with the Wind ultimately became the biggest blockbuster ever. To this day, the Civil War romantic drama has sold more tickets than any other movie in North America. (Possibly, around the world, relative to population.) Gwtw also won eight Oscars, in addition to two special awards.

Frances Farmer

Relax. That's just a hairdresser behind her.

Before today's roundup gets rolling, I want to mention that David Phelps is conducting an experiment you should know about, The Secret History of America.

The liveliest read of the day comes from Matt Evans in the Morning News, a furious pitch for Frances Farmer — the actual woman and actress, not the lobotomized zombie portrayed by Jessica Lange in Frances (1982). Have fun.

"Why I Pirate Movies: A Self-Justification." Mike D'Angelo can't be surprised that he's kicked up a virtual storm. It began in the comments following that entry and has since blown over to Twitter.

Andy Warhol died 25 years ago today. Alex Needham examines the legacy in the Guardian and, in the Voice, Camille Dodero asks, "what does Andy Warhol's New York City look like today?"

Today's review of Geoff Dyer's Zona comes from R Emmet Sweeney at Movie Morlocks.

William Wyler was one of the greatest film directors Hollywood — or any other film industry — has ever produced. Today, Wyler lacks the following of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Frank Capra, or even Howard Hawks most likely because, unlike Hitchcock, Ford, or Capra (and to a lesser extent Hawks), Wyler never focused on a particular genre, while his films were hardly as male-centered as those of the aforementioned four directors. Dumb but true: Films about women and their issues tend to be perceived as inferior to those about men — especially tough men — and their issues. The German-born Wyler (1902, in Alsace, now part of France) immigrated to the United States in his late teens. Following a stint at Universal's New York office, he moved to Hollywood and by the mid-'20s was directing Western shorts. His ascent was quick; by 1929 Wyler was directing Universal's top female star, Laura La Plante in the...

Jessica Lange, SAG Awards 2012 Jessica Lange, the Best Actress SAG Award winner for the drama series for American Horror Story, speaks onstage during the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. "To be an actor means everything to me," Lange told the crowd at the Shrine Auditorium on January 29, 2012, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by John Shearer/WireImage.) Lange's SAG Award competitors were Kathy Bates for Harry's Law, Julianna Margulies for The Good Wife, Kyra Sedgwick for The Closer, and Glenn Close for Damages. Lange had previously been nominated for two SAG Awards: for Tony Richardson's feature drama Blue Sky (1994), opposite Tommy Lee Jones, and for Michael Sucsy's television drama Grey Gardens (2009), opposite eventual SAG Award winner Drew Barrymore. Additionally, Jessica Lange has six Oscar nominations to her credit. She won twice, as Best Supporting Actress for Sydney Pollack's Tootsie (1982), opposite Dustin Hoffman, and for Blue Sky. (Nell's...

The double Oscar winner (The Great Ziegfeld and The Good Earth) turns 102 today! She's the oldest living Oscar nominee or winner! Her most recent appearance was just four short months ago when she showed up for her star ceremony in Berlin. They now have a "Boulevard des Stars" much like Hollywood's walk of fame and as the only German Best Actress winner (Hollywood and the media who nicknamed her "The Viennese Teardrop" promoted her as Austrian for obvious reasons in the 1930s), she was a natural for inclusion.

happy birthday to you

happy birthday dear Luise,

happy birthday to you

.......and many more ♫

Odets and Rainer in Hollywood. Odets also romanced actress Frances Farmer (as seen in the Jessica Lange picture "Frances")Luise is on record as saying that she doesn't believe in the Oscar curse and her short-lived Hollywood career was her own doing.

"The Oscar jinx! There is no Oscar jinx.

Now this is going to be fun. The last few seasons of Lifetime's Project Runway have been hit or miss, thanks to flavorless designers, stultifying challenges, and inexplicable judging decisions.

But All Stars brings together some of the more ... colorful ... personalities in the history of the show, and gives them another chance to get their moment in the winner's circle.

Some of the familiar faces include Season One designer Austin Scarlett (still a cross between Hedwig and Frances Farmer), Season Five's crazy cat hurler Kenley Collins, Season Seven's eternally jubilant Anthony Williams, Season Four's sensitive hunk-a-dunk Rami Kashou, and island-unto-himself Mondo.

That's the good news. The bad news is that Heidi and Tim are not participating. But neither are Michael and Nina, so we have to take the bitter with the sweet.

Sandy Duncan, Ashton Kutcher, Julia Duffy, Kirstie Alley

So instead we get Project Runway:The Scab Edition, with...

Harry Morgan, the actor best known for his role as the well-respected, sometimes irascible Colonel Sherman T. Potter in the long-running series "M*A*S*H", died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles. He was 96.

He was born Harry Bratsberg on April 10, 1915 in Detroit, Michigan, to Henry and Anna Bratsberg, where his father worked for war hero and car designer Eddie Rickenbacker. The family soon moved to Muskegon, Michigan, where Harry, hoping to be a lawyer, became heavily involved debate and speech classes; his junior year in high school he won a debate championship at the University of Michigan. He attended the University of Chicago for a few years, before leaving school and finding employment with an office equipment maker who eventually sent him to Washington D.C. It was during his time in Washington D.C. that Harry got his start on the stage, joining the Civic Theater in Ben Hecht’s "Front Page". Eventually, he moved on to a Mt. Kisco summer stock theater company, where he met and acted regularly with actress Frances Farmer. Ms. Farmer had quite an impact of his life; she promoted his career by involving him to acting classes with Elia Kazan, and also introduced him to her University of Washington classmate Eileen Detchon. He married Detchon in 1940 and they would have four children, sons Christopher, Charles, Paul and Daniel. Harry's stage career continued to grow, as he joined New York's Group Theater, whose members included Kazan, Karl Malden and Lee J. Cobb. When Hollywood agent Charlie Feldman saw him perform on Broadway, he signed the young actor and had him quickly under studio contract with Twentieth Century Fox, where he changed his name to Henry Morgan.

Harry and Eileen made the move to Hollywood in the early 1942 and his first billed appearance (as Henry Morgan) came that year in To the Shores of Tripoli. To avoid confusion with a popular comedian of the time, another name change soon followed, and he became Harry Morgan. Morgan’s film career prospered, and in the next 5 decades he appeared in many now-legendary dramatic films, including The Ox-Bow Incident, All My Sons, Madame Bovary, High Noon, The Glenn Miller Story, Inherit the Wind, Cimarron, How the West Was Won, Frankie and Johnny, The Apple Dumpling Gang and The Shootist.

While building this impressive film resume, Morgan was simultaneously working regularly in radio and television, with brief roles in "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Cavalcade of America" and "The Twentieth Century Fox Hour" before landing the role of comedic neighbor Pete Porter in "December Bride", which eventually lead to the spin-off series "Pete and Gladys". In 1963, his TV career took a turn toward more serious projects, as part of the ensemble in "The Richard Boone Show" and an iconic role as Officer Bill Gannon in 1967’s "Dragnet". The series, and his performance in it, was not only a precursor to modern police and detective series, but would also inform the 1987 film Dragnet, a comedic reimagination of the show starring Dan Aykroyd and Tom Hanks; Morgan appeared in this film as Captain Bill Gannon.

Despite decades spent working in film and TV, it would be his work in the TV series "M*A*S*H" that made him instantly recognizable around the world. After a memorable, Emmy-nominated guest turn as loony Major General Steele at the beginning of the third season in 1974, Morgan was invited back to join the cast a year later as Colonel Sherman T. Potter, the late-career Army man sent to run the eccentric medical unit after the loss of their previous commanding officer. Morgan's nuanced performance as dedicated leader and surgeon with an unwavering sense of right and wrong combined with a father-like protectiveness of his staff, allowed Potter to grow organically through the long run of the series. The small touches he brought to the role – Potter's paintings were done by Morgan himself, and the picture of Mildred Potter on Potter’s desk was actually Morgan's wife Eileen – only added to the authentic humanity of his portrayal, and in 1980 Morgan won an Emmy for his performance. After the series came to an end in 1983, Morgan continued the role in the short-lived spin-off "AfterMASH".

After the death of his wife Eileen in 1985, he kept himself busy making guest appearances in series such as "The Love Boat" and took a regular role in the single season run of "Blacke's Magic". In December of 1986, he married Barbara Bushman, the granddaughter of silent film star Francis X. Bushman. His work as a TV guest star continued through the late 1990s in "The Simpsons," "3rd Rock from the Sun," "Grace Under Fire", and his final movie work included Family Plan and the short film Crosswalk.

He is survived by Barbara, his sons Christopher, Charles and Paul, and grandchildren Spencer, Rosemary and Jeremy.

He was preceded in death by his first wife Eileen in 1985 and his son Daniel in 1989.

We take John Barry’s non-Bond retrospective into the 80s, with some of his epic scores of love, lust and loss…

John Barry’s love affair with cinema is well documented. One could not imagine such a torrent of melodic invention pouring forth with such vibrant intensity if he was not enraptured by the cinematic experience: the darkened periphery of the auditoria; the hushed reverence of another world; the minutiae of human emotion playing out on the big screen. Everything he did, from The Beat to Enigma, represented a direct and synchronous passion for lyrical expression alongside the visual language of film.

The young Prendergast got his love of film from his father, Jack Xavier, who was a cinema projectionist in the silent movie era and would subsequently own a chain of cinemas in the North East. One of Barry’s earliest memories was being carried on his dad’s...