News

Notebook is covering the Locarno Film Festival with a series of correspondence pieces written by the participants in the Critics Academy.Illustrations by Lucy Jones.At its simplest, the concept of home may evoke a child’s drawing of a house with a smoking chimney, but it takes on greater complexity in its representation on screen. The idea of home can encompass its physical attributes—a house’s space, its usage—as well as its ability to transcend four walls, extending into the broader cityscape, providing a sense of security.The following pieces consider how the concept is explored in film, reflecting on cinematic form and style, depictions of intimacy, and home’s status as an ideal in radical flux, yet to be fully realized.Cent mille milliards.Close to Home (Victor Morozov)Some of the most challenging films from Locarno’s main competition seemed to address the theme of homesickness,...

Cindy Williams, who played the perky, positive Shirley in the hit ’70s sitcom “Laverne & Shirley,” has died, the Associated Press reported Monday. She was 75.

According to the Associated Press, Williams’ children Zak and Emily Hudson confirmed the news through a statement to the publication. Williams reportedly passed away in Los Angeles on Wednesday, following a short illness.

“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” the statement to the AP reads. “Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved.”

Williams originally played her most famous character of Shirley Feeney in three episodes of “Happy Days” Season 3, with her and her roommate, the more tomboyish Laverne DeFazio (Penny Marshall), serving as friends and supporting...

Cindy Williams, who starred in the smash Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley after appearing in two Best Picture Oscar nominees — George Lucas’ American Graffiti and Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation — has died. She was 75. Her family told the Associated Press today that the actress died Wednesday after a brief illness.

“The passing of our kind, hilarious mother, Cindy Williams, has brought us insurmountable sadness that could never truly be expressed,” reads the statement from her children, Emily and Zak Hudson, relayed through a spokesperson. “Knowing and loving her has been our joy and privilege. She was one of a kind, beautiful, generous and possessed a brilliant sense of humor and a glittering spirit that everyone loved.”

Related Story Hollywood & Media Deaths In 2023: Photo Gallery & Obituaries Related Story Laverne Cox & George Wallace Comedy 'Clean Slate' Produced By Norman Lear Gets Amazon Freevee Series Order Related Story Laverne...

Rae Allen, a Tony winner who originated the role of Gloria in “Damn Yankees” on Broadway in 1955 and reprised the role in the 1958 film, had died at 95.

Her talent manager, Kyle Fritz, told TheWrap that she died in her sleep of natural causes on Wednesday morning.

Allen was born Rae Julia Theresa Abruzzo in Brooklyn, New York, in 1926. She graduated from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1947 and began landing parts on Broadway.

Allen received her first Tony nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for 1955’s “Damn Yankees,” in which she sings “Shoeless Joe from Hannibal, Mo,” a song she also performs in the film.

She was nominated for another Tony for “Traveler Without Luggage” in 1967, and won for Best Featured Actress in a Play for “And Miss Reardon Drinks A Little” in 1971.

Allen’s many TV roles include Edith Bunker’s cousin Amelia on “All in the Family,...

It’s a Larry Blamire film, and it’s composed of entirely New and Unique elements: a lonely mansion, strange servants, the reading of the will, weird heirs, death threats, snoopy reporters, a midnight seance, mysterious locked rooms, the clutching hands of a phantom menace, and the ultimate terror, Kogar the mighty ape. All new, right? This ‘nothing you’ve ever seen before’ is performed by Blamire’s nimble acting clan, all competing to immortalize some of the silliest dialogue ever written. Two versions of the screwball-nostalgic farce are present on this special edition disc, along with the usual disturbingly offbeat selection of Blamire extras.

Dark and Stormy Night

Blu-ray

Hydraulic Entertainment

2009 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 93 min. / Street Date June 1, 2020 / available here online but see more information below.

Starring: Daniel Roebuck, Jennifer Blaire, Fay Masterson, Dan Conroy, Brian Howe, Christine Romeo, Andrew Parks, Jim Beaver, Kevin Quinn, James Karen, Alison Martin,...

With movie theaters having to close their doors to curb the spread of coronavirus, it also meant many previously scheduled festivals had to cancel, postpone, or improvise. The latest to still make things work during these strange circumstances is Turner Classic Movies, whose annual TCM Classic Film Festival was set to take place in mid-April in Los Angeles, celebrating their 11th edition.

They’ve now announced a Special Home Edition to take place April 16-19 on the channel, featuring new restorations of films that previously played at the festival as well as ones slated for this year. They are also featuring interviews with talent from years past, showing both on the channel and on YouTube and social media.

The lineup offers no shortage of cinema history landmarks with The Seventh Seal, North by Northwest, Metropolis, Grey Gardens, They Live by Night, Network, Casablanca, and The Magnificent Ambersons (with Peter Bogdanovich...

Cult nonsense filmmaking finds its Ultimate in Larry Blamire’s pair of monster-rally comedies, that parody classic cheapo sci-fi thrillers. The spot-on spoofery nails the genre’s hyper-earnest characterizations and affectionately stilted acting. The only disconnect are the high production values lavished on these personal films: remastered for reissue, they look and sound almost too good for authenticity’s sake. Separate purchases, each with bounteous extras, including Larry Blamire’s weird ‘reanimated movie classics.’

Trail of the Screaming Forehead

+

The Lost Skeleton Returns Again

Blu-ray

Bantam Street

2007-2009

Color

2:35 widescreen

Separate purchases available at Hydraulic Entertainment

Produced, Written and Directed by Larry Blamire

Who began the fan-cult monster film sub-genre? Is it Arch Hall with his barely-watchable backyard production Eegah? Or maybe Ray Dennis Steckler, and his marginally more polished The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? Those pioneers in semi-professional moviemaking inspired plenty of...

Mill Creek and Kit Parker have raided the Columbia vault once again in search of Noir Gold from the ‘fifties. Their selection this time around has a couple of prime gems, several straight crime thrillers and domestic jeopardy tales, and also a couple of interesting Brit imports. They aren’t really ‘Noir’ either, but they’re still unexpected and different. The top title is Don Siegel’s incomparable The Lineup, but also on board is a snappy anti-commie epic by André De Toth. Get set for a lineup of impressive leading ladies: Diana Dors, Arlene Dahl, Anita Ekberg — and the great Colleen Dewhurst as a card-carrying Red!

Noir Archive 9-Film Collection Volume 3

The Shadow on the Window, The Long Haul, Pickup Alley, The Tijuana Story, She Played with Fire, The Case Against Brooklyn, The Lineup, The Crimson Kimono, Man on a String

Blu-ray

Mill Creek / Kit Parker

1957 -1960 / B&w...

Troupers takes an honest look at performers in their 80s and even into their 90s. A lifelong spent in Hollywood, Troupers are veteran actors or those who work in the performing arts. From directors Sara Ballantine and Dea Lawrence, Troupers is set to show on Digital platforms this May, through Global Digital Releasing. And ,the film hosts a series of interviews with long-time actors, including: Betty Garrett ("All in the Family"), Pat Carroll ("Caesar's Hour") Emmy Nominee Harold Gould ("The Golden Girls"), Kaye Ballard, Marvin Kaplan and many more. These interviews look at the special challenges each perform had to endure - in order to follow their passions. Global Digital Releasing has debuted a new trailer and movie poster, for Troupers. Gdr has set May 3rd as the film's release, with the film initially showing on: Amazon Prime and Google Play. This first release will be followed by another on: Vudu,...

Troupers, a documentary about growing old in Hollywood, proves it's never too late to follow your dreams. The hit documentary that originally aired on PBS will see a wider release Friday, May 3rd, 2019 from Global Digital Releasing. From filmmakers Saratoga Ballantine and Dea Lawrence, Troupers profiles actors over the age of 80 who continue to pursue their acting careers in Hollywood. From surviving parental disapproval, the dreaded blacklist of the 50's, poverty, divorce, rejection, disappointment, critics, bad acting coaches and decades of auditions, the cast of Troupers takes a humorous and human approach to it all. Troupers features interviews with Golden Globe winner Betty Garrett (All in the Family), primetime Emmy Winner Pat Carroll (Caesar's Hour), primetime Emmy nominee Harold Gould (Golden Girls), Kaye...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The 10th annual TCM Classic Film Festival is finally in the books, yet another fabulous, frustrating and altogether marvelous gathering in the heart of Hollywood to designed to revel in the history of movies and encourage the continued appreciation of the value of understanding where the movies have come from, how they’ve come to the place they are, and even a moment or two to consider possible futures, both for the path on which the movies find themselves and for the future of the festival itself. As always, I have filed my report on this year’s activities—movies watched, schedules contemplated, favorite people visited—for Slant magazine’s blog The House Next Door—and if I came off in that report a little crankier than usual, that dissatisfaction is borne from love for what Tcmff does so well every year and concern for some of the more commerce-oriented...

Stanley Donen, the deft director of such iconic movie musicals as Singin’ In the Rain, Funny Face, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Charade who helped define Hollywood’s golden age, has died at age 94. The news was confirmed this morning by his son to the Chicago Tribune.

Donen remarkably never won an Oscar for his work, but was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Motion Picture Academy in 1998, “in appreciation of a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation.” He sang “Cheek to Cheek” with his statuette during his acceptance speech.

Born in Columbia, Sc, Donan was a Broadway dancer and choreographer when he met Gene Kelly while dancing in the chorus of Pal Joey. He eventually moved to Hollywood to dance in MGM musicals, and when he was 19 Kelly got the studio to lend Donen to Columbia Pictures so they could co-choreograph Cover Girl.

Over the decades, the presenters and performers on the Academy Awards have become more diverse. And this year is no exception with Awkwafina, Whoopi Goldberg, Maya Rudolph, Amandla Stenberg, Tessa Thompson and Constance Wu already announced as presenting on the 91st annual Oscars, as well as Jennifer Hudson performing the Oscar-nominated tune “I’ll Fight” from “Rbg.”

But it was a long time coming. Let’s look back at the milestone first appearances of minority performers and presenters at Hollywood’s biggest night.

Though he was not a presenter per se, New Jersey native Cesar Romero of Cuban and Spanish heritage was featured with several writer/directors including Robert Riskin and John Huston who reminisced about their experiences in World War II at the 18th annual Academy Awards in 1946.

Puerto Rican-born Jose Ferrer, who earned a supporting actor nomination for 1948’s “Joan of Arc” appeared on the March 23, 1950 ceremony from...

Penny Marshall, who went from starring on the smash Happy Days spinoff Laverne & Shirley to helming such features including Big and A League of Their Own, died Monday night of diabetes complications at her home in the Hollywood Hills. She was 75.

Marshall also directed films including Riding in Cars with Boys, The Preacher’s Wife, Jumpin’ Jack Flash and Renaissance Man, which she also produced along with League of Their Own. She was in postproduction on a feature about basketball Hall of Famer and Kim Jong-un pal Dennis Rodman.

Laverne & Shirley was an out-of-the-box smash after premiere in January 1976 on ABC. The characters appeared on briefly on Happy Days — which was created by her brother Garry Marshall — but made enough of an impression to lead their own series. Also starring Cindy Williams, the midcentury-set sitcom about a pair of lower-class workers at Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee would finish as the No.

The banning of the holiday classic “Baby It’s Cold Outside” because critics suggest it alludes to date rape is ruffling the songwriter’s daughter, who blames the turn of events on Bill Cosby.

“Bill Cosby ruined it for everybody,” Susan Loesser — whose father is legendary songwriter Frank Loesser — told NBC News on Thursday.

“Way before #MeToo, I would hear from time to time people call it a date rape song. I would get annoyed because it’s a song my father wrote for him and my mother to sing at parties. But ever since Cosby was accused of drugging women, I hear the date rape thing all the time.”

Also Read: Radio Station Yanks 'Baby It's Cold Outside' in Support of #MeToo Movement

Cleveland’s Star 102.1 radio station pulled the song last week as show of support for the #MeToo movement, with disc jockey Glenn Anderson calling the lyrics...

Lively stars, good music and Bob Fosse-grade dancing favor Columbia’s forgotten-yet-rediscovered original musical remake, which turns the adventures of two sisters in Manhattan into an all-romantic gambol. Janet Leigh and Jack Lemmon are young and fresh, but MGM alumnus Betty Garrett steals the show.

My Sister Eileen

Blu-ray

Twilight Time

1955 / Color / 2:55 widescreen / 108 min. / Street Date June 19, 2018 / Available from the Twilight Time Movies Store / 29.95

Starring: Janet Leigh, Jack Lemmon, Betty Garrett, Bob Fosse, Kurt Kasznar, Dick York, Lucy Marlow, Tommy Rall, Richard Deacon, Kathryn Grant, Queenie Smith.

Cinematography: Charles Lawton Jr.

Film Editor: Charles Nelson

Choreographer: Robert Fosse

Songs: Jule Styne, Leo Robin

Original Music: George Duning

Written by Blake Edwards, Richard Quine from the play by Joseph Fields, Jerome Chodorov, from stories by Ruth McKenney

Produced by Fred Kohlmar

Directed by Richard Quine

The making of a fun movie musical was rarely as easy as jumping up and shouting,...

(See previous post: Fourth of July Movies: Escapism During a Weird Year.) On the evening of the Fourth of July, besides fireworks, fire hazards, and Yankee Doodle Dandy, if you're watching TCM in the U.S. and Canada, there's the following: Peter H. Hunt's 1776 (1972), a largely forgotten film musical based on the Broadway hit with music by Sherman Edwards. William Daniels, who was recently on TCM talking about 1776 and a couple of other movies (A Thousand Clowns, Dodsworth), has one of the key roles as John Adams. Howard Da Silva, blacklisted for over a decade after being named a communist during the House Un-American Committee hearings of the early 1950s (Robert Taylor was one who mentioned him in his testimony), plays Benjamin Franklin. Ken Howard is Thomas Jefferson, a role he would reprise in John Huston's 1976 short Independence. (In the short, Pat Hingle was cast as John Adams; Eli Wallach was Benjamin Franklin.) Warner...

Fourth of July movies: A few recommended titles that should help you temporarily escape current global madness Two thousand and seventeen has been a weirder-than-usual year on the already pretty weird Planet Earth. Unsurprisingly, this Fourth of July, the day the United States celebrates its Declaration of Independence from the British Empire, has been an unusual one as well. Instead of fireworks, (at least some) people's attention has been turned to missiles – more specifically, a carefully timed North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile test indicating that Kim Jong-un could theoretically gain (or could already have?) the capacity to strike North America with nuclear weapons. Then there were right-wing trolls & history-deficient Twitter users berating National Public Radio for tweeting the Declaration of Independence, 140 characters at a time. Besides, a few days ago the current U.S. president retweeted a video of himself body-slamming and choking a representation of CNN – courtesy of a gif originally created by a far-right Internet...

Turner Classic Movies continues with its Gay Hollywood presentations tonight and tomorrow morning, June 8–9. Seven movies will be shown about, featuring, directed, or produced by the following: Cole Porter, Lorenz Hart, Farley Granger, John Dall, Edmund Goulding, W. Somerset Maughan, Clifton Webb, Montgomery Clift, Raymond Burr, Charles Walters, DeWitt Bodeen, and Harriet Parsons. (One assumes that it's a mere coincidence that gay rumor subjects Cary Grant and Tyrone Power are also featured.) Night and Day (1946), which could also be considered part of TCM's homage to birthday girl Alexis Smith, who would have turned 96 today, is a Cole Porter biopic starring Cary Grant as a posh, heterosexualized version of Porter. As the warning goes, any similaries to real-life people and/or events found in Night and Day are a mere coincidence. The same goes for Words and Music (1948), a highly fictionalized version of the Richard Rodgers-Lorenz Hart musical partnership.

Veteran’s Day is November 11. While we all try to escape from the most exasperating Presidential Campaign in our history let me pay tribute to the Men and Women who have served in the military to insure we keep our electoral process and our freedoms.

Having served in the Navy four years (there he goes again!) I have a keen interest in any movie about the military, especially the sea service. I did serve during peace time so had no experience with combat but still spent most of my tour of duty at sea on an aircraft carrier, the USS Amerca CV66. Among other jobs I ran the ship’s television station for almost two years. Movies have always been important to me and so providing a few hours of entertainment every day when we were at sea was just about the best job I could have had.

The author...

“Getting involved is so… so… involving.”

On The Town screens at St. Louis’ fabulous Hi-Pointe Theater this weekend as part of their Classic Film Series. It’s Saturday, September 10th at 10:30am at the Hi-Pointe located at 1005 McCausland Ave., St. Louis, Mo 63117. The film will be introduced by Harry Hamm, movie reviewer for Kmox. Admission is only $5

Three sailors on a day of shore leave in New York City look for fun and romance before their twenty-four hours are up. That summary to the beloved 1949 musical On The Town should be sung to the tune of “New York, New York,” the most famous song to come from this rollicking adaptation of the Broadway musical. There’s nary a dull moment as we watch Gene Kelly search desperately for Vera-Ellen, Frank Sinatra play a young and naive sailor (!) who tries to resist going up to Betty Garrett’s place but eventually gives in,...

Mickey Rooney was earliest surviving Best Actor Oscar nominee (photo: Mickey Rooney and Spencer Tracy in ‘Boys Town’) (See previous post: “Mickey Rooney Dead at 93: MGM’s Andy Hardy Series’ Hero and Judy Garland Frequent Co-Star Had Longest Film Career Ever?”) Mickey Rooney was the earliest surviving Best Actor Academy Award nominee — Babes in Arms, 1939; The Human Comedy, 1943 — and the last surviving male acting Oscar nominee of the 1930s. Rooney lost the Best Actor Oscar to two considerably more “prestigious” — albeit less popular — stars: Robert Donat for Sam Wood’s Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1939) and Paul Lukas for Herman Shumlin’s Watch on the Rhine (1943). Following Mickey Rooney’s death, there are only two acting Academy Award nominees from the ’30s still alive: two-time Best Actress winner Luise Rainer, 104 (for Robert Z. Leonard’s The Great Ziegfeld, 1936, and Sidney Franklin’s The Good Earth, 1937), and Best Supporting Actress nominee Olivia de Havilland,...

Esther Williams: Swimwear-garbed star of MGM Technicolor musicals dead at 91 Esther Williams, known for her swimming skills and ability to smile and keep her makeup and coiffure intact underwater in several MGM Technicolor aqua-musicals of the ’40s and ’50s, died in her sleep earlier today at her Beverly Hills home. Williams, who in recent decades launched a successful swimwear line, was 91. (Photo: Esther Williams publicity shot ca. 1945.) Born on August 8, 1921, in the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood, Esther Williams began honing her swimming skills at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. Following several victories in swimming competitions, she looked forward to taking part in the 1940 Olympics. World War II, however, interfered. In the early ’40s, she was reportedly discovered by an MGM scout while appearing as a "bathing beauty" at the World’s Fair in San Francisco. The swimming champion would write in her 1999 autobiography The Million Dollar Mermaid that...

Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)

Star of the silver screen and in the swimming pool, actress Esther Williams has passed away at the age of 91. Williams died early today in her sleep, according to her longtime publicist Harlan Boll.

Million Dollar Mermaid (1952)

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will pay tribute to legendary film star and swimmer Esther Williams with a 24-hour marathon of films beginning Thursday, June 13, at 8 p.m. (Et). TCM’s tribute will feature 13 of Williams’ films, including her film debut in Andy Hardy’s Double Life (1942); her first starring vehicle, Bathing Beauty (1944); the colorful musical Neptune’s Daughter (1949); the biopic of swimmer Annette Kellerman, Million Dollar Mermaid (1952); the romantic comedy Easy to Wed (1946); and the Hawaii-set musical Pagan Love Song (1950).

The following is a complete schedule of TCM’s June 13-14 tribute to Esther Williams:

Thursday, June 13

8 p.m. – Bathing Beauty (1944)

10 p.m. – Neptune’s Daughter (1949)

11:45 p.m.

The star-studded 2013 TCM Classic Film Festival was packed with a plethora of great films and special legendary guests. Each spring, the TCM Classic Film Festival welcomes 25,000 movie fans from around the globe to Hollywood to celebrate the art and history of cinema and this year did not disappoint.

Being as this was my third year at the Festival, I was thrilled to see Oscar-winner, Cher, join Turner Classic Movies host Robert Osborne as a surprise guest at the opening night gala to kick off the 4th Festival in Hollywood. She joined Osborne onstage at the Tcl Chinese Theatre for a short conversation about her love of classic film, her favorite era of films and those that have inspired her prior to the world premiere screening of a brand new 45th anniversary restoration of the musical Funny Girl (1968).

Tm & (C) Turner Entertainment Networks, Inc. A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.

Today, we're featuring Betty Garrett circa 1981. Garrett made her Broadway debut in 1942 in the revue Of V We Sing, which closed after 76 performances but led to her being cast in the Harold Rome revue Let Freedom Sing later that year. It closed after only eight performances, but producer Mike Todd saw it and signed her to understudy Ethel Merman and play a small role in the 1943 Cole Porter musical Something for the Boys. Merman became ill during the run, allowing Garrett to play the lead for a week. Later, she became known for the roles she played in two prominent 1970s sitcoms Archie Bunker's liberal neighbor Irene Lorenzo in All in the Family and landlady Edna Babish in Laverne amp Shirley. In later years, Garrett appeared in television series such as Grey's Anatomy, Boston Public and Becker as well as in several Broadway plays and revivals.

2016 movie still trailing Michael Moore, Al Gore 2016 Obama's America, Dinesh D'Souza and John Sullivan's anti-Obama documentary, has surpassed the concert movie Katy Perry: Part of Me to become the second highest-grossing non-fiction film released in North America in 2012. By Sunday evening, D'Souza and Sullivan's right-wing doc -- current cume according to the web site Box Office Mojo stands at an estimated $27.66 million (as of Wed., September 13) -- should have also surpassed the nature doc Chimpanzee ($28.97 million) to become the year's top documentary in the United States and Canada. Worldwide, 2016 -- a 100% domestic sleeper hit like, say, the Tyler Perry movies (which have no audience overseas) -- remains behind both Chimpanzee (another domestic-only release) and Katy Perry: Part of Me. (Please scroll down for more details about the box-office performances of non-fiction films worldwide both in 2012 and "all-time.") As per numerous box-office reports, as the sixth biggest non-fiction film ever (or rather,...

Beau Bridges will receive an inaugural lifetime achievement award from Theater West in Hollywood on Thursday evening.  The 70-year-old movie, television and stage actor will accept the first Betty Garrett Lifetime Achievement Award (named after the late Broadway actress who helped found Theatre West) during the theater company's 50th anniversary gala at the Taglyan Cultural Complex. Actress Sally Field, his "Norma Rae" co-star, will be on hand to talk about working with Bridges before television producer Norman Lear presents the award. Also: Beau Bridges Starrer 'Eden' to Get North American Release [nid:53921] "In forging our...

The life story of legendary performer and Carol Channing (“Hello Dolly”) is as colorful as the lipstick on her big, bright smile. Carol Channing: Larger Than Life captures the magic and vivacity of the 90-year-old icon—both onstage and off...past and present. The film is both an intimate love story and a rarefied journey inside Broadway’s most glamorous era. It is, above all, a look at an inspiring, incomparable and always entertaining American legend. Directed and co-written by Dori Berinstein (ShowBusiness: The Road to Broadway, Gotta Dance), a three-time Tony Award-winning Broadway producer. Starring Carol Channing, Harry Kullijian, Loni Anderson, Mary Jo Catlett, Marge Champion, Tyne Daly, Phyllis Diller, Betty Garrett, Tippi Hedren, Jerry Herman, Angela Lansbury, Rich Little, Bob Mackie, Jimmy Nederlander Sr., Debbie Reynolds, Chita Rivera, Harvey Sabinson, George Schlatter, Richard Skipper, Lily Tomlin, Tommy Tune, Bruce Vilanch, Barbara Walters and JoAnne Worley. Carol Channing is...

Gilbert Cates, 77, was an award-winning director and television and theater producer who oversaw 14 Academy Awards telecasts from 1990 to 2008. The Bronx, N.Y., native won an Emmy Award for the 1991 ceremony, hosted by Billy Crystal. Cates injected new energy into the show by recruiting hosts such as Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, and Jon Stewart. In addition to working on the Oscars, Cates served two terms as president of the Directors Guild of America, from 1983 to 1987. He was also the producing director of the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles, as well as the founder of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and its dean from 1990 to 1998. Betty Garrett, 91, was best known for her recurring roles on the popular TV sitcoms "All in the Family" and "Laverne & Shirley." But she first achieved fame as a musical comedy star,...

"TCM Remembers 2011" is out. Remembered by Turner Classic Movies are many of those in the film world who left us this past year. As always, this latest "TCM Remembers" entry is a classy, immensely moving compilation. The haunting background song is "Before You Go," by Ok Sweetheart.

Among those featured in "TCM Remembers 2011" are Farley Granger, the star of Luchino Visconti's Senso and Alfred Hitchcock's Rope and Strangers on a Train; Oscar-nominated Australian actress Diane Cilento (Tom Jones, Hombre), formerly married to Sean Connery; and two-time Oscar nominee Peter Falk (Murder, Inc., Pocketful of Miracles, The Great Race), best remembered as television's Columbo. Or, for those into arthouse fare, for playing an angel in Wim Wenders' Wings of Desire.

Also, Jane Russell, whose cleavage and sensuous lips in Howard Hughes' The Outlaw left the puritans of the Production Code Association apoplectic; another Australian performer, Googie Withers, among...

Dear Readers:

My first love will always be the movies… but I’m also very passionate about television — past and present, popular and obscure, highbrow and lowbrow, etc.

I minored in film studies at college, but I also took classes on television, its history, and its cultural impact, all of which I loved, and I’ve continued to independently study those subjects in the years since.

When I operated AndTheWinnerIs.blog.com, the previous incarnation of my current Web site, I wrote numerous long-form posts about television (analyzing the roots of America’s fascination with “24,” the implications of America’s obsession with “American Idol,” etc.).

For that blog, and/or my former Los Angeles Times blog, and/or my current blog, and/or a book project that I have been researching for several years, I have extensively interviewed loads of people who are largely — and, in some cases, exclusively — associated...

Last Friday, Susanne Rostock’s “Sing Your Song” (HBO, date Tba, no trailer yet), an authorized documentary about the life of actor/singer/activist Harry Belafonte which premiered at January’s Sundance Film Festival and will air on HBO later this year, was greeted with a lengthy standing ovation following its screening at the Borough of Manhattan Community College as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.

Belafonte, who is now 84 and walks with a cane, made his way along the red carpet press line, sat through the film, and then participated in a Q&A with Tavis Smiley after it ended.

Rostock’s film — the idea of which was strongly promoted by Belafonte’s daughter, who felt that her father’s memories needed to be chronicled, and who is credited as a producer on the film — is largely narrated by Belafonte himself.

It takes you from the tenement in which he was raised in Harlem,...

Interviewed by Jessie Lilley

And just what is a “Renaissance Man” anyway? No, I’m not referring to the Voyager episode and I’m also not talking about the Penny Marshall film. In this context, the term Renaissance Man is defined as a person who excels at many different endeavors: the guy can do a lot of stuff and he does it all quite well. Such a one is the subject of this interview.

Larry Blamire first came across my radar when he and I were both living in Hollywood. I was at a private screening in the home of a friend of mine and he rolled a film called The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. I was transfixed. What a delightful way to spend some time; laughing yourself silly. I immediately found a way to contact this man as I wanted to know what makes him tick.

It’s now years later and,...

Classic film actress Jane Russell, who was famous in the ’40s and ’50s for her figure as much as her acting ability, has died at the age of 89. In addition to acting, Russell tried to break through as a singer, until it was pointed out to her “assets” were more of the visual variety. She eventually had major success in the film industry, but continued to incorporate music into her acting wherever possible.

Russell was also a devout Christian in an industry where being religious was not the norm. She started the Hollywood Christian Group in the early 1950s as a prayer and Bible study group for people working in the film industry. She developed a staunch right-wing political viewpoint, and she was known in later life for her vocal support of the Republican party. Jane Russell died of a respiratory illness at her home in California on Monday.

This...

Filed under: TV Replay

This year's "In Memoriam" feature provided a sober moment in the middle of 'The 83rd Annual Academy Awards' (Sun., 8:30Pm Et on ABC) to remember those in the industry who passed away last year. As Celine Dion sang 'Smile', images of editors, directors, composers, designers, publicists and producers flashed on a screen.

Tony Curtis, Gloria Stuart, Leslie Nielsen, Lynn Redgrave, Pete Postlethwaite and Dennis Hopper were among the actors honored. Halle Berry then offered a special thanks to African-Americann entertainer Lena Horne. But where were Corey Haim, Peter Graves and Betty Garrett?

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments...

Filed under: Oscar News, Awards

As Oscars night draws to a close, we begin to reflect on the victories, surprises and snubs of the evening -- 'King's Speech' over 'Social Network,' still no love for Christopher Nolan? 'Crash' over 'Brokeback'? (Ok, so we have long memories ...)

One segment that can always be counted on to court controversy is the In Memoriam montage, a sober look back at the stars we've loved and lost over the past year. At the 2010 awards, Oscar drew criticism for failing to feature Farah Fawcett in the retrospective, and it looks like the sin of omission struck again this year, when Corey Haim, Peter Graves and Betty Garrett failed to make the cut on the telecast.

Continue Reading...

Thank you for visiting ScottFeinberg.com for live coverage of the 83rd Academy Awards! Keep refreshing your browser for all the latest stats/developments — new updates will push down older updates so that you won’t have to scroll down.

* * *

The show ends movingly — if somewhat randomly — with the Ps-22 Staten Island Chorus performing “Over the Rainbow” as all of the evening’s winners join them on-stage, with many singing along. Franco and Hathaway wind up bringing in the show only 10 minutes late (most years run way over), and although it was far from the funniest or most dramatic production, it wasn’t as bad as some are making it out to be (Roger Ebert just Tweeted that it was “the worst Oscarcast I’ve ever seen!”). Franco seemed like he didn’t want to be there (it must have been brutal trying to prepare for this only on the...

You may not have heard of Betty Garrett, but back in the day you can bet she made your grandpa’s heart flutter. The actress and singer, who died last weekend at the age of 91, made her name playing opposite Frank Sinatra in two of Sinatra’s most beloved musicals, On the Town and Take Me Out to the Ballgame.

Later in her career, Garrett was known for roles in All in the Family and Laverne and Shirley, but her true love was always musical theatre. Her cinematic career was cut short, however, when her husband was discovered to have been a former Communist at a time when being a Communist meant you got blacklisted.

This content is copyrighted by Snark Food.

---

Related Articles at Snark Food:Leif Garrett Arrested in Drug BustBetty White totally going viralBetty White Oscars Facebook Campaign!Lindsay Lohan will be in rehab over Christmas...

We're looking for you to tweet us your Valentine's Day wishes for your real-life Valentine, and we'll be featuring some of them in Briefs today. Just tell @AfterElton what sweet nothings you want to whisper to that special someone.

Jack Davenport (Coupling fame) is set to play a choreographer in Smash, also known as Will & Grace: The Musical. No word on whether he’s straight or gay.

Alan Cumming’s character on The Good Wife hasn’t had a love life in the past, but that’s about to change. Which is good, because Cumming always imagined his character was a chronic masturbator.

I won’t spoil the rest of Gwyneth Paltrow’s return to Glee, but since we already know that she’s doing “Kiss” as a duet with Mr. Schuester, I don’t feel guilty saying they do it as a tango.

The New York Times got to...

Actor and singer known for her role as the Sinatra-chasing taxi driver Brunhilde Esterhazy in On the Town

The most famous role played by the all-round entertainer Betty Garrett, who has died aged 91, was Brunhilde Esterhazy, the taxi driver in Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly's musical On the Town (1949). In the film, she introduces herself to a shy sailor played by Frank Sinatra and asks him: "Why don't you come up to my place?" She is soon vigorously chasing him around her cab, rejecting any of his suggestions about what to see in New York with the rapid retort: "My place!"

In Take Me Out to the Ball Game (1949), Garrett had pursued Sinatra with equal zeal, assuring him by singing It's Fate, Baby, It's Fate. She also panted after Red Skelton in Neptune's Daughter (1949), begging him not to leave her apartment with the song Baby, It's Cold Outside.

Filed under: TV News, Celebrities and Gossip

Veteran sitcom actress Betty Garrett, who co-starred in 'Laverne & Shirley' and 'All in the Family,' has passed away at age 91, according to E! Online. She died Saturday at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center due to an aortic aneurysm.

Garrett worked alongside many classic Hollywood stars, like Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly in 'On the Town.' Garrett is also remembered for her role in 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game.'

Among other films, Garrett starred in 'Neptune's Daughter,' where she and Red Skelton performed a version of the classic duet 'Baby, It's Cold Outside.'

 

Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments...

Versatile sage and screen actress Betty Garrett has died at the age of 91.

According to the Los Angeles Times, Garrett died early Saturday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center of an aortic aneurysm, her son Garret Parks said.

Garrett starred in MGM musicals including "On the Town" and "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and was later a regular on TV shows including "All in the Family" and "Laverne & Shirley."

She also appeared in numerous Broadway productions.

Actress/singer Betty Garrett has died at the age of 91.

The star passed away on Saturday, a day after she was admitted to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles with heart problems.

Garrett began her career in the 1930s and established herself as a star with a stint in Broadway play Call Me Mister.

The stage performance led her to Hollywood, where she landed roles as Frank Sinatra's love interest in 1949's movie musicals Take Me Out to the Ballgame and On the Town.

But her screen ambitions were cut short after her husband, actor Larry Parks, was blacklisted by Hollywood's top executives for his early membership in the Communist Party.

Garrett managed to revive her career a few years later and starred in 1955 musical My Sister Eileen, and eventually moved into the TV industry, appearing in popular 1970s series All in the Family and Laverne and Shirley.

More recently, she made a cameo in Ted Danson's sitcom Becker, a performance which landed her an Emmy nomination in 2003.

She is survived by her two sons, composer Garrett Parks and actor Andrew Parks.

I was saddened to learn this morning that Betty Garrett, the great star of stage, screen, and TV, passed away yesterday at the age of 94 after suffering an aortic aneurysm.

Garrett was one of those rare people — like, say, Jack Valenti — who happened to be a witness to and/or participant in a remarkably high number of historic events of the 20th century. She was a member of Orson Welles’s famed Mercury Theatre company, and was with him on the night that he shook up America with his infamous radio broadcast of “The War of the Worlds” (1938); she was Frank Sinatra’s leading lady in two of the earliest great M-g-m musical-comedies, “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” (1949) and “On the Town” (1949); her career was greatly hurt by the Hollywood Red Scare after her husband, the Oscar nominated actor Larry Parks, refused to name names before the House Committee...

Betty Garrett, aka "Hildy" the female cabbie from On the Town, passed away yesterday at 91. She was a comic star of stage, tv and, however briefly, big screen musicals. The Hollywood blacklist of the 50s, which sadly destroyed so many careers at their prime, derailed hers, but at least she had charming musicals like Neptune's Daughter, My Sister Eileen and two Frank Sinatra pairings in On The Town and Take Me Out to the Ball Game under her dance belt before that sorry turn of events. Her career got a second wind of sorts on television in the 70s in sitcoms like Laverne and Shirley and All in the Family.

Is there anything more contagiously cheerful than a good musical comedy star? ♪ They're awful....awful good to look at, awful nice to be with, awful sweet to have and hold... ♫

Here's a fun video that apparently played before her 90th birthday bash.

Comedic stage and screen actress Betty Garrett passed away Saturday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center due to an aortic aneurysm. She was 91. Betty was best known for her roles in the musicals On The Town and Take Me Out to the Ballgame, as well as her television work on All in the Family and Laverne & Shirley. She starred onscreen opposite movie legends Frank Sinatra and Red Skelton. The "Baby, It's Cold Outside" singer was blacklisted in Hollywood after her husband, actor Larry Parks, testified about his involvement with the Communist party in 1951. Recently, Betty had been performing one-woman shows and teaching musical-comedy at Theatre West, the North Hollywood nonprofit theater she...

We've just learned that veteran character actress Betty Garrett passed away early this morning at the age of 91. The movie musical legend died at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, California with her family by her side.

Born in 1919, Garret was encouraged to pursue a career on stage after high school by her bishop. A friend of her mother's also arranged for an interview with Martha Graham who then in turn recommended Garrett for a scholarship at the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York City.

During the summer months, she performed in the Borscht Belt where she had the chance to work with legendary talents like Jerome Robbins, Imogene Coca, and Danny Kaye. Garrett made her Broadway debut in 1942 in a revue. Not long after, she was signed to understudy Ethel Merman for a lead role in a Cole Porter musical. She...

Jean-Paul Belmondo, Jean Seberg in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (top); Ginger Rogers, Fred Astaire in Mark Sandrich’s Top Hat (upper middle); Steve Sekely’s Day of the Triffids (lower middle); Jack La Rue (right) in No Orchids for Miss Blandish (bottom) Screened last night at the TCM Classic Film Festival, currently taking place at Mann’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, was a new restoration of the George Cukor-directed, Judy Garland-James Mason version of A Star Is Born (1954), among other features. Present at the A Star Is Born screening was Lorna Luft, Garland’s daughter with Sid Luft. Among the other film personalities attending the various screenings were Betty Garrett, one of the stars of the Gene Kelly-Stanley Donen musical On the [...]...

Actresses Betty Garrett and Esther Williams pose with the Aqualillies. Photo by Jordan Strauss/WireImage.com. This weekend in Los Angeles, cinema connoisseurs are flocking to experience “the pinnacle of film nerdiness,” as one blogger described it—the inaugural TCM Classic Film Festival, sponsored by cable television’s home for movies starring Bogie, Bacall, Hepburn, Tracey, Garbo, Grant, Davis, Stewart, and all the other flawless figures who made Hollywood the most glamorous place in the universe for the better part of the 20th century. Vanity Fair is playing a key role in the festival: in addition to hosting last night’s opening event, the magazine inspired an entire slate of programming with its book Vanity Fair’s Tales of Hollywood: Rebels, Reds, and Graduates and the Wild Stories Behind the Making of 13 Iconic Films (say that 10 times fast!). Over the next three days, six of the films covered in the...