The American Film Institute celebrates America's 100 most inspiring movies in a three-hour CBS special AFI'S 100 Years... 100 Cheers, airing tonight at 8 pm/ET. Appearing in no fewer than seven films on the list — including Babes in Arms, Captains Courageous,
read more
Question: So the bomb has dropped on what's been, personally, expected for months — that the Palladino wife-and-husband team, Amy and Daniel, are leaving Gilmore Girls. Part of me is sad. She created this brilliant show and the pair have probably written over half the episodes. But part of me is hopeful that someone on the Gilmore writing/producing team will hopefully be able to turn the show around, after this lackluster season, for its supposed last hurrah! What do you think of this whole event?
Answer: My gut reaction is sadness, that it's a shame that Amy Sherman-Palladino and Daniel Palladino won't see this show, which is such a singular vision and which is so entwined with their voices, through to its natural conclusion. (Which I have to think will be a year from now. The fact that they appear to have been holding out for a two-year extension can only be characterized as hubris.) Gilmore Girls has been such an oddball show this season. I love it — the tone, the language, the
...
read more
Liza with a ZWatching this landmark concert special was simultaneously exhilarating and depressing. As a long-time Liza Minnelli fan (not just in Cabaret, I loved her so much I even saw her in Rent-a-Cop… in the theater), I grew up listening to the Liza with a Z soundtrack. I'd play it over and over and over again until even our gay upstairs neighbor begged me to buy a new record. But I never actually saw it until tonight. Even as Liza has devolved into self-parody, I continue to defend her. She's one of a kind, and I'm not just talking about her iconic look or her manic talent. Liza is the living link between the Golden Age of Hollywood and the Tinseltown we know today. In this 1972 televised concert special she straddled the two eras, appealing to her parents' peers with "God Bless the Child" and "My Mammy" while courting
read more
Question: I know the Oscar statuettes are about a foot tall and weigh 8 pounds, but what are they made of, and is it true that they got their name because someone said it looked like their Uncle Oscar? That sounds like a made-up story.
Answer: Last part first: The official story is indeed that Margaret Herrick, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' first librarian in 1931 and its executive director from 1943 to 1971 (and for whom the Academy's Los Angeles library, where I've done my share of research, is named), saw one of the statuettes (designed by MGM art director Cedric Gibbons for the first ceremony in 1929) on a desk and exclaimed that it looked just like her Uncle Oscar. Which is sort of alarming in that it implies that her uncle was a bald nudist with a thing for (perhaps compensatory) swords. Many people prefer the slightly ruder version in which Bette Davis sugge
read more
Tammy Blanchard has got personality — or, to be more specific, more than a dozen of 'em. The Emmy winner (for her turn as a young Judy Garland in the TV-movie Life with Judy Garland) will follow in Sally Field's footsteps by taking the title role in CBS' upcoming remake of 1976's Sybil. Jessica Lange will play Sybil's psychiatrist (previously portrayed by Joanne Woodward).
read more
