Tina Fey by Michael Caulfield/ WireImage.com, Julie Christie by Michael Caulfield/ WireImage.com
If this year’s SAG Awards (simulcast Sunday on TNT and TBS) will be remembered for anything, it won’t be for who won or lost—there was little surprise and virtually no suspense in the no-frills ceremony—but for its symbolic timing in the middle of a painful, industry-crippling labor strike.Airing two weeks after the pathetic teleconference-style Golden Globes braadcast, hobbled together after the threat of pickets shut down that night’s gala, the SAGs (marking the union's 75th anniversary) attracted a glittery gathering of movie and TV stars—although there were still some curious no-shows, including TV winners Alec Baldwin, Kevin Kline and this year’s People’s Choice host Queen Latifah as well as film nominee George Clooney. More than a few voiced their support on stage for their striking brethren in the WGA Guild, including Tina Fey (herself a WGA member) and Julie Christie, who noted, “It’s lovely to receive an award from your own ...
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Mickey Rooney
There's a man small of stature but incredibly big on talent and Hollywood luster at the center of the box-office blockbuster Night at the Museum, which to date has raked in more than $563 million globally. Just before reuniting with ol' Rexy, Mickey Rooney — who in the Ben Stiller-fronted comedy plays Gus, a night watchman with a surprising agenda — gave TVGuide.com a call to tout Museum's Tuesday DVD release.
TVGuide.com: I understand you're on your way to the Museum of Natural History to bid "Rexy" [Night at the Museum's two-ton, 13-foot-tall T-rex model] farewell.Mickey Rooney: That's right. [Chuckles] He's going on a cross-country trip.
TVGuide.com: I wonder if he thinks to himself, "Meh, I'm too
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Mickey Rooney in National Velvet
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,
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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
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A rep for Ben Affleck tells the New York Daily News that, contrary to a rumor going around, there are no plans for the actor and best bud Matt Damon to remake Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid — which is good, because when asked about the very notion at his Sundance Film Festival this week, Robert Redford literally groaned and muttered some not-nice words.... Mickey Rooney and Dick Van Dyke will play villains in the increasingly fun-sounding comedy Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller, Kim Raver and Carla Gugino.... Speaking of Stiller, Dodgeball director Rawson Marshall Thurber has been tapped to helm Universal's big-screen adaptation of Magnum P.I. If Tom Selleck isn't in it, can King Kong at least play his mustache?
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Question: I was channel surfing and came across a movie with Katharine Hepburn playing an Asian character; her eyes seemed to be taped back to give them an Asian look. What was the movie's title, and was there any backlash against it because a white person was playing an Asian character? Answer: The film is Dragon Seed (1944), based on the novel by Pearl S. Buck, a Hillsboro, West Va., native who was raised in China by missionary parents. It involves World War II atrocities against the Chinese by Japanese soldiers. I'm unaware of any significant backlash against the casting of Caucasian actors like Katharine Hepburn, Walter Huston,
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It's only one day into the summer Television Critics Association press tour in Beverly Hills, and already we've seen one of the best shows (albeit not on TV) that we're likely to get in the next three weeks of hype and schmooze.
The occasion: a panel late Tuesday afternoon promoting Pioneers of Primetime, a PBS special (airing Nov. 9) about the legendary vaudevillian clowns who first made TV popular. Several gave their final TV interviews for this documentary, including the late Milton Berle, Steve Allen and Red Skelton — who turned down producer Steve Boettcher's interview requests at least half a dozen times before relenting and rewarding him with three and a half hours shortly before he died.
At TCA, this all-star panel of 80-something golden-age talent, which at first glance promised to be an exercise in fawning nostalgia, quickly turned into a rollicking display of classic shtick, as Red Buttons and Carl Reiner me
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