It’s Oscar season and you know what that means: Time to wheel Hilary Swank out for her annual viewing. In ‘Amelia,’ she plays the legendary aviator Amelia Earhart, and those big, horsey incisors of hers may at last have met their match.Ty Burr reviews the new movie Amelia.
Yesterday’s post about Jack Kerouac was a nice prelude to this:William S. Burroughs: A Man Within.
Today marks the 40th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s death (at the age of 47). For some Kerouac-related media, we recommend this archive called Digital Beats.
Defamer has some lively ideas for making the Academy Awards relevant again. Included are scenarios titled Drink the Golden Globes Under the Table, Post-Modern Oscar, and… Logan’s Run: The tweens have taken over entertainment; how long does Oscar think it can hold out anyway? Show Oscar’s commitment to staying relevant by terminating the careers of any actor over 35 on live TV.Host: Vanessa Hudgins
She’s engaged.
Diversion: Some liquor company somewhere had a contest of sorts called One Dream Rush. Filmmakers had 42 seconds to make a dreamy movie.The above link goes to the YouTube channel that features some of the short films, including ones by David Lynch and, oddly enough, James Franco.
[Editor’s note: Originally posted in 2009.]That’s actress Mamie Gummer, the daughter of Meryl Streep and sculptor Donald Gummer, at a Whitney Museum gala last night.
British headline of the day.
“Pets that look like Pat Sajak!”
The Monty Python crew have put many of their clips on their own YouTube channel.Eric Idle explains.
Good stuff: Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac play “Rhiannon” live in 1976 — the year after their debut album, Fleetwood Mac, and the year before the release of their smash album “Rumours.”
Check out this video bit from Shabooty.com of Star Trek’s George Takei and his husband, Brad Altman, who appeared on the game show The Newlywed Game. The first same-sex married couple to do so, they say.The clip includes shots from the show and the two of them chatting about the experience.
From Paste magazine, here’s a behind-the-scenes video from the upcoming Spike Jonze movie based on Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.The video is called “The Absurd Difficulty of Filming a Dog Running and Barking at the Same Time.”
The members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (with part-time Python Carol Cleveland) at last night’s 40th anniversary show in New York City…
Monty Python is having a 40th-anniversary reunion show tonight in New York. Their show launched on the BBC on 5 October 1969.Last night they had a pre-union, as it were, on the Jimmy Fallon Show. Eric Idle, backed by Fallon’s house band, sang “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”
Happy birthday to the late comedian Lenny Bruce, who would have been 84 years old today, had he not overdosed himself off this mortal coil back in 1966. His daughter, Kitty, runs The Official Lenny Bruce Website, and today marks the beginning of a two-week auction of Bruce memorabilia.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toasts photographers at McDaid’s Pub in Dublin on Sunday. She was accompanied by Art Rooney, the new U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.Clinton visits Belfast for political talks with Northern Ireland leaders today.
Filmmaker Orson Welles died on October 10th (that’s tomorrow) in 1985, at the age of 70. Here are a few links — mostly videos — in tribute to Mr. Welles:
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”From the official announcement from the Nobel Peace Prize committee.
Mr. Lombardi played twice with Obama during the campaign… The first time, in May 2008, came about by sheer happenstance. Lombardi was at the gym, and there was Obama, so Lombardi introduced himself.”Hey, listen,” Obama said, “I have members of my staff here, five or six guys, we wanna play full court, you go find a few guys.”