Wake up unashamed!
Friday, November 4, 2016 at 12:29PM The weekend is beginning so have fun. Since today is BUtterfield 8's 56th anniversary, let Liz's "Gloria Wandrous" be your spirit guide. Whatever you're planning for tonight, wake up unashamed tomorrow!
More On this Day in Showbiz History goodies after the jump
1842 Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln are wed. Some 160 years later Sally Field and Daniel Day Lewis absolutely kill it while playing them
Mini OSCAR WINNING ACTOR MEDLEY on this day in the 1910s...
1913 Oscar winner Gig Young (They Shoot Horses, Don't They?) born in Minnesota
1918 Oscar winner Art Carney (Harry & Tonto) born in Mount Vernon
1919 Oscar winner Martin Balsam (A Thousand Clowns) born in the Bronx
1934 Two time Oscar nominated cinematographer Miroslav Ondrícek is born in Prague. His grand career included Amadeus, Ragtime, A League of Their Own, The Firemen's Ball, and Hair. Cinephiles over 35 might remember that at one point it felt like every famous cinematographer in Hollywood was Czech!
1937 Loretta Swit is born. Takes over the "Hot Lips Houlihan" role in M*A*S*H* from Oscar nominated Sally Kellerman and is nominated for 10 Emmys and wins 2 of them
1946 Super talented cinematographer Frederick Elmes is born in New Jersey. His films include Blue Velvet, Hulk, Paterson, Wild at Heart, The Ice Storm, Synecdoche NY, and In the Gloaming among many others. He has never been nominated for an Oscar
1969 Matthew McConaughey born in Texas. First words "alrightalrightalright". We interviewed him in person and his eyes were so dangerous/intense up close!
1971 Indian actress Tabu (The Namesake, Life of Pi, Astitva, Haider) is born
1982 Rising actor Chris Greene (Loving, Birth of a Nation, Atlanta) is born in Mount Vernon
1994 Kenneth Branagh's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein opens in theaters to skeeve people out with its makeup designs
2005 An expectation dashing weekend at the movies as Disney's nadir Chicken Little and Sam Mendes 'whatsthis?' military drama Jarhead both open. But at the least the latter gave us eternal gifs of Jake Gyllenhaal in nothing but a Santa cap
2008 Barack Obama elected President, the first African American president of the US. May we have a similar first time excitement this Tuesday by electing the first woman! #ImWithHer
2011 The Muppets film franchise is revived in theaters with Amy Adams and Jason Segel as its too-adorable humans and Walter as its new muppet ("why?" on the latter). The film wins Best Original Song at the Oscars the following February for "Man or Muppet" by Bret McKenzie who we interviewed about it
2016 Dr Strange, Loving, Hacksaw Ridge (reviewed), Trolls, and Peter and the Farm open in movie theaters. See something and report back!
Reader Comments (17)
Was 'Doctor Strange, Loving..." on purpose? Why aren't people playing with this more? I just woke up.
I'll try and follow Liz's advice in that fabulous poster for that really second rate movie.
Let us all hope and pray Tuesday holds that same kind of excitement!! #ImWithHer
Gawd I hated Butterfield Eight. Super annoying that she won the Academy Award for this! Especially over Shirley MacLaine. Wasn't Shirley Jones' character in Elmer Gantry a bit of ho too? So two Oscars for two characters who were prostitutes. Hmm.
"Mama, face it - I was the slut of all time - and I loved it!"
I wake up ashamed that Liz won an Oscar for this!
BUtterfield 8 is indeed a second-rate soap.
And Liz' Oscar win for it was obviously a sympathy vote for nearly dying.
But imagine watching BU 8 without Liz in it.
And ET's first Oscar probably would have been for Suddenly, Last Summer if Hollywood hadn't been busy punishing her for the petty larceny of "stealing" Eddie from Debbie.
What are the possibilities of a future Wonder Woman movie starring Elizabeth Taylor?
"Jarhead" was more gay soft porn than serious war drama
Ingrid__Essex,
Back in the '70s, my Dad noticed a magazine on the coffee table with a shot of Lynda Carter on the cover, in non-WW gear. Mistaking her for Elizabeth, he went off on a typical Archie Bunker-style rant about supposed appeal and morals of Liz Taylor. Made me roll my eyes then, smile now!
rick gould, and when Lynda became famous, for her classic beauty, she was compared to muses like Taylor, Vivien Leigh and Hedy Lamarr.
Loretta Swit was more known in our household for The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. I haven't seen it in 20+ years, but still have fond memories. Ah, the Herdmans ...
Any of the other four actresses DESERVES it more than Liz in this 2nd-rate soap!! Its such a blatant sympathy make up Oscar!!! Much as I like the sweet & impish Fran Kubulik, I so wanted Kerr to win for her 6th & final try!!!
& Sorry, but Liz is definitely the weakest of the BA line-up, I wld replace her w Jean Simmons for Elmer Gantry & Kerr would have won it (even if MacLaine win, I'll still be happy!)
Lynda Carter does resemble Vivien Leigh in some angle!! Gorgeous!!!!!!!!!
BU 8 is unashamedly unconvincing but Liz deserved an Oscar for CAT or SUDDENLY, so it's nice that simpathy vote helped her to get her due, even if it was sad for Kerr and MacLaine.
Simmons is the unsung hero (sort of...) of ELMER GANTRY, I have no problems to say that I love her more than Oscarized Lancaster and Jones
Jarhead, I can't quit you...
Though ET's near-fatal pneumonia got her the sympathy win, Taylor was nominated a few weeks before her health crisis.
To me, the real dud of that year's five nominees was Greer Garson, as a pretty Eleanor Roosevelt with an overbite, in Sunrise at Campobello. Both Garson and Ralph Bellamy, as the Roosevelts, look like they're doing vaudeville turns!
@ Mirko, I completely agree with you about Jean Simmons. She is my best supporting actress winner that year. She steals the movie handily from everyone.
Not only was Deborah Kerr robbed (and downright insulted and humiliated) by losing for an exquisite performance, she wasn't even nominated for her greatest performance ever the very next year in The Innocents! Liz is a lot of fun, but this may be the dumbest Best Actress award ever. She deserved her 66 win, and that one award would have been quite sufficient. As for her nomination, I'd've much rather seen Simmons (maybe her performance in Spartacus siphoned off some votes?) or Wendy Hiller for Sons and Lovers or Judy Holliday for Bells Are Ringing. Or maybe even my choice for the greatest performance ever, from any year or any country - Emmanuelle Riva in Hiroshima, mon amour?