Oscar History
Film Bitch History
Welcome

The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)

Follow TFE on Substackd

Powered by Squarespace
COMMENTS
Keep TFE Strong

We're looking for 500... no 390 SubscribersIf you read us daily, please be one.  

I ♥ The Film Experience

THANKS IN ADVANCE

What'cha Looking For?
Subscribe
« Months of Meryl: The Iron Lady (2011) | Main | Best Supporting Horror Performances? »
Thursday
Oct252018

Showbiz History: Marsha marries Neil, Barbra is "Guilty," and Blue is the Warmest Color

7 random things that happened on this day (October 25th) in showbiz history

Neil Simon & Marsha Mason

1881 Pablo Picasso is born in Malaga Spain. He's been played onscreen by everyone from Antonio Banderas to Anthony Hopkins. Okay so just guys named Tony... never mind. 

1973 Legendary Playwright Neil Simon marries the then little-known actress Marsha Mason, who is acting in his Broadway production "The Good Doctor" just months after his first wife's death. Mason's screen career takes off the very next year with an Oscar nomination for Cinderella Liberty. Then she & Simon make films together that Oscar really loves for the next decade like Goodbye Girl, Only When I Laugh, and Chapter Two... 

1974 Here's a piece of trivia I didn't know until today: O.J. Simpson's film debut was in a movie called The Klansman which opened on this day. This is not to be confused with BlacKkKlansman though O.J. Simpson does apparently masquerade as a member of the KKK in the movie (in order to seek vengeance). Lee Marvin and Richard Burton star. It's available to stream on Amazon Prime and it's sounds so awful, I'm tempted. Have you ever even heard of this? I had not!

1978 John Carpenter's horror classic Halloween premiered 40 years ago today in... Kansas City only ? For some reason that was where it started and it hit Los Angeles two days later and other major cities (like New York and Pittsburgh) didn't get it until November after the holiday was over. Weird! 

1980 Barbra Streisand's "Guilty" album hits #1 on the charts. It becomes her most successful album (outselling A Star is Born) with 15 million copies sold worldwide.

2002 All or Nothing starring Timothy Spall and Lesley Manville opens in US theaters. Have you ever seen it? It's crushingly and mundanely sad. Did you know that it's Mike Leigh's all time lowest grosser stateside? It flopped with only $201,000 at the box office (his movies consistently gross $3-4 million in the States... though Secrets & Lies was way above that, of course)

2013 Blue is the Warmest Color opens in US theaters after months of hype following its Cannes premiere. Weirdly it did not open in France in time to qualify as the submission for the Oscars so it had to settle for Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations and a hit run at US arthouses to go with its Palme d'Or... a fate a lot of movies would kill to have, French or otherwise.

I still think of Lea Seydoux's crushing "infinite tenderness" line from time to time. How about you?

 

Today's Birthday Suit
  Mehcad Brooks in True Blood. Don't you miss HBO's former sluttiness sometimes?

Today's Birthdays
Oscar Winners: Screenwriter David S Ward (Sleepless in Seattle, The Sting)
Oscar Nominees: Actor Anthony Franciosa (A Hatful of Rain), Screenwriter Gloria Katz (American Grafffiti), Cinematography Nicholas Musurac Screenwriter Krzysztof Piesewicz (Three Colors: Red)
Actors: Tyler Alvarez, Mathieu Amalric, Billy Barty, Mehcad Brooks, Leo G Carroll, Bessie Carter, French legend Annie Girardot (3 César wins!), Adam Goldberg, Leslie Grossman, Josh Henderson, Brian Kerwin, Zachary Knighton, Peng Lin, Parker Mack, Melinda McGraw, Tracey Nelson, Adam Pascal, Marion Ross, Craig Robinson, and Persia White
Showbiz Peeps: Comedienne Samantha Bee, Broadway icon Barbara Cook, Producer David Furnish (aka Elton John's hubby), Producer Gale Ann Hurd (The Terminator) who was the second of James Cameron's many collaborating wives, Comedienne Minnie Pearl, Pop star Katy Perry, Singer Helen Reddy, Director Hong Sang-soo

PrintView Printer Friendly Version

EmailEmail Article to Friend

Reader Comments (10)

Adele Exarchopoulos shpuld have been nominated and WON Best Actress for Blue isvthe Warmest Color!

October 25, 2018 | Unregistered Commentercal roth

Blue is the Warmest Color was the best movie of 2013.

October 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterPeggy Sue

I recently rewatched Mike Leigh's All or Nothing and yes, so so good, featuring Lesley Manville giving one of the rawest, most lacerating performances I've ever seen. She's just stunning.

October 25, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterRob

Happy Birthday, Helen Reddy! I saw her majesty in concert about five years ago and she introduced the theme song to Cinderella Liberty by giving a shoutout to Marsha Mason. In turn, Helen's name is mentioned in a sequence during the opening credits to The Goodbye Girl.

Nathaniel--By all accounts, The Klansman is quite the atrocity. I have been wanting to see it for years due to its terrible reputation as rancid trash, but it's hard to find. Legend has it that Burton and Marvin were both drunk during the filming--and supposedly it reads on film. O.J. did this the same year as The Towering Inferno, which came out later at Christmas. He played a security guard who saves Jennifer Jones' cat. The irony--sigh.

October 25, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterbrookesboy

The Klansman is without a doubt one of the most awful movies I've ever seen. I was sucked in by Marvin and Burton's names but they were just as terrible as the rest of the picture. Not even good bad just bad.

October 25, 2018 | Unregistered Commenterjoel6

Might wanna re-work that sentence :D "Legendary Playwright Neil Simon marries the then little-known actress Marsha Mason, acting in his Broadway production "The Good Doctor" just months after his first wife."

October 26, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterFritz

I saw All or Nothing when it came out. Agree in its resolute sadness. Sally Hawkins was in it. Timothy Spall was outstanding in this film. He is so underrated despite stellar turns not only in Mike Leigh films (strangely I did not really love his award winning performance in Mr Turner). I remember his slightly creepy turn in The Sheltering Sky.

October 26, 2018 | Unregistered CommenterOwl

How do you know who’s the real friend and who’s not? My friend has just sent me to https://elleblonde.com/2021/04/02/perfect-resume-how-to-impress-employer/ even though we are working in the same field!

February 13, 2022 | Registered CommenterEmma Batler

thanks!

March 4, 2022 | Registered Commenterdana miller

it's good movie just like Geometry Dash Scratch

August 4, 2023 | Registered CommenterSaint Otis
Member Account Required
You must have a member account to comment. It's free so register here.. IF YOU ARE ALREADY REGISTERED, JUST LOGIN.