Showbiz History: "It" girls and Scarlett Johansson's first big win
Monday, February 15, 2021 at 8:35AM Happy President's Day. Aren't you glad an actual adult is in the White House again? Anyway, here are 5 random things that happened on this day, February 15th, in showbiz history
1927 "It" starring Clara Bow is released. Did it create the lingo of "It girl" like Gaslight spawned the term "gaslighting"? I don't know. I'm not a linguistic historian. If you are, do tell...
1939 Lillian Hellman's play "The Little Foxes" premieres on Broadway. The sensational drama will become a superb Bette Davis movie in 1941. We discussed this movie in the 1941 Smackdown. It was revived on Broadway a few years back in a sensational production with the very cool gimmick of having the two stars (Laura Linney, Cynthia Nixon) switch characters every other night.
1967 the 24th annual Golden Globes are held. A Man For All Seasons (drama) and The Russians are Coming! The Russians are coming! (comedy) take the Best Picture prizes. Only one acting winner (Best Actor Paul Scofield for A Man For All Seasons) continued on to win at the Oscars, too --- would that we would have more disagreements in modern times at awards shows. Imagine the suspense on Oscar night. And speaking of...
2004 the 57th BAFTAs are held honoring the films of 2003. Return of the King was the night's winner but Lost in Translation won both of the lead acting trophies, a feat which of course did not happen on Oscar night (since Bill Murray lost to Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson wasn't even nominated). For Best British film BAFTA went with the documentary Touching the Void.
Today's Birthday Suit
Happy 74th to the always stylish Marisa Berenson who was so robbed of an Oscar nod for Cabaret (1972) for which she received Globe and BAFTA nominations. Other key films include Barry Lyndon, Death in Venice, S.O.B., White Hunter Black Heart, and I Am Love. She first rose to fame as a major model and this photo is from Irving Penn in 1970.
Other celebrity birthdays today: Oscar winner Gale Sondergaard (Anthony Adverse, The Letter), John Barrymore (Dinner at Eight, 20th Century), Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know, The Future), Cesar Romero (Batman, If a Man Answers), Harvey Korman (The Carol Burnett Show, High Anxiety), Claire Bloom (Look Back in Anger, Clash of the Titans), Lynn Whitfield (The Josephine Baker Story, Eve's Bayou), Amber Riley (Glee, The Wiz Live!), Jane Seymour (Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, Somewhere in Time), Alex Borstein (Getting On, Marvelous Mrs Maisel), Natalie Morales (Parks and Recreation, Girls), Chris Farley (Tommy Boy, SNL), Jessica DeGouw (Underground, The Crown), Christopher McDonald (Thelma & Louise, Quiz Show), Megan Dodds (Ever After, CSI), Zachary Gordon (Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Georgia Rule), Anson Boon (1917, Blackbird), Director Tsui Hark (The Taking of Tiger Mountain, Once Upon a Time in China), rapper Megan Thee Stallion, singer Melissa Manchester, and cartoonist Simpsons creator Matt Groenig.
Reader Comments (10)
Scarlett was not even twenty when she won that BAFTA!
Scarlett's got a very unconventional and badass awards record.
She's achieved a bunch of very hard things some great actors take decades to do—if they do them at all. A Tony, double Oscar nods, a Best Actress BAFTA when she wasn't even Oscar nominated...
And yet some of the easy short-game stuff (a Golden Globe win, a single Oscar nomination) have eluded her.
I had completely forgotten about this win. Cool. It should have been Anne Reid. The Baftas are so rude with their own.
"Not for A Girl with a Pearl Earring but for her peformance in Lost in Translation, Scarlett Johansson" How anticlimatic, Mr. McKellen
@Nathaniel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting
Yes, the term originated from the Play, then the Movie.
I believe that Elinor Glyn dubbed Clara Bow the "It" Girl first and Paramount then commissioned Glyn to write a story for Clara by that name to capitalize on the nickname. It's an okay film, pretty standard of the Bow pictures of the time. It's not her best but worth seeking out. But if you want to see Clara at her best catch up with "Call Her Savage".
Love The Little Foxes! As great as Bette is in the film it is too bad Tallulah Bankhead didn't get a chance to record her legendary performance on film. The trading of roles is an intriguing concept, makes you wonder what it would have been like for Bette and Patricia Collinge to have played the other's role.
Love when Daniel Craig fucks The Mother from behind.
Jesus -- i knew that. What i was saying in the article was i wonder if the phrase "it girl" originated from this movie or if it was already a saying.
When Scar-Jo 3:16 won, I screamed YES!!!!!! She was only 19 years old at the time and already, she was starting to kick some ass. She will win that Oscar and soon become... ELITE (EGOT).
Anne Reid was excellent in The Mother as I saw it at a film festival and the scene where the daughter found those drawings. The gasp in the theater was loud. I was like... "Goddamn woman... you freaky! I like!"
Marisa Berenson, underrated.
And yes I acknowledge the 'fetch-ness' of the moniker Scar-Jo 3:16', but i'm too hard to resist right now!