The Eternal Hotness of Paul Newman

Before our next Centennial celebration begins (Robert Altman) here's one last ode to the late great Paul Newman, born in 1925

by Baby Clyde

Happy belated centenary to my Golden Age Hollywood husband Paul Newman. My esteemed colleagues here at The Film Experience have been busy over the last few weeks lauding the man for his impressive career, full of era defining performances and classic films with legendary directors. I’m going to lower the tone somewhat for this finale and talk about the thing that matters most. He is really, really HOT!

It’s the impossibly high cheek bones that swoop down into a prominent nose off set by the surprisingly full lips and cheeky, boyish grin that can turn wolfish all within the same smile. And then there are of course the heart melting, ice blue eyes. It’s as if Technicolor was invented specifically for them. How we all would have missed out had his heyday been in the B/W era...

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Ranking the two-time Best Actress winners

by Baby Clyde

Hilary Swank accepts her second Best Actress Oscar at the 77th Academy Awards.

To celebrate the 50th birthday of two-time Best Actress winner Hilary Swank, I've decided to rank all of the double champs in everyone's favorite category. It's a list of all-time greats, but the performances range from the sublime to the truly Dangerous. They are being judged solely on the performance, but I may be somewhat swayed if they beat out more deserving nominees or didn't win for their best work. I do not include those overachieving triple and quadruple recipients (Kate, Frances, Meryl, and Ingrid) who don't need any more attention. So, with a hearty Happy Birthday to the birthday girl, let's see how our Million Dollar Baby stacks up against her second-time sisters…

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Stanley Donen @100: The Most Charming Speech of All Time

by Baby Clyde

With their increasingly bizarre choices and lamentable decision to move recipients from the main telecast, long gone are the days when the Academy’s Honorary Awards made any cultural impact. We’re all the losers, because not only did truly deserving legends of the industry being belated rewarded give deep satisfaction to the Oscar nerds at home, from an ailing Myrna Loy and triumphant Charlie Chaplin to a sprightly Lillian Gish and a regal Deborah Kerr, they created some of the most memorable and moving moments in Academy history.

None more so than the man who celebrates his centenary yesterday, Stanley Donen. The master of the movie musical was unaccountably never nominated for a competitive Oscar during his illustrious career but took his opportunity at the 70th Annual Academy awards to give the most charming speech of all time...

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A Memorial for "In Memorium"

One last piece on an individual moment from Oscar night?

by Baby Clyde

They couldn’t have started off the In Memoriam segment of the 96th Annual Academy Awards, in a more sober fashion. Recently assassinated Russian opposition leader and subject of last year's Best Documentary winner Alexei Navalny appears on screen, speaking directly to the audience. It’s a bold, surprising opener, somewhat at odds with the slick, professional and ever so slightly dull show that made up the rest of the runtime. This grim reminder of a world outside the Hollywood bubble gives absolutely no indication of the calamitous 4 minutes we're about to endure...

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Oscar Completism: Best & Worst of Supporting Actor

by Baby Clyde

Walter Brennan in "The Westerner". The last of his three wins was the most deserving.

After spending most of my life cataloguing all these Oscar winning performances, I feel uniquely qualified to bore you all with my rankings. We’ll cover my favourite winners before handing out some booby prizes to the all-time worst recipients in each acting category. 

Let’s start with the category that nobody cares about, Best Supporting Actor...

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