Oscar Trivia: Three Nominated Actresses

By Ben Miller

I'm sure you've already read Nathaniel's awesome breakdown of the films with double acting nominations.  I love that specific type of Oscar trivia.  Along those same lines, what if all three West Side Story's actresses all end up nominated?  How many times has a film nominated three actresses from the same film?  Not very often.  But that wasn't always the case.

The Supporting categories were added in 1936 and it only took three years for the first three-actress set of nominees.  Both Vivien Leigh and Hattie McDaniel won Oscars, while Olivia de Havilland earned a nomination for Gone with the Wind. That 1939 triple set off a trend...

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NYFF: The sad, strange, incomplete "French Exit"

by Nathaniel R

Frances Price, the soon to be impoverished widow at the center of French Exit alarms everyone around her and puts them on edge. She will just not cooperate. Neither will Michelle Pfeiffer, the actress playing her, for that matter. Rather than dance around it, let's just state the conundrum up front. When you're watching your favourite actor star in a potential comeback role based on a book you've grown deeply fond of and have already visualized as a movie in your head, the conflicts between expectations and reality and dreams can be impossible to mediate. And disconcerting, too. You've got to watch the movie for the movie but also work through your own external actress-related issues while doing so.

I obsess over Michelle Pfeiffer, okay?! There's no avoiding it and little point not foregrounding it in this review. Complete strangers know this about me...

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Lana Turner. Because movie stars need love, too.

We've been celebrating 1957 these past few weeks. Please welcome our new contributor Baby Clyde...

Lana turner in "Peyton Place" and the closest she came to Oscar - presenting Red Buttons with his that same year

After nearly two decades as a topflight Hollywood star Lana Turner finally grabbed Oscar’s attention for her performance as the uptight mother Constance Mackenzie in the smash hit 1957 soap opera Peyton Place. It was to be their only serious encounter. Nobody argues that Lana was a great actress but by god was she a great Movie Star. Maybe the greatest of all in my estimation. There is no one in film history who ticks so many boxes or encapsulates so many Hollywood tropes and clichés. 

Young Judy Turner went to Hollywood High School before literally being discovered at a soda counter by the editor of the Hollywood Reporter at age 16 (See how many times I’ve used the word ‘Hollywood’ already).  Now named ‘Lana’ she made one of the most iconic debuts in movie history as the ill-fated murder victim in They Won’t Forget (1937) and was dubbed "The Sweater Girl" for the way her ample charms filled out said item of clothing...

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Happy birthday to all our Gemini readers!

by Nathaniel R

Today is my birthday! I don't want anything this year beyond these three things. 1) Safety and continued stamina for all the Black Lives Matter protestors. 2) Good health and continued stamina for the essential workers and anyone battling COVID-19. And 3) Strategic genius and continued stamina for anyone involved in the upcoming elections who wants to right this ship and get that family of narcissist sociopaths and (just as importantly) their legion of enablers out of office. A big ask, I know, but if you dont ask for what u want, how u gonna get it? 

OH NO WAIT I DO WANT ONE MORE THING. FROM YOU.  In the comments please tell us the very first time you realized you loved an actress too much*.

Reading these over the weekend will surely put a huge smile on my face. Happy early or belated birthday to all you Geminis reading, too! Twin power!

* There is no such thing as "too much" but you know what I mean.

I Dream of... Ruby?

by Nathaniel R

"Ask her about Cold Mountain! Or who her favourite actors were as a child!" I pleaded with a certain Australian goddess. But this REM version of Nicole Kidmanwasn't cooperating. (We know it's considered dull to discuss dreams unsolicited but you'll forgive us when it involves subconscious actressexuality, won't you?)

You see, in my dream last night, Kidman had been asked to moderate a Renée Zellwegger tribute where very long clips were shown...

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