American Link Story

Playlist Adam McKay (The Big Short) planning a Dick Cheney biopic which may star Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Steve Carell
LA Times comedian Don Rickles has died at 90
Vulture Interesting observations: blockbuster filmmakers are making the same single parent family drama inbetween their visual fx movies
Movie City News on the tired false notion that 'movie stars don't matter anymore' in terms of box office which we're seeing a lot of post Ghost in the Shell opening and which we see every time a star driven movie fails essentially. Movie stars obviously do still matter but the economics of movies are always changing.

/Film in this week's strangest news: Actor/Hunk Joe Mangianello has written a Dungeons & Dragons movie
Washington Post another 'Nicole Kidman is awesome and always has been' essay. Glad we're getting a wave of these but kind of annoyed that people haven't taken our word for it all these years ;) 
Billboard Adele's "21" album from 2011 just broke a record long held by Carole King's "Tapestry"
IndieWire ranks the top 14 female action stars. The top three are unassailably major (Jolie, Johansson, Theron) but the list gets weird and debatable thereafter even including Cara Delevigne who's not yet headlined an action film at #14
Yahoo American Crime Story's Versace murder cast keeps growing and it's always celebrities. Ricky Martin has signed on as Versace's longtime partner Antonio D'Amico
Telegraph Stage star and sometime screen actor Tim Pigott-Smith has died at 70. Screen credits include V For Vendetta, Downton Abbey, and The Jewel in the Crown (BAFTA award)
Variety Angelina Jolie rumored to be buying a $25 million estate (less than two miles from Brad Pitt's home) that used to belong to Cecil B DeMille 
EW Alexander Skarsgård worries he won't get work after Big Little Lies because Perry was such a monster 

P.S. A follow up yesterday's "on this day" post. VOTE!

For his birthday, What's Francis Ford Coppola's greatest creation

— Nathaniel Rogers (@nathanielr) April 7, 2017

P.P.S. Have you begun thinking of the Emmy race yet?

We're still in the eligibility period and the nominating doesn't begin until early June but the campaigning has already begun in force for many shows, both Emmy darlings and other.

Last nights #FYC for #crazyexgirlfriend was #bonkerballs As if performing live with our cast and having our creatives, executives, writers and casting director there wasn't enough of a love fest, we even got these swanning tote bags WITH Season 2 soundtrack CD!! 😮🎁🎉 #TotesTotes #ILoveSwagBags #TeamCrazy #crazyexfyc

A post shared by Vincent Rodriguez III (@vrodrigueziii) on Apr 6, 2017 at 10:25am PDT

It must be frustrating to be on great TV shows that the television Academy ignores. History has shown that they don't change course unless they're basically forced to which they will be this year at least in one category: Best Drama Series has a single new opening since Game of Thrones isn't eligible for the very first time. The Emmys would be so much more exciting, and frankly mean a lot more, if the nominations were done by special committees forced to watch a bunch of things. Imagine if the nominations actually shifted per season depending on quality. All series have ups and downs! 

The 16 Greatest Music Videos of '16

Every day, different angles on a 2016 wrap up. Tonight Nathaniel with the year's best musical short films...

It's true. They're more commonly referred to as "Music Videos" but since they have their roots in the Movie Musical, we think of them as short film descendants of that greatest of film genres. Music videos, which exploded so spectacularly in the 1980s with the dawn of MTV but experienced something like a midlife death rather than crisis, when MTV dropped the music part of music television, have roared back to life in the past decade with YouTube Vimeo and other saviors. The medium is alive and well and arguably healthier than ever (until the next platform crisis at least).

Though Beyonce's Lemonade dominated the conversation, 2016 actually produced a remarkable number of musical shorts that one might include under the umbrella of "Women Gone Wild," a subgenre equal parts political, erotic, and psychological...

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Grammy Nominees... As They Relate to Movies, Theater, and TV

Nominations have been announced for the 59th annual Grammy Awards honoring the year in music (sort of.. their timelines can be very confusing). More than any of the other big 4 awards shows (Tonys, Emmys, Oscars) Grammy nods are largely based on financial success so it's usually the superstars in the major categories and that's true again this year with Beyoncé leading with 9 nominations and other superstars not far behind. The surprise this year was country star Sturgill Simpson (A Sailor's Guide to Earth) sharing the most coveted category "Album of the Year" category with Beyoncé (Lemonade), Adele (25), Justin Beiber (Purpose), and Drake (Views).

Adele's "25" is so great. But if she loses everything she can console herself with her 10 previous Grammys

But since the Grammys have over 80 categories (we are not exaggerating) here at TFE we just focus on those in which film, tv, or stage types are in play. i.e. the ones that can  sometimes lead to EGOTing are after the jump.

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Beauty Break: Adele Covers Vanity Fair

Chris here with some diva worship - nothing like detoxing from the spooky excess of Halloween with something truly otherwordly. Before she (likely) earns another heap of grammy nominations for her third album 25, Adele is on the December cover of Vanity Fair.

Per her hilariously glib usual, Adele gives great quote in the interview, off-the-cuff with everything from her post-partem depression to money to finding levity in a tour of "miserable" songs. And the buried gem of the article is her aspiration to play Mama Rose "like when I'm 50."

I mean, with combined powers her voice, chutzpah, and intensity: why not? After all, Adele is a likely future EGOT - an Oscar for Skyfall, 10 Grammys (and counting) and an Emmy nomination already on the books, so Tony could easily be in the cards for her songwriting or this Gypsy pipe dream. In fact, it's a little surprising her sense of humor hasn't yet brought her some comedic bit part or sketch piece - she'd have been a hoot in the string of cameos in last summer's Ab Fab movie!

Take a look at the gorgeousness from the photo spread:

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...About Those Oscar Musical Numbers.

Dancin' Dan here to talk about what used to be my favorite part of the Oscar ceremony.

Remember those gigantic, often-confounding production numbers set to the nominees for Best Original Song? They were crazy, ambitious, and compulsively watchable, bring levity to the alternately serious and teary acceptance speeches that usually dominate Oscar ceremonies. Even the times they just had a person stand there and sing, those moments seemed chosen because the songs were sung by a superstar who could easily fill the whole room with just their presence and incredible voice*. Unfortunately, those kinds of performances seem to have fallen out of vogue. Barring the odd actressexual dance party and Lego-fest, the days of crazy musical extravaganzas on the Oscars are long-gone. And I would argue the show as a whole is a less joyous, celebratory affair without them. For proof, look at this year's performances.

Set aside for now the fact that two of the best nominees didn't even get a performance slot, and let's take this year's performances on their merits. They were, for the most part, DULL.  Herewith, a few thoughts on each...

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