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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Books @ the Movies: Chita Rivera on "West Side Story"

by Nathaniel R

Memoir alert! For those of you who love showbiz biographies, take note that "Chita: A Memoir" is now on sale. The legendary dancer and multiple Tony winner Chita Rivera, turned 90 earlier this year. She was spurred to write the memoir (with the help of Patrick Pacheco) during the pandemic when there was so much down time.

Rivera and Pacheco are smart and know to drop the goods immediately; The very first chapter is on how she landed the legend-making role of "Anita" in Broadway's original incarnation of West Side Story... aka the greatest musical ever written. "Anita" is one of those roles. If you deliver, your career will never be the same again (just ask Rita Moreno and Ariana DeBose) but it all started with Chita.

Having just started the book, we can't speak to how often the memoir will return to the iconic musical but we wanted to share a couple of tidbits...

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2022 Chita Rivera Winners

We told you back in May that the Chita Rivera Awards, which hadn't been held since 2019, would be back for 2022. The nominations were a mix of both the 2020 and 2022 Broadway seasons as well as the 2021 film year. In short, COVID-19 really did a number on all awards shows, no matter how niche! After the jump the winners (and nominees) of this prize honoring dancers and choreographers in movies and on stage.

OUTSTANDING CHOREOGRAPHY FOR A THEATRICAL RELEASE

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West Side Story... is forever.

by Nathaniel R

Rita Moreno, still sensational at 88 years young.It occurred to us last week while looking at photos from Steven Spielberg's 2020 remake of West Side Story that a huge swath of the original cast members from the 1961 Best Picture winner are still with us today. It's not just the legendary trailblazer Rita Moreno though she's the liveliest of the bunch despite being the oldest at a spritely 88. 

So after the jump all the surviving cast members!

We honor their contributions to an indelible piece of film history even though there are a great many of them that didn't say in movies thereafter. Anyway, thiis is us doing our small part to suggest and hope that they get a bit of attention when the new iteration of the greatest musical ever written arrives. Invite them to the December premiere at least, Spielberg, won'tcha?

Here they are...

Character names in white = the actor is still with us today

THE JETS

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There's a link in my soup

This is Just My Face is on sale nowNPR Gabourey Sidibe has a book out, now "This is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare" (great title). It's about her rise to fame, body image, and being confused with her fame-making character in Precious which she finds both frustrating and powerful
Time Out New York publishes its own TONY* nominations. Get it, their initials are TONY. Not to be confused with the actual Tony Award nominations which are due tomorrow to honor the best of Broadway. Consider this their "should be nominated" article
The Retro Set looks at the new documentary Mifune: The Last Samurai, narrated by Keanu Reeves, and now available to stream on Netflix. Can't wait to watch this. 

Deadline republished an interesting history of the making of Silence of the Lambs. I didn't know that the project started with Gene Hackman who was going to direct and star. 
Variety shared a really good interview with Geena Davis. I love what she says about the gender neutral movement with some awards bodies, combining male and female actors into the same category. It's a terrible idea and Geena eloquently explains why
Playbill Chita Rivera flashes back to her West Side Story audition in the 1950s, the show that put her on the map
Awards Daily looks at the prospects for Limited Series Actor... a far more shallow field than its Actress counterpart this year but at least that means its looking good for Riz Ahmed and Ewan McGregor
Playbill Come From Away, a new Broadway musical that's expected to do very well in tomorrow's Tony nominations, is getting its own documentary feature called Come From Away: From Gander to Broadway. It's the true story of a group of strangers diverted into a small town after the 9/11 terrorist attacks grounded airplanes.

Finally...
Interview has Kate Hudson interview her mom Goldie Hawn. It starts enjoyably silly and familial but gets deep into "mindfulness." Goldie is almost back onscreen (Snatched) after a 15 year retirement (that they're somehow calling a "hiatus"). Love this bit about how therapy (which she started around the time of Laugh-In) helped her keep sane despite becoming a household name in her early 20s:

I realized that the way people see me, as a star, has nothing to do with me. It's like a Rorschach test, like I am something they can identify with, learn to love, learn to hate, learn to resent ... but I gave it back to them. So if somebody said to me, "Oh, I love you!"—that makes me happy to see them happy, but I wouldn't take it in as something that builds my ego. And that's how I stabilized myself. 

Have a lovely Monday, everyone. How do you plan to "stabilize" yourself this week?