Showbiz History: Meg & Dennis, Clarice & Hannibal, Wayne & Garth

6 random things that happened on this day, February 14th, in showbiz history...

1931 Tod Browning's Dracula starring Bela Lugosi arrives in US theaters, two days after its NYC premiere. The studio wisely publicized that people had fainted at the premiere and the movie was a huge success. Sequels and spin-offs and endless remakes or, rather, adaptations of the Bram Stoker source material follow...

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Months of Meryl: Postcards from the Edge (1990)

John and Matthew are watching every single live-action film starring Meryl Streep. 

 

 #17 —Suzanne Vale, a recovering drug addict and B-list actress of royal Hollywood pedigree.

MATTHEW: It has always been impossible to escape the metatextual associations of Carrie Fisher’s Postcards from the Edge, which really means it has always been impossible to escape the shared history of two artists: Fisher and her famous mother, Debbie Reynolds, a relationship that is the very bedrock of Fisher’s 1987 novel and Mike Nichols’ subsequent screen adaptation. To watch the latter now, in a world without Fisher or Reynolds, is an experience of unavoidable and indescribable bittersweetness. It helps, however, that Fisher confronted even the most harrowing episodes of her lifelong addiction with a sly, battle-ready smirk and a tart tongue, which always ensured that she — and she alone — would get the last word. On the screen, Postcards from the Edge remains a salty, joyous, yet tough-minded immersion within the rocky recovery of its Fisher-like heroine, Suzanne Vale, and a prickly heartwarmer that continually confuses our inclinations towards laughter or tears.

This is largely because of Fisher, whose hysterical one-liners are an art form unto themselves. Consider, for a moment, that such gems as “Do you always talk in bumper stickers?” and “Instant gratification takes too long” and “What am I supposed to do, go to a halfway house for wayward SAG actors?” are all spoken within the first 20 minutes of the movie, and there are plenty more where those came from...

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Dennis Quaid Still Has "The Right Stuff"

by Nathaniel R

Dennis Quaid as "Gordon Cooper" in THE RIGHT STUFF (1983)

Have you noticed how many movie stars are doing audiobooks these days? (I have a friend who keeps raving about Armie Hammer's reading of Call Me By Your Name.) But it's not just current movies with complimentary audiobooks. There's a new audiobook out this week for Tom Wolfe's 1979 nonfiction bestseller "The Right Stuff" about the astronauts of the Mercury Space Program in the 1940s and 1950s. Dennis Quaid is doing the audiobook honors this time and he famously co-starred in that book's Oscar-favored adaptation in 1983.  The Right Stuff (1983) won four craft Oscars in its year (splitting the below-the-line prizes with Ingmar Bergman's Fanny & Alexander) and if you haven't seen it you really should. It's quite good.

Here's a little bit of Dennis's familiar comfy gravel voice reading the book... sadly it's not a scene about his character but a scene involving Fred Ward's character Gus Grissom.

A steamy day in movie history

on this day (August 28th) in showbiz-related history, things get sweaty and hot hot hot... time to rub lemons all over our bare bodies.

1980 The 37th annual Venice Film Festival kicks off. The Golden Lion that year will prove to be a tie (!) with Atlantic City, starring Susan Sarandon and her lemons, and Gloria  splitting the top prize. Atlantic City will go on to five Oscar nominations including Best Picture

1981 Kathleen Turner and William Hurt do filthy things to each other in the window smashingly erotic Body Heat brand new in theaters on this day.

1987 Dennis Quaid fingers Ellen Barkin in The Big Easy  new in theaters. The orgasm is so explosive it rockets both careers to the next level instanteously.

1998 54, legendarily butchered in the editing room, attempts to chart the bisexual opportunist antics of Ryan Phillipe in his twink god years.

2009 Taking Woodstock opens in theaters with Emile Hirsch in his naked hippie mode and an early screen appearance by Jonathan Groff's crazy seductive bedroom eyes.

2014 Blake Lively attacked by bees!

Happy Birthday to Them!
Oscar Nominees: David Fincher, Quvenzhané Wallis
More Shiny Talents: Armie Hammer, Jennifer Coolidge, Jack Black, Jason Priestley, Daniel Stern, Luis Guzman, Billy Boyd, and Ai Weiwei
Les Chanteuses: Florence Welch, Shania Twain, LeAnn Rimes
Departed but Amazing: Artist Jack Kirby (how proud would he be of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?), genius cinematographer James Wong Howe, author Leo Tolstoy, actor Ben Gazzara, actress Helen Hayes, actor Vladimir Ivashov (BAFTA nominated star of a great Russian film Ballad of a Soldier)

Who Wore It Best? Todd Haynes Edition

For Carol Week, all I, Dancin' Dan, would like to talk about, is the men. 

Well, the man. That would be Kyle Chandler as The Husband, Harge Aird.

He delivers wonderful supporting work that should be garnering awards attention. But all I've been thinking about since seeing him with his slicked-back hair and 50s-style tailored suits is.... well, another man.

THAT man would be Dennis Quaid, who played The Husband in Haynes's other 1950s melodrama masterpiece, Far From Heaven.

Quaid also delivered a wonderful supporting performance that should had gotten more awards attention, and he looked perhaps the best he has ever looked (quite a feat) in Sandy Powell's luxe costumes and era-appropriate slicked-back hair.

So with all that said, WHO WORE IT BEST?