Beauty vs Beast: Queen Anne's Choice

Happy Oscar Nominations Eve, everybody! Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" which this week shall tackle one of the probable juggernauts nomination-wise tomorrow, or so we hope -- Yorgos Lanthimos' giddily profane The Favourite boasts a triumverate for the ages, with Queen Anne (Olivia Colman) sitting astride two wars, the more interesting one between her comely, craven subjects Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) and cousin Abagail (Emma Stone). Everybody's predicting richkly deserved nominations for all three (while simultaneously bickering about their Lead vs Supporting placement) but we're more interested where you'd come down from Queen Anne's place...

bike trail guide

PREVIOUSLY Last week you guys wisely took Joan's advice and didn't fuck with her, fellas - Faye Dunaway's stark-raving turn in Mommie Dearest trampled through the roses to a win of just under 80%. Said Roger:

"I love MOMMIE DEAREST. In terms of Oscar eligibility, Faye Dunaway absolutely should have won the Oscar. Her performance is incredible and almost experimental. I think this is a rare example where the overused remark of losing one’s self in a role is warranted. The line between Faye Dunaway and Joan Crawford is blurred beyond distinction. Both actresses are so enthralling that seeing one as the other, Dunaway as Crawford, is so electrifying it borders on hyperreality."

Globe Fashions Pt 2: Regal Queen, Colman's Bitches, and Daring Men

In part one of our fashion review, we marvelled at Julia Roberts pants, while wondering what mischief Melissa McCarthy was up to. We also loved the Wakanda women and Nicole Kidman (which probably goes without saying at this point). Shockingly Lady Gaga underwhelmed and Amy Adams seemed to have inside knowledge about her impending double loss. Here's part two!

Penélope & Patty

NATHANIEL:  Let's talk Patricia Clarkson

MURTADA:  So much drama! I loved the pink strands that showed as she moved. 

NATHANIEL: It was subtle but like a flash of mystery under the danger of the red. I was gaga for it... sorry Gaga...

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NYFF: Olivia, Rachel, and Emma in "The Favourite"

Nathaniel reporting from the New York Film Festival

"Bunnies aren't just cute like everyone supposes," the vengeance demon Anya famously sang on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and you should know straightaway that she would absolutely recoil at The Favourite, which is filled with bunnies, even as she might well relate to the brutal practicalities of the social maneuvering between the servant Abigail (Emma Stone) and her cousin Lady Sarah (Rachel Weisz) for the Queen's affections. Yet the two things, bunnies and favouritism, are inextricably linked.

Queen Anne's (Olivia Colman) chambers are filled with bunnies, seventeen to be precise, each named after one of her miscarried or stillborn babies. She would very much like her favourite Lady, whoever it is, to fawn on them...

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Showbiz History: Sophia's Proxy Wedding, Emma's "Easy A"

7 random things that happened on this day, September 17th, in showbiz history...

1931 Anna Maria Louisa Italiano born in The Bronx. She's goes on to become Anne Bancroft, one of the all time greats of stage and screen.

← 1957 Here's a truly odd bit of trivia. Sophia Loren was married by proxy on this day. Two male attorneys stood in for her and producer Carlo Ponti (who gave her stage name and groomed her public image -- they first met in 1950 when Sophia was only 16). Ponti was not legally divorced from his previous wife so the marriage was annulled to escape bigamy charges and then they married again in 1966, but legally this time; they remained married for the rest of his life! But how crazy, right?

1963 The Fugitive premieres on ABC...

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Red Carpet Lineup: 26 Venice Lewks

Having previously covered those pink pink pink first days in Venice, on to some other memorable looks (and a few actresses included just because we like to look at them...)

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