Showbiz History: Lady Godiva, RMS Titanic, and a Good Girl Gone Bad

15 random things that happened on this day, May 31st, in history as it relates to showbiz...

1279BC Ramasses II becomes Pharoah in ancient egypt. He grows up to look like Yul Brynner in the 1950s. yum. 

1057 Lady Godiva takes a naked ride. 898 years later Maureen O'Hara fills her shoes...er... saddle (she weren't wearing no shoes) in an G-rated wig in Lady Godiva of Coventry (1955)

1790 President George Washington signed the first US copyright act into law...

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"Ocean's Eight" Awaits

Chris here. While the world is continually bad, one of our sustaining mantras has been the promise of female ensemble heisting with Ocean's 8. The main refrain of this meditation / mindfulness exercise is obviously its stars - say their names with me and feel renewed: Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Rihanna, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, and Awkwafina.

Well done.

We've got a new poster and a photo of the assembled crew to distract ourselves, but even this is just a hint of the fun to come (you can expect a trailer to come very soon, impatient readers). Bullock will be playing Danny Ocean's equally conning sister Debbie, so the opportunity remains for some fun crossover with Steven Soderbergh's trilogy. The film's big heist will take place during the Met Gala and juicy cameos should be expected. Ocean's 12 already made a "Julia Roberts pretending to be Julia Roberts" gag, but it would be amusing to revamp the bit here. Rihanna is queen of the Met Gala, after all.

But our new looks are decidedly less fussy than that red carpet extravaganza, with the poster giving us coats and shades mystique and the image below has the team mid-planning. What is Debbie Ocean's octad looking at in their projector? The endless news cycle? Something from the screener pile? The trailer they're keeping from us? Hmmmm.

Five Lessons Learned from Valerian

By Spencer Coile 

Although Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is not particularly good (see Dan's review), it is at least somewhat fascinating. Luc Besson's world-building is admirable if bloated, and there is definitely a lot of thought behind the action. It would be easy to detail all of the film's shortcomings but instead, let's talk takeaways.

Five Notes on Valerian

01. Laureline really knows Valerian's name
You could turn the number of times Laureline says Valerian's name in one scene into a very dangerous drinking game. In every line she utters she repeats his name in case we've forgotten it or the film's title. The film's title was initially Valerian and Laureline and was later changed to Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. It's not enough that the demoted Laureline must say Valerian's name constantly, but must bombard us with his importance, too...

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Soundtracking: "American Honey"

NEW SERIES ALERT: Chris Feil will be talking soundtracks and music in movies every Wednesday! The first installment is on last year's Cannes winner American Honey:

Last year at Cannes, Andrea Arnold won her third Jury Prize for American Honey. The film follows Star (breakthrough star Sasha Lane), an Oklahoma teenager who leaves her rural life to sell magazines with a van full of forgotten youths. It’s a compassionate and condemning road movie, Arnold using music to provide a distorted reflection of the limits of the American Dream. You wouldn’t immediately think of Honey as defined by its soundtrack, but it is in so many rich ways.

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The Movie That Twitter Made Happen

Chris here. Remember a few weeks back when this tweet referencing Rihanna and Lupita Nyong'o made the rounds and gave us all a good delighted gasp?:

Rihanna looks like she scams rich white men and lupita is the computer smart best friend that helps plan the scans https://t.co/PhWs1xd3nj

— WHOOPHERASSKOURTNI (@1800SADGAL) April 18, 2017

The fun continued as Lupita and Rihanna chimed in with their enthusiasm, bringing along multi-hyphenate talents Ava DuVernay and Insecure’s Issa Rae. Well, it wasn't just playful chatter between celebs over Twitter - this project just became real...

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