Happy Birthday Doris Day!
Posted on April 3, 2016 at 1:39 pm
Happy 92nd birthday to one of my favorite movie stars, Doris Day!
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Dame Judi Dench and Shakespeare: Exits and Entrances
Posted on April 3, 2016 at 8:00 am
Is there a better combination than Dame Judi Dench and William Shakespeare? In honor of the 400th anniversary of the death of the greatest writer in the history of the English language, one of the premiere actresses of our time is releasing a new CD called Exits & Entrances: Celebration of Shakespeare
Dame Judi performs some of her favorite selections from the Bard’s works, including the classic “When in Disgrace With Fortune and Men’s Eyes” and “Let Me Not to the Marriage of True Minds.” She is joined by David Suchet (best known in the US as Hercule Poirot), and Dench’s late brother Jeffery, a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, well-known for his powerfully-intoned Shakespeare roles, who adds a contrastingly robust tone, and Oliver Dench, grandson of Jeffery, who recently did a one-man “Hamlet.” On the 24 tracks, the stars each perform well-known snippets from Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, The Tempest, The Merchant of Venice, Richard III, and As You Like It, as well as sonnet selections.
Can You Spot the Future Stars in these PBS Shows?
Posted on April 2, 2016 at 3:06 pm
Mental Floss has a great round-up of early appearances by stars from Ben Affleck to Sarah Jessica Parker, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Keaton as they made their first screen appearances on PBS shows for kids.
The Movie-Making Families of Two Stars of “Everybody Wants Some!!”
Posted on March 31, 2016 at 8:00 am
The attractive young cast of Richard Linklater’s new film, “Everybody Wants Some!!” includes two actors who come from Hollywood families. Wyatt Russell, best known for “22 Jump Street,” plays a transfer student. He is the son of Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell.
And Zoey Deutch, who plays a drama student, is the daughter of Lea Thompson (“Back to the Future” and the television series “Switched at Birth”) and director Howard Deutch (“Pretty in Pink” and episodes of “True Blood,” “American Horror Story,” and “Jane the Virgin”).
She played Maya in The Suite Life on Deck and co-starred with her mother and sister in the cute film Mayor Cupcake
Tribute: Patty Duke
Posted on March 29, 2016 at 4:31 pm
We mourn the loss of Oscar-winner Patty Duke, who played the part of the blind and deaf child Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, first on the Broadway stage and then on film. Her discovery of language as the water from the pump poured over her hand, is one of the most memorable scenes in the history of film. Her autobiography, Call Me Anna, told the harrowing story of how her unstable mother essentially turned her over at age seven to talent managers who were explotive and abusive. Her name was Anna, but they decided Patty was more suitable. They pushed her, drilled, her, controlled every minute of her time and everything she wore and said. They also gave her alcohol and pills, abused her, and stole the money she earned. The book was adapted as a movie for television and she played herself as an adult.
She was fierce and fearless as Helen Keller.
In a remake, she played Annie Sullivan, opposite Melissa Gilbert as Helen.
As a young woman, the managers had her playing identical cousins in a silly but very popular sitcom.
She left her squeeky-clean image behind by playing a drug-addicted singing star in the trashy Valley of the Dolls.
She later developed substance abuse problems and was diagnosed as bipolar at age 35. She co-wrote a book about mental illness and became an advocate for destigmatizing mental disorders and for her fellow actors as the head of the Screen Actors Guild.
May her memory be a blessing.