Hollywood’s Classic Scandals

Posted on October 14, 2012 at 8:00 am

Thanks to Slate film critic Dana Stevens for recommending Hairpin’s Hollywood Scandals series on the indispensable Slate Culture Gabfest, one of my favorite podcasts. The scandals seem juicy and glamorous (because they involved movie stars and happened a long time ago) not tawdry (because they involve faux-lebrities who appear on reality shows). Anne Helen Peterson writes about the woman best known for portraying a decadent former star in “Sunset Boulevard” — and for her affair with Joseph Kennedy, father of the future President:

Gloria Swanson wasn’t here to make friends. She wasn’t “just like us.” She didn’t take out the garbage or “wear cotton” or go to the bathroom. Lady had a gold-plated bathtub. She married a Marquis. She was 4’11,” wore a 2 ½ in shoes, and had a waist approximately the size of my neck. She looked most beautiful when frowning. And for a period in the 1920s, she was the biggest star in the world.

There are articles about Warren Beatty, Sir Laurence Olivier, Katherine Hepburn’s Trousers, and many more.

Related Tags:

Internet, Gaming, Podcasts, and Apps

Makers: Stories About Women

Posted on October 4, 2012 at 8:00 am

Makers is an “historic video initiative features exclusive access to trailblazing women – both known and unknown.” In other words, it is a website with a fascinating series of peeks into the lives of extraordinary women, from groundbreakers like Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, CNN’s Christine Amanpour, author Judy Blume, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to performers like television legend Carol Burnett, indy darling Cat Power, “Star Trek’s” Nichelle Nichols, and Emmy, Tony, Oscar, and Grammy-winner Rita Moreno. Women from business (Martha Stewart, eBay’s Meg Whitman, Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg), sports (surfer Bethany Hamilton, tennis star Billie Jean King, basketball coach Vivian Stringer), and

These interviews are the basis for a documentary MAKERS: Women Who Make America, the story of the women’s movement through the firsthand accounts of the leaders, opponents, and trailblazers who created a new America in the last half-century.

The Credits — New Website from MPAA

Posted on September 20, 2012 at 8:00 am

The Motion Picture Association has a fabulous new website called The Credits with trailers, features, and background information about movies and the people who make them. You can watch an interview with “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and The Up Series director Michael Apted or take a trivia quiz on 3D, hear about upcoming releases, extraordinary venues for watching movies, or even some insights into the way movies are marketed. Be sure to follow them on Twitter at @thecredits.

9/11 Television Archive

Posted on September 11, 2012 at 8:00 am

The Internet Archive has assembled a comprehensive resources on 9/11 and the way the terrorist attacks were covered by the media. It will be an essential resource for students and scholars who want to understand the way the events unfolded and how national security, law enforcement, first responders, government, and media worked to understand what had happened and develop a response.

Happy Anniversary Star Trek — From Google

Posted on September 7, 2012 at 3:57 pm

Be sure to check out Google’s adorable tribute today to the original Star Trek. Entertainment Weekly

spoke to Ryan Germick, who headed up this particular Google Doodle, about Star Trek’s pop-culture significance. “We often talk at Google about how awesome it would be to talk to a computer and get exactly what you want and have that kind of engagement, where the computer just knows all , and that’s what we’re moving toward,” Germick said. “Other than that, it just seemed like a perfect fit. There are so many Star Trek fans, myself included, it seemed like such a fun thing to celebrate.”

If you click on each of the little arrows, you will find all of the ingenious surprises tucked inside by the devoted fans at Google.