Tony Curtis, a wonderful American actor, whose formal schooling included mostly the "school of hard knocks," left us on September 29, at the age of 85, on the heels of Arthur Penn's passing the day before...
Debbie Reynolds told Larry King that Curtis "loved life" and that, what made him a great star is, "he had the 'it' thing... he had 'it'." http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/01/tony.curtis.memorial.service/index.html
Ironically, Jamie Lee Curtis spoke with Joy Behar about her father three weeks before his death. She said while he didn't raise her, that was no strike against him -- it's how it was done in those years after a couple separated. Her mother Janet Leigh and her father divorced, in 1962, when she was 3. And, before that he was away making one film after another. But, she said, "we've repaired it and we're good." http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/showbiz/2010/09/30/behar.jamie.lee.curtis.on.dad.hln
Right now, Turner Classic Movies is airing The Defiant Ones, a rare treat in which his serious, dramatic side was on full display... one of Tony's many films which TCM has been airing today in this moving 24 hour memorial tribute to him...
Until I get around to writing more about Tony, as a placeholder, here's the IMDb bio http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0000348/bio ... as well as the New York Times summary of his remarkable life... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/01/movies/01curtis.html ...
and some video clips of his most memorable films such as Some Like It Hot, Sweet Smell of Success, The Defiant Ones, and on the list goes... http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/tony-curtis-on-screen/?ref=movies
And, now, time to get down to the serious business of watching The Defiant Ones, which I never had the pleasure of seeing...
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Arthur Penn... and Patricia Neal...
RIP, Arthur Penn, film and theater directing genius... Here's the Wall Street Journal's blog# ... and the New York Times' obit... http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/30/movies/30penn.html ... http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/09/29/arts/20100930_Penn_slideshow.html?ref=movies ...
Amazingly, Penn died on Tuesday, September 28, the day after he turned 88...
Coincidentally, I just happened to be reading the chapter in Patricia Neal's book, As I Am, about her experience with Arthur Penn, last night about the time Penn died ...
"It was April in 1959," she opens, "when I heard from Arthur Penn, the director. He was casting William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, about the young Helen Keller. Everyone knew it was bound to be one of the biggest hits of the season and the vehicle of a lifetime for the actress who played Annie Sullivan, Helen's teacher... The only problem was, Arthur was not offering me that part... We were in rehearsal only a few days when Anne (Bancroft) and Arthur invited me for a drink. Arthur asked me quite candidly if I resented not playing the star role. I was equally candid. I admitted that I did, indeed, find it tough to step down, but I was trying my damnedest to do it graciously. They breathed sighs of relief. Both of them thanked me for being honest and assured me they knew how difficult it was. I can truthfully say that the fact that I adored Anne and Arthur helped..."
Patricia Neal, herself, died on August 8, 2010 at the age of 84... so, now they can continue the conversation!
See IMDbPro for complete list of his film & TV credits... http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0671957/
"He directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft, Estelle Parsons, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard and Chief Dan George. Duke, Bancroft and Parsons won Oscars for their performances in one of Penn's movies. Won Broadway's 1960 Tony Award as Best Director (Dramatic) for The Miracle Worker. He was also Tony-nominated two other times: in 1958 as Best Director for Two for the Seesaw and in 1961 as Best Director (Dramatic) for All the Way Home." IMDb
Amazingly, Penn died on Tuesday, September 28, the day after he turned 88...
Coincidentally, I just happened to be reading the chapter in Patricia Neal's book, As I Am, about her experience with Arthur Penn, last night about the time Penn died ...
"It was April in 1959," she opens, "when I heard from Arthur Penn, the director. He was casting William Gibson's The Miracle Worker, about the young Helen Keller. Everyone knew it was bound to be one of the biggest hits of the season and the vehicle of a lifetime for the actress who played Annie Sullivan, Helen's teacher... The only problem was, Arthur was not offering me that part... We were in rehearsal only a few days when Anne (Bancroft) and Arthur invited me for a drink. Arthur asked me quite candidly if I resented not playing the star role. I was equally candid. I admitted that I did, indeed, find it tough to step down, but I was trying my damnedest to do it graciously. They breathed sighs of relief. Both of them thanked me for being honest and assured me they knew how difficult it was. I can truthfully say that the fact that I adored Anne and Arthur helped..."
Patricia Neal, herself, died on August 8, 2010 at the age of 84... so, now they can continue the conversation!
See IMDbPro for complete list of his film & TV credits... http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0671957/
"He directed 8 different actors in Oscar-nominated performances: Patty Duke, Anne Bancroft, Estelle Parsons, Warren Beatty, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Michael J. Pollard and Chief Dan George. Duke, Bancroft and Parsons won Oscars for their performances in one of Penn's movies. Won Broadway's 1960 Tony Award as Best Director (Dramatic) for The Miracle Worker. He was also Tony-nominated two other times: in 1958 as Best Director for Two for the Seesaw and in 1961 as Best Director (Dramatic) for All the Way Home." IMDb
Thursday, August 5, 2010
"The Blind Side"...
A quick note about The Blind Side, which I happened to see on Friday, July 30, at Bethesda's Annual Summer Film Fest, "Stars on the Avenue," in the heart of this marvelous town, boasting the most restaurants per square feet of any locale in the country. It's an appropriate town to screen The Blind Side since, besides its progressive leanings, the father of the film's featured family was a successful restaurateur!
The film is based on a heartwarming true story about a family -- the Tuohy's from the Republican part of Memphis -- that adopts "Big Mike" (i.e., Mike Oher) from the Memphis projects and how, building on what his mother put into him, Michael is gradually transformed with education, encouragement and love, into a football star. This amazingly inspiring film is based on the book by Michael Lewis. And now I know why it won an Oscar (i.e., "Best Actress" for Sandra Bullock's performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy, who rescues Michael). http://abcnews.go.com/2020/BlindSide/
Last winter when I was getting friends together for Run-up to the Oscars movie get-togethers -- a tradition I began in 2003, when I organized the first one to cheer up a filmloving friend, suffering from Lou Gehrig's, who has since died -- we decided to see Crazy Heart, the film starring Jeff Bridges, instead of The Blind Side. Bridges, mirroring Bullock, was receiving all the awards for Best Actor (Golden Globes, SAG, etc.) And, now the picture is complete!
The film is based on a heartwarming true story about a family -- the Tuohy's from the Republican part of Memphis -- that adopts "Big Mike" (i.e., Mike Oher) from the Memphis projects and how, building on what his mother put into him, Michael is gradually transformed with education, encouragement and love, into a football star. This amazingly inspiring film is based on the book by Michael Lewis. And now I know why it won an Oscar (i.e., "Best Actress" for Sandra Bullock's performance as Leigh Anne Tuohy, who rescues Michael). http://abcnews.go.com/2020/BlindSide/
Last winter when I was getting friends together for Run-up to the Oscars movie get-togethers -- a tradition I began in 2003, when I organized the first one to cheer up a filmloving friend, suffering from Lou Gehrig's, who has since died -- we decided to see Crazy Heart, the film starring Jeff Bridges, instead of The Blind Side. Bridges, mirroring Bullock, was receiving all the awards for Best Actor (Golden Globes, SAG, etc.) And, now the picture is complete!
Sunday, May 30, 2010
"Letters to Juliet"...
What an amazing little film "Letters to Juliet" is.
It's about an American girl on vacation in Italy with her fiance, who finds an unanswered "letter to Juliet" -- one of thousands left at the fictional lovers' Verona courtyard, typically answered by "secretaries of Juliet." When she sets out to find the lovers referenced in the letter, the story unfolds in unimaginably satisfying ways.
Of course, with a $30M budget, you expect quality. But, Director Gary Winick has turned out a real beauty, relatable for both young and not so young lovers alike.
Amanda Seyfried as "Sophie" and Christopher Egan as "Charlie" are wonderful actors with great chemistry. And, Vanessa Redgrave as "Claire" is a delight, with her husband playing a surprise role.
Two thumbs up for "Letters to Juliet"!
For more, see http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0892318/...
It's about an American girl on vacation in Italy with her fiance, who finds an unanswered "letter to Juliet" -- one of thousands left at the fictional lovers' Verona courtyard, typically answered by "secretaries of Juliet." When she sets out to find the lovers referenced in the letter, the story unfolds in unimaginably satisfying ways.
Of course, with a $30M budget, you expect quality. But, Director Gary Winick has turned out a real beauty, relatable for both young and not so young lovers alike.
Amanda Seyfried as "Sophie" and Christopher Egan as "Charlie" are wonderful actors with great chemistry. And, Vanessa Redgrave as "Claire" is a delight, with her husband playing a surprise role.
Two thumbs up for "Letters to Juliet"!
For more, see http://pro.imdb.com/title/tt0892318/...
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Hollywood and the "war on terror"...
The apolitical manner in which American film is creatively reflecting and interpreting the "war on terror" bespeaks ambivalence about the war, A.O. Scott argued recently in the New York Times (below).
Much of this ambivalence can be traced to new cultural attitudes that blossomed starting in the 1960s, in the wake of the Vietnam War - a theme the film The Divided, about which I wrote http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/13/hollywoods-message-reconsidered/ , explored. Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH54Uz8S8Zo .
While it's a good thing that we think more critically about our nation's role in the world, it's a bad thing when trust is so eroded that suggesting heroic military acts are inspired by the desire to defend American freedoms and extend them to the world, is met with cynicism and even derision. But, the example set by our soldiers, whom Tom Brokaw calls the new greatest generation, is proving a powerful antidote, which filmmakers reflecting this phenomenon, apolitically or not, can't help but inject into the body politic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/weekinreview/07aoscott.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
February 5, 2010
Apolitics and the War Film
By A. O. SCOTT
Last Tuesday, the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences bestowed nine nominations on “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow’s nerve-racking, formally astonishing tour de force about a squad of United States Army bomb disposal specialists plying their hazardous trade in Baghdad.
After seven years in Iraq, eight in Afghanistan, and dozens of feature films touching — sometimes gingerly, sometimes allegorically — on both conflicts, this recognition seems both timely and overdue. At last, attention is being paid to a tough, uncompromising drama (which is also a doozy of an action movie) about the realities of combat on the ground.
Since its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, “The Hurt Locker” has been praised by critics for many things, including, frequently, its apolitical approach to the war. In interview after interview, Ms. Bigelow and the screenwriter, Mark Boal, whose experience as an embedded journalist in Baghdad informs much of the story, have insisted that the movie takes no position on the American mission in Iraq, restricting its focus to the men carrying out that mission.
Whether or not “The Hurt Locker” sustains this neutrality may be arguable, but the film’s intentions to stay out of messy debates about the wisdom or effectiveness of American military policy is perhaps the least distinctive thing about it. When it comes to current military engagements on the Asian landmass, Karl von Clausewitz’s assertion that war is “the continuation of politics by other means” is one memo — and perhaps one of the few clichés — that American filmmakers have largely chosen to ignore.
A few days before the Oscar nominations were announced, a jury at the Sundance Film Festival awarded a grand prize to “Restrepo,” a documentary directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger that follows an Army platoon through a dangerous year in a deadly part of Afghanistan. A directors’ statement on that film’s Web site, after noting that “the war in Afghanistan has become highly politicized,” defends the decision not to engage in political arguments in strong terms. The experiences of the soldiers, the directors write, “are important to understand, regardless of one’s political beliefs. Beliefs are a way to avoid looking at reality. This is reality.”
I have not seen “Restrepo,” and I am eager to encounter, in the safety of a screening room, the reality it depicts. But the claim that reality trumps any interpretation of it, and the implication that the unmediated, first-hand depiction of combat is the most authentic representation of war, are both debatable and familiar. The first important documentary about American troops in Iraq, Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein’s “Gunner Palace” — filmed in 2003, at the beginning of the insurgency that dominates “The Hurt Locker” — was similarly forceful in favoring immediate experience over ideological debate. And nearly every other feature since, documentary and fictional, has followed suit.
Last year, “Brothers” and “The Messenger,” two well-reviewed dramas about soldiers coming home, turned the experiential gulf between those who have seen combat and those who have stayed home into psychological and domestic drama. But while these movies were candid in showing the traumatic effects of battle on soldiers and their families, they were typically reticent about the meanings and implications of that trauma, and the filmmakers were typically vocal in denying any political agenda.
There have been some exceptions to this rule. Brian de Palma’s “Redacted” and Paul Haggis’s “In the Valley of Elah,” released in fall 2007, questioned the war in Iraq, one in anger and the other in sorrow and both with emphasis on the effects of the fighting on men in the field. Other films from that year, like Robert Redford’s “Lions for Lambs” and Gavin Hood’s “Rendition,” tried to dramatize debates then unfolding in the public sphere about the justice or prudence of American policy. None of these movies were particularly successful, either with audiences or in their earnest, cautious attempts to frame the issues of post-9/11 geopolitics.
It may be that movies, at least as they are currently made and consumed, can’t bridge the gulf between the theater of war and the arena of politics. It is also probably true that the soldiers who are the main characters in fictional and nonfictional war movies don’t talk much about the larger context in which they struggle to survive and get the job done. But in previous wars — in older war movies, that is — they could be a bit more forthcoming. Sailors and infantrymen in World War II combat pictures were known to wax eloquent about the pasting they were going to give Hitler and Tojo, while the grunts in the post-Vietnam Vietnam movies often gave voice to the cynicism and alienation that were part of that war’s actual and cinematic legacy.
But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are different. They are being fought, for one thing, largely out of sight of the American public and largely by an army of professionals. And the respect afforded those professionals — an admiration that is the most pervasive and persuasive aspect of “The Hurt Locker” — extends across the political spectrum. At the same time, though, the political contention about the wars themselves has been vociferous and endless, even as it has involved a measure of ambivalence and, as the wars have gone on, a lot of position-changing and second guessing.
Perhaps the decision to stay out of these debates is a way of acknowledging this ambivalence. Or perhaps filmmakers, aware of the volatility of popular opinion, are leery of turning off potential ticket buyers on one side or another. Or maybe, in the end, the gap between beliefs about war and its reality is too wide for any single movie to capture. Politics finds its way into films like “In the Loop,” Armando Iannucci’s scabrous satire of diplomatic back-stabbing (nominated for an adapted screenplay Oscar), and “No End in Sight,” Charles Ferguson’s meticulous documentary on the disastrous early stages of the Iraqi war. But the disconnection between the policy players in those movies and the guys in “The Hurt Locker” and “Restrepo” seems absolute. That may say more about reality than about the movies.
A. O. Scott is a film critic for The Times.
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Much of this ambivalence can be traced to new cultural attitudes that blossomed starting in the 1960s, in the wake of the Vietnam War - a theme the film The Divided, about which I wrote http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/13/hollywoods-message-reconsidered/ , explored. Here's the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GH54Uz8S8Zo .
While it's a good thing that we think more critically about our nation's role in the world, it's a bad thing when trust is so eroded that suggesting heroic military acts are inspired by the desire to defend American freedoms and extend them to the world, is met with cynicism and even derision. But, the example set by our soldiers, whom Tom Brokaw calls the new greatest generation, is proving a powerful antidote, which filmmakers reflecting this phenomenon, apolitically or not, can't help but inject into the body politic.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/07/weekinreview/07aoscott.html?ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
February 5, 2010
Apolitics and the War Film
By A. O. SCOTT
Last Tuesday, the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences bestowed nine nominations on “The Hurt Locker,” Kathryn Bigelow’s nerve-racking, formally astonishing tour de force about a squad of United States Army bomb disposal specialists plying their hazardous trade in Baghdad.
After seven years in Iraq, eight in Afghanistan, and dozens of feature films touching — sometimes gingerly, sometimes allegorically — on both conflicts, this recognition seems both timely and overdue. At last, attention is being paid to a tough, uncompromising drama (which is also a doozy of an action movie) about the realities of combat on the ground.
Since its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2008, “The Hurt Locker” has been praised by critics for many things, including, frequently, its apolitical approach to the war. In interview after interview, Ms. Bigelow and the screenwriter, Mark Boal, whose experience as an embedded journalist in Baghdad informs much of the story, have insisted that the movie takes no position on the American mission in Iraq, restricting its focus to the men carrying out that mission.
Whether or not “The Hurt Locker” sustains this neutrality may be arguable, but the film’s intentions to stay out of messy debates about the wisdom or effectiveness of American military policy is perhaps the least distinctive thing about it. When it comes to current military engagements on the Asian landmass, Karl von Clausewitz’s assertion that war is “the continuation of politics by other means” is one memo — and perhaps one of the few clichés — that American filmmakers have largely chosen to ignore.
A few days before the Oscar nominations were announced, a jury at the Sundance Film Festival awarded a grand prize to “Restrepo,” a documentary directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger that follows an Army platoon through a dangerous year in a deadly part of Afghanistan. A directors’ statement on that film’s Web site, after noting that “the war in Afghanistan has become highly politicized,” defends the decision not to engage in political arguments in strong terms. The experiences of the soldiers, the directors write, “are important to understand, regardless of one’s political beliefs. Beliefs are a way to avoid looking at reality. This is reality.”
I have not seen “Restrepo,” and I am eager to encounter, in the safety of a screening room, the reality it depicts. But the claim that reality trumps any interpretation of it, and the implication that the unmediated, first-hand depiction of combat is the most authentic representation of war, are both debatable and familiar. The first important documentary about American troops in Iraq, Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein’s “Gunner Palace” — filmed in 2003, at the beginning of the insurgency that dominates “The Hurt Locker” — was similarly forceful in favoring immediate experience over ideological debate. And nearly every other feature since, documentary and fictional, has followed suit.
Last year, “Brothers” and “The Messenger,” two well-reviewed dramas about soldiers coming home, turned the experiential gulf between those who have seen combat and those who have stayed home into psychological and domestic drama. But while these movies were candid in showing the traumatic effects of battle on soldiers and their families, they were typically reticent about the meanings and implications of that trauma, and the filmmakers were typically vocal in denying any political agenda.
There have been some exceptions to this rule. Brian de Palma’s “Redacted” and Paul Haggis’s “In the Valley of Elah,” released in fall 2007, questioned the war in Iraq, one in anger and the other in sorrow and both with emphasis on the effects of the fighting on men in the field. Other films from that year, like Robert Redford’s “Lions for Lambs” and Gavin Hood’s “Rendition,” tried to dramatize debates then unfolding in the public sphere about the justice or prudence of American policy. None of these movies were particularly successful, either with audiences or in their earnest, cautious attempts to frame the issues of post-9/11 geopolitics.
It may be that movies, at least as they are currently made and consumed, can’t bridge the gulf between the theater of war and the arena of politics. It is also probably true that the soldiers who are the main characters in fictional and nonfictional war movies don’t talk much about the larger context in which they struggle to survive and get the job done. But in previous wars — in older war movies, that is — they could be a bit more forthcoming. Sailors and infantrymen in World War II combat pictures were known to wax eloquent about the pasting they were going to give Hitler and Tojo, while the grunts in the post-Vietnam Vietnam movies often gave voice to the cynicism and alienation that were part of that war’s actual and cinematic legacy.
But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are different. They are being fought, for one thing, largely out of sight of the American public and largely by an army of professionals. And the respect afforded those professionals — an admiration that is the most pervasive and persuasive aspect of “The Hurt Locker” — extends across the political spectrum. At the same time, though, the political contention about the wars themselves has been vociferous and endless, even as it has involved a measure of ambivalence and, as the wars have gone on, a lot of position-changing and second guessing.
Perhaps the decision to stay out of these debates is a way of acknowledging this ambivalence. Or perhaps filmmakers, aware of the volatility of popular opinion, are leery of turning off potential ticket buyers on one side or another. Or maybe, in the end, the gap between beliefs about war and its reality is too wide for any single movie to capture. Politics finds its way into films like “In the Loop,” Armando Iannucci’s scabrous satire of diplomatic back-stabbing (nominated for an adapted screenplay Oscar), and “No End in Sight,” Charles Ferguson’s meticulous documentary on the disastrous early stages of the Iraqi war. But the disconnection between the policy players in those movies and the guys in “The Hurt Locker” and “Restrepo” seems absolute. That may say more about reality than about the movies.
A. O. Scott is a film critic for The Times.
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Monday, February 1, 2010
Mel Gibson, filmmaker...
All serious, consequential filmmakers have a consistent, animating theme and cinematic vision.
For Frank Capra, known for such gems as "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "It's a Wonderful Life," it was the "importance of the individual," laced with humor to warm an audience to his core message. For Billy Wilder ("Double Indemnity," "Sunset Boulevard," etc.) it was human foibles, of which Hollywood is all too familiar, revealed through wit, cynicism and humor.
For Mel Gibson, his animating theme - despite, or perhaps because of, his personal foibles - is human suffering caused by injustice, alleviated through retribution, pursued with a vengeance.
As the New York Times' Neil Genzlinger writes in "The Cycle of Mel," Gibson has always been about "fighting injustice." Edge of Darkness, which opened Friday, January 22, "is no exception. In it he plays a detective who goes on a revenge-fueled hunt for whoever killed his daughter. It is a plot that bears a resemblance to the story line of Mad Max, his first significant film, 31 years ago, in which he played a police officer who goes after the motorcycle gang that killed his wife and son. For Mr. Gibson it has been a circular trip back to where he started, with plenty of wrongs righted and bad guys laid low along the way."
Let's hope he is just successful off screen!
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/24/movies/20100124-melgibson-interactive.html?ex=1280293200&en=90b2305aff345433&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=MO-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M134-ROS-0210-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click
For Frank Capra, known for such gems as "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "It's a Wonderful Life," it was the "importance of the individual," laced with humor to warm an audience to his core message. For Billy Wilder ("Double Indemnity," "Sunset Boulevard," etc.) it was human foibles, of which Hollywood is all too familiar, revealed through wit, cynicism and humor.
For Mel Gibson, his animating theme - despite, or perhaps because of, his personal foibles - is human suffering caused by injustice, alleviated through retribution, pursued with a vengeance.
As the New York Times' Neil Genzlinger writes in "The Cycle of Mel," Gibson has always been about "fighting injustice." Edge of Darkness, which opened Friday, January 22, "is no exception. In it he plays a detective who goes on a revenge-fueled hunt for whoever killed his daughter. It is a plot that bears a resemblance to the story line of Mad Max, his first significant film, 31 years ago, in which he played a police officer who goes after the motorcycle gang that killed his wife and son. For Mr. Gibson it has been a circular trip back to where he started, with plenty of wrongs righted and bad guys laid low along the way."
Let's hope he is just successful off screen!
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/01/24/movies/20100124-melgibson-interactive.html?ex=1280293200&en=90b2305aff345433&ei=5087&WT.mc_id=MO-D-I-NYT-MOD-MOD-M134-ROS-0210-HDR&WT.mc_ev=click
Sunday, January 24, 2010
SAG Awards...
Congratulations to winners of the Screen Actor Guild (SAG) Awards last evening in Hollywood, including Sandra Bullock and Jeff Bridges, who won "Best Actor" for, respectively, their starring roles in The Blind Side and Crazy Heart, reprising their wins at the Golden Globes; and the actors in Quentin Tarantino's much-recognized film, Inglourious Basterds, who won the "Best Ensemble Cast" award.
Drew Barrymore, who won "Best Actress" in a television movie or miniseries for Grey Gardens, gave a stunning speech, reflecting on what an honor it is to continue in the footsteps of her famous Barrymore ancestors, including her great grandfather John, great uncle Lionel and great aunt Ethel, all of whom were present at the birth of SAG in 1931. While a little unsteady at first -- given her utter surprise at winning -- she ended on such a poignant note -- in that moment, looking the spitting image of great aunt Ethel. http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/drew-barrymore-sag-awards-2010-889/
Diamonds were in abundance at the SAG Awards. But, most important are the cinematic diamonds Hollywood has the potential to make. Sometimes, it realizes its potential marvelously well; but far too often it falls far too short. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/diamonds-and-stars-at-the-2010-screen-actors-guild-awards-82534122.html
For more about the 2010 Screen Actor Guild Awards, read http://www.showbizgossips.com/screen-actor-guild-awards-2010-winners-announced/4147 .
Drew Barrymore, who won "Best Actress" in a television movie or miniseries for Grey Gardens, gave a stunning speech, reflecting on what an honor it is to continue in the footsteps of her famous Barrymore ancestors, including her great grandfather John, great uncle Lionel and great aunt Ethel, all of whom were present at the birth of SAG in 1931. While a little unsteady at first -- given her utter surprise at winning -- she ended on such a poignant note -- in that moment, looking the spitting image of great aunt Ethel. http://www.altfg.com/blog/awards/drew-barrymore-sag-awards-2010-889/
Diamonds were in abundance at the SAG Awards. But, most important are the cinematic diamonds Hollywood has the potential to make. Sometimes, it realizes its potential marvelously well; but far too often it falls far too short. http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/diamonds-and-stars-at-the-2010-screen-actors-guild-awards-82534122.html
For more about the 2010 Screen Actor Guild Awards, read http://www.showbizgossips.com/screen-actor-guild-awards-2010-winners-announced/4147 .
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