Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Steve Reeves "So Handsome"




Bo Derek wrote to Steve, "On a scale of 1 to 10 Steve, you destroyed the meter! You still do".



STEVE REEVES(1926-2000)--SUPERSTAR, SUPERSTUD, SUPER MAN! In his day he was one of the most popular stars in the world ... he was one of the few athletes to successfully cross over into a career in the movies ... yet Steve Reeves is all but forgotten by most moviegoers today. He and his movies are rarely mentioned even as footnotes in movie reference works. To many he is little more than the favorite movie star of Dr. Frank-n-furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show ("Or if you want something visual that's not too abysmal, we could take in an old Steve Reeves movie"). Yet Steve is still legendary in the world of bodybuilding and to a dedicated band of afficianados to whom he will always be the one and only Hercules of the screen.*























Steve in his 1998 still HOT!!

Did you know..?

  1. It is impossible to lick your elbow.
  2. A crocodile can't stick its tongue out.
  3. A shrimp's heart is in its head.
  4. It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky.
  5. If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib. If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die. And, if you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out.
  6. Rats multiply so quickly that in 18 months, two rats could have over a million descendants.
  7. Wearing headphones for just an hour will increase the bacteria in your ear by 700 times.


Monday, February 27, 2006

Entertainment Weekly's EW.com | Feature: Who'll win Oscars? Get EW's predictions

Entertainment Weekly's EW.com | Feature: Who'll win Oscars? Get EW's predictions

Did you know?

  • "When classical music was played, patrons spent on average $40 per person, compared to $36.75 when pop tunes were featured and $35 when there was silence ."
Why? The researchers speculate that classical music makes diners feel more affluent, cultured, and sophisticated so they are more willing to spend money on items they equate with such qualities. Study leader Adrian North said classical music makes us "feel a bit posh. In a restaurant, this has the effect of making you spend a bit more money."

  • once the tab eclipses $100, diners tip less. The larger the bill, the smaller the tip. While tipping etiquette calls for a tip of 15 percent to 20 percent of the total bill, this only seems to hold when the tab is in the double digits. The researchers analyzed nearly 1,000 tips received by two cab drivers, two hair salons, and two restaurants over several weeks. In most cases, the tip increased along with the total amount of the bill. But once the tab hit $100, the tip plateaued. Lead study author Leonard Green says that servers are likely to get the same tip for a $100 bill as they are for a $200 bill

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Make your Bet.

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Philip Seymour Hoffman – CAPOTE-1/9
Terrence Howard - HUSTLE & FLOW-10/1
Heath Ledger - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN-5/1
Joaquin Phoenix - WALK THE LINE-3/1
David Strathairn - GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK-35/1

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

George Clooney – SYRIANa-2/3
Matt Dillon – CRASH-7/1
Paul Giamatti - CINDERELLA MAN-1/3
Jake Gyllenhaal - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN-3/1
William Hurt - A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE-20/1

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Judi Dench - MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS-30/1
Felicity Huffman – TRANSAMERICA-2/1
Keira Knightley - PRIDE & PREJUDICE-25/1
Charlize Theron - NORTH COUNTRY-30/1
Reese Witherspoon - WALK THE LINE-1/6

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Amy Adams – JUNEBUG-7/2
Catherine Keener – CAPOTE-13/1
Frances McDormand - NORTH COUNTRY-12/1
Rachel Weisz - THE CONSTANT GARDENER-1/4
Michelle Williams - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN-4/1

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

Ang Lee - BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN-1/17
Bennett Miller – CAPOTE-22/1
Paul Haggis – CRASH-25/1
George Clooney - GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK-15/2
Steven Spielberg – MUNICH-4/1

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN-1/10
CAPOTE-15/1
CRASH-1/1
GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK-15/1
MUNICH-8/1

Friday, February 24, 2006

Romance in Venice

American school teacher,Jane Hudson (Katherine Hepburn) single and growing older she carefully saves her money to enjoy a holiday trip to Venice in the faint hope she may find the romance that she has been seeking for so long. Jane soon discovers that even in a city as beautiful and fascinating as Venice, going it alone can still leave one feeling terribly lonely.While shopping near St. Mark's Square she stops to look at two goblets in a shop window, the handsome art dealer ( Very Handsome) Renato Di Rossi (Rossano Brazzi), compliments Jane on her good taste in purchasing the antiques. When Jane returns to her hotel she meets a couple who have just returned from a tour with identical goblets, it appears the antiques are being produced in bulk. Jane returns to Renato's shop to complain, but he sweeps her off her feet and offers her the romance she has been searching for. Jane's dreams come to a crashing halt when she learns that Renato is the married father of a large family. Jane is initially outraged by Renato’s deception but remains determined to keep her romance alive whatever the outcome, but she finally does what's best for everyone involved and returns home to America with the lasting memory of the happiest summer of her life.

Summertime (1955) ****


Academy Award for Best Director (1955):
David Lean (nominated)
Academy Award for Best Actress (1955):
Katharine Hepburn (nominated)

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Sudden Fear *** 1/2


For a San Franciscan, the rewards of watching the classic film noir "Sudden Fear" are obvious: it was made here in locations that are still recognisable. Joan Crawford's lavish Pacific Heights home on 2800 Scott Street is now the Indonesian Consulate and Gloria Grahame's Tamalpais apartment building can still be seen on 1201 Greenwich Street. But even if you have never been to San Francisco, "Sudden Fear" is great film noir, superbly acted by Crawford and co-star Jack Palance, who both received Academy Award nominations, and by Grahame, who won the Oscar that year for another movie.

"Watch Joan Crawford who could actually WALK all the way from Scott/Green to Greenwich/Hyde in high heels & a mink coat after falling down a flight of stairs and THEN run up & down the hills of San Francisco ."*

*Monica Sullivan from movie magazine international

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Heart Breaking

Come Back, Little Sheba (1952)*****

Shirley Booth won five major awards, including the 1953 Best Actress Oscar, in her role as an aging woman dealing with loss; the loss of "herself" and her dreams twenty years before, and the recent loss of her dog, her replacement for a child.. a lonely woman, married to an alcoholic (Burt Lancaster), They take in a young girl(Terry Moore; Best supporting nominee) going to college , It's just a couple of days in their lives. Lancaster has been sober for one year and when he used to drink, he would get real violent.... Booth isn't able to have children and she acts like a mother to the girl they take in. Lancaster at the same time resisting being a parent to her (or more!). Richard Jaeckel plays the young stud that dates Moore's character, pressuring her for what all males his age (and older) & vitality would.

Days of Wine and Roses and The Lost Weekend deal with the problem of those afflicted with Alcoholism. Both are fine films but this movie is my favorite. To see Shirley Booth performance (I've never seen her before) . I'm just speechless. Highly recommend

warnning Pleas have your hanky ready

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Joan crawford The Diva Pt.IV


Did You know?? She's quite Nice..

  • Joan quietly turned over a percentage of her income to pay for medical aid for the underprivileged, and for twelve years supported a four-bed ward, for the use of her co-workers, at Santa Monica Hospital.

  • Her 1930 Christmas present from husband Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was a portable dressing room, furnished by stepmother-in-law Mary Pickford.

  • Joan was a jogger years before the word was invented. It was her habit, on the way to work in the morning, to stop her limousine, step out, and run for a mile or so with her chauffeur following at a discreet distance.

  • In the early 1930s, tired of playing fun-loving flappers and longing for more dramatic roles, Joan wanted to change her image. Thin lips would not do for her, she wanted big lips. Big, full and ripe. Ignoring Crawford's natural lip contours, Max Factor ran a smear of colour across her upper and lower lips; it was just what she wanted. To Max, the Crawford look, which became her trademark, was always 'the smear'. To the public, it became known as 'Hunter's Bow Lips'. Crawford is often credited as helping to rout America's prejudice against lipstick.

  • For Joan, her fans' adulation was the nectar of life and a sacred responsibility. Every piece of fan mail sent to her was answered, whether by herself (She even wore a special outfit to tend to the chore.) or by her hirelings.

  • In 1928, when her determination and guts finally made her a star in "Our Dancing Daughters," Joan answered each fan letter personally, stamped the envelopes, and took them to the post office herself.

  • Joan knew the birthday of every member of her crew and even their wives and children. At the end of her pictures, Crawford gave the entire production team gifts fashioned of sterling silver, with their own individual inscription.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Jake Won BAFTA


"Brokeback Mountain" took four awards including best picture Sunday at the British Academy Film Awards, And A surprise in supportting category.


Sunday, February 19, 2006

Joan Crawford The diva PT:III


Did you know?? She like to drink.!!!
  • Later in life Crawford became a very heavy vodka drinker. She always carried a flask filled with her drink of choice, and when dining out, 100-proof Smirnoff was always awaiting her arrival (despite her meticulous ways, she liked to stir her drink with her fingers). Heaven help the waiters if they brought her anything less than 100-proof; she had become an expert on vodka, and if the drink did not meet her standards, she would scream at them to take it back.

  • Her flasks of vodka were covered with material to match all her outfits.

  • Would not even walk into a hotel room unless it had a loaf of toasted French bread and seven packs of cigarettes (three opened) waiting for her. She also liked to know in advance the exact number of steps from the elevator to her hotel room.

  • In 1946, although an Oscar nominee for Best Actress (Mildred Pierce), Joan was not present at the ceremony. She was at home in bed with the flu and a bottle of Jack Daniels bourbon. She listened to the show over the radio. When she was announced the winner, she exhaled with a scream that alerted the newsmen on the lawn below her window that she had won. Jumping out of bed, the ailing star then called for her hairdresser and makeup man, on call in the next room.

  • During her marriage to Alfred Steele, Joan always referred to Pepsi-Cola as "our child.

  • Adamantly refused to go on camera during her menstrual period.

  • Her brother Hal died of syphilis in 1963. Joan did not attend the funeral.


Saturday, February 18, 2006

Joan Creawford The Diva PT.II



Did you know??.......She kinda Crrrazy.!!

  • Joan had a passion for cleanliness. She never wore a dress, a hat or a coat that wasn’t sent to the cleaners instantly after wearing it. She used to wash her hands every ten minutes and couldn’t step out of the house unless she had gloves on.

  • Joan would never smoke a cigarette unless she opened the pack herself, and would never use another cigarette out of that pack if someone else had touched it.

  • She used to follow guests around her house wiping everything they touched, especially doorknobs.

  • Joan once lost a maid because she asked her to wax the tree outside her bedroom window.

  • Joan's children were not allowed out of bed at night without permission. She kept Christopher hostage in his bed with her self-styled 'sleep safe,' a harness made of heavy canvas straps. When explaining to unsuspecting visitors why her young son was tied into his bed, Crawford replied, "Oh, he likes to kick off the covers and suck his thumb.

  • When she stayed in a hotel, no matter how many stars it had, Joan always scrubbed the bathroom herself before using it. At home, after a workman had installed a new bathtub and toilet, then used them, she had the plumbing torn out and replaced immediately.

Janet New single will be release on april


Jermaine Dupri told the New York Times that Janet's new album will be titled "20 Years Old."

"Her album is going to be called '20 Years Old,'" he says, "that's how long it's been since she put out 'Control.'"

He also dismissed talk of Janet's recent weight gain. "She gained that weight for an indie role," he said. When pushed for more details about that role, he said that she was supposed to play a mother in the Deep South in a film that fell through.

Although the article does not mention the film by name, it is assumed that the film being referred to is "Tennessee." It had been previously announced late last year that Janet would be starring in this film with Macaulay Culkin and Martin Henderson.

...No details about the album have been officially confirmed by Virgin Records or by Janet herself.

Friday, February 17, 2006

International Bear Rendezvous,



The theme this year is IBRdi Gras
IBR 2006- International Bear Rendezvous, The theme this year is IBRdi Gras. Inspired by Mardi Gras... The International Bear Rendezvous is an annual gathering of bears and bear-lovers held in San Francisco. It is hosted by the Bears of San Francisco, who conceived of Rendezvous as a weekend of fun and fund-raising.

Joan Crawford The Diva of them all Pt. I


Joan Crawford was not an actress; she was a movie star. The distinction is a crucial one - she infrequently appeared in superior films, and her work was rarely distinguished regardless of the material, yet she enjoyed one of the most successful and longest-lived careers in cinema history. Glamorous and over-the-top, stardom was seemingly Crawford's birthright - everything about her, from her rags-to-riches story to her constant struggles to remain in the spotlight, made her ideal fodder for the Hollywood myth factory. Even in death she remained a high-profile figure thanks to the publication of her daughter's infamous tell-all book, an outrageous film biography and numerous revelations of a her private life. Ultimately, Crawford was melodrama incarnate, a wide-eyed, delirious prima donna whose story endures as a definitive portrait of motion-picture fame, determination and relentless ambition.


Did you know??


  • There was a saying around M-G-M -- Shearer got the productions, Garbo supplied the art, and Joan Crawford made the money to pay for both
  • Joan Crawford has had the longest career on the screen of anyone who ever worked before the camera. Mary Astor made her screen début in September 1921 and retired from the screen in March 1965 and was therefore technically on the screen longer than Joan Crawford, but in roles of diminished importance.

  • When she went to England in the mid-sixties to film "Berserk" she was welcomed by the British press as "Her Serene Crawfordship."
  • Someone once commented "Joan, that red hat makes you look radiant." She replied "Why the f*** do you think I wear it!"
  • Her poodle, Cliquot, usually ate white meat of chicken, ground sirloin, ice cream and ginger ale. He wore custom made jackets from Hammacher Schlemmer. They were red with black velvet collars with "CC" on them. They had heart-shaped pockets with Kleenex in them in case he had to blow his nose. And he had a rhinestone collar for evening.

  • She insisted on her dishes being scalded before she used them-- although, being a perpetual dieter, she rarely had more than black coffee and soda crackers (spread with mustard) for lunch.
  • Her Oscar for "Mildred Pierce" went on auction after her death and sold for $68,000. The auction house had predicted a top bid of $15,000.
  • Made some sex films back in the Twenties, most notably a silent one-reeler tantalisingly entitled 'The Casting Couch'. It is alleged that after she became famous MGM shelled out over half a million dollars in an attempt to buy up every surviving copy of the film. When one possessor of some nude shots refused to part with them, his house was burned down three weeks later, himself being a casualty as well as the pics.
  • When "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" was finished, Bette Davis referred to Joan and herself as "we two old broads." Joan sent Bette a note on her traditional blue stationery: "Dear Miss Davis. Please do not continue to refer to me as an old broad. Sincerely, Joan Crawford."








Gene Tierney



The second
half of this month there will have 12th of Gene Tierney Movie air on TCM and Fox Classic. Some are my favorite like "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir ", "Night and the city" ,The Razor's Edge,Heaven Can Wait" and her oscar performance "Leave her to heaven" plus Biography and couple more. Check out Gene Tierney Schedule .. Here

I"ve never seen The shaghai Gesture Before .. Supposed tove Fabulous. Can't wait.!!


Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Widescreen War



No sooner than 20th Century-Fox announced the specifications for CinemaScope, Paramount Pictures pointed out lots of shortcomings and announced their new widescreen system, VistaVision. Both studios made dramatic claims about their systems. Which system was actually the superior one was difficult to decide.

Here is some gallery of Two big widescreen giant.



Cinemascope was 20th Century Fox's answer to Cinerama and debuted on September 16, 1953 with the Robe. The anamorphic principle is as follows: a cylindrical lens over a normal spherical lens squeezes a 2X horizontal picture onto a standard 35mm frame. When projecting through a complimentary lens, this produces a wide picture ratio of 2.55 to 1. with 4-track magnetic sound, or 2.35 to 1 with optical sound. (The original CinemaScope used a ratio of 2.66 to 1).


Vistavision :Paramount Pictures was the only major studio in the U.S. that didn't immediately embrace CinemaScope for use on its major productions. The studio preferred to stick with an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 but sought ways to improve overall picture clarity and definition on ever increasing screen sizes. John R. Bishop, head of Paramount's camera and film processing departments acquired a William Fox "Natural Color" camera built in the late 1920's by the William P. Stein company. This camera exposed two frames of film at the same time through color filters. Bishop cut out the separation between the two frames, rolled the camera over on its side and fitted it with Leica 35mm still camera lenses. This camera, dubbed the "Lazy-8" because it pulled the film across horizontally in 8 perforation frames, provided a total negative area 2.66 times greater than the conventional 35mm camera with a 1.66:1 aspect ratio.




Happy Valentine everyone

Monday, February 13, 2006

Mamie..

" I had a nightmare ..I was a brunett"

Mamie Van Doren


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WHO IS Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons???



Once upon a time there was a different Hollywood. High-powered producers, directors, or stars did not control it. The big studios were run by some of the most powerful men in Hollywood: Jack Warner, Louis B. Mayer, and Irving Thalberg; but they all cowered before two women: Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons, the two most powerful gossip columnists in history. Because of the power of their columns, Louella's in the Hearst papers; Hedda's in the Los Angeles Times, they were a force to be reckoned with whether you were a producer, director, established star, or budding starlet. If you were going to become anyone in Hollywood you would eventually have to pass muster by one of them and be favorably written about. If you were out of favor by them, you might as well get on the bus back to Podunk because you were never going to do more than wait on tables, pump gas, or become a hooker or a producer's wife.
(source from Mamie Van Dorn.com)

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Judy Holliday video Clip

Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir

Click to listen!!!
Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir
Otto Preminger's 1944 "Laura" marks an important transition in film history. Visually it harks back to Hollywood's Golden Era, flooding with light elaborate sets and the glamorous stars they hold--but at crucial moments a noir vision bubbles up to artfully blemish this smooth facade. It is a classic love story--except that it hinges on forbidden fantasy and murder. It at once gives a coy nod to the parlor psychology of the "Thin Man" variety of mystery, and looks forward to the dark Hitchcockian psychological thriller. It is a Janus of a film, and it may be eternally debated whether its double vision signals an end or a beginning.

Saturday, February 11, 2006