Book:Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years, 1928-1941

Adrian was a rare creature - having an accommodating personality, a canny marketing sense, and a signature design vocabulary - that made him invaluable to Hollywood's glamorous stars and legendary directors. His collaborations were major: with Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, Norma Shearer, Jean Harlow, Mary Pickford, Judy Garland, Irene Dunne, Marion Davies, Myrna Loy, Janet Gaynor, Claudette Colbert, Katharine Hepburn, among others. Just as noteworthy were the star vehicles themselves, nearly 200 in all, classics many of them: Mata Hari, Grand Hotel, Dinner at Eight, Riptide, Camille, The Wizard of Oz, The Women, The Philadelphia Story.

Gowns by Adrian: The MGM Years, 1928-1941 is the first comprehensive look at this prodigiously talented designer in his glory years at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The result of more than 10 years of research, access to previously unavailable MGM personnel files, and containing many unpublished photographs and complete filmography, Gowns by Adrian brings us into the design studio and onto the sound stage and makes us privy to the everyday give-and-take between designer and star. For the reclusive Garbo, Adrian was the only designer who understood her wish to avoid revealing necklines or fur; Shearer was particular in another way: two versions of every dress were de rigeur before she would choose one of them; and Crawford, was there ever a star more demanding or more determined? As Adrian once exclaimed, "Who would have thought that my entire reputation as a designer would rest on Joan Crawford's shoulders!"

As author Howard Gutner makes clear in example after example, Adrian never lost sight of the character he was dressing or of his audience. "Screen presentation is vital and living. It is not a fashion magazine. It lives and breathes." Adrian wrote these words in 1936, and more than 65 years later we continue to believe him. He was a man concerned with modernity and credibility. Indeed, so popular were his costume designs that his clothes were regularly copied by the major department stores. (The “Letty Lynton”' dress, worn by Joan Crawford, reportedly sold upwards of 50,000 copies by Macy's alone.)

Whether it's the so-called kite lapels, the use of plaids, the ultra-wide belts, the crazy hats (so nobly defined by Garbo), or the soaring imagination that resulted in multi-tiered, heavily beaded, and embroidered confections, it's Adrian to whom we owe thanks. The arc of his design curve ended neither with his departure from MGM, nor with his death prematurely at the age of 56, but extends well into the present. Designers such as Geoffrey Beene, Halston, and Armani, to name a few, have all acknowledged his influence.

Adrian understood how Hollywood's finest could speak to the American woman on what has always been the most democratic showcase of all: the silver screen. Gowns by Adrian is a treasure chest of pictures and information, a book destined, like its subject, to become a classic

Did You Know?

"Chaplin and Hitchcock made their last movies at 77, Wilder his last at 75, Hawks at 74, Ford at 71 and Wyler at 69, but Cukor outlasted them all by embarking on RICH AND FAMOUS three months after his 81st birthday"

He was replaced as director of Gone with the Wind (1939) because of constant disagreements with producer David O. Selznick over the script and direction (not as rumour had it because Clark Gable considered him better suited as a so-called woman's director).

He was famous for the parties he threw later in life for large groups of directors, many parties being attended by other directing legends such as Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Luis Buñuel, and George Stevens.

Was voted the 18th Greatest Director of all time by Entertainment Weekly.

Enjoyed a successful working partnership with Katharine Hepburn, directing her in ten films over a period of 47 years

Godfather of Mia Farrow

"George Cukor"

One of Hollywood's brightest talents, (also one of the first openly gay director)George Cukor has often been dismissed as a "woman's director". Accurate or not, he was responsible for some of the greatest treasures of Hollywood's golden era.

Stage-struck from childhood, he haunted Broadway and got his first professional work as assistant stage manager in a Chicago company of "The Better 'Ole" (1919).

...Cukor made a handful of films (including Tallulah Bankhead's 1931 "Tarnished Lady", his first solo flight), before decamping to RKO over a disagreement with Ernst Lubitsch about "One Hour with You" (1932).... He fought to cast Katharine Hepburn in her screen debut, "A Bill of Divorcement" (1932), and went on to make another eight films (and two TV-movies) with her, including "Little Women" (1933), a sweet cameo of a film, and the financial flop (but subsequent cult favorite) "Sylvia Scarlett" (1936). He was loaned to MGM in 1933, where he marshaled such stars as Jean Harlow, Marie Dressler, John and Lionel Barrymore and Wallace Beery in the delightful "Dinner at Eight" (1933)--filmed in an amazing 28 days.

...His 1930s hits there included "David Copperfield" (1935), a lush if flawed version of "Romeo and Juliet" (1936), Garbo's transcendent "Camille" (1937) and the brittle all-star comedy "The Women" (1939). That same year, he was fired from "Gone with the Wind" and replaced by Victor Fleming--a move that caused much speculation and gossip (such as Clark Gable's demanding another director because of Cukor's homosexuality).

...Cukor made only a dozen theatrical films in the 1940s, but several were among his most fondly remembered and featured tour-de-force roles for top actresses. He directed Hepburn's comeback vehicle, "The Philadelphia Story" (1940), one of Joan Crawford's better performances, "A Woman's Face" (1941), Ingrid Bergman's Oscar-winning turn in "Gaslight" (1944) and the Tracy-Hepburn comedy "Adam's Rib" (which provided a wonderful part for neophyte Judy Holliday, 1949). But even the best of directors has his flops; Cukor's included Garbo's career-killing comedy "Two-Faced Woman" (1941) and Norma Shearer's "Her Cardboard Lover" (1942).

Despite his few ventures into film noir, Cukor was best known for a light-hearted mixture of sophistication and bandbox Hollywood corn at its best.... His amazing ability to coax performances from divas (male and female) made him both a valuable team player and the savior of more than one film career.

...Among his latter-day hits were three Judy Holliday vehicles, "Born Yesterday" (for which she won an Oscar in 1950), "The Marrying Kind" (1952) and the delightful "It Should Happen to You" (1954); the Tracy-Hepburn comedy "Pat and Mike" (1952); Judy Garland's comeback, "A Star is Born" (1954, his first color film and a musical remake of his 1932 "What Price Hollywood?"); and Audrey Hepburn's immensely popular "My Fair Lady", which won Cukor his only Best Director Oscar (1964).


AFI.com
Note: His unfair designation as a "woman's director" was Hollywood shorthand for the fact that Cukor was gay; in reality, he was a splendid director of both male and female actors, far more comfortable with pace and performance than visual technique, and his obvious skill and taste made him one of the aces of Hollywood's Golden Age.

Mr. Demille I'm Not ready for a high-definition close-up?

The unforgiving clarity of high-definition television has induced paranoia among celebrities obsessed with their appearance.
The technology produces images so sharp that even subtle imperfections, usually hidden by make-up or flattering lighting, are brutally exposed.

"With high-definition television facial imperfections and ageing signs are dramatically visible." You think Cameron Diaz is flawless until you see her in high definition. Heather Locklear was cited as "a classic case of the HDTV effect. In regular TV, she still looks great, sexy as ever. But in high-def, the ageing lines and wrinkles are everywhere." Top of his list was Teri Hatcher, the Desperate Housewives actress, who is described as looking "really desperate". According to Swann, celebrities who appeared flawless on high-definition television included Mischa Barton, Anna Kournikova, Eva Longoria, Catherine Zeta Jones and Jessica Alba.
here the list of a atar who look bad on HDTV.

More Holliday

• The character of "Lina Lamont" in the 1952 film Singin' in the Rain was written by Betty Comden and Adolph Green with their friend Judy Holliday mind. However a variety of circumstances prevented her from doing the film. Instead Jean Hagen, who had made her debut in the 1949 film Adam's Rib along side of Holliday, was cast.

• Among those who list Judy Holliday as one of their favorite actresses are Madonna, Catherine Deneuve, Winona Ryder, Pamela Anderson, Cathy Moriarty, Mia Farrow, Shirley MacLaine, Kristen Miller, Arte Johnson and Woody Allen.

• One of Judy Holliday's best friends in high school was Patricia Highsmith. Highsmith would go on to become a celebrated author of suspense novels like Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley.

• Judy Holliday was the first actress to ever be simultaneously nominated for Golden Globe Awards in both the "Actress in a Leading Role - Musical or Comedy" and the "Actress in a Leading Role - Drama" categories. Stranger still was the fact that both nominations were for the same film, Born Yesterday.

• Judy Holliday won both the Golden Globe Award for "Actress in a Leading Role - Musical or Comedy" and the "Best Actress" Academy Award in the same year for Born Yesterday.

• Judy Holliday was the first actress to ever be nominated for Golden Globe Awards in both the lead (Born Yesterday) and supporting (Adam's Rib) actress categories in the same year.

Did you know?

"You have to be smart to play a dumb blonde over and over and keep the audience's attention without extraordinary physical equipment."

Judy Holliday

Despite her image of a "dumb blond", she was actually very smart. Her I.Q was measured at 172. She often said that it took a lot of smarts to convince people that her characters were stupid.

Listed by Madonna as one of her biggest influences Co-wrote and performed songs with jazz legend Gerry Mulligan for the album "Holliday with Mulligan".

According to her biographer Gary Carey, Holliday flummoxed the House Unamerican Activities Committee so much (by essentially playing her Billie Dawn character on the witness stand) she ended up being the only person ever called before HUAC who was neither blacklisted nor compelled to name names.

Stars of the Month “Judy Holliday”

Absolutely brilliant actress / comedienne / singer on stage and screen. Irresistably charming and truly zany. If you haven't watched her, you owe it to yourself to catch one of her films! Bells Are Ringing is great, and I highly recommend It Should Happen to You!

This spirited, intelligent actress of stage and screen played variations of the squeaky-voiced 'dumb blonde' role in a number of breezy comedies of the 1940s and 50s.But it took two Broadway shows, "Kiss Them for Me" and, notably, as the intellectually ambitious moll in "Born Yesterday", to make Judy Holliday a star.She returned to films with a memorable supporting role in the Spencer Tracy-Katharine Hepburn comedy, "Adam's Rib" (1949), then vaulted to stardom the following year when she recreated her stage triumph of "Born Yesterday" in George Cukor's film adaptation. As the airheaded mistress of a shady and rather dull-witted tycoon who turns the tables on him once she's educated, Holliday won an Oscar as Best Actress of 1950 (beating out Gloria Swanson in "Sunset Boulevard" and Bette Davis and Anne Baxter in "All About Eve").

For the rest of the 50s, signed with Columbia, Holliday made a handful of films, delighting audiences as ditzy but surprisingly shrewd types in "The Marrying Kind" (1952), the delightful media satire "It Should Happen to You" and "Phfft!" (both 1953), "The Solid Gold Cadillac" and "Full of Life" (both 1956). Holliday's last film was musical "Bells Are Ringing" (1960). She returned to the stage in the straight play "Laurette" (Taylor) and the musical "Hot Spot" (1952). A heavy smoker, Holliday died of throat cancer in 1965 at the age of 43

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Happy Birthday

Clark Gable turn 104 today

2005 oscar fun-fact

• The five low-budget Best Picture nominees evenly split the major nominations - no film received more than 8 nominations. They were all modest in scope, and challenged political, sexual and intellectual mores. Of the five nominees, only one of them had a budget over $14 million (Spielberg's Munich at $70 million), and three of them were budgeted at about $7 million. Two were biopics. None of the films grossed more than $53 million at the box-office at the time of the nomination's announcements in late January:
• All five of the Best Picture-nominated directors were nominated for Best Director. This is very rare and has happened only three other times in Oscar history: 1957, 1964, and 1981.
  
• With his two nominations, George Clooney became the first to receive directing and acting nominations for two different films in the same year. Paul Haggis and Steven Spielberg were also nominated for producing (Best Picture) Crash and Munich, respectively.
• Special mention should be made of the fact that Woody Allen earned his 14th career writing nomination (all for Best Original Screenplay) for Match Point - it was his 21st career nomination. He has won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar twice, for Annie Hall (1977)
  and Hannah and Her Sisters (1986). The next closest nominee remained Billy Wilder, with 12 career writing nominations and 3 career writing wins.
• For the first time in the short history of the Best Animated Feature Film category, none of the three nominees were CGI films:
• Best Supporting Actor nominee was 56 year-old, four-time nominee William Hurt, in a powerfully unsettling, creepy 10-minute role as brutal mobster Richie Cusack in A History of Violence (with 2 nominations, including Best Screenplay Adaptation). [Hurt's prior three nominations were all for lead roles, including a win for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), and nominations for Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987).]
  

The Notorious Bettie Page |

| Official Movie Site | Picturehouse

The most successful pin-up of the 1950s, Bettie Page’s legendary photographs made her the target of a Senate investigation into pornography, and turned her into one of the first sex icons.

"Brokeback Mountain" leads Oscar nominations - Yahoo! Movies

"Brokeback Mountain" leads Oscar nominations - Yahoo! Movies: "'Brokeback Mountain' leads Oscar nominations
Reuters - Jan 31, 05:44

Gay romance 'Brokeback Mountain' led the Oscar nominations on Tuesday with eight nominations overall, including one each for best picture, best director and best actor in a lead role for Heath Ledger.

Also nominated for best film were 'Capote,' about author Truman Capote, race relations drama 'Crash,' 'Good Night, and Good Luck,' about newsman Edward R. Murrow and 'Munich,' which details the aftermath of the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.'

The Oscars, which are given out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, are world cinema's top prize. The awards will be handed out on March 5 in Los Angeles."

Razzies!!!

USATODAY.com - O-Factor

On the eve of the Academy Award nominations, The Golden Raspberry Award Foundation (you gotta love the title), announced its own contenders for the worst movies of the year. Leading the pack: Son of the Mask, with eight nominations. Dukes of Hazzard was right behind with seven nods.

Even Tom Cruise couldn't avoid the wrath of the raspberry. He was nominated in the new category "most tiresome tabloid target."

The "honors" will be handed out -- when else? -- March 4, a day before the Oscars.

YouTube - Mariah drunk 1999 vma's after party europe.

YouTube - Mariah drunk 1999 vma's after party europe.

The fifth contender

This year oscar nominees race in acting catagory is all about 4 sure thing but who will be the fifth person who make the cut.

Russell Crowe or Terrence Howard?
Ziyi Zhang,or Keira Knightley?
Ziyi Zhang, Ziyi Zhang,or Keira Knightley
Ziyi Zhang,

Quick note about DGA

USATODAY.com - O-Factor: "To the surprise of no one, Ang Lee was named filmmaker of the year this weekend at the Directors Guild of America awards banquet for his Brokeback Mountain. The win -- over competition including George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck and Paul Haggis' Crash -- means that anything short of Lee taking the best director Oscar would be a tremendous surprise. In the DGA's 57 year history, the guild has predicted the best director Oscar winner a stunning 51 times.

Of course, one of those rare exceptions included Lee, who won the DGA award in 2001 for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but Stephen Soderbergh took the Academy Award for Traffic. Don't look for a similar upset this year."

Did you know??

Lauren Bacall once called up Shelley Winters whose husband, Tony Franciosa she was having an affair with, and said, "I've been waiting for Tony for an hour. Where the hell is he?" "Lauren," Shelley replied, "you're complaining to me because my husband is late for a date with you?" "Well, dear," Lauren said, "if your husband doesn't respect your marriage, why should I?"

Flash Back

Film 100

Film 100
A Ranking of the 100 Most Influential People
in the History of the Movies

to Joan With Love

"The best time I ever had with Joan in a film was when I pushed her down the stairs in 'What ever happened to Baby Jane?'"


"Why am I so good at playing bitches? I think it's because I'm not a bitch. Maybe that's why Miss Crawford always plays ladies."

"Hollywood's first case of syphilis, I wouldn' t sit on her toilet." (on Joan Crawford)

"She has slept with every male star at MGM except Lassie." (on Joan Crawford)


"You should never say bad things about the dead, you should only say good... Joan Crawford is dead, good!" - on the death of her long-time nemesis.