Hollywood’s favorite rosé celebrates ‘National Rosé Day’ courtesy of Bodvar

Fashion · Film
Bodvar model, Bodvar, Ann Hafstrom Cannes, May 2018. photo: Erick Seban-Meyer What the world needs now is — National Rosé Day. And courtesy of the Swedish-based wine and luxury good purveyor, Bodvár – House of Rosés, that’s coming our way June 9. Fêted each year on the second Saturday in June, National Rosé Day was ...

Agnes Varda’s Oscar picnic

Film
Flowers and an Oscar? What more could a woman want? These mementos so richly deserved by the French woman of cinema, Agnes Varda. On Nov. 11, 2017, at the 9th annual Governors Awards ceremony of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Varda received an honorary Oscar. Varda’s artful, thought-provoking, highly personal auteur ...

Georgeous & Rita-licious

Dance · Fashion · Film
As Oscar Sunday approaches, we turn to the year when two beautiful young singer/dancers both won Academy Awards for West Side Story. George Chakiris and Rita Moreno, respective winners for Best Actor and Actress in a Supporting Role, appeared stunningly beautiful at the ceremony  April 9, 1962 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. This is ...

Life is sweet: “La Dolce Vita” turns 55 1

Film
Laemmle Theatres celebrates one of the first foreign films to figure prominently in the Academy Award voting. La Dolce Vita earned four Oscar nominations in 1962, including Best Director Federico Fellini and Best Original Screenplay and it won the Oscar for Piero Gherardi’s elegant costumes. Fellini’s sardonic epic about the decadence of modern Rome was ...

God dances. Bow down!

Dance
At arts·meme, the words ‘Fred Astaire’ are not necessary. We believe the short code, “god,” will suffice. Here the 70-year old hoofer (now hoofer-in-heaven) gets pulled, ever modestly and reluctantly, into a solo performance by Bob Hope, at the 1970 Academy Awards show at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. The brilliant solo (we love his ‘do-the-swim,’ ...

Oscar party a la francaise

Film
Generous pours of crisp Sancerre. Platters of gooey cheese. Smoked salmon and fresh shrimp cocktail. A complement of pristine patisserie. Perhaps not your typical luncheon fare for a workaday Monday. But on the day following the Academy Awards, it proved a bountiful buffet at a plein air reception for the cream of the crop of ...

George & Shirley now … and then

Film
A pair of good-looking legendary actors trod the red carpet at TCM Classic Film Festival 2014.’s gala opening Thursday night. The occasion was a warm tribute for actress/singer Shirley Jones, honored at a screening of her debut movie, OKLAHOMA! (1955), recently restored. TCM host Robert Osborne interviewed the always-charming Jones before an invitation-only audience. Jones ...

Fun pre-Oscar events at the Academy

Film
Beginning on Tuesday, February 22, through Saturday, February 26, the eve of the Oscars, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will present five public events celebrating the 83rd Academy Awards. Shorts! Hosted by Kenneth Branagh, actor, writer, director, producer and four-time Oscar nominee. Features screenings of the 2010 Oscar-nominated films in the Animated ...