‘Comb-out’ cat fight in MGM hair salon
Memories of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio’s early-morning hair-and-makeup ritual as described by one of the era’s leading girls-with-curls, Leslie Caron.EXCERPTED FROM: Donald Knox, “The Magic Factory: How MGM Made An American in Paris” (New York: Praeger Publishers) 1973 One of the biggest fights between the ladies was in hairdressing. Sydney Guilaroff was the king of that ...
Writer revered! Leonard Maltin at roundtable prior to Robert Osborne Award
It was a special occasion, April 23, 2022, and an honor, to be among the writers, all drawn to TCM Classic Film Festival 2022 by a shared interest in Hollywood history, and all in admiration of the modest gentleman at the end of a long table — he who wrote the film bible, Leonard Maltin’s ...
Cementing mitts and memories: Lily Tomlin honored at TCM Fest 2022
Apr
26
2022
The range is surprising once you see it in print. It spans from television to film to theater to streaming content to a much acclaimed one-woman show. Noted TCM primetime anchor and official host of the TCM Classic Film Festival, Ben Mankiewicz, of the woman this year’s festival honored with the Grauman’s footprint ceremony (she ...
TCM Classic Film Festival brings subterfuge feminism to 2022 Fest
pam grier, coffy (1973), in-person at tcm fest ed. note: artsmeme is pleased to have steve farber back to its team coverage of tcm fest. steve offers some of his picks for the 2022 festival. After a full three years away, I look forward to returning to this year’s TCM Classic Film Festival . The ...
‘Honey, I’m home!’: the movie mating-game of Nicole Kidman
Apr
13
2022
Seriously. What’s a woman to do? She tried hard, so very hard. She tried for her kids and she tried for herself — because she loved the guy. But Ricky Ricardo’s serial womanizing accrued to such a degree that it caused a rupture in Lucy & Desi’s fine romance. This story is told in a ...
Being alive, with Special Oscar honoree Liv Ullmann
Mar
25
2022
She speaks hesitantly; listening, you wonder if there is a problem, perhaps a cognitive disorder. She meanders, and seems vague and scattered. But if you take the time, just eight minutes, to experience this beautiful set of remarks delivered by actress Liv Ullmann, on the weekend she is receiving a Special Oscar at the Awards ...
Waaaah Ricky, our movie’s terrible! 1
Mar
4
2022
Lucille Ball, held hostage in Aaron Sorkin’s brain in ‘Being The Ricardos’ (2021) So, count them, there are two movies now available, and curiously, both are streaming on Prime video. The first to be released was the biopic written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, Being The Ricardos. My notes written shortly after viewing here: Well, ...
George Chakiris: Riff before Bernardo
George Chakiris as Riff in West Side Story, in 1959 It’s one of those fascinating show-biz factoids. For fourteen months, circa 1959, George Chakiris, a good friend of artsmeme, performed in the London company of West Side Story, at Her Majesty’s Theatre in London’s West End theater district. What is little known is that the ...
Swept away by ‘Mimi’ 50 years later: Laemmle Anniversary Classics salutes Lina Wertmuller
Ed. note: We celebrate woman artists on artsmeme, and that’s why Italian director Lina Wertmüller’s sexy, impish, outrageous, passionate ouevre of movies mixing sex, love and politics belongs on the blog. Our guest contributor is the host of Laemmle Theatre’s “Anniversary Screenings” series, Stephen Farber. To launch its Anniversary Classics series in 2022, and during ...
To San Francisco for ‘Mrs. Robinson’ the ballet, and more
Coo coo ca choo, Mrs. Robinson! So go the whimsical lyrics of the buoyant-yet-melancholic Simon & Garfunkel song that burbles behind The Graduate, the seminal film 1967 film directed by Mike Nichols that introduced Dustin Hoffman to the world. Playing the 21-year-old recent college graduate, Benjamin Braddock, Hoffman can’t exactly decide his next step. That ...