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Conan O'Brien has been tapped as the host of the 97th Academy Awards, and while O'Brien is a consummate performer and comedian and he's hosted other awards shows like the Emmys, this will be his first go-round at the Oscars. Naturally, with almost 100 past ceremonies, many of them being broadcast on network television and seen by millions across the world, there are plenty of preferences audiences may have about what he should do while on stage. Should he do a riff a la Billy Crystal and insert himself into the scenes of some of this year's big contenders? Should he playfully mock the people in the audience in the hopes of roasting them just spicily enough? Or perhaps he'll do a musical number? 

O'Brien may not be seen as a singer first, but he has performed songs live, such as when he showed up in a live performance celebrating "The Simpsons" at the Hollywood Bowl,...

Another year, another blah Oscars program, complete with all the trappings, clichés, and safe musical numbers. Most of which you'll be ignoring as you scroll on your phone. About the only thing that has made the show watchable in the last three decades is backstage blunders and that one time a WWE fight broke out. We didn't know how good we had it. Back in the late '80s, the Oscar producers were aware of precisely this problem. In what was a lavish, high-concept gamble, they sought to inject new ideas into a stale format.

But they were wise to play it safe all those decades prior. At the 61st Academy Awards ceremony, the Oscar planners found out that lesson the hard way. For those wondering why the Oscars are excruciatingly dull, one watershed moment in 1989 is to blame. 36 years later, the taint remains, the event compared to a “gay...

Bruce Vilanch is a walking oxymoron: a legendary ghostwriter best known for feeding one-liners to hosts and presenters at the Academy Awards, Grammys, Emmys and Tonys. He’s worked on the Oscars off and on since 1989, the year of the infamous Rob Lowe-Snow White … whatever the hell that was. The title of the 77-year-old’s new tell-all, It Seemed Like a Bad Idea at the Time (out March 4 from Chicago Review Press), refers to that and other TV trainwrecks he’s been affiliated with. But if you’re going to blame him for, say, The Star Wars Holiday Special or The Paul Lynde Halloween Special, then you should credit him for all the genuinely hilarious Oscar night quips you never realized were his. Ahead of the 97th Academy Awards, Vilanch offers his unvarnished opinion of past hosts and reveals the best joke he ever had to cut.

The Oscars are...

Contrary to popular myth, Mama Cass Elliot did not die from choking on a ham sandwich, her daughter is keen for people to know.

On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the death of the songstress with the Mamas and the Papas, Elliot’s daughter Owen Elliot-Kugell has told the BBC, “There was a ham sandwich, but she didn’t eat it and she didn’t choke on it. So enough with the jokes.”

Mama Cass died aged 32 in the London flat of fellow singer Harry Nilsson in 1974, after she had finished a two-week run of performances at the London Palladium. The autopsy confirmed her case of death as a heart attack.

At the time, and in many cultural references since, it was reported that she had choked to death on a ham sandwich, which was found by her bedside.

Her daughter, who has written a book My Mama,...

Owen Elliot-Kugell, the daughter of late The Mamas & the Papas member Cass Elliot, is setting the record straight on her mother’s death in her new memoir, My Mama, Cass.

In July 1974, Cass passed away in London from a heart attack when Elliot-Kugell was 7-years-old, dying in her sleep at age 32. However, an urban legend spread claiming that the singer had died from choking on a ham sandwich.

“In my younger years, when people would talk to me about my mom, it was always about the stupid sandwich,” Elliot-Kugell told People magazine. “I would go over to kids’ houses after school and eventually one of their parents would ask me, ‘Did your mom really die choking on a ham sandwich?’ First of all, the chutzpah to say that to a child is just crazy but it happened a lot. So I felt it was my duty to figure out what that story was all about.

Jeff Margolis will never forget his first time directing the Academy Awards — we won’t let him.

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the 61st Academy Awards. You may not remember that “Rain Man” won Best Picture, Barry Levinson Best Director, Dustin Hoffman Best Actor, and Jodie Foster Best Actress for “The Accused.” But seared into our collective subconscious is the production number that opened the show — already, you’re cringing at the thought — featuring Snow White and Rob Lowe.

To this day, clickbait headlines (from The Guardian in 2019: “How Snow White and Some Coconuts Killed the 1989 Oscars”) are a testament to that debacle’s enduring legacy. Hollywood, nor the world, had never seen anything like it, which was kind of the whole point of the thing, according to Margolis, who spoke to IndieWire about his memories of what Collider just last year proclaimed, “the worst moment in Oscars history…...

When John Farrar turned up to a movie set at dawn clutching a demo of his hastily written “emergency song”, he didn’t have high hopes. The call had only come in the previous day, crying out for a last-minute number to plug a hole in the musical score for when the greaser with heart gets the good girl turned bad. Farrar hadn’t exactly been inspired in scratching it together – “desperate is probably the word”, he says. The director took one listen and hated it, but the last-day-of-school shot was already set up and they were all out of options. A choreographer threw together a dance routine on the spot. The scene went in the can inside seven hours, and so wrapped this hokey teen musical presumably bound for oblivion.

Or not. The movie was the 1978 musical smash Grease. The track, “You’re the One That I Want”. A...

When John Farrar turned up to a movie set at dawn clutching a demo of his hastily written “emergency song”, he didn’t have high hopes. The call had only come in the previous day, crying out for a last-minute number to plug a hole in the musical score for when the greaser with heart gets the good girl turned bad. Farrar hadn’t exactly been inspired in scratching it together – “desperate is probably the word”, he says. The director took one listen and hated it, but the last-day-of-school shot was already set up and they were all out of options. A choreographer threw together a dance routine on the spot. The scene went in the can inside seven hours, and so wrapped this hokey teen musical presumably bound for oblivion.

Or not. The movie was the 1978 musical smash Grease. The track, “You’re the One That I Want”. A...

One was fiercely focused, the other accident-prone. They both made it.

The careers of Rob Lowe and Tom Cruise first collided exactly 40 years ago when the two very young but ambitious actors showed up at an Oklahoma location to assume their roles in The Outsiders, directed by Francis Coppola.

Although thrilled by the opportunity, they didn’t exactly click: Asked to share hotel rooms, Cruise had his agent demand a single because the actor wanted to study his script each night. Lowe found another roommate for camaraderie.

On opening night, Lowe angrily discovered most of his scenes had been cut while Cruise’s had survived. It was an ominous portent because Cruise soon moved on to hits like Risky Business and Top Gun. Lowe struggled with early disappointments like Class and Masquerade.

(L-r) Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze and Tom Cruise in ‘The Outsiders’

Now circling...

The original "Grease" stage musical first debuted at the Kingston Mines night club in Chicago in 1971. The book was by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey, who also wrote the music and lyrics with John Farrar. Set in the 1950s, "Grease" was a winking, somewhat bawdy anti-nostalgia piece about high school greasers and car nuts falling in love after a significant summer vacation. It banked on the images of squeaky-clean 1950s teeny-bopper movies, but inserted sexuality, a teen pregnancy, gang violence, and themes of class. The main characters were Danny the greaser and Sandy the square. They had a romantic fling in the summer, but may be too embarrassed to date one another during the school year. Their relationship is reconciled when Sandy adopts the clothes and mannerisms of the greasers. "Grease" moved to Broadway in 1972 and played all the way through 1980, making it the longest-running Broadway show at the time.

How do you follow an Oscars night like last year’s?

Amid all the unscripted Will Smith dramatics at the 2022 Academy Awards, it was easy to overlook the well-received performance from the ceremony’s three hosts: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes.

This year, producers will surely be hoping for a more subdued night, with Jimmy Kimmel set to compere the event.

It’s no wonder that finding the right person for the job has proven difficult in recent years.

Presenting the Oscars is a tricky thing; success as a comedian, as a TV presenter or as an actor in no way guarantees a successful turn at the ceremonies. And a bad host can tarnish the night, for viewers and for the Academy.

On the other hand, a great host can elevate an awards night beyond simply its winners and losers.

Frequent hosts Bob Hope and Billy Crystal became...

Spring is on the horizon (yay!) but we’re still deep into winter (grr). And that means time for reading. Our latest roundup of noteworthy new books connected to the world of cinema features a typically diverse lineup: Bong Joon Ho, the art of James Cameron’s latest, screwball comedies, Alfred Hitchcock, and––’tis the season––Oscar history.

Bong Joon Ho: Dissident Cinema by Karen Han (Abrams)

In recent years Little White Lies and Abrams have released wonderfully comprehensive, immaculately designed books about Joel and Ethan Coen, Paul Thomas Anderson, David Fincher, and most recently Sofia Coppola. The latest subject, Bong Joon Ho, could not be more deserving of this treatment. Dissident Cinema is written by the ever-astute Karen Han, who shares Bong’s life story while diving into each entry of his filmography. Yes, there is much to be said about Parasite, The Host, Mother, Snowpiercer, Okja, and Memories of Murder.

How do you follow an Oscars night like last year’s?

Amid all the unscripted Will Smith dramatics at the 2022 Academy Awards, it was easy to overlook the well-received performance from the ceremony’s three hosts: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes.

This year, producers will surely be hoping for a more subdued night, with Jimmy Kimmel set to compere the event.

It’s no wonder that finding the right person for the job has proven difficult in recent years.

Presenting the Oscars is a tricky thing; success as a comedian, as a TV presenter or as an actor in no way guarantees a successful turn at the ceremonies. And a bad host can tarnish the night, for viewers and for the Academy.

On the other hand, a great host can elevate an awards night beyond simply its winners and losers.

Frequent hosts Bob Hope and Billy Crystal became...

How do you follow an Oscars night like last year’s?

Amid all the unscripted Will Smith dramatics at the 2022 Academy Awards, it was easy to overlook the well-received performance from the ceremony’s three hosts: Regina Hall, Amy Schumer and Wanda Sykes.

This year, producers will surely be hoping for a more subdued night, with Jimmy Kimmel set to compere the event.

It’s no wonder that finding the right person for the job has proven difficult in recent years.

Presenting the Oscars is a tricky thing; success as a comedian, as a TV presenter or as an actor in no way guarantees a successful turn at the ceremonies. And a bad host can tarnish the night, for viewers and for the Academy.

On the other hand, a great host can elevate an awards night beyond simply its winners and losers.

Frequent hosts Bob Hope and Billy Crystal became...

Cynics have tabbed them “The Doomsday Summits.” To believers, however, their mission is to re-energize the Oscars at a moment when award shows in general are in massive retreat.

“The show should represent an exciting battlefield where forces in our culture collide,” suggests a new book titled Oscar Wars: Gold, Sweat and Tears.

While the recent “collisions” have been studies in chaos, the ongoing meetings among the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences leaders, Oscar show producers and ABC/Disney continue to search for the keys to a renaissance. Or at least to survival. Bill Kramer, the new Academy CEO, regards himself as a consensus builder, not a collision builder.

By studying the traumas of the past, what can they learn about re-shaping the present? Viewership has been plummeting in recent years and telecast revenues (guesses put them at 120 million) are key to the survival of the Academy — its...

Click here to read the full article.

Olivia Newton-John, the angelic Australian singer who forged a hopelessly devoted following with her chart-topping hits “Physical,” “Have You Never Been Mellow” and “You’re the One That I Want,” her Grease duet with John Travolta, has died. She was 73.

Newton-John died Monday morning at her ranch in Southern California, her husband, John Easterling, announced on Facebook.

“Olivia has been a symbol of triumphs and hope for over 30 years sharing her journey with breast cancer,” he wrote. “Her healing inspiration and pioneering experience with plant medicine continues with the Olivia Newton-John Foundation Fund, dedicated to researching plant medicine and cancer.”

Born in England and raised in Melbourne, Newton-John was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 1992, and she announced in May 2017 that after 25 years in remission the disease had spread to her lower back. The singer in August 2018 canceled a two-date tour just three...

When I was in high school there was an unspoken rule that said you were either a superfan of The Cure or The Smiths, but not both. Looking back now, this is an invented rivalry, as both groups cover much of the same artistic ground and appeal to like-minded fans. I’ve been thinking about this theory a lot lately, because it really showcases the sort of things that feel of world-shattering importance when you are a teenager. And while I squandered much of my misspent youth dancing in my bedroom to both “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before” and “The Lovecats,” there was another, perhaps more consequential, pop culture face-off that caused division through the hallways of early-1990s schools everywhere: Grease or Grease 2?

As an amateur Greaseologist who spent way, way too much time plunked in front of his television watching Olivia Newton-John...

Sometimes, Oscars hosts are like buses... there never seem to be any, and then three come at once.

After three years in which the Academy Awards took place with no hosts, this year’s ceremony will see Amy Schumer, Wanda Sykes and Regina Hall share hosting duties.

It’s no wonder that finding the right person for the job has proven difficult in recent years.

Presenting the Oscars is a tricky job; success as a comedian, as a TV presenter or as an actor in no way guarantees a successful turn at the ceremonies. And a bad host can tarnish the night, for viewers and for the Academy.

On the other hand, a great host can elevate an awards night beyond simply its winners and losers.

Frequent hosts Bob Hope and Billy Crystal became renowned for their ability as comperes, defining, for many viewers, their respective eras of Oscar history.

It’s clear that the Academy tasked producer Donna Gigliotti and co-producer/director Glenn Weiss with reinventing the Oscar show this year. After all, the promise of a show limited to three hours, made by the AMPAS Board of Governors in August, before the producers was hired, was enough to demand a new approach.

As we all know, two of the ideas that were to make this a new kind of Oscar show — the creation of a new “Popular Oscar” category and the shifting of several categories into the commercial breaks — were scrapped, the first in September and the second just last week.

That’ll make it significantly harder (and quite possibly impossible) for Gigliotti and Weiss to hit that three-hour limit, but they’ll probably trot out a few new takes on an old model. We won’t know how well it’s going to work until Sunday night...

But be careful what you wish for, all you who have longed for a hostless Oscars after Kevin Hart dropped out in December — and the Academy failed to line up a replacement.

After all, the last Academy Awards show that didn’t have a host, the 61st Oscars in 1989, is widely considered the worst Oscars ever. No, the lack of a host didn’t really have much to do with the show’s multitudinous failures. And no, this year’s producer, Donna Gigliotti, and co-producer and director, Glenn Weiss, aren’t likely to make the kind of mistakes that Allan Carr made back then.

But looking at that show, it’s hard not to think that a steady hand at the helm would have helped.

Also Read: Who Should Host the Oscars Now? Hollywood Offers Suggestions

If you remember that 1989 show, you probably don’t remember it as the Oscars...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences confirmed that the 2019 Oscars will not have an official host, ABC News reports.

The confirmation comes nearly two months after Kevin Hart accepted, and then stepped down, as host of the Oscars after years-old homophobic tweets of his resurfaced online. Hart subsequently apologized to the Lgbtq community, but insisted he had no plans to re-accept the gig, even after previous host Ellen DeGeneres urged the Academy to re-hire him.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke offered...

ABC Entertainment president hints at ‘very exciting opener’ for February 24 telecast.

The 91st annual Academy Awards will go ahead later this month without a show host, the Academy confirmed on Tuesday (5).

The show on February 24 will instead highlight the presenters, as the Academy and network ABC aim to keep the telecast to a trim three hours.

The move comes after actor and comedian Kevin Hart stepped down as show host in December after old homophobic tweets resurfaced. Last month Hart flirted with the idea of reevaluating the role when encouraged to return by talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, eventually opting to stick to his decision.

In announcing her own hosting gig for the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards, Aubrey Plaza took a shot at that other awards show.

You know the one. The one that doesn’t currently have a host? While she didn’t call the Oscars out by name, the “Parks & Recreation” star took a jab at the Academy Awards, which is currently going forward with its plan to go without an emcee for the first time since 1989.

“What do the 2019 Film Independent Spirit Awards have that the other award show doesn’t? An actual f–ing host!” the actress says in the promo. “Watch an awards show with a host. Hosted by me, host Aubrey Plaza. I will host,” she added. You can watch the expletive-filled promo above.

The Oscars are poised to embark on one of the most radical reinventions in the awards show’s long history. For the first time in nearly three decades, the biggest night in movies plans to go without a host, individuals with knowledge of the plans told Variety.

Producers will select a crop of A-listers to introduce various segments instead of relying on one marquee name to kick things off in a monologue filled with Trump zingers, said the insiders. The producers and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the group behind the Oscars, are scrambling to line up top talent needed to carry the telecast, which is just six weeks from airing live — on Feb. 24 — from Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. Hand-wringing at the Academy has been palpable.

As it stands, no new offers are out, nor are any expected to be made to a single potential host to...

ABC just began rolling out commercial spots for the 91st annual Academy Awards, which airs on February 24, but for the first time in a long while those ads had not a single mention of a host, traditionally a known fact in most similar Oscar TV spots in recent years. But then again, this coming Oscar show does not have a host after the two-day reign of comedian Kevin Hart came crashing down exactly one month ago after some of his offensive long-ago Twitter remarks came to light.

Since then, Academy officials and their chosen producers this time around — Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss (who also is directing again) — have offered radio silence on who just might host, even not officially acknowledging that Hart dropped out. As far as I can tell, Gigliotti hasn’t given a single interview regarding her plans or ideas for the show, and Weiss has also...

As the wise heads of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences deliberate their latest headache — the rapid demise of Kevin Hart as prospective Oscar host — here’s a heartfelt plea. Please, please give serious thought to the no-host option.

As noted two weeks ago, the host-free shows of 1969, 1970, and 1971 were actually pretty good. Granted, no-host 1989 — producer Allan Carr’s Snow White year — was a bust. But the earlier host-less ceremonies were short, entertaining, and widely viewed. You could do worse.

This year, eliminating the host would clean up a multitude of problems, all at once. For starters, the painful search for a trouble-free emcee could be over as early as this evening, if the Academy’s Board of Governors were to sign on during their regularly scheduled gathering. No intrusive vetting. No preemptive apologies. No diversity debate. No one tagged as an unfortunate stop-gap. No host.

True, Oscar...

Richard Jordan Chris Longo Joseph Baxter Feb 5, 2019

The saga of the Oscars controversy, which started with Kevin Hart's old homophobic tweets, has led to a host-less 2019 ceremony.

The decision has been made: The 2019 Oscars will go host-less!

ABC Entertainment president Cary Burke made the official announcement that the 91st Academy Awards ceremony will move along sans celebrity host(s). The measure was made in the aftermath of the highly-publicized hullaballoo from December, after Kevin Hart, who announced that he was taking on the job of hosting the 2019 Oscars ceremony, came under scrutiny after a series of decade-old homophobic jokes and tweets surfaced, which led to a spiralling social media firestorm, resulting in the surging Jumanji and Central Intelligence star stepping down just three days after procuring the gig.

As far as plans for the host-less 2019 Oscars go, Burke explains that, “The main goal was to keep the telecast to three hours.

Say what you will about Rob Lowe, but the “Parks & Recreation” star knows How to be self-effacing.

On Wednesday, he weighed in on the Film Academy’s announcement of a new Oscars category, “outstanding achievement in popular film.” Lowe told his followers on Twitter that he thinks it ranks among the worst-ever Academy decisions — and he would know:

Seriously, this “best pop movie” category is the worst idea the Academy has had since they asked me to sing with Snow White.

— Rob Lowe (@RobLowe) August 9, 2018

Also Read: Oscars: What Does It Take to Become a Member of the Motion Picture Academy Anyway?

Lowe is referring to the infamous opening of the 1989 Academy Awards, in which Snow White (played by actress Eileen Bowman) led a changing roster of actors through a medley of songs. Five minutes in, Lowe appeared as Snow White’s “blind date.” It was cheesy.

Watch below and...

Refresh for updates A new Oscar category for “popular” films doesn’t seem very popular in Hollywood, at least judging by first reactions. “The film business passed away today,” began Rob Lowe’s tweet (read below for the whole thing).

Lowe, of course, had his own Oscar low moment, during his musical number with Snow White in the critically lambasted Allan Carr produced telecast.

“Finally,” wrote Andy Richter, “the Oscars will be giving a statue based on popularity so that those poor mountains of box office money won’t be lonely anymore.”

The new award category, announced today, will honor outstanding achievement in popular film, with eligibility requirements and other key details yet to be announced.

But Hollywood stars and pundits weren’t waiting. Here’s a sampling (we’ll update periodically):

Better than a sequel, now that the Academy has added the section for ‘Overlooked Nineties Cult Movies...

A new Blu-ray Combo Pack is on its way, celebrating 40 years of the smash hit Grease! Check out all the new extra features that come with it!

Get ready to feel old, Grease is 40 years old. That's right, it's time get the classic 50s musical, starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John, something ruby as they celebrate their 40th Anniversary! What better way to commemorate this achievement than to release a brand-new 4k Ultra Blu-ray Combo Pack restoring the film to today's standards and even adding new bonus content!

The 40th Anniversary Blu-ray Combo Pack for Grease releases April 24, 2018! To see what all it entails, read the PR below:

Hollywood, Calif. – It’s got a groove, it’s got a meaning…and it’s still a cultural phenomenon 40 years after its original release. The iconic celebration of high school life in the 1950s, Grease is the way you’ll be feeling...

Author: James Kleinmann

It’s rare that a producer’s name becomes as familiar to the public as the stars of the films he or she makes, but in the late 1970s and ’80s, Allan Carr was a regular talk show guest and caftan wearing celebrity in his own right. A new fast paced, fascinating documentary by Emmy winner Jeffrey Schwarz (‘I Am Divine’, ‘Tab Hunter Confidential’) follows the highs and lows of Carr’s colourful career featuring interviews with those who knew him best.

‘The Fabulous Allan Carr’

Starting out in the entertainment industry as a talent booker for Hugh Hefner’s television show, Carr soon became a talent manager representing the likes of Ann-Margaret, Peter Sellers, Tony Curtis and Mama Cass Elliot. Following Carr’s legendary New York subway station premiere party for ‘Tommy’, he gained a reputation for being able to launch a movie with a splash.

on the set of Grease 2, her first lead roleP F A N D O M  

Michelle Pfeiffer Retrospective. Episode 8 

by Nathaniel R 

We've mostly focused on Michelle Pfeiffer's acting in our Pfandom retrospective. We're sure the star who has described herself as "extremely private" would like it that way, but this would be the appropriate time for a brief bit of personal context.

Though the young actress had been working nonstop since the late 70s in television roles and a few features, she'd been struggling offscreen. She was impatient with the way her career was developing. She'd also become involved with a cult, an experience she's always been cagey about in interviews. She had given them too much of her money and was eating strangely at their insistence. In 1981, she took back control of her life.

At the Grease 2 premiere in NYC with her new husband Peter Horton...

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Looking for good books about the movies to read? We've got a bumper selection of recommendations right here...

A confession. I actually started writing this article in 2013, and the reason you've only reading it now is that I've made sure I've read every book on this list, save for one or two where I've marked otherwise. As such, what you're getting is a very personal list of recommendations. Each of these books has at least something to it that I think is of interest to someone wanting to learn more about film - or just enjoy stories of movie making.

I've tended to avoid picture books, with one exception, as these ones I've chosen are all intended to be chock-full of words, to relax with at the end of a long day. Which is what I did. There are one or two notable omissions, as I'm still...

On June 16, 1978, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John danced their way into theaters. The 110-minute adaptation of Grease, directed by Randal Kleiser, would become a summer box office draw and enduring TV staple. The Hollywood Reporter's original movie review is below.

If you think that Saturday Night Fever has everything, wait until you see Grease. This superabundant Robert Stigwood/Allan Carr production, based on the long-running, Jim Jacobs/Warren Casey musical, throbs with the rhythms of the ‘50s, but it has the feel of now. While I can’t claim any special expertise on such dances as the Jitterbug,...

On June 16, 1978, John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John danced their way into theaters. The 110-minute adaptation of Grease, directed by Randal Kleiser, would become a summer box office draw and enduring TV staple. The Hollywood Reporter's original movie review is below.

If you think that Saturday Night Fever has everything, wait until you see Grease. This superabundant Robert Stigwood/Allan Carr production, based on the long-running, Jim Jacobs/Warren Casey musical, throbs with the rhythms of the ‘50s, but it has the feel of now. While I can’t claim any special expertise on such dances as the Jitterbug,...

X-Men: The Last Stand director Brett Ratner has a plan to bring some Hollywood to the lucrative business of high-end whiskey. But first, he's got to take care of a Kentucky-based bourbon maker wishing to empty his cup. On Thursday, Ratner filed a lawsuit in California federal court against Heaven Hill Distilleries. Ratner owns the Beverly Hills residence known as Hilhaven Lodge, which was once owned by Ingrid Bergman, once controlled by Grease producer Allan Carr and whose guests have included movie-industry luminaries, Victoria's Secret models and Hillary Clinton. Sensing opportunity, Ratner wants to get into

read more...

Somehow I haven't gotten around to talking to legendary costume designer Albert Wolsky in my time, but "Birdman" presented the opportunity and here we are. With seven Oscar nominations and two wins, Wolsky is one of the titans, with a legacy on both stage and screen. Alejandro González Iñárritu's latest, then, was a fascinating project for him in that it bridged the gap between those two disciplines. But as Wolsky says in the lengthy interview below, the work in movies like this is "invisible." By design, of course, but often that leads to a lack of appreciation for what goes into outfitting a movie like this. Nevertheless, Wolsky has tried his hand at a number of extravagant productions in his day, so of course we carved out plenty of time to talk about some of those. From Bob Fosse's "Lenny" and "All That Jazz" to Sam Mendes'...

glitter attack!True story. In the late 1990s after graduating college, before New York City and The Film Experience years, I was working as an artist at a company that specialized in parties and events. Every day in a big warehouse I was a hot mess of glue guns, paint rollers, foam shavings, and glitter. Glitter above all else. Three years later in New York City I was still finding glitter in the weirdest of places; that shit lasts forever.

I thought about this as soon as the opening credits of Allan Carr and Nancy Walker's Village People origin comedy, Can't Stop the Music (1980), our "Hmwybs" April Fools Selection. It was like the movie was blowing its glitter load in the first frame. Turns out there was no refractory period. The glitter just keeps on coming and not just over animated fonts. Dancers actually Fling physical glitter at each...

From Jack leching over Jennifer to John Wayne's farewell and Brando's no-show, these are just some of the greatest moments at the Oscars ceremonies ever

1. When Jack met Jennifer

This is perhaps my favourite Oscar moment ever, and it is from last year: the 85th Academy Awards in 2013. Tellingly, it does not take place up on stage, in the often tense and frozen ritual of the awards ceremony itself, but happens in the cheerful buzz of the post-show melee backstage. This single, endlessly replayed clip probably did more for Jennifer Lawrence's public profile than anything on the big screen.

Reading on mobile? Click here to see Jack Nicholson surprise Jennifer Lawrence

George Stephanopoulos, the former Bill Clinton aide who later made a career in TV, was conducting on-the-hoof interviews for ABC and had grabbed 22-year-old Lawrence to talk about her best actress Oscar for Silver Linings Playbook. The...

This Oscar season marks the 25th anniversary of the 61st Annual Academy Awards, and as you may or may not remember, the ceremony was fucking bananas. It had no host, it took place on a Wednesday, and it was produced by Allan Carr, a human pile of cocaine whose previous producing credits include the classic Village People/Bruce Jenner film Can’t Stop the Music. His career never recovered; the miracle is that he did not serve jail time. We’ll get to the particulars of what made the telecast so uniquely terrible soon. But first, stick some shoulder pads into whatever you’re wearing and travel with me to March 29, 1989, as we check out shows appearing in the Nielsen ratings the week of Oscar’s Snow White moment.No. 79: The Tracey Ullman Show It’s kind of fun to reminisce on how raw and in-your-face we all thought early Fox was,...

Today we are talking to the daughter of one of the most iconic performers in entertainment history, Judy Garland, who has made a name for herself in show business over the course of an impressive fifty-year career comprising starring roles on Broadway, major Hollywood films, long-running TV roles and memorable recording studio work as well as much, much more - the fascinating and gifted Lorna Luft. Discussing working with a number of BroadwayHollywood heavyweights on a wide assortment of projects - among them, Michael Bennett, Neil Simon, Marvin Hamlisch, Barry Manilow, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Allan Carr, Debbie Harry, Harold Arlen and many more - Luft imparts a priceless perspective in sharing sensational stories from behind the scenes of entities such as the original Broadway productions of Promises, Promises and They're Playing Our Song as well as Grease 2, Blondie albums, Follies in Ireland, a future Hello, Dolly and more.

Today, in honor of Sundays Oscar telecast, we are going to take a look at some of the most memorable opening numbers and musical montages from the Academy Awards over the years, with a special focus, of course, on theatrically-related presentations and performers. The 2012 night of Oscar gold marks the return of frequent host Billy Crystal, so we are sure to be in for some truly terrific movie parodies and unscripted asides to have us rolling in aisles over the course of the hotly anticipated award shows three hours - Hollywood's night of nights. From the infamous Allan Carr-produced show in 1989 to some of the best moments from Crystal, Whoopi Goldberg, Ellen Degeneres, Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman, this collection of clips surely has something to please all the movie buffs, Broadway babies and all-around entertainment enthusiasts out there reading this who will be tuning in to the big...

Democracy is a flawed concept. Here are 50 films that the IMDb voters would unfairly have you believe are worth no more than 5.9/10…

Six out of ten isn’t a very good score, really. It’s barely over half marks. 60 per cent. It’s alright, but it’s not great. You wouldn’t be proud of getting six out of ten on most kinds of tests, would you? So you might assume that any film that scores under six stars out of ten on the IMDb isn’t very good – possibly even terrible.

But that’s not always the case. Averages don’t tell the whole story; anything that’s potentially controversial or divisive will end up with a score that suggests most people weren’t that bothered about it, since high and low scores will be averaged – and IMDb users often exaggerate their scores anyway, giving a film one star...

They've tried everything. One host. Two hosts. Four hosts. 32 hosts. Comic hosts. Serious-thespian hosts. Hollywood-legend hosts. Young hosts. Old hosts. Hip hosts. Square hosts. Singing-and-dancing hosts. Every year, it seems, the Academy Awards goes back to the drawing board to figure out what sort of emcee will keep the show lively, attract viewers (especially younger viewers) and keep them from flipping channels during the slow parts. It's a thankless gig; no wonder Billy Crystal, who's done it eight times, decided to sit out for eight years before agreeing to return to host this year's Academy Awards on Sunday night. The job requires a difficult and rare set of skills: a host must entertain both the Hollywood big-shots in the auditorium and regular folks at home. They can poke fun at the huge egos in the room, but can't deflate them with too much snark, and they can't be too inside-baseball.

In the world of the Oscars, few people have had the impact that Gil Cates had. Cates, who died at the age of 77 on Monday, came to the Oscars in 1989 in the wake of an Oscar-night disaster. That year's show, produced by Allan Carr, was notable for its glitz and tackiness, and is now remembered best for an interminable opening number that included Rob Lowe and an actress dressed as Snow White butchering a rewritten version of "Proud Mary." Also read: Oscar Producer Gilbert Cates Dead at 77 The Academy...

Brett Ratner has been confirmed as the producer of the next Oscars telecast. The Rush Hour series director, who is also known for X-Men: The Last Stand and Tower Heist, was chosen by AMPAS president Tom Sherak to take charge of the 84th Academy Awards alongside last year's co-producer Don Mischer. Ratner told The Wrap that he hopes he is not tainted with the same bad luck as Allan Carr, whose La house he now lives in. Carr famously produced a critically panned Oscars show in 1989. "I hope that's not a curse," he said. "I think Allan is probably up there laughing and saying, 'I hope you learned from my mistakes.'" Ratner revealed that he has "some names in the back of [his] mind" for who might host the awards show, but said that he has not had the chance to (more)...

Brett Ratner has been confirmed as the producer of the next Oscars telecast. The Rush Hour series director, who is also known for X-Men: The Last Stand and Tower Heist, was chosen by AMPAS president Tom Sherak to take charge of the 84th Academy Awards alongside last year's co-producer Don Mischer. Ratner told The Wrap that he hopes he is not tainted with the same bad luck as Allan Carr, whose La house he now lives in. Carr famously produced a critically panned Oscars show in 1989. "I hope that's not a curse," he said. "I think Allan is probably up there laughing and saying, 'I hope you learned from my mistakes.'" Ratner revealed that he has "some names in the back of [his] mind" for who might host the awards show, but said that he has not had the chance to (more)...

Oscars: Academy Announces Producers Of 84th Telecast -- Brett Ratner And Don Mischer Of all the entertainment people in the world that the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences could have picked to produce the 84th Academy Awards, without doubt the last name would have been Brett Ratner's. Even he feels that way. "I had no idea. But Tom Sherak called me two weeks ago to come see him in his office. And I walk in and Tom is there with Dawn Hudson. And I thought I was being kicked out of Academy. I thought my maid had started bootlegging my Academy DVDs and I would be escorted out of the building and asked to relinquish my Academy cards." That 1/2-hour meeting turned into a 3-hour schmoozefest, and at the end of it Ratner was asked to produce the Oscar telecast with returning Don Mischer. Maybe it was fate.

Anne Hathaway arrives at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood. Anne Hathaway and James Franco co-hosted the 2011 Oscar ceremony, which hasn't been very well-received by Oscar pundits. Some have wondered if the 2011 Oscar ceremony was the worst ever, but that's probably because they don't know much about Oscar history. Else, they'd have heard of Allan Carr's Oscar telecast in the mid-1980s, which featured Rob Lowe rock and rollin' with Snow White, among other unsavory endeavors. Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, and Blake Edwards were some of those who wrote the Academy about the lack of taste in Carr's show. Photo: John Selig / ©A.M.P.A.S. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

From red-carpet thrillers to insider accounts, the Guardian's film critic hands out his gongs to the best Oscars literature out there

Partly because Academy Award madness is almost upon us, partly because like all former PhD students I love a good reading list, and partly out of sheer nerdiness, I have compiled an arbitrary list of the top 10 Oscar-related books. This has involved the incidental pleasure of hanging out in the Humanities One reading room of the British Library, and also in the library of the excellent and under-appreciated Cinema Museum in Kennington, south London.

1) Robert Osborne – 80 Years of the Oscar: The Official History of the Academy Awards (2009)

A hefty, celebratory, coffee-table slab of a book, packed with stats and pictures like a book about sport. Very much the approved, authorised version.

2) Mason Wiley and Damien Bona – Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards (1977)

Notionally "unofficial" but in...