Hollywood Midget Movie Stars. They started as
popular vaudevillians. (From a
review: "The chief feature, however, was the ten scenes in which the Singer Midgets appeared. The Midget strong man, the Midget conjurer, the Midget "Cleopatra" with the winning ways--these and many more were there.") They stormed the
New York stage. They were members of
The Lollipop Guild (YouTube link), as well as playing other
Munchkins. They were suspected of being
German sympathizers. But they may be best remembered for starring in the world's first
all-midget musical western. Now available for your viewing pleasure from YouTube: Part
1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7.
posted by Astro Zombie
on Jan 21, 2008 -
32 comments
Prior to his critically acclaimed program The Wire, creator Edward Burns wrote the HBO miniseries
The Corner, which also focused on the drug trade in Baltimore.
Charles S. Dutton, an African-American Baltimore native and former convict probably best known to most as TV's "Roc," was chosen to direct the miniseries.
Who Gets To Tell a Black Story?, part of a Pulitzer-prize winning
NYT series on race in America, examines Dutton's take on how to make a TV program which portrays a mostly African-American cast of characters, the struggles and differing perspectives of Dutton and Burns, and how race is portrayed in Hollywood.
[more inside]
posted by whir
on Dec 17, 2007 -
24 comments
Yes, that is indeed
Mick Jagger playing a Chinese emperor. And those are, in fact, Edward James Olmos, Bud Cort, and Barbara Hershey heading up the supporting cast of
"The Nightingale," a particularly odd episode of Shelley Duvall's ludicrously star-studded
Faerie Tale Theatre. Throughout its early '80s run, the show used dozens of prominent actors to perform the fairy tale standards, including Klaus Kinski and Susan Sarandon in a virtual remake of the Cocteau
"Beauty and the Beast;" Paul Reubens, James Coburn, Carl Reiner, and Vincent Schiavelli in
"Pinnochio;" Helen Mirren and Brian Dennehy in
"The Little Mermaid;" and James Earl Jones and Leonard Nimoy in a Tim Burton-directed
"Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp." The list goes on and on.
posted by Iridic
on Sep 5, 2007 -
34 comments
$78 Million worth of Red Tape. An amazing (and lengthy) LA Times article that provides an extremely rare glimpse into the finances of a major motion picture, with a line item dissection of the $160 Million disaster
Sahara. The items include $230,000+ for bribes to local officials, $2 Million for a 45 second plane crash sequence cut from the final film, and 3.8 Million to a total of 10 different screenwriters for a movie that eventually went on to be one of the largest (in pure dollar terms - not adjusted for inflation) financial disasters in film making history.
posted by jonson
on Apr 16, 2007 -
74 comments
Los Angeles Magazine asks, "Can the LA Times be saved?" One suggestion is to hire
Nikki Finke, Hollywood's
ultimate contrarian reporter. Finke was
canned in 2002 by the New York Post over
a series of articles critical of Disney. [1 2] She sued in response.
Shortly afterwards, she landed at the
LA Weekly, where she boasts
an incredible archive of weekly columns - recent entries include
a quasi-defense of Mel Gibson,
coverage of Cruise versus Redstone, and
Michael Ovitz's gay problem. On the side, she likes to
bite people's heads off, and
reminisce about a New York that's now gone. She now gets to let it all out on her own blog,
Deadline Hollywood Daily.
[previously mentioned 1 2 3 4]
posted by phaedon
on Mar 20, 2007 -
15 comments
Sly talks! Rounds [
1][
2][
3][
4][
5][
6][
7][
8][
9-10][
11][
12][
13].
Let’s face it; my powers of communication were a little bit below that of a knuckle-dragging, ooze-dwelling cretin from another galaxy. Actually, I haven’t progressed that much. I just lie better. A 13 (so far)-part interview where Rocko/Ramby answers fans with oodles of extremely quotable, self-deprecating, sarcastic one-liners about the (few) ups and (many) downs of a Hollywood career. Tips on: how to get Sharon Stone naked, how to use the 3 seashells, how to direct dancers with a "crotch tartar" problem and how to bench press with owls. We also learn the final truth about some guy named Rocky -
an inbred, druid outcast from Stonehenge whose specialty is weaving whistle chains and leaping face down onto pointed objects - and another one named Rambo -
a savage turned loose in Microsoft’s headquarters.
posted by elgilito
on Dec 14, 2006 -
46 comments
More Bad News For Mel In the 24-hour news cycle, tomorrow's bad news for Mel Gibson hits today: according to tomorrow's
Sunday Herald Sun Mel Gibson once had ties to the Australian League of Rights, a right-wing group well-known in Australia for anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and Holocaust denial. Says the Herald Sun: "The league claims the world is run by a secret society of Jews." (Who, presumably, are
responsible for all the wars in the world"
posted by Postroad
on Aug 6, 2006 -
43 comments
"Not today, sir, probably not tomorrow": Alternatively titled "Me and My Shadow, Part
I,
II,
III,
IV,
V,
VI,
VII,
VIII,
IX"; the long, touching, interesting, hilarious, disturbing story of how 'Jay' kicked his drug habit, written by 'Silent Bob', aka Kevin Smith.
posted by docgonzo
on Jul 20, 2006 -
101 comments
