Bye there Georgy Girl

Actress Lynn Redgrave died today at age 67. The youngest daughter of famed actor/director Michael Redgrave, she rose to fame in the mid 60's for the title role 'Georgy Girl.' Personally I love that movie, which was one of Redgrave's two Oscar nominated roles. She lost the 1966 Best actress Oscar(Her sister Vanessa was also nominated the same year) to Elizabeth Taylor who won for 'Who is Afraid of Virginia Woolf?'

Redgrave had a successful career after that but was overshadowed by her sister, the memory of her father, and later on her niece Natasha Richardson. She was part of the cast of two American television shows, 'House Calls' and 'Chicken Soup', something the below obituary fails to mention. Thanks for memories Ms. Redgrave and RIP.

NEW YORK – Lynn Redgrave, an introspective and independent player in her family's acting dynasty who became a 1960s sensation as the unconventional title character of "Georgy Girl" and later dramatized her troubled past in such one-woman stage performances as "Shakespeare for My Father" and "Nightingale," has died. She was 67.

Her publicist Rick Miramontez, speaking on behalf of her children, said Redgrave died peacefully Sunday night at her home in Kent, Conn. Children Ben, Pema and Annabel were with her, as were close friends.

"Our beloved mother Lynn Rachel passed away peacefully after a seven year journey with breast cancer," Redgrave's children said in a statement Monday. "She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before. The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives. Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time."

Redgrave was diagnosed with breast cancer in December 2002, had a mastectomy in January 2003 and underwent chemotherapy.

Her death comes a year after her niece Natasha Richardson died from head injuries sustained in a skiing accident and just a month after the death of her older brother, Corin Redgrave.

The youngest child of Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, Lynn Redgrave never quite managed the acclaim — or notoriety — of elder sibling Vanessa Redgrave, but received Oscar nominations for "Georgy Girl" and "Gods and Monsters," and Tony nominations for "Mrs. Warren's Profession," "Shakespeare for My Father" and "The Constant Wife." In recent years, she also made appearances on TV in "Ugly Betty," "Law & Order" and "Desperate Housewives."

"Vanessa was the one expected to be the great actress," Lynn Redgrave told The Associated Press in 1999. "It was always, 'Corin's the brain, Vanessa the shining star, oh, and then there's Lynn.'"

In theater, the ruby-haired Redgrave often displayed a sunny, sweet and open personality, much like her ebullient offstage personality. It worked well in such shows as "Black Comedy" — her Broadway debut in 1972 — and again two years later in "My Fat Friend," a comedy about an overweight young woman who sheds pounds to find romance.

Redgrave's play "Nightingale" at Manhattan Theatre Club in 2009 was the last time she appeared on stage in New York.

"She was adored by audiences, and although she embarked on a medical treatment as previews began, she never missed a show and gave magnificent performances eight times a week," said Lynne Meadow, artistic director of MTC.

"We admired her strength, her talent, her courage and her enormous good heart. There wasn't a stage hand, a press rep, a box office person who didn't worship Lynn. She was true theatre royalty."

Tall and blue-eyed like her sister, she was as open about her personal life as Vanessa has been about politics. In plays and in interviews, Lynn Redgrave confided about her family, her marriage and her health. She acknowledged that she suffered from bulimia and served as a spokeswoman for Weight Watchers. With daughter Annabel Clark, she released a 2004 book about her fight with cancer, "Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery From Breast Cancer."

Redgrave was born in London in 1943 and despite self-doubts pursued the family trade. She studied at London's Central School of Speech and Drama, and was not yet 20 when she debuted professionally on stage in a London production of "A Midsummer's Night Dream." Like her siblings, she appeared in plays and in films, working under Noel Coward and Laurence Olivier as a member of the National Theater and under director/brother-in-law Tony Richardson in the 1963 screen hit "Tom Jones."

"Before I was born, my father was a movie star and a stage star," the actress told the AP in 1993. "I was raised in a household where we didn't see our parents in the morning. We lived in the nursery. Our nanny made our breakfast, and I was dressed up to go downstairs to have tea with my parents, if they were there."

True fame caught her with "Georgy Girl," billed as "the wildest thing to hit the world since the miniskirt." The 1966 film starred Redgrave as the plain, childlike Londoner pursued by her father's middle-aged boss, played by James Mason.

Dismissed by critic Pauline Kael as a false testament to free thinking, the movie was branded "cool" by moviegoers on both side of the Atlantic and received several Academy Award nominations, including one for Redgrave and one for the popular title song performed by the Australian group The Seekers.

"All the films I've been in — and I haven't been in that many attention-getting films — no one expected anything of, least of all me," Redgrave said in an AP interview in 1999.

"Georgy Girl" didn't lead to lasting commercial success, but did anticipate a long-running theme: Redgrave's weight. She weighed 180 pounds while making the film, leading New York Times critic Michael Stern to complain that Redgrave "cannot be quite as homely as she makes herself in this film.

"Slimmed down, cosseted in a couture salon, and given more of the brittle, sophisticated lines she tosses off with such abandon here, she could become a comedienne every bit as good as the late Kay Kendall," he wrote.

Films such as "The Happy Hooker" and "Every Little Crook and Nanny" were remembered less than Redgrave's decision to advocate for Weight Watchers. She even referenced "Georgy Girl" in one commercial, showing a clip and saying, "This was me when I made the movie, because this is the way I used to eat."

At age 50, Redgrave was ready to tell her story in full. As she wrote in the foreword to "Shakespeare for My Father," she was out of work and set off on a "journey that began almost as an act of desperation," writing a play out of her "passionately emotional desire" to better understand her father, who had died in 1985.

In the 1993 AP interview, Redgrave remembered her father as a fearless stage performer yet a shy, tormented man who had great difficulty talking to his youngest daughter.

"I didn't really know him," Redgrave said. "I lived in his house. I was in awe of him and I adored him, and I was terrified of him and I hated him and I loved him, all in one go."

Redgrave credited the play, which interspersed readings from Shakespeare with family memories, with bringing her closer to her relatives and reviving her film career. She played the supportive wife of pianist David Helfgott in "Shine" and received an Oscar nomination as the loyal housekeeper for filmmaker James Whale in "Gods and Monsters." She also appeared in "Peter Pan," "Kinsey" and "Confessions of a Shopaholic."

*****

Lynn Redgrave is survived by six grandchildren, her sister Vanessa, and four nieces and nephews.

Actor James Whimore dead at 87

He was twice nominated for Oscars. First for his role in the war movie classic, 'Battleground'. Then for playing former President Harry Truman in the one man show made into the movie 'Give em Hell Harry. I liked him in both but loved the later. Not mentioned in the AP obituary is Whitmore's role in the Sci-Fi classic, 'Them!'. Whitmore played college football with former President Gerald Ford and served in the Marines during World War II. His son James Whitmore Jr. was also a television actor. RIP.

LOS ANGELES – James Whitmore, the many-faceted character actor who delivered strong performances in movies, television and especially the theater with his popular one-man shows about Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Theodore Roosevelt, died Friday, his son said. He was 87.

The Emmy- and Tony-winning actor was diagnosed with lung cancer the week before Thanksgiving and died Friday afternoon at his Malibu home, Steve Whitmore said.

"My father believed that family came before everything, that work was just a vehicle in which to provide for your family," said Whitmore, who works as spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department. "At the end, and in the last two and a half months of his life, he was surrounded by his family."

His long-running "Give 'em Hell, Harry," tracing the life of the 33rd president, was released as a theatrical movie in 1975. Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award as best actor, marking the only time in Oscar history that an actor has been nominated for a film in which he was the only cast member. His Teddy Roosevelt portrait, "Bully," was also converted into a movie.

He later became the TV pitchman for Miracle-Gro plant food, and used the product in his large vegetable garden at his Malibu home.

While not known for his politics, Whitmore was an early supporter of President Barack Obama. He stumped for Obama during a 2007 rally at the Gibson Theatre at Universal Studios, telling the crowd that Obama had the wisdom "to deal with a very, very confused and complex country, and the world." Whitmore also appeared in TV commercials in 2008 for the "First Freedom First" campaign, which advocates religious liberty and preserving the separation of church and state.

Whitmore had regularly attended an Oscar night bash, Night of 100 Stars, and had sent in his RSVP for this year, said Edward Lozzi, a spokesman for agent Norby Walters' gala.

Whitmore started both his Broadway and Hollywood careers with acclaimed performances, both as tough-talking sergeants. In 1947, discharged a year from Marine duty, he made his Broadway debut in a taut Air Force drama, "Command Decision." He was awarded a Tony for outstanding performance by a newcomer.

Two years later, Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award and won a Golden Globe as supporting actor in the war movie "Battleground."

He followed with memorable performances in scores of films, refusing to be typed. Besides war movies, he appeared in Westerns ("The Last Frontier," "Chato's Land"), musicals ("Kiss Me Kate," "Oklahoma!"), science fiction ("Planet of the Apes," "Them"), dramas ("The Asphalt Jungle," "The Shawshank Redemption") and comedies ("Mr. O'Malley and Mrs. Malone," "The Great Diamond Robbery.")

Shirley Jones, a teenager when she starred in "Oklahoma," said she came to know Whitmore during months of filming in Nogales, Ariz., and recalled being impressed by her good-humored and highly disciplined colleague.

"He told me, `If you're going to be in this business, you better learn your craft,'" Jones recalled. "And he never stopped learning."

His favorite film was "Black Like Me" (1964), a true story about a white reporter who used medication to blacken his skin to experience life as an African-American in the South.

Another of his rare starring roles was "The Next Voice You Hear" (1950), in which a family hears the voice of God via the radio. He played opposite Nancy Davis, the future Mrs. Ronald Reagan.

Whitmore often appeared on television, starring in the series "The Law and Mr. Jones" (1960-1962), "My Friend Tony" (1969) and "Temperatures Rising" (1972-1973). He received an Emmy in 1999 as guest actor in a series for "The Practice."

Jones recalled seeing him in a 2007 episode of the TV drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and marveling at his still-sharp talent. "I was absolutely blown away by that. He had a huge role, playing a lawyer, and it was phenomenal," she said.

A student of history, Whitmore delighted in portraying famous American personages. He toured in the play "The Magnificent Yankee," about Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He played Ulysses S. Grant in a 1960 TV movie, Adm. William F. "Bull" Halsey in the Pearl Harbor attack spectacle "Tora! Tora! Tora!", and Walt Whitman in a dramatic reading, "A Whitman Portrait."

The monologues of Harry Truman, Will Rogers and Teddy Roosevelt brought Whitmore his greatest success. In 2000, he appeared in "Will Rogers, U.S.A." at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C., his eighth engagement in the show at Ford's over a 30-year period.

President Ford attended a performance of "Give 'em Hell, Harry" at Ford's Theater after Richard Nixon resigned. Whitmore worried about Ford's reaction to Truman's crusty words about Nixon.

The actor recalled: "I was three feet from Gerry Ford when I said to the press as Truman: `Nixon is a no-good lying (expletive); if he ever caught himself telling the truth, he'd tell a lie just to keep his hand in.' After the show, (Ford) came up on stage and put his arm around me and said, `That was a pretty good blocking back.'" Ford had been line coach when Whitmore played football at Yale.

His movie and television careers continued into the 21st century, but he admitted that he preferred the stage.

"I find the process of making movies absolutely boring," he told a reporter in 1994. "It's so fragmented. You wait and wait and wait and then, look, as Jack Lemmon says, `It's magic time.' In the theater, once the curtain goes up, the actor is in charge."

Born in 1921 in White Plains, N.Y., Whitmore was active in school sports and acted in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, though his strict Methodist family disapproved of the profession. After a year at an Ivy League prep school, Whitmore in 1939 enrolled in prelaw at Yale University, where he had won a football scholarship. Two knee injuries ended his football career, and he devoted himself to dramatics.

After graduating from Yale, he enlisted in the Marines and served in the South Pacific. "I had a lot of time to think in the Marine Corps," he recalled, "and so I decided it wasn't the law I wanted but the theater."

In New York he studied at the American Theater Wing under the G.I. Bill, living on $20 a week and rooming with another hopeful actor, Jack Warden. After a season in summer stock in New Hampshire, he returned to New York and won the role of Sergeant Harold Evans in "Command Decision." Rave reviews started his career in motion.

He married Nancy Mygatt in 1947, and the couple had three sons, James, Steven and Daniel. They later divorced, and in 1971 he married an actress, Audra Lindley. They often appeared in plays together, even after their 1979 divorce. He remarried his first wife in the 1980s, but another divorce ensued. Nearing 80 in 2001, Whitmore married actress-writer Noreen Nash.

Robert Shaw RIP

A great actor died 30 years ago today. Robert Shaw dropped dead of heart attack at age 51 in Ireland. Shaw's acting career spanned 27 years. From a bit role in the classic British comedy, The Lavender Hill Mob, to the positively awful Avalanche Express. Shaw died while the later was still being filmed. Another actor's voice had to be dubbed for Shaw's role in the movie.

I'm betting a some of my readers remember Shaw. What was your favorite movie of his? Was it

Jaws
The Sting
Black Sunday
A Man for All Seasons

or a movie not listed above. Shaw was great in all those I listed. Two movies of Shaw's that I'm particularly fond of were The Luck of Ginger Coffey and Swashbuckler. Swashbuckler was a campy pirate movie, but its lots of fun. Ginger Coffey may have been Shaw's most unappreciated work. An Irish dreamer living in Canada who can't seem to take his responsibilities seriously. I loved this movie when I first saw it about 25 years ago. Even taped it on VHS, but the cassette is now gone and Ginger Coffey is rarely shown on television.

Few people know Shaw was a talented author and playwright. He acted to provide for his family, he fathered ten children. Four of them with actress Mary Ure, who played his wife in The Luck of Ginger Coffey. I posted a video tribute to Shaw that I found at You Tube. Thank you for all the great movies Robert and RIP.

Recruitment headaches

From Reuters-

LONDON - The success of the James Bond movies has given the British Secret Intelligence Service a recruitment headache -- too many cranks want to join MI6.

"I think it gives people a false impression of what working for the organization is actually like," the head of MI6 recruitment -- named only as "Mark" -- told BBC Radio One's Newsbeat program on Monday.

"So it does tend to turn up quite a lot of thrill seekers and fantasists and we're really not interested in them."

As well as dismissing the notion that spying was a never-ending life of fast cars, fast women and shaken not stirred Martini cocktails, "Mark" was keen to demolish another myth surrounding MI6.

"We don't have a license to kill -- we don't carry Berettas -- that's simply not true."

The popularity of James Bond movies goes back to the mid-60's. So if MI6 is getting crank applicants, you may think it has been happening for sometime. I don't recall which of the three Frederick Forsyth books it was that featured the character Sir Nigel Irvine, but I seem to recall the character once saying there are 'old spies and bold spies but no old bold spies.' People who take movies or even mainline television dramas(Take for instance ER. Don't get me started on how unrealistic the portrayal of medicine is done on the show) as resembling real-life, are out of touch with reality.

Maybe MI6 should require applicants to read the works of John Le Carre first. Some have called George Smiley 'the anti-Bond'. That may make future MI6 applicants think twice.

Linked to- DragonLady, High Desert Wanderer, Populist, Right Wing Nation,

Lights, Camera, Cardinal?

Some news from Poland-

WARSAW (AFP) - Poland's Cardinal Jozef Glemp is playing himself in a film dedicated to Father Jerzy Popieluszko, the Solidarity chaplain killed by the communist secret police in 1984, producers said Tuesday.

Glemp, who is the primate, or head, of the church in deeply Catholic Poland, reenacts real conversations he had with Popieluszko, Julita Swiercz-Wieczynska, the boss of the Focus Producers company, told AFP.

"We have already filmed the scenes with the primate. Cardinal Glemp is a natural when he's in front of the camera," said Swiercz-Wieczynska.

"He's also been a consultant, sharing his memories with us. We're making a historical film and we want to get as close as possible to reality," she said.

Make-up artists helped to take two decades off Glemp, who is now 87, so he looked more like his younger self.

The film, entitled simply "Popieluszko", is due for release late in 2008.

It stars 33-year-old Adam Woronowicz, who is mostly known for his television work, and who bears an uncanny resemblance to the eponymous priest.

The death of 37-year-old Popieluszko turned him into an enduring symbol of opposition to Poland's communist regime.

It also highlighted the crucial role played by the church, which was one of the few bulwarks against the communist authorities in this country of 38 million, where more than 90 percent of the population is Roman Catholic.

Popieluszko stood shoulder to shoulder with Solidarity, the communist bloc's first free trade union, which was founded in 1980.

After the regime's martial law crackdown on December 13, 1981, Popieluszko won renown for his sermons, which drew thousands of people to his parish chruch in Warsaw.

Popieluszko was kidnapped and tortured to death on October 19, 1984 by a three-man commando from the communist SB security police, who dumped his body in the River Vistula.

Sounds like an interesting subject for a movie. I wasn't aware of Popieluszko's story before today.

As for Actor Cardinal Jozef Glemp, any good reviews for his acting are unlikely to go to his head. After all, eighty-seven is a late age for a career change.

Linked to- Leaning Straight Up, Perri Nelson, Pursuing Holiness, Right Wing Nation,

Actress Deborah Kerr dead at age 86

Her most famous role may have been in "From Here to Eternity". My personal favorites were "The King and I"(Yes her singing role was dubbed but that doesn't mean you can't like Kerr's portrayal) and "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison". Deborah Kerr's acting brought much enjoyment to movie fans. She died Tuesday in England. RIP.

Linked to- Perri Nelson, Right Wing Nation, The World According to Carl,

LONDON (Oct. 18) - Deborah Kerr , who shared one of Hollywood's most famous kisses and made her mark with such roles as the correct widow in "The King and I" and the unhappy officer's wife in "From Here to Eternity," has died. She was 86.

Kerr, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, died Tuesday in Suffolk in eastern England, her agent, Anne Hutton, said Thursday.

For many she will be remembered best for her kiss with Burt Lancaster as waves crashed over them on a Hawaiian beach in the wartime drama "From Here to Eternity."

Kerr's roles as forceful, sometimes frustrated women pushed the limits of Hollywood's treatment of sex on the screen during the censor-bound 1950s.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences nominated Kerr a six times for best actress, but never gave her an Academy Award until it presented an honorary Oscar in 1994 for her distinguished career as an "artist of impeccable grace and beauty, a dedicated actress whose motion picture career has always stood for perfection, discipline and elegance."

She had the reputation of a "no problem" actress.

"I have never had a fight with any director, good or bad," she said toward the end of her career. "There is a way around everything if you are smart enough."

Kerr (pronounced CARR) was the only daughter of Arthur Kerr-Trimmer, a civil engineer and architect who died when she was 14.

Born in Helensburgh, Scotland, she moved with her parents to England when she was 5, and she started to study dance in the Bristol school of her aunt, Phyllis Smale.

Kerr won a scholarship to continue studying at the Sadler's Wells Ballet School in London. A 17 she made her stage debut as a member of the corps de ballet in "Prometheus."

She soon switched to drama, however, and began playing small parts in repertory theater in London until it was shut down by the 1939 outbreak of World War II.

After reading children's stories on British Broadcasting Corp. radio, she was given the part of a hatcheck girl with two lines in the film "Contraband," but her speaking role ended on the cutting-room floor.

After more repertory acting she had another crack at films, reprising her stage role of Jenny, a Salvation Army worker, in a 1940 adaptation of George Bernard Shaw's "Major Barbara," and receiving favorable reviews both in Britain and the United States.

She continued making films in Britain during the war, including one - "Colonel Blimp" - in which she played three different women over a span of decades.

"It is astonishing how she manages to make the three parts distinctly separate as characterizations," said New Movies magazine at the time.

Kerr was well-reviewed as an Irish spy in "The Adventuress" and as the tragic girlfriend of a Welsh miner in "Love on the Dole."

She was invited to Hollywood in 1946 to play in "The Hucksters" opposite Clark Gable . She went on to work with virtually all the other top American actors and with many top directors, including John Huston, Otto Preminger and Elia Kazan .

Tired of being typecast in serene, ladylike roles, she rebelled to win a release from her MGM contract and get the role of Karen Holmes in "From Here to Eternity."

Playing the Army officer's alcoholic, sex-starved wife in a fling with Lancaster as a sergeant opened up new possibilities for Kerr.

She played virtually every part imaginable from murderer to princess to a Roman Christian slave to a nun.

In "The King and I," with her singing voice dubbed by Marni Nixon, she was Anna Leonowens, who takes her son to Siam so that she can teach the children of the king, played by Yul Brynner .

Her best-actress nominations were for "Edward, My Son" (1949), "From Here to Eternity" (1953), "The King and I" (1956), "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" (1957), "Separate Tables" (1958), and "The Sundowners" (1960).

Among her other movies is "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant .

Other notable roles were in "The Sundowners," "Beloved Infidel," "The Innocents" (an adaptation of the Henry James novella "Turn of the Screw"), "The Night of the Iguana" with Richard Burton and "The Arrangement" with Kirk Douglas .

After "The Arrangement" in 1968, she took what she called a "leave of absence" from acting, saying she felt she was "either too young or too old" for any role she was offered.

Kerr told The Associated Press that she turned down a number of scripts, either for being too explicit or because of excessive violence.

She refused to play a nude scene in "The Gypsy Moths," released in 1968. "It was when they started that `Now everybody has got to take their clothes off,"' she said. "My argument was that it was completely gratuitous. Had it been necessary for the dramatic content, I would have done it."

In fact she undressed for "The Arrangement," even though the scene was later cut. "There the nude scene was necessary, husband and wife in bed together," Kerr said. "That was real."

She returned to the stage, acting in Edward Albee's "Seascape" on Broadway and "Long Day's Journey Into Night" in Los Angeles.

Her Broadway debut was in 1953, when she was acclaimed as Laura Reynolds, a teacher's wife who treats a sensitive student compassionately in "Tea and Sympathy."

After a full season in New York, she took it on a national tour and recreated the role in a movie in 1956.

Kerr was active until the mid-1980s, with "The Assam Garden," "Hold the Dream" and "Reunion at Fairborough" all in 1985.

Casting Call

Palm Beach Post politics columnist George Bennett talks movies today.

Laura Dern will get the scenery-chewing opportunity of a lifetime as Katherine Harris. But there's no official word yet on who'll portray Palm Beach County elections celebs Theresa LePore, Charles Burton and Carol Roberts in an upcoming HBO movie about the 2000 presidential recount.

Former county elections chief and butterfly ballot designer LePore, the most famous local figure in the ballot brouhaha, said Friday she hadn't talked to anyone connected with Recount, which is slated for release next year. The movie's writer, Danny Strong, said he played phone tag with LePore more than a year ago while researching the script but was never able to set up an interview.

Why is playing Katherine Harris a scenery chewing part? Isn't that a term used to describe famous or theatrically trained actors playing roles some would consider beneath them? Like a villain in a James Bond movie or some action flick. Take for instance Tony winning actor Jonathan Pryce in Tomorrow Never Dies, Shakespearean actor Alan Rickman in Die Hard (Which incidentally was Rickman's movie debut), Actor-Playwrights Steven Berkoff in Octopussy or Robert Shaw in Jaws or the multi-talented Gary Oldman in Air Force One. If you want an actress playing a role many would consider beneath their talent, try Meryl Streep in Death Becomes Her. All of those I listed above are what I consider scenery chewing roles.

Something did come of it: a film that has such A-listers as Dern, Kevin Spacey, Ed Begley Jr., Denis Leary and Bob Balaban in starring roles and Sydney Pollack as an exec producer. Shooting is expected to begin soon, with the Jacksonville area being used for most locations.

Strong said a New York stage actress is penciled in to play LePore, and the Burton and Roberts roles are "pretty much locked up, but I don't know if I'm supposed to be saying."

As to who should portray him, Burton said, "I figured it would be George Clooney or something. Brad Pitt. Tom Cruise. I've heard nothing."

If Jackie Coogan was alive, he'd be perfect for Burton. Ok, I shouldn't be a casting director then, LOL. How about Adam Arkin then as the Judge?

In other political casting news-

LePore lost her 2004 reelection bid to Arthur Anderson in a close and bitter race. Now state Rep. Susan Bucher, D-West Palm Beach, has opened a campaign to challenge Anderson in 2008. LePore said she's not taking sides.

Anderson is a three-time Knucklehead award winner. He always seemed miscast to me as the Elections Supervisor. Palm Beach County voters should use the 2008 election to give Anderson the pink slip.

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Actress Lois Maxwell dead at Age 80

She played Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond films up to 1985. I was and still am a big James Bond fan. Right now I am at a loss for my favorite Moneypenny quote. Instead maybe it was this exchange from Diamonds are Forever.

James Bond: What can I bring you back from Holland?
Miss Moneypenny: A diamond? In a ring?
James Bond: Would you settle for a tulip?
>Miss Moneypenny: Mm, yes.

Poor Miss Moneypenny never getting signs of affection like the other women in the films. Born in Canada, Ms. Maxwell died in an Australian hospital Saturday. RIP.

LONDON (AP) — Lois Maxwell, who starred as Miss Moneypenny in 14 James Bond movies, has died, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported Sunday. She was 80.

The Canadian-born actress starred alongside Sean Connery in the first James Bond movie, "Dr. No," in 1962 as the secretary to M, the head of the secret service.

She died Saturday night at Fremantle Hospital near her home in Perth, Australia, the BBC cited a hospital official as saying.

Bond star Roger Moore said she was suffering from cancer.

"It's rather a shock," Moore, who had known her since they were students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1944, told BBC radio.

"She was always fun and she was wonderful to be with," he said.

Born Lois Hooker in Ontario, Canada, in 1927, she began her acting on radio before moving to Britain with the Entertainment Corps of the Canadian army at the age of 15, the BBC said.

In the late 1940s, she moved to Hollywood and won a Golden Globe for her part in the Shirley Temple comedy "That Hagen Girl."

After working in Italy, she returned to Britain in the mid-1950s.

In addition to her 14 appearances as Miss Moneypenny, she also acted in Stanley Kubrick's "Lolita" and worked on TV shows including "The Saint," "The Baron, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased)," and "The Persuaders!," the BBC said.

She was 58 when she appeared in her final Bond film, 1985's "A View To A Kill." She was replaced by 26-year-old Caroline Bliss for "The Living Daylights."

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The Labor Day Knucklehead Award Marathon Part Fourteen

Our 14th winner is Steven Seagal. He gets the award for the following.

According to Seagal, it's the FBI's fault that he now stars in low-budget movies that go straight to video. And he wants an apology from the bureau.

The 56-year-old pony-tailed martial-arts expert broke a long silence today to complain that his career was devastated by an FBI affidavit in 2002 that described allegations that he was involved in a plot to intimidate two journalists out of writing stories about him.

"False FBI accusations fueled thousands of articles saying that I terrorize journalists and associate with the mafia," Seagal told the Los Angeles Times. "These kinds of inflammatory allegations scare studio heads and independent producers -– and kill careers."

According to allegations detailed in the affidavit and a subsequent affidavit, Seagal hired infamous private eye Anthony Pellicano to frighten Times reporter Anita Busch and Vanity Fair writer Ned Zeman. In 2002, someone shot a bullet through the windshield of Busch's car and left a dead fish with a rose in its mouth and a sign reading "Stop" on top of the vehicle.

Zeman said an unidentified man pointed a semiautomatic pistol at his head and said, "Stop!" before pulling the trigger. Luckily for him, there was no bullet in the chamber.

Seagal has made the same type of movie over, and over and over and... again.(I will admit to liking Under Siege) Blaming the FBI for his career problems would be like my blaming the cancer I have on President Bush not taking global warming seriously. It is simply nonsense, and that's why Steven Seagal is our fourteenth Knucklehead of the Day.

Hat tip- Captain's Quarters
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Japanese Quake- Don't worry be happy

From AP-

KASHIWAZAKI, Japan - A strong earthquake struck northwestern Japan on Monday, causing a fire and radioactive water leak at the world's largest nuclear plant. At least eight people were killed and hundreds injured in the 6.8 magnitude quake that collapsed wooden houses, ripped apart roads and buckled seaside bridges.



Flames and billows of black smoke poured from the Kashiwazaki nuclear plant — the world's largest in terms of power output capacity. It took two hours to extinguish the fire in an electrical transformer, said Motoyasu Tamaki, a Tokyo Electric Power Co. official.

The plant leaked about 315 gallons of water, said Katsuya Uchino, another Tokyo Electric official. Uchino said the water contained a tiny amount of radioactive material and is believed to have flushed into the Sea of Japan.

"The radioactivity is one-billionth of the legal limit," Oshima said.

I hate to be a cynic, but would you expect officials to say. "We've had a major disaster. Run for your lives." Maybe I have been watching too many disaster movies. If Oshima was lying and real life was like those movies, The Electric official would be electrocuted, be on a boat or ship when it capsizes or plummets to his death from the 65th floor.

Hopefully this was a just very minor accident.

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The July 4th Knucklehead Marathon Part Twenty-Eight

Our Twenty-Eighth winner is The European Commission. They get the award for the following.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Talk of monetary union and wine quotas gave way to controversy over orgasms and innuendo at the European Commission on Wednesday as it defended a risque Internet video clip highlighting its backing for European cinema.

The EU executive's usually dry daily news briefing sprung to life with questions over whether a 44-second clip of 18 couples achieving ecstasy in a variety of positions and venues was the best way to show how Brussels uses taxpayers' money.

The raunchy clip is made up of snippets from various general release films that have been funded by the EU, including "Amelie" and "Good Bye Lenin!".

Some reporters also took a swipe at the title of the sequence, asking whether "Let's Come Together" was acceptable innuendo -- and if it was, whether the pun worked in the 27-member Union's other official languages.

A Commission spokesman insisted it had not received a single complaint in the 14 weeks since the clip first appeared on Internet site YouTube suggesting the Brussels press corps should relax and get with the times.

"Let us for once also have a good sense of humour and let us not start the old wars of the fifties about what is sex, what is pornography and what is simply normal to watch on television," spokesman Martin Selmayr appealed.

Making soft or hard porn videos is not an efficient use of taxpayer dollars, and that's why the European Commission is our twenty-eighth Knucklehead of the Day.

This concludes the marathon. I could have given out three more and had one still in reserve for tomorrow but I'm all Knuckleheaded out. Hope you had a great 4th of July!

Here's the scoop

Phil Rosenthal at the Chicago Tribune lists his favorite media films of all time.

They include-

1941's Citizen Kane- The Orson Welles Classic.
2003's Shattered Glass- With one small deviation, the absolutely true story of the famous journalistic fraud Stephen Glass. As a subscriber of The New Republic I find the movie fascinating, but it is a riveting story and one of this decade's best kept cinema secrets.
1981's Absence of Malice- Set in Miami. A vehicle for Paul Newman and Sally Field, but Bob Balaban and Wilford Brimley steal the show. I used to own the movie poster for 'Malice' displayed in this post.
1952's Deadline USA. An underrated Humphrey Bogart movie I always liked.
1982's The Year of Living Dangerously- Set in Indonesia but filmed in the country of my wife's birth, The Philippines.

These are excellent choices as are most of the others listed by Rosenthal.

Two movies not mentioned by Phil or Betsy, but I'll add is Fritz Lang's 1956 film Beyond a Reasonable Doubt. A journalist frames himself for murder to prove the untrustworthiness of circumstantial evidence. This film noir is very underrated. A Dangerous Life is good if flawed retelling of a journalist working in the Philippines at the time of the downfall of the Marcos regime.

Feel free to link with your favorite media movies. I'll link back if you do.

Hat tip- Betsy
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Novelty or Old News

Apparently Associated Press writer Phil Davis doesn't read or watch too many movies.

By PHIL DAVIS
AP
TAMPA, Fla. (June 3) - Capt. Sam Gibbons knew his mission was in trouble when he hit the ground in the early hours of the D-Day invasion 63 years ago. The future congressman's 101st Airborne troops were scattered far from their intended drop zone. And the only nearby soldiers he could see where German.

"People are always talking about behind enemy lines. Hell, there ain't no lines in combat," said Gibbons, who was 24 when he parachuted into Normandy on June 6, 1944. "We jumped right on top of the Germans."

On the ground, in the dark, the scattered American soldiers relied on a children's' novelty toy to sort things out.

Gibbons, now 87 and retired after serving 17 consecutive terms in Congress , is one of the few Operation Overlord paratroopers who held onto his military-issued "cricket," a brass and steel version of the cheap tin prize from a 1930s Cracker Jack box. The soldiers called the signaling devices "crickets" because of the sharp "crick" sound it made when pressed.

The crickets were lifesavers for American paratroopers scattered in the dark on a morning when using a flashlight to check a map or shouting in English meant instant death.

"The cricket was a stroke of genius," said Michael Gannon, a retired University of Florida history professor. "How else would you know who you bumped into in the dark? If you came across somebody, you clicked. If he responded in kind, you were friends. If he didn't, you shot him."

As interesting as what Professor Gannon and former Congressman Gibbons are telling, it is actually very old news. The movie and the book, The Longest Day, depicted the use of these crickets. Why is this suddenly news 63 years after the war and 45 years after the movie was shown? Is it that slow a news day in Florida?

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The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today's winner is the Motion Picture Association of America. They get the award for the following.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Attention film producers: smoking may now be hazardous to your movies.

The film industry group that rates U.S. movies in terms of their suitability for children Thursday unveiled new rules affecting tobacco use in films that would stop children from seeing movies that glorified lighting up on-screen.

The Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA, said that in the past, illegal teen smoking has been just one factor in rating films, alongside other parental concerns such as sex, violence and adult language.

But now smoking itself will be considered as a factor and depictions that glamorize smoking, or movies that feature pervasive smoking, may receive ratings that do not allow children into theaters to see them.

The only exception to that rule are films where the smoking is historically important like "Good Night, and Good Luck," which depicted the life of chain-smoking journalist Edward R. Murrow. The film was rated PG, meaning that parents could take older children to see it. Under the new rules, that rating would have remained the same, an MPAA official said.

*****

The industry group has long been under pressure from health groups to ban children from seeing characters light up in movies, a long-lived screen tradition, and the MPAA's decision fell short of that goal.

MPAA Chairman and CEO Dan Glickman said in a statement, "The rating board ... will now consider smoking as a factor, among many other factors, including violence, sexual situations and language, in the rating of films.

This is dumb and an indirect form of censorship. Why not rate movies for alcohol? Alcoholism is dangerous to a person's health. Why not other unsafe activities? Street racing, sky diving, talking on your cell phone when driving. You get the idea?

The Motion Picture Association of America is today's Knucklehead of the Day.

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Actress Kitty Carlisle dead at 96

I remember 'To Tell the Truth' but didn't know she was the same actress in 'A Night at the Opera'. TFM is a big Marx brothers fan, and that was in my opinion their best movie.

Otis B. Driftwood: It's all right, that's in every contract. That's what they call a sanity clause.
[Fiorello laughs loudly]
Fiorello: You can't fool me! There ain't no Sanity Claus!

There was another line where Groucho asks Chico if he knew what a duplicate was. Chico says those five kids in Canada. You have to love that movie and Kitty Carlisle was a part of it. RIP.

Linked to- Jo, Pirate's Cove, Random Yak,

NEW YORK (AP) -- Kitty Carlisle Hart, whose long career spanned Broadway, opera, television and film, including the classic Marx Brothers movie "A Night at the Opera," died after a battle with pneumonia, her son said Wednesday. She was 96.

"She passed away peacefully" Tuesday night in her Manhattan apartment, said Christopher Hart, a director-writer-producer who was at her side. "She had such a wonderful life and a great long run. It was a blessing."

Hart was touring the country in her autobiographical one-woman show, "Here's to Life," until the pneumonia struck around Christmas, her son said. Broadway's theaters planned to dim their marquee lights Wednesday in honor of the longtime patron of the arts.

In 1991, she received the National Medal of Arts from the first President Bush. Hart's last gig was a December performance of her show in Atlanta.

David Lewis, Hart's longtime musical director, said she would be remembered "as the grande dame not only of show business but also in her philanthropy and her support for the American musical theater."

Well known for her starring role as Rosa Castaldi in the 1935 comedy "A Night at the Opera," her other film credits included "She Loves Me Not" and "Here Is My Heart," both opposite Bing Crosby; Woody Allen's "Radio Days"; and "Six Degrees of Separation."

But she was probably best known as one of the celebrity panelists on the popular game show "To Tell the Truth." She appeared on the CBS prime-time program from 1956 to 1967 with host Bud Collyer and fellow panelists such as Polly Bergen, Johnny Carson, Bill Cullen and Don Ameche.

The show featured three contestants, all claiming to be the same person, with the panelists quizzing the trio to determine which one was telling the truth. Hart later appeared in daytime and syndicated versions of the show.

"People remember me from television," she once said. "They don't even remember me from `A Night at the Opera.' They have no idea that I played the lead and did all the singing. But they do remember television, particularly `To Tell the Truth.'"

She began her acting career on Broadway in "Champagne Sec" and went on to appear in many other Broadway productions, including the 1984 revival of "On Your Toes." In 1967 she made her operatic debut at the Metropolitan Opera in "Die Fledermaus" and created the role of Lucretia in the American premiere of Benjamin Britten's "Rape of Lucretia."

Hart's late husband was Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Moss Hart, who wrote "You Can't Take It With You" and "The Man Who Came to Dinner" with George S. Kaufman. He won a Tony for directing "My Fair Lady" on Broadway.

When Moss Hart directed "My Fair Lady" on Broadway, winning a Tony award, the production starred a young Julie Andrews.

"Her humanity, her wit, her great style were legendary," Andrews said in a statement Wednesday, calling the star "a beloved and trusted friend."

Kitty Carlisle Hart's film career began in 1934; in "Murder at the Vanities," she sang "Cocktails for Two," a song later made famous in a spoof by Spike Jones.

"A Night at the Opera" the following year was the Marx Brothers' sixth film and their first for MGM, where they shifted after their career at Paramount sagged at the box office. MGM's Irving Thalberg added more romance to the Marxes' formula, bringing in Hart and Allan Jones to play the young opera singers in love, and the film became a huge hit.

Elegant and sophisticated - with hair, makeup and dress perfectly in place - Hart has been called a "great dame."

In a piece on CBS' "60 Minutes" in 2000, Marie Brenner, author of "Great Dames: What I Learned From Older Women," said: "A great dame is a soldier in high heels. ... They lived through the Depression. They lived through the war. They were tough, intelligent and brassy women."

Discipline ruled Hart's success. She began every day with an exercise routine, even after turning 90.

Hart was born in New Orleans on Sept. 3, 1910. She attended the Sorbonne, the London School of Economics and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

Actor Barry Nelson Dead at 89

He was the first person to play James Bond on screen. I better remember him for 'Airport' where he piloted a crippled airplane. RIP.

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LOS ANGELES - Barry Nelson, an MGM contract player during the 1940s who later had a prolific theater career and was the first actor to play James Bond on screen, has died. He was 89.

Nelson died on April 7 while traveling in Bucks County, Pa., his wife, Nansi Nelson, said Friday. The cause of death was not immediately known, she said.

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1941, Nelson was signed to MGM after being spotted by a talent scout. He appeared in a number of films for the studio in 1942, including "Shadow of the Thin Man," "Johnny Eager" and "Dr. Kildare's Victory." He also landed the leading role in "A Yank on the Burma Road," playing a cab driver who decides to lead a convoy of trucks for the Chinese government.

Nelson entered the Army during World War II and went on the road with other actors performing the wartime play "Winged Victory," which was later made into a movie starring Red Buttons, George Reeves and Nelson.

After the war, Nelson starred in a string of movies, including "Undercover Maisie," "Time to Kill" and "Tenth Avenue Angel."

He is the answer to the trivia question: Who was the first actor to play James Bond? Before Sean Connery was tapped to play the British agent on the big screen in 1962's "Dr. No," Nelson played Bond in a one-hour TV adaptation of "Casino Royale" in 1954.

Nelson switched to the stage during the 1960s and 1970s, appearing on Broadway in "Seascape" "Mary, Mary" and "Cactus Flower." He earned a Tony nomination in 1978 for his role in "The Act," which also starred Liza Minnelli.

"He was a very naturalistic, believable actor," said his agent, Francis Delduca. "He was good at both comedy and the serious stuff."

Among his other film credits were "Airport" and "The Shining," and he also appeared on such TV shows as "Murder, She Wrote," "Dallas" and "Magnum P.I."

More recently, Nelson and his second wife (they married in 1992) spent a lot of time traveling. He planned to write a couple of books about his time on stage and in Hollywood.

On fire

Some news from Wisconsin. I think we need a law prohibiting people from using lighter fluid or rockets when intoxicated.(Cue the sarcastic laughter)

Linked to- Faultline, Jo,
Update- Captain Ed also finds this story amusing.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. - Attempts to do a movie stunt landed one man in the hospital with burned genitals and another facing criminal charges. The men were trying to do a stunt from one of the "Jackass" movies, in which a character lights his genitals on fire.

Jared W. Anderson, 20, suffered serious burns to his hands and genitals, according to the criminal complaint. Randell D. Peterson, 43, who sprayed lighter fluid on Anderson and lit him on fire, was charged with felony battery and first-degree reckless endangerment Tuesday in Eau Claire County Court.

Witnesses told police that Anderson, who was drunk, volunteered to do the stunt Sunday after watching the movie, the complaint said.

According to the complaint:

Anderson pulled down his pants and let Peterson spray him with lighter fluid. When the fire didn't catch, Peterson sprayed more lighter fluid on Anderson, splashing some on his clothing. He tried again to light the fire, catching Anderson's genitals, hands and clothes.

Anderson ran into the bathroom, jumped into the tub and put the flames out. Other guests took him to Luther Hospital, and eventually he was treated at the Regions Hospital Burn Unit in St. Paul, Minn., for second-degree burns.

Anderson told police who were called to the hospital that he didn't want anyone to get in trouble because of the stunt.

38 years

The Oscars are tonight and have already started. My wife is watching and I'm alternating betweening watching and reading a biography of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson. This has to be the first Oscar awards in over 30 years that I failed to see at least one of the major film nominees. So I'm clueless as to who will win.

One nominee tonight intrigues me. It is Alan Arkin. Nominated in the Best Supporting Actor Category for Little Miss Sunshine, I wonder if there ever was another actor or actress who has gone 38 years between Oscar nomination? In 1966 he was nominated for The Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming in the Best Actor category. Then in 1968 Arkin was nominated again in the same category for The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter. Then after that, nothing. Not that Arkin didn't do other memorable movies. Wait Until Dark between his two Oscar roles in 1967, Catch-22, Freebie and the Bean(A dumb movie or guilty pleasure), The Defection of Simas Kudirka and The In-Laws . The last was made in 1979. Then nothing, I mean I couldn't remember a movie with Arkin in it. Either I failed to see the films, or his roles were unmemorable. Had Arkin been forgotten? Most of the films I listed are rarely seen today.

I liked all the above Arkin movies. So if I got a sentimental choice, it is Alan. We'll soon find out who the winners are.

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The Day of the Sea lion

From ABC News-

SAN DIEGO Feb 12, 2007 (AP)— Dozens of dolphins and sea lions trained to detect and apprehend waterborne attackers could be sent to patrol a military base in Washington state, the Navy said Monday. In a notice published in this week's Federal Register, the Navy said it needs to bolster security at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, on the Puget Sound close to Seattle.

The base is home to submarines, ships and laboratories and is potentially vulnerable to attack by terrorist swimmers and scuba divers, the notice states.

Several options are under consideration, but the preferred plan would be to send as many as 30 California sea lions and Atlantic Bottlenose dolphins from the Navy's Marine Mammal Program, based in San Diego.

"These animals have the capabilities for what needs to be done for this particular mission," said Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the Marine Mammal Program.

LaPuzza said that because of their astonishing sonar abilities, dolphins are excellent at patrolling for swimmers and divers. When a Navy dolphin detects a person in the water, it drops a beacon. This tells a human interception team where to find the suspicious swimmer.

Dolphins also are trained to detect underwater mines; they were sent to do this in the Iraqi harbor of Umm Qasr in 2003. The last time the animals were used operationally in San Diego was in 1996, when they patrolled the bay during the Republican National Convention.

Sea lions can carry in their mouths special cuffs attached to long ropes. If the animal finds a rogue swimmer, it can clamp the cuff around the person's leg. The individual can then be reeled in for questioning.

I am wondering where the Animal Rights people are on this issue. Maybe I should drop PETA's President Ingrid Newkirk a message. TFM has her email address.

Oh and will they make a modern remake of this 1973 movie but based on this program with Sealions? I prefer the original movie's ending. I'd rather see the bad guys blown up with their own bombs than brought in for questioning.

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