Posts tagged: Hooray for Hollywood!

Humphrey Bogart in ‘Sahara’: A Brief Review

A few nights ago I decided on a whim to look for any Humphrey Bogart film I’d never seen. I landed on Sahara, a 1943 war film that was Bogart’s …..

The Huntsman Winter's War UK photocall held at Claridges - Arrivals.Featuring: Emily Blunt. Where: London, United Kingdom. When: 31 Mar 2016.

Emily Blunt Tries to Remember Her Lines

Here’s a great little video from Variety in which actress Emily Blunt is handed cards with lines from some of her past roles and tries to remember the movies. It’s …..

A bearded man peers at a tiny motion picture camera

Mark Gustafson Wins a Well-Deserved Oscar

Yes, yes, congrats to Michelle Yeoh and Brendan Fraser and The Daniels and all the famous names. But the really big winner of Oscar night 2023 is Mark Gustafson, director …..

Photo of James Cameron

James Cameron Got It Right Again

  The whole Avatar thing is the biggest boondoggle in the history of cinema. Who cares? — A S Hamrah (@hamrahrama) September 24, 2022 A lot of Avatar 2 tweets …..

John Carpenter Looks Back On His Career

John Carpenter, the director of iconic films like Halloween and Escape from New York, discusses his movies, his career, and his life in this lively Q&A interview with film fanatic …..

A marching band forms aviator sunglasses on a football field

Top Gun: The Marching Band Edition

Top Gun is back, 36 years later. Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 fighter-jock classic (again starring the ageless Tom Cruise) arrives in theaters on May 27. Deadline.com …..

Ryūsuke Hamaguchi Biography – New!

Our new biography of film director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi is now live. Ryūsuke Hamaguchi is the Japanese film director whose drama Drive My Car has been nominated for four Academy Awards …..

Marlene Dietrich is glam and beautiful in a slinky embroidered gown. She stands between two slicked-back men in tuxedoes who are staring intently at each other. All three are holding cocktail glasses in some kind of fancy mansion or hotel lobby.

Marlene Dietrich and Champagne: She Didn’t Quite Say That

Here’s a story about Hollywood legend Marlene Dietrich, Champagne, and a bad quote. The actress liked her sparkles, that much is clear. A supposed Marlene Dietrich quote about Champagne is …..

Photo of Orson Welles

Orson Welles Wasn’t Drunk After All

This infamous Orson Welles too-drunk-to-work video has been having a moment lately, 40 years after it was filmed. Now we’re happy to report on a surprising new twist. The story in …..

Cloris Leachman Knew How to Turn It On

So long, Cloris Leachman. You really knew how to turn it on. In 1984 I was 23 years old and had a $1000-a-month job working for Susan Shadburne, an independent filmmaker …..

Answers, Questions, and the Big Dream

For decades, game shows have been the TikTok of television. Regular old you and I were never going to appear on I Love Lucy or Lost in Space or Breaking …..

Alex Trebek is gray-haired but tidy, with a small smile and a direct gaze, over the all-caps name ALEX TREBEK and title 'The Answer Is...'

Alex Trebek’s Memoir Hits the Highlights

“I don’t have a lot of ghosts. I don’t have any bad memories that affect my life. It’s all good. Sure, I think of Mom and Dad and [sister] Barbara …..

Baby Yoda (er, Grogu) has huge horizontal ears, wide black eyes, and a scrunched-up (but cute!) face as he sits in a clamshell-type pod

Baby Yoda Biography: New!

Our new Baby Yoda biography is now live. It’s a stretch to call it a biography, of course, since the world knows so few facts about the li’l guy who …..

Doris Day leans against a tree trunk (real or fake) and smiles broadly for the camera

Doris Day and Carol Channing, Linked Forever in Death

Actress, singer and eternal nice girl Doris Day has died of pneumonia at age 97. (She fudged her age for years, but biographer David Kaufman finally pegged her birth year as …..

Michael Caine looks frantic as he sits in the open cockpit door of a small plane

Read Michael Caine’s Good-Natured Slag of ‘Jaws 4’

The great Michael Caine drops a quip about Jaws: The Revenge (in which he played “carefree airplane pilot” Hoagie Newcombe): He’s the best. The quote was prompted by a comment from Ricky …..

Photo of Jackie Robinson in Dodgers uniform, shot from below, poised to swing

Jackie Robinson, Happy 100th Birthday!

Happy 100th birthday to Jackie Robinson, one of the true American heroes of the 20th century. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, a racist barrier so strange and …..

Stan Lee Has Died at the ER to the Stars

Marvel Comics mastermind and comic book legend Stan Lee has died at age 95. No cause of death has been given, but The New York Times says that he died …..

Bill Paxton Biography: From JFK to ‘Big Love’

Actor Bill Paxton has died, quite suddenly, at age 61. His family said in a statement that “It is with heavy hearts we share the news that Bill Paxton has passed …..

Debbie Reynolds, Carrie Fisher, 1956

Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher: PHOTOS

Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, fellow actors as well as daughter and mother, have died one day apart. Fisher died of a heart attack on December 27th, and the next …..

Three smiling older folks are seen in proof-sheet head shots.

Holiday Cheer: 90+ and Still Entertaining

2016 brought us some sad deaths, from David Bowie to Muhammad Ali, but The Hollywood Reporter is ending the year with a happier feature: Entertainers who are still going strong …..

Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy in Jackie. Natalie Portman is the latest actress to take on America’s most stylish First Lady. Many famous brunettes including Jaclyn Smith, Roma Downey, Jacqueline Bisset, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Katie Holmes have tried on iconic Kennedy pillbox hat or oversize Onassis shades at some point in their careers. But here’s how that classic Kennedy style looks on Portman in the first official photo from Pablo Larraín’s Jackie..Featuring: Natalie Portman. Where: United States. When: 17 Dec 2015.

Natalie Portman as Jackie Kennedy: Does She Even Look Like Jackie?

Natalie Portman is playing First Lady Jackie Kennedy in the new biopic Jackie. The film just premiered at the Venice Film Festival and it’s a “brilliantly constructed, diamond-hard character study,” according …..

Cary Grant’s Suits: The Not-So-Strange Journey

Cary Grant has been dead since 1984, but his suits live on, according to a new Wall Street Journal article titled The Strange Journey of Cary Grant’s Suits. [2024 note: Article is …..

Leonardo DiCaprio attending the 2016 Vanity Fair Oscar Party Hosted By Graydon Carter at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on February 28, 2016 in Beverly Hills, California..Where: Hollywood, California, United States. When: 29 Feb 2016.

Leonardo DiCaprio Gets His Oscar Engraved

How do you get your name engraved on your Oscar? Turns out you just go to the Governors Ball and wait in line, as this Variety video shows: .@LeoDiCaprio gets his Oscar engraved at …..

Are You Ready for The Hamster Revenant?

Congratulations to Leonardo DiCaprio for his Oscar win for the gory mountain-man drama The Revenant. Now for more good news: the sequel is already here! Prepare yourself for: The Hamster Revenant. Next …..

Leonardo DiCaprio in a mountain man beard, looking stern

Leonardo DiCaprio: The Last Movie Star?

Is Leonardo DiCaprio the world’s last movie star? Ty Burr makes the case: Tom Cruise can’t open a movie anymore, unless it’s called “Mission Impossible: The Quest for Relevance”… Will …..

Star Wars World Premiere: Photos and Torch-Passings

  Yes, the Star Wars: The Force Awakens world premiere was held last night in Los Angeles, and Hollywood turned out for the passing of the light saber. Let’s go …..

The Danish Girl UK premiere - Arrivals.Featuring: Eddie Redmayne. Where: London, United Kingdom. When: 08 Dec 2015.

Eddie Redmayne is a Handsome Devil

Eddie Redmayne is looking good! The Oscar-winning actor has been on a press tour for his upcoming film The Danish Girl, in which he dons a wig, lipstick and dresses to …..

How Far Did Rocky Run?

Hint: more than a marathon. The Philly Post has a funny analysis.

Grumpy Cat is Going Hollywood

The popular feline meme is soon to be a star of books and (maybe) major motion pictures.

Fixing the Oscar Host Problem

In which we wade in, clean up the mess, and pick the perfect host for next year.

Cary Grant Preferred Double Vents, If You Know What We Mean

A wonderfully obsessive analysis of Cary Grant’s gray Kilgour suit from North By Northwest:”Ventless is unusual for an expensive single breasted jacket these days, yet have been familiar on double breasted suits since the ‘column’ look of the thirties. Grant apparently preferred double vents as he liked to put his hands in his pockets whilst acting.

Peter O’Toole Still Hasn’t Hit 80

Distinguished actor Peter O’Toole turns 79 years old today. He was born in 1932, which practically seems like yesterday.

Busy Weekend at the “ER to the Stars”

It’s no secret that Cedars-Sinai is our favorite Hollywood hospital.So we’re thrilled — thrilled — to report that two celebs had babies there this weekend.

Greatest Movie Sandwiches

From Denzel’s pastrami to Busey’s meatball sub, they’re all here.

Cannes from the Backside

Johnny Depp lets his suspenders down as he poses for photographers at Cannes this weekend. 

Uma Thurman Wears White at Cannes (Photos!)

Photos of the Cannes Film Festival never really get old, with the million photographers (in suits!) going crazy and the stars eating it up or enduring it, or both.  Robert De Niro is heading up the jury this year, which also features Jude Law and the beautifulandtalented

Angelina Jolie at Age 15

Angelina Jolie at age 15, in a portrait by photographer Harry Langdon. The shot was part of a large set of Langdon celebrity photos auctioned off last year; the group fetched a total of $122,000.Here’s Angelna Jolie as she looks 20 years later:

Photo of Tom Hanks

Just a Nice Photo: Tom Hanks and a Baby

Tom Hanks meets a random baby outside the Ed Sullivan Theater while doing the David Letterman show in 2009. I just like the matching expressions (and noses).Things hadn’t started out quite so badly…

The Hunt for Red October: Alec Baldwin’s ‘Beady-Eyed’ Producer Responds

Yesterday Alec Baldwin described how he was forced off the sequel to The Hunt for Red October in 1991.He named the “beady-eyed” producer responsible, David Kirkpatrick, and hinted that he was a specimen of the “lyingest, thievingest scumbags on Earth.”Today Kirkpatrick responded.

Oscar Winners Stare Bravely Ahead, Holding Their Oscars

It’s easier to look bravely into the future when you’re holding an Oscar in your hand.  Academy Award winners Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, Melissa Leo and Colin Firth did just that last nigh

Clint Eastwood In Your Kitchen

Here’s what it’s like when a Hollywood icon shoots a 20-second bit outside your front door. Best line:

Donald Sutherland Still Looks Supercool

Donald Sutherland poses on Hollywood Boulevard after receiving his star on the Walk of Fame.  Not many can pull off the pinstriped-suit-with-Santa-Claus-beard look.

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt Just Look Like Movie Stars

Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt delivered the movie glamour on Monday night at the world premiere of The Tourist in New York City.  Angelina Jolie stars with Johnny Depp in the big-budget thriller, set and filmed in Venice (

“Know What Mr. Peanut’s First Name Is?”

From a 2008 interview of Mad Men star Jon Hamm, conducted by fellow actor Paul Rudd:PR: Who’s your favorite cartoon potato-chip mascot?JH: The guy on the Pringles can. He looks like an old-time
shopkeeper, but he’s made of potato chips. If he got in a fight with Mr. Peanut and Mr. Salty, who do you think would come out on top?PR: Can Mr. Peanut use his cane as a weapon?JH: Absolutely.

Tony Curtis Dead at Age 85

Actor and old-school Hollywood icon Tony Curtis has died at his home near Las Vegas. Tony Curtis served in the Navy in World War II (he was in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender was signed) and then worked his way up through the old Hollywood studio system. He acted with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Cary Grant to Laurence Olivier — well over 100 movies in all.

Ouch! Roger Ebert Harshes on Joaquin Phoenix

The tragedy of Joaquin Phoenix’s self-destruction has been made into “I’m Still Here,” a sad and painful documentary that serves little useful purpose other than to pound another nail into the coffin.Roger Ebert takes on the new Joaquin Phoenix “documentary.”

Is Jerry Lewis Just Too Old for the Telethon?

Tom Shales goes there, delicately.Showing his cranky side, and hinting at his notorious temper, Lewis
complained repeatedly about the sound equipment, the plug in his ear and
not being able to hear.

Google Doodle Salutes ‘The Wizard of Oz’

Now, that’s a pretty cool Google Doodle. The Wizard of Oz was released on 12 August 1939, making it (as the Google Doodle points out) 71 years old today. The premiere was at the Strand Theater in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.  Why Oconomowoc?