Extra! Extra! Read All About it!

Thanks to a well-placed source (read: my friend Nicole at her kick-ass NY1 internship), I got the scoop that Rachel McAdams was filming her new flick right in the NY1 newsroom last week. Slated for a summer 2010 release, Morning Glory also stars Patrick Wilson (yum), Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton. It’s about a big-time television producer enlisted to help revive a struggling morning show. So it’s not exactly about hard-hitting journalism, but the setting got me thinking about my favorite reporters in classic films. Of course, they hold a special place in my heart being that we share the same chosen profession. (Though, sadly, my job has never included a “meet cute,” a murder mystery or a jaunt around Rome.)

1. Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940)

He's the newspaper editor, she's the best reporter he's got. Not even their divorce could separate their shared passion for the headlines.

2. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy in Woman of the Year (1942)

She's a prize-winning political journalist, and he's a lowly sports reporter - but together, they're magic! Hilarity ensues when he tries to teach her the rules of baseball...

3. Gregory Peck in Roman Holiday (1953)

This reporter thinks he's got the story of the century when he meets a runaway princess...too bad he ends up falling in love with her!


4. Clark Gable in It Happened One Night (1934)

Another down-on-his-luck reporter stumbles into front-page news when he meets a runaway heiress on a night bus. Again, love gets in the way.

5. James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story (1940)

He's an aspiring writer stuck working at a society tabloid. Katherine Hepburn helps bring him out of his rut.

Quick Quips for June 12th

"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying."

- Woody Allen

Quick Quips for June 9th

"I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They're beautiful. Everybody's plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic."

- Andy Warhol

The Great White Way to Hollywood!

Before Broadway became a haven for American Idol rejects (the bright lights are calling for you next, Adam Lambert) and movie stars looking to prove their “serious” acting abilities, it was the prime breeding-ground for Hollywood legends. That’s where many of the most celebrated actors of the 1940s and 50s were discovered. Think Marlon Brando, James Dean, Paul Newman, Audrey Hepburn, etc. Broadway was also where most film ideas were conceived. It was almost a given that a successful play would be adapted into a movie.

Oh, how the Great White Way has changed. It seems now more than ever established movie stars are trying their hand at the stage, rather than starting out their career there. Think Julia Roberts in Three Days of Rain, Katie Holmes in All My Sons, Jennifer Garner in Cyrano de Bergerac, etc. Most of the time it works out fairly well (i.e.: Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe in Equus) and it certainly brings people to the theater. But every so often you get the screen star who realizes he can’t hack it on stage and promptly comes down with a mysterious case of mercury poisoning. (Too much sushi, Piven? Really?)

The stage and screen have never been mutually exclusive, and nor should they be. Actors like Geoffrey Rush and Marcia Gay Harden (who both won Tony awards last night) prove that. But it takes a special talent to do both. Which is why Jeremy Piven should have never left his Entourage.

In commemoration of Broadway’s profound impact on Old Hollywood, here are some awesome photos:

Audrey Hepburn, Dolores Gray and Jo Van Fleet at the 1954 Tony's

Marlon Brando and Kim Hunter in a famous scene from 1947's A Streetcar Named Desire on stage

Paul Newman outside the Music Box Theatre, where he was starring in Picnic in 1953

James Dean playing opposite Geraldine Page in 1953's The Immoralist

Quick Quips for June 8th

"Over the past 50 years Bob Hope employed 88 joke writers...who supplied him with more than one million gags. And he still couldn't make me laugh."
-Eddie Murphy [the guy who made Meet Dave]

The Many Minnelli's...All Look the Same

In honor of last night’s Tony Awards (and to banish Alice Ripley’s psychotic acceptance speech from memory), I’d like to take a moment to recognized one of the legends of stage and film (and Arrested Development): Liza Minnelli.

The perpetual divorcee and ever-friend of Michael Jackson, if it weren’t for Liza we’re not sure where gay men would have found their first real icon. With that in mind, I celebrate the many faces of Minnelli. And by “many faces” I really mean “one face” because, why and how being beyond us, this woman hasn’t changed her look once in decades. Except maybe for wearing red instead of black. In any event, much respect.

Young Minnelli:

Later Minnelli

Same hair and practically the same clothes. How is this possible in entertainment?

Siren Centerfold: Janet Leigh

The first woman ever to show her bra on screen definitely deserves a place on our Siren Centerfold. She was also the first woman to get hacked to death in a shower and fall to the floor in a puddle of Bosco chocolate syrup on screen, but that’s beside the point.

Discovered by the actress Norma Shearer at a ski resort in Northern California, Janet Leigh secured a contract with MGM and began her film career in the late 1940s - as a brunette. She appeared in movies like 1949’s Little Women, 1953’s Houdini with then-hubby Tony Curtis (and today's Matinee Man) playing the famous magician, and 1958’s Touch of Evil with Orson Welles. It wasn’t until 1960 that she found her most memorable role as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (cue the scary violins). She received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Leigh succesfully paved the way for the sexy scream queens of today and proved that sometimes the best way to live on in movie history is to die an untimely death. Check out Janet Leigh’s killer good looks in today’s Siren Centerfold!

She married her first husband in 1942 at the age of 14! And no, she didn't live in Arkansas. The marriage was annulled the same year.

One of the "risky" bra scenes in Psycho.

Man, her waist was tiny!