News

by Cláudio Alves

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn's love story is the stuff of Hollywood legend. Whether you believe their devotion or side-eye the whole affair, whether you're charmed by their commitment or support the lavender allegations of some, it's impossible to deny how each of the actors' mythos exists in conversation with the other. Part of it stems from the bleeding of off-screen liaisons into the screen proper, immortalizing their partnership at 24 frames per second. They starred in nine pictures together, starting with 1942's Woman of the Year and ending with 1968's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, for which Hepburn won her second Best Actress Academy Award.

Out of this silver screen ennead, Adam's Rib is probably their best, joining the couple with George Cukor's elegant touch and a fantastic Oscar-nominated script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin. Today, the comedy celebrates its 75th anniversary…...

Anthea Sylbert, the two-time Oscar-nominated costume designer who worked on Rosemary’s Baby, Chinatown, Carnal Knowledge, Shampoo and Julia before becoming a studio executive and producer, has died. She was 84.

Sylbert died Tuesday in Skiathos, Greece, director Sakis Lalas told The Hollywood Reporter. Lalas just finished a documentary about Sylbert titled, My Life in 3 Acts.

Sylbert partnered with two-time Oscar-winning production Richard Sylbert on eight films and with his twin brother, Paul Sylbert — her first husband and another Oscar-winning production designer — on another three.

“Paul is the more bitter, more angry of the two,” she told Peter Biskind in 1993. “Someone once put it this way: Dick is more of a diplomat. He will put the ice pick somewhere in your back, you’re not quite sure, and you sort of feel tickled; Paul, while facing you, sticks it in your gut. I always used to think that if you put them together,...

NatGeo’s widely acclaimed new limited series “A Small Light” chronicles the heroism of Miep Gies and several other brave Amsterdam residents who hid Anne Frank and her family, as well as four other people from the Nazis in a hidden attic apartment in Otto Frank’s office building. After the eight Jewish residents were arrested and sent to concentration camps in 1944, it was Gies who saved Anne’s diary and kept it in her desk drawer. Otto Frank, who was the only member of the immediate family who survived the camps — Anne died of typhus in March 1945 at Bergen-Belson — returned to Amsterdam, Gies gave him Anne’s diary. And in 1947 “The Diary of a Young Girl” was published in Europe. Five years later, “Diary” made its way to America. It has been translated into over 67 languages.

Anne had received a red checkered autograph book for her 13th birthday on...

Arnold Schulman, who landed Oscar nominations for his screenplays for Love With the Proper Stranger and Goodbye, Columbus and found success with several incarnations of his Broadway hit A Hole in the Head, has died. He was 97.

Schulman died Saturday of natural causes at his home in Santa Monica, his son, Peter Schulman, told The Hollywood Reporter.

In two late-career triumphs, Schulman was recruited by Francis Ford Coppola to write the biopic Tucker: The Man and His Dream (1988), and he scored an Emmy nomination and a Humanitas Prize in 1994 for his teleplay for HBO’s And the Band Played On, an adaptation of Randy Shilts’ nonfiction book about the onset of AIDS.

An original member of the Actors Studio, Schulman in the 1950s worked alongside the likes of James Dean and Paul Newman on live television. In 1962, he quit as the original screenwriter on the never-completed Marilyn Monroe movie Something’s Got to Give,...

The Girl Can’t Help It

Blu ray

Criterion

1957 / 2.35:1 / 98 Min.

Starring Jayne Mansfield, Tom Ewell, Edmond O’Brien

Written by Frank Tashlin

Directed by Frank Tashlin

In 1957 it was commonplace for burlesque comedians to share the bill with a musical act or two, but in New York’s theater district one of those revues stood out from the rest—it opened on February 8th at The Roxy, a magnificent theater dubbed “The Cathedral of the Motion Picture.” But that cathedral had never held a service like Frank Tashlin’s The Girl Can’t Help It—for 98 minutes the congregation was cajoled, regaled, and set free by a parade of clownish mobsters, gyrating showgirls and hyperventilating rockers raising the roof in 4 track stereo—the only thing missing was 3D—and who needed that with Jayne Mansfield center screen and busting out all over. William Castle introduced the gimmicky Emergo for House on Haunted Hill...

On Christmas Eve 1951, NBC aired the very first “Hallmark Hall of Fame” with the world premiere of Gian Carlo Menotti’s Christmas opera “Amahl and the Night Visitors.” Rosemary Kuhlman and 12-year-old Chet Allen starred in this Peabody and Christopher Award-winning holiday story of the three Magi who stay with a young physically disabled boy and his widowed mother on their way to Bethlehem to find the Christ child. The presentation was so popular, the cast reprised their roles the following April. The production was done three more times in the 1950s on NBC, but Bill McIver played Amahl because Allen’s voice had changed.

The “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” which would air on NBC, ABC and CBS and is now exclusively on the Hallmark Channel, is the longest-running primetime series in TV history. In the past 70 years it has won over 80 Emmy Awards and dozens of Peabody Awards, Golden Globes,...

There’s a good chance that “Mank,” David Fincher’s stylish black-and-white chronicle of veteran Hollywood screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’ struggle to write the screenplay for Orson Welles’ 1941 masterpiece “Citizen Kane,” will dominate the Oscar nominations on March 15. Our Oscar experts are predicting the Netflix release could garner has many has 13 nominations including picture, director, screenplay for Fincher’s latest father Jack Fincher, actor for Gary Oldman and supporting actress for Amanda Seyfried.

Exactly 70 years ago Mank’s brother, writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, dominated the Academy Awards. His “All About Eve,” a sophisticated and sharp drama starring Bette Davis as aging theater actress Margo Channing who mistakenly befriends and mentors an ambitious young actress Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), earned 14 Oscar nominations. “All About Eve” actually broke all records for Oscar nominations besting 1939’s “Gone with the Wind” lucky 13 bids.

The younger Mank’s masterpiece went on to win six...

By Lee Pfeiffer

The Warner Archive has released a Blu-ray edition of the beloved 1952 Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn romantic comedy "Pat and Mike". Tracy and Hepburn had gelled with critics and audiences in their previous teamings. The film was directed by the estimable George Cukor, who Tracy and Hepburn had teamed with previously with great success. The screenplay is by Ruth Gordon and her husband Garson Kanin, who also provided the script for the earlier movie. Gordon and Kanin were close friends of Tracy and Hepburn and were inspired by the offbeat nature of their relationship. (Tracy remained married throughout his lifelong romance with Hepburn and he was noted for being short-tempered but charismatic.) They were also impressed by Hepburn's athletic abilities, especially in golf and tennis, and this formed the basis of the screenplay for "Pat and Mike". Indeed, Hepburn performs all of the sometimes incredible athletic feats seen onscreen.

Closing out a year in which we’ve needed The Criterion Channel more than ever, they’ve now announced their impressive December lineup. Topping the highlights is a trio of Terrence Malick films––Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The New World––along with interviews featuring actors Richard Gere, Sissy Spacek, and Martin Sheen; production designer Jack Fisk; costume designer Jacqueline West; cinematographers Haskell Wexler and John Bailey; and more.

Also in the lineup is an Afrofuturism series, featuring an introduction by programmer Ashley Clark, with work by Lizzie Borden, Shirley Clarke, Souleymane Cissé, John Akomfrah, Terence Nance, and more. There’s also Mariano Llinás’s 14-hour epic La flor, Bill Morrison’s Dawson City: Frozen Time, Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, Jennie Livingston’s Paris Is Burning, plus retrospectives dedicated to Mae West, Cary Grant, Barbra Streisand, and more.

Check out the lineup below and return every Friday for our weekly streaming picks.

Still one of Tracy and Hepburn’s best, this follow-up to Adam’s Rib works on all levels. It rings the feminist rights gong just hard enough, and drums the notion that women deserve a chance to achieve their potential without sex discrimination getting in the way. Katharine Hepburn is at her most attractive when being athletic. Some fine star-making supporting action adds to the fun, especially the contribution of a young Aldo Ray.

Pat and Mike

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1952 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 95 min. / Street Date August 25, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Aldo Ray, William Ching, Sammy White, George Mathews, Gussie Moran, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Don Budge, Alice Marble, Frank Andrew Parker, Betty Hicks, Beverly Hanson, Helen Dettweiler, Loring Smith, Phyllis Povah, Charles Bronson, Frank Richards, Jim Backus, Chuck Connors, Joseph E. Bernard, Owen McGiveney, Lou Lubin, Carl ‘Alfalfa’ Switzer, William Self, Frankie Darro.

“That’s all, honey, that’s all, say no more. Of course, there’s always a chance you could be an escaped fruitcake.”

Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn in Pat And Mike (1952) is aailable on Blu-ray From Warner Archive. Ordering information can be found Here

The sun will sneak by a rooster before sports promoter Mike Conovan (Spencer Tracy) lets opportunity pass him by. So the first time he sees genteel Pat Pemberton (Katharine Hepburn) swing a five-iron, he decides to ink her to a pro contract. “Not much meat on her ,” Mike later says, “but what’s there is cherce.” For this chercest of romantic comedies, George Cukor directs, Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin provide the Oscar®-nominated screenplay, and a deft cast plays various Damon Runyonesque types, including Aldo Ray as a dim-bulb palooka and Charles (Bronson) Buchinski as a tough guy who finds Pat tougher. Sports stars...

Olivia de Havilland, one of the last remaining actresses of Hollywood’s Golden Age and the last surviving star of Gone With the Wind, died July 26 of natural causes at her residence in Paris, where she lived for more than six decades, according to Variety. De Havilland was 104.

De Havilland turned 104 on July 1. She was the older sister of Joan Fontaine, who died in 2013 at 96. The two Academy Award-winning actresses were estranged for most of their lives. Olivia Mary de Havilland was born in Tokyo on July 1, 1916. Her parents, Walter de Havilland, an English professor, and actress Lilian Fontaine, were British. De Havilland and her sister grew up in Saratoga, California, with their mother. Her father married the family’s housekeeper and remained in Tokyo. Havilland’s first performance was in a school production of Alice in Wonderland.

She made her stage debut in Max Reinhardt’s production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Romantic comedies became coy sex chase comedies in the early 1960s, once Doris Day made ‘professional virgin’ a Hollywood career. This mistaken identity/crossed prevarications farce is better than most, thanks to charming performances by Jane Fonda and Rod Taylor, and a fine script by Norman Krasna, from his play. The story doesn’t dance around the issue of should she or shouldn’t she — the frustrated young heroine asks the question right out loud: ‘Am I supposed to sleep with a steady boyfriend?’

Sunday in New York

Blu-ray

Warner Archive Collection

1963 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date May 19, 2020 / available through the WBshop / 21.99

Starring: Jane Fonda, Rod Taylor, Cliff Robertson, Robert Culp, Jo Morrow, Jim Backus, Peter Nero, Jim Hutton, Alvy Moore, Teru Shimada.

Cinematography: Leo Tover

Film Editor: Fredric Steinkamp

Original Music: Peter Nero

Written by Norman Krasna from his play

Produced by Everett Freeman

Directed by Peter Tewksbury...

At the opening-night party of Matt Tyrnauer’s hit documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” at Tim Burton’s Chateau Marmont apartment, Scotty Bowers, the tousle-haired author of 2012 tell-all “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” celebrated his 95th birthday.

“So how gay was Spencer Tracy?” I asked him.

“He got drunk and thanked the man beside him in the morning for taking care of him,” he said with a gap-toothed grin, taunting me with his next provocation: “He didn’t just suck cock, he crunched it!”

We laughed. “And how gay was Katharine Hepburn?”

“She loved one woman for 40 years who left her to marry a rich man,” he said. He claims to have arranged 150 get-togethers with women over five decades for Hepburn. That was his job — putting gay people together via a Hollywood gas station for rendezvous with movie stars,...

At the opening-night party of Matt Tyrnauer’s hit documentary “Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood” at Tim Burton’s Chateau Marmont apartment, Scotty Bowers, the tousle-haired author of 2012 tell-all “Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars,” celebrated his 95th birthday.

“So how gay was Spencer Tracy?” I asked him.

“He got drunk and thanked the man beside him in the morning for taking care of him,” he said with a gap-toothed grin, taunting me with his next provocation: “He didn’t just suck cock, he crunched it!”

We laughed. “And how gay was Katharine Hepburn?”

“She loved one woman for 40 years who left her to marry a rich man,” he said. He claims to have arranged 150 get-togethers with women over five decades for Hepburn. That was his job — putting gay people together via a Hollywood gas station for rendezvous with movie stars,...

Actor Joseph Campanella died on Wednesday, May 16. He was 93.

Campanella, who received a Tony Award nomination in 1962 for best supporting actor for his performance in "A Gift of Time" along with Emmy nominations for Days of our Lives and Mannix, died of natural causes, his daughter-in-law, Sandy Campanella, said.

Campanella received his first Emmy Award nomination for playing private eye Joe Mannix's boss on the first season of the 1967-75 CBS series Mannix. His character's name, Lew Wickersham, was a sly reference to then-McA head Lew Wasserman and Lankershim Boulevard, an entryway to Universal Studios.

However, Intertect, the heartless crime-fighting corporation that Wickersham headed, was written out after the first season as Mannix (Mike Connors) went out on his own, and Campanella's contract was not renewed.

The actor also appeared in the recurring role of Ed Cooper, the ex-husband and father on CBS' One Day at a Time,...

Updated: Following a couple of Julie London Westerns*, Turner Classic Movies will return to its July 2017 Star of the Month presentations. On July 27, Ronald Colman can be seen in five films from his later years: A Double Life, Random Harvest (1942), The Talk of the Town (1942), The Late George Apley (1947), and The Story of Mankind (1957). The first three titles are among the most important in Colman's long film career. George Cukor's A Double Life earned him his one and only Best Actor Oscar; Mervyn LeRoy's Random Harvest earned him his second Best Actor Oscar nomination; George Stevens' The Talk of the Town was shortlisted for seven Oscars, including Best Picture. All three feature Ronald Colman at his very best. The early 21st century motto of international trendsetters, from Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro and Turkey's Recep Erdogan to Russia's Vladimir Putin and the United States' Donald Trump, seems to be, The world is reality TV and reality TV...

All sing the praises of Frank Borzage, a gentle director fully committed to the idea of romance in an imperfect world. Sally Eilers and James Dunn make a go of marriage, despite their personal flaws and difficulties with communication. It’s hard to believe that films of this vintage portray behaviors as sensitive as this.

Bad Girl

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1931 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 90 min. / Street Date December 13, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring James Dunn, Sally Eilers, Minna Gombell, Sarah Padden, William Pawley, Billy Watson.

Cinematography Chester A. Lyons

Film Editor Margaret Clancey

Written by Viña Delmar, Brian Marlow, Edwin J. Burke

Directed by Frank Borzage

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Directors don’t come any more romantic than Frank Borzage. It is said that he was one of several Fox directors, including John Ford, who were heavily influenced by F.W. Murnau, whose Sunrise was a massive hit in...

Looking to discover a top-quality film that honors lasting values? Jean Renoir gives Zachary Scott and Betty Field as Texas sharecroppers trying to survive a rough first year. It's beautifully written by Hugo Butler, with given realistic, earthy touches not found in Hollywood pix. And the transfer is a new UCLA restoration. With two impressive short subjects in equal good quality. The Southerner Blu-ray Kino Classics 1945 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 92 min. / Street Date February 9, 2016 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95 Starring Betty Field, Beulah Bondi, Carol Naish, Norman Lloyd, Zachary Scott, Percy Kilbride, Charles Kemper, Blanche Yurka, Estelle Taylor, Paul Harvey, Noreen Nash, Nestor Paiva, Almira Sessions. Cinematography Lucien Andriot Film Editor Gregg C. Tallas Production Designer Eugène Lourié Assistant Director Robert Aldrich Original Music Werner Janssen Written by Hugo Butler, Jean Renoir from a novel by George Sessions Perry Produced by Robert Hakim, David L. Loew Directed by Jean Renoir...

Each weekend we highlight the best repertory programming that New York City has to offer, and it’s about to get even better. Opening on February 19th at 7 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side is Metrograph, the city’s newest indie movie theater. Sporting two screens, they’ve announced their first slate, which includes retrospectives for Fassbinder, Wiseman, Eustache, and more, special programs such as an ode to the moviegoing experience, and new independent features that we’ve admired on the festival circuit (including Afternoon, Office 3D, and Measure of a Man).

Artistic and Programming Director Jacob Perlin says in a press release, “Jean Eustache in a Rocky t-shirt. This is the image we had in mind while making this first calendar. Great cinema is there, wherever you can find it. The dismissed film now recognized as a classic, the forgotten box-office hit newly resurrected, the high and the low,...

Rko's final in-house production is a good end-of-an-era film, a spirited and well-made musical comedy. Bright-eyed Jane Powell can't stop accepting marriage proposals, from nerdy Tommy Noonan, dreamboat kisser Cliff Robertson and zillionare Keith Andes. She imagines her future with each man in musical terms, through production numbers staged by Gower Champion. The Girl Most Likely DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1956 / Color / 1:78 enhanced widescreen / 98 min. / Street Date November 17, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Jane Powell, Cliff Robertson, Keith Andes, Kaye Ballard, Tommy Noonan, Una Merkel, Kelly Brown, Judy Nugent, Frank Cady, Joseph Kearns, Marjorie Stapp, Robert Banas. Cinematography Robert H. Planck Film Editor Doane Harrison Original Music Nelson Riddle Choreographer Gower Champion Written by Devery Freeman, Paul Jarrico (uncredited) Produced by Stanley Rubin Directed by Mitchell Leisen

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

From roughly 1925 to 1957, the powerful men in charge of the big studios controlled most aspects of production. That...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming just made her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell,Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winnerKathleen Marshall. Living on Love opened last night, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street.BroadwayWorld was there for the big night and below, you can check out interviews with the full company after they took their first official bows...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming just made her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell,Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winnerKathleen Marshall. Living on Love opened last night, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street.BroadwayWorld brings you photos from inside the curtain call below...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming just made her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell,Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winnerKathleen Marshall. Living on Love opened last night, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street.BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the red carpet theatre arrivals below...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming just made her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Living on Love opened last night, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street.BroadwayWorld brings you photos from inside the after party below...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming makes her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Living on Love opens tonight, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. Let's see what the critics had to say...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming makes her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Living on Love opens tonight, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre. Scroll down to learn more about the cast and watch interviews with the company...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming makes her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Living on Love opens tonight, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. The production will play an 18-week engagement through Sunday, August 2, 2015.

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming makes her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Living on Love is currently in previews and opens on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. The production will play an 18-week engagement through Sunday, August 2, 2015. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast onstage below...

Broadway's newest comedy Living on Love, written by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, is currently in previews at the Longacre Theatre, with opening night set for Monday, April 20, 2015. The production stars four-time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming, Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson.Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos of the company in the BroadwayWorld.com series 'In The Spotlight' by acclaimed photographer Walter McBride...

Four time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming makes her Broadway debut alongside Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, two-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Jerry O'Connell, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson in Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Living on Love begins performances tonight, April 1, 2015 and opens on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street.

Broadway's newest comedy Living on Love, written by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winnerKathleen Marshall, begins previews on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Opening night is Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. The cast just met the press and BroadwayWorld was there for the big day...

Broadway's newest comedy Living on Love, written by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winnerKathleen Marshall, begins previews on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Opening night is Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. The cast just met the press and BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was on hand to chat with the full gang. Check out what they had to say about the new musical below...

Broadway's newest comedy Living on Love, written by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, begins previews on Wednesday, April 1, 2015. Opening night is Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. The cast just met the press and BroadwayWorld brings you a photo preview from the special event below. Check back later for complete coverage...

BroadwayWorld.com is excited to bring you an exclusive behind the scenes look at the cast of Broadway's soon to be newest comedy, Living On Love from the show's fun new photo shoot. The show is written by Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, Living on Love begins performances on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 and opens on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre. Until then, go inside the special day by clicking below...

BroadwayWorld.com is excited to bring you an exclusive behind the scenes look at the cast of Broadway's soon to be newest comedy, Living On Love from the show's fun new photo shoot. The show is written by Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, Living on Love begins performances on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 and opens on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre. Until then, go inside the special day by clicking below...

Above: Us three-sheet poster for The Private Life of Henry VIII (Alexander Korda, UK, 1933).

The great Charles Laughton may not have been the prettiest of movie stars, but he had a presence that many matinee idols would have killed for (as the current retrospective running at Film Forum will attest). In an era in which glamor was everything, studio marketers may have struggled with how to present Laughton’s unconventional looks and his larger-than-life portrayals of larger-than-life characters (so many monsters, murderers, tyrants, or simply overbearing fathers) to the public. In most of the posters for his most famous film, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), he is all but a silhouette, a spoiler alert to his monstrous transformation as Quasimodo. And in some posters for The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933), the film for which he won his first Oscar, Henry is made to look more like the Hans Holbein...

The producers of Living on Love have announced that Jerry O'Connell completes the cast of Broadway's newest comedy by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, and directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. Living on Love begins performances on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 and opens on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. The production will play an 18-week engagement through Sunday, August 2, 2015. Tickets are now on sale to the general public. For more information, visit www.LivingonLoveBroadway.com...

Allegedly inspired by the amicable divorce of Raymond Massey and his wife (so amicable that the married lawyers happily divorced each other and tied the knot with their clients) and rooted in the screwball comedy tradition, Garson Kanin and Ruth Gordon’s script introduced an early feminist slant that took hold in the coming decade. Tracy insisted as usual on top billing, and when asked if he’d ever heard of “ladies first” he replied, “This is a movie, not a lifeboat”. An Adam’s Rib TV spinoff with Ken Howard and Blythe Danner lasted 11 episodes on ABC in 1973.

The producers of Broadway's newest comedy Living on Love just announced that Tony Award nominee Douglas Sills, 2-time Emmy Award nominee Anna Chlumsky, Blake Hammond and Scott Robertson will join 4-time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming in the production. Living on Love, by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall, begins performances on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 and opens on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. The production will play an 18-week engagement through Sunday, August 2, 2015. Tickets are now on sale to the general public. For more information, visit www.LivingonLoveBroadway.com...

Producers Scott Landis and Philip Morgaman have confirmed that 4-time Grammy Award winner Renee Fleming will make her Broadway debut this spring in the new comedy Living on Love by two-time Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro, based on the play Peccadillo by Garson Kanin, directed by three-time Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall. The production begins performances on Wednesday, April 1, 2015 and will open on Monday, April 20, 2015 at the Longacre Theatre 220 West 48th Street. Living on Love will play an 18-week engagement through Sunday, August 2, 2015.Tickets go on sale to the general public on Monday, December 29, 2014.

Ben Bradlee movies: From 'All the President's Men' to 'Born Yesterday' (photo: Jason Robards as 'The Washington Post' executive editor Ben Bradlee in 'All the President's Men') Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee aka Benjamin C. Bradlee, best known for his key role in the Watergate scandal that destroyed the Richard Nixon presidency, and who was later played by Best Supporting Actor Oscar winner Jason Robards in Alan J. Pakula's film version of All the President's Men, died of "natural causes" last October 21, 2014, at his home in Washington, D.C. Bradlee, who had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease, was 93. The Washington Post of the 21st century may look increasingly like a more pedantic version of the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid New York Post, but things weren't always like that. Back in the days when the American media — at least some of the time — actually bothered reporting news...

Episode 42 of 52: In which Katharine Hepburn and John Wayne star in The African Queen 2: This Time it's a Western!

Growing old in Hollywood sucks. To borrow a line from Goldie Hawn, “There are only three ages for women in Hollywood: babe, district attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy.” And while Hollywood’s ageism is well-documented and well-criticized, for some aging actors, an equally tricky problem can arise: the trouble with becoming a Legend in your own time. What happens when the legend eclipses the actor?

In 1975, Hepburn was arguably more popular than she’d ever been. This was due in no small part to her friend Garson Kanin’s unauthorized, best-selling 1972 “tell all” entitled Tracy And Hepburn: An Intimate Memoir. Though shocked by the invasion of her privacy, Kate used the public interest that the book generated to fuel her career, appearing on talk shows and even the 1974 Academy Awards (in pants,...

Marian Seldes, the Tony Award-winning star of A Delicate Balance who was a teacher of Kevin Kline and Robin Williams, a muse to playwright Edward Albee and a Guinness Book of World Records holder for most consecutive performances, died Monday at age 86. She died peacefully at her home after an extended illness, her brother Timothy Seldes said. "It is with deep sadness that I share the news that my dear sister Marian Seldes has died," he said in a statement. "She was an extraordinary woman whose great love of the theater, teaching and acting was surpassed only by her deep love for her family.

Polly Bergen dead at 84: ‘First woman president of the U.S.A.,’ former mistress of Tony Soprano’s father Emmy Award-winning actress Polly Bergen — whose roles ranged from the first U.S.A. woman president in Kisses for My President to the former mistress of both Tony Soprano’s father and John F. Kennedy in the television hit series The Sopranos — died from "natural causes" on September 20, 2014, at her home in Southbury, Connecticut. The 84-year-old Bergen, a heavy smoker for five decades, had been suffering from emphysema and other ailments since the 1990s. "Most people think I was born in a rich Long Island family," she told The Washington Post in 1988, but Polly Bergen was actually born Nellie Paulina Burgin on July 14, 1930, to an impoverished family in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her father was an illiterate construction worker while her mother got only as far as the third grade. The family...

In 2012, Joe Dipietro joined forces with director Kathleen Marshall to take a forgotten Gershwin show, revamp it, and turn it into hit Nice Work if You Can Get it. Now, according to The Boston Globe, they're at it again. This time, they are taking Garson Kanin's 1985 play Peccadillo and turning it into Living on Love. Living on Love follows a Italian maestro and his wife, an opera dive, who hire ghostwriters of the opposite sex to pen competing memoirs. They both become trapped between their drive to battle each other and the feelings that arise for their ghostwriters.

Episode 26 of 52: In which Tracy and Hepburn's best comedy shows that love, life, and law are a circus.

How are we already halfway through this series? How are we already halfway through this year? 2014 is going by faster than KHep’s dialog in Morning Glory. (See what I did there?) We’ve already covered one debut, an Oscar win, a masterpiece, a massive failure, an equally massive comeback, cinema chemistry history, racist history, communist history, and some odd miscellany, and we haven’t even gotten to the bulk of Kate’s Oscar nominations yet. Plus, in yet another moment of perfect symmetry, the 26th film is the pinnacle Tracy/Hepburn collaboration and a major milestone in Kate's career: Adam's Rib.

A woebegone wife attempts to shoot her husband when she finds him in the arms of his mistress. It’s the stuff that Law & Order episodes are made of.

With previews scheduled to begin March 8, the news that Diahann Carroll—set to star as Lena Younger—was dropping out of the Broadway revival of “A Raisin in the Sun” came as a surprise. The Denzel Washington–led production doesn’t necessarily need Carroll’s star power or narrative (this was to be her first return to the Broadway stage since 1983), but theatergoers can’t help but be disappointed at the lost opportunity. Then again, producers have already announced that Carroll’s replacement will be Latanya Richardson Jackson, which could be a career-defining opportunity for her. With that in mind, we cast a look back and found five other instances when a replacement turned out to do more than just Ok. Judy Holliday in “Born Yesterday” Garson Kanin wrote dumb blonde Billie Dawn for Jean Arthur—who couldn’t cope with the pressure and quit during out-of-town tryouts. Kanin called in Holliday,...

Williamstown Theatre Festival has announced the 2014 Main Stage Season, the 60th Anniversary Season for the Tony Award-winning theatre company. The Main Stage Season will kick off on July 2, 2014 with a revival of Ring Lardner and George S. Kaufman's June Moon, directed by Wtf favorite Jessica Stone July 2-13 the season will also include the World Premiere of Living on Love by Tony Award winner Joe Dipietro and Garson Kanin based on Kanin's play Peccadillo, with celebrated soprano Renee Fleming in her Festival debut, directed by Tony Award winner Kathleen Marshall July 16 - 26, and the highly anticipated revival of Kander and Ebb's The Visit, featuring Tony Award winner Chita Rivera, directed by Tony Award winner John Doyle July 31 - August 17.

Welcome to Holiday Favorites, a series in which Slackerwood contributors and our friends talk about the movies we watch during the holiday season, holiday-related or otherwise.

Bachelor Mother, a 1939 romantic comedy from writer/director Garson Kanin (My Favorite Wife, Born Yesterday), is a film my sister and I make a point to watch together around New Year's Eve. It's one of the only DVDs of which we both have a copy (Monsoon Wedding might be the other). Ginger Rogers stars as Polly Parrish, a department store employee who loses her temp job the day after Christmas and stumbles upon an orphaned baby. Forces beyond her control make her keep the child, although she once attempts to foist the baby off on David Niven's rich playboy character. 

The plot involves screwball antics, a stern and wealthy businessman (played nimbly by character actor Charles Coburn) who yearns for his son to settle down,...