Category: Entertainment

There are two things about this that amazed me.

1. I never dreamed he might still be alive. He seemed to be on every game and panel show in the 50s, but I probably haven’t thought about him in 60 years, so he seemed like something from the ancient past. Actually, that’s wrong. I do give a passing thought to him every Christmas when I hear a certain famous song, and remember how my little sister used to mis-hear the lyrics as:

In the meadow we can build a snowman
And pretend that he is Orson Bean

2. He was not claimed by disease or old age. He died doing a crazy stunt with those “Jackass” guys. OK, I’m kidding about that, but he did die in an auto accident. I’m going to guess that wasn’t the favored betting line.

Robert Conrad, Star of TV’s ‘The Wild Wild West,’ Dies at 84

Best opening/closing credit sequences of its era:

Two minor things I remember about that show (which I found very entertaining):

1. Jim West’s wardrobe got me interested in wearing fancy vests that complemented but did not exactly match my suits, and that became my own signature “look” until I retired.

2. Ross Martin’s disguises always looked exactly like Ross Martin wearing cheap stage make-up, and the voice was always instantly recognizable. He was truly the master of deception! The name of his character was Artemis Gordon, and when he showed up in his cheap Halloween disguises, I always expected the villains to say “Oh, hi Arty!” (But apparently Dr. Loveless wasn’t the genius he claimed to be, because he never could see through that transparent artifice.) My theater friends and I used this as an insult. “Do I really look like a realistic old man?” “Hell, no. It looks like Ross Martin did your make-up.”

“He was the last man standing of all the great stars of another time.”

And a great star he was, and sometimes a great social justice warrior, although his personal life was (allegedly) sometimes not so heroic.

Years ago I saw him tell an interviewer that his favorite Kirk Douglas film was “Lonely are the Brave,” a low-budget modern Western that has never received much attention, but was a damned good choice.

“It’s from a 2015 couples therapy session in which Amber purportedly confesses to physically abusing Johnny.”

I doesn’t seem that there’s any “purportedly” involved. The tapes are almost professional quality, so Heard can be heard clearly, and the link above has a full hour-long conversation between them. If you don’t have the patience for that, here’s a brief but significant sample:

Amber has had other domestic violence issues in the past.

Well, at least they tried to make it work.

“She keeps trying to find love. Seems it has escaped her yet again.”

There was only one upset I could see, relative to the expected Oscar winners. Greta Gerwig is expected to win the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, but the BAFTA went to Taika Waititi. I would have made the same call. I have not read the book (“Caging Skies”), but it’s obvious that he did an amazing job of creating a heartfelt comedy from a bleak story.

With unintentional irony, Joaquin Phoenix called out the BAFTAs for racism on the same night they gave both screenwriting awards to deserving non-whites. Taika Waititi is a double minority – non-white and Jewish. And as for Bong Joon-ho … well, that doesn’t sound like a Norwegian name to me.

Here is my proposed rule for all the film and TV academies: award winners can make all the woke speeches they want, as long as they are specific. If you think Greta Gerwig should have been nominated as the best director, you have to specify which of the five nominees she should have replaced. Mendes, Phillips and Bong Joon-ho obviously deserve nominations, so if you have the balls to piss off Scorsese or Tarantino, have at it. Same deal if you think Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Awkwafina or J-Lo should have been nominated. This will show that (1) you have some cojones and (2) that you have actually given the matter some thought and are not just mouthing bromides for the politically correct.

And yes, I would throw out Pacino or Pesci to nominate Jamie (for example). In fact, you can toss them both out and give the fifth nomination to somebody else, of color or otherwise. A decent choice would be either the little kid or Sam Rockwell in JoJo Rabbit, but those are just two that come to mind immediately. You can probably name a dozen people who deserved those nominations more than Pesci and Pacino and there are probably non-whites on your list.

It seems to me that the recipe for inclusiveness in nominations is simply to expand the number of nominees in each category. There is no magic significance to the number five. Make it ten. More people can claim to be Oscar nominees. More films can claim to have earned Oscar nominations. Where is the downside to that?

Yesterday I watched the last of the nine Best Picture nominees.

I would rank them as follows, based purely on how much I admired them, not on their likelihood of winning:

1917
Parasite
JoJo Rabbit
Ford vs Ferrari
Little Women
One Upon a Time in Hollywood
The Irishman
Marriage Story
Joker

I liked some other movies better than some of the nominees, but I didn’t like any film more than 1917. It’s not just a brilliantly designed and executed movie, but also a thrill ride. I was on the edge of my seat for pretty much every minute of that flick – and I was absolutely dazzled by several of the scenes.

Parasite is also very impressive and original.

I liked Little Women very much. I liked they way it interpreted Alcott’s characters, and I also liked the changes it introduced. But … I watched it with several women who have forgotten the book, having read it long ago from their high school summer reading lists, and they could not follow it. I was constantly having to pause to answer questions. “Now how old are they here?” “Does this scene happen before or after that one where …?” The script definitely has some problems with the time shifts, because a story originally written for juvenile readers should not confuse a bunch of adult women with graduate degrees, especially when they have already read the book. Since Greta Gerwig was doubly responsible for that as both author and director, I understand fully why the Academy passed her over for the best director Oscar. For the same reason, I don’t even think she should have received the nomination for best adapted screenplay – and she’s the favorite to win that one!

(I can’t fairly judge this confusion because I do so much homework before watching a film. I didn’t actually re-read Little Women and Good Wives, but I brought myself completely up to speed by reading a full synopsis of their plots, several short bios of Alcott, and some critiques of her books. As a result, none of the time shifts bothered me, and I was able to appreciate how Gerwig approached the project. But I also hear what my friends were saying.)

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IMDb voters rank them as follows:

Joker
Parasite
1917
Ford vs Ferrari
Marriage Story
Little Women
JoJo Rabbit
The Irishman
One Upon a Time in Hollywood

The bookies see it like this:

1917
Parasite
One Upon a Time in Hollywood
Joker
The Irishman
JoJo Rabbit
Marriage Story
Little Women
Ford vs Ferrari

Note that Parasite is second on all three lists. It may turn out to be the dark horse in the race.

The marvelous Terry Jones has left us. Everyone sing along with Eric Idle:

For many of us, Jones represented a glorious, madcap part of our youth. In addition to his performances, he directed (or co-directed) two of the best comedy films ever conceived: Life of Brian and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He also co-wrote and co-starred in those films. He’s the Welsh Mel Brooks – with a degree from Oxford as a sweetener.

“If you’re dropping by again, do pop in. Heh. And thanks a lot for the gold and frankincense, er, but don’t worry too much about the myrrh next time.”

“Holzhauer, who seemed poised to beat Jennings at the end of Tuesday’s match, missed a Shakespeare-themed clue on Final Jeopardy and lost all the points he had accumulated in the second game.”

Rutter didn’t impress in the tournament, but those other two guys were freakin’ unreal. They are not only filled with info, but they are capable of producing it instantly.

“Information we received from a trusted source of the community … was found to be FALSE!”

At Other Crap we strive to keep you posted about everyone who is not dead. Here for your convenience, is a list of the other seven and a half billion living earthlings:

Ahe Aaaloa
Aaron Aab
Abie Aab

Continue reading “Contrary to earlier reports, Julie Strain is not dead” →

Kidding aside, when I saw this pic listed in the Post’s obits, I was shocked at the death of Tom Hanks. So it’s a strange death for poor Neal Peart, because I was relieved that he died (rather than Hanks).

RIP to Rush’s drummer, who was much more than a drummer. He was also an accomplished lyricist, and authored several books, encompassing both fiction and non-fiction.

Edd Byrnes was one of the first TV stars to get youth “buzz” as Kookie, the hair-combin’, jive-talkin’ car valet on the hit series 77 Sunset Strip.

He even had his own novelty song, “Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb.” (And, man, is it annoying!)

“Buck Henry, the legendary screenwriter behind The Graduate and What’s Up, Doc? who also co-created Get Smart and was a regular presence in the early years of Saturday Night Live, died tonight of a heart attack at Cedars-Sinai Health Center in Los Angeles. He was 89.”

Best Picture awards: 1917 (drama), Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (comedy), Parasite (foreign language), Missing Link (animated).

Best actor: Joaquin Phoenix

Best actress: Renee Zellweger

Complete list here.