If you’re like me, you probably had a crush on her at one time. The spectacularly beautiful actress was the co-star of the popular cop series, Hunter, in the mid- to late 80s.

I’m not sure why she popped into my head, but I wondered what happened to her post-Hunter career, and what she looks like now. She never really hit it big. Her movie career consisted of indies and made-for-TV throwaways, and her singing career just never took off. She re-emerged for the short-lived 2003 Hunter reboot, and still acts occasionally in episodic TV. Somehow I haven’t ever run across her since the original Hunter series, but she’s been out there all this time, plugging away.

She never did a nude scene. Her character had a sex scene in Beyond Suspicion, but the nudity was provided by a body double.

1984 and now:

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Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, aka Bialystock and Bloom, presented his statue. Mel is literally older than the Oscars, and is as feisty as ever. Now THAT is a true showbiz legend, and he deserved to be part of the main broadcast.

Speaking of the Oscars, here is the full list of winners. Every one of the betting favorites won except Lily Gladstone. The “Best Actress” race was the only one where the odds were close, and it provided the only real nail-biter in an evening of foregone conclusions. In my opinion, Emma Stone did a better job with a more difficult role, but I have to admit I was rooting for Lily.

The best Kimmel gag of the night came after the show was finished: a very quick look at the dog from Anatomy of a Fall pissing on Matt Damon’s star on the Walk of Fame. I figured that Kimmel would get a Damon joke in there somewhere, but I thought he had blown a great chance in the last minute when every major Oppenheimer contributor was on the stage except Damon (who was not in attendance). I’m glad I didn’t turn the show off when Kimmel said goodnight.

“At first glance the clips could easily be taken as the work of a zealous Star Wars fan with a penchant for beer and a little too much time on their hands. However, against all odds, the ads appear to be real, as evidenced by legal documents spotted by Gizmodo Australia on the Chilean Consejo de Autorregulación y Etica Publicitaria (Self-Regulation and Advertising Ethics Council) website, which detailed Lucasfilm’s grievances with the campaign.”

They were produced back in 2003, but went viral this past week.

I understand why Lucasfilm is upset, but I think the two parties should figure out a way to settle, because these ads are kinda awesome and should resume.

These were all impressive but Christian Bale’s weight loss was just nuckin’ futs. Most of these dedicated performers returned to their usual appearance after the film wrapped.

There was at least one exception: Russell Crowe seemed to struggle with the weight he put on, and maybe even put on a little more.

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I kinda wonder …

If it is politically incorrect to hire straight actors to play gay men, or to hire Europeans to play Asians, why is it OK to ask average-sized actors to gain weight so they can play Crisco-Americans? The plus-sized need a stronger lobby.

You’ve probably seen the post already, but …

I just added an alternate clip of the booty scene from the 2007 “Imperial Edition.” It was one of the extras on that three-disk issue.

I also added a link to Gore Vidal’s original 1975 script (which was more or less abandoned when the movie was filmed four years later).

The post is here.

In this update: another version of the sex scene from The Imperial Edition, and a link to Gore Vidal’s original script.

There’s a new “Caligula: The Ultimate Cut” with previously unviewed scenes of Helen Mirren (and others). Mirren even offers a Full Heche and a spread-legged shot as she rolls over. What I find intriguing about this is that the new cut allegedly consists entirely of footage never seen before: alternate takes, alternate angles, deleted scenes, etc.

Variety’s review of the film.

Red band trailer here.

UPDATE: Helen Mirren – open leg shot as she rolls over.

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Captures:


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Film clips here. The top one is the one with the open-leg shots.

UPDATE:

About 15 years ago, a very poor quality alternate cut of this scene appeared in the extras of the three-disk issue called The Imperial Edition. Yes, that was yet another cut from completely different angles. Obviously, they shot a ton of coverage for this film. God knows how many more versions can be milked out of this.

Also naked in the new footage: Teresa Ann Savoy.


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Here’s a .gif.

At this moment, it seems that the only place you can buy The Ultimate Cut is Spain. Other releases, including theatrical, are planned.

UPDATE:

Gore Vidal wrote the first draft of this screenplay, but the film bore little or no resemblance to his script, so he sued to have his name removed from the film and its publicity. You may remember all of that, but you might not remember that there was a novelization of Vidal’s original script. I have that paperback somewhere in the chaos that is my book collection. It originally sold for $2.25, but is now going for eighty bucks on Amazon Marketplace (even more elsewhere!) Instead of buying a crappy eighty-dollar paperback, you can read Vidal’s actual script for free.

Go crazy, because “real life is for March.”

That clip left out some of my favorite parts, like when Alec Baldwin is visited by the ghosts of Leap Day Past, Present and Future. The dyed-in-the-wool Republican is horrified to see what happens in a future created by his parental neglect. Because he tried to make more money on Leap Day instead of spending time with his daughter, he must face his worst nightmare: she grows up to work for Habitat for Humanity!

I have a real soft spot for this episode of 30 Rock, which I would rank among the top twenty sitcom episodes of all time. (Where is Chuckles the Clown now that we really need him?)

In addition to Leap Day and Chuckles, some of my other nominees:

The series finale of Blackadder. Funny and touching.

The “Communication Problems” episode of Fawlty Towers.

“The Contest” on Seinfeld.

“Flowers For Charlie” on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

“The Spanish Inquisition” on Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

“The Doll” on Curb Your Enthusiasm.

“Turkeys Away” and “Commercial Break” (the Mr. Ferryman episode) on WKRP in Cincinnati.

“Arthur After Hours” on The Larry Sanders Show.

“Kissing Your Sister” on Veep.

“Louie Goes Too Far” on Taxi.

My lowbrow darkhorse: “Castaways Pictures Presents” on Gilligan’s Island. The castaways find a camera and film, so they make a zero-budget movie and send it off on a raft or something. It is discovered, but does not help them get rescued. Their consolation prize: The French love their chaotic, incomprehensible gibberish, and it wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes.

No special episode, but any MASH appearance by Colonel Flagg. (I just never found MASH to be that funny, although it occasionally tugged at my heartstrings.)

I’m sure that I must be forgetting many. “The Adventures of Pete and Pete” isn’t a traditional sitcom. It’s an afternoon kiddie show from Nickelodeon, but I’d probably nominate at least three episodes from that show, which may be my favorite comedy of all time. I’d mention some episodes of Arrested Development and the underrated Go On (which one of you turned me on to), but I can’t immediately separate the episodes in my head.

‘Mary Poppins’ age rating increased in U.K. due to ‘discriminatory language’”

The objectionable word is “Hottentot.”

From context, I knew that the “Hottentots” were an African group of some kind, but I didn’t know exactly what a Hottentot was until today, and I didn’t know it was a disparaging term. There is a scene in Mary Poppins where some stuffy old fart insults the chimney sweeps by comparing their blackened faces to Hottentots. Frankly, as I listen to that with today’s ears, I think it would be offensive even if “Hottentot” were the accepted name for that ethnic group. I guess things were different in 1964, when white people could get by with all kinds of racist shit.

As the good lord intended. (Or so they thought at the time.)

Oppenheimer is the prohibitive favorite:

The format of the list below is (Title Odds IMDb RT%)

Oppenheimer -700 8.4 93%
Poor Things +1200 8.4 92%
Barbie +1400 6.9 88%
The Holdovers +1400 8.0 97%
Killers of the Flower Moon +2500 7.7 93%
Anatomy of a Fall +2500 7.8 96%
The Zone of Interest +4000 7.7 93%
American Fiction +5000 7.6 94%
Past Lives +10000 7.9 96%
Maestro +10000 6.6 79%

I have seen them all but Anatomy of a Fall and Past Lives. I will see Anatomy tomorrow, but I’m not sure when I’ll see Past Lives. I agree with IMDb voters and critics that Maestro is the weakest entry. I think Bradley Cooper did a great job of putting it all together as the director, but not such a great job on the script.

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Speaking of Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Junior are also heavy favorites for the male acting nods, and Chris Nolan is considered an absolute lock for the direction award. (-2000)

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Last year all the favorites won in the major categories except for Best Supporting Actress, where Angela Bassett was considered a very slight favorite over the winner, Jamie Lee Curtis. That one was considered a three-way horse race among those two and Kerry Condon, and it was so closely matched that it would be fair to say that they were all co-favorites.

Only one long shot came in last year. All Quiet paid off 9-1 for best production design. (I’m assuming that you consider 9-1 a long shot, and that you give a shit about the Oscar for production design).

Here’s a rarity: captures from a version of the film that currently seems unavailable.

Captures and comments from Johnny Moronic:

That Lady from Peking

Another movie from the American director of Color Me Dead (1969) and It Takes All Kinds (1969), who made another B-grade movie for American audiences starring American actors Carl Betz, Nancy Kwan and singer Bobby Rydell. This time it’s a spy thriller with an East Asian angle.

Interestingly, in the versions available online there’s a scene where Australian actress Sandy Gore is in the bath but there’s some very dramatic edits in the scene heavily suggesting something was cut out. Thankfully Ozmovies has posted pics from an uncut version of the movie where we see Sandy’s breasts and bottom. I collected a few pics (below), but that is all that’s available at the moment.


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I’m generally surprised to see Sandy in a nude scene, as I can’t remember her having any such scenes in the many things I’ve seen her in. She still turns up fairly regularly in TV and movies.

Hopefully the uncut version can be found.

Scoop’s notes:

Carl Betz was a huge TV star at one time. He played Donna Reed’s husband in hundreds of episodes of The Donna Reed Show, and was then the titular Judd in Judd for the Defense.

Bobby Rydell was a popular singer in the USA in the interim between Elvis’s departure for the service and the Beatles breaking through. Rydell’s big hits all came in 1959 and 1960, while Elvis was a G.I. (Pop music was not especially distinguished in that period. Everyone was looking for the messiah, but there were mostly false prophets. Rydell was one of several who broke through in Elvis’s absence. Neil Sedaka, Frankie Avalon and Paul Anka were also members of that club.)

Obviously Betz and Rydell had both fallen from their earlier, loftier perches if they were reduced to appearing in crap like this.

Director Eddie Davis made three films in Oz, as noted by Johnny, but all of them starred B-list American TV actors instead of Aussies, so he was obviously making them primarily for the American market. His stars included Tom Tryon, Carolyn Jones, Robert Lansing, Sid Melton and Barry Sullivan. His “name recognition” ploy didn’t seem to work, in that these films have basically escaped notice from then until now. The director’s post-Australia life is kind of a mystery. The film covered above seems to be his final credit, although he lived another 16 years. I don’t know the explanation.

Let’s face it, that is a turnstile through which we must all pass eventually.

“Choi Min-ah, the daughter of a company president, mistakes a new machine as a device which helps her with her fatigue, and she is accidentally turned into a chicken nugget. As her father, Choi Seon-man and intern Go Baek-joong who has a crush on her, try to turn her back into a human, they discover unexpected secrets.”

I wonder how many nugget-related secrets can truly be unexpected.

Johnny Moronic says: “The movie seems to be only available as a bootleg workprint. The version I have has no tail credits and a timecode. Better than nothing I guess.”

VHS captures.


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Unless you are Australian you have probably never heard of this film. Even if you are Australian, you may never have heard of it unless you are a major film buff, but it played a role in the history of Aussie filmmaking.

As Miles Ago points out, “Although it was a critical and commercial failure at the time of its release and has rarely been seen since, Two Thousand Weeks (aka 2000 Weeks) was a landmark for the Australian film industry, since it was the first all-Australian feature film to gain a mainstream cinema release in Australia since 1958.”

It represented the first film of Tim Burstall, who began his career with a dream of being a respected auteur. When this heartfelt artistic film bombed, he did a 180 and started to produce audience-pleasing junk films like Alvin Purple, a notorious sex farce.

You can learn everything you could possibly want to know about this film here

And you can see Johnny Moronic’s film clips here.


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This revered screen treasure is now on Tubi in its entirety. In addition to Angelique, it features several actors whose names you probably know: Julie “Living Doll” Newmar, Wally “Underdog” Cox and Victor “Count Manzeppi” Buono (pictured above with Pettyjohn). I’m guessing that all of them save Pettyjohn wanted to forget that they were ever in this movie.

I don’t remember why, but I actually wrote a lengthy review of this offbeat flick. Here’s a line that will give you at least a small clue to the insanity of this film:

Oh, boy, I’ve been putting off mentioning this one, because it is just too embarrassing to type. This must be the only film in which Wally Cox does a nude sex scene.

Julie Newmar mentions in the DVD special features that the film was made for literally zero budget. The director filmed without permission in various locations, and never paid the actors. (We presume he conned people out of a camera and film.) It goes without saying that no actor would ever work for him after that, so this remains his one and only film.

Trivia:

1. The evil count’s full name was Carlos Mario Vincenzo Robespierre Manzeppi. That was a character in Wild Wild West. In the same era, Buono also played the villainous King Tut in the campy Batman series. Coincidentally, Newmar also played a Batman villain, Catwoman. (I assume it’s a coincidence, unless the director specifically tried to hire Batman characters.)

2. I’m so old that I remember Wally Cox as “Mr. Peepers,” a high school teacher who was not a voyeur, despite his name. (C’mon, man. It was the 50s.)

3. You probably know that Angelique was Captain Kirk’s green-haired love interest in “The Gamesters of Triskelion.” She was popular at Star Trek conventions for many years, but died while still in her 40s.