Tune in to TCM: Be Our Guest

This post begins a new subsection for "The Latest on TV" that will highlight the monthly programming for every movie lovers' favorite cable channel, Turner Classic Movies.

Kicking things off, November is "Guest Programmer Month" at TCM, where 29 famous names (and one lucky contest winner) present four of their personal pic picks each night. In addition to some of our celeb faves -- like Whoopi Goldberg (1), Cybill Shepherd (15), Tracey Ullman (17), Martha Stewart (30) and even Kermit the Frog (21) -- three gay icons are also participating in the month long event:

• Gore Vidal (4): The celebrated author and screenwriter includes two classic melodramas -- Bette Davis in The Letter and Vivien Leigh in That Hamilton Woman -- and two Shakespearean adaptations -- James Cagney in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Laurence Olivier in Hamlet.
• Charles Busch (8): The stage diva extraordinaire naturally picks a quartet of legendary ladies of the silver screen: Judy Garland (I Could Go on Singing), Ida Lupino (The Hard Way), Norma Shearer (Escape) and Joan Crawford (A Woman's Face).
• Harvey Fierstein (26): One-upping Vidal and Busch, the beloved theatrical legend has both Bette (The Catered Affair, a stage version of which he'll star in on Broadway next spring) and Joan (in The Women, natch), plus two rarities about misfit youths, The Boy with the Green Hair and The Devil is a Sissy.

Weekdays this month will find airings of some of the most popular film series ever, from spies (The Saint) to lawyers (Perry Mason) to doctors (Dr. Kildare) to the Mexican Spitfire, not to mention a slew of detectives (Nancy Drew, Philo Vance, Dick Tracy, Sherlock Holmes, The Thin Man, The Gay Falcon) and two days worth of Andy Hardy.

And finally, notables from the "Not on DVD" file: Test Pilot, The African Queen, The Magnificent Ambersons (3), This Sporting Life (7), Four Daughters (10, 27), None But the Lonely Heart (12), Blues in the Night (14), Red Dust, Kes (17), Maytime (19) and The Crowd (22).

Numbers in parenthesis are the airdates for each program; check the TCM schedule for showtimes in your area.

Links via TCM.com.