Monthly Wallpaper - February 2011: Best Actresses

With just under a month to go until Oscar night, this month's Movie Dearest Calendar Wallpaper takes a look back at the Best Actresses, the legendary leading ladies who took home the Academy's gold man in years past.

These iconic performances of unforgettable characters include Cher as Loretta, Sally as Norma, Katharine as Eleanor, Diane as Annie, Frances as Marge, Meryl as Sophie, Barbra as Fanny, Elizabeth as Martha, Jessica as Daisy, Charlize as Aileen and more.

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.

MD Poll: 21st Century Oscar

With the recent crowning of The Hurt Locker as Oscar's Best Picture of 2009, it is time to look back at the 2000s to pick the best of the best.

Of the ten Academy Award winning Best Pictures since 2000, which movie is your favorite? Make your pick and place your vote in the MD Poll located in the right hand sidebar. The ultimate Best Picture of the 2000s will be revealed on May 8.

Monthly Wallpaper - March 2010: Best Actors

With one week to go until Oscar night, this month's Movie Dearest Calendar Wallpaper takes a look back at the Best Actors, the legendary leading men who took home the Academy's gold man in years past.

These iconic performances of unforgettable characters include Brando as Malloy, Cooper as Kane, Douglas as Gekko, Hackman as Doyle, Hanks as Gump, Nicholson as McMurpy, Peck as Finch and more.  Behold, the men of March!

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.

MD Poll: Close Call

To paraphrase her Fatal Attraction villainess Alex Forrest, Glenn Close should not be ignored any longer by the Oscars. The five-time Academy Award nominee was the victor in the last MD Poll asking you to pick the actress most deserving of an overdue visit from the little gold man.

Julianne Moore and Laura Linney were the runners-up in the voting. See the comments section below for the complete results, and click here for the next MD Poll.

MD Poll: Ladies in Waiting

Last month, we were all excited to see Kate Winslet finally win an Academy Award after five previous losses. But that got us to thinking about all the other talented women in film out there who have yet to take home a little gold man of their own. Which leads us to the latest MD Poll question: "Now that Kate has her Oscar, who is the next actress most deserving of an overdue Academy Award?"

To narrow the field down, we limited the names to only those actresses who have been nominated at least three times previously, and then to only those who have received at least one of those nominations in the past twenty years. Thus, the finalists are Glenn Close (5 previous nominations), Julianne Moore (4 previous nominations), Joan Allen, Annette Bening, Diane Ladd, Laura Linney, Michelle Pfieffer, Sigourney Weaver and Debra Winger (all with 3 previous nominations each). (Ironic, isn't it, that none of these women have Oscars and Hilary Swank has two.)

Obviously, there are some actresses who have either never been nominated before or, if they have, don't fall into the criteria listed above, so there's a wild card slot as well; just list your "write-in vote" in the comments section below. The poll is now available for your votes in the right hand sidebar, and will run for four weeks.

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results, and click here to vote in the latest MD Poll.

Monthly Wallpaper - February 2009: Best Pictures

February is all about Oscar here at Movie Dearest, as seen in our latest movie calendar wallpaper dedicated to a few of our favorite Best Picture winners of the past. Now you can bask in the glow of the best of the best all month long.

And speaking of Academy Award winners and month-long celebrations, Turner Classic Movies will present their 14th Annual "31 Days of Oscar" starting tomorrow. This year's theme: "TCM University" ... don't be late for class.

UPDATE: Here's the TCM promo for "31 Days of Oscar". And also, be sure to check out the nifty "TCMU" widget (updated daily) at the bottom of the page.

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.

The Latest on DVD: Pia's Zadorable

Available on DVD for the first time today, the notorious camp classic "bad movie we love" Butterflywas supposed to make Pia Zadora a star. Instead, it turned the Golden Globes into a Hollywood laughing stock.

Financed by her sugar daddy husband (32-years her senior) and based on a novel by James M. Cain, Butterfly casts Zadora (in her first film since Santa Claus Conquers the Martians) as a white trash nymphet who seduces her own father (poor, poor Stacy Keach). The over-the-top, soapy melodrama also stars Orson Welles, Lois Nettleton, James Franciscus and Ed McMahon in a rare (this is why) dramatic turn.

Despite Pia's infamous Golden Globe for Best New Star (over Body Heat's Kathleen Turner, among others; after the following year -- when Sandahl Bergman got it -- the award would never be handed out again), Butterfly went on to "win" three Razzie Awards, including Worst Actress and Worst New Star for Ms. Zadora. Her next big movie, The Lonely Lady (sadly, not on DVD ... yet), would sweep the Razzies the following year.

Check out the Latest on DVD widgets located in the sidebar for more of this week's new DVD releases available today from Amazon.com.

Toon Talk: Disney Goes to the American Film Institute

"To the movies ... to good movies ... of every possible kind."

The quote above was spoken by none other than legendary film director-actor-writer-producer Orson Welles upon his acceptance of the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award in 1975, and it perfectly describes what the AFI is all about; established in 1967 by the National Endowment for the Arts when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation of the Arts and the Humanities Act, the AFI is an independent, non-profit organization created, in part, to recognize and celebrate excellence in the art of film.

Among the methods they use to fulfill this mission statement is the previously mentioned Life Achievement Award, which began in 1973 and has since become the highest honor for a career in film. In 1998, the 100th anniversary of American film, AFI began its AFI's 100 Years … series, a popular and often controversial annual television special that has nevertheless accomplished what it set out to do: increase modern interest in classic American movies. And the AFI Awards, established in 2000, is described as the “annual almanac for the 21st century”, honoring the most outstanding motion pictures of the year.

This year’s 100 Years … program, AFI’ 10 Top 10 (which aired in June on CBS and will be rebroadcast this Tuesday on AMC and again on November 28 on AMC) was dedicated to counting down "the ten greatest American movies in ten classic film genres", including animation. As expected, Disney dominated the category, with nine out of the final top ten movies, which thus inspired me to take a look back at how Disney has fared over the years when it comes to being recognized by the AFI.

Click here to continue reading this Toon Talk article on LaughingPlace.com.

Movie Music: Tops of the Pops

In honor of the 50th anniversary of Billboard's Hot 100 chart, the magazine has put together their "definitive list of the Hot 100's top 100 songs from the chart's first 50 years" (August 1958 through July 2008). While perusing the list (and wondering why some of the newer songs I have never heard of, let alone heard ... pfft, kids today), I noticed quite a few Academy Award winning Best Original Songs, as well as a few nominees as well. In ascending order:

• "The Way We Were" from The Way We Were, composed by Marvin Hamlisch and Alan and Marilyn Bergman, recorded by Barbra Streisand -- Oscar winner, #90 on the chart.
• "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head" from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, composed by Burt Bacharach and Hal David, recorded by B.J. Thomas -- Oscar winner, #85.
• "Say You, Say Me" from White Nights, composed and recorded by Lionel Ritchie -- Oscar winner, #74.
• "Flashdance … What a Feeling" from Flashdance, composed by Giorgio Moroder, Irene Cara and Keith Forsey, recorded by Cara -- Oscar winner, #26.
• "Eye of the Tiger" from Rocky III, composed by Jim Peterik and Frankie Sullivan III, recorded by Survivor -- Oscar nominee, #21.
• "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, composed by Bryan Adams, Michael Kamen and Robert John Lange, recorded by Adams -- Oscar nominee, #16.
• "Endless Love" from Endless Love, composed by Lionel Ritchie, recorded by Diana Ross and Ritchie -- Oscar nominee, #13.
• "You Light Up My Life" from You Light Up My Life, composed by Joseph Brooks, recorded by Debby Boone -- Oscar winner, #7.
• "How Do I Live" from Con Air, composed by Diane Warren, recorded by LeAnn Rimes -- Oscar nominee, #4.

That's right, according to these questionably determined rankings, the most successful film song of the past fifty years is from a crappy Nicolas Cage movie. Granted, the latter two records weren't the versions heard in the actual movies (Kacey Cisyk -- dubbing for Didi Cohn -- and Trisha Yearwood did the actual soundtrack honors, respectively), so if we discount those two, it means the most successful film song of the past fifty years is from a crappy Brooke Shields movie. I think I'll stick with the Guinness Book of Records' biggest selling single of all time, the Academy Award winning "White Christmas" (from Holiday Inn, composed by Irving Berlin and recorded by Bing Crosby).

To continue to prove the ignominious tastes of the record buying public, the Billboard Top 10 Original TV Theme Songs lists the #1 TV tune as "How Do You Talk to an Angel" from the short-lived teen soap The Heights. That's right, the most successful TV theme song of the past fifty years is from a crappy Aaron Spelling show.

Awards Watch Retro: E.T. vs. Gandhi

Richard Attenborough admits in a recent interview with the BBC that Steven Spielberg's E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial is "an infinitely more creative and fundamental piece of cinema" then his own film, Gandhi.

Of course, most of us already knew that 26 years ago.

When Oscar Goes Gay

When it comes to playing queer on film, more and more the Academy Awards have taken notice ... but only, it seems, if certain rules are adhered to, as elaborated upon in Edward Copeland's list of "Oscar Rules for GLBT Characters".

It is a pretty thorough list, although there are a few Academy Award nominated lesbian roles (Judi Dench in Notes on a Scandal, Vanessa Redgrave in The Bostonians, Estelle Parsons in Rachel, Rachel, Grayson Hall in The Night of the Iguana) missing.

Then of course, there are always the characters that "read" gay but are never expressly called that, like Tom Courtney in The Dresser, Clifton Webb in Laura and Sal Mineo in Rebel Without a Cause (in the great book Live Fast, Die Young: The Wild Ride of Making Rebel Without a Cause,it states that director Nicholas Ray instructed Mineo to play Plato as in love with James Dean's Jim Stark -- the results are pretty obvious), not to mention speculated relationships between, say, Midnight Cowboy's Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman and even Casablanca's Humphrey Bogart and Claude Rains (that whole "beginning of a beautiful friendship" thing).

Furthermore, where do such gender-bending performances as Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot, Julie Andrews in Victor/Victoria and Hoffman in Tootsie fit in, let alone the cross-dressed actresses playing male characters (winner Linda Hunt for The Year of Living Dangerously and this year's nominee Cate Blanchett in I'm Not There)?

And let's not forget the historical figures whose sexuality has always been a matter of dispute, such as T.E. Lawrence (played by Peter O'Toole in Lawrence of Arabia), John Nash (Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind) and even Abraham Lincoln (Raymond Massey in Abe Lincoln in Illinois).

It all goes to show that even in the movies, actors (and the characters they portray) are reticent to stay in the celluloid closet. On the other hand, one can look at the diversity on display in the performances and characters that were nominated.

See the comments section below for a list of the Oscar nominated and winning performances pictured above.