Category: Movies

Lost

NewMexiKen realizes that I am no longer a member after the sought-after movie audience, and further that I might just be sophistication-challenged, but what exactly was Lost in Translation about? And more to the point, what was the buzz about? While grateful for any film where no one is tortured, mutilated or shot, or where no cars explode, Lost in Translation had no action, not much plot, and two rather blah characters. Seinfeld episodes had more of all three.

And while Bill Murray was fine, wasn’t he just playing Bill Murray?

Indeed, I’d rather watch Groundhog Day over-and-over than see Lost in Translation again.

Ladykillers

NewMexiKen saw the latest Coen brothers film Ladykillers over the weekend. After a slow start it becomes a lot of fun, albeit not unlike a Road Runner cartoon becomes fun, but laugh-out-loud fun nonetheless. Tom Hanks is amusing, seemingly enjoying himself in a part the near opposite of Michael Sullivan in Road to Perdition. Irma P. Hall is delightful. And the Coens may do for gospel music what their O Brother, Where Art Thou? did for bluegrass.

The one large argument I have with this otherwise enjoyable—though hardly classic—movie is the profanity. NewMexiKen has a working knowledge of the four and 12-letter words. I’m not shocked by them. But what I don’t understand is what value they are thought to add when used in torrents. Even if that is the way some people talk, the movie is a cartoon. Realism isn’t the goal. Why let the f-word turn a good farcical comedy into an R-rated movie? It was uncomfortable and off-putting.

Chocolat star…

Juliette Binochet is 40 today. Winner of the Oscar for best supporting actress in The English Patient and nominee for best actress in Chocolat, Miss Binochet was one of People magazine’s 50 most beautiful people in 1997. Her break-through role was as Tereza in the 1988 film The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) has this story:

In 1990 she wrote to the president of France, Francois Mitterand, to ask him for funds for her film Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991). However he didn’t help. In 1993 Mitterand asked Binoche to dinner at the presidential palace in Paris. When asked by the press why he invited her, he said “I dreamt one night that I kissed her, now I hope she will be my mistress”. Binoche declined the invitation. Soon after they bumped into each other in a Paris market and had a long discussion about art, love, books and poetry.

Beauty and the Beast

Oscar-winner Peter Jackson is planning a remake.

The Hollywood Reporter: What key challenges does its filming present?

JACKSON: Writing the script is always the most critical and difficult job. The actual filming shouldn’t be too tricky once we assemble a great cast. Creating a strong emotional presence of Kong himself will be a challenge since he obviously won’t be joining us on set.

THR: How will your “King Kong” differ from the original and the first remake?

JACKSON: It’s based on the 1933 movie, and we will follow that basic plot and narrative structure. We will obviously be writing much more depth into the characters — approaching it as a drama rather than fantasy. We pretend the 1976 version doesn’t exist.

Celebration in Middle Earth

The Dominion Post tells us that The Lord of the Rings win was a big deal in New Zealand.

Hundreds of Wellingtonians, including Prime Minister Helen Clark, leaped to their feet, clapping, cheering, jumping and hugging in deafening jubilation over The Lord of the Rings’ clean sweep at the Oscars.

West Side Story

Roger Ebert continues his reviews of Great Movies, the most recent being West Side Story. As with all of these reviews, Ebert watches the film again — in this case he says for the first time since 1961 when it won the Best Picture Oscar. He points out that:

My muted enthusiasm is shared. Although “West Side Story” placed No. 41 in the American Film Institute’s list of the greatest films of all time, the less industry-oriented voters at the Internet Movie Database don’t even have it in the top 250.

Still, the new two-disc restored edition of the movie inspired me to look at it again, and I think there are great things in the movie, especially some of the songs of Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, the powerful performances by Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, and above all Jerome Robbins’ choreography. It is a great movie … in parts.

If you liked the movie and are interested in seeing it again, read Ebert’s review. As he often does with these Great Movies reviews, Ebert gives you a whole new understanding of the film and a list of things to look for.

Passionate jewelry

From the official “Passion Jewelry” page of the Mel Gibson movie website:

The “Nail” pendants come in two sizes and feature Isaiah 53:5 inscribed on the side. The 20″ cord has a Nail pendant that is 1 7/8″ in length and the 24″ cord has a Nail pendant that is 2 5/8″ in length.

Just $12.99 or $16.99. Check out the jewelry, “Witnessing Tools” and other gifts at the website of official licensed products for Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ.

[As] the late, great comedian Bill Hicks probably said it best when he commented, “A lot of Christians wear crosses around their necks. Do you think when Jesus comes back he ever wants to see a f–in’ cross? It’s kind of like going up to Jackie Onassis with a rifle pendant on.”

Quoted in “The Morning Fix” by Mark Morford (email from SFGate.com).

The son must refute father’s hateful rants

Mitch Albom on Hutton Gibson.

Every now and then some nut case says the Holocaust was faked. Usually, you dismiss him as pathetic.

Last week, however, a man named Hutton Gibson told a national radio host that the Holocaust never happened, that there were no concentration camps, only “work camps,” and that Jews basically made the whole thing up.

Hutton Gibson is Mel Gibson’s father.

So this nut case must be addressed.

James Dean…

was born on this date in 1931.

James Dean was born February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, to Winton and Mildred Dean. His father, a dental technician, moved the family to Los Angeles when Jimmy was five. He returned to the Midwest after his mother passed away and was raised by his aunt and uncle on their Indiana farm. After graduating from high school, he returned to California where he attended Santa Monica Junior College and UCLA. James Dean began acting with James Whitmore’s acting workshop, appeared in occasional television commercials, and played several roles in films and on stage. In the winter of 1951, he took Whitmore’s advice and moved to New York to pursue a serious acting career. He appeared in seven television shows, in addition to earning his living as a busboy in the theater district, before he won a small part in a Broadway play entitled See the Jaguar….

Dean continued his study at the Actors Studio, played short stints in television dramas, and returned to Broadway in The Immoralist (1954). This last appearance resulted in a screen test at Warner Brothers for the part of Cal Trask in the screen adaptation John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden. He then returned to New York where he appeared in four more television dramas. After winning the role of Jim Stark in 1955’s Rebel Without A Cause, he moved to Hollywood.

In February, he visited his family in Fairmount with photographer Dennis Stock before returning to Los Angeles. In March, Jimmy celebrated his Eden success by purchasing his first Porsche and entered the Palm Springs Road Races. He began shooting Rebel Without A Cause that same month and Eden opened nationwide in April. In May, he entered the Bakersfield Race and finished shooting Rebel. He entered one more race, in Santa Barbara, before he joined the cast and crew of Giant in Marfa, Texas.

James Dean had one of the most spectacularly brief careers of any screen star. In just more than a year, and in only three films, Dean became a widely admired screen personality, a personification of the restless American youth of the mid-50’s, and an embodiment of the title of one of his film Rebel Without A Cause. En route to compete in a race in Salinas, James Dean was killed in a highway accident on September 30, 1955. James Dean was nominated for two Academy Awards, for his performances in East of Eden and Giant. Although he only made three films, they were made in just over one year’s time.

Source: The Official Site of James Dean

Movie immortals…

John Ford and Clark Gable were born on this date. Ford in 1895; Gable in 1901.

John Ford won six Oscars for Best Director: The Informer (1935), The Grapes of Wrath (1940), How Green Was My Valley (1941) and The Quiet Man (1952). The other two Oscars were for World War II documentaries: The Battle of Midway and December 7th. Other memorable films include Drums Along the Mohawk, Young Mr. Lincoln, Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine and The Searchers. Regardless of where Ford’s westerns were set, most of the exteriors were filmed in Monument Valley Arizona/Utah.

Clark Gable won the Best Actor award in 1935 for It Happened One Night. He was nominated for Best Actor for Mutiny of the Bounty and Gone With the Wind.

William Claude Dukenfield…

better known as W.C. Fields, was born in Philadelphia on this date in 1880 or 1889.

A thing worth having is a thing worth cheating for.

Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people.

I always keep a supply of stimulant handy in case I see a snake–which I also keep handy.

I never vote for anyone; I always vote against.

Last week, I went to Philadelphia, but it was closed.

A rich man is nothing but a poor man with money.

A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.

Anyone who hates children and animals can’t be all bad.

I am an expert of electricity. My father occupied the chair of applied electricity at the state prison.

I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no point in being a damn fool about it.

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bull.

Some things are better than sex, and some are worse, but there’s nothing exactly like it.

There comes a time in the affairs of man when he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.

(When “caught” reading a Bible) “Just looking for loopholes.”

Fields died on Christmas Day, 1946.

Bright Nights, Big Mountains

A different and amusing look at the Sundance Film Festival from Dallas writer Sarah Hepola.

What Park City has, however, is Save the Children volunteers.

‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’ asks a bright-eyed blond, smiling politely and holding a clipboard to her chest.

Dammit. They always get me.

I sign up for Save the Children. I request a child from Africa, preferably a very cute one.

‘Twenty dollars a month?’ L. says when we walk away. ‘That’s sorta steep.’

I point out that we just spent $12 on fudge….

The D.P. is nice. He comes to Sundance whenever he has a film in the festival, and he spends all day in the theatre. He saw five movies yesterday. The Woodsman, with Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon, is terrific, he says. Everyday People, about a black-friendly, Jewish-owned restaurant in Brooklyn, is really good. In fact, everything he’s seen has been worthwhile, and I feel a twinge of guilt for letting half our trip slip by without catching one single film. Long before I cared about celebrity, before I crushed on actors or read Us Weekly (helplessly, ridiculously), I just loved movies. I watched them over and over again — often in one sitting — just to have access to another life, just to see someone else’s sky for a while.

The whole essay is fun to read.

How old we can all feel…

when an individual nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress was born in 1990.

Keisha Castle-Hughes was born in 1990 in New Zealand. She is a half-Maori and half-Pakeha (European New Zealander). She was 11 years old at the time Whale Rider was filmed. It was her first acting role.

Oscar

Complete list of this year’s Oscar nominations announced today by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The awards are to be presented February 29th.

Best Picture
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Lost in Translation”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Mystic River”
“Seabiscuit”

Actor
Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
Ben Kingsley, “House of Sand and Fog”
Jude Law, “Cold Mountain”
Bill Murray, “Lost in Translation”
Sean Penn, “Mystic River”

Actress
Keisha Castle-Hughes, “Whale Rider”
Diane Keaton, “Something’s Gotta Give”
Samantha Morton, “In America”
Charlize Theron, “Monster”
Naomi Watts, “21 Grams.”

Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin, “The Cooler”
Benicio Del Toro, “21 Grams”
Djimon Hounsou, “In America”
Tim Robbins, “Mystic River”
Ken Watanabe, “The Last Samurai”

Supporting Actress
Shohreh Aghdashloo, “House of Sand and Fog”
Patricia Clarkson, “Pieces of April”
Marcia Gay Harden, “Mystic River”
Holly Hunter, “thirteen”
Renee Zellweger, “Cold Mountain”

Director
Fernando Meirelles, “City of God”
Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”
Peter Weir, “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
Clint Eastwood, “Mystic River”

Foreign Film
“The Barbarian Invasions,” Canada
“Zelary,” Czech Republic
“The Twilight Samurai,” Japan
“Twin Sisters,” The Netherlands
“Evil,” Sweden

Adapted Screenplay
Robert Pulcini & Shari Springer Berman, “American Splendor”
Braulio Mantovani, “City of God”
Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
Brian Helgeland, “Mystic River”
Gary Ross, “Seabiscuit”

Original Screenplay
Denys Arcand, “The Barbarian Invasions”
Steven Knight, “Dirty Pretty Things”
Andrew Stanton, Bob Peterson and David Reynolds, “Finding Nemo”
Jim Sheridan & Naomi Sheridan & Kirsten Sheridan, “In America”
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”

Animated feature film
“Brother Bear”
“Finding Nemo”
“The Triplets of Belleville”

Art Direction
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Cinematography
“City of God”
“Cold Mountain”
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Sound Mixing
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”
“Seabiscuit”

Sound Editing
“Finding Nemo”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

Original Score
“Big Fish,” Danny Elfman
“Cold Mountain,” Gabriel Yared
“Finding Nemo,” Thomas Newman
“House of Sand and Fog,” James Horner
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” Howard Shore

Original Song
“Into the West” from “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” Fran Walsh, Howard Shore and Annie Lennox
“A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from “A Mighty Wind,” Michael McKean and Annette O’Toole
“Scarlet Tide” from “Cold Mountain,” T Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello
“The Triplets of Belleville” from “The Triplets of Belleville,” Benoit Charest and Sylvain Chomet
“You Will Be My Ain True Love” from “Cold Mountain,” Sting

Costume
“Girl with a Pearl Earring”
“The Last Samurai”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Documentary Feature
“Balseros”
“Capturing the Friedmans”
“The Fog of War”
“My Architect”
“The Weather Underground”

Documentary (short subject)
“Asylum”
“Chernobyl Heart”
“Ferry Tales”

Film Editing
“City of God”
“Cold Mountain”
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of The King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Seabiscuit”

Makeup
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

Animated Short Film
“Boundin'”
“Destino”
“Gone Nutty”
“Harvie Krumpet”
“Nibbles”

Live Action Short Film
“Die Rote Jacke (The Red Jacket)”
“Most (The Bridge)”
“Squash”
“(A) Torzija ([A] Torsion)”
“Two Soldiers”

Visual Effects
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”
“Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”

The feud that never was

NewMexiKen shouldn’t I suppose attempt to ressurect Antonio Salieri on this, Mozart’s birthday, but it seems he—Salieri—is making a bit of a comeback. According to a December article at Guardian Unlimited, “Next year the renovated La Scala in Milan is to reopen its doors with the work Salieri wrote for its very first performance back in 1778. And now Cecilia Bartoli has recorded an album devoted to his music.”

This article and other sources seem persuasive in saying that while there was competition between the upstart Mozart and the established artist Salieri in Vienna, there was cooperation, too; that is, what transpired between them was typical office politics.

As the Guardian Unlimited article notes:

…Mozart’s death, as one respected musical journal wrote, was almost certainly caused not by poison but by “arduous work and fast living among ill-chosen company”.

It was only after Mozart’s demise that Salieri began to have any real reason to hate him. Unlike that of any before him, Mozart’s music kept on being performed. Cut down at the peak of his powers – and with the added frisson of whispered rumours that he might have been murdered – he became the first composer whose cult of celebrity actually flourished after his death.

Salieri, however, had outlived his talent. He wrote almost no music for the last two decades of his life. Instead he spent time revising his previous works. He did have an impressive roster of pupils: Beethoven, Schubert, Meyerbeer and Liszt – not to mention Franz Xaver Mozart, his supposed adversary’s young son. But the composer who had once been at the vanguard of new operatic ideas was not necessarily teaching his students to be similarly innovative…

Of Mozart’s death, the story is more complicated:

So how did this respected musician become the rumoured murderer of the great Mozart? Nobody knows for certain. But in his final weeks Mozart is reported to have believed he had been poisoned, and had gone so far as to blame hostile Italian factions at the Viennese court. People put two and two together and pointed the finger at Salieri. And who could resist a story this good? Certainly not his fellow composers. There are mentions of it in Beethoven’s Conversation Books. Weber, Mozart’s father-in-law, had heard it by 1803, and cold-shouldered Salieri ever after. And 20 years later it was still doing the rounds; Rossini joked about it when he met Salieri in 1822.

As the rumour gathered strength, all denials only served to reinforce it. Then, in 1823, Salieri – hospitalised, terminally ill and deranged – is said to have accused himself of poisoning Mozart. In more lucid moments he took it back. But the damage was done. Even if few believed the ramblings of a confused old man, the fact that Salieri had “confessed” to Mozart’s murder gave the rumour some semblance of validity.

Another interesting assessment of the Mozart found in the film Amadeus can be found in an essay entitled The Amadeus Mozart: Man or Myth?

Golden Globes

MOVIES

Best Picture – Drama
“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”

Best Actress – Drama
Charlize Theron, “Monster”

Best Actor – Drama
Sean Penn, “Mystic River”

Best Picture – Musical or Comedy
“Lost in Translation”

Best Actress – Musical or Comedy
Diane Keaton, “Something’s Gotta Give”

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy
Bill Murray, “Lost in Translation”

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Tim Robbins, “Mystic River”

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Renee Zellweger, “Cold Mountain”

Best Foreign Language Film
“Osama,” Afghanistan

Best Director
Peter Jackson, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”

Best Screenplay
Sofia Coppola, “Lost in Translation”

Best Original Score
Howard Shore, “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”

Best Original Song
“Into the West” from “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,”
by Howard Shore, Fran Walsh and Annie Lennox

TELEVISION

Best Series – Drama
“24,” Fox

Best Actress – Drama
Frances Conroy, “Six Feet Under”

Best Actor – Drama
Anthony LaPaglia, “Without a Trace”

Best Series – Musical or Comedy
“The Office,” BBC America

Best Actress – Comedy
Sarah Jessica Parker, “Sex and the City”

Best Actor – Comedy
Ricky Gervais, “The Office”

Best Mini-Series or Made for TV Movie
“Angels in America,” HBO

Best Actress – Mini-Series or Made for TV Movie
Meryl Streep, “Angels in America”

Best Actor – Mini-Series or Made for TV Movie
Al Pacino, “Angels in America”

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Mary-Louise Parker, “Angels in America”

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Jeffrey Wright, “Angels in America”

Humphrey Bogart…

was born on this day in 1899. According to MPR’s The Writer’s Almanac

[Bogart] was expelled from Massachusetts’ Phillips Academy and immediately joined the Navy to fight in World War I, serving as a ship’s gunner. One day, while roughhousing on the ship’s wooden stairway, he tripped and fell, and a splinter became lodged in his upper lip; the result was a scar, as well as partial paralysis of the lip, resulting in the tight-set mouth and lisp that became one of his most distinctive onscreen qualities.

Double jeopardy

TMQ writes:

In Double Jeopardy the Ashley Judd character is framed for the murder of her husband, convicted and sent to jail. Years later, paroled, she realizes her husband is alive and set her up — then decides to hunt him down and kill him. She can do this, the movie announces, because, having already been convicted of his murder, she can’t be tried for it again under the “double jeopardy” clause of the Constitution. As reader Robert Boardman, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, points out, this is nonsense. “The safeguard against double jeopardy states that a person cannot be tried for the same offense twice,” Boardman notes. But an offense is a specific act on a specific day in a specific place. Convicted of one crime on the a specific day at the a specific place, Ashley Judd could not be placed on trial for that crime again. But if her evil husband’s alive and she kills him, that would occur at a different specific time and place — and be a different crime, for which she could be tried. Crimes must be defined as specific events at specific times and places. Otherwise if someone robbed a bank, served time and got out, he could rob any bank he wanted, arguing, “Since I’ve already been convicted of robbing a bank, double jeopardy means I can’t be tried for robbing another bank.”

NewMexiKen was wondering about the Tommy Lee Jones character. He’s apparently Ashley Judd’s parole officer but he chases her from state to state. I thought that’s what U.S. Marshals did. Or am I just confusing Double Jeopardy with The Fugitive?

Nominees for the 10th annual Screen Actors Guild awards

Movies:

Actor: Johnny Depp, “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl”; Peter Dinklage, “The Station Agent”; Ben Kingsley, “House of Sand and Fog”; Bill Murray, “Lost in Translation”; Sean Penn, “Mystic River.”

Actress: Patricia Clarkson, “The Station Agent”; Diane Keaton, “Something’s Gotta Give”; Charlize Theron, “Monster”; Naomi Watts, “21 Grams”; Evan Rachel Wood, “thirteen.”

Supporting actor: Alec Baldwin, “The Cooler”; Chris Cooper, “Seabiscuit”; Benicio Del Toro, “21 Grams”; Tim Robbins, “Mystic River”; Ken Watanabe, “The Last Samurai.”

Supporting actress: Maria Bello, “The Cooler”; Keisha Castle-Hughes, “Whale Rider”; Patricia Clarkson, “Pieces of April”; Holly Hunter, “thirteen”; Renee Zellweger, “Cold Mountain.”

Cast performance: “In America,” “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King,” “Mystic River,” “Seabiscuit,” “The Station Agent.”

Television:

Actor in a TV movie or miniseries: Justin Kirk, “Angels in America,” HBO; Paul Newman, “Our Town,” Showtime; Al Pacino, “Angels in America,” HBO; Forest Whitaker, “Deacons for Defense,” Showtime; Jeffrey Wright, “Angels in America,” HBO.

Actress in a TV movie or miniseries: Anne Bancroft, “Tennessee Williams’ The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” Showtime; Helen Mirren, “Tennessee Williams’ The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone,” Showtime; Mary-Louise Parker, “Angels in America,” HBO; Meryl Streep, “Angels in America,” HBO; Emma Thompson, “Angels in America,” HBO.

Actor in a drama series: Peter Krause, “Six Feet Under,” HBO; Anthony LaPaglia, “Without a Trace,” CBS; Martin Sheen, “The West Wing,” NBC; Kiefer Sutherland, “24,” Fox; Treat Williams, “Everwood,” WB.

Actress in a drama series: Stockard Channing, “The West Wing,” NBC; Frances Conroy, “Six Feet Under,” HBO; Tyne Daly, “Judging Amy,” CBS; Jennifer Garner, “Alias,” ABC; Mariska Hargitay, “Law & Order: SVU,” NBC; Allison Janney, “The West Wing,” NBC.

Actor in a comedy series: Peter Boyle, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS; Brad Garrett, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS; Sean Hayes, “Will & Grace,” NBC; Ray Romano, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS; Tony Shalhoub, “Monk,” USA.

Actress in a comedy series: Patricia Heaton, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS; Lisa Kudrow, “Friends,” NBC; Debra Messing, “Will & Grace,” NBC; Megan Mullally, “Will & Grace,” NBC; Doris Roberts, “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS.

Ensemble in a drama series: “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” CBS; “Law & Order,” NBC; “Six Feet Under,” HBO; “The West Wing,” NBC; “Without a Trace,” CBS.

Ensemble in a comedy series: “Everybody Loves Raymond,” CBS; “Frasier,” NBC; “Friends,” NBC; “Sex and the City,” HBO; “Will & Grace,” NBC.

More Marilyn and Joe

Sometimes the nature of blogging puts things out of sequence. NewMexiKen suggests you read the item below before reading the rest of the story.

By 1961 according to Richard Ben Cramer, after Monroe’s marriage to Arthur Miller had ended, she and DiMaggio had reconciled—the Kennedys notwithstanding. By 1962 they planned to re-marry. The wedding was set for Wednesday, August 8, 1962. Very private, very hush-hush.

Five days before the wedding date, on Saturday night, August 3, Marilyn died, a presumed suicide. (According to Cramer no coroner’s inquest was held.) Marilyn Monroe’s funeral was August 8, 1962.

Marilyn and Joe

NewMexiKen’s readers may all know this but I had to do some research to find out what happened to Marilyn and Joe who, as noted below, were married 50 years ago today.

It seems the catalyst for their divorce stemmed from the famous scene in The Seven Year Itch where Marilyn’s skirt billows to show her bare legs. As Richard Ben Cramer tells it in Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life:

The scene they went to witness would produce one of the most famous screen images in history—Marilyn Monroe, in simple summer white, standing on a subway grating, cooling herself with the wind from a train below. But what sent Joe DiMaggio into a fury was the scene around the scene. Fans were yelling and shoving at police barricades as the train (actually a wind machine manned beneath the street by the special effects crew) blew Marilyn’s skirt around her ears. Each time it blew, the crowd would yell, “Higher!” “More!” Her legs were bare from her high heels to her thin white panties. Photographers were stretched out on the pavement, with their lenses pointed up at his wife’s crotch, the glare of their flashbulbs clearly outlining the shadow of her pubic hair. “What the hell is going on here?” Joe growled. The director, Billy Wilder, would recall “the look of death” on DiMaggio’s face. Joe turned and bulled his way through the crowd—on his way back to the bar—with the delighted Winchell trotting at his heels.

That night, there was a famous fight in Marilyn and Joe’s suite on the eleventh floor of the St. Regis. It was famous because none of the guests on that floor could sleep. And famous because Natasha Lytess was so alarmed by Marilyn’s cries that she went next door to intervene. (Joe answered the door, and told her to get lost.) It was famous because the following morning Marilyn told her hairdresser and wardrobe mistress that she had screamed for them in the night. (“Her husband got very, very mad with her, and he beat her up a little bit,” said the hairdresser, Gladys Whitten. “It was on her shoulders, but we covered it up, you know.”) And famous because Milton Greene’s wife, Amy, came to visit at the suite the following day (to try on Marilyn’s mink), and was appalled to see bruises all over her friend’s back.

And that fight would stay famous—as the end of Joe and Marilyn’s famous marriage.

Years later, Marilyn would tell another hairdresser, Sidney Guilaroff, that she’d warned Joe clearly the first time he beat her up. “Don’t ever do that again. I was abused as a child, and I’m not going to stand for it.” But, as Guilaroff would write in his memoir:

“Nevertheless, after watching her film a sexy scene for Seven Year Itch, Marilyn said, ‘Joe slapped me around the hotel room until I screamed, “That’s it!” You know, Sidney, the first time a man beats you up, it makes you angry. When it happens a second time you have to be crazy to stay. So I left him.’ ”

She would file for divorce in Los Angeles, three weeks later.

The famous marriage lasted 286 days.