Paramount Pictures has released two new clips from the upcoming comedy movie Whiskey Tango Foxtrot directed by the Crazy, Stupid, Love filmmaking team of Glenn Ficarra and John Requa. The new clips focus on Tina Fey’s character who is reluctantly recruited to cover the Iraq war. 30 Rock‘s Robert Carlock adapted the screenplay from Kim Barker’s book The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days In Afghanistan And Pakistan. Margot Robbie, Martin Freeman, Alfred Molina, and Billy Bob Thornton co-star. Paramount’s aiming for a March 4, 2016 theatrical release of the adult comedy.
Fey, Saturday Night Live‘s Lorne Michael, and Ian Bruce produced the film, with Charlie Gogolak, Eric Gurian, and Sam Grey executive producing. The cast also includes Nicholas Braun, Sterling K. Brown (currently seen starring in The People v O.J. Simpson as prosecutor Christopher Darden), Josh Charles, and Christopher Abbott.
The Plot: When reporter Kim Baker’s (Tina Fey) life needs something more, she decides to ‘shake it all up’ by taking an assignment in a war zone. There, in the midst of chaos, she finds the strength she never knew she had. Sometimes it takes saying ‘WTF’ to find the life you were always destined to have.
Freeform announced Emily Tremaine will star in Guilt, a new drama series from The Game Plan‘s Kathryn Price and Nichole Millard. Katrina Law had initially been cast in the role of Boston prosecutor Natalie Atwood that Tremaine will now play. The original series was created by Price and Millard who also serve as writers and executive producers.
Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer are also on board as writers and executive producers. Executive producers Gary Fleder (Kingdom) and Larry Shaw (Desperate Housewives) are set to direct.
Emily Tremaine’s credits include Vinyl, Self/less, Royal Pains, The Wolf of Wall Street, This is Happening, Experimenter, and The Blacklist.
The Plot: Tremaine will be playing Natalie Atwood, a Boston prosecutor who heads to London after her sister Grace is accused of murder. Natalie will be forced to question her sister’s innocence… and discover exactly how far she is willing to go to keep Grace out of jail.
The definition of guilt is being responsible for wrongdoing or a crime. In the murder of Molly Ryan, many are guilty in different ways, but only one is truly guilty of her murder. When Natalie’s sister Grace becomes the prime suspect in her roommate Molly’s murder and popular target for the press and in social media, Natalie leaves her life in Boston and heads to London to defend her. With the help of an ethically questionable ex-pat lawyer Stan Gutterie, Natalie starts to question how innocent her sister may really be as more ugly truths start to surface.
In this one-hour soapy drama, the mystery will twist through all layers of London society – from a posh but depraved sex club and all the way up to the royal family itself.
Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes, and Tom Payne as Paul “Jesus” Monroe in ‘The Walking Dead’ Season 6, Episode 10 (Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC)
“Today’s the day, we’re gonna find food, people, the law of averages has gotta catch up,” says Rick (Andrew Lincoln) to Daryl (Norman Reedus) as they drive out of Alexandria on a supply run in episode 10 of the sixth season of AMC’s horror/drama series The Walking Dead.
It’s been a few weeks since the major battle to save Alexandria from the army of walkers and the town has pretty much been rebuilt, with the names of those they lost on a memorial wall. Carl (Chandler Riggs) is up and helping taking care of his little sister with his wounded eye bandaged. Michonne (Danai Gurira) asks Rick to pick her up some toothpaste while Denise (Merritt Wever) asks Daryl to pick up some soda pop as a surprise for Tara (Alanna Masterson) but only if he comes across it; it’s not a priority. As Eugene (Josh McDermitt) opens the gate, he tells Rick and Daryl to look for sorghum, a plant that he insists will change and revolutionize Alexandria’s crops.
So Rick and Daryl drive along listening to some Country music of Rick’s liking – NOT Daryl’s – and come across a truck full of supplies. They leave the car and drive the truck around looking for still more supplies. (Okay, it’s an apocalyptic world where food, medicine, and clean drinking water is essential to their existence and is sometimes hard to find in large quantities so why do Rick and Daryl, after finding a large truck of supplies continue their supply run?! Why not just call it a day and return to Alexandria with the truck and the car full of supplies?)
The two good ol’ boys pull up to a gas station where Daryl and Rick try to open a very secure vending machine to get the snacks and soda out. While they’re preoccupied, a man (Tom Payne) dressed in a trenchcoat wearing a hat and scarf over his face runs right into them. He’s unarmed and apologizes to them, warning them he’s running from at least 10 or more walkers. “This is the next world. I hope it’s good to you guys,” says the stranger as he starts to run off. Rick yells out to him, “I’m Rick. This is Daryl.” The stranger turns around and pulls off his scarf revealing a long but trimmed and styled beard, telling them his name is Paul Monroe but his friends call him Jesus.
Rick tries to ask Jesus the classic three questions but he runs off with the sound of small explosions happening around the corner. Rick and Daryl run to check it out and discover firecrackers going off in a trash can. The duo realize it’s a diversion and Jesus stole the keys to the truck. He drives away, saying sorry as he leaves them stranded.
Meanwhile back at Alexandria, Michonne has gone into the forest because she saw Spencer (Austin Nichols) walking into them. She catches up to him and he reveals that sometimes after his turn patrolling he goes for walks. Michonne notices he has a shovel and asks him about it, but he just says she should go back and that he’s fine. Michonne doesn’t go back and continues to follow Spencer.
Also going for a walk in the woods outside Alexandria is Carl and Enid (Katelyn Nacon) who seem to have a cozy little spot to relax and read magazines and comic books. Enid finally gets tired and bored of being out in the woods and doesn’t seem to enjoy what used to be her escape from the town anymore. The two teens start to head back when Carl notices Michonne off a ways, walking in the woods. The two hear someone else moving in the woods and realize it’s a walker. Carl goes to kill it, with Enid trying to convince him to just leave it and follow her back to town but to no avail. As the walker gets closer, Carl realizes who the walker is and decides not to kill it but to lead it further into the woods towards Michonne and Spencer. Enid has a fit, arguing with Carl and telling him to just kill it. He tells her she didn’t want to be out in the woods anymore anyways and to just go back to town. Enid does but it’s obvious she’s very upset with Carl.
Back to the road trip which is now taking place on foot, Rick and Daryl finally catch up to Jesus and after a small skirmish tie him up with loose knots and leave him a can of soda for when he gets thirsty. Rick and Daryl drive off in the truck with supplies. It’s not long however until Rick and Daryl realize that Jesus somehow got himself up on the roof of the truck and is no longer tied up. Rick tells Daryl to hold onto something and slams on the brakes, sending Jesus flying off the truck and landing in the field in front of them. Jesus gets up and starts to run away so Rick begins to drive the truck after him with Daryl jumping out to chase him on foot. (Okay, not going back to town after finding the truck full of supplies is a questionable decision but chasing after a stranger who seems to be good at getting out of being tied up and not getting hurt at all after being thrown from a moving truck is just plain stupid.)
The silly chase goes on until Jesus makes his way back to the cab of the truck, struggling with Daryl while Rick is off destroying a few walkers who are a little too close for comfort to the action. A walker starts to close in on Daryl and Jesus gets Daryl’s gun away from him, points it at his head and says, “Duck!” Daryl does and Jesus shoots the walker in the head. Daryl thanks Jesus and the fight resumes. (REALLY!! C’MON! Why are these characters who are usually fairly smart suddenly turning into 12 years olds?) During the fight the truck accidentally ends up going into the nearby lake and Jesus gets knocked out. So Rick and the still-resistant Daryl decide to grab one of the nearby cars and take Jesus with them so that Denise can take care of his injury.
Back in the woods, Michonne tries to connect to Spencer by telling him she really liked his mom and that he still has a home back at Alexandria. He insists he has something he has to do first before he can even think about starting a new life. Michonne hears something a little ways off and sees Carl who seems to be leading a walker. The zombie notices her and Spencer and starts heading their way. Spencer’s face changes to sadness as he recognizes the undead as his mother, Deanna (Tovah Feldshuh). He says to Michonne he thought he saw her that night when the whole town was fighting the walker herd. Michonne grabs and holds walker Deanna so Spencer can get close and put his very small knife into her head. Now Michonne understands why he had the shovel. Michonne and Spencer bury Deanna by a large tree and carve a big D in it to mark her grave. Michonne insists that Alexandria is still his home and he has always cared about his family and his town. She tells him he still has family there, indicating herself and others in the town are now his family. The two go back to town together.
Rick and Daryl get back to town with Jesus who they give over to Denise to take care of. And after she treats the still unconscious man, they put him in a room under guard, tied up and with a small glass of water. Rick and Daryl comment how it was pretty stupid the way they went out looking for supplies and they should and could have done it better to which Daryl asks, “We going to do it again tomorrow?” Rick responds, “Oh yeah.”
Carl is spending time on the porch of their house with his baby sister showing her the stars when Michonne comes up and tells Carl she saw what he did in the woods. She tells him he should have either left the walker or killed it. He tells her he couldn’t kill it, which she doesn’t understand. Carl explains that he recognized it was Deanna and she should be put down by someone who loved her. Michonne starts to argue but is cut off by Carl who says to to her, “I would do it for you.” This touches Michonnes deeply to know that Carl loves her and considers her family.
Danai Gurira as Michonne and Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes in ‘The Walking Dead’ (Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC)
Later, Rick and Michonne are relaxing on the couch trying to let the day’s events slip away but with neither one wanting to go into detail about their adventures. Rick tells Michonne he couldn’t get her the toothpaste but gives her some small mints instead. She laughs and when their hands close over the mints together they interlock their fingers. Rick and Michonne look at each other and lean forward and kiss. The two begin to make out, eventually ending up in Rick’s bed naked and both seem to be satisfied. Then a voice is heard calling Rick’s name twice and Michonne and Rick jump out of bed partly covered, grabbing their weapons. They see Jesus standing at the foot of the bed. He says, “We need to talk.”
The Walking Dead Season 6 Episode 10 Review:
Silly, slowly paced, but at times sincere, season six episode 10 titled “The New World” has two of the lead characters acting and behaving out of character. Rick and Carl look like two bumbling idiots on a dumb road trip and if they had acted and behaved this way earlier in the series, they would not have survived the first season. It’s as though the writers of the show seem to think the series needed an almost comical/zany buddy bonding road trip to lighten the tension and darkness of the show after last week’s episode.
The introduction to the new character Jesus isn’t one of the show’s most memorable introductions of a key character. All of the chasing and fighting just seem too comical and out of place in a show that’s set in a world where no one is truly safe and danger is everywhere. Thus far, Jesus isn’t all that intriguing although he is talented at getting out of ropes and lifting people’s keys. Maybe he should have been nicknamed Houdini instead.
The stand-out performance in this episode goes to Danai Gurira as Michonne who connects with not just one but three characters on different levels. Her refusal to give up on Spencer and her decision to him in his plight, whatever it might be, shows how her character has grown to care about everyone in the town of Alexandria. It also show how she has found her humanity again. Michonne’s reaction to Carl when he tells her that he would do it for her, meaning he would put her down if she ever became a walker because it should be done by someone who loves her, is incredibly touching. Her reaction perfectly captures just how much it means to Michonne to hear that he loves her. Of course the scene which has been building for at least two maybe three seasons where Rick and Michonne finally give in to their deep feelings for each other and make love is sweet and passionate.
With newcomer Jesus being determined to talk to Rick and the rest of Alexandria still rebuilding, it should be interesting to see what surprises are coming up for Rick, his crew, and the citizens of Alexandria who are still not completely recovered from the zombie battle for their town.
Disney debuted a new one-minute Alice Through the Looking Glass trailer during ABC’s Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60 special celebrating the theme park’s anniversary. The new trailer offers a few new clips as well as more on Sacha Baron Cohen’s new character, Time. Directed by James Bobin, the cast includes Mia Wasikowska as Alice, Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, Anne Hathaway as Mirana, Rhys Ifans as the Mad Hatter’s father, Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen, Sacha Baron Cohen as Time, Alan Rickman as Absolem the Blue Caterpillar, Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, and Timothy Spall as Bayard. The fantasy adventure is set to open in theaters on May 27, 2016.
The Plot: Alice Kingsleigh (Wasikowska) has spent the past few years following in her father’s footsteps and sailing the high seas. Upon her return to London, she comes across a magical looking glass and returns to the fantastical realm of Underland and her friends the White Rabbit (Sheen), Absolem (Rickman), the Cheshire Cat (Fry) and the Mad Hatter (Depp), who is not himself. The Hatter has lost his Muchness, so Mirana (Hathaway) sends Alice on a quest to borrow the Chronosphere, a metallic globe inside the chamber of the Grand Clock which powers all time. Returning to the past, she comes across friends – and enemies – at different points in their lives, and embarks on a perilous race to save the Hatter before time runs out.
Watch the Alice Through the Looking Glass trailer:
Ryan Reynolds stars in ‘Deadpool’ (Photo Courtesy of 20th Century Fox)Deadpool proved to be an unstoppable R-rated force at the box office over its second weekend in release. The comic book-inspired film starring Ryan Reynolds as the Merc with a Mouth crossed the $200 million mark this weekend, making it the fastest R-rated release in history to reach that milestone. To date, Deadpool‘s pulled in almost $500 million worldwide, well on its way to taking the top spot as the R-rated film with the highest theatrical gross.
The weekend’s three new releases had to settle for third, fourth, and sixth place finishes. Risen was released timed with Lent and rose to the third place position, beating out fellow newcomer The Witch. However, A24’s not complaining about the horror film’s $8.6 million opening as it’s the largest in the studio’s short history. Race, the biopic about Olympian Jesse Owens, opened in just under 2,400 theaters and only rang up $7.2 million.
The original live-action/animated musical Pete’s Dragon was released in 1977 and featured the voices of Helen Reddy, Jim Dale, Mickey Rooney, and Shelley Winters. Directed by Don Chaffey for a budget of $10 million, Pete’s Dragon grossed $36 million in theaters.
The Plot: For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham (Redford) has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace (Howard), who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales…until she meets Pete (Fegley). Pete is a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete’s descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham’s stories. With the help of Natalie (Laurence), an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack (Bentley) owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
CBS’ The Big Bang Theory will air its 200th episode on February 25, 2015 at 8pm ET/PT with an episode titled ‘The Celebration Experimentation.’ The milestone episode finds the gang celebrating Sheldon’s birthday complete with special appearances by Christine Baranski, Sara Gilbert, Wil Wheaton, and Batman’s Adam West. Pasadena has been the setting of all nine seasons of the critically acclaimed, award-winning series and to celebrate the show’s 200th episode, the city of Pasadena has officially proclaimed February 25th as The Big Bang Theory Day.
The Big Bang Theory executive producers Chuck Lorre, Steven Molaro and Bill Prady commented on Pasadena’s special The Big Bang Theory Day, stating, “For 200 episodes, The Big Bang Theory has called Pasadena home. Even though we tape the show just down the road at Warner Bros., we’re honored that the city of Pasadena, which has given so much to our characters and our stories, has once again proved itself to be a true inspiration.”
The executive producers joined cast members Johnny Galecki, Jim Parsons, Kaley Cuoco, Simon Helberg, Kunal Nayyar, and Mayim Bialik for a special event with Pasadena Councilmember Andy Wilson on February 20th to receive the city’s proclamation.
Disney’s expanding Star Wars‘ presence at Walt Disney World Resort, with what Disney’s calling the most elaborate fireworks and projection shows in Walt Disney World Resort’s history. According to the official announcement, the new Star Wars-themed elements will also feature live onstage entertainment and a march of First Order Stormtroopers at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. The Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular nightly show will take place this summer.
Walt Disney World Resort provided details on the new Star Wars-themed attractions, revealing the Star Wars: A Galaxy Far, Far Away stage show will kick off in April 2016 and will include Star Wars characters Kylo Ren, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and Darth Maul. Both the stage show and the Stormtroopers march will take place multiple times each day.
Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular will feature “Star Wars-themed fireworks, lasers, light projections and other special effects combined with Star Wars-themed music and iconic characters and scenes from throughout the saga. Through these state-of-the-art special effects that project onto the nearby Chinese Theatre and other surrounding buildings, guests will gaze at the twin suns of Tatooine, push through a field of battle droids, navigate through an asteroid field, soar down the trench of the Death Star and deliver the final blow to destroy Starkiller Base. The show, which will unfold through a series of acts, will be punctuated by a tower of fire as well as powerful spotlight beams that create lightsabers in the sky.”
The new Star Wars-themed entertainment joins the new (or revamped) Star Wars: Path of the Jedi, Star Tours – The Adventures Continue, Jedi Training: Trials of the Temple, and Symphony in the Stars: A Galactic Spectacular. Star Wars fans can expect additional themed lands and entertainment at both Walt Disney World Resort and Disneyland Resort in Southern California.
Songbird Lena Horne is one of those musical phenomenons who come along once in a blue moon. She managed to sustain a stellar singing career for 60 years. Very few performers can claim that, and perhaps only Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, and Tony Bennett approach that landmark number.
Lena Horne was born in Brooklyn in 1917 but was raised in the South by her mother. She left school and returned to New York at age 16 to get a job as a dancer at the famous Cotton Club in Harlem. She later found a singing gig with Noble Sissle’s Orchestra on the road. She entered a disastrous marriage at age 19 to Louis Jordan Jones and had two children, Ted and Gail Jones. Her marriage lasted from 1937 to 1944. In order to support her two children after her divorce, she got a job singing with Charlie Barnett’s Orchestra. She had her first hit recording with him. This led to her becoming a solo act at Cafe Society and other fancy cabarets of the forties.
When she was on tour in Los Angeles and playing at The Little Troc nightclub, MGM musical arranger Roger Edens caught her act and liked what he saw. He took her over to MGM and, at the urging of agent Louis Schurr and great MGM musical producer Arthur Freed, had her sing a few songs at the studio. Mogul Louis B. Mayer was brought in to listen to her, and he went crazy! Consequently, Lena made a screen test and was signed to a contract in 1941. The very first film that Lena appeared in was Panama Hattie in which she had a guest shot singing “Just One Of Those Things.” Lena’s number was staged by young Vincente Minnelli, who had just arrived in Hollywood himself.
Lena, of course, was a sensation. Alas, she received no screen credit! Panama Hattie had been a hit on Broadway with Ethel Merman and Betty Hutton. It was filmed with Ann Sothern and Virginia O’Brien in the Merman and Hutton roles. This un-billed ‘guest appearance’ was a preview of how most of Lena’s career at the studio would unfold. Lena’s aborted attempt at stardom wasn’t because she wasn’t any good. On the contrary, she was an original and she was terrific. The problem was that this was the early forties, and black performers had been relegated to playing maids, skycaps, and buffoons. Lena would have none of that because she had talent and beauty as well as integrity.
Roger Edens and Arthur Freed wanted Lena because she was simply the classiest performer of the day and not because she was black. This was an era when blacks were segregated from whites in hotels, restaurants, and even drinking fountains! This unfortunate trend even applied to famous black entertainers who often had to stay at lesser hotels than the white stars. In any case, MGM is to be congratulated for at least attempting to bypass the inherent bigotry that was standard procedure in many parts of America in the 1940s.
Vincente Minnelli’s first assignment as a director at MGM was to be the musical version of the stage hit Cabin In The Sky. It was to be the first all-black mainstream musical film in Hollywood. There was a lot of opposition to it because a previous all-black film, Green Pastures, made at Warner Bros, was not well-received by the leaders of the then-called Negro community. However, Producer Arthur Freed was determined to show black people in a humorous and dignified way.
The Broadway show starred singer Ethel Waters as Petunia, and she was signed to repeat her role in the film version. Miss Horne was signed to play the young vixen Georgia Brown. In the stage version, this was purely a dancing part as played by Katherine Dunham. The studio tailor-made it for Lena as a singing part. Others in the cast were Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Rex Ingram as the Devil. In a nutshell, the plot of the film was Petunia’s efforts to save her gambling, sinning husband Rochester from the Devil and to get his soul into Heaven.
One of Lena’s numbers from Cabin In The Sky was “Honey In The Honeycomb.” The Devil devised a scheme to lead poor Rochester as ‘Little Joe’ astray with Georgia Brown. An interesting sidelight to the filming of the picture was that star Ethel Waters didn’t like Lena Horne at all. Oh, the bitch fights! There were tensions and jealousies on the sound stage. Miss Waters, by this time, was a little rotund and broad at the beam. She looked like a barge coming down the Nile! She was terribly jealous of the beautiful and young Miss Horne. Remembering when she herself was the ingenue, Miss Waters wasn’t about to be outshone by the young upstart!
Director Minnelli was determined to show the black race in the most beautiful of terms. He had rages with the art department over the sets, especially the one for Lena’s bubble bath scene for “Ain’t it The Truth.” Minnelli had earned a well-deserved reputation on Broadway for being a brilliant stage designer, and he liked to see things in a beautiful and glamorous way. It was the first complete film that he had directed. Minnelli insisted that Lena appear in the scene as sexy, glamorous, and beautiful. “Ain’t It The Truth” showed Lena singing provocatively in a bubble bath. The scene never appeared in Cabin In The Sky. The censors were very strict in the forties, and they pressured producer Freed to cut the scene because it was too hot! It didn’t see the light of day until it appeared in That’s Entertainment III in 1994, fifty years after it was filmed!
Cabin In The Sky was the only film at her home studio in which Miss Horne played a leading role with spoken lines, despite the fact that she was under contract to MGM for fifteen years! Other interesting notes about Cabin In The Sky is only three of the songs from the original songwriters of the stage version were used in the film. Vernon Duke and John LaTouche penned “Taking A Chance on Love,” “Honey in The Honeycomb,” and “Cabin In The Sky.” The score was supplemented by Wizard of Oz songwriters E.Y. “Yip” Harburg and Harold Arlen. The two men received an Oscar® nomination for their new song, “Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe,” as performed by Ethel Waters.
Given the names “Sepia Goddess” and “Bronze Venus,” Miss Horne’s beauty adorned films such as the programmer Spring Fever in 1943. In that film she was beautifully photographed and magnificently gowned, all for three minutes of screen time!
Miss Horne spent most of her time at MGM making cameo shots in other people’s pictures. She never considered herself a movie star. Yet her numbers always were the high points of the films in which she sang. Because of the racial climate in the forties, her scenes were made so that she never had contact with any of the white stars, never had any lines with them, and appeared out of the blue singing in lavish production numbers. These musical episodes could easily be cut out of the film so that Southern audiences wouldn’t be ‘offended!’ So much for racial tolerance in the 1940s!
In 1944, Lena made Broadway Rhythm, again only appearing in a couple of guest-starring musical numbers. The stars of the film were young and perky Gloria DeHaven, singer Ginny Simms, dancer George Murphy and fellow African-Americans Hazel Scott, the pianist, and Eddie Rochester Anderson. Some backstage gossip about Broadway Rhythm is that during this early part of Lena’s film career, she was frequently called upon to pass as ‘white’ or Spanish! In both “The Spring” number in Panama Hattie, which you remember as her first film, and in Broadway Rhythm she was outfitted in wild Carmen Miranda tutti fruiti gowns and a blaze of color to cash in on the then-current vogue for Latin American music! These were the only two times in which Miss Horne was dressed less than elegantly.
By 1946 Lena was wowing audiences with her appearances in films, even though they were brief glimpses of the talented singer. Nevertheless, her reputation was growing, and she stole every movie scene she was in despite the fact she was not the star. A perfect example of Lena’s scene-stealing ability is in her moving rendition of “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man” in the Jerome Kern biopic, Till The Clouds Roll By in 1946. This was the only time Lena called her ethnic identity into focus. There was a 20-minute medley version of Show Boat in the film, and Lena played the mulatto character, Julie La Verne.
Six years after Lena sang “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” MGM decided to film a full-length version of the great stage hit Show Boat in 1951. Lena campaigned for the role of the mulatto Julie LaVerne. MGM had other ideas. The studio cast a white woman, the beautiful Ava Gardner, as a woman who could pass for black. Go figure! They used a lot of dark make-up on Ava and spent a lot of money. They could have used Lena’s natural color and saved money on barrels of Max Factor Egyptian hue foundation that was troweled onto Miss Gardner.
Words and Music went before the cameras on the sound stages of MGM on April 4, 1948. This was allegedly the story of songwriters Richard Rogers and Lorenz Hart. Tom Drake played Rogers and Mickey Rooney played Hart. Others in the cast were Janet Leigh and Marshall Thompson. Making guest-starring shots were Judy Garland, June Allyson, Gene Kelly, Cyd Charisse and, of course, Lena Horne. This was another excuse for MGM to showcase all of its contract stars in a musical extravaganza in which the numbers had no relation to the so-called plot! Choreographer Robert Alton ‘moved’ Lena gracefully through her two nightclub numbers, “Where or When” and “The Lady is A Tramp.” Miss Horne credits long-time MGM music arranger Kay Thompson for helping her develop breathing methods while delivering a song. Kay, of course, was associated for a long time with Judy Garland at the studio.
Lena’s other segment in Words and Music was her classy version of “The Lady Is A Tramp.” It’s one of her best turns on the screen, and the song has become identified with her despite Frank Sinatra’s fifties hit recording of the tune. Lena gives us all a singing lesson with her smashing version.
This has been a brief glimpse of the career of Lena Horne when she was under contract at MGM. Despite the way she was mistreated at the studio and not given leading roles, her performances are a testament to her talent. She set the screen on fire merely with her talent and captivating presence.
Ellie Kemper, Tituss Burgess, and Jane Krakowski in ‘Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt’ (Photo by Eric Liebowitz/Netflix)
Netflix released a super short teaser trailer for the upcoming second season of Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. The award-winning half-hour comedy series was created by 30 Rock‘s Tina Fey and Robert Carlock and stars Ellie Kemper, Jane Krakowski, Tituss Burgess, and Carol Kane. Season two will premiere on April 15, 2016.
The Plot: Ellie Kemper stars as Kimmy Schmidt, a woman who escapes from a doomsday cult and starts life over in New York. After living in a cult for fifteen years, Kimmy decides to reclaim her life and start over in New York City. Armed with just a backpack, light-up sneakers, and a couple of way-past-due library books, she’s ready to take on a world she didn’t even think existed anymore. Wide-eyed but resilient, nothing is going to stand in her way.
Watch the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt season 2 teaser trailer:
Disney’s expanding Star Wars‘ presence at 
