"Mary, did you see The Omen?"

I'm multi-tasking! It's a new episode of actors on actors, tv @ the movies and a monologue.

Recently after an accidental couch potato binge on The Golden Girls -- you all know what that's like, right? -- I realized that the boyfriend had never seen the classic 70s sitcom Soap, which is from the same creative team, so we've been watching. The main character is rich dotty matriarch Jessica Tate (Katherine Helmond of Whos The Boss fame). She brings up movies and movie stars constantly. The fantasy of movies is a natural fit, since she doesn't have the firmest grasp of reality. She's basically a template for Rose on Golden Girls. Helmond, like White after her, has a very firm grasp of comic timing.

In this scene she wants to look through a family photo album because she believes they've all been cursed.

Jessica Tate: I think that in those pictures we'll find the answer. Mary did you see The Omen? Well, I mean nobody believed Lee Remick when she said that her son was the devil and he was trying to kill her and you know what happened? He killed her. And then, I mean, of course everyone said 'well, she was right' but it did her a lot of good, she was dead by then.

Ha. It's much funnier with Helmond's loopy train of thought speed delivery.

Have you ever gotten into an entertainment mood that you couldn't quite shake? See I've been in this broad yuks mood for like a month now. It's not a normal mood for me. I think it started when I caught the Off Broadway Hitchcock spoof The 39 Steps a few months back which had a lot of inspired slapstick. Recently this mood was reignited watching Mel Brooks Silent Movie (1976) on BluRay (from this terrific box set that). Lets just say I hurt from laughing... especially during Bernadette Peters repeat vavavoom number. Her hip swivels just knock audiences right over. Literally.

The success of any comedy is so dependent on your mood, isn't it?

Anyway, back to Emmy-winning Helmond. Here's another actressy bit when Jessica is accused of the murder of her young lover. Her husband promises her they'll get the best lawyer. "But what about that movie?!" she pleads confusing him, and she's off in her own world again. Instead of worrying about the trial she's worried about who will play her in the movie version she's certain they'll make.

Jessica: Promise me that you'll try to maintain some control. Because I just have a feeling -- I just have this awful feeling that they're thinking of having Shelley Winters play me! See I was thinking of someone like Catherine Deneuve --she's attractive enough. Or it could make a wonderful musical. Barbra Streisand could play me.

 

Shelley Winters, for those of you who are only familiar, was briefly a starlet and then an Oscar bait actress but as early as the 60s she had moved into her late period blowsy mouthy dame mode. She wasn't exactly an emblem of "class" in the movies.

If you were ever on trial for murder, would you worry about who would play you in the movie? 
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Links: One Hendricks, Two Goslings, Multiple Albees

Have you seen that Christina Hendricks is the new face of London Fog? Such a delectable woman.

I caught the commercial to the new Katharine Heigl movie Life as We Know It (2010) recently in which Hendricks dies and Heigl, her best friend, turns out to be the "raise my child" choice in the will. The whole time I was watching the short film (I'd say "trailer" but it contains the whole movie. No need to buy a ticket) I kept thinking 'Wait. You're going to tease me with Christina and then make me watch Katharine instead for 2 hours?' And bear in mind, I like the oft-hated Katharine Heigl. Honestly, sometimes Hollywood is really slow on the draw with what the public responds to. People are nuts for Christina Hendricks. Look around the web. Where's her big movie role? It's not like Mad Men doesn't have long hiatuses.

Film Brain Jean Luc Godard's no show letter for a career honor in 1995. Think he'll show up for the Governor's Ball in LA? I don't.
Film Business Asia Monga will represent Taiwan for this year's foreign film Oscar race. Yeah yeah, I know I need to update the pages.
Village Voice fun interview with Edward Albee who has a new play Off Broadway. You have to admire his self regard...

The world would be a better place if theaters were filled with my plays all the time.

because, you know, he's right about that!
Washington Post Bernadette Peters in Sondheim's Follies. Holy ____ Consider my ticket bought.
Guardian Gerard Depardieu doesn't get the fuss over Juliette Binoche
Movie Dearest reviews the first season of Cougar Town
Gawker "Anne Rice Quivers with Delight" at...


Drive in Double marquees for the win!

MNPP who wore it best? confident men in pink bathrobes. Hmmm, I wanted more options. Didn't Grant or Hudson don one, too?
The Wrap Anthony Mackie for MI:4? We keep rooting for him. A big budget action flick probably couldn't hurt.
/Film All Good Things starring Kirsten Dunst and Ryan Gosling will get a tiny limited December release. All the better to compete directly with Ryan Gosling's other tiny limited December release Blue Valentine. I seriously don't understand movie distributors.
MCI Scott Pilgrim vs. The Matrix
Boing Boing not cinema but this "Tom the Dancing Bug" cartoon about evil fetuses is hilarious especially if, like me, you need to laugh to stop from crying about what's happening in America right now.

Send in the (Green) Clowns

I'm off to a slow start this morning. Sometimes it can't be helped. Enjoy this first photo of Ryan Reynolds as Green Lantern while I hook up my coffee IV, finish Oscar page revisions, and write about Inception... all while humming Sondheim's brilliant A Little Night Music score. What a mashup that will be.

BTW, loved the Broadway show last night. Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch are theater legends for a reason. Peters was exceptionally moving during "Send in the Clowns" -- I've never heard a Broadway audience go that quiet, basking in every nuance of that spectacular inimitable voice of hers -- and very funny hamming up the comedic portions of the show. There's this line in the second act about watching the summer sky smile, where Elaine Stritch says "That smile was particularly broad tonight." That line reading just killed. It felt like an affectionate elbow to the cast surrounding her that evening. Stritch was so funny that the young actress playing her granddaughter regularly had to wait a few extra beats to be heard above the laughter. Since this 1973 Stephen Sondheim musical is based on Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night (1955) and the film version of the musical in 1977 starring Elizabeth Taylor isn't definitive by any measure, I wonder why it doesn't get a second cinematic go? It couldn't be that expensive to mount since it basically only involves a few locations: mostly people's bedrooms and the grounds of a country estate.

"Desiree" via Eva Dahlbeck (55), La Liz (77), CZJ (09) and Bernadette (10)

All you need is a great actress of a certain age with a killer voice and a good comedic supporting cast. Plus beautiful costumes and careful outdoor cinematography. You're good to go. Do justice to the show's humor and the actress-playing-an-actress theatrical pathos and you've got Oscar nominations for Actress, Supporting Actress and a few tech categories at least.

[Trivia Tangent: Because we've been talking about the EGOT and the triple crown lately due to the upcoming Emmy awards, here's how that shakes out. As you know Catherine Zeta-Jones just won the Tony for this role so she only has to win an Emmy to get a triple crown. Bernadette, replacing her, has multiple Grammys -- or does she? -- and Tonys. She's been nominated for Emmys but hasn't won and the Oscar (let alone a nomination) eluded her even at the heighth of her fame in the late 70s / early 80s when she was in the mix at the Golden Globes winning for Pennies From Heaven and nominated for Mel Brooks' Silent Movie. Elaine has a Tony and multiple Emmys. No Grammy or Oscar.]

Switching gears*, to say the least...

I'm still sad there's going to be a Green Lantern movie instead of a Green Lantern Corps cable series. That could have been the next great complex and fascinating sci-fi television series to follow Battlestar Galactica with the right team. Instead I fear it will be a generic superhero movie franchise. It certainly looks generic. We need another great sci-fi series on television way more than we need another superhero movie.

If you had a power ring, what kind of things would you make it do? I mean, besides conjuring up free Broadway tickets.

*I apologize for the schizophrenia of this post. Everyone knows that superheroes and musicals don't go together.
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Tony Awards Live Blogging 2010

6:49 Hi kids. Tonight is Tony night! The arrivals have been going on NY1 for approximately 45 minutes now but what do you now? Turns out my cable was all messed up so I spent the first 45 on the telephone with Monique trying to fix this damn thing. I was distracted by occasional glimpses of the stars. It's finally back on so I get the GLEE team.


Matthew Morrison, Lea Michelle and Jonathan Groff. Basically here's what happened

• Matthew Morrison is going to try to make the PBS taping of South Pacific before it closes (he originated the often shirtless Joe Cable role in the revival) but he doesn't know for sure if he'll be able to do it. Translation: I am way too important now. Everyone must cater to my needs.
• Lea is busy. She's singing "Don't Rain on My Parade" tonight. Didn't she sing that on Glee? She has no return to Broadway planned. Too busy. Translation: Pay me lots for a short run.
  
• Jonathan is about to do the revival of Death Match (fun play -- Christopher Reeve played this role in the 80s movie version) and hopes he can bring it to Broadway, too. "If it's any good," he says. No translation required.... so points for honesty.

6:57 Michelle Williams -- not the great actress but the Destiny's Child -- is on screen right now. "Broadway is a new form of expression for me." Translation: "I'm famous enough for stunt casting. Yay!" She's playing Foxy Roxie Hart in Chicago right now. That role is basically The Slut of All Time (sorry Liz). Everyone has played that role. Chicago is currently the 6th longest running show of all time.

7:00 A few minutes ago the legendary Bernadette Peters was on the screen (left) and proclaimed that she has a Mutual Appreciation Society going with Elaine Stritch. Incredibly they are both going to be taking over for Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury in A Little Night Music. Translation: It's going to be impossible to get tickets. They're both pure magic live. The legends are fully earned. Trust me. I've seen both live and would never trade those experiences.

7:18 Marian Seldes = Greatest Acceptance Speech of All Time. And it's not even being broadcast. I hate CBS and the way they treat the Tonys. She just won the lifetime achievement award. Made this expression...


...and then walked away from the podium.

Awesome, amazing, awezing. Amazsome?

Marian hasn't made that many movies but she's a stage legend. The last time I saw her on stage was in Edward Albee's The Play About the Baby which is basically an abstracted version of his own Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

While Marian awezed in that show, I would also like to say that David Burtka performed completely starkers. And then Neil Patrick Harris went and snatched him up in the real world. Well, maybe it didn't happen in that order but David Burtka is a beauty, clothed or starkers, is my point and who wouldn't snatch him up? is my second point.

7:31 Memphis and Red are winning lots of tech prizes. Maybe they'll take Musical and Play, tonight? Fela just won Costume Design. American Idiot won lighting design. They are just speeding through these awards. Strangely they are playing CAMELOT's ballad "If Ever I Would Leave You" to celebrate a win for Greenday's "American Idiot" musical. Is there a round table in that show? Or a virtuous knight who gets a lot of royal action?

7:40 Somebody just threw glitter on stage at the Tonys. As if the Tonys needed any encouragement!

7:43 I keep missing things. Live Blogging is hard [/whine]

7:45 I'm always surprised when men thank their wives at the Tonys. I apologize for my reflexive homonormativity.

Now the show proper is being broadcast on CBS

8:02 Wow. They opened with a piano medley which broke into "Blue Suede Shoes" And Sean Hayes can really play the piano. Who knew? Kristin Chenoweth joins him to sing "Say a Little Prayer" and then we get a little Sherie Rene Scott. If I were someone famous, people would say... things ... about my love of blonde divas. I'm insatiable for them.

pint size greatness | regular sized greatness

It's like I'm Alfred Hitchcock only I don't want to visualize them as pretty corpses or terrorize them. Unless you count forcing them into a lifetime servitude of singing, dancing and acting for my entertainment as terrorizing. And you shouldn't. I'm a good grateful fan. Love those two girls.... so... much.

8:10 Green Day is performing. When one of their songs isn't playing I always forget that I like them. I also L-O-V-E that song that Billie Joe Armstrong did with the Go-Gos "Unforgiven". If you don't know that Go-Gos song, you must download it now. It's a beaut. Shoulda been a massive hit.

8:13 Mandatory reaction shots from movie stars: Will Smith, Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta Jones. We'll get a lot of those tonight.

8:16 Sean Hayes just tongued Kristin Chenoweth. Hee. Kristin is highlarious as usual although her voice was not in great form earlier. Never heard her voice that weak. Maybe Sean Hayes has cooties.

8:19 Brilliant point from The Boyfriend. Look at Sean Hayes... He could play John Edwards "And you know that's a TV Movie waiting to happen." Look at him. You'll see it.

8:20 Katie Holmes is presenting "Film goes by at 24 frames per second..." Like you know that, Katie! If not for the teleprompter...

<--- OhMyGod. Scarlett Johansson is now a Tony Winner (Best Featured Actress, A View From the Bridge). She just called Ryan Reynolds "My Canadian who I live with" That's quite a weird new way to say "Husband."

8:32 Now that commercials are playing I am forced to consider that Scarlett Johansson may one day be a Triple Crowner. She just needs a deglam movie in about 6 years for the Oscar. The Emmy is easiest.

8:36 ----> Eddie Redmayne just won Best Featured Actor (Red). You've seen him getting randy with screen mommy Julianne Moore (Savage Grace) and trying to kill Cate Blanchett (The Golden Age) and now you just saw him win a Tony. And, as In Contention points out, he'll probably be the lead in Steven Spielberg's War Horse (2012). Could Oscar follow Tony?

8:40 Charming performance from La Cage Aux Folles which I've heard is great. "Zaza" targeted Matthew Morrison and Will Smith in the audience. Really really funny bit with being unable to tear herself away from Matthew Morrison but of course Will Smith had to act horrified that "she" sat on his lap. I hate it when Will Smith reminds me about what an ass he was about the kiss in Six Degrees of Separation (1993).


8:51 I totally can't keep up with this show. It's so speedy. Antonio Banderas was on a few minutes ago and he's SO going to have a major career revival: a Broadway starring role (Zorba the Greek revival) and a new Almodóvar role. Score times two.

8:53 They're talking about Next Fall which I think must be closing any second. I really want to see it. That was cute banter. Maybe it'll sell a few more tickets?

8:56 The Lovely Laura Linney is promoting her play Time Stands Still (I went to an evening where she spoke of this, too) which is returning to Broadway in the fall. But do you think she's thinking about ScarJo right now? Like 'Damnit. She won a Tony before me?'

8:57 That was generous. Jon Bon Jovi just did a live feed intro for Memphis from a stadium concert.

9:00 Commercials. Breathe.

9:04 Angela Lansbury. If she wins tonight, I think that's a record.

---> 9:07 Nope. Katie Finneran wins the category Best Featured Actress in a Musical Promises Promises. No record breaker for Lansbury just yet. I hear from everyone that Finneran is amazing. GREAT speech about focusing on what you love. This bit was so cute. 'Kristin Chenoweth lent me her eyelashes.' And she also informs that Angela Lansbury took her out to dinner. Classy.

9:10 Memphis performance "Never let anyone steal your rock n roll" Fun number but I feel like someone has stolen my showtunes tonight. Not that many yet.

9:20 Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes, co-stars in Promises Promises are practically co-hosts tonight. She's SO much better in this setting than she was on the BFCA awards. She's just hilarious collapsing when she hears she wasn't even nominated. I guffawed, dear readers. (That means I literally LOL'ed, youngsters). She may have lent Finneran her eyelashes but she keeps several spares. Obviously. These lashes are extreme.


9: 24 Catherine Zeta-Jones singing "Send in the Clowns". Just sublime. Nobody can write a song like Stephen Sondheim. I love that he gets these huge birthday extravaganzas every few years. People are scared of losing him. Me, too. It's going to be so so sad. But if Luise Rainer can keep on ticking past 100, so can some of these other showbiz troupers. Random! I know that was random... but Send in the Clowns can send you spinning into all sorts of heartrending places.

P.S. I love CZJ as a musical star. I wish she would star in movie musicals all the time.

9:43 Commercials. But first we had a little Tony sponsored tribute to the NYPD from Kerry Washington. I love Kerry quite a lot as you know. But loving actresses is way more fun if Hollywood plays along. They need to give me more Kerry to love.

9:53 Best Actor and Best Actress went to Fences. That'd be Denzel Washington and Viola Davis (yay! Though I'm sad for Laura Linney who always loses both Oscars and Tonys despite being one of the most amazing actors on the planet).

I find it so odd that none of August Wilson's cycle plays have been made into movies. Don't you find that odd? Is there a playwright of similar stature that has never been translated?

Viola wins her second, Denzel wins his first

Viola gives a beautiful speech but part of me couldn't quite fall in love with it because when people talk about God in their acceptance speeches I always think "Does that mean God loves you more than the other nominees?" And in this case. Well... I'm pretty certain that God loves Laura Linney because, I mean, look at all the gifts he gave that woman! Anyway. I love Viola Davis, too. Denzel's speech was annoying. He didn't know the names. Denzel now has two Oscars and a Tony. But he's never going to be a triple crowner because he just doesn't do television. Not since St. Elsewhere.

10:11 SERIOUSLY? Promises Promises, a full on musical, just did a dance number with Sean Hayes sitting at a desk. Lame. This night is bereft of show tunes.

10:15 Sad Face. In Memoriam... the people the theater lost this year. The theater may lose me tonight if I don't get some show tunes. SAVE ME GLEE PEOPLES.

10:18 It happened ages ago but it's already burned into my mind so it's only fair that it's burned into yours, too. Sean Hayes with padding and Sean Hayes as Lil Orphan Annie.


The sun will not come out tomorrow.

10:20 Cate Blanchett and her Need To Be Ubiquitous share the stage to present Best Revival and Best Play. I kid, I kid. Fences wins Best Revival.

<--- EXCLUSIVE: CATE BLANCHETT TO PLAY TILDA SWINTON IN BIOPIC

10:22-10:35 It just occurred to me that I asked a television show to save me from the lack of showtunes at the Tony Awards. Something is amiss. That said, thank God (who loves Viola Davis more than Laura Linney) for Glee! Lea and Matthew perform actual showtunes. YAY.

P.S. I TOTALLY caught Will Smith enjoying Lea Michelle's Barbra Streisand number. Won't he worry that people will think he is... well... you know?

10:43 La Cage Aux Folles won Best Revival and now American Idiot is performing. This show looks fun.

10:47 I am not a fan of Sean Hayes but I think he's doing a really good job tonight. Here's why I know: I keep giggling about things he did minutes before minutes later. It's a hosting job that keeps on giving. That Spider-Man singing "don't rain on my parade" bit was priceless -- especially when he was scared of the spider on his chest after taking the mask off. Ha!

Well, you probably had to be there. But funny it was.

10:57 Someone much less composed than CATHERINE ZETA-JONES has possessed the body of Catherine Zeta-Jones. That was as spastic a reaction as I've ever seen at an awards show and that includes Meryl Streep marathon hug run at the SAGs and Ally Sheedy's freakout at the Indie Spirits twelve years back. CZJ was crazed. She almost did a spinning heehaw jig after hiking up her dress. She'll be calling her agent tonight demanding an HBO telefilm so she can grab that triple crown.

I'm sad for people who aren't movie stars tonight. Especially my Sherie Rene Scott. So much star-f***ing tonight.

11:02 Memphis closes the night with a Best Musical win. God loved Memphis most. Now I depart for the comments section to try to catch up with y'all.

Deep Link: Aliens, Spidey, La Lohan and More

The Big Picture that Marc Webb Spider-Man reboot has narrowed the candidates down. I'm still not excited about a redo but I'm totally thumbs up on the idea of either Jamie Bell or Andrew Garfield... though it's weird to hear them referred to as "unknowns", you know? Alden Ehrenreich (Tetro), Josh Hutcherson (The Kids Are All Right) and Frank Dillane (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince) are also being considered.
Cracked "Which awful redhead stereotype are you?" Starring Lindsay Lohan"time bomb", Julianne Moore "sex fiend" and others. Poor gingers!


MTV Movies Logan's Run gets a new director in Erik Rinsch. It's so sad to me that the studio had issues with handing Alien 5 over to him. That's what that entire franchise thrived on... putting fresh visionary directors on the map before they were A list: Scott, Fincher, Cameron. If the Aliens franchise is about anything beyond the Ripley badassery and the acid blood beasties, that's what it's about. It's like the third most important element of that franchise. When you have the same story every time, you have to add the auteurial shakes up or you have nothing.
NY Mag sword and sandal epics and the evolution of Abs within them. Funny stuff
Vanity Fair has 30 portraits and profiles of Tony nominees for this past theater season including familiar faces like Jude Law.
Playbill Bernadette Peters and Elaine Stritch offered the CZJ and Lansbury roles in A Little Night Music on Broadway? ohmygodohmygod. Not that either of them would ever accept a "replacment cast" situation but if this happens a ticket MUST have my name on it.
Mental Floss '9 Copyrights Given to Charity.' Interesting list. I had no idea that Peter Pan was copyright free now. You'd think there'd be a sudden influx of Pan movies.
Just Jared more pics from the set of Mildred Pierce: Kate Winslet and Evan Rachel Wood
Towleroad Madonna gets vampiric to sell sunglasses. It's very Deneuve/Hunger

Finally, the first pics of LL as LL have surfaced. Yes the alliterative Lohan/Lovelace porno biopic Inferno is coming your way... eventually. Oh No They Didn't posted the pics from photographer Tyler Shields who seems to have already removed them from his own website though there's still a lot of fun stuff there including a shoot with Glee's Jayma Mays, Zachary Quinto and plentiful rude portraits of Young Hollywood.

I'd love for Lohan to be able to pull this off but acting is like anything else. If you aren't committed to it, how are you going to get great at it?

Streep Nom #3, 1981

Streep at 60: Let's talk each Streep nomination and its competition.

Meryl Streep won the BAFTA, Golden Globe and the LAFCA prize for her two part role in The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) but she lost the Oscar anyway. The nominees were:

• Katharine Hepburn, On Golden Pond
• Diane Keaton, Reds
• Marsha Mason, Only When I Laugh
  
• Susan Sarandon, Atlantic City
  
• Meryl Streep, The French Lieutenant's Woman

<-- Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep in September, 1981 when The French Lieutenant's Woman opened.

On Golden Pond made Katharine Hepburn a four-time Oscar winner. She's still far out in front of everyone in the acting Oscar derby save Jack Nicholson who has three and could conceivably join her. He is 72 and still works far more often than Hepburn was working in her 70s when she won this.

The snubbed in '81? Sissy Spacek in Raggedy Man and Sally Field in Absence of Malice were Globe Drama nominees and Bernadette Peters was the Musical/Comedy Globe winner for Pennies From Heaven. update: And then there's Kathleen Turner in Body Heat who I am deeply ashamed I forgot when originally typing this, since she's probably be my winner for the year. What was up with awards bodies neglecting her? What's your ideal lineup in 1981 and who do you think deserved the win?

Tuesday Top Ten: Witches

Tuesday Top Ten is back ~ A weekly series for the list lover in you and the list maker in me

I have done nothing to get myself in the proper Halloween spirit this year. No costume contemplation, pumpkin purchases, candycorn chomping, demonic deeds --nothing. You got plenty of bloodsuckers last year, so let's stir some spellcasters into the top ten spot

Top Ten Witches

This list is dedicated to Billie Burke's pill popping Glinda (pink bubbles are not a natural method of travel -even for witches. She's supplementing) and Margaret Hamilton's eternally cackling Wicked Witch of the West. They set the good witch/bad witch mold in The Wizard of Oz (1939) and they've never been surpassed. Rest in peace my pretties...

10 "Gil" (Kim Novak) in Bell Book and Candle (1958)
I haven't seen this in so long but I loved it as a wee tyke. Seen it lately? Does it hold up?

09 "Lamia" (La Pfeiffer) in Stardust (2007)
Defying the Oz rule that only bad witches are ugly, this old crone is actually as beautiful as Michelle Pfeiffer once you get the dumb CGI scowls and excessive latex out of the way. Pfeiffer's BIG performance may be a thing of cartoon beauty but Lamia's is only skin deep: unless you're Hannibal Lecter you probably don't see the pretty in eating hearts and entrails. [prev Stardust posts]

08 "Grand High Witch" (Angelica Huston) in The Witches
From my review: "When Huston first arrives in the film, outside of the hotel where the bulk of the film's actions takes place, she's greeted with a sudden swelling of the film's score. It's entirely redundant. It's not like you could ever miss Angelica Huston's unconventional and powerful screen presence. From her very first lines and tunnel visioned haughtiness its clear that she's having a ball with the role, and making very specific imaginative choices. She zeroes in on "the most evil woman in creation" tag and wears it with pride. Not for this fearless actress a glimmer of humanity, then... "

07 "The Scarlet Witch" in The Avengers
I'm glad this comic book heroine hasn't been moviefied yet. I don't think she'd adapt well: they'd screw up either the luscious curls, the silver fox twin brother, her android loving ways, and especially her "hex" powers --I'm more than certain they would visualize her unpredictable chaos magic as bursts of colored CGI energy balls and who needs any more of those? (see also #10 and #3, sigh)

06 "Alexandra, Jane and Sukie" (Cher, Sarandon, & Pfeiffer) in The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
In this case a picture is worth a 1,000 1,000,000 words

photo by Richard Corman -a gift to actressexuals everywhere

05 "Madame Mim" in The Sword and the Stone (1963)
Her magical duel with Merlin --they try various animals on for size-- is the best part of a Disney movie that almost no one discusses.

04 "Witch" (Bernadette Peters) in Into the Woods
"It's the last midnight / It's the last verse / Now, before it's past midnight / I'm leaving you my last curse" Possibly my favorite stage musical of all time. Vanessa Williams was also pretty good in this role in a recent revival...they added a funny booty shaking beat to her reemergence as a beautiful witch and boy did she sell her strut across the stage. As Sondheim's arguably most commercial endeavor, I've always wondered why Into the Woods isn't the one to make it to the movies. Any theories?

03 "Willow Rosenberg" (Alyson Hannigan) in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)
You may have noticed that it's so hard for me to get through any topic without mentioning Buffy... damn Joss Whedon for usurping so much of my hippocampus.

02 "Samantha" (Elizabeth Montgomery) in Bewitched (1964-1972)
No matter how hard I try I can never make my nose wiggle from side to side but even had I mastered that impressive skill, who would have provided the tinkling sound effect? And what good is nose wiggling without it?

P.S. Elizabeth Montgomery is a babe

01 "Maleficent" in Sleeping Beauty (1959)
You sent her an invitation to your latest party, right? Please tell me you sent her an invitation.

[gulp]

if you haven't had enough witchy women, please see the awesome Eartha Kitt "I Want to Be Evil" video in the sidebar. meow

Season 1 of Tuesday Top Ten (for new readers)
Alexander(s) The Great -from Desplat to Xander
The Three Amigos -Del Toro, Cuaron, Innaritu
Best of 2006 -From Marie Antoinette to The Departed
Oscar Talking Points -from Winslet's record breaking to Dreamgirls snub
Christian Bale -From Newsies to American Psycho
Horseplay -From Equus to National Velvet
Celebrity Couples -From Madonna & Guy to Brangelina
Bald Heads -From Channing Tatum to Professor X
Art in Movies -From "David" to some girl with the pearl earring
Political Women "Pick Flick!" or reelect Laura Roslyn
Holly Hunter -my favorite Georgian ~take that Julia!
Tarantino Performances -From Harvey to Uma
Prosthetic Appendages -beer filled legs, Dirk's Diggler
Loveable Cads -from Rhett to 'Bond, James Bond'
Funny Girls from Jame Lee Curtis to Reese Witherspoon
Lesley Ann Warren -embarrassing things I might have said had I met her...
Box Office Bizarre -the sad reality vs. the paradisical imagined
Men of Summer -From Willis to Damon
Women of Summer -From Hathaway to Pfeiffer
Catwoman -Michelle's greatest role? meow
PTA Performances from Fiona Apple to "Rollergirl"
Pixar -What's your 'toon preference?
Top Ten of 2007 (so far) From Grindhouse to Once
Oscar Nominationless -The Stars Oscar Refuses to Love
Fall Film Preview -anticipation for "prestige" season
Future Biopics -From Monty to Liza
H.S. I Love You -an unexpected love letter