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When it comes to the feminist themes of "Mad Men," it's typically Peggy (Elisabeth Moss) at the front of the conversation. She's on a clear upward journey from the moment she shows up in the pilot, and spends the show slowly but surely rising through the ranks of a male-dominated corporate environment. Then there's Betty (January Jones) as Peggy's polar opposite, a woman who spends the series trapped in an unfulfilling housewife role, even though she's not stupid and she speaks Italian; she totally could've enjoyed that career in psychology if she'd been born a little later.

In the middle is Joan. She's introduced as an extension of the mean girl trope, and characterized as sort of vain and shallow. She casually espouses all the ideals about gender roles that the show itself clearly wants to criticize. She comes from a time where looks really are almost all that matters for a woman,...

From Mean Girls to Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* (*But Were Afraid to Ask), there are plenty of movies based on self-help books. Adaptations of books are very common because existing source material comes with an existing audience, which gives studios a head-start on marketing. But film producers tend to go after the rights to books with a narrative, so the screenwriter has something to work from. This includes fictional novels, nonfiction historical accounts, or biographies covering the life story of an important figure. However, some producers have turned the abstract teachings of self-help books into movies.

Movies based on self-help books have used the themes and subject matter of their source material. For example, the film adaptation of the pregnancy guide What to Expect When You’re Expecting is a romantic comedy about parenthood. Other self-help books do come with some sort of built-in narrative, like...

Diane McBain, whose career playing spoiled rich girls included turns as the yacht owner Daphne Dutton on the ABC crime show Surfside 6 and an author stalking Elvis Presley in Spinout, has died. She was 81.

McBain died Wednesday morning at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills after a battle with liver cancer, her friend and writing partner, Michael Gregg Michaud, told The Hollywood Reporter.

McBain also guest-starred on four episodes of ABC’s Batman, first as a hat shop assistant who’s in cahoots with David Wayne’s Mad Hatter in 1966 and then as stamp company proprietor Pinky Pinkston — she wore only pink and had a pink dog — on the memorable 1967 installment that featured The Green Hornet (Van Williams) and Kato (Bruce Lee).

In her first film, McBain appeared with Richard Burton in Vincent Sherman’s Ice Storm (1960), then starred alongside Troy Donahue and Claudette Colbert...

Exclusive: Fox 2000 will tell the story of the trailblazing rise of Helen Gurley Brown, who became one of the first female editors of a national magazine when she took the reins at Cosmopolitan in 1965. The studio has optioned Enter Helen: The Rise And Reign Of The Original Cosmo Girl, the upcoming book by Brooke Hauser that HarperCollins will publish next year. Chernin Entertainment will produce, and Marisa Paiva is overseeing for the studio.

I’m picturing Mad Men, except with a ballsy woman who thrives in a male-dominated world, her currency a legion of women ready to rebel against the housewife stereotype in search of careers and sexual freedom. The story begins in the early ’60s when she wrote the blockbuster book Sex And The Single Girl and then took the top job at the then-floundering Cosmo. She remade the magazine, and in doing so, helped changed the perception to...

“Lauren Bacall models an Mptf Christmas card in 1951.” Courtesy Mptf

Turner Classic Movies will celebrate the life and career of legendary actress Lauren Bacall with a 24-hour marathon of memorable performances, including all four films in which she co-starred with husband Humphrey Bogart.

TCM’s tribute to Bacall, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 89, will air Monday, Sept. 15, beginning at 8 p.m. (Et), and will conclude Tuesday, Sept. 16, her 90th birthday.

“Lauren Bacall was a wonderful and generous friend of ours at TCM, and a great connection to the ‘golden age of cinema,’” said TCM host Robert Osborne. “Personally, I have to admit that she never failed to make my heart beat faster and my voice to stammer when we spoke. Talk about true star quality – that was Bacall. We are truly blessed to have had her as an integral part of our TCM family.”

Turner Classic Movies...

Update August 14: Broadway will go dark: The marquees of Broadway theatres in New York will be dimmed in memory of Lauren Bacall on Friday, August 15, at exactly 7:45 p.m. for one minute.

One of the leading ladies of Hollywood’s Golden Age died today after a stroke. The sultry, fiery Lauren Bacall was 89. MSNBC’s Thomas Robert broke the news in a tweet, and the Bogart estate has confirmed it. She was famous for starring — onscreeen and off — with Humphrey Bogart in such 1940s classics as The Big Sleep, To Have and Have Not, Dark Passage and Key Largo. In one of Hollywood’s great love stories, they married in 1945 and stayed together until his death in 1957. Four years later she married another acting legend, Jason Robards Jr.; they divorced in 1969.

Related: Reactions to Lauren Bacall’s Death

Bacall worked in films consistently through the mid-1960s and...

Just one day after Robin Williams passed away, another acting legend is now gone, Lauren Bacall. The Oscar-nominated actress suffered a massive stroke at her home and died on Tuesday morning. She was 89 years old. Bacall is best known for her work with her husband Humphrey Bogart in such movies as "To Have and Have Not," "The Big Sleep," "Dark Passage" and "Key Largo." She later co-stared in "Sex and the Single Girl" and "Murder on the Orient Express." The actress received only one Oscar nomination for her supporting role in "The Mirror Has Two Faces," but was the recipient of an honorary Oscar in 2010. Her latest projects included voice work on "Family Guy" and the Oscar-nominated animated film "Ernest and Celestine."...

One of the most iconic figures of Hollywood’s Golden Age is no longer with us. Today, sultry-voiced actress Lauren Bacall died at the age of 89 after suffering a massive stroke, multiple sources confirm.

Bacall is perhaps best known for her partnership with fellow Hollywood legend Humphrey Bogart, both on-screen and off. In 1944 classic To Have and Have Not, Bacall’s first big screen role (and the one in which she delivered her most iconic line: “You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow”), the sparks between the two ignited one of the film industry’s most enduring love stories. The pair married the next year and went on to star in such 1940s classics as The Big Sleep, Dark Passage and Key Largo, staying together until Bogart’s death in 1957. Bacall was later engaged to Frank Sinatra and married another acting legend,...

Lauren Bacall, legendary Hollywood Golden Age actress, died on Tuesday at 89.

Lauren Bacall Dies

Bacall reportedly suffered a massive stroke at her New York City apartment, which led to her death, reported CNN.

Bacall’s break came in 1944’s To Have and Have Not in which she played Marie “Slim” Browning opposite Humphrey Bogart’s Harry Morgan. After striking up a romance with Bogart and marrying him the following year, Bacall reunited with him on the big screen in The Big Sleep (1946), Dark Passage (1947) and Key Largo (1948). Bacall and Bogart remained married until his death in 1957.

After her string of performances with her husband, Bacall teamed up with Kirk Douglas in a pair of films – Young Man With a Horn (1950) and How to Marry a Millionaire (1953). She went on to costar with Rock Hudson in 1956’s Written on the Wind and with Cary Grant in 1957’s Designing Women. She also...

"Oh, maybe just whistle," said 19-year-old Lauren Bacall, giving future husband Humphrey Bogart "The Look" in "To Have and Have Not." "You know how to whistle don't you Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." 70 years later, Lauren Bacall has died at age 89 in her home, the Humphrey Bogart estate has confirmed, of a massive stroke. The New Yorker known as Betty Bacall had a long and illustrious life, from her early days as Howard Hawks' discovery in such films as "To Have and Gave Not" (clip below) and "The Big Sleep" to later successes in Hollywood ("Key Largo," "Written on the Wind," "Designing Woman," "Sex and the Single Girl," "Harper" and "Murder on the Orient Express") and on Broadway, winning Tonys for "Applause" and "Woman of the Year." She was nominated for an Oscar for playing Barbra Streisand's mother in "A Mirror...

Hollywood has lost a second iconic voice in less than 24 hours.  Lauren Bacall, star of screen, stage and television, passed away at the age of 89 Tuesday. Born Betty Joan Perske in the Bronx, New York in 1924, Bacall was discovered by director Howard Hawks' wife Nancy after she saw a photo of her in Vogue magazine.  After flying her across the country for a screen test, Hawks transformed Betty into Lauren and cast her opposite Humphrey Bogart in his classic 1944 drama "To Have and Have Not."  And, as they say, "a star was born." Bacall was a fixture of the golden age of Hollywood appearing on screen opposite Bogart, her first husband, several more times including films such as "The Big Sleep" (1946), "Dark Passage" (1947) and "Key Largo" (1948). She also starred alongside Marilyn Monroe in "How to Marry A Millionaire" (1953), with John Wayne in "Blood Alley" (1955), with Tony Curtis and Natalie Wood...

Lauren Bacall Dead: 89-year-old Oscar nominee who starred opposite Humphrey Bogart in ‘To Have and Have Not��� and ‘The Big Sleep’ Lauren Bacall has died following a massive stroke earlier today, August 12. Curiously, the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominee for The Mirror Has Two Faces, and the star of film classics such as To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, and How to Marry a Millionaire, had been "killed" by an Internet hoax yesterday. Bacall would have turned 90 on September 16, 2014. According to Media Mass, the Lauren Bacall death rumors began on Monday, August 11, following the creation of a "R.I.P. Lauren Bacall" Facebook page that "attracted nearly one million of ‘likes.’" On the "R.I.P. Lauren Bacall" ‘About’ page, there was the following explanation: “At about 11 a.m. Et on Monday (August 11, 2014), our beloved actress Lauren Bacall passed away. Lauren Bacall was born on September 16, 1924 in New York.

Costume news you may have missed.

Edith Head

Google’s delightful doodle to celebrate the birth of Edith Head on 28th October 1897, showcasing illustrations of her work from A Place in the Sun, White Christmas, Sex and the Single Girl, To Catch a Thief, The Birds and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Costume preview via Trish Summerville and The New York Times – no spoilers. Look out for our own coverage soon.

Julien’s Auctions

The estate of William Travilla. Get your credit card(s) ready.

Columbo

New costume Tumblr by Nicolas Magand. Mark this as essential reading forever.

Duck Dynasty

Well what did You wear for Halloween..?

Christine Bieselin Clark

Long time assistant and then co-costume designer with Michael Wilkinson discusses her career so far with Tyranny of Style, and in Part 2 her new solo project Ender’s Game.

Ender’s Game

CBC explains those...

Natalie Wood: Hot Hollywood star in the ’60s - TCM schedule on August 18, 2013 See previous post: “Natalie Wood Movies: From loving Warren Beatty to stripping like Gypsy Rose Lee.” 3:00 Am The Star (1952). Director: Stuart Heisler. Cast: Bette Davis, Sterling Hayden, Natalie Wood, Warner Anderson, Minor Watson, June Travis, Paul Frees, Robert Warrick, Barbara Lawrence, Fay Baker, Herb Vigran, Marie Blake, Sam Harris, Marcia Mae Jones. Bw-90 mins. 4:30 Am A Cry In The Night (1956). Director: Frank Tuttle. Cast: Edmond O’Brien, Brian Donlevy, Natalie Wood. Bw-75 mins. 6:00 Am West Side Story (1961). Director: Robert Wise. Cast: Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno, George Chakiris, Simon Oakland, Ned Glass, William Bramley, Tucker Smith, Tony Mordente, David Winters, Eliot Feld, John Bert Michaels, David Bean, Robert Banas, Anthony ‘Scooter’ Teague, Harvey Evans aka Harvey Hohnecker, Tommy Abbott, Susan Oakes, Gina Trikonis, Carole D’Andrea, Jose De Vega, Jay Norman,...

Natalie Wood movies: From loving Warren Beatty to stripping like Gypsy Rose Lee Three-time Academy Award nominee Natalie Wood, one of the biggest Hollywood stars of the ’60s, is Turner Classic Movies’ "Summer Under the Stars" performer today, August 18, 2013. TCM is currently showing Elia Kazan’s Splendor in the Grass (1961), a romantic drama written for the screen by playwright William Inge (Picnic, Bus Stop). Wood is fine as a young woman who loses her emotional balance after she’s seduced and abandoned by the son (Warren Beatty) of a wealthy family in Kansas shortly before the Great Depression. For her efforts, she received a Best Actress Oscar nomination. (Sophia Loren was that year’s winner, for the Italian-made Two Women.) (See “TCM movie schedule: Natalie Wood Hot Hollywood Star.” Next in line is Richard Quine’s feeble attempt at screwball comedy, Sex and the Single Girl (1964), a movie that promises much more than it delivers,...

Don’t Torture A Duckling is one of the most intricately woven, original giallo films ever made, and definitely one of my favorite Italian giallo films of all time. Numerous interviews credit Don’t Torture A Duckling (1972) as Lucio Fulci’s personal favorite, and it firmly established him as a major talent in the suspense genre in Italy. Don’t Torture A Duckling never saw a theatrical release in North America in the 1970s, and the film wasn’t released on VHS until 1999 when it was released in both VHS and DVD format by Anchor Bay Entertainment. Even though the time of VHS had come and gone by 1999, Anchor Bay released the film on VHS to appease horror video fans like myself. Blue Underground released the same version of the film again in 2007, but only on DVD and Blu-Ray. Currently, you can buy Don’t Torture A Duckling on VHS...

After establishing his reputation as a playwright, Martin McDonagh made a remarkably confident movie debut in 2004 directing the Oscar-winning, half-hour Six Shooter, set on a train in his native Ireland, where grieving widower Brendan Gleeson is confronted by a gun-toting psychopath. He followed it up in 2008 with his first feature, the dazzling, accomplished In Bruges, a conscious cross between Hemingway's The Killers and Beckett's Waiting for Godot in which Gleeson and Colin Farrell play Irish hitmen waiting for their psychopathic British boss to dictate their next assignment. Now McDonagh has moved to the States, where his hero, Colin Farrell, is Marty, an incipient alcoholic Irish playwright working on a Hollywood film, and the number of psychopaths involved has exponentially advanced to seven.

At the opening of the startling and funny Seven Psychopaths the camera pans across the hills above Los Angeles, taking in the iconic sign that has loomed over...

Helen Gurley Brown, the pioneering author of Sex and the Single Girl, the 1962 book which scandalized America with its stories of women having sex before marriage, and the founder of Cosmo magazine, died Monday at age 90. Two of her friends, who also helped change America’s view of sex, talked with The Hollywood Reporter about the influence of her life and work. Hugh Hefner founded Playboy magazine in 1953, spurring on the sexual revolution. Erica Jong coined the term “zipless f---” in Fear of Flying, her controversial 1973 novel about sex and relationships, and went on

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Iconic Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown died this morning at the age of 90, according to The New York Times. Brown, 90, began her career as a secretary and advertising copywriter before writing the bestselling 1962 advice book Sex And The Single Girl. It established her as a leader of the sexual revolution, encouraging financial independence for women and speaking frankly about sex, and directly inspired work across decades to come—including Mad Men, whose Matthew Weiner has cited it as an influence, and its most obvious descendant, Sex And The City. (In many ways, Brown was the original Carrie ...

She may have left us at 90, but trailblazing, sex-positive Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown will live on with a trove of quotable material -- from her landmark 1962 bestseller Sex and the Single Girl, its sequels and beyond. Like womankind's answer to Hugh Hefner, Gurley Brown was as much a philosopher as she was a publisher, tossing off a stream of pithy and provocative meditations on what modern women can and should desire. Story: Legendary Cosmo Editor Helen Gurley Brown Dies at 90  In a word, she wrote the Joan Holloway playbook -- and though the Mad Men character is fiction, there were

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Helen Gurley Brown, who was the legendary Editor of 'Cosmopolitan' for 32 years, has died today, August 13, at the age of 90. Her death was announced in a press release from Hearst, the owner of Cosmopolitan. Helen was a mentor to HollywoodLife.com's Editor in Chief Bonnie Fuller. Gurley Brown first broke out with her best-selling book Sex and the Single Girl. In July 1965, she became the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and revolutionized the magazine and the publishing industry. She stepped down from the position in 1997 but remained in the masthead as editor in chief for Cosmopolitan International through 2012. After Helen stepped down, HollywoodLife.com's Editor in Chief Bonnie Fuller was named the Editor in Chief of Cosmopolitan and worked closely with her. Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation, said in the statement, "Helen Gurley Brown was an icon. Her formula for honest and straightforward advice about relationships, career and beauty revolutionized the magazine industry.

Helen Gurley Brown, the groundbreaking editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and the bestselling author of Sex and the Single Girl, died Monday in New York. She was 90. An outspoken advocate of women's sexual freedom, Brown clashed with both feminists and conservatives as she helped usher in the sexual revolution of the 1960s with her monthly magazine that became the bible for "fun, fearless females." "Helen Gurley Brown was an icon. Her formula for honest and straightforward advice about relationships, career and beauty revolutionized the magazine industry," said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation. "She lived every day of her...

If you ever watch the women of Sterling Cooper navigate the sexual mores of the early 60s and think, simultaneously, "Thank god that's not me" and also that parts of that game must have been ever so slightly fun, you probably have Helen Gurley Brown to thank.

With her books "Sex and the Single Girl," "Sex and the Office," and "Sex and the New Single Girl" among others and as editor of Cosmopolitan from 1965 to 1997, Brown, who turns 90 today, basically created the Joan Holloway figure, the woman who uses her career as a means of accessing men, money, sex, great clothes, and all-around glamour.

Brown was criticized for encouraging this approach to life -- 70s feminists weren't huge fans. Still, it's hard to deny Brown's role in making America aware that single women had sex lives and that the sex they were having, and how they went about getting it,...

Filed under: Movie News

I'm not holding out much hope for the Lionsgate movie 'What to Expect When You're Expecting,' a comedy derived from a guidebook on pregnancies (it somehow reminds me of the debacle of 1964's 'Sex and the Single Girl').

The Kirk Jones-directed film, which is scheduled to begin production this summer in Atlanta, follows five couples who suffer the many joys of the childbirth process.

The film stars Cameron Diaz, Jennifer Lopez, Brooklyn Decker (the model-turned-actress who made her feature debut opposite Adam Sandler in 'Just Go With It') and Anna Kendrick; the Decker and Kendrick castings were announced Thursday.

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Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films being made available by Netflix for instant streaming. Important Note: There may be some films that do not become available on the specified dates. This is merely a report of the most accurate release dates I can find, but is not directly confirmed by Netflix themselves.

American: The Bill Hicks Story (2010)

Streaming Available: 06/29/2011

Synopsis: Since his tragic death from cancer at age 32, comedian Bill Hicks’s legend and stature have only grown, and this unique documentary tells his story, blending live footage, interviews and animation to fill in the details of a life cut short. A comic’s comic and unflagging critic of hypocrisy and cultural emptiness, Hicks was one of a kind, a Lenny Bruce for the late 20th century,...

A woman’s virtue was a more delicate thing in older films than it is in more modern ones, but in the 60s and 70s the trend shifted away from female leads as swooning romantic interests gradually bedazzled by the manly men starring opposite of them. Consequently, we ended up with strong female leads and films more willing to explore the ideas of an emergent female sexuality. One such film tackling both of these ideas is Sunday in New York. It was hot on the tale of the similar Sex and the Single Girl starring Tony Curtis, Natalie Wood, Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall – and with that in mind, you can’t help but feel that Sunday in New York was another studios follow-up competition film, so that it had a title with similar themes and audience drawing power.

Eileen Tyler (Jane Fonda) is visiting her brother Adam (Cliff Robertson; younger folks,...

Talk about a fast turnaround. Turner Classic Movies will run a 24-hour marathon of 12 Tony Curtis movies on Sunday, October 10th. (In fact, Tony once joked that TCM stands for Tony Curtis Movies.) The movies to be shown are Beachhead (1954), Kings Go Forth (1958), The Vikings (1958), Operation Petticoat (1959), Who Was That Lady? (1960), Sex and the Single Girl (1964), You Can’t Win ‘Em All (1970), Sweet Smell of Success (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958), Trapeze (1956), The Great Race (1965), Don’t Make Waves (1967).

Tony Curtis, who grew beyond his start as a studio-groomed matinee idol to play snappily seductive schemers in such 1950s classics as "The Sweet Smell of Success" and "Some Like It Hot," died Wednesday evening of cardiac arrest at his home in the Las Vegas-area city of Henderson, Nev. He was 85.

"He died peacefully here, surrounded by those who love him and have been caring for him," his wife, Jill Curtis, told the Associated Press outside their home. "All Tony ever wanted to be was a movie star. He didn't want to be the most dramatic actor. He wanted to be a movie star ever since he was a little kid."

A flamboyant personality with a ribald wit and zest for the high life, Curtis epitomized the storied glamour of old Hollywood. Widely known for his onscreen sizzle and his offscreen personal life -- he and first wife Janet Leigh...

By Lee Pfeiffer

News reports indicate that Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at age 85. According to the MSNBC news show Morning Joe, the actor's daughter Jamie Lee Curtis has confirmed the rumor. Entertainment Tonight says that Curtis died of a heart attack in his Nevada home. The actor, who was born Bernard Schwartz,was one of the last symbols of Hollywood's golden era. He emerged as a star almost immediately. It was a far cry from his upbringing in the Bronx, where he and his brother Julius were temporarily placed in an orphanage because their parents could not provide adequate care for them. Curtis served in the U.S. Navy during WWII, having enlisted because he was impressed by seeing Cary Grant in Destination Tokyo. After the War, Curtis found stardom in Hollywood through a contract with Universal. He ended up becoming one of the top sex symbols of the 1950s and 60s.

Tony Curtis, who has appeared in over 100 films since the late 1940s, has died at the age of 85.

A representative for his daughter Jamie Lee Curtis confirmed that the legendary actor had passed away. No further details were given.

Probably best known for his roles in Some Like It Hot and The Defiant Ones, Curtis was a versatile actor who could play both comedic and dramatic characters brilliantly.

Although Oscar-nominated for his leading role in The Defiant Ones, Curtis has said he was disappointed at never winning the gold statuette, however he was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Curtis was married six times, his first wife was Jamie’s mother Janet Leigh. He married his current wife Jill Vandenberg Curtis in 1998.

Below, our top Tony picks:

Some Like It Hot

Operation Petticoat

Who Was That Lady?

Spartacus

The Outsider

The List of Adrian Messenger

Captain Newman,...

Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass team up again for a blistering thriller about the conspiracy over WMDs

Hollywood has made a habit of buying bestselling books on the strength of their catchy titles and then hiring writers to provide them with plots and dialogue. Joseph Heller undertook the task of giving flesh and wit to Helen Gurley Brown's self-help manual Sex and the Single Girl. Woody Allen performed a similar, rather more successful job on Dr David Reuben's Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask. Written by the Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone, is an eye-opening account of the blundering operation of the Coalition Provisional Authority in its first year. It was optioned on publication four years ago, and the producers came together with director Paul Greengrass, writer Brian Helgeland...

Hollywood producer with a string of hit films, including Jaws

For a man who went to Hollywood late and without much enthusiasm, the career of the film producer David Brown, who has died of kidney failure aged 93, was spectacular. He was responsible for putting on screen some of the most memorable and profitable film classics of recent times, including The Sting, which won an Oscar in 1973 for best film; Jaws (1975), which broke records and established its director Steven Spielberg; the highly praised Cocoon in 1985; Driving Miss Daisy, which won an Oscar for best picture in 1989; A Few Good Men, nominated as best film in 1992; the director Robert Altman's critically acclaimed 1992 Hollywood satire The Player; and Chocolat, nominated as best film of 2000. For the last of these, Brown was well into his 80s when he supervised filming on location in France.

Before going independent with his producer partner Richard Zanuck,...

Honorary Award recipient Lauren Bacall, who appeared in, among others, To Have and Have Not, The Big Sleep, Young Man with a Horn, How to Marry a Millionaire, Woman’s World, Sex and the Single Girl, Murder on the Orient Express, The Fan, and The Mirror Has Two Faces, arrives at the 2009 Governors Awards ceremony held at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood & Highland on Saturday, November 14. Maria Bello, the leading lady in A History of Violence Oscar 2010 co-host Alec Baldwin, a best supporting actor Academy Award nominee for The Cooler Photos: Michael Yada / ©A.M.P.A.S. Click on the photos to enlarge them.

I didn’t really know I liked Natalie Wood until about a week ago. Setting into the Warner Brothers Natalie Wood Collection I had no real idea what to expect. I’d already seen Inside Daisy Clover and Love with the Proper Stranger, and to be honest I only liked the latter. So her track record with me was 50/50. When I put those films up against all the other classic cinema I enjoyed, Inside Daisy Clover just seemed to fall short. Luckily, in the Natalie Wood Collection the quality is a pretty even split.

Bombers B-52 (1957)

I felt that the inclusion of Bombers B-52 in the Natalie Wood Collection mislead me. Considering the plot revolves around Sgt. Chuck Brennan (Karl Malden) and his grudge against Col. Jim Herlihy (Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.) – why is this considered a Natalie Wood film? Her role, as Brennan’s daughter, may get a maximum screen...

Blu-Ray Rating: 4.0/5.0 Chicago – When I hear phrases like “screen icon” or “Hollywood legend,” one of the first people that I think of is Natalie Wood. Six of the famous star’s films have been compiled for the “Natalie Wood Collection,” a great starter set for classic movie buffs intrigued by this timeless star or collector’s looking to enhance their catalog.

Gone way too soon, Wood appeared in 56 film and television roles, becoming an internationally recognized star before she was even old enough to drive. Wood first appeared on screen when she was only five and won acclaim when she was only nine for her work in “Miracle on 34th Street”. She would go on to start in irrefutable classics like “Rebel Without a Cause” and “West Side Story”. She was nominated for three Academy Awards and seven Golden Globes, winning three of the latter.

One of Wood’s Oscar...

Mel Ferrer, whose career as a performer, director, producer and writer spanned six decades, has died at age 90.

Ferrer died Monday at his ranch near Santa Barbara, family spokesman Mike Mena said.

"It's a sad occasion, but he did live a long and productive life," Mena said Tuesday.

He appeared in more than 100 films and made-for-television movies, directed nine films and produced nine more.

Ferrer's most impressive film role came in 1953 in Lili. He played a disabled carnival puppeteer with whom a French orphan (played by Leslie Caron) falls in love.

On the big screen, Ferrer was most recognizable for his performance as Prince Andrei in War and Peace in 1956 with Audrey Hepburn and Henry Fonda. He was paid the then princely sum of $100,000. He appeared in The Sun Also Rises alongside Ava Gardner, Tyrone Power and Errol Flynn.

Ferrer was often cast in big pictures during the late '50s and early '60s: The World, the Flesh and the Devil with Harry Belafonte and Inger Stevens; Sex and the Single Girl with Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis; Paris Does Strange Things with Ingrid Bergman; and The Longest Day with an all-star male cast.

Despite his aristocratic looks and versatility, Ferrer never hit stardom as a leading man. Later in his career, he starred primarily in TV movies and, living in Europe since 1954, he performed in a number of obscure European productions as well as intermittent U.S. exploitation fodder like Eaten Alive (1977).

Active in all forms of performance, Ferrer (with Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Joseph Cotton), founded the La Jolla Playhouse in 1947.

In film, Ferrer produced Wait Until Dark, with Hepburn, his then-wife, as the female lead. Previously, he directed Hepburn, whom he met while they starred together in Ondine on Broadway, in Green Mansions. Among his other noteworthy film accomplishments, Ferrer directed Claudette Colbert in the film The Secret Fury in 1950 and produced El Greco in 1966.