Anne Hathaway as Judy Garland?

So word on the street is Anne Hathaway will be playing Judy in an upcoming film based on Gerald Clarke's biography, Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland. I don't think I've read the book ... you can only read/watch so many things about Judy before it gets old and kind of depressing! Nevertheless, I suppose I'll have to see this movie. It could be interesting, and I do like Anne Hathaway. Even though she's no Judy!

Old Movies at Work

I found an exciting new lunchtime activity: old movies on Hulu! My wonderful boyfriend alerted me to the fact that Hulu recently put up some oldies, so I watched part of His Girl Friday today at lunch. It was heavenly. I'll have to finish it later in the week. Too bad the weather's nice enough now that I no longer feel the need to hibernate in my office for my entire lunch hour.

Anyway, be sure to check it out. There are abou 13 or 14 new (recently added) black and white films—a few with John Wayne, an Orson Welles picture, and of course, His Girl Friday, one of my personal favorites. This one also looks very interesting.

Elvis Happy

I have to admit that I haven't seen many Elvis movies. Last year I decided to watch Viva Las Vegas and it was pretty great, mostly due to Ann Margaret's amazing dancing. I'm not sure I could tell you what the film itself was actually about.

So I was pretty excited when we decided to show an Elvis movie for Old Movie Night this month. We decided on a slightly obscure one called Girl Happy, in which Elvis is sent down to Ft. Lauderdale during Spring Break to keep an eye on his boss's daughter, while performing there with his "combo" made up of three other young, much nerdier men. The premise is pretty predictable, about a gazillion young, bathing suit-clad girls, Elvis falling in love with multiple women, lots of gyrating, a beach party, a jail breakout—the usual. Basically all the makings of a great time.

I think it was a hit with the Old Movie Night crowd and it was a great way to usher in the spring. Especially since the weather here has been quite spring-like lately. Everyone got pretty into the picture, showing off some nice 60's dance moves:


And the proportion of Elvises to girls in this photo is about the same as the movie!

Tony Curtis in Chicago

If you're in the Chicagoland area, be sure to go see Tony Curtis and a screening of Some Like it Hot at the Hollywood Blvd. Theater on March 20. I went last year and it was an amazing time. Tony answered some questions before the film that were quite entertaining, and of course Some Like it Hot is a classic.

Who Is Shiloh?

I have a confession to make: I like Neil Diamond. I realize that's way dorky, but I can't help it. And did you see him sing at the Grammys? People seemed to enjoy it; they weren't laughing or anything.

So lately I've been listening to this Shiloh song of his, and I came to realize I have no idea what in the world this song is about. Now I realize this blog post isn't going to be very far-reaching in terms of audience—there are probably only about 5 people in the world who know this song and only 2 of those 5 probably care what it's about. Nevertheless, this is how I entertain myself so bear with me.

At first I thought it was maybe about a childhood friend, Shiloh, who's a really pathetic character and bows to Neil's every whim only to get dumped when Neil finds a woman, but some of the lyrics just seemed a little creepy if that was the case. I also thought perhaps it's about a pet or something more abstract like a place, but that doesn't really seem to make sense.

Then it hit me: multiple personality disorder! That's clearly what's going on here. It's really the only explanation that makes sense and isn't really creepy. Young Neil is obviously severely neglected as a child by his parents and friends, so he "turns on the only friend [he] can find/there in [his] mind." Then he meets a hot girl and no longer has a need for his multiple personality, but when she dumps him, he wants Shiloh back! The End.

I can't believe I didn't think of this before, it's so clear now.

Interview with Jane Russell

ChristianityTodayMovies.com (part of Christianity Today International, my place of employment) posted this interesting interview with Jane Russell about her Christian faith and old-timey Hollywood stuff. It's quite good, take a look!