17 Wednesday Feb 2010
Posted in Film, Marilyn Monroe
Sylvia Barnhart with Marilyn Monroe, 1946
Sylvia Barnhart, the woman who first dyed Marilyn Monroe’s hair blonde, has died. In recent years she was a favourite at meetings of the Marilyn Remembered fan club in Los Angeles, California. Continue reading
07 Sunday Feb 2010
Posted in Film, Marilyn Monroe
Artwork by Eric Woodard
David Brown, one of Hollywood’s most enduringly successful producers, has died at his Manhattan home aged 93, after a long illness. A native New Yorker, he trained as a journalist and wrote short stories, edited numerous publications, and served as a first lieutenant with US Army Military Intelligence during World War II.
In 1951, Brown was hired by Darryl F. Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, to run the studio’s story department. He would stay at Fox for two decades, rising in the executive ranks and surviving two firings during a tumultuous period which changed Hollywood’s ‘star system’ irrevocably. Continue reading
25 Monday Jan 2010
Posted in Books, Fiction, History, Witchcraft
Original artwork by John Gilbert
William Harrison Ainsworth (1805-1882) was a historical novelist and one of the most popular English authors of the later 19th century. Born in Manchester, he trained as a lawyer and practised in London, but his true ambitions were always literary. In his youth, Ainsworth read adventure stories and was an admirer of Dick Turpin, the highwayman whose exploits were the subject of popular legend. The tale of Turpin’s overnight ride from London to York on his steed, Black Bess, featured in Ainsworth’s first novel, Rookwood (1834.)
Among Ainsworth’s nearly forty novels, several were set in his native Lancashire, including his most famous work, The Lancashire Witches: A Romance of Pendle Forest (1848.) Continue reading
15 Friday Jan 2010
Originally conceived as a short film, Filth and Wisdom was extended into a long feature and first shown at the Berlin Film Festival in 2008. Since then it has had a limited theatrical release, and is now available on DVD in Europe and America (though not, as yet, in the UK) as well as being issued on-demand via cable providers.
It’s unlikely that this low-budget, indie film would have been noticed at all had it not been directed by Madonna. Her star power has proved to be a mixed blessing, generating media interest but also critical scorn. Continue reading
10 Sunday Jan 2010
Posted in Film, History, Marilyn Monroe
Tags
1963, An American Affair, Cameron Bright, Gretchen Mol, John F. Kennedy, Marilyn Monroe, Mary Meyer
An American Affair is an independent film, written by Alex Metcalf and directed by William Olsson, released in US cinemas and on DVD last year. Set in 1963, it depicts a fictional romance between President John F. Kennedy and a mysterious woman, observed by a young boy in the months before Kennedy’s assassination. Continue reading
Tara Hanks 
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