News

It's likely well-known to Starwoids the world over that multiple now-famous actors initially auditioned to play the role of Han Solo in George Lucas' 1977 film "Star Wars." The role ultimately ended up going to Harrison Ford, but Kurt Russell, Nick Nolte, and Christopher Walken also tried out. One can also find old video footage of Charles Martin Smith reading for Luke Skywalker, and Perry King reading for Han. While both King and Smith are talented actors, looking at their audition tapes reveals why neither of them appeared in "Star Wars." They simply didn't have a good handle on the material in that audition. Ford, meanwhile, brought a certain "it-factor" quality that made him imminently magnetic.

King, however, wasn't left out of the "Star Wars" loop entirely. In 1981, writer Brian Daley and director John Madden adapted "Star Wars" into a 13-episode radio serial that broadcast on Kusc in Los Angeles. The...

Exclusive: Five short comedic plays written by The View‘s Joy Behar will be streamed as a benefit for the East Hampton, New York, arts and community venue Guild Hall, with performances by Behar, Lorraine Bracco, Dylan McDermott, Bob Balaban, Susie Essman, Robert Klein, Brenda Vacarro, Chris Bauer, Danny Hoch and Rachel Dratch.

Guild Hall: A Totally Disrespectful Evening of Short Plays by Joy Behar, directed by John Gould Rubin, will stream on Oct. 25 as a virtual benefit for the 89-year-old Guild Hall as well as two other non-profit organizations, The Bridgehampton Childcare and Recreational Center, and The Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, a non-profit community restaurant. The price to view will be $75 per household.

The short plays are:

God & Bernadette featuring Lorraine Bracco (The Sopranos), Chris Bauer (True Blood), Brenda Vaccaro (Midnight Cowboy) and Brynne Amelia Ballan. A pre-teenage girl ruffles the feathers of a nun; Get Me Teresa...

1957: CBS aired the last episode of daytime soap Valiant Lady.

1985: General Hospital's Celia and Jimmy Lee married.

2007: Guiding Light's Olivia ran into Reva during Josh's wedding.

2007: One Life to Live's Asa Buchanan died."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1957: The final episode of daytime soap opera Valiant Lady aired on CBS radio and television. The show, which debuted in 1953, was a follow up to the radio soap opera of the same name that ran from 1938 to 1952. Flora Campbell starred as Helen Emerson during the show's final three years.

1971: On The Doctors,...

1957: CBS aired the last episode of daytime soap Valiant Lady.

1985: General Hospital's Celia and Jimmy Lee married.

2007: Guiding Light's Olivia ran into Reva during Josh's wedding.

2007: One Life to Live's Asa Buchanan died."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1957: The final episode of daytime soap opera Valiant Lady aired on CBS radio and television. The show, which debuted in 1953, was a follow up to the radio soap opera of the same name that ran from 1938 to 1952. Flora Campbell starred as Helen Emerson during the show's final three years.

1971: On The Doctors,...

Yes, we’ve all lived before; when I come back I don’t care who I am as long as I’m in the 1%. When Michael Sarrazin reaches into a previous life his big sacrifice is to abandon the gorgeous Cornelia Sharpe for the gorgeous Jennifer O’Neill, arousing the suspicions of his wife in his previous life, gorgeous Margot Kidder. The show looks great, Jerry Goldsmith’s music is beautiful, but it runs up against real trouble in the script and directing departments.

The Reincarnation of Peter Proud

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1975 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 105 min. / Street Date May 29, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Michael Sarrazin, Jennifer O’Neill, Margot Kidder, Cornelia Sharpe, Paul Hecht, Tony Stephano, Norman Burton, Anne Ives, Debralee Scott.

Cinematography: Victor J. Kemper

Film Editor: Michael Anderson

Art Direction: Jack Martin Smith

Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith

Written by Max Erlich, from his novel

Produced by...

This is the Pure Movies review of My Dog Tulip, directed by Paul Fierlinger and Sandra Fierlinger, and starring Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, Isabella Rossellini, Peter Gerety, Brian Murray, Paul Hecht and Euan Morton. You could be forgiven for forgetting that animation was all done by hand in the days before the Toy Story/Shrek phenomena digitised everything to Infinity and Far Far Away in 3D. This charming film based on J.R.Ackerley’s memoir about his dog Tulip is nostalgic, and quaint, with beautiful hand-drawn characterisations that are without the colourful polish we have become used to. All the more delightful as a result, the experience watching My Dog Tulip is very like being read to - the cinema equivalent of being cosied up next to a warm fire drinking hot chocolate on a cold autumn evening.

Composer of a string of Broadway musicals, he was best known for Fiddler On the Roof

Days after speaking at a memorial service for his Fiddler On the Roof collaborator Joseph Stein, the composer Jerry Bock has died, aged 81. With Stein and the lyricist Sheldon Harnick, Bock wrote some of the most loved and admired Broadway songs of the last century. Fiddler On the Roof, set in Tsarist Russia and starring Zero Mostel as Tevye the milkman, opened on Broadway in 1964 and broke all box-office records, running for more than 3,200 performances.

The show made Bock world-famous for his lilting, instantly familiar Jewish melodies and catchy rhythms. There was consummate artistry in the way he could set to music even so banal an exchange as "Do you love me?" "Do I what?" "Do you love me?" "Do I love you...?" with its tender, affirmative swerve in the last phrase.

Between 1956 and...

Director: Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger Writers: Paul Fierlinger, Sandra Fierlinger (screenplay), J. R. Ackerley (novel) Starring: (voice) Christopher Plummer, Lynn Redgrave, Isabella Rossellini, Brian Murray, Paul Hecht, Euan Morton J.R. Ackerley (Christopher Plummer) is not a dog lover at the moment when -- nearing 50 -- he adopts Tulip, an 18-month-old Alsatian. Ackerley lives in a small Putney flat overlooking the Thames (where he lived the final 25 years of his life) and Tulip plows into his life and home with reckless abandon, a wild and uncontrollable ball of energy. Tulip grows quite fond of Ackerley and slowly but surely begins to settle down. Ackerley -- a gay man beyond his days of cruising for dates -- finds Tulip to be his ideal companion; in fact, during their 14 years together, Tulip turns out to be the one true love of Ackerley’s life. My Dog Tulip reveals an author who is not...

• Quick Links > My Dog Tulip > Christopher Plummer > Lynn Redgrave > Isabella Rossellini Some news from the indie animation front. The veteran actor Christopher Plummer most recently of Inside Man has joined a star studded cast of My Dog Tulip. With him come the irreplaceable Isabella Rossellini and Lynn Redgrave. The new additions are just dressing on the cake since this film has already attracted some talented actors. Brian Murray a new comer who Is looking to make it big in the indie industry, Paul Hecht known best from daytime soap, As The World Turns and Peter Gerety who has through the years had minor roles in many good films. My Dog Tulip seems to be an adult cartoon. Not in the way Heavy Metal was but rather the way Watership Down was. I have no idea if it will be nearly as depressing as Watership, but Tulip will deal with

...