jakeem

And it's probably even better when it's sung without skates!

At least we've never had a disaster like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WBfufKGOKQ

Well, good. But get used to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jf_H52BlpbA

Richard Matheson was in "The Godfather Part II" (1974) with Danny Aiello. Danny Aiello was in "Fort Apache the Bronx" (1981) with Paul Newman. Next: Boogaloo Shrimp.

Is this 1968 or something? America's greatness lies in its diversity, so it shouldn't surprise anyone when people develop their own takes on the national anthem. And let's not forget that the music was cribbed from an old British drinking song!

TCM On Demand for February 27, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Big Chill (1983) -- Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, JoBeth Williams, Don Galloway, James Gillis, Ken Place, Jon Kasdan, Ira Stiltner, Jake Kasdan, Muriel Moore, Meg Kasdan, Patricia Gaul. Scenes deleted: Kevin Costner. A group of 1960s college friends find themselves holding an unscheduled reunion in South Carolina after one of their own commits suicide. The comedy-drama, written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan ("Body Heat," "Grand Canyon"), received Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress (Close) and Best Original Screenplay (Kasdan and Barbara Benedek). Costner -- cast as Alex, the group's onetime leader at the University of Michigan and the man whose death brings its members together -- was cut from the final version of the film. But Kasdan made up for the little-known actor's elimination by casting him in the 1985 buddy Western "Silverado," which helped establish Costner as a star. In 2011, Time magazine listed its top 25 movie soundtracks of all time. This film, which features songs by Marvin Gaye, the Rolling Stones, the Temptations, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, Three Dog Night, Aretha Franklin and others, was No. 14. The Time piece said: "...'The Big Chill' is at its heart a movie about disappointment and nostalgia, and the often blurry line between the two. Its soundtrack, too, is all baby-boomer throwback to the rock and Motown hits of the late '60s and early '70s that the movie's characters reveled in during their years at the University of Michigan." Close's Oscar nomination was the second of six that she would receive during her career. She also earned nods for "The World According to Garp" (Best Supporting Actress, 1982), "The Natural" (Best Supporting Actress, 1984), "Fatal Attraction" (Best Actress, 1987), "Dangerous Liaisons" (Best Actress, 1988) and "Albert Nobbs" (Best Actress, 2011). She shares with Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter the record for most Oscar nominations by an actress without ever winning. Memorable scene: At Alex's funeral, Karen Bowens (Williams) plays a musical selection on a church organ. The song she performs? "You Can't Always Get What You Want" by the Stones. Be sure to notice: The Beaufort, S.C. home of Harold and Sarah Cooper (Kiine, Close) is the same house in which the Meechum family resided in the 1979 drama "The Great Santini." No, it wasn't Magnum: Berenger has said that the television detective played by his character Sam Weber was modeled after the hero of "Matt Houston," the 1982–1985 ABC detective series that starred Lee Horsley. Expires March 5, 2015.

TCM On Demand for February 27, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 2. Diner (1982) -- Steve Guttenberg, Daniel Stern, Mickey Rourke, Kevin Bacon, Tim Daly, Paul Reiser, Ellen Barkin, Kathryn Dowling, Michael Tucker, Claudia Cron. Set during the final days of the 1950s, this stylish and nostalgic comedy-drama about longtime friends in Baltimore has become an influential film. In fact, a 2012 Vanity Fair magazine piece by S.L. Price praised it as the 1980s movie that has had more of an impact on our popular culture than any other from that decade. Here's a link, in case you're interested: http://www.vanityfai...03/diner-201203 Levenson, who received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay, was known at the time for two collaborations with Mel Brooks and for co-authoring the Oscar-nominated screenplay for the 1979 Al Pacino film "...And Justice for All." After "Diner," his career soared with such hits as "The Natural" (1984), "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987), "Rain Man" (which earned him the Best Director Oscar for 1988), "Bugsy" (1991), "Sleepers" (1996) and "Wag the Dog" (1997). He also filmed three other efforts set in his native Baltimore -- "Tin Men" (1987), "Avalon" (1990) and "Liberty Heights" (1999). "Diner" provided early major film appearances for many of the actors, including Bacon, Rourke, Reiser, Barkin and Daly (now a co-star in the CBS drama series "Madam Secretary"). "I saw 500 guys for those six roles," Levenson told msnbc's "Hardball" host Chris Matthews in a February 2015 interview. "I wanted to do a movie that sounded like the way the times were when I hung out...Just ordinary conversation. I had never seen it done in a film that way." In a classic marital argument, "Shrevie" Schreiber (Stern) scolds his wife Beth (Barkin) for disrupting the meticulous filing system for his record collection. Memorable scenes: The film takes place just before the 1958 World Champion Baltimore Colts defend their NFL title in a December 27, 1959 postseason rematch with the New York Giants. Eddie (Guttenberg), a diehard Colts fan, announces that he won't marry his fiancée unless she passes a quiz about his favorite pro football team. After she passes, we discover that their wedding has a Colts motif. In his "Hardball" interview with Matthews, Levenson said the football test was inspired by something his real-life cousin Eddie did. The director said the relative, who saw "Diner" several times, eventually regretted the premarital quiz: "He said to me...'Three weeks after we were married, she can't remember one of the answers'." Expires March 5, 2015.

TCM On Demand for February 27, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 3. Meet John Doe (1941) -- Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, Spring Byington, James Gleason, Gene Lockhart. Director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin, 1934 Oscar winners for "It Happened One Night," teamed up again for this memorable comedy/drama. A newspaper columnist (Stanwyck) tries to save her job when her publication begins to downsize. She creates a fictional letter writer named John Doe who expresses compassion for the common people and threatens to jump to his death from the City Hall building on Christmas Eve. What results is a sensational public reponse, which becomes more sensational when the paper is forced to hire an ex-baseball player (Cooper) to pose as John Doe. Seven months after the film was released, Cooper and Stanwyck were reunited in the screwball comedy "Ball of Fire." Riskin's screenplay was adapted from "The Life and Death of John Doe", a film treatment by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell, who were Oscar-nominated for Best Original Story. Cooper and Brennan appeared in five other films together: "The Cowboy and the Lady" (1938), "The Westerner" (1940), "Sergeant York" (1941), "The Pride of the Yankees" (1942) and "Task Force" (1949). Capra's film was one of the influences for Joel and Ethan Coen's 1994 screwball comedy "The Hudsucker Proxy," which starred Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Paul Newman. Expires March 5, 2015. 4. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) -- Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, H.B. Warner, Harry Carey, Sr., Astrid Allwyn, Ruth Donnelly, Grant Mitchell, Porter Hall, Pierre Watkin, Charles Lane, William Demarest, Baby Dumpling (Larry Simms). Uncredited: Dub Taylor. Stewart became a major star because of Frank Capra's classic tale about politics in Washington D.C. -- and on the local level. The actor stars as Jefferson Smith, an idealistic citizen appointed by the governor of his state (Kibbee) to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate. Of course, Smith's appointment is designed so the state's corrupt power structure can manipulate him for its own purposes. In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked the picture No. 29 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. When the AFI updated the list in 2007, the film climbed to No. 26. The film was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Stewart), Best Supporting Actor (Carey, Sr. and Rains), Best Writing, Screenplay (Sidney Buchman) and Best Art Direction (Lionel Banks). The film's only Oscar win was for Best Writing, Original Story (Lewis R. Foster). Stewart would win the Best Actor Oscar a year later for his performance opposite Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn in "The Philadelphia Story" (1940). Mitchell, who had a banner year with roles in this film, "Gone with the Wind," "Only Angels Have Wings" and the Charles Laughton version of "The Hunchback of Notre Dame," received the Best Supporting Actor award for "Stagecoach." Seven years later, Capra would reunite with Stewart, Mitchell, Bondi and Warner for the holiday classic "It's a Wonderful Life." Memorable scene: Upon his arrival in Washington, Smith wanders away from his welcoming party and winds up on a sightseeing spree, highlighted by a reverential visit to the Lincoln Memorial. Expires March 5, 2015.

TCM On Demand for February 26, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: Fame (1980) -- Irene Cara, Paul McCrane, Lee Curreri, Maureen Teefy, Laura Dean, Antonia Franceschi, Boyd Gaines, Gene Anthony Ray, Barry Miller, Anne Meara, Debbie Allen, Albert Hague, Tresa Hughes, Steve Inwood, Joanna Merlin, Jim Moody, Eddie Barth, Richard Belzer, Meg Tilly. Uncredited: Holland Taylor. Directed by Alan Parker ("Midnight Express," "Mississippi Burning"), this film musical about the creative students at the New York High School of Performing Arts earned Academy Awards for Best Original Score (Michael Gore) and Best Original Song: "Fame" (Gore and Dean Pitchford). Cara, who plays Coco, performs the Oscar-nominated song "Out Here On My Own." It was co-written by Gore and his older sister, pop music legend Lesley Gore, who died February 16, 2015 at the age of 68. Three years after providing the vocals for the movie's Academy Award-winning title song, Cara won a 1983 Oscar herself for co-writing the song "Flashdance...What a Feeling" from the movie "Flashdance." Her recorded version of the song, which reached the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, also earned her the 1983-1984 Grammy Award for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. McCrane, who appears as Montgomery, became an Emmy Award-winning actor best known for his long run on "e.r." as the disagreeable Dr. Robert Romano. He has become an in-demand director with recent credits for the television series "Scandal," "Glee" and "Secrets and Lies." Cast members Allen, Curreri, Ray and Hague reunited for a television series version of "Fame" that aired on NBC during the 1982-1983 season and in syndication from 1983-1987. Expires March 4, 2015.

Jean Shepherd was in "A Christmas Story" (1982) with Melinda Dillon. Melinda Dillon was in "Slap Shot" (1977) with Paul Newman. Next: Sandahl Bergman.

If Millennials know "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)," it's because of sporting events and the hilarious dinner table scene from "Beetlejuice" (1988).

It wasn't as bad as Seth "We saw your boobs" MacFarlane's obnoxious stint as Oscar host in 2013.

TCM On Demand for February 25, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. The Great Santini (1979) -- Robert Duvall, Blythe Danner, Michael O'Keefe, Lisa Jane Persky, Julie Anne Haddock, Brian Andrews, Stan Shaw, Theresa Merritt, David Keith, Paul Mantee, Michael Strong, Bennett Liss, Joe Dorsey, David Frankham, Jan Stratton, Paul Gleason. Duvall and O'Keefe received 1980 Academy Award nominations for their respective performances as a father and son at odds with each other in a 1962 South Carolina military community. Duvall, nominated for Best Actor, stars as Lt. Col. Wilbur "Bull" Meechum (a.k.a. "The Great Santini"), a gung-ho Marine fighter pilot trying to cope with peacetime in America. O'Keefe, who received a Best Supporting Actor nomination, is Ben Meechum -- the eldest of the flier's four youngsters. A high school basketball star at the age of 18, Ben begins to resent his father's overbearing nature. Danner plays matriarch Lillian Meechum, who somehow manages to keep the family together. At their new home in Beaufort, S.C., Meechum lays down the law for all of the members of his brood -- Ben, daughters Mary Anne (Persky) and Karen (Haddock), and youngest son Matthew (Andrews). In the movie's most memorable scene, the conflict between father and son rises to the surface after a rigorous one-on-one basketball game. The film was directed by Lewis John Carlino ("The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea," "Class"), who adapted the 1976 semi-autobiographical novel by Pat Conroy. This was one of several Conroy stories that were turned into motion pictures. Among the other films based on his works: "Conrack" (1974), "The Lords of Discipline" (1983) and "The Prince of Tides" (1991). After this picture became more widely seen, Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert placed it on his list of the best movies of 1980. "Santini, you understand, is one hell of a guy," Ebert wrote. "All he understands is competition. He's a royal pain in the *** to his Marine superiors, because he's always pulling damn fool stunts and making a spectacle out of himself. But he's a great pilot and he's said to be a good leader (even though his first briefing session for the men under him in South Carolina leaves them totally bewildered). Santini wants to win at everything, even backyard basketball with his son." Duvall's Academy Award nomination was his third of seven overall, and his first of three as a leading man. He won the 1983 Best Actor Oscar for his performance as a onetime country singer seeking redemption in "Tender Mercies." The actor, who turned 84 on January 5, 2015, received his latest nomination for his turn as the title character in "The Judge" (2014). His inclusion in the Best Supporting Actor race made him the oldest male ever to be nominated in any acting category. He surpassed the record of Hal Holbrook, who was 82 years and 339 days old when he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his performance in "Into the Wild" (2007). The oldest acting nominee in any acting category was Gloria Stuart, who was 87 years and 221 days old when she was nominated for her appearances as Old Rose in "Titanic" (1997). Conroy, who modeled "Bull" Meechum after his Marine fighter pilot father Donald Patrick Conroy, re-examined his complicated family relationships in the 2013 nonfiction book "The Death of Santini: The Story of a Father and His Son." Expires March 3, 2015.

TCM On Demand for February 25, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 2. Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) -- Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Jane Alexander, Justin Henry, Howard Duff, George Coe, JoBeth Williams, Joe Seneca. This domestic drama, based on Avery Corman's 1977 novel, won Academy Awards for Best Picture (producer Stanley R. Jaffe), Best Director (Robert Benton), Best Actor (Hoffman), Best Supporting Actress (Streep) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Benton). The film also received nominations for Best Supporting Actor (Henry), Best Supporting Actress (Alexander), Best Cinematography (Néstor Almendros) and Best Film Editing (Gerald B. Greenberg). Some noteworthy items about the film's Oscar awards and nominations: It was Hoffman's first of two Best Actor awards (the other was for "Rain Man" nine years later). He and Marlon Brando are the only people to win two Best Actor Oscars for films that were named Best Picture. Brando's Oscars were for "On the Waterfront" (1954) and "The Godfather" (1972, which he declined). It was the first of three Oscar wins for Streep, who holds the record for most career acting nominations with 19. She later won Best Actress awards for "Sophie's Choice" (1982) and "The Iron Lady" (2011). This was her second nomination, occurring one year after her Best Supporting Actress nod for "The Deer Hunter." At 8 years and 276 days old, Henry became the youngest person in any acting category to be nominated for an Academy Award. He has held that record for 36 years. Benton earned a second writing award five years later. He won the 1984 Best Original Screenplay Oscar for "Places in the Heart." Hoffman stars in the drama as Ted Kramer, a self-absorbed New York City ad executive who gets a jolt when his apparently longsuffering wife Joanna (Streep) walks out on him. As a result, Ted winds up having to care for their young son Billy (played by the precocious Henry). Rearing a child without his wife, Ted experiences some difficult times, including an exercise in bad breakfast cuisine. Eventually, Ted becomes a better man and father. But a year-and-a half after her departure and eventual divorce from Ted, Joanna returns with a legal case to gain custody of Billy. Memorable scene No. 1: After Ted's co-worker Phyllis Bernard (Williams) spends the night with him at his apartment, she has an unexpected nighttime encounter with Billy. The boy's reaction to seeing a naked woman? After asking her name, he wonders: "Do you like fried chicken?" Her response: "Fried chicken? Very much." The part of Phyllis originally was intended for Streep. But when the producers couldn't get Kate Jackson -- starring at the time in the ABC TV series "Charlie's Angels" -- to play Joanna Kramer, Streep was upgraded to that key role. Williams, probably best remembered for her appearances as Diane Freeling in "Poltergeist" (1982) and "Poltergeist II: The Other Side" (1986), later received a 1994 Oscar nomination for directing the live-action short film "On Hope." Memorable scene No. 2: Eighteen months after the disastrous French toast incident, a more experienced Ted easily prepares the breakfast menu with help from Billy. Expires March 3, 2015.

Well, you can never say Lady Gaga is boring! Check out her impassioned tribute to Sting at the Kennedy Center Honors in December. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Jz_lVx2Sj0

TCM On Demand for February 25, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 3. A Little Romance (1979) -- Sir Laurence Olivier, Diane Lane, Thelonious Bernard, Arthur Hill, Sally Kellerman, Broderick Crawford, David Dukes, Andrew Duncan, Claudette Sutherland, Graham Fletcher-Cook, Ashby Semple, Claude Brosset, Jacques Maury, Anna Massey, Peter Maloney. This charming romantic comedy was the film debut of the promising young actress Lane, who went on to become an Academy Award nominee (Best Actress of 2002 for "Unfaithful") and one of the screen's great beauties. The film was directed by George Roy Hill, who teamed with Paul Newman and Robert Redford for the buddy Western "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" (1969) and the Oscar-winning comedy caper "The Sting" (1973). He also directed "The World of Henry Orient," the 1964 comedy about New York City schoolgirls (Tippy Walker, Merrie Spaeth) obssessed with a concert pianist (Peter Sellers). Filmed in France and Italy, this story is about teenagers, too. It stars Lane as Lauren King, a brilliant American girl living in Paris with her mother (Kellerman) and businessman stepfather (Arthur Hill). She becomes fast friends with Daniel Michon (played by first-time actor Bernard), an opinionated French teen who loves American movies. When they meet an elderly pickpocket named Julius Edmond Santorin (Olivier), he leads them to believe he is an accomplished diplomat. He also inspires them to make an impromptu trip to Venice to test the veracity of a romantic legend involving the Bridge of Sighs and a gondola at sunset (or so he says). French composer Georges Delerue, a frequent collaborator with director François Truffaut, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Allan Burns, a multi-Emmy Award winner whose credits include Mary Tyler Moore's 1970s comedy series, received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The film concludes with a freeze-frame shot, a style that Hill also used at the end of "Butch Cassidy" and "The World According to Garp" (1982). Cover Credit: JOHN G. ZIMMERMAN Lane, the daughter of drama coach/agent Burt Lane and Playboy Playmate Colleen Farrington (Miss October 1957), began acting in stage productions in New York City when she was 6 years old. She was 13 when she made her debut film, which led to her being featured at age 14 on the August 13, 1979 cover of Time magazine. In addition to Lane, the cover story focused on other young Hollywood stars of the day, including Brooke Shields, Mariel Hemingway, Tatum O'Neal, Kristy McNichol and Linda Manz. Although she has taken occasional breaks from acting through the years, Lane, who observed her 51sh birthday in January, appeared in the 2016 superhero film "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice." She reprised her 2013 "Man of Steel" role as Martha Kent, the foster mother of Superman (Henry Cavill). In October 2016, Lane starred in a Broadway revival of Anton Chekhov's “The Cherry Orchard." She appeared as the main character, Madame Lyubov Andreyevna Ranevskaya. In 1977, Lane appeared in a Broadway production of the play as a preteen with a cast that also featured Irene Worth (as Ranevskaya), Raul Julia and Meryl Streep. Memorable dialogue: Broderick Crawford (as himself, after Daniel punches an obnoxious film director played by Dukes): Helluva right hand there, kid. Daniel: Like when you hit Ward Bond in "Sin Town." Crawford: Who? Daniel: Ward Bond. Crawford: In what? Daniel: "Sin Town." Don't you remember? Crawford: Ward Bond..."Sin Town"... (walks away) (Later) Crawford: Hey, kid! Are you sure that wasn't Richard Widmark I belted? Daniel: No. You never made a picture with Widmark. Crawford: I didn't? Expires March 3, 2015.

The producers for the last three Academy Award telecasts have been Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, who were responsible for the 2002 Best Picture winner "Chicago." Needless to say, the first ceremony they did in 2013 featured a tribute to their movie on the 10th anniversary of its Oscar win.

One good thing about the annual Academy Governors' Ball in November is that they honor an average of four people each year. At the 2014 event, it was O'Hara, Belafonte, Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki and French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. That's much better than honoring one or two people a year. It's interesting that no one has received the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for excellence in producing movies since 2010, when it was presented to Francis Ford Coppola.

William Peter Blatty was in "John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!" (1965) with Shirley MacLaine. Shirley MacLaine was in "What a Way to Go!" (1964) with Paul Newman. Next: Sosie Bacon.

TCM On Demand for February 24, 2015 The following feature is now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: Annie Hall (1977) -- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts, Carol Kane, Paul Simon, Shelley Duvall, Janet Margolin, Colleen Dewhurst, Christopher Walken, Donald Symington, Helen Ludlam, Mordecai Lawner, Joan Newman, Jonathan Munk, Ruth Volner, Martin Rosenblatt, Hy Ansel, Russell Horton, Marshall McLuhan, Dick Cavett, Truman Capote, Mark Lenard, John Dennis Johnson, Tracey Walter. Former standup comic Allen co-authored and directed this film that achieved a rare feat for a comedy: It won the Academy Award for Best Picture. Nominated for Best Actor, he received Oscars for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (shared with Marshall Brickman), while Keaton earned the Best Actress award for playing the title character. The intelligent comedy, which set the tone for Allen's subsequent quality movies, is about the failed relationship of standup comic Alvy Singer (Allen) and Annie (Keaton's real name is Diane Hall. She used her mother's maiden name professionally). With Alvy serving as an occasional narrator, the film features a mixture of fast-paced witticisms, sight gags and fantasy moments. One of the best examples of the latter is when Alvy tires of listening to a long-winded, self-described media expert (Horton) while standing in a movie line: In another scene, Annie's brother Duane (played by Walken, who won a 1978 Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Deer Hunter" two years after Allen's movie was released) reveals a dark secret to Alvy: In 1998, the American Film Institute ranked the picture No. 31 on its list of the 100 greatest movies of all time. When the AFI updated the list in 2007, the film dropped to No. 35. The movie's cinematographer was the great Gordon Willis, who died of cancer on May 18, 2014, 10 days shy of his 84th birthday. Willis, who never won a competitive Academy Award, received an honorary Oscar in 2009 "for unsurpassed mastery of light, shadow, color and motion." If you look carefully, you'll see early screen appearances by Sigourney Weaver, John Glover, Beverly D'Angelo, Jeff Goldblum and Shelley Hack. Memorable quote No. 1: "You keep bringing it up, but I don't want to live in a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light" -- Alvy to his friend Rob (Roberts), who suggests a move to Los Angeles. In real life, Allen has an aversion to the West Coast and prefers New York City. In fact, the only time that he showed up at an Academy Awards ceremony was on March 24, 2002, when he introduced Nora Ephron's post-9/11 short film featuring New York scenes in movies. Memorable quote No. 2: "A relationship, I think, is like a shark. You know, it has to constantly move forward or it dies. And I think what we've got on our hands is a dead shark" -- Alvy, agreeing with Annie that their relationship is over. Expires March 2, 2015.

I'll be impressed when it catches "Frozen" at $400.7 million.

Penn's been taking a beating for his comments. But as a point of reference, Alejandro González Iñárritu directed him in the 2003 Oscar-nominated drama "21 Grams," and it was obvious that Penn loves the guy.

Good luck figuring it out! BBC News issued this stat after the 2015 Academy Awards ceremony: "Birdman" flew away with the 2,971st Oscars statuette to be handed out since the ceremony began 86 years ago." That's a lot of Oscars!

TCM On Demand for February 23, 2015 The following features are now available on TCM On Demand for a limited time: 1. Bound for Glory (1976) -- David Carradine, Ronny Cox, Melinda Dillon, Gail Strickland, John Lehne, Ji-Tu Cumbuka, Randy Quaid, Elizabeth Macey, Ted Gehring, Robert Sorrells, Guthrie Thomas, Wendy Schaal, David Clennon, Mary Kay Place, M. Emmet Walsh, Sondra Blake, Brion James, Buddy Joe Hooker, James Hong, Robert Ginty. Uncredited: Bernie Kopell. Hal Ashby's screen biography of American balladeer Woody Guthrie (1912-1967) was nominated for the Bicentennial year's Best Picture Oscar, along with "All the President's Men," "Network," "Taxi Driver" and the award winner, "Rocky." It won for Haskell Wexler's cinematography and Leonard Rosenman's adaptation score. The film also received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert Getchell), Best Costume Design (William Ware Theiss) and Best Film Editing (Robert C. Jones and Pembroke J. Herring). Derived from Guthrie's 1943 autobiography "Bound for Glory," the film mirrors the plight of the Joad family in John Steinbeck's novel "The Grapes of Wrath." Guthrie is played by Carradine, whose father John co-starred with Henry Fonda in the 1940 film version of Steinbeck's book. An itinerant musican, Guthrie leaves his family in the Dust Bowl region of Texas in the 1930s and heads for California, said to be a migrant worker's heaven. He soon discovers, however, that a migrant's life is difficult, and gradually embraces the union movement. Along the way, he finds the time to write some of the country's greatest folk songs, including "This Land Is Your Land" and "So Long, It's Been Good to Know Yuh." Among the standouts in the film is Cox, who plays a union organizer, and two-time Oscar nominee Dillon ("Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Absence of Malice") in the dual role of Guthrie's first wife, Mary, and a folk singer named Memphis Sue. The Steadicam, a camera stabilizing device invented by Garrett Brown, was first used in this film in the scene in which Guthrie walks through a camp of migrants. Brown later received a special Academy Award for his revolutionary creation. Expires March 1, 2015. 2. Dog Day Afternoon (1975) -- Al Pacino, John Cazale, Charles Durning, James Broderick, Lance Henriksen, Chris Sarandon, Penelope Allen, Sully Boyar, Susan Peretz, Carol Kane, Dick Anthony Williams. Based on a true story, Sidney Lumet's film about a bizarre bank robbery won a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for Frank Pierson. It also earned five other Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Pacino), Best Supporting Actor (Sarandon) and Best Film Editing (Dede Allen). Pacino stars as Sonny Wortzik, the ringleader of a botched attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank. When the police arrive, the small-time heist turns into a hostage crisis and a media sensation. Cazale (1935-1978), who plays Sonny's cohort Sal Naturale, appeared in only five films -- all of which either won the Best Picture Oscar or were nominated for it. In addition to this film, they were: "The Godfather" (1972), "The Conversation" and "The Godfather Part II" (both released in 1974) and "The Deer Hunter" (1978). Memorable scene: Clutching a white handkerchief while outside the bank, Sonny plays to a crowd of spectators and television cameras during a verbal confrontation with police. The scene produced what the American Film Institute ranked in 2005 as the 86th greatest movie quote of all time. Hint: Think of a 1971 prison riot in western New York State. Broderick, who played FBI agent Sheldon, died in 1982, the year before his son Matthew launched an eventful film career in "Max Dugan Returns." Expires March 1, 2015.

John le Carré was in "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011) with Ciarán Hinds. Ciarán Hinds was in "Road to Perdition" (2002) with Paul Newman. Next: Katherine Waterston.