jakeem

My intention was to effectively establish that there hasn't been another Jewish Miss America titlist. In retrospect, I probably should have written that she was the only Jewish woman to win the title. I appreciate the viewpoint!

Now that I did not know. I was aware she played the piano and the flute during her Miss America competition.

OK, how about this one? 1. "Psycho" (1960). 2. "Taras Bulba" (1962). 3. "The Godfather Part II" (1974). 4. "Gladiator" (2000).

It was a 1950s NBC game show called "The Big Payoff."

Well, as Paul McCartney might say, Her Majesty's a pretty nice girl, and she apparently keeps up with the popular culture. For instance, she "parachuted" out of a helicopter with James Bond at the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. And in her annual Christmas Day television address, she excited the Twitterverse by referring to her June 2014 visit to the set of "Game of Thrones" in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It wouldn't surprise me at all if she watched "Dynasty" regularly.

Bess Myerson, who went from Miss America to television celebrity to political hopeful, has died at the age of 90. Her death on December 14, 2014 was not reported until now. Born in the Bronx, she was the first (and only) Jewish woman to become Miss America. She began her year-long reign on September 8, 1945, and persevered despite instances of anti-semitism directed at her. Television viewers became more familiar with Myerson as a longtime panelist on the CBS game show "I've Got a Secret" in the 1950s and 1960s. Here's part of a 1959 episode that featured Johnny Carson, almost three years before he became the host of NBC's "The Tonight Show.' Myerson's daughter, Barra Grant, became an actress in the 1970s and appeared opposite a pre-"Magnum, P.I." Tom Selleck in the 1972 horror film "Daughters of Satan." She has since become a screenwriter and director. http://www.latimes.com/local/obituaries/la-me-bess-myerson-20150105-story.html#page=1

"Life Itself" received a nomination Monday from the Producers Guild of America for Outstanding Producer of Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures. In addition to director-producer Steve James, the award would go to producers Garrett Basch and Zak Piper. The Producers Guild also revealed its 10 nominees for Best Picture of 2014: "American Sniper," "Boyhood," "Birdman," "Foxcatcher," "Gone Girl," "The Grand Budapest Hotel," "The Imitation Game," "Nightcrawler," "The Theory of Everything" and "Whiplash." For the past seven years, winners of the Producers Guild Best Picture award have gone on to win Academy Awards.

I'll bet Kristin Scott Thomas is the only British dame who co-starred in a movie with an American Prince. Here's a scene from "Under the Cherry Moon" (1986), which was her feature film debut. The film, directed by the music superstar, was universally panned, and the 25-year-old Scott Thomas received Golden Raspberry Award nominations for Worst Supporting Actress and Worst New Star. Somehow, she not only survived the experience, but she also endured.

Hold the phone! I looked at the overall Honours list (and it is a long one), and noticed that Joan Collins has received a damehood because of her "services to charity." Perhaps she is more of a philanthropist than I thought. I've added the clarification to the original post.

Actually, my first reference to her as "one of Britain's hottest products in the 1980s" was about her ability to dominate media coverage, not her physical attributes. Actually, I've been more impressed by the Joan Collins of the 1960s, when she was still married to Anthony Newley. From the photos and films that I've seen from that period, she was drop-dead gorgeous.

Well, she didn't cure cancer. But she was one of Britain's hottest products in the 1980s, and it was all because of her role as the irrepressible Alexis Carrington Colby on TV's "Dynasty." She was in her 50s at the time, too. I would have given her a damehood just for being able to pose for Playboy at that age!

Veteran British actor John Hurt, who will be 75 on January 22, 2015, will be called Sir John now that he has received a knighthood for his contributions to drama. Hurt earned Academy Award nominations for "Midnight Express" (Best Supporting Actor, 1978) and "The Elephant Man" (Best Actor, 1980). Among his other films: "Alien" (1979), "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1984), "Scandal" (1989), "V for Vendetta" (2006, shown below) and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" (2011).

Joan Collins -- who was supposed to become the next Elizabeth Taylor but wound up becoming a television sensation on TV's "Dynasty -- has been made a dame in the annual New Year's Honours list. The 81-year-old actress, whose film career began in the early 1950s, starred in numerous movies, including three noteworthy 1955 productions -- "The Girl in the Red Velvet Swing," "The Virgin Queen" and "Land of the Pharaohs." She also co-starred in "The Opposite Sex," a 1956 remake of "The Women" (1939), and "Rally 'Round the Flag, Boys" (1958) with Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward. But it was her role as the conniving Alexis Carrington Colby on "Dynasty" -- a role originally intended for Sophia Loren -- that launched Collins into international superstardom. Collins received her damehood because of her "services to charity" as a "(p)hilanthropist and charity campaigner." Collins was joined on the Honours list by Kristin Scott Thomas, the 54-year-old British-born actress who received a 1996 Academy Award nomination as Best Actress for her performance in "The English Patient." Scott Thomas, who now lives and frequently acts in France, also starred in "Four Weddings and a Funeral" (1994), "Mission: Impossible" (1996), "The Horse Whisperer" (1998, shown below with a young Scarlett Johansson), "Random Hearts" (1999), "Gosford Park" (2001) and "I've Loved You So Long" (2008). She was cited for her contributions to drama.

Like this?

Probably not. The reason: Too many fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

I can understand the birthday clash syndrome because mine is close to Elvis', too. But I also like what Gary Busey's character says at the end of "D.C. Cab" (1983):

Russell later did an Elvis tribute for Turner Classic Movies, which you may have seen during breaks between scheduled films: "It Happened at the World's Fair" is one of eight Elvis movies that willl be telecast by TCM on Thursday, January 8th. It all begins at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time with a showing of "Jailhouse Rock" (1957).

I loved Elvis movies when I was a kid, and I suppose I still do. Strange as it may seem, the King of Rock 'n' Roll would have turned 80 on January 8, 2015, if he had lived. What are your favorite Elvis movies? I always believed the Western "Flaming Star" (1960), in which he played the son of a white rancher (John McIntire) and a Native American woman (Delores del Rio), contains some of Presley's best work. I also like "King Creole" (1958), which was one of the last movies directed by the great Michael Curtiz. But my No. 1 Elvis movie is "It Happened at the World's Fair" (1963), which was released after Seattle drew the world's attention because of the 1962 exposition there that produced the famous Space Needle. One of the reasons I've always appreciated the romantic comedy is this fateful meeting between Elvis' character, itinerant pilot Mike Edwards, and a kid he selects at random for a favor. The boy was played by an uncredited 10-year-old Kurt Russell: Maybe it was fate or the planets were eerily aligned at the time, but a grown-up Russell went on to portray Presley in John Carpenter's 1979 made-for-television movie "Elvis." The production, which originally aired on ABC on February 11, 1979, came out on top in a network sweeps showdown. It beat CBS' telecast of "Gone with the Wind" and NBC's showing of the 1975 Jack Nicholson hit "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest." Russell, whose singing voice as Elvis was provided by country artist Ronnie MacDowell, nailed his performance as the King. He received an Emmy nomination for his work, and eventually appeared as one of many Elvis impersonators in "3000 Miles to Graceland" (2001). Here's a clip of the TV-movie's final moments:

Thanks for posting that trailer, mr6666! I love Ebert's thoughts about the importance of cinema: "For me, the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us."

Patricia Medina was in "Mr. Arkadin" (1955) with Orson Welles. Orson Welles was in "The Long, Hot Summer" (1958) with Paul Newman. Next: Peter Weller.

Correct! I knew you had it! All four films featured characters who either were confined to the penal colony in French Guiana -- or escaped from it. I could have used "Papillon" as a clue, but that would have been a dead giveaway. Nice job! It's your thread again.

Go ahead and say it.

Thumbs down?

And then there's Barry Levinson's 1982 gem "Diner," which takes place in Baltimore during the last week of 1959. It stops short, however, of making it to New Year's Eve. And it never shows the band of friends attending the New York Giants-Baltimore Colts NFL Championship Game at Memorial Stadium on December 27th.

Ebert was proud of the 1970 film, which was directed by his friend Russ Meyer. It has since become a cult film. Here's what we wrote about it: "And the movie as a whole? I think of it as an essay on our generic expectations. It's an anthology of stock situations, characters, dialogue, cliches and stereotypes, set to music and manipulated to work as exposition and satire at the same time; it's cause and effect, a wind-up machine to generate emotions, pure movie without message. The strange thing about the movie is that it continues to play successfully to completely different audiences for different reasons. When Meyer and I were hired a few years later to work on an ill-fated Sex Pistols movie called 'Who Killed Bambi?' we were both a little nonplussed, I think, to hear Johnny Rotten explain that he liked 'Beyond the Valley of the Dolls' because it was so true to life." By the way, "Life Itself" isn't just about Ebert's career. It's also about how he coped with certain death after serious cancer surgery that disfigured his face and left him unable to talk or eat normally.