CelluloidKid
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Found this on "Joan Crawford: Best of Everything":
Jules Dassin directed Joan and John Wayne in '42's Reunion in France, which he talked about in 2002 in an interview with London's The Independent:
"Making it was hell," he admits, in the sweetest of voices. "I managed to get a meeting with the MGM executives because I was concerned about the casting and the script. But they only wanted to talk about one thing. Hats. Hats were important. Joan Crawford is the heroine of the French Resistance and is sacrificed for their existence in the movie - I mean, she's captured and stripped of all dignity. And yet they wanted to dress her "for the fans". And this was talked about for hours.
"Finally, I got a word in and said I thought the script was bad. One of the executives took me over to a window overlooking the parking lot and said, 'Which one is your car?' I had this little old car at the time. And he pointed to his car, a big new thing. And he said, 'That's my car and that's your car, and I say the script is good'....On the first day we rehearsed, John Wayne - a very interesting man, extreme right-wing but really just a nationalist - was going through the script with Joan Crawford. It wasn't going well, so, of course, I said, 'Cut'. And the whole set just froze.
"My assistant panicked and pretended to call up at some imaginary guy, telling him to be quiet. John Wayne took me to one side and muttered, 'Never say cut to Miss Crawford. You just give a hand sign.' I thought this was just nonsense. But when I said 'cut' again, Joan Crawford walked off the set, and Louis B. Mayer called me to the office and fired me. But then Crawford rang me at my house that night, and asked me to come to dinner.... And she asked me into the library, where she had thousands of books, and she said, 'Mr Dassin, do you think I'm a bad actress?' And I said, no, I don't. And she said, 'Don't ever say cut to me again. Just do this'." Dassin pauses to draw two fluttering fingers across his brow, like a diva having a neuralgia attack. "So that's what I did."...
But the problems didn't end after this rapprochement, which saw him rehired. Quite quickly, Dassin discovered that Crawford was busy avoiding her Dutch co -star Philip Dorn - he was an embarrassing ex-fling and she'd just remarried. He began to notice that Crawford kept mysteriously moving out of frame when she was in scenes with Dorn, so the camera would never capture them together. "I got so mad," recalls Dassin, who was perched on a camera crane at the time. "I jumped off the crane and the crane flew up - and I yelled, I'm gonna punch you on the jaw'. And then that whole New York gangster thing came out in her, and she took off her hat, and she put down her purse, and she pointed to her jaw, and said GO AHEAD!'."
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EVENTS:
Friday, April 4, 2008: The Florida Film Festival in Orlando will present Strait-Jacket at precisely 11:59pm.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008: The Los Angeles Conservancy will present Mildred Pierce at the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown LA
Thanks
Joan Crawford
Best of Everything!
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Sooo has anyone gone??
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALEC GUINNESS!!
Guinness won the Academy Award as Best Actor in 1957 for his role in: "Bridge on the River Kwai". He was nominated in 1958 for his screenplay adapted from Joyce Cary's novel "The Horse's Mouth" and for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977. He also received an Academy Honorary Award for lifetime achievement in 1980.
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All 3 Indiana Jones Movies to Get New Special Edition DVDs May 13th!
Special editions of "Raiders Of The Lost Ark", "Indiana Jones & The Temple Of Doom" and "Indiana Jones & The Last Crusade" will all be available in brand new special editions on May 13, 2008. The discs will be available separately, or in an all new boxed set. Cover art and pricing details weren't made available, but this will hit the shelves right before the new adventure, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" comes to theaters on May 22, 2008. The series stars Harrison Ford.
Archeologist and university proffesor Indiana Jones must retrieve the mythic Lost Ark of the Covenant before the it gets into the hands of Adolf Hitler who plans on useing its power to guarantee his global conquest.
Special Features
- Raiders of the Lost Ark: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
- Indiana Jones: An Appreciation--The cast and crew of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull pay tribute to the original trilogy.
- The Melting Face--A recreation of the amazing physical effect of the villain's melting face in Raiders of the Lost Ark, including Steven Spielberg and George Lucas commenting on the evolution of visual effects and CGI.
- Storyboard Sequence--The Well of Souls
- Galleries
- Illustrations & Props
- Production Photographs & Portraits
- Effects/ILM
- Marketing
- Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer
Indiana Jones finds himself on a new adventure, trekking across Asia with a gold-digging woman and a young child to rescue a village's missing children and find a magic stone. But, along the way he must contend with an evil cult.
Special Features
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
- Creepy Crawlies--Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Frank Marshall reminisce about snakes, bugs and rats.
- Locations--Travel across the world to discover where the films take place and where they were shot.
- Storyboard Sequence--The Mine Cart Chase
- Galleries
- Illustrations & Props
- Production Photographs & Portraits
- Effects/ILM
- Marketing
- Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer
Indiana and his father outwit the Nazis in their attempt to find the Holy Grail.
Special Features
- Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: An Introduction by Steven Spielberg & George Lucas
- The Women: The American Film Institute Tribute--The three Indiana Jones women (Karen Allen, Kate Capshaw and Alison Doody) reunite for a discussion.
- Friends and Enemies--Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Indiana Jones writers discuss how they created the most iconic characters in film history, including a look at new faces in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
- Storyboard Sequence--The Opening Sequence
- Galleries
- Illustrations & Props
- Production Photographs & Portraits
- Effects/ILM
- Marketing
- Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures Game Demo and Trailer
Thanks
Movieweb!
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New Word....Book
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Lilac ...Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase
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Thelma Ritter....
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We lost both the writer..and the director ...Sad Week in Hollywood!
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The 1960's were not kind to Hitchcock!!
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I have done some research..& someone in the TCM "Research Department" needs to do some "FACT" checking Per Wikipedia & several other sources I have looked at (Incld a documentry on "King Kong"...they all state that
"King Kong" premiered in New York City on March 2, 1933.
So where did the April 7th date come from! IMBD does state USA April 7, 1933, but then again New York City, New York March 2, 1933....HMMMMMM!!!
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Happy Birthday to "The Man of a Thousand Faces" !
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Marnie Edgar: You don't love me. I'm just something you've caught! You think I'm some sort of animal you've trapped
LOL!
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Madonna is and always will be the queen of pop!!
I have seen every tour, all but 1...
1985 The Virgin Tour
1987 Who's That Girl Tour
1990 Blond Ambition Tour
2001 Drowned World Tour
2004 The Re-Invention Tour
2006 Confessions Tour
Found this on ..www.rockhall.com... Very Cool!!!
Madonna
Induction Year: 2008
Induction Category: Performer
Madonna (vocals; born August 16, 1958)
Madonna is one of the most recognizable names in the world ? and not just the world of music. She became the first multimedia pop icon, crossing from dance-oriented pop music into movies, television, videos, fashion and books while achieving a level of celebrity comparable to that of a primary inspiration, Marilyn Monroe. Madonna has been a ubiquitous and, at times, controversial figure since erupting on the scene with her debut single, Everybody,? in 1982. No one in the pop realm has manipulated the media with such a savvy sense of self-promotion. Yet Madonna?s career has always had a solid musical footing, and her life ? however outrageous and calculated at certain points ? has proceeded on an unfolding path of self-discovery and open-hearted revelation.
As a fully liberated woman who?s lived life on her own terms, Madonna has been an icon to many since bursting on the scene in 1981. Certainly Madonna is one of the most fascinating, uninhibited and well-documented figures of the modern age, and her music has provided an ongoing documentary of her life and times. From the energetic dance-floor anthems of her early years to the introspective balladry of her middle period to the religious and political themes that preoccupy her later work, Madonna has offered surprises and challenges at every turn.
She was born Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone, the third of eight children, in Bay City, Michigan. She dropped out of college and moved to New York in 1978, bringing only a suitcase and dreams of being a professional dancer. A European tour with a disco singer, for whom she danced and sang backup, led to a half-year in Paris before a return to New York and a turn in a New Wavish band called the Breakfast Club. During her scuffling years in New York, she taught herself to play drums, keyboards and guitar; did modeling work and odd jobs; danced with the Alvin Ailey and Pearl Lange troupes; and made inroads as a singer and dancer on Manhattan?s club circuit.
Her break came in 1982, when she signed with Sire Records (her label for the next 14 years), after famously auditioning for label head Seymour Stein in his hospital room. ?She was singing with all her heart, and that?s what came across,? Stein recalled. ?I wanted to sign her immediately.? At Sire, Madonna?s provocative persona and musical imagination were given free reign. In short order, Madonna exploded onto dance floors, airwaves and television, where she grabbed the attention of the first generation of MTV viewers. She became an early emblem of ?women in rock,? helping dissolve gender boundaries in the music business to the point where that catchphrase has become unnecessary and even a bit anachronistic. She also deliberately pushed the envelope, openly offering sexuality as part of the package.
?I wanted to go, ?Don?t tell me what to do just ?cause I?m a girl,? Madonna told People magazine in 2000. ?Don?t tell me I can?t be sexual and intelligent at the same time?. I?m happy to have been a pioneer.?
Madonna became one of the top stars of the Eighties, selling 60 million records worldwide, making headlines and achieving a level of pop celebrity rivaled only by Michael Jackson, Prince and Bruce Springsteen. She had seven #1 hits (from 1984?s ?Like a Virgin? through 1989?s ?Like a Prayer") and three #1 albums (Like a Virgin, True Blue, Like a Prayer) in that time. She also sparked debate and controversy with such songs as ?Material Girl? and ?Papa Don?t Preach.? She released four of the decade?s most high-impact albums ? Madonna (1983), Like a Virgin (1984), True Blue (1986) and Like a Prayer (1989). They collectively logged eight-and-a-half years on the charts, making Madonna a ubiquitous presence. She also charted 20 singles in the Eighties, seven of which reached #1 ? a number surpassed only by Michael Jackson?s nine.
Madonna also made her presence felt in films, appearing in Desperately Seeking Susan, Shanghai Surprise, Who?s That Girl? and Dick Tracy. She capped off an amazing decade with The Immaculate Collection, a compilation of 15 hits and two new tracks. The sexually frisky video for one of them, ?Justify My Love? (written by Lenny Kravitz), triggered more controversy and moral outrage.
She fearlessly entered the Nineties by pushing the envelope even further on the Blonde Ambition World Tour. This elaborate stagecraft, choreography and costuming edged the concert experience closer to a ribald, eye-popping musical. An uncensored documentary of her life, onstage and off, was filmed with Madonna?s authorization. Titled Truth or Dare, it, too, made headlines, with some lauding her unvarnished honesty and others fretting she?d crossed the line again. But all this paled in comparison to the 1992 publication of Madonna?s X-rated picture book, Sex. It was accompanied by another envelope-pushing album (Erotica) and tour (The Girlie Show). That same year, she launched her own label, Maverick Records, in conjunction with Warner Bros.
Madonna?s more self-reflective 1994 release, Bedtime Stories, yielded the single ?Take a Bow,? a ballad that became the biggest hit of her career. In 1995, Madonna played the lead role in Evita, a film biography of Eva Peron, the Argentinean leader and heroine. Her work earned the best notices of her film career and won her a Golden Globe for Best Actress. The Evita soundtrack went to #2 and sold 4 million copies.
The singer?s budding interest in Kabbalah, a mystical religion deriving from Judaism, informed 1998?s Ray of Light. Madonna?s first album of new material in four years found her reassessing her life in light of a spiritual awakening. ?It?s about my relationship to fame and how my image spiraled out of control,? Madonna told USA Today. ?I convinced myself that [fame] was going to be enough to take the place of real intimacy. I was incredibly na?ve.?
Mixing folk and electronica, Madonna?s 2000 release Music returned her to a more extroverted sound and outlook. The title track became her twelfth #1 single. By this time, Madonna was becoming more consumed by family life. She had a daughter (Lourdes) by a boyfriend, Carlos Leon, and a son (Rocco) by husband Guy Ritchie, a British videographer and filmmaker, whom she?d married in December 2000.
Madonna has continued to confuse and confound all stereotypes. Two and a half years after Music, she returned with American Life, which took a withering look at fame, fortune, consumerism and the contemporary political landscape. Proving she was still not averse to stirring up controversy, Madonna locked lips with Britney Spears during their August 2003 performance of ?Like a Virgin? on the MTV Music Video Awards. A month later, she published the first of several children?s books, The English Roses, which became a best-seller.
According to The Guinness Book of World Records, Madonna is the Most Successful Female Recording Artist of All Time. She claims the second-longest string of consecutive Top Five hits - and the most by a female artist - with a run of 16 that extended from 1984?s ?Lucky Star? to 1989?s ?Cherish.? Furthermore, Madonna is the only recording artist for whom every album (except those from which no single was released) has yielded a Top Ten hit. Those are just a few of her more noteworthy feats.
The 2004 Re-Invention World Tour, documented on the CD/DVD release I?m Going to Tell You a Secret, found Madonna projecting a sexy athleticism and unabashedly contemporary outlook. Madonna?s career came full circle with the 2005 release of Confessions On a Dance Floor, which returned her to the dance-music realm she initially conquered with her self-titled 1983 debut album. At the same time, Madonna?s lyrics and neopsychedelic music echoed the more metaphysical territory she explored in Ray of Light. Wherever her muse takes her in the future is anybody?s guess ? and that is half the fun of following Madonna.
TIMELINE
August 16, 1958: Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone (a.k.a. Madonna) is born in Bay City, Michigan.
October 1982: Madonna debuts with the 12-inch single ?Everybody.? Failing to make Billboard?s Hot 100, it will be her only single to suffer this fate.
September 3, 1983: Madonna, the singer?s first album, enters the album chart, where it will spend more than three years and sell over 5 million
copies.
October 29, 1983: ?Holiday,? from Madonna?s self-titled debut album, enters the Billboard Hot 100, where it will peak at #16.
October 14, 1984: ?Lucky Star,? by Madonna, peaks at #4, kicking off a record-breaking streak (for a female artist) of 16 consecutive Top Five singles.
December 1, 1984: Madonna?s second album, Like a Virgin, begins the first week in its two-year run on Billboard?s album chart. The album will hit #1, yield four hit singles and sell 10 million copies.
December 22, 1984: ?Like a Virgin,? Madonna?s first #1 hit, tops the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of six weeks.
March 29, 1985: Desperately Seeking Susan, starring Madonna in her first film role, makes its theatrial debut.
May 11, 1985: ?Crazy for You? becomes Madonna?s second #1 single, displacing ?We Are the World,? by USA for Africa.
August 16, 1985: Madonna and actor Sean Penn are married. They will divorce four years later.
June 7, 1986: ?Live to Tell? becomes Madonna?s third #1 single ? and the first one she had a hand in writing.
July 19, 1986: True Blue, Madonna?s third album, enters the chart, where it will peak at #1 for five weeks and generate five hits.
August 16, 1986: Madonna?s ?Papa Don?t Preach,? a controversial song about an unwed teenager who decides to keep her baby, reaches the top position.
February 7, 1987: ?Open Your Heart? becomes the third #1 single from Madonna?s third album, True Blue. ?True Blue? (#3) and ?La Isla Bonita? (#4) will bring to five the number of Top Five songs from the album.
August 22, 1987: The title track from Madonna?s film Who?s That Girl becomes her sixth #1 single.
March 21, 1989: Like a Prayer, Madonna?s fourth album of new music is released. It will top the charts for six weeks.
April 22, 1989: Madonna?s ?Like a Prayer? reaches #1. Its controversial video draws criticism from the Vatican and ends Madonna?s lucrative endorsement deal with Pepsi.
October 7, 1989: ?Cherish,? by Madonna, peaks at #2 for the first of two weeks. It is the singer?s 16th consecutive Top Five hit. She?s now surpassed the Beatles in that category and trails only Elvis Presley for most Top Five hits in a row.
May 19, 1990: ?Vogue,? by Madonna, reaches #1. It appears on the Dick Tracy soundtrack but not in the movie itself.
December 1, 1990: Madonna?s The Immaculate Collection, her first greatest-hits set, is released.
January 5, 1991: ?Justify My Love,? one of two new songs appended to Madonna?s The Immaculate Collection, reaches #1. When the accompanying video proves too controversial for MTV, it becomes the first commercially marketed video single.
May 10, 1991: Madonna?s Truth or Dare? , an uncensored documentary filmed on her Blonde Ambition Tour, is released.
April 20, 1992: Madonna launches Maverick, a multimedia company that includes Maverick Records, in a deal with Time-Warner that is estimated to be worth $60 million.
August 8, 1992: ?This Used to Be My Playground,? from the film A League of Their Own, becomes Madonna?s tenth #1 single.
October 20, 1992: Madonna?s Erotica album is released the same month that her scandalous, adult-themed photo book Sex makes headlines.
February 25, 1995: ?Take a Bow,? by Madonna ? from her 1994 album Bedtime Stories - reaches #1 for the first of seven weeks. It remains the biggest hit of her career.
November 30, 1996: The soundtrack for Evita, with vocals by Madonna and others, hits the charts, where it will reach #2.
December 4, 1996: Tony Bennett presents Madonna with the Artist Achievement Award at the seventh annual Billboard Music Awards.
January 19, 1997: Madonna wins the Golden Globe award for Best Actress for her performance in Evita.
March 3, 1998: Ray of Light, Madonna?s first new album of original songs in four years, is released. Her interest in Kabbalah and spiritual matters informs its songs.
May 21, 1998: Like a Virgin, Madonna?s second album (released in 1984) is certified diamond (10 million copies sold) by the RIAA.
September 19, 2000: Music, by Madonna, is released three days after the title track hits #1. The album itself will also top the charts ? her first to do so in over a decade.
December 22, 2000: Madonna marries British filmmaker Guy Ritchie at a Scottish castle.
October 11, 2001: The Immaculate Collection, Madonna?s best-selling hits album from 1990, is certified diamond (10 million copies sold) by the RIAA.
October 19, 2002: ?Die Another Day,? by Madonna ? the title song from the latest James Bond film ? enters the Billboard chart, where it will peak at #4. It is her 50th single.
April 24, 2003: American Life, Madonna?s fifth #1 album, is released. The title song?s controversial video was withdrawn the previous month.
August 28, 2003: Madonna and Britney Spears kiss after performing ?Like a Virgin? on the MTV Video Music Awards.
August 16, 2005: On her 47th birthday, Madonna cracks three ribs and breaks her collarbone and hand in a fall from a horse.
December 3, 2005: Confessions on a Dance Floor, by Madonna, is released. It is the artist?s tenth album of new material and sixth to reach #1.
March 10, 2008: Madonna is inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the 23rd annual induction dinner. Justin Timberlake is her presenter.
www.rockhall.com
ALSO:
"Hard Candy" is the upcoming eleventh studio album by Madonna and will be released on multiple dates towards the end of April 2008!! The single "4 Minutes" (a duet with Justin Timberlake and also featuring Timbaland) is already #2 in the US on Itunes!
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MADONNA - ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME (PART 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gckpTOdo5PE&feature=related
MADONNA - ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME (PART 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuk9o76WtLU&feature=related
MADONNA - ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME (PART 3)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8c2EIpEBD80&feature=related
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - Madonna (part 4)
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Sooo Many legends!
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The Bette Davis Collection, Vol. 3
THIS OUR LIFE: Homewrecker Davis runs off with sister Olivia de Havilland's hubby and that's just for starters! THE OLD MAID: Let the fireworks begin. Miriam Hopkins poses as the mother of the as innocent as she appears? THE GREAT LIE: Friends make the best enemies. Scheming concert pianist Mary Astor and selfless Davis are entangled in secrets and lies. DECEPTION: Now, Voyagers' Davis, Claude Rains and Paul Henried reunite in a gloriously flamboyant tale child Davis bore out of wedlock; the arrangement is beginning to fray. ALL THIS, AND HEAVEN TOO: Enchanted by governess Davis, nobleman Charles Boyer murders his wife. But is la Bette of musicians, indiscretion and murder. WATCH ON THE RHINE A leader of Germany's anti-Hitler underground is hunted by Nazi agents in Washington DC. Dashiell Hammett adapts Lillian Hellman's play. Details: Color, Academy, 1.33:1 Supplements: Includes:, The Old Maid (1939), Vintage newsreel, Technicolor historical short Lincoln in the White House, Howard Hill sports short Sword Fishing, Classic cartoons The Film Fan and Kristopher Kolumbus,
All This, and Heaven Too (1940), Commentary by film historian Daniel Bubbeo, Vintage newsreel, Technicolor patriotic short Meet the Fleet, Classic cartoons Hollywood Daffy and Porky's Last Stand, Trailer, Audio-only bonus: radio show adaptation with the film's stars.
The Great Lie (1941), Vintage newsreel, Broadway Brevities short At the Stroke of Twelve, Oscar-nominated Technicolor Sports Parade short Kings of the Turf, Hollywood Novelty short Polo with the Stars, Classic cartoon Porky's Pooch, Trailer.
In This Our Life (1942), Commentary by film historian Jeanine Basinger, Vintage newsreel, Technicolor patriotic short March On America, Technicolor musical short Spanish Fiesta, Classic cartoon Who's Who in the Zoo, Trailer,
Watch on the Rhine (1943), Commentary by film historian Bernard F. Dick, Vintage newsreel, Musical short Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, Classic cartoon The Wise Quacking Duck, Trailer, Deception (1946) , Commentary by film historian Foster Hirsch , Vintage newsreel, Oscar-winning Technicolor Sports Parade short Facing Your Danger, Technicolor Specials short Movieland Magic, Classic cartoon Mouse Menace, Trailer
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NEW YORK (AP) -- Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film ``The Killing Fields,'' died Sunday, his former colleague said.
Dith, 65, died at a New Jersey hospital Sunday morning of pancreatic cancer, according to Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Dith had been diagnosed almost three months ago.
Dith was working as an interpreter and assistant for Schanberg in Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, when the Vietnam War reached its chaotic end in April 1975 and both countries were taken over by Communist forces.
Schanberg helped Dith's family get out but was forced to leave his friend behind after the capital fell; they were not reunited until Dith escaped four and a half years later. Eventually, Dith resettled in the United States and went to work as a photographer for the Times.
It was Dith himself who coined the term ``killing fields'' for the horrifying clusters of corpses and skeletal remains of victims he encountered on his desperate journey to freedom.
The regime of Pol Pot, bent on turning Cambodia back into a strictly agrarian society, and his Communist zealots were blamed for the deaths of nearly 2 million of Cambodia's 7 million people.
``That was the phrase he used from the very first day, during our wondrous reunion in the refugee camp,'' Schanberg said later.
With thousands being executed simply for manifesting signs of intellect or Western influence - even wearing glasses or wristwatches -- Dith survived by masquerading as an uneducated peasant, toiling in the fields and subsisting on as little as a mouthful of rice a day, and whatever small animals he could catch.
After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.
He was ``the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America,'' said AP photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association.
Schanberg described Dith's ordeal and salvation in a 1980 magazine article titled ``The Death and Life of Dith Pran.'' Schanberg's reporting from Phnom Penh had earned him a Pulitzer Prize in 1976.
Later a book, the magazine article became the basis for ``The Killing Fields,'' the highly successful 1984 British film starring Sam Waterston as the Times correspondent and Haing S. Ngor, another Cambodian escapee from the Khmer Rouge, as Dith Pran.
The film won three Oscars, including the best supporting actor award to Ngor. Ngor, a physician, was shot to death in 1996 during a robbery outside his Los Angeles home. Three Asian gang members were convicted of the crime.
``Pran was a true reporter, a fighter for the truth and for his people,'' Schanberg said. ``When cancer struck, he fought for his life again. And he did it with the same Buddhist calm and courage and positive spirit that made my brother so special.''
Dith spoke of his illness in a March interview with The Star-Ledger of Newark, N.J., saying he was determined to fight against the odds and urging others to get tested for cancer.
``I want to save lives, including my own, but Cambodians believe we just rent this body,'' he said. ``It is just a house for the spirit, and if the house is full of termites, it is time to leave.''
Dith Pran was born Sept. 27, 1942 at Siem Reap, site of the famed 12th century ruins of Angkor Wat. Educated in French and English, he worked as an interpreter for U.S. officials in Phnom Penh. As with many Asians, the family name, Dith, came first, but he was known by his given name, Pran.
After Cambodia's leader, Prince Norodom Sihanouk, broke off relations with the United States in 1965, Dith worked at other jobs. When Sihanouk was deposed in a 1970 coup and Cambodian troops went to war with the Khmer Rouge, Dith returned to Phom Penh and worked as an interpreter for Times reporters.
In 1972, he and Schanberg, then newly arrived, were the first journalists to discover the devastation of a U.S. bombing attack on Neak Leung, a vital river crossing on the highway linking Phnom Penh with eastern Cambodia.
Dith recalled in a 2003 article for the Times what it was like to watch U.S. planes attacking enemy targets.
``If you didn't think about the danger, it looked like a performance,'' he said. ``It was beautiful, like fireworks. War is beautiful if you don't get killed. But because you know it's going to kill, it's no longer beautiful.''
After Vietnamese forces invaded Cambodia in 1979 and seized control of territory, Dith escaped from a commune near Siem Reap and trekked 40 miles, dodging both Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge forces, to reach a border refugee camp in Thailand.
From the Thai camp he sent a message to Schanberg, who rushed from the United States for an emotional reunion with the trusted friend he felt he had abandoned four years earlier.
``I had searched for four years for any scrap of information about Pran,'' Schanberg said. ``I was losing hope. His emergence in October 1979 felt like an actual miracle for me. It restored my life.''
After Dith moved to the U.S., the Times hired him and put him in the photo department as a trainee. The veteran staffers ``took him under their wing and taught him how to survive on the streets of New York as a photographer, how to see things,'' said Times photographer Marilynn Yee.
Yee recalled an incident early in Dith's new career as a photojournalist when, after working the 4 p.m. to midnight shift, he was robbed at gunpoint of all his camera equipment at the back door of his apartment.
``He survived everything in Cambodia and he survived that too,'' she said, adding, ``He never had to work the night shift again.''
Dith spoke and wrote often about his wartime experience and remained an outspoken critic of the Khmer Rouge regime.
When Pol Pot died in 1998, Dith said he was saddened that the dictator was never held accountable for the genocide.
``The Jewish people's search for justice did not end with the death of Hitler and the Cambodian people's search for justice doesn't end with Pol Pot,'' he said.
Dith's survivors include his companion, Bette Parslow; his former wife, Meoun Ser Dith; a sister, Samproeuth Dith Nop; sons Titony, Titonath and Titonel; daughter Hemkarey Dith Tan; six grandchildren including a boy named Sydney; and two step-grandchildren.
Dith's three brothers were killed by the Khmer Rouge.
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Madonna Leads 2008 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees
Madonna reaches pop music's summit.
She is inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame in New York.
1983 was a powerful year in pop culture. While shopping for Cabbage Patch Kids caused mall pandemonium, and avoiding the whammy kept everyone entertained on TV, Duran Duran, The Police, Michael Jackson and Irene Cara were among those dominating the pop music charts.
Yet late in the year, a self-titled album from a 25-year old newbie named Madonna hit store shelves on cassette, and those that were slightly ahead of the game could get it on compact disc. Now, half her life later, Madonna Louise Ciccone is the newest member of the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame.
Justin Timberlake introduced the pop queen before she accepted the award at New York City's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
"There's been many Madonna wannabes," Timberlake said. "But there's only one Madonna."
Madonna earned her spot in the 2008 inductee class with little effort, and at the earliest possible opportunity. She joins fellow 80's success John Mellencamp, as well as Tacoma, Washington's The Ventures, and British Invasion act The Dave Clark Five as the Hall's newest members.
They "said I was talentless," Madonna remarks about her biggest critics over the years. She added that these same naysayers also said she "was chubby," "couldn't sing," and was "a one-hit-wonder."
Getting Inducted
To gain acceptance into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame, a musician must be at least 25 years into their performing career, and of course must have spent ample time on the charts of their appropriate genre. Madonna's first single, "Everybody," debuted in 1982.
Since then the Queen of Pop has become arguably the top female performer of the 80's and most of the 90's. She's also scored several hits here in the 21st century. Her aforementioned self-titled success spawned Holiday, as well as Lucky Star and Borderline. Before 1984 was over, Like A Virgin brought her more chart-toppers. Then came movie favorites like Crazy For You, Live To Tell, and Into The Groove. She sailed through the late 80's with more hit-rich albums like True Blue and Like A Prayer.
Also enjoyed widely as a sex symbol in the decade of style and substance, Madonna played that image up even more once the 90's arrived. The music video for her lewd 1990 hit Justify My Love was banned from MTV. This appeared to launch a new era by which she made headlines via candor and controversy. Albums such as 1992's Erotica applied a sexual flavor to rather arousing tracks, some of which, like the album's theme song, garnered gobs of airplay. In 1994, despite using a four letter expletive 13 times on CBS's Late Show With David Letterman, she continued to top the charts with songs like I'll Remember and Secret.
By her 40th birthday in 1998, Madonna had gravitated more towards the soft electronicas and other pop ballads that people had enjoyed from her in years past. Several hits from the Ray Of Light record achieved this. Then came the cusp of the new millenium, and with it more soundtrack successes like Beautiful Stranger. Her largely country-themed album Music came out in 2000. Throughout much of the 00's, Madonna has been heard doing duets with the likes of pop pal Britney Spears, and soon Justin Timberlake, who is featured on her upcoming album Hard Candy.
And so Madonna's entry into the Rock N Roll Hall of Fame comes just months before she turns the big 5-0. She's had more than that many hits, starred in scores of films and is on a par with the likes of Marilyn Monroe when one mentions pop culture icons of the past century.
Oddly enough, Madonna thanks her critics for the plateau she has reached.
"They pushed me to do better," she claims. "I am grateful for their resistance
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This unique, one-time only event on theater screens in major cities nationwide highlights some of the great United Artisits films!
Portland March 14, 2008
Larelhurst Theater
New York CIty March 28, 2008
Film Forum
Detroit March 31, 2008
Uptown Birmingham 8
San Francisco April 3, 2008
Castro Theater
Dallas Apirlk 4, 2008
Landmark Inwood Theater
Cleveland April 5, 2008
Shaker Square Cinemas
Houston April 15, 2008
Willowbrook Movie Tavern
Minneapolis April 16, 2008
Landmark Edina Cinema
Raleigh/Durham April 21, 2008
The Carolina Theater of Durham
Miami/Ft. Lauderdale Aprill 22, 2008
Sunrise Cinemas Stadium 15
Las Olas Riverfront
Phoenix, Az April 25, 2008
Harkins Valley Art Theater
Chicago April 26, 2008
Music Box Theater
Seattle April 30, 2008
SIFF Cinema
Boston May 01, 2008
Brattle Theater
Los Angeles May 02, 2008
Landmark Nuart
Washington, D.C. May 10, 2008
AFI Silver Springs Theater
San Diego May 23, 2008
Landmark Ken Theater
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Hitchcock makes his cameo appearance ..Topaz
In a crowded LaGuardia Airport scene, seated in a wheelchair as he is being pushed by a nurse under a sign reading "United Air Lines"; he miraculously stands up from the wheelchair, greets and shakes hands with a man, and walks off to the right.
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April 7, 2008
05:00pm (PT) Arizona Time!
The film was made by RKO and was written originally for the screen by Ruth Rose, and James Ashmore Creelman from a concept by Merian C. Cooper.
The much-loved classic went into general release in the U.S. on April 7, 1933!!
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75th Anniversary of King Kong April 7, 2008
in Hot Topics
Posted
I wish I was in Austin too..would love to see "King Kong" on the big screen!!