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Tag: Cary Grant

  • 5 Heartwarming Holiday Movies To Restore Your Holiday Spirit

    5 Heartwarming Holiday Movies To Restore Your Holiday Spirit

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    Christmas is all around, but for some, the holiday spirit is elusive.  Here are are some films to help reignite the spirit, bring a smile and maybe even a tear or two.

    From constant holiday music to the rush to find the perfect gift, some people struggle to have the heartwarming holiday spirit. The commercialism of the season can be a bit off-putting, but taking a breath, a puff, a sip and enjoy the simple things – a beautiful tree, a good Christmas cookie and hanging with those you care about.  Here are 5 heartwarming holiday movies to restore your holiday spirit.

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    A Charlie Brown Christmas

    This childhood classic touches hearts for all the meanings of Christmas including kindness to others. Good ol’ Charlie Brown is still bullied, Snoopy is still cool but the holiday looms over the show. The jazz portions were created by the Vince Guaraldi Trio and have become a holiday staple. It has won awards despite some animation “snafus” (notice Snoopy suddenly appearing on Schroder’s piano) and has captured hearts and respect.  And the dance scene is iconic and you can have fresh moves for New Year’s Eve.

    The Bishop’s Wife

    It seems every generation laments the lost meaning of Christmas. This stellar cast lead by Cary Grant give a thoughtful, fun, and old fashioned take on the spirit. The snowball fight is great and you will find yourself smiling.

    Miracle on 34th Street

    The honesty, insight, and love from a kid tugs at your heart and also ignites your faith in Santa Claus.  The 1947 original is the one to watch. A young Natalie Wood plays it perfect with the desire to believe.  And who would think a government agency could be the good guy?

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    Love Actually

    The music alone makes it worth watching the movie.  This popular film captures multiple plot-lines involved relationships and the holiday spirit. From Hugh Grant dancing to the the infamous drum scene…you will laugh and cry and find yourself enjoying a guilty pleasure.  The additional unexpected lesson to this is to think hard when you date someone with whom you work.

     

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    The Holiday

    Who needs Hallmark holiday movies when you have Cameron Diaz? In her review for USA Today, Claudia Puig found The Holiday “is a rare chick flick/romantic comedy which, despite its overt sentimentality and fairy-tale premise, doesn’t feel cloyingly sweet.”  Fits in perfectly with eggnog, Christmas cookies and your favorite ornaments.

    Hopefully these 5 heartwarming holiday movies to restore your holiday spirit work!

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    Anthony Washington

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  • Judy Balaban, High-Placed Participant in Hollywood, Dies at 91

    Judy Balaban, High-Placed Participant in Hollywood, Dies at 91

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    Judy Balaban, the daughter of a longtime studio mogul who dated Montgomery Clift and Merv Griffin, married Tony Franciosa and served as one of Grace Kelly’s bridesmaids at her wedding to Prince Rainier of Monaco, has died. She was 91.

    Balaban died Thursday night in a hospital in Los Angeles, her friend, author and documentary filmmaker Cari Beauchamp, told The Hollywood Reporter.

    Balaban was a champion for civil rights, serving on the board of directors for the ACLU of Southern California for decades.

    In a 2010 piece for Vanity Fair that she and Beauchamp co-wrote, Balaban described using LSD (then legal) as a form of therapy in the early 1960s when her good friends Cary Grant and his third wife, Betsy Drake, were using it, too.

    “What I had with Cary and Betsy was a kind of soul-baringness that the culture didn’t start to deal with until years later,” she says in the story. “We continued to have that even when our lives went off in different directions.”

    Balaban also talked about those days during an appearance in the 2017 Showtime documentary Becoming Cary Grant.

    Her 1961-67 marriage to Franciosa (A Hatful of Rain, The Name of the Game) was sandwiched between her marriages to high-profile Hollywood agent Jay Kanter from 1953-61 and to actor Don Quine (The Virginian) from 1971-96. All three ended in divorce.

    Judith Rose Balaban was born in Chicago in October 13, 1932, to Tillie and Barney Balaban. Her father co-owned a chain of theaters before he was elected president of Paramount in 1936, and he would preside over the studio through 1964.

    Her brother was noted jazz musician Red Balaban, and her half-brother was Burt Balaban, a producer of films including 1960’s Murder, Inc.

    She and her family moved to New York when her dad took the Paramount job, and she attended high school in Washington, D.C., before returning to Manhattan to work in the fashion industry.

    Balaban, who was in the gossip sheets as dating Clift in the early ’50s when he was making films like A Place in the Sun, was going out with Griffin and watching him sing at a nightclub when she was introduced to Kanter. Their marriage brought her to Hollywood.

    Balaban became fast friends with Kelly through Kanter, who was the actress’ agent (he also represented the likes of Marilyn Monroe, Marlon Brando and Paul Newman during his career). The star of High Noon, Rear Window and The Country Girl called her “Judybird”; she called Kelly “Graciebird.”

    When Kelly and Rainier wed at Saint Nicholas Cathedral in Monaco on April 18, 1956, Balaban was there alongside fellow bridesmaids Maree Frisby, a high-school friend of Kelly’s; Sally Parrish and Bettina Thompson, classmates from the American Academy of Dramatic Arts; Carolyn Scott, a modeling companion; and actress Rita Gam, Kelly’s onetime roommate in Hollywood.

    All traveled to Monaco with the bride-to-be aboard the SS Constitution. (Ava Gardner, who starred with Kelly in 1953’s Mogambo, reportedly declined to be a bridesmaid.)

    Balaban wrote about the experience in her 1989 book, The Bridesmaids: Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, and Six Intimate Friends.

    She described Kelly’s dress — created by MGM costume designer Helen Rose — as “twenty-five yards of silk peau de soie, another twenty-five of light silk taffeta, ninety-eight yards of silk tulle and nearly three hundred and twenty yards of Valenciennes lace.”

    Balaban also appeared in 1983 and 2018 documentaries about Clift and one about Kelly in 1987 and was interviewed for Mark Cousins’ acclaimed 2011 doc series The Story of Film: An Odyssey.

    Survivors include her daughters, Amy, whom she had with Kanter, and Nina, whom she had with Franciosa; and a cousin, Oscar-nominated actor Bob Balaban. Victoria, her other daughter with Kanter, died in June 2020.

    Scott Feinberg contributed to this report.

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  • Today in History: November 29, Warren Commission appointed

    Today in History: November 29, Warren Commission appointed

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    Today in History

    Today is Tuesday, Nov. 29, the 333rd day of 2022. There are 32 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On Nov. 29, 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of Palestine between Arabs and Jews; 33 members, including the United States, voted in favor of the resolution, 13 voted against while 10 abstained. (The plan, rejected by the Arabs, was never implemented.)

    On this date:

    In 1864, a Colorado militia killed at least 150 peaceful Cheyenne Indians in the Sand Creek Massacre.

    In 1910, British explorer Robert F. Scott’s ship Terra Nova set sail from New Zealand, carrying Scott’s expedition on its ultimately futile — as well as fatal — race to reach the South Pole first.

    In 1924, Italian composer Giacomo Puccini died in Brussels before he could complete his opera “Turandot.” (It was finished by Franco Alfano.)

    In 1929, Navy Lt. Cmdr. Richard E. Byrd, pilot Bernt Balchen, radio operator Harold June and photographer Ashley McKinney made the first airplane flight over the South Pole.

    In 1961, Enos the chimp was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard the Mercury-Atlas 5 spacecraft, which orbited earth twice before returning.

    In 1963, President Lyndon B. Johnson named a commission headed by Earl Warren to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

    In 1981, film star Natalie Wood drowned in a boating accident off Santa Catalina Island, California, at age 43.

    In 1986, actor Cary Grant died in Davenport, Iowa, at age 82.

    In 1987, a Korean Air 707 jetliner en route from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok was destroyed by a bomb planted by North Korean agents with the loss of all 115 people aboard.

    In 2001, former Beatle George Harrison died in Los Angeles following a battle with cancer; he was 58.

    In 2008, Indian commandos killed the last remaining gunmen holed up at a luxury Mumbai hotel, ending a 60-hour rampage through India’s financial capital by suspected Pakistani-based militants that killed 166 people.

    In 2020, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York City would reopen its school system to in-person learning, and increase the number of days a week many children attend class, even as the coronavirus pandemic intensified in the city.

    Ten years ago: The United Nations voted overwhelmingly to recognize a Palestinian state, a vote that came exactly 65 years after the General Assembly adopted a plan to divide Palestine into separate states for Jews and Arabs. (The vote was 138 in favor; nine members, including the United States, voted against and 41 abstained.) President Barack Obama had lunch with defeated Republican nominee Mitt Romney in the White House’s private dining room; the White House says they discussed America’s leadership in the world.

    Five years ago: North Korea launched its most powerful weapon yet, claiming a new type of intercontinental ballistic missile that some observers believed could put the entire U.S. East Coast within range. “Today” host Matt Lauer was fired for what NBC called “inappropriate sexual behavior” with a colleague; a published report accused him of crude and habitual misconduct with women around the office. Garrison Keillor, who’d entertained public radio listeners for 40 years on “A Prairie Home Companion,” was fired by Minnesota Public Radio following allegations of inappropriate workplace behavior.

    One year ago: A federal judge blocked the Biden administration from enforcing a coronavirus vaccine mandate on thousands of health care workers in 10 states that had brought the first legal challenge against the requirement. Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of the social media platform; he was succeeded by Twitter’s chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal. LSU hired Brian Kelly away from Notre Dame, a stunning move by one of the most accomplished coaches in college football jumping from the sport’s most storied program to a Southeastern Conference powerhouse. Arlene Dahl, a 1950s movie star who later remained prominent in television, died in New York at 96. Merriam-Webster chose “vaccine” as its 2021 word of the year.

    Today’s Birthdays: Blues singer-musician John Mayall is 89. Actor Diane Ladd is 87. Songwriter Mark James is 82. Composer-musician Chuck Mangione is 82. Pop singer-musician Felix Cavaliere (The Rascals) is 80. Former Olympic skier Suzy Chaffee is 76. Actor Jeff Fahey is 70. Movie director Joel Coen is 68. Actor-comedian-celebrity judge Howie Mandel is 67. Former Homeland Security Director Janet Napolitano (neh-pahl-ih-TAN’-oh) is 65. Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel is 63. Actor Cathy Moriarty is 62. Actor Kim Delaney is 61. Actor Tom Sizemore is 61. Actor Andrew McCarthy is 60. Actor Don Cheadle is 58. Actor-producer Neill Barry is 57. Pop singer Jonathan Knight (New Kids on the Block) is 54. Rock musician Martin Carr (Boo Radleys) is 54. Actor Jennifer Elise Cox is 53. Baseball Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera is 53. Actor Larry Joe Campbell is 52. Rock musician Frank Delgado (Deftones) is 52. Actor Paola Turbay is 52. Contemporary Christian singer Crowder is 51. Actor Gena Lee Nolin is 51. Actor Brian Baumgartner is 50. Actor Julian Ovenden is 47. Actor Anna (AH’-nuh) Faris is 46. Gospel singer James Fortune is 45. Actor Lauren German is 44. Rapper The Game is 43. Actor Janina Gavankar is 42. Rock musician Ringo Garza is 41. Actor-comedian John Milhiser is 41. Actor Lucas Black is 40. NFL quarterback Russell Wilson is 34. Actor Diego Boneta is 32. Actor Lovie Simone (TV: “Greenleaf”) is 24.

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