I was very skeptical about this project. Both actors seem way too old, and they both have to do accents to fit the characters. Kidman comes from Australia, and Bardem comes from Spain. Desi came from Cuba, and Lucy grew up in Jamestown, New York.
But that trailer overcame my resistance and — this is beyond my rational analysis — gave me chills. Did Aaron Sorkin do that? I haven't seen much of Sorkin's work. Of all his movies, I've only seen "Moneyball" and "The Trial of the Chicago 7" (and a little bit of "The Social Network"). As for his TV, I haven't seen any of it! Am I the only one who's never watched a single episode of "The West Wing"?
From that ornithophobia link, we're told Ingmar Bergman also had a fear of birds, and so do David Beckman and Scarlette Johansson. Eminem has a fear of a specific bird: Owls. We're not told the word for the fear of owls. (Strigiformophobia?) But we are told the word for the fear of chickens — alektorophobia — and the fear of ducks — anatidaephobia.
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Sorry but I hated Lucy’s shows and even that long long trailer movie they made. I found Lucy Ricardo an unlikeable character and was annoyed by the elaborate set-ups and forced comedy. Unfortunately my sister was a year older and we took turns choosing what to watch after school and she would choose I Love Lucy; every other day when I could select the program I’d choose Gilligan’s Island. When a rare 2-part story took place, the episode with the giant spider who traps Gilligan in a cave I think, she wouldn’t make an exception to our turn-taking so I could see the conclusion. Later when Lucy had a 2-parter I returned the favor.
Kidman looks enough like Lucy to not be a distraction. I can't say the same for Bardem as Desi. He has his work cut out for him.
I saw a few episodes of West Wing. IMO, you aren't missing much. All Sorkin's work is rapid fire banter. Nobody in real life talks like his characters talk so you basically have to be all about the witticisms if you want to enjoy his work.
I actually once heard on the streets of Manhattan some young woman telling to her friend that she wished President Bartlett could be our real president. Personally, I thought he was a pompous gas bag and the only reason he wasn't constantly called on his bullshit is that the writers wouldn't let anybody stand up to him.
If you did ever get the desire to watch a Sorkin show, I recommend Sports Night. It's typical Sorkin, but since it's sports and not politics, it's ok that it's too glib.
Nicole Kidman has the acting chops to do practically anybody. She’s that good. imo.
Nicole Kidman was really good as Samantha.
I was wondering if the story about Lucy voting Communist to please her grandfather would make it into the movie. Apparently it does. Maybe it had better been left out. Hollywood loves to rage against the redbaiting and blacklisting without ever confronting the real issues involved. Same thing with Julie & Julia.
I like Nicole Kidman, but it seems like she's trying too hard to hold on to her career. She's stuck in a place where the youthful roles she once played are out of reach but she still wants to avoid being relegated to old lady roles. Life is tougher for actresses than for actors, though they both have it good compared to the rest of humanity. Also, that "mid-Pacific" accent is disconcerting.
Sorkin has a way about his writing. His dialogues are very full and very unreal. When the storyline is showbiz, the scenes will take place probably on that film set for the most part. With a lot of banter. Banter, banter, banter. That's Aaron Sorkin. I usually like his stuff for about 30 minutes, then it gets annoying because...people don't talk like he writes his scripts. They just don't.
I look at Sorkin's works like I look at a stunning new restaurant that's getting all the buzz in a major city. The place is gorgeous, stylish, slick. The patrons are all that and more. There is a buzz in the air. You finally get a table and see a beautiful menu. Then the food arrives and its...its...really kind of mediocre in it's presentation and execution. Sorkin's tv shows and movies have a lot of that. A lot of style, but lacking in substance.
But I always try his works. And I'll probably give this a try. The story of Lucy and Desi is very interesting. Two very highly driven people, talented people. I just hope this does not turn into another movie about the McCarthy purges in Hollywood of which people on the Left like Sorkin seem to never tire. Which is funny because as it turns out, no one purges like the Left purges. I suspect this story will have that smell to it.
I have never watched even one episode of THE WEST WING. I don't think I've even seen any short clips of the show.
I buy Xavier as Desi, but Nicole as Lucy is just ... off.
I've never seen a West Wing, either.
Are you ready to accept Nicole Kidman as Lucy? Javier Bardem as Desi?
"Oh, o-na."
Aaron Sorkin's greatest TV work was Sports Night. Liberal but not preachy, at least that was my reaction. Lots of terrific insights, literate, clever, entertaining. I recommend it over West Wing. I've watched the whole series several times on DVD. I am particularly impressed by how, when a key actor suffered a stroke in real life, the event was written into the series.
I've read that the greatest line from any Sorkin work was actually created by Jack Nicholson. "You can't handle the truth."
I don’t give a hoot!
Love Sorkin's work. Won't watch the West Wing.
I was expecting a long, long trailer.
No to kidman as Lucy, no to bardem as Ricky, Sorkin is an ideological hack crackhead.
No thanks.
Check out Lucy Arnez' reaction to it. She loved it. Was seriously moved by it.
I Love Lucy … The gritty reboot!
Inevitable?
Probably.
Turns out the funny lady everybody liked was really a miserable victim of a miserable marriage!
Of course she was!
As the kids say: Yawn.
While I agree the actors are too old (epecially Bardem as Desi), that didn't hinder Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lang playing Bette and Joan a couple years ago. The only thing lost here is that Desi was substantially younger than Lucy, and had a lot more sex appeal that Javier.
Getting past that issue, it looks to me like the real goal is not so much impersonation as really getting to the power struggles in the behind-the-scenes story of I LOVE LUCY. From what I have seen from the trailers, that element looks really interesting and well-researched. And I admit the clever, subtle musical scoring brought a tear to my eye. Chills indeed, Miss Ann!
- Archie Waugh
Am I the only one who's never watched a single episode of "The West Wing"?
I've been in the room when it was on and I've seen the parodies, but I never willingly and deliberately watched an episode. Supposedly the show was the Democrats White House in exile during the GW Bush years.
Sports Night was a good show: smug, but relatively apolitical. I did watch all of The Newsroom and I don't know how I got through it all: very political and simpleminded. Sorkin got flak for the first episode because he misread the statistics comparing the US with other countries, but that was pretty typical for him. Also, what's with the names he gives the characters: Sloan Sabbith, MacKenzie Morgan McHale?
Lucy was a great "gun Moll" in at least one old gangster movie, along with Fred MacMurray as a gangster.
The important question is; who's playing William Frawley? If you don't have a good Fred Mertz, it'll be a real stinker.
Am I the only one who's never watched a single episode of "The West Wing"?
Nope
I never saw "The West Wing" either.
Lucy's daughter gave the show high, high praise.
I never watched "The West Wing" I didn't fee the need to subject myself
to the lefty fantasy version the Clinton admin.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dark_Corner
"I saw a few episodes of West Wing. IMO, you aren't missing much. All Sorkin's work is rapid fire banter. Nobody in real life talks like his characters talk so you basically have to be all about the witticisms if you want to enjoy his work."
Who says a representation of the world has to pedandtically mimic the world? Who wants that? By definition, a representation of a thing is not the thing itself, so the artist has the opportunity to play the subtlest or the most extravagant changes on the thing being represented.
"Am I the only one who's never watched a single episode of 'The West Wing'?"
Nope.
I never saw "The West Wing" either.
I did.
I'm conservative as Hell. I hate both Sorkin's and Sheen's politics (to be fair, most of the cast's politics, with the exceptions of Lowe and Chenowith)
I loved the show. It was well written, well shot and well acted. My biggest desire at the time was that instead of ending the show, they would have a Republican win the election, and do four more years from the perspective of a Republican administration, but I think that was a step too far.
Having lived for some time not too far from Jamestown, NY, Lucy was doing an accent too.
Sorry. The only way Javier Bardem would be believable as Desi is that he would have to murder Lucy and her copious bleeding would cover the old wooden floor and get on his expensive boots. It should be called No Country for Lucy.
Bardem seems too low key and phlegmatic as Ricky Ricardo.
Desi emphasized his high strung "Latin nature" in the series. I guess that would be racist today.
I have never seen the West Wing.
I assumed it was a show for people who fantasized about having a truly wonderful liberal POTUS. In other words, I suspected that is was DNC propaganda.
“Lucy's daughter gave the show high, high praise.”
She probably has a couple of points at stake.
Sorkin's The Left Wing er,,, I mean The West Wing - gave us the shining hope with president Charlie Sheen's dad at the helm. America was perfect.
"I never saw "The West Wing" either."
I never saw a single episode.
I watched the trailer... Meh.
Formula.
Same here. Zero West Wing views. I disliked the real Clintons enough that I had less than zero interest in the idealized fictional version of his White House. You know us trumpies are a certified cult but we never get these hagiographic fictional fantasies like West Wing, An American President, Madame Secretary, Primary Colors and etc. No we get murder porn like the Assassination of GW Bush and all the hatred poured out of Hollywood on their former colleague Trump.
Kidman’s voice sounds like Ball’s but she doesn’t look at all like her. The actor doesn’t resemble Arnez at all. The trailer lost me at the requisite commie threat scene.
I watched one episode of The West Wing and thought one of the actresses was exceptionally cute so I watched a second one. That was it, the pleasure of viewing the young lady couldn't overcome the awfulness of the show. So, the show was a real stinker, because I've watched a couple of bad movies and many episodes of bad sit-coms just because I like to look at Nancy Travis.
Never would have thought of casting Nicole Kidman as Lucy, but it looks she could pull it off. Certainly looks more like Lucy than that awful bronze statue.
J.K. Simmons as "Fred" is obviously a good choice.
Gotta give Kidman credit. She played Virginia Woolf and now Lucy Ball.
I love Javier Bardem.
Good actors don’t have to look like the historical figures they play. If you can capture aspects of the figure, then that’s what you want.
Anthony Hopkins did a good job with Nixon.
Daniel Day-Lewis did a good job with Lincoln.
TCM's podcast on Lucille Ball is fantastic - as were the other seasons on Bonfire of the Vanities and Peter Bogdanovich.
https://theplotthickens.tcm.com/
Lucille Ball was already 42 when “I Love Lucy” debuted. Kidman at 54 passes easily as a decade younger.
I understand that, with episodes of “Lucy” still all over TV, her likeness is still very well known, but Kidman looks great. The story will matter much more than who played whom.
You can watch an unwatched Sorkin work and feel like you've watched it before. The kids play the drinking game to spot the recycled dialogue. I was impressed with the kids but later learned there's youtube videos to use as crib sheets...
Kidman and the Bardem are believable as the Lucy and Desi of the SNL era...
Did you know they were on SNL?
Sorkin is a lefty-loon asshole who thinks he gets paid by the word.
His TV shows were unwatchable. Dialog fatigue and far-too-cute, forced repartee are the norm.
But the director of photography here does a great job...it all looks like a dream sequence.
Arnaz was no wimp, but Bardem is way too hulking and macho.
Kidman is pretty, but when Lucy was young she was a hottie.
I'm another right-winger that watched "The West Wing." If for no other reason, it helped give me insight into the left-wing mind set. Whenever an actual argument between some reprobate on the right and a "Scourge of God" (hereafter abbreviated SoG) would take place the SoG would always reach into their pocket and pull out some "facts" that proved that reprobate was "On The Wrong Side of History" OTWSoH. Faced with "facts" that proved they were OTWSoH the reprobate would always hang their head in shame and, if possible, slink away from the SoG. The SoG would then go find another SoG and stride the corridors of the White House with them and exchange witty, rapid fire banter.
This is pretty typical.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1-ip47WYWc
I think I may be a masochist.
Ball recalled little from the day her father died, except a bird getting trapped in the house, which caused her lifelong ornithophobia.
Can I tell my bird funeral story here? Everything you are about to hear is true:
So an assistant's mother passed away and her flamboyant brother wanted his mother's funeral to be special, so he arranged for a harpist, a fabulous reception, the works. Apparently he hired a pair of white doves to be released by the coffin and fly away in to the heavens. Well...they get to that part of the ceremony, harpist playing away, and the doves do their part upon release, pausing at the casket then fluttering in to the sky, where one of the doves was met in mid air by a swooping red tailed hawk that grabbed the bird, flew to a nearby tree and began to pluck out every feather. Meanwhile his mate flew to the hood of a processional limo and whimpered the whole time....
It must have been magical....
I have chicken/egg question: Did the producers of The West Wing steal ideas for the show from leftie political strategists or do leftie political strategists steal ideas from the show? I suspect they are young enough not to remember the show but stupid enough to steal the show's ideas and assume none the wiser...
It is an old superstition that a bird in the house is a harbinger of a death in the house.
I learned that from my parents, who learned it from theirs. I made sure to tell my own kids this superstition when a bird flew in an open door of our home. Nobody died, so perhaps this is not a valid superstition, but I like the symbolism of a flying life force captured within walls, trying to escape to freedom, as an omen of the end of a life.
I won't tell you the superstitions I was taught about Catholic saints - there isn't enough room here.
Sorkin also wrote The Social Network, which was a good movie. It did make me hate Jesse Eisenberg, though, and I'd been a fan of his before he played Zuckerberg.
You can see a parallel between The West Wing and today's Psaki/Buttigieg political world, where "clever banter," snark, and showing off are assumed to be everything. I'm not sure how Biden's and Pelosi's incoherent ramblings fit into that "smart" political universe.
On the whole, though, Veep did a much better job of capturing the political world than The West Wing.
I never watched a complete episode of West Wing. A time I didn't watch network TV dramas. But Social Network fascinating. I was young for TV Lucy so I preferred the Lucy Show to I Love Lucy. No interest in the doings of couples or girlfriends like Lucy and Ethel. I enjoyed the pompous bank manager more.
Part of I Love Lucy, though, was that these were not glamourous people. There was an everyman/everywoman, little guy/gal quality to Desi and Lucy. Can the stars really bring that off?
In the show Desi was a nightclub owner and band leader/vocalist. Eventually, they had episodes where they went to Hollywood so that Desi could further his career. That seems pretty glamourous to me. Anyway, the movie is about the actors real lives, and the couple were tabloid fodder, pursued by paparazzi, garish headlines, etc.
If it looks like a Duck,
and quacks like a Duck,
then Lucy runs away.
Sorry, I hate these TV/Movie Star Biopics. The actors just remind us how much better the real life stars were. Or how much they're getting wrong.
Besides, Sorokin is your typical, low talent, Hollywood producer with same old boring cultural/political attitudes they all have. No doubt we'll get a lot about "Desi fighting Predjudice" and "Lucy fighting male chauvanists as a studio head". With a special guest appearance of Joe McCarthy calling Lucille Ball a Commie. He'll probably show William Frawley (a confirmed batchelor) as flaming Gay guy.
Hard Pass.
Finally, I love Lucy is still funny. Desi was smart to keep the Sitcom free of current events and topical humor.
Wonder if Bardem will say the Speedy-Gonzalesque 'splaining' or the culturally-responsible 'explaining'?
"Am I the only one who's never watched a single episode of "The West Wing"?"
I never did either. It was so obviously smug political preening for the Clintons and Democrats it was a turn off. It got all the Right Awards for its politics.
Hollyweird would never do a GOP themed series with such a celebratory pro-Government slant, much less shower it with critical accolades and industry awards.
"The Simpsons" referred to "I Love Lucy" a couple of times.
* Krusty the Klown's company was named "KrustyLu Productions."
* They worked in Lucy's famous "Waaaaaahhhh!", usually delivered after Desi confronted her over some dumb thing she had done.
At the end of one "Simpsons" show you could hear a "Lucy" episode playing on an unseen TV in the background.
Lucy is talking---then suddenly you hear a loud, hard "WHACK", followed by her trademark "WAAAAAHHHH!"---and Fred Mertz saying, "Awwww, ya hit her pretty hard there, Rick!"
heh
(It would never have aired in today's "that's not funny" climate.
In its time, I Love Lucy was revolutionary. Nobody had ever done a multi camera (film camera!) staged sitcom before a live studio audience. Arnaz gambled big and deserves the credit for this. He was a bonafide genius.
But looking at the trailer, I'm worried that Sorkin has smothered the story with the pillow of gravitas. A secondary concern is that he probably blew the "Lucy is a commie" angle way out of proportion because the Red Scare is a central narrative in Progressive mythology. Finally, whereas Arnaz was charming and cute, Bardem looks like a thug--ugly af. He's more believable with a suppressed shotgun in his hands.
The reason I've never been interested in the West Wing is that I have never had the feeling of really admiring a President and I've always found adulation of the president embarrassing or disgusting.
Kidman’s face looks terrifying. Is that make up and latex or has she really done that to her face with plastic surgery? Javier is too much of a “heavy” to play Dezi who was sort of “peppy and fizzy” for a Cuban man. As someone who grew up around Cuban men if Dezi wasn’t in show business I would have thought he swung both ways.
The writing is horrible on the West Wing. It ends up coming off like a stoned idealistic lefty wet dream... as is much of Sorkins work. The other rub is the dialogue sounds like the contrived banter of someone thinking they are the smartest and most moral person on the planet. Gag me with a spoon.
In the 1950s you could find two people with non-english accents on American TV. One was Desi Arnaz, the other was Lawrence Welk.
They were both giants in their fields.
People with anatidaephobia are downright crazy, severely quackers.
"I Love Lucy" always bugged me for the same reasons Mike stated above. I tended to watch it because I was interested in the clothes (Lucy's and Ethel's) and the mid-century furnishings. I was always disappointed that the shows were in black and white for that reason.
Lucille Ball was best in roles you didn't expect her in. I really liked her in "Stage Door" and she held her own against Katharine Hepburn and Gail Patrick.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FceQL9_dUY
"In the show Desi was a nightclub owner and band leader/vocalist."
Ricky was not the owner of the nightclub. He was an employee at the nightclub.
No one here brags about never seeing a single episode of I Love Lucy. I think everyone in America over a certain age has watched multiple episodes of that show. I haven't seen it in years, but I loved it when I was a kid.....I watched one episode of the West Wing. As I remember, it was literate and intelligent, but it gave all the best lines to one side. I've seen some of Sorkin's movies, and they're pretty good. He has talent, but he cuts on the bias.....Nobody talks that way. Well, that's true of Shakespeare too. Look at the great poetry that comes out Lear's mouth and compare that to the ramblings of Joe Biden.....They apparently dramatize Lucy's Red Scare. I'd like to see some movie where they dramatize Red Adulation. I've read several biographies of Stalin. It's disturbing to read about these Nobel Prize winners who visit the Soviet Union and gush about how great the place is. Beatrice Webb, one of the founders of Britain's Labor Party visited the digging of the White Sea Canal. Ordinary people were sent out in street clothes in the Russian winter to dig a canal with garden tools. Tens of thousands perished. Webb thought it was just the greatest thing ever. I'd like to see a movie that dramatized her fatuity. Lots of witty banter with Lady Astor and GBS and maybe some tasteful nudity. There's a part there for Nicole Kidman.
Robert Cook: "Who says a representation of the world has to pedandtically mimic the world? Who wants that?"
Ask P.G. Wodehouse. (I'm agreeing with you, BTW)
I've never seen even a clip from "West Wing," but I haven't had TV reception since 1995. I haven't seen a whole episode of "Seinfeld," "Friends," nor "Big Bang Theory," although I have seen clips.
(I have seen Game of Thrones, Simpsons, Futurama, Detectorists, Phryne Fisher, Big Little Lies, and Castle, so I'm not a total trog.)
I love Kidman and she's fighting the valiant fight against aging. She was in a movie recently with Hugh Grant, wearing an enormous poofy wig as if she had a young woman's hair (she doesn't, as her appearance on YouTube with Russell Crowe showed).
As for the movie, it looks fine, but I doubt I'll see it. I know much of their story already, and I'm no longer titillated by their behind-the-scenes drama. It's sad that no matter how much Desi loved Lucy, it didn't stop him from screwing around on her.
No matter how noble our intentions, it's nearly impossible being the best version of ourselves.
MUST see from Aaron Sorkin's pen: Charlie Wilson's War. Incredible writing--and performances to match. What Philip Seymour Hoffman does with Sorkin's role for him is pantheon worthy.
@Cassandra lite,
"I've spent the last three years learning Finnish, which should come in handy here in Virginia!"
I watched and enjoyed "The West Wing". I enjoyed the idealism of the White House staff, but felt the policies and assumed outcomes of those policies was juvenile and condescending to anyone who did not drink the lefty kool-aide.
However, having a working knowledge of "WW" made it possible to see how the Obama administration frequently tried to use the Sorkin scripts as policy guidelines.
Ricky was not the owner of the nightclub. He was an employee at the nightclub.
We're both correct.
"Ricky often appeared at, and later owned, the Tropicana Club, which under his ownership he renamed Club Babalu."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desi_Arnaz#:~:text=Ricky%20often%20appeared%20at%2C%20and%20later%20owned%2C%20the,style%20would%20not%20be%20agreeable%20to%20American%20viewers.
No, you are not the only one who has never watched an episode of West Wing. I am happy to say that I have never wasted my time watching West Wing, or Veep. Late at night, I do watch reruns of Seinfeld, Friends, Sex and the City, and Modern Family. I like situation comedies…not shows produced to promote a political POV. I grew up watching I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Desi was a womanizer and all around lousy husband, and, of course, Jimmy Gleason, a big drinker and gambler. But I don’t mix up the characters with the real people. What they do in their private lives…..is their business. I’m not interested in seeing the new Lucy, Desi movie since I know the story already. Regarding Alan Sorkin’s work, I agree that Charlie Wilson’s War was a very good movie.
Part of I Love Lucy, though, was that these were not glamorous people. There was an everyman/everywoman, little guy/gal quality to Desi and Lucy. Can the stars really bring that off?
I seem to remember that when Desilu bought the RKO backlot, they got rid of a lot of old silent films by dumping them into the ocean (as Universal and Paramount did). I can't find any confirmation for that now, but Desilu gave us Star Trek, so we can forgive Lucy and Desi for a lot of things.
I'm torn. I don't like Sorkin's dialog for reasons many others have stated. On the other hand, I like Kidman's willingness to accept a wide variety of roles. She's also a nice lady. She filmed a movie near my house and on her way back to her hotel she stopped to talk with our kids. There were no reporters there, no publicity stunt, just being friendly. Also my brother's best man was her private pilot back when she was married to Tom Cruise. She and Cruise were invited to the pilot's wedding, and though she didn't attend, she did send a nice gift. Again, not to get publicity, just being nice.
I've never watched an episode of that Sorkin program, either.
By coincidence, the evening of your first post, the other day, about this new Lucy/Desi film I stumbled onto a Prime movie in which Lucille Ball portrayed the female protagonist; I only watched ten minutes or so of it and wish now that I could recall its title. She was a con artist who was attempting to sell forged paintings; the male protagonist was also a con artist: they each foiled the other's con. Romance ensued, I presume.
if Dezi wasn’t in show business I would have thought he swung both ways
There’s something you don’t read everyday…
I did not like I Love Lucy when I was a kid because everyone seemed so phony compared to Viv and her husband. I still detest the incompetence and coldness that exudes from nearly every frame of that horrible show - except for the times when Viv and her husband were on (and Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie, but that was a different show).
I was always confused - why does Viv hang out with these phony baloney people, poor boring self-centered Lucy who always, for insipid but allegedly comical reasons, took her stupid escapades too seriously, and just as much poor boring Ricky, who seemed like such a loser, not to understand he was trapped in a situation comedy, with an unattractive unfeminine self-centered woman who also had no idea she was stuck in a boring situation comedy.
Viv, on the other hand - loved her.
I don't have to accept them. I can ignore them.
that being said, in real life Lucille Ball was apparently a wonderful person.
I don't think I've ever seen Nicole Kidman do comedy,have you? It would be a pleasant surprise if it turns out to be in her range -- and a big surprise if she can manage Lucy's special brand of comedy, which takes great control to look out of control -- and get laughs at her own expense, but still have us in her hands and not the other way around. If she can do that, they've got something.
On the other h., this probably isn't the kind of movie that does more than lip service toward the art of comedy. Earnest relationship-bunk and sexual politics bunk more likely.
If they needed a Hispanic star to play R.R., I would have thought John Leguizamo a better choice, not only for looks (and comedy chops, but see above), but mainly for being mercurial in a way I've never seen from Bardem.
For all this, the movie is low or bottom on my to-see list. Maybe higher if I was going to see it at a theatre, with friends. What does this tell us about the era we're living g through?
"Same here. Zero West Wing views. I disliked the real Clintons enough that I had less than zero interest in the idealized fictional version of his White House."
I think you mean House of Cards.
From the comments on this blog, it seems as though Sorkin has some 'splainin' to do...
"I seem to remember that when Desilu bought the RKO backlot, they got rid of a lot of old silent films by dumping them into the ocean (as Universal and Paramount did).
Nobody ever did that; the studios typically had the film dissolved to recover the silver in the film stock, although some did burn the films due to the danger of storing nitrate film stock which was extremely flammable.
At any rate RKO only made a couple of silent films as their Hollywood studio didn't exist until 1929. Lucy and Desi cannot be blamed for the loss of any silent films.
Archie Waugh
Nicole Kidman is a hell of an actress and a redhead. What's to question? Don't know anything about the guy but he looks too tall in the trailer.
glam1931
I think after Desilu, the lot became Producer's Studios for budget shooting, editing, etc.
"The reason I've never been interested in the West Wing is that I have never had the feeling of really admiring a President and I've always found adulation of the president embarrassing or disgusting."
The cult of personality thing always bothered me too. Whether it's Clinton, Obama, or Trump, worshipping the President is always a bad idea. The President is supposed to be an administrator, not a king.
It’s the voices!!! And maybe someone said that already, but- the voices and the timing.
That’s acting- how cool.
No I meant West Wing. West Wing is to An American President as Happy Days was to American Graffiti, an extended television version of a motion picture. Further An American President was ridiculed at the time for being so obviously the result of a pitch like “Hey what if we had Bill Clinton’s White House but without that icky Hillary?”
“What? We make him a widower?”
“Yes.”
“LOVE IT!”
As said by others this hagiographic adulation is sickening to people who do NOT worship power and politics.
'Don't know anything about the guy but he looks too tall in the trailer.'
I thought the same thing.
Lucy is listed (IMDB) at 5'7 1/2" and Desi at 5' 9 1/2".
Kidman is quite tall at 5' 11" (about the same as Bardem).
I think of Desi as a small-ish guy, but in retrospect I think it's because he was very slim.
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