MOONLIGHT Leads to Broadway

He is young, gifted and black.  He is one of the new talents to keep your eye on and support nowadays.  Tarell Alvin McCraney won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay to MOONLIGHT, Oscar winner for Best Picture of 2016.

He's taken his talents to Broadway with a drama that seems to be not only trailblazing but a new hit. CHOIR BOY by Tarell Alvin McCraney has been extended for a second time. It's now been extended through March 10.

There is music in the play. The music is a cappella and furthers the story. Here's the story that, I feel, is trailblazing and relevant and needed today: We follow the story of a student at a prep school that is historically for young black males. McCraney gives us the story of this student who is, in his words, "black and queer."  The young gay black student is bullied at the elite Christian school. From what I've read that the play touches on prejudice, faith and ethics in this tale of a young man trying to engage and enhance his community while finding his own voice.  He himself has a terrific singing voice but he's voted out of the school's gospel choir because he's gay. It's the music that gives him a spiritual freedom in his legacy school, a school renowned for producing strong black men.  It's a play that involves strong forces I'm familiar with -- hypermasculinity and homophobia in our black community. About CHOIR BOY, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY wrote that McCraney's play "makes a spectacular, necessary Broadway debut."  THE GUARDIAN gave it 4 out of 5 stars. The NEW YORK DAILY NEWS called it "stirring and stylishly told..."  THE NEW YORK TIMES found it "powerful."

Those are the kind of Broadway reviews for a show written by a young Oscar-winning dramatist and featuring a predominantly young cast that make Hollywood take notice.

I relocated to New York City for work in 1985.  Just a couple of years ago, I asked my friend Keith Price (a theatre correspondent and podcaster) about gay black male images on Broadway. Let's face it. A main purpose of Broadway plays with gay lead characters is to inspire audiences to embrace diversity and inclusion while telling a story about gay lives.  Ever since 1985, I noticed that all those plays asking for gay acceptance and equality had mostly white men in them. Rarely did I see a black character. When we did appear, it was never as an upright lead character. We were supporting players to white characters. And we didn't have upscale professions like lawyer, architect, theatre producer, classical musician and such. I noticed this is plays I saw.  LOVE! VALOUR! COMPASSION! … white guys in a summer home. TORCH SONG TRILOGY -- black drag queen supporting player. THE LISBON TRAVIATA...MARCH OF THE FALSETTOS...FIFTH OF JULY...THE NORMAL HEART...white guys. ANGELS IN AMERICA -- black supporting player.  CHOIR BOY is different. We are up front and center in representation.

It's something original for Broadway. The gay black male is the lead character -- and he's not in a dress in a production from a white playwright. A gay African-American dramatist gave us this play.  Thank you, Tarell Alvin McCraney.  I pray I'm able to see it during its extended run.  For more information, go here:

ChoirBoyBroadway.com.

My Love for Julie Andrews

A few days ago, entertainment news outlets online reported that actress Anne Hathaway read a screenplay for THE PRINCESS DIARIES 3. She's eager to do it. Julie Andrews, her costar in the previous two installments, is also eager to do it. THE PRINCESS DIARIES 3 would get my money at the box office in a heartbeat. I love me some Julie Andrews. I have for most of my life. I feel that the Universe knew we needed the Broadway star's radiant light and talent on the big screen and when we needed it.  Her first film, and the film that brought her the Oscar for Best Actress, was Disney's colossal hit, MARY POPPINS.

Released in the summer of 1964, her performance as the mysterious nanny in that now classical musical fantasy centered on family love was exactly the tonic America needed to revive and restore us from our four days of shock, horror and national grief in November 1963. Those four days were from the bulletin the President John F. Kennedy had been shot and killed in Dallas, Texas to the President Kennedy's majestic and heartbreakingly unforgettable funeral. MARY POPPINS let us little kids and our parents know that it was alright to smile and laugh again in a world that had grown suddenly dark. In 1965, the healing and light continued. THE SOUND OF MUSIC was released. This family film, a musical, was an enormous box office hit, a hit that brought Julie Andrews her second Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She was definitely a Hollywood star.

She was still a star in the 1970s but Hollywood and society had changed.  Big screen musicals weren't as popular as they had been. Julie Andrews went to network television. She had a weekend one-hour prime time show on ABC called THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR. She had all sorts of guests on this music variety show -- while it lasted. You could feel that network executives were determined to bring her image out of Disney and the Austrian alps by showing she could get down with a funky beat.

Back in the early 70s, I saw a behind-the-scenes feature on Julie Andrews tirelessly toiling like a trouper to put that network show over. She was rehearsing a number she'd done in the deluxe Fox flop, 1968's STAR! One the whole, the biopic of famed Broadway star Gertrude Lawrence didn't work but her performance did. On her network show, she made a self-deprecating funny comment about the film's unfortunate box office appeal. During the rehearsal of the complicated song and dance number, she had to do it again. She was obviously exhausted. She said, "Either you want too much or I have too little." Then she got on with it.

I never forgot that comment of hers. As I grew up and got older, also working in the entertainment business and often rehearsing business for shows that wouldn't click with the public, I found myself repeating that Julie Andrews comment before I got on with it. I've said it quite frequently in the last ten years of job hunting:  "Either you want too much or I have too little."

To me, Dame Julie Andrews is a role model of perseverance.  Here's a sample of her trying to attract new viewers to ABC with a new beat on 1973's THE JULIE ANDREWS HOUR.

The show was canceled. But things turned out just fine for Julie. She went on to show us her saucy screwball comedy skills in a gender bender story that brought her a third Oscar nomination for Best Actress -- Blake Edwards' 1982 hit, VICTOR/VICTORIA.

I was lucky enough to meet and interview Julie Andrews once in my career.  I was new to New York City and working of WPIX/Channel 11. There was a junket for the  1986 movie, THAT'S LIFE! All of us in place to interview Dame Julie were a bit nervous. We loved her, but we wondered if we had the proper Buckingham Palace-like manners for her. Before I entered the room for my few interview minutes, the film's publicist pulled me aside and said that I did not have to treat her like she was a prissy, pomp and circumstance lady.

So, with the publicist in the room with us and the cameras rolling, I began with "Miss Andrews, can you confirm or deny a rumor for me? Is it true that you slept with the director and writer of THAT'S LIFE while making the film?"

She let out a hearty belly laugh. The film was written and directed by her husband, Blake Edwards. For those few minutes, Julie Andrews was everything I'd ever hoped she would be. And more.  By the way, her answer to the rumor was "Yes, I did."

Crimes Against Director Debra Granik

If I was a member of the Motion Picture Academy and I could've nominated five people for Best Director (if Academy members can nominate five directors), one of them definitely would've been Debra Granik for 2018's LEAVE NO TRACE.

Hollywood has been handing out Academy Awards for about 90 years now. The first woman to direct an actor to an Oscar nomination was trailblazer Dorothy Arzner. Under her direction, Ruth Chatterton was a Best Actress Oscar nominee for 1930's SARAH AND SON costarring Fredric March. In all the years of the Oscars, only 5 females have been Oscar nominees for Best Director:

Lina Wertmüller for SEVEN BEAUTIES (1976)
Jane Campion for THE PIANO (1993)
Sofia Coppola for LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003)
Kathryn Bigelow for THE HURT LOCKER (2009)
Greta Gerwig for LADY BIRD (2017).

Yes, there were acclaimed and influential male directors who never got an Oscar nomination -- such as directors Preston Sturges, Fritz Lang and James Whale. There's also the odd Hollywood fact that legendary director/actor Charles Chaplin never got an Oscar nomination for Best Director, but Mel Gibson got 2. But, in terms of gender equality, you do have to wonder when the playing field will become level in the minds of Academy members at Oscar nomination time.  Kathryn Bigelow was the first and, so far, only woman to win the Oscar for Best Director.. She won for THE HURT LOCKER and it also hooked the Best Picture Oscar. Some notable critics felt that her 2013 drama, ZERO DARK THIRTY, was even better than THE HURT LOCKER. Bigelow's ZERO DARK THIRTY, just like her THE HURT LOCKER, got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. But she didn't get a second nomination for Best Director. These 7 women also directed Oscar nominees for Best Picture:

Randa Haines, CHILDREN OF A LESSER GOD (1986)
Penny Marshall, AWAKENINGS (1990)
Barbra Streisand, THE PRINCE OF TIDES (1991)
Lone Scherfig, AN EDUCATION (2009)
Lisa Cholodenko, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (2010)
Ava DuVernay, SELMA (2014)
Debra Granik, WINTER'S BONE, (2010).

None of those 7 women got an Oscar nomination for Best Director.  In WINTER'S BONE, Debra Granik directed Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes to Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations.

I watched LEAVE NO TRACE. Wow. What a movie and what excellent direction. Just like in WINTER'S BONE, there's a Man/Woman in Nature, Man/Woman vs Nature tone and a strong parent/child relationship story. In this film, we go to Oregon to meet a father and daughter who live in the woods. They do not hate people and society. They just choose to be survivalists and live a gorgeous nature reserve. They do go into town and shop for groceries like everyday people do. Granik brings you into their lives to see why they live so mysteriously and how being given some traditional housing will change their lives. She lets you know their character by showing how they interact with each other and outsiders, if you will. The bearded, balding dad is loving and protective. So is his daughter. When authorities disrupt their lives, notice how he tells his daughter to come out and not cause any conflict. He doesn't cause any conflict. Some townsfolk may view them as strange because they been living in the woods. But, when the daughter returns to their temporary home from being in conversation with a townsperson, notice that she gently apologizes if she got back too late and tells her dad that, if she had a phone, he could keep in constant contact with her. How many parents in a big city would openly weep to hear that quality of politeness from a teenage child? When they have to leave a lodging suddenly, dad straightens the place up to leave it as he found it. These minor visual and dialogue details are big revelations of character.

Other people live off the grid in the nature reserve too. They're not hurting anyone. They're no social threat. But their lives are disrupted. Granik gives you a memorable visual of a corporate bulldozer having no regard for the American flag. The dad, by the way, is an Irag War veteran. He has PTSD. Here's a trailer. Ben Foster plays father. Thomasin McKenzie plays the daughter. Two very fine performances.

The Academy has finally discovered the indie talents of Sam Rockwell. The Best Actor Oscar nomination Matt Damon got for THE MARTIAN should've gone to Sam Rockwell for 2009's sci-fi thriller, MOON. Before that, Rockwell should've gotten one for 2002's CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND in which he played popular TV host Chuck Barris. And he should've been a Best Supporting Actor Oscar contender for playing the wrongfully convicted working class sibling in 2010's CONVICTION starring Hilary Swank as the devoted sister out to prove he didn't commit murder. She puts herself through law school to represent him.

Rockwell won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI last year. He's nominated in that category again this year for playing George W. Bush in VICE. It's time for The Academy to discover Ben Foster. Director Debra Granik gets a performance from him that was worthy of an Oscar nomination just like the ones he gave in 2009's THE MESSENGER and 2016's HELL OR HIGH WATER. Yes, it's time for actor Ben Foster to finally get an Oscar nomination. He deserves one.

Debra Granik should be enjoying a Best Director Oscar nomination today -- and she should also be getting congratulations that LEAVE NO TRACE is a Best Picture Oscar nominee. I was listening to KNX News Radio out of L.A. the morning the Oscar nominations were announced. The news duo mentioned that one thing they, as movie-lovers, find frustrating is that there can be 10 Oscar nominees for Best Picture. But, ever since that increase from 5 to 10 nominees went into effect in 2009, we've never had 10 nominees.  I totally agree with the KNX Radio news team. This year is no different. We got 8 nominees. There was room for LEAVE NO TRACE but it's not in the running.

That fact that Debra Granik has yet to get an Oscar nomination for Best Director and the fact that LEAVE NO TRACE is not an Oscar nominee for Best Picture -- to me, those omissions are Hollywood crimes in the entertainment industry.

Ben Mankiewicz Liked It

Films, classic and new, have been one of my greatest loves ever since I was in grade school. So, I feel like a kid on Christmas morning the day the Oscar nominations are to be announced. I eagerly wait to hear entertainment reporters on network TV say who should be nominated shortly before the announcements begin. Afterwards, I eagerly wait to read the print articles from entertainment columnists telling us who should have been nominated, but they weren't. As a countdown to the Oscars telecast, TCM (cable's Turner Classic Movies) has "31 Days of Oscar." Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies are programmed. I got on Twitter and suggested "31 Days of Never Nominated."  I'm always stunned to discover who has done some fabulous, some famous work on the big screen, but has never been nominated.  TCM could show movies starring actors and actress who never got Oscar nominations. Performers like …Joel McCrea.

I remember watching Maureen Stapleton make a warm thank-you speech when she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for REDS (1981). She thanked Joel McCrea for inspiring her to seek a career in acting. Joel McCrea was never nominated for an Oscar. Neither was...Myrna Loy.

Can you believe that? THE THIN MAN, LIBELED LADY, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES. Myrna Loy was never an Oscar nominee. Here are other actors and actresses in the never-nominated category that I included in my tweet -- plus a few extra:  Edward G. Robinson,  Randolph Scott, Ida Lupino, Ward Bond, Joseph Cotten, Dana Andrews, Marilyn Monroe, Tyrone Power, Anton Walbrook, Giuletta Masina, Vera Miles, Ossie Davis. Andy Griffith, Donald Sutherland, Mia Farrow.  We felt Mia's paranoid terror in ROSEMARY'S BABY.

We saw her slam across some fabulous comic performances in films written and directed by Woody Allen such as RADIO DAYS, ALICE and BROADWAY DANNY ROSE.

Speaking of directors, during "31 Days of Never Nominated," there could be a day of directors who never got Oscar nominations for Best Director.  Directors such as Dorothy Arzner (CRAIG'S WIFE and DANCE, GIRL, DANCE), James Whale, Fritz Lang, Preston Sturges, Mitchell Leisen (1937's EASY LIVING, 1939's MIDNIGHT, REMEMBER THE NIGHT starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray, HOLD BACK THE DAWN and ARISE, MY LOVE), Barbra Streisand (Best Picture Oscar nominee, 1991's THE PRINCE OF TIDES), Penny Marshall (Best Picture Oscar nominee, 1990's AWAKENINGS) and Vittorio De Sica (THE BICYCLE THIEF, UMBERTO D., TWO WOMEN, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS and YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW starring Marcello Mastroianni and Sophia Loren).

In the screenplay category, one of the wittiest line of self-loathing I've ever heard in a classic film is in Alfred Hitchcock's influential masterpiece, PSYCHO. The line, spoken by Norman Bates, is "I don't hate my mother. I hate what she's become." Joseph Stefano did not get an Oscar nomination for that dark, brilliant and internationally famous screenplay.

TCM host Ben Mankiewicz read my tweet -- and he liked my idea!  That does not mean TCM will be using my idea and acknowledging me on the air. It just means... groovy Ben Mankiewicz liked my idea! So, we'll see what happens.

I started my TV career on local TV in 1980. In 1982 I did some pretty good entertainment interviews that were featured on national TV. I got a week of national exposure when PM MAGAZINE, a syndicated show, aired celebrity interviews I'd done in its countdown to the Oscars. I'd interviewed Meryl Streep about SOPHIE'S CHOICE, Jessica Lange about TOOTSIE and FRANCES, actor Ben Kingsley and director Richard Attenborough about GANDHI. They all won Oscars the following week. In the late 80s, I had my own prime time talk show on VH1. I've worked steadily on TV, locally and nationally, for over 30 years.

I have never been nominated for either a local or a national Emmy. When I hear actors say, "It's an honor just to be nominated," I take that seriously.  I know exactly how they feel... because I would feel the very same way.

Octavia Spencer, Executive Producer of GREEN BOOK

She's a Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner. She and Viola Davis are the two most Oscar-nominated Black actresses in Hollywood history.  Each has three Oscar nominations, so far, to her credit.  Octavia Spencer is one of the most talented actresses in modern movie business.

In addition to acting, Octavia Spencer is the Executive Producer of a hit movie -- GREEN BOOK. Octavia and GREEN BOOK Oscar nominee Mahershala Ali were co-stars in HIDDEN FIGURES. Today, GREEN BOOK scored an Oscar nomination for Best Picture -- but you didn't hear Octavia's name as one of its producers. I went back and looked at the movie again.

My guess is that the Academy now limits the number of producers who can be attached to a film if it gets a Best Picture Oscar nomination.  When GREEN BOOK ends, and the credits roll, you see the credits for director, the writers and then the producers. The first five producer names you see are the names in its Best Picture nomination. After their names, you see "Executive Producer, Octavia Spencer." However, when it came time to promote the film, director Peter Farrelly put Octavia right out there in front.  Look at this short video of her talking about the film.

Look at this short interview of Octavia at the Toronto International Film Festival.

When GREEN BOOK won a Best Picture award at the Golden Globes, there was Octavia onstage with Peter Farrelly for the acceptance speech. She was with Peter, Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen for interviews on E! afterwards and she was asked a question about being Executive Producer of the film.  For this month, January 2019, there was major article in Vanity Fair on "Green Book Director Peter Farrelly Defends Film Amid Criticism by Don Shirley's Family."  You can Google that and read the article.  In it. Farrelly stresses that he did not bring in Octavia Spencer to be his black friend and act as defense against criticism from black film critics and such. He talks about how important she was to the project.

After I saw GREEN BOOK, I was amazed at what I learned about Dr. Don Shirley, played very well by Mahershala Ali. The African-American musician knew Dr. Martin Luther King, Harry Belafonte, Nina Simone and Duke Ellington. He performed with NBC Symphony at Carnegie Hall in the 1950s. He appeared on network TV in the 1950s. He was a classical musician who was a child prodigy. When he was 19, he performed with the London Philharmonic. He experimented with jazz. In 1961, a year before the movie's action begins, Dr. Don Shirley had a jazz hit on the Billboard charts. On the charts for 14 weeks.

Don Shirley earned a doctorate degree in Music and in Psychology. He studied psychology at the University of Chicago and, when there was no employment in the classical music field for black people, he worked as a psychologist.

None of that do we learn about Dr. Don Shirley in GREEN BOOK the movie. That's why Dr. Shirley's surviving relatives, none of whom was contacted during the writing and production of the film, were upset reportedly. Black film critics were irked about that too.

I was hoping Octavia Spencer would be listed as a producer when the Best Picture Oscar nomination was announced. Five male producers were listed.  Not Octavia.  If she had been listed, I think that would've made her the most Oscar-nominated black woman in Hollywood history -- 3 Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress and 1 as producer of a Best Picture Oscar nominee.

For as much as Octavia Spencer was used to promote the Peter Farrelly film as its Executive Producer, heck … what a disappointment she didn't make the producers cut for the Oscar nomination like the five guys did.  Just my opinion.

Women to Watch on Oscar Nomination Day

I want to mention a few films and female accomplishments before the Oscar nominations came out.  One of my Top 5 favorite films of all-time is George Cukor's 1954 remake of A STAR IS BORN. A rare case in which the remake was just as good if not better than the original, it boasts a bravura musical drama performance by Judy Garland in a dazzling screen comeback role as Hollywood's new star. There's an excellent performance by James Mason in the lead role of alcoholic fading movie star, Norman Maine, the man who discovers and falls in love with the new star. The current remake of A STAR IS BORN is a box office champ with another dazzling female lead performance. This is one is delivered by Lady Gaga. Her leading man, Bradley Cooper, also directed the film.

Every actress who has starred in A STAR IS BORN went on to get an Oscar nomination for her work in the film.  Notice the word "work." For the 1937 original A STAR IS BORN, Janet Gaynor was a nominee for Best Actress.  For 1954's A STAR IS BORN remake, Judy Garland was a nominee for Best Actress. For the 1976 remake starring Barbra Streisand, she won the Oscar for co-writing the Best Song ("Evergreen").  Lady Gaga could be an Oscar nominee in both the Best Actress and Best Song categories.

Millions of us grew up with the Best Picture category having five nominees. In 2009, the Academy upped the number of possible nominees to ten.  In the 1930s through the mid 1940s, there were ten Oscar nominees for Best Picture. Ten. However, now that we can have ten Best Picture contenders again, we've never had ten nominees. We've had more than five but less than ten. That has been extremely frustrating to me.  If we can have ten Best Picture nominees, give us ten Best Picture nominees. Good strong critically-acclaimed films like Ryan Coogler's FRUITVALE STATION, F. Gary Gray's STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, Dee Rees' MUDBOUND and Patty Jenkins' WONDER WOMAN were not in the running. I hope Ryan Coogler's BLACK PANTHER will make the cut along with Spike Lee's BLACKkKLANSMAN and IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK from director/screenwriter Barry Jenkins.

And let's see if this African-American actress who has made Oscar nomination history will make history again in a different category.

Take 4 minutes to watch my video -- and tune in to see the Oscar nominations when they're announced live on GOOD MORNING AMERICA on ABC.

On BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY

First of all, if you have not seen BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, a biopic about the late Freddie Mercury of Queen, and you heard rave reviews for the performance Rami Malek delivers as Mercury, the reviews were on point. Malek is fabulous as Freddie Mercury. He makes the movie worth watching.  Not that it's a bad movie. It's just that there are times when you think you're watching deleted scenes from THIS IS SPINAL TAP. But BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY does have one of my new favorite trash-with-flash lines from a modern movie. An angry Mercury in the back of a limo shouts at a member of his management team "Get out, you treacherous piss-flap!"  I'd give Malek an Oscar nomination just for keeping a straight face while delivering that line.

Malek is fitted with fake dental work to resemble Freddie Mercury's protruding front teeth. The poor dear did look like he could've eaten corn on the cob through a picket fence but that marvelous, unique singing voice, his handsome rock star charisma and his sex appeal made the teeth a minor point. Add to that his genius for blending strains of opera and black music into his innovative rock music mixes. Malek nails Mercury's carriage, especially when he's in performance onstage. He has the charisma. And the hair. The men's hairstyles are practically characters in themselves. One actor playing a Queen bandmate looks like he snatched a wig out of the men's dressing room on the set of THE FAVOURITE.

BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY has scenes that already seem familiar from previous theatrical and made-for-TV biopics. There's the outsider child of working class parents. Freddie is the son of immigrant parents -- a loving, passive mother in bland clothing and a disapproving, stern-faced father who made something of himself and wants his son to pursue a white collar job. There's the sweet young girlfriend who realizes the true artistry in the outsider son and the bickering but loyal bandmates. Freddie and his girlfriend have a good sex life.  A half hour into the film, we've seen the girlfriend and met the guys who will all form Queen.  However, I found myself saying "I thought Freddie Mercury was gay."  You don't really get a sense of that until over 40 minutes in BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY. He doesn't even give a lad a quick flirtatious glance. There's a scene at a roadside rest area while the band is on tour dates. Freddie uses a pay phone and a trucker gives him that "sly come-hither stare" as he heads to the men's room. Freddie looks back but doesn't register any lusty interest. Nothing happens. While composing new music in a room, he's kissed by a guy. But he doesn't really respond to that either. Keep in mind that, during these early scenes, he's calling his bandmates and management team guys "Darling" and he sings onstage in flashy outfits that Liza Minnelli would've killed to borrow.  But eventually, as he tours America while the sweet girlfriend is back in the U.K. and as Queen hits it big, he comes out of the closet and gets a new hairstyle.  Of course, with stardom comes conflict.  Also, when a movie character coughs into a handkerchief and sees drops blood, heartbreak will always ensue.

The gay elements are oddly tame for a period in rock music when hormones were shooting off like fireworks at Disneyland. The gay bar scenes look like shots from your standard Madonna videos in the late 80s on MTV and VH1. BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY is rather timid in showing Mercury's life as a gay rock star. We've seen steamier man-to-man love scenes in episodes of HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER on ABC in prime time. My disappointment in a frank representation of a gay male rock star's life reminded me of the line Brian May says in the film: "It's America. They're Puritans in public, perverts in private."

One of the favorite parts of the movie shows the real-life 1975 experience when Freddie coaxed an equally flamboyant radio DJ to play "Bohemian Rhapsody," a song twice the length of the standard record cut that played on radio in those days. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is now a rock classic.  However, the film shows a montage of dreadful reviews it got from print rock music critics at the time.  They were of the "This is crap and you'll never be heard from again" variety.  When I finished watching the screener of the movie Saturday night, I turned on the TV. The NBC show, AMERICA'S GOT TALENT was on and it was a special championship edition. There was a young woman from Spain onstage wearing a cape. She whipped off the cape and launched into a Freddie Mercury medley that dazzled the crowd.

The music segments are good. The Rami Malek performance is excellent. The script is average. If only there had been more trash-with-flash lines like "Get out, you treacherous piss-flap!"

Docs for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

For all the irritations, disruptions and scandals happening today, we need to spend a moment and spiritually refresh by remembering the advances we've made. If, during my college years in the 1970s, anyone had said that there would be a national American holiday in order of a black man's birth and that a black man would be elected to two terms in the White House as President of the United States, that probably would've been dialogue in a sitcom as the set-up for a laugh. But President Barack Obama was elected to two terms in the White House. That achievement owed thanks to the hard-fought battle for Civil Rights peacefully led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Now, we honor the slain leader's birth as a national holiday in January.

There's a film critic named Owen Gleiberman. He's been in that game for over 20 years. He wrote for Entertainment Weekly, I saw him do reviews on local TV news in New York City and now he writes for Variety. The end of the year list of the year's 10 or 20 best films is an annual compilation from movie critics. Last month, former president Obama put out his list and a good one it was. He picked some of the same movies notable film critics and celebrated filmmakers picked. However, Owen Gleiberman wrote an article in which he expressed his feelings that Mr. Obama's list was "too good for its own good." Some of Mr. Obama's favorite films were ROMA, THE RIDER, BLACK PANTHER, SUPPORT THE GIRLS, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, BLACKkKLANSMAN, WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? (the Mister Rogers documentary) and LEAVE NO TRACE. Films from black, Asian, Mexican and women directors. But Owen implied that Obama's list was too upscale. Owen never said that about lists from the white critics at The New York Times. His January 1, 2019 Variety article on Barack Obama's Year-End Movie List went on add that Obama's list was not "mainstream" enough and, like his presidency, never delivered a promised "audacity."

We have a former reality game show TV host, a man of no prior political experience, now sitting in the White House and determined to erase President Obama's legacy. Network news reported that Trump called Africa "a shit-hole country." He got on-camera praise from a KKK leader during the Charlottesville racial conflict. Unarmed black men shot multiple times and killed by police who claimed "I feared for my life" sparked a Black Lives Matter movement. White racist Dylann Roof walked into a church, shot and killed in black people in a prayer service and he was taken into police custody unharmed. Oh. And if I was interviewing Owen Gleiberman on a live TV news program and asked him to name five white film critics he's seen frequently on TV, he could. If I asked him to name five black film critics he's seen frequently on TV, he could not. Why? Because it's been difficult for us black broadcasters to get hired as film critics and film hosts on TV. That field on TV has been segregated for decades. So, just how audacious did Caucasian Owen Gleiberman of Variety expect Barack Obama to be as the first black person elected  President of the United States?

With all that in mind, here are some viewing tips from me to watch in honor of the MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. Day weekend. Check your HBO listings for this first one. It's gripping and gives you insight into Dr. Martin Luther King we didn't get in other specials. This one delves into the extreme emotional and psychological weight he carried in his uphill battle for Civil Rights. America is a nation that's had a history of killing black people for being "audacious" or "uppity" or educated. Tell Owen Gleiberman to watch this documentary. I'm glad he loved GREEN BOOK (not on Mr. Obama's list) but he should see this too.

It's called KING IN THE WILDERNESS. I've seen it on HBO. It's powerful. Here's a trailer.

Another feature I first saw on HBO is SING YOUR SONG. It's an informative, revealing documentary about one of Dr. King's close friends, Harry Belafonte. The singer/actor and activist is also seen in the KING IN THE WILDERNESS documentary. Belafonte can currently be seen in one of the strongest sequences of Spike Lee's BLACKkKLANSMAN.

Harry Belafonte was the first black person to guest host the TONIGHT Show for one week. That was in 1968. He booked Dr. Martin Luther King as a guest. Some footage is in KING IN THE WILDERNESS and also in SING YOUR SONG. Dr. King was assassinated a couple of months after his TONIGHT Show appearance with Mr. Belafonte.

Here's a trailer for 2011's SING YOUR SONG.

Thanks for your time and have a good, significant Dr. Martin Luther King Day.

Glenn Close is THE WIFE

I've been a Glenn Close fan ever since I saw her in 1982's THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP. That was her first film. I had my first TV job then and interviewed her during the press junket for the movie. She recently won a couple of Best Actress awards for her work in a drama called THE WIFE. I saw the film last night. After all these years of enjoying Glenn Close in dramas, comedies and musicals on film, TV and Broadway. here's what I have to say about her new film: Lord, have mercy! What a terrific performance! In THE WIFE, Glenn Close slams across one of the best performances of her entire film career.

When she won the Golden Globes Best Actress honor over Lady Gaga, you may not have been as familiar with THE WIFE as you are with Gaga's box office champ, the newest Warner Bros. remake of A STAR IS BORN. THE WIFE is more of an arthouse film, but don't let that scare you off. It's worth seeing, especially if you're a fellow Glenn Close fan. Also, hers is not the only good performance in the film. There's solid work from Jonathan Pryce as the pompous husband, Christian Slater as smoothly calculating biographer and there's a nice, juicy turn from brunette Elizabeth McGovern (ORDINARY PEOPLE, RAGTIME) as a wise non-best-selling novelist.

Just about everything you need to know about the renowned writer husband's personality is compactly communicated in the first five minutes of the movie. We see a senior couple of obviously comfortable living in their tastefully appointed bedroom. She's in bed. She wakes up when he enters, eating a late night snack. He gets under the covers and wants to get it on. She tells him that she was asleep. She's not really in the mood. He casually dismisses that and tells her that she just needs to "lie there" for his pleasure. Joe Castleman (Pryce) is an intellectual native New Yorker, the kind of person who loves to passive-aggressively impress you with his knowledge and loves praise-filled attention as much as he loves the sound of his own voice. He's a best-selling novelist who hopes to get a call informing him that he's won the Nobel Prize for Literature. With his accommodating wife just lying there, he begins some Caucasian NPR-like sex. Have you ever listened to National Public Radio hosts during the week? The husband starts off with a little dirty talk to get her sexually aroused. One of the words he uses is "tumescent."

He gets the call from the Nobel committee. In congratulatory celebrations at home and in receptions in Stockholm, we see Joe publicly flatter Joanie, his very charming and attractive wife. However, he really treats her like a supporting player instead of his leading lady. The visual design and costuming have a generous use of muted colors. Perfect color choices. The wife seems to have been muted by the marriage. But she needn't have been. Close shows you that, behind the muted appearance, Joanie is a woman who has wit, talent, compassion, fire and she's got the sophisticated, underplayed sexual charisma that her vain husband thinks he has.

Joe has crafted an image of the gracious. good guy intellectual in public. In private, he's an absolute prick to their adult son, himself an aspiring writer. He's also a prick to the biographer who also travels on the same flight to Stockholm. The biographer intends to write a book on the novelist. He's a manipulator who senses that getting to know the wife and the son will reveal more about the husband than the husband would ever reveal about himself. The biographer also wants to write something that will be a best-seller. Joanie is polite to the biographer and has a cocktail with him. She's also hip and, in her elegant way, can outmaneuver him like General Patton in a designer scarf. But there is that one question from the biographer about Joe that stings: "Did he encourage you to keep writing?"

Joe and Joanie met in college in the 1950s. She was a writing student of great promise. He was her married professor. Joanie became his second wife. We see this history presented in flashbacks. That portion feels a bit clichéd, like in a Lifetime TV movie, but it doesn't handicap the overall strength of the film. Joe becomes an acclaimed, financially successful American novelist. During his Nobel Prize acceptance speech at the dinner event, he gushes about how great his wife has been. This is the kind of moment that keeps his "good guy" image vibrant. But Joanie starts to unmute. She's had enough of being in his supporting cast. Joanie turns off the mute button. The resulting action is loud. It's ugly. It's strong. It's fascinating to see.  THE WIFE is a reminder to women to find independent fulfillment in their lives and it's an understanding embrace of those loving, loyal wives who didn't.

I'm positive that the producers and film company realized right off that it had Oscar contender work from Glenn Close in this film. I read a rave review of it in The Guardian in September 2017. Critic Peter Bradshaw wrote "Close gives arguably her best ever performance in an adaptation of Meg Wolitzer's novel." But the film company held off on releasing it in the U.S. that season. When the Oscar nominations were announced in January 2018, three of the five nominees for Best Actress were Saoirse Ronan for LADY BIRD, Meryl Streep for THE POST and Frances McDormand for THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI. McDormand was the big winner. I think it was a clever move on the film company's part to wait for a 2018 release date.

Give Glenn Close the Best Actress Oscar right now. That's how I rate her performance in THE WIFE. Starting with THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GARP, she's been nominated for the Oscar six times. Her other Oscar nominations were received for THE BIG CHILL, THE NATURAL, FATAL ATTRACTION, DANGEROUS LIASONS and ALBERT NOBBS.  It's about time Glenn Close took home some Hollywood gold -- and she really deserves it for THE WIFE.

She Got a Male Virgin Before Judd Apatow Did

Here's some Women In Film information that I've written before that bears repeating.  Why? Because I'm in full support of women directors and their history, a history that has often been overlooked and ignored.  Some may not even be aware of the history. Like the history of filmmaker Muriel Box.  I think successful director and writer Judd Apatow may be in the category of the "unaware."  Apatow was a happy dude in Hollywood in 2005 when the comedy he directed and co-wrote, THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, was a hit. The comedy starred Steve Carell in the title role.  Judd Apatow was a guest on ABC's daytime chat show, THE VIEW, on January 16th.

Mr. Apatow was there to tell us about a sitcom production of his that returns soon to HBO.  In addition to THE 40 YEAR OF VIRGIN, he directed KNOCKED UP starring Seth Rogen and TRAINWRECK starring Amy Schumer.  Disney is the parent company now to ABC and ABC has been giving us a rollercoaster ride of sex-related programming lately. Young women pursuing a male virgin bachelor. A look back at the sexually painful John Wayne Bobbitt story. A look back at the Monica Lewinski and Bill Clinton extra-marital sex scandal.  The current Caucasian male cutie pie to be THE BACHELOR has the hook of being a self-proclaimed virgin. At daybreak, on GOOD MORNING AMERICA, and in late night, on JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!, he's proudly promoted his virginity while plugging the network's love connection reality show.  The undeflowered beefcake bachelor, of course, has been a topic on THE VIEW.  A few minutes before he appeared on the set with the ladies, Judd Apatow looked into the camera and bellowed to us viewers that he presented a male virgin over 21 years of age long before this current season of ABC's THE BACHELOR. He was referring to his 2005 comedy starring Steve Carell.

A woman beat Judd Apatow to a 40 year old male virgin before he showed us one onscreen.  And she did it in 1964.  There's little talk about British film director Muriel Box here in America. That needs to change.  She took a large and significant step into the uninviting, sexist territory of the filmmaking boys' club.  Muriel Box and her then-husband, Sydney Box, won Oscars in the Best Original Screenplay category for the 1945 psychological drama, THE SEVENTH VEIL, starring James Mason. After winning an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Muriel Box turned her talents to directing. She directed her first film in 1949.  Muriel Box directed films starring Glynis Johns, Donald Pleasance, Sir Ralph Richardson, Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey, Van Johnson, Peter Finch and Shelley Winters. That's an impressive group of celebrated talent right there for a woman director who gets little attention.  Here's a photo of director/screenwriter Muriel Box (left) directing Shelley Winters (right) in the 1954 comedy, CASH ON DELIVERY.

The last film directed by Muriel Box was RATTLE OF A SIMPLE MAN based on the popular play of the same name that entertained audiences in London and on Broadway.  In 1964's RATTLE OF A SIMPLE MAN, a shy guy of 40 is in London with his buddies to see a big sports match.  The fellows have a festive night out on the town and the shy guy meets a prostitute who takes him to her apartment. Diane Cilento (Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee for her role opposite Albert Finney in 1963's TOM JONES) played the sweet prostitute who wins his heart.

From what I've read, the late Muriel Box had a rough go of it in her 1950s career as a British director solely because she was a woman. But she persevered.  She died in 1991.

And there you have it. A little history on a Woman In Film who took a grown man's virginity years before Judd Apatow did.

Why We Miss Mr. Rogers

He was a white, Republican, ordained minister. And I loved him. So did millions of others. He led us to bring out the best in ourselves and he did this in a simple, low-budgeted, educational TV show for children.  I never knew until I watched a documentary last night that Fred Rogers was Republican and an ordained minister. Even though he was Republican, others Republicans turned on him. President Richard Nixon, no friend of the media, wanted to drastically -- if not totally -- cut the funding to the educational show.  Fox News anchors blamed him for a generation of children feeling that it was special. But he did feel that all children are special. He whole-heartedly believed in the Christian principle to "Love thy neighbor."  Trust me on this, if you want to refresh your faith in people and see the strength that it takes to keep kindness in action, if you're not afraid to let a tear or two roll down your face, take 90 minutes to watch the 2018 documentary WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?  Directed by Morgan Neville, it guides us into the legacy, lessons and life of the beloved television host.

I was a latchkey kid. Mom and Dad had fulltime jobs and had to leave for work early in the morning. I was the last to leave the house and my parents had thoroughly drilled me on how to make sure all the lights were turned off, the stove was turned off and the doors were locked before I left for my walk to St elementary school. I would leave the house at half past CAPTAIN KANGAROO.  That was 7:30 in the morning. Hosts of kids' shows were like grown-up friends who loved cartoons and puppets as much as you did.  Captain Kangaroo, Shari Lewis on NBC and -- locally on Los Angeles television -- Sheriff John, Engineer Bill, Skipper Frank and Hobo Kelly.

MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD, a simple and substantial children's show, premiered in that most turbulent and horrible year, 1968. I was in high school. 1968 made me afraid of my future in America. The Vietnam War, which drafted millions of black and Latino working class young men, waged on and seemed to be the lead story every weeknight on the network evening news. Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. Two months later, presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. I had seen him in person just two days before when he came to campaign near our high school in Watts. The entire student body was so keyed up about his appearance that the principal dismissed classes early so we could dash to see him. I was one of many students running gleefully behind his convertible as he arrived, fueled by the hope he gave us. That hope disappeared when he was killed. From that time to right after the Sept. 11th attacks, Fred Rogers provided spiritual comfort and a soothing voice in frightening times for kids. He could also be loopy and silly and make us laugh. Behind the scenes, he could be formidable without being mean. He had regard for people and diversity. He embraced tolerance. He gently motivated you to pay attention, to be silent for a moment and go within. That is a lost art nowadays. A simple yet powerful exercise.

In the documentary, we hear from co-workers and relatives. We hear about the bawdy prank a stagehand pulled on Mr. Rogers. We hear about the heartbreak in Fred Rogers' youth that surely influenced the vulnerability of his TV persona. We see his simple lesson about racial equality and fairness in the 1960s when black people were not allowed in some public swimming pools. We learn about his friendship with a cast member who was black and gay. That's a significant section.  Their work and friendship was at a time in our American history when, if news had leaked out that the gifted and popular cast member was gay, MISTER ROGERS' NEIGHBORHOOD could have lost two major sponsors (which are named). It was groundbreaking just for him to be black on the show.  American TV execs were not ready for someone to be black AND gay. That attitude towards gay performers still existed in the early 80s when I started my TV career. 

Fred Rogers understood that childhood is often the blueprint for the rest of your life. Some of those early wounds in your heart have not healed when you are well into your adult years.

I fell in love with classic films when I was in grade school. When summer vacation rolled around, I could watch old movies -- especially Fred Astaire musicals -- on TV in the daytime. For me that was Heaven. I'd even asked my parents if I could take dance classes because I was so fascinated with Fred Astaire. But I think my parents were of the generation that felt dance classes were for girls, the outdoors were for boys. They asked me if I wanted to go to summer camp. 8 days in the San Bernardino mountains thanks to the local Boys' Club chapter.  I said "No."  Mom kept gently pushing. I kept saying "No." Then Dad took me aside one afternoon and said in a friendly fashion, "Your mom really wants you to go to summer camp."

The next thing I knew, I was on a bus from 120th and Central Avenue to the woods in the San Bernardino mountains.  There was not one whole day that I enjoyed because I did not want to be there. Not only that, I had a near-death experience. I almost drowned in a lake. Blessedly, I was rescued. The best day was the day we boarded the busses for the 2-hour ride back home.

I'd been gone 8 days.8 days. When the busses pulled into the Boys' Club parking lot, parents were waving and cheering and waiting by the family cars to take boys home.

Guess whose parents forget to pick him up? Over 30 minutes later, I was sitting with my little suitcase and my outdoor jacket waiting for my parents. It was heavy jacket for the camping trip. One of the club counselors asked me if I had anyone coming for me. He gave me change to use the pay phone. I called home. My aunt was babysitting my little sister. Aunt Ruby said, "Your parents went to go look at some furniture."

Mom and Dad had gone to the Wilshire district to look at new furniture. It was a Friday afternoon. It must've been like a scene in HOME ALONE when Mom gasped "Bobby!" and they remembered I was returning that day. They hit serious Friday rush hour traffic and, by the time they got to the Boys Club, I had put on the heavy jacket, picked up my little suitcase and took the half mile walk home in the summer heat. The club was right next door to my school.

My wonderful sister remembers this incident and recalls that neither Mom or Dad apologized to me when they zoomed home from the Boys' Club. They blamed the lateness on each other and said, "Why didn't you wait?"  I had waited. Nearly one hour. I was under the age of 10 and felt like I took second place to home furnishings.

I know there's a sitcom vibe to that true story. But it did hurt for a long, long time. And, to be honest, a bit of that went into my desire to work on TV. I wanted to do something that would make my parents see me and regard me as special.

Fred Rogers understood this about people. He understood that so many of us -- kids and grown-ups -- just want a hug and don't know how to ask for it. He felt that way himself. That's why, to him, all kids were special.  See WON'T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR? It's beautiful and poignant.

I Love FRESH OFF THE BOAT

OK, I'm just going to blunt right up front. If Jennifer Aniston has several Emmy nominations for her sitcom acting on FRIENDS, then Constance Wu of ABC's FRESH OFF THE BOAT should have at least one. Constance Wu is fabulous and one of the funniest sitcom moms I've seen on a network in ages. If only ABC would give that show as much promotion during GOOD MORNING AMERICA as GMA gave trumpeting the reboot arrival of ROSEANNE until...well, you heard what happened. I was overjoyed that Ms. Wu got a Golden Globe nomination for surprise box office champ, CRAZY RICH ASIANS. The success of that film put a spotlight on her that ABC should have back in 2015 when FRESH OFF THE BOAT made its debut. The sitcom is loosely based on the memoir of young hipster chef/restauranteur and COOKING CHANNEL host, Eddie Huang. Constance Wu plays the over-achiever mom of young Eddie on the sitcom. Her deadpan comic delivery is an artform.

Here's where ABC publicity has dropped the ball on FRESH OFF THE BOAT. Randall Park plays the dad on the sitcom.  I've been a fan of his for years. I always noticed him in TV commercials and in episodes of other shows like VEEP on HBO. When I read that FRESH OFF THE BOAT was in production for ABC and I read he was the lead male actor, I was thrilled. For one thing, it had been 20 years since we'd seen a sitcom about an Asian-American family. Margaret Cho broke ground with her ALL-AMERICAN GIRL on ABC in 1994. Unfortunately, execs tried to make her characters more Caucasian-like than Asian-American. It lasted a year. ABC announced FRESH OFF THE BOAT for the 2015 season.

Remember back during the Christmas season of 2014 when a Seth Rogan and James Franco comedy movie called THE INTERVIEW was making network news? In the movie, the host and producer of a TV tabloid show fly to North Korea to interview Kim Jong-un. They hear he's a fan of the show. That caused some real-life friction and our network news anchors reported that North Korea threatened to attack movie theaters showing THE INTERVIEW. ABC World News Tonight reported on this several times and, each time, it was always mentioned that Seth Rogan and James Franco were the stars of the film. I saw the film. The movie really snaps to life thanks to the wildly funny and somewhat touching performance of Randall Park as Kim Jong-un. Randall Park steals the movie. But no ABC news anchor ever mentioned that Randall Park also starred in the film as Kim Jong-un and, in a few months, would be seen on ABC's new sitcom, FRESH OFF THE BOAT. He's terrific on the sitcom and he's never been nominated for an Emmy either.

FRESH OFF THE BOAT premiered on Tuesdays. Now it's on Friday nights. Constance Wu and Randall Park break me up every single episode.  The parents, the kids, the grandmother -- I love that family. Here's a clip.

I wish ABC would realize how special and groundbreaking FRESH OFF THE BOAT is. And Constance Wu is comedy gold.

If you want to see Randall Park as Kim Jong-un, THE INTERVIEW is currently on Netflix.

I Sat with THE SOPRANOS

The table-read. This is when all the performers in a given project, the lead actors down to the bit players who may have one to five lines, get together seated at a table and read-through the script aloud before going on to shoot it later. I was extremely lucky. I sat through two table-reads for episodes of THE SOPRANOS because I had bit parts in two episodes.  This week marked the 20th anniversary of the show's premiere on HBO. What an original, provocative, memorable, brutal and brilliant show.  It was a landmark television series. And what a cast.

I auditioned only once for THE SOPRANOS.  On my way to the audition, I had no idea what the show's real nature truly was.  An agent's trainee/assistant called me with the audition. She called me in the morning and told me the audition was happening that afternoon.  She said that the casting call was for an interviewer/narrator on a show called THE SOPRANOS for HBO.  On the phone, she said, "I bet it's something like THE THREE TENORS with the classical singers on PBS. You can handle this because you like the arts."  She added that the scripts would be at the audition.  So I made sure I'd get there extra, extra early.

I arrived. There was a card marked "Interviewer" and I picked up a copy of the script. I sat down to read it. When I turned to the second page, the page where dialogue for the Interviewer started, I saw the words "Big Pussy Speaks" written across the top of the page in bold black Magic Marker ink.  Of course, I immediately thought, "Oh, this cannot be for me at all." I was positive that agent's trainee had unwittingly booked me to audition for a porno project on cable TV.  That was...until I read the script. My character was to do a news program interview of an author who wrote about mob activity in the Tri-State area.

I didn't get the part for that episode but the casting people liked me and cast me to play a local news co-anchor for an Season 1 episode called "Nobody Knows Anything."  A real anchor from local TV's New York One cable news, very popular in Manhattan, was cast as my co-anchor. We both attended the table-read.

I remember that evening vividly. We were scheduled to start at 6:00pm on a sunny evening in Manhattan on the corner of Prince and Broadway, directly across the street from Dean & Deluca. I got to the building about 5:45 and saw a group of actors chatting outside. I assumed (correctly) that I'd be a part of their read-through group. A few of them were actors I'd seen frequently in my Chelsea neighborhood because there were casting offices in that area. I didn't know James Gandolfini's name but I recognized him from the movies ANGIE and GET SHORTY. I'd seen him in the neighborhood a lot. Edie Falco I recognized from the New York theater scene. Michael Imperioli had a side business one block down from my apartment. I'd see him opening shop just about every week in the mornings. And big Steven Schirripa was a well-known face from TV and films.  When we got downstairs, actress Nancy Marchand was at the table. She looked a bit frail and she had a portable compact oxygen device to help her breathe.

I think of that evening often because it was weeks before THE SOPRANOS premiered on HBO. Just six months later, those actors would not have been able to just mill around on the corner of Prince and Broadway in late afternoon daylight because they would have been surrounded by TV fans.

As for the table-read, as soon as we started, Nancy Marchand took the breathing device off her face and. seemingly by sheer force of will, transformed herself into the strong and formidable mother of Tony Soprano.   I was sitting right next to Annika Pergament, the news anchor playing my co-anchor. About five or six pages into the table-read, Annika and I looked at each with awe. We instantly knew what each other was thinking: "This writing is phenomenal."

Listening to that dialogue, experiencing that writing, was like hearing Jimi Hendrix play for the first time. It was amazing new music to the ears that absolutely rocked.

One thing you could tell from the actors in the group who we later saw as regulars on THE SOPRANOS. They were in it for the love of the art. They loved acting. They loved acting with each other. And they loved good writing.  It's funny about life and careers. I often think of those few minutes watching them casually chat outside on the corner before going in for the table-read. Folks just passed right by them. Within six months, that would all change. Within six months, they'd all be some of the most popular new stars on national television in one of the best shows of the last twenty years.

One last thing: When I read my first line at the read-through, it got a laugh. It was not a comedy line and I was not trying to be funny, but the news anchor's comment on the bordello story had a typical New Yorker droll vibe.  James Gandolfini turned around in his chair to see who delivered the line. He looked at me, smiled and gave me a "good work" nod."

That will always be one of the best reviews I've ever received in my career.

BLACKkKLANSMAN, a Spike Lee Classic

You know  this is true: Spike Lee is one of the most recognizable, most respected and most influential filmmakers here in the U.S. and overseas.  I have proudly spent money to see his films since the 1980s.

"With the right white man, we can do anything." That is a line from his current film, a line of dialogue that broke me up laughing in the movie theater because...well, it's true. The line was delivered by actor John David Washington who also delivers one hell of a good performance as real-life character Ron Stallworth.  My buddy Scott Simon interviewed Ron Stallworth last year on NPR's Weekend Edition. Stallworth talked about his memoir that served as the basis for BLACKkKLANSMAN from director/writer Spike Lee.

Yes. This is based on a true American story.  A black detective went undercover and joined the KKK.  To me, this film is brilliant and blistering in its timeliness.

I have an Academy Award hope for Spike Lee. And I have a few words about another filmmaker who posted a rave review on Twitter about BLACKkKLANSMAN after a preview screening. That fellow filmmaker is Barbra Streisand.

Make Time for GOOD GIRLS

Christina Hendricks was a standout as statuesque, savvy and sophisticated Joan in the MAD MEN television series. She had, what a man once wrote about Mae West, "the Big Ben of the hourglass figures." There was a sharp brain in that curvy body and we loved watching her match wits with the men.  HAP AND LEONARD, based on book characters created by Joe Lansdale, was a very smart, relevant and under-appreciated series on the Sundance TV channel. The story took place in the 1980s yet it had a socio-political grit that made it feel modern-day. Hap is the pacifist hetero white guy who did not serve in Vietnam.  Leonard is his badass, black Republican and openly gay best friend. Leonard is a Vietnam vet. They are extremely loyal to each other and have been for a long time. The action is set down South and it's all sort of swamp noir -- a crime thriller. In the opening season, there was Christina Hendricks as the femme fatale. HAP AND LEONARD gave Christina Hendricks a vastly different character to play and she knocked that role out of the park. Last year, NBC debuted a new series. Christina Hendricks is one of the stars. Again, we see her impressive range as an actress.  The series is called GOOD GIRLS. It's a crime series with laughs and pain. Three working class female friends are so financially desperate that they band together to pull off a heist.  I watched the first episode when it premiered. I was hooked within the first 10 minutes and saw every episode of Season 1. I prayed that NBC would renew it. My prayers were answered.

In addition to Christina Hendricks, I also wanted to see GOOD GIRLS because one of the other stars is Retta, the PARKS AND RECREATION sitcom regular who rose from bit player to very popular supporting castmember who had the catch phrase "Treat yo' self!"  GOOD GIRLS allows Retta to be funny as she whips out some Thelma Ritter-esque comments to the unusual situations the three friends get caught up in.  However, she also gets to show her range with some well-written drama. She's an educated woman, a wife and mother, who robs cash because her sweet little girl is hospitalized and needs kidney care. I loved seeing Retta play such a dimensional, complicated woman. She's a loving mother, a loving wife and parent nearly at wit's end trying to make ends meet.

This is what I loved most about the series. With these three typical suburban women donning masks and robbing a store, this is the kind of plot that would've been played for big laughs had it been a movie made back in the 80s and starring someone like, say, Bette Midler.  But GOOD GIRLS takes us into the drama of each woman that renders her so desperate that a one-time crime seemed the only way out.  As one who was hit hard by the Great Recession and went totally broke after using his emergency fund to take care of a parent in her 80s, I can feel the stress those three women have.

They have a boss of sorts. Rio is the name of the heavy.  He's underplayed to perfection by lean, handsome Manny Montana. He's got a smoldering look and a voice that will make many female and some male viewers moan "Oooooh, daddy."  Watch Rio with wife and mother Beth (Christina Hendricks).  At first, he intimidates her. But, as she becomes more desperate and as the situation gets more complicated, she loses fear and you see him quietly become fascinated with how her mind works. Maybe she should be his partner in crime.

It's a very good series.  Solid writing, brisk direction. One of my favorite scenes has Ruby (Retta) dealing with a bratty, young white male customer. I've waited tables and I've had customers like that dude. He gets his come-uppance from Ruby and it's fabulous to see.

CHRISTINA HENDRICKS, RETTA and MAE WHITMAN are GOOD GIRLS with Manny Montana as Rio.

You can see Season 1 of GOOD GIRLS now on Netflix.