“Keepittogether, keepittogether, keepittogether”
Hi!
Mary Pickford was one of the biggest movie stars of the silent film era. She pioneered many things, including the co-creation of United Artists, and being one of the founder members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, along with her second husband, Douglas Fairbanks.
Mary Pickford was also ‘bowfingered’ in 1927.
Pickford and Fairbanks were also one of the first celebrity couples. Dedicated fans mobbed them across Europe and in Moscow where they visited the Mezhrapom-Rus film studios, but little did they know they were going to end up starring in a Soviet romcom, filmed in secret, without either’s consent…
“Did you know Tom Cruise had no idea he was in that vampire movie till two years later?”
I’ve spoken about Hollywood accounting practices on the podcast before. Movies can either make money or lose money, depending on what some clever accounting can say. The published figures are never the full story, even movies wildly in profit can have that “profit” wiped away by studio accountants. One of the most famous Hollywood accounting stories was for Alien (1979), which “lost” 20th Century Fox money, despite earning over $100 million on a budget of $9-11 million. That would lead to a lawsuit for unpaid profits - have a listen to the Alien and Aliens episodes for more info on what happened with that!
But we all know from Bowfinger that all movies cost $2,184 (this one was that, plus $54,997,816). While it was a modest success in the US, it struggled elsewhere, but this truly is one of 1999’s underrated gems (in a year full of terrific cinema!), and dare I say it, Eddie Murphy’s two best roles!?
Do you prefer Chubby Rain or Fake Purse Ninjas? Let me know in the comments!
And finally…
“Trust the fungus!”
Em x
"Great episode on Star Trek The Motion Picture. Well done. I remember seeing it at the cinema with my grandfather. I remember being absolutely blown away by the experience. I think your episode captured that wonder really well.
As a cinema (and sci-fi) fan, I thought I knew quite a lot about TMP, but you still tell aspects of the story I was unaware of.
Thanks for taking the time to do this one. I can't begin to imagine how long your list of potential episodes is. But this was really enjoyable.”
Russ