Around the Blogosphere This Week

Miscellaneous bits of news and fun stuff from around the Internet...

...IMDb, what have you done to yourself?! Recent changes are transforming what has long been one of the easiest sites to use into a muddled mess requiring endless scrolling and multiple dropdown menu clicks. (Good luck using "Control Find" to quickly locate a title if it's hidden behind a dropdown menu!) Instead of a film's year being neatly located in parentheses right next to the title, it's now as much a half a foot to the right of the line, depending on a title's length, which makes it way too easy to pick out the wrong year at a quick glance. The new format is change for the sake of change, certainly not to make it easier to use. (Update: Thanks to Raquelle -- as well as her source, Kate -- for the terrific info she shared in the comment on how to set IMDb back to the "old" look. Hooray!)

...Do we really need the STAR WARS films in 3D? I'm a huge fan of the original trilogy, but my answer is: no, we don't. Like it or not, they'll start coming out in 2012.

...And here's something we need even less: a remake of John Wayne's Oscar-winning TRUE GRIT (1969). I took one look at the trailer for the Jeff Bridges remake and could only mutter "You have got to be kidding me!"

...At Out of the Past Raquelle shares her experience watching Errol Flynn and Olivia deHavilland in THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1941) -- and she cooked a lovely dinner to go with the movie!

...Leonard Maltin posted about the Republic Pictures 75th Anniversary event held last weekend in Studio City.

..."NCIS Charms As It Ages"...My oldest daughter recently spent a day on the NCIS set and was impressed with its well-run, collegial atmosphere.

...There's a review of Maureen O'Hara's excellent autobiography at True Classics: The ABCs of Classic Film.

...Sports Illustrated has a story on Vin Scully, "The Heart of Los Angeles." (I just discovered Vinnie has a Facebook page. Who knew?)

...MAD MEN fans will want to check out this blog post reviewing recent fashions seen on the show.

...Stuart Damon, GENERAL HOSPITAL's "Dr. Alan Quartermaine" for over three decades, now sells real estate... Fans of the Lesley Ann Warren CINDERELLA (1965) may remember him as Prince Charming.

...Here's a nice story about actress Ann Rutherford encouraging a young film student. (Via Classic Movies.)

...This is why Michael Barone terms it "gangster government": Administration bureaucrats should not be picking "winners and losers" to receive waivers from Obamacare. It's not a law if it means whatever a bureaucrat decides it means and if it only applies to some. Next thing you know, companies will be paying "protection money"... The effects of the government's "hostile takeover" of an industry, complete with unfunded mandates which are being passed on to consumers, are devastating.

...Instead of repealing the amazingly burdensome new 1099 reporting requirements which were hidden in the new healthcare law, Congress hid another expansion in the new "small business" law: now anyone who rents out a home will have to file 1099s for anything they purchase for the home. At the rate this is going, we're all going to end up documenting every transaction we make, preparing 1099s when we buy food and clothing.

...With apologies to her fans, I can't stand Oprah Winfrey and her phony-baloney, mawkish shows...but I have to admit I'm probably going to take a peek on October 29th, when she hosts a reunion of the cast of THE SOUND OF MUSIC.

...Olivia and Joan: Sisters of the Silver Screen has a good story on the Lilian Fontaine Garden Theatre, which I mentioned here last month.

...A longer school year? Really? I'm highly skeptical anyone would emerge from a longer school year smarter or better educated...there's only so much children can absorb at once, and a great deal of what takes place in a classroom is simply "classroom management," not direct instruction and learning. And what about all the important learning that takes place outside the classroom? Reading, playing, creative pursuits, exercise, learning to cook, clean, and sew, caring for animals, listening to music, and I could go on and on. All of that is lost when you warehouse children in a room with their same-age peers for more hours and more weeks per year. (Gee, you'd think I'm a homeschooler or something...) Obama's Secretary of Education would ideally like schools to be open seven days a week, 12 months a year...in that case, what's the point of having parents and families?

...New cookbook: FANNIE'S LAST SUPPER by Christopher Kimball of America's Test Kitchen.

...Riding the High Country reviews Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943).

...Netflix CEO Reed Hastings recently dissed his client base when he said Americans are "too self-absorbed" to notice that Canadian customers receive a better deal. It seems odd to even raise the issue in the first place, given that Canadian and U.S. dollars don't exactly correlate.

...Notable passings: Announcer Art Gilmore, actor Joe Mantell (MARTY), and Catherine Walker, who designed many memorable gowns for Diana, Princess of Wales.

Have a great week!