Arleen Sorkin was born on October 14, 1955. Best known as Days of Our Lives‘ Calliope Jones, Sorkin was the inspiration for – and the voice of – Harley Quinn in Batman: The Animated Series.
With John de Lancie as Eugene and Calliope on Days of Our Lives
Harley Quinn
Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead was released on October 15, 1981, and a franchise (including two sequels and a reboot, a television series, comic books and video games) was born. Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams is quite possibly the greatest horror movie character ever created.
The Evil Dead
Starz’ Ash vs Evil Dead
Fight Club was released on October 15, 1999, after a polarizing debut at the 56th Venice International Film Festival. Based on Chuck Palahniuk’s novel, Fight Club was reviled by both the execs at 20th Century Fox and critics; the box office numbers were so-so, but the film found its audience on home media. Today, Fight Club is considered a cult classic and one of the defining films of the Gen-X era.
Netflix dropped new horror episodes of The Movies That Made Us this week, including Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. If you, like me, are a fan of behind-the-scenes glimpses into the film world, I highly recommend this delightful series (other episodes include Die Hard, Pretty Woman, Back to the Future and Ghostbusters).
Speaking of iconic horror movies, Jamie Lee Curtis dressed as her mother’s Psycho character (complete with bloody shower curtain) for the Halloween Kills premiere this week:
On October 15, 2017, Harvey Weinstein was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences due to mounting allegations of sexual assault and harassment. An emergency meeting of the Academy’s Board of Governors – which included Hollywood bigwigs like Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and Whoopi Goldberg – voted “well in excess of the required two-thirds majority” to remove Weinstein.
Some of Weinstein’s accusers, including Rosanna Arquette, Angelina Jolie, Heather Graham, Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino
While researching a future post today, I realized that not only did “Purple Rain” (or literally any other song from Purple Rain) not win Best Original Song in 1984, it WASN’T EVEN NOMINATED. Prince did win the award for Best Song Score, but the fact that none of the individual songs were nominated is incomprehensible. And yes, “I Just Called to Say I Love You” really is that terrible.
Peanut Butter and Julie 