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Shirlyn Wong really felt like she was living someone else’s life when she found herself poking Willem Dafoe’s face. It wasn’t her choice. A conversation about the biology of dimples (Wong has a pair of distinctive ones, tiny commas set on either side of her chin) led Dafoe, the Oscar-nominated actor, to twist his famously expressive face into a frown and insist she “check out these muscles!” Wong, a film student at Nyu who happened to be directing Dafoe, fretted about overstepping boundaries, but she couldn’t say no to her talented star. “He kept telling me to poke it,” she says. And? “He’s got an incredibly muscular facial structure.” Other notable Dafoe-isms, according to Wong, include a surprisingly playful sense of humor for a guy who’s played both the Devil and Nosferatu, and a tendency to always be “hopping and skipping.”

Wong was living every Mfa student’s dream.

The Newport Beach Film Festival

opens today and runs through May 3.

Bertrand Bonello will preside over the Jury for the Nespresso Grand Prize for La Semaine de la Critique (Critics' Week), while João Pedro Rodrigues will be President of the Jury for the Nikon Discovery Award for Short Film. The awards will be presented on Closing Night, May 24, and, once again, here are the lineups they'll be taking in.

Nina Menkes will not only be on the International Jury at the Jeonju International Film Festival, opening today and running through May 4; she'll also be presenting her 1996 feature, The Bloody Child, one of only five films selected to represent 50 years of the Jeonju sister festival, the Viennale.

Michael Guillén previews the lineup of the International Film Festival of Panama, opening today and running through Wednesday.

"12 projects from francophone Sub-Saharan Africa have been selected for Open Doors, the Festival del film Locarno's co-production lab.

Let’s get funny.

On Monday, August 22, join John Landis for the trailer to Lord Love a Duck.

George Axelrod’s unclassifiable satire is one of the oddest Hollywood movies, which over the years has engendered passionate support and derision. For some it’s an incisively bizarre portrait of sixties America, for others it’s a sloppily made, undisciplined mess (with more boom mikes visible in full frame than even Play It Again Sam). However, nothing can dim the luster of the incredibly perverse scene where Tuesday Weld’s horny dad (Max Showalter) practically ejaculates while watching his sexy daughter try on sweaters.

On Wednesday, August 24, join Josh Olson for the trailer to Bedazzled.

The New Yorker called Stanley Donen’s Python-esque take on the Faust story “the intellectual’s Hellzapoppin’”. Of course that was back when people were actually familiar with Olson & Johnson’s brilliantly Brechtian, now sadly obscure comedy.

Chicago – If you love movies, you love Blake Edwards. The iconic comic director, best known for teaming with Peter Sellers in a series of wacky Pink Panther adventures, also directed such classics as “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “Days of Wine and Roses,” “The Great Race” “10” and “Victor Victoria.” Blake Edwards died Wednesday at age 88.

Born William Blake Crump in 1922 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Edwards began his career as a writer/director in Hollywood’s “Silver Age” in the 1950’s, after a stint as an actor in the 1940’s, mostly playing uncredited military types in such films as “They were Expendable” and “The Best Years of Our Lives.” He began in radio, writing the popular “Richard Diamond” series, and moved on to television with Diamond star Dick Powell with “Four Star Playhouse.”

Peter Sellers (left) and Blake Edwards (right) trying out a gag during their memorable collaboration

Photo credit: BFI

Edwards went...

Julie Andrews, Victor Victoria (top); Peter Sellers, The Pink Panther (middle); Jack Lemmon, Lee Remick, Days of Wine and Roses (bottom) I saw Blake Edwards at a book signing for his wife Julie Andrews at the soon-to-be defunct Borders in Westwood in the spring of 2008. I noticed Edwards looked quite frail and wondered how much longer he would be around. He died of pneumonia at a Santa Monica hospital on Wednesday, Dec. 15. He was 88. The Pink Panther (1963) and its sequels are the movies most closely associated with his name, but in my view they're Edwards' least interesting works. I've never been a fan of slapstick, so watching Peter Sellers' Inspector Clouseau fumble his way in his pursuit of evildoers was an exercise in annoyance. That's why I'll remember Edwards solely for his non-Pink Panther efforts. In fact, the one Edwards-Sellers collaboration that I enjoyed was The Party (1968), [...]...

Towards the end of his long, prolific career, Blake Edwards films became so wrenchingly autobiographical — like That’s Life, about a man suffering a mid-life crisis — that the director began sharing writing credit with his Hollywood analyst. But, of course, what Edwards, who died Wednesday evening at his home in Santa Monica at age 88, will most be remembered for are his comedies. Nobody had a lighter touch with sex farces (movies like 1979’s 10, or 1982’s Victor Victoria, both of which starred his second wife, now widow, Julie Andrews) or was more at home filming physical comedy (especially when shooting the...

Los Angeles — Blake Edwards, the director and writer known for clever dialogue, poignance and occasional belly-laugh sight gags in "Breakfast at Tiffany's," "10" and the "Pink Panther" farces, is dead at age 88.

Edwards died from complications of pneumonia late Wednesday at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, said publicist Gene Schwam. Blake's wife, Julie Andrews, and other family members were at his side. He had been hospitalized for about two weeks.

Edwards had knee problems, had undergone unsuccessful procedures and was "pretty much confined to a wheelchair for the last year-and-a-half or two," Schwam said. That may have contributed to his condition, he added.

At the time of his death, Edwards was working on two Broadway musicals, one based on the "Pink Panther" movies. The other, "Big Rosemary," was to be an original comedy set during Prohibition, Schwam said.

"His heart was as big as his talent. He was an...

In 1970, one movie invented the modern disaster film. After grossing more than $100 million at the domestic box office (adjusted for inflation, it made more than any of the "Lord of the Rings"), it spawned three sequels that stretched through the entire decade. But this landmark series is now almost totally forgotten, long eclipsed by the film that so brilliantly spoofed the genre tropes it helped define. In honor of its 40th anniversary, we're looking back at the "Airport" franchise this week, one film at a time. Today, "Airplane!" said brilliant spoofer of said genre tropes.

Airplane!

Directed by Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker

Nature of Air Emergency: The passengers of Trans American Flight 209 from Los Angeles had a choice for dinner: steak or fish. Those who chose steak now have another choice: find someone to land their plane after everyone who had the fish, including the pilots,...

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85. Jamie Lee Curtis' actor father passed away on Wednesday, September 29. No further details were available as WENN went to press. Born Bernard Schwartz to Jewish immigrants from Hungary, the star endured a tough upbringing in the Bronx borough of New York, which saw him spend a year in an orphanage with his younger brother Julius because his parents were too poor to feed them.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before deciding to pursue his love of acting and enrolling in the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with German director Erwin Piscator. He moved to Hollywood in 1948 when he was 23 and landed a contract with Universal Pictures. It was then that Schwartz changed his name to Tony Curtis, adopting his first name from the book Anthony Adverse and his last name from Kurtz,...

Tony Curtis, who grew beyond his start as a studio-groomed matinee idol to play snappily seductive schemers in such 1950s classics as "The Sweet Smell of Success" and "Some Like It Hot," died Wednesday evening of cardiac arrest at his home in the Las Vegas-area city of Henderson, Nev. He was 85.

"He died peacefully here, surrounded by those who love him and have been caring for him," his wife, Jill Curtis, told the Associated Press outside their home. "All Tony ever wanted to be was a movie star. He didn't want to be the most dramatic actor. He wanted to be a movie star ever since he was a little kid."

A flamboyant personality with a ribald wit and zest for the high life, Curtis epitomized the storied glamour of old Hollywood. Widely known for his onscreen sizzle and his offscreen personal life -- he and first wife Janet Leigh...

"Some Like It Hot" star Tony Curtis died of cardiopulmonary arrest on Wednesday night in Henderson, Nevada. He was 85.

Curtis made 100 movies during his Hollywood career and was an Oscar award nominee for his role as convict-escapee in the 1958 film "The Defiant Ones."

After a three-year stint with the navy followed by acting workshops, Curtis became a contract player at Universal at 24. In 1952, he made his first starring role with "Son of Ali Baba" followed by "Houdini" the next year.

His movies from 1956 to 1959 paired him with Hollywood biggies Burt Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe ("Some Like It Hot," 1959), Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas ("Spartacus", 1960), Frank Sinatra, Sidney Poitier, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, and Janet Leigh, his wife for 11 years.

"Some Like It Hot" star Tony Curtis died of cardiopulmonary arrest on Wednesday night in Henderson, Nevada. He was 85.

Curtis made 100 movies during his Hollywood career and was an Oscar award nominee for his role as convict-escapee in the 1958 film "The Defiant Ones."

After a three-year stint with the navy followed by acting workshops, Curtis became a contract player at Universal at 24. In 1952, he made his first starring role with "Son of Ali Baba" followed by "Houdini" the next year.

His movies from 1956 to 1959 paired him with Hollywood biggies Burt Lancaster, Marilyn Monroe ("Some Like It Hot," 1959), Cary Grant, Kirk Douglas ("Spartacus", 1960), Frank Sinatra, Sidney Poitier, Jack Lemmon, Natalie Wood, and Janet Leigh, his wife for 11 years.

Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, Marilyn Monroe, Some Like It Hot Tony Curtis, who died at his Las Vegas home at midnight Wednesday, Sept. 29/30, at the age of 85, was deservedly best known for his performance in Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy Some Like It Hot (right, with Jack Lemmon), in which Curtis spends much of his screen time either as a woman or as Cary Grant. Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx on June 3, 1925), despite a none-too-promising start as the lead in a number of B features for Universal, actually delivered several other good performances as well. He was particularly effective in a comedy opposite none other than Cary Grant himself — who happened to be one of Curtis' idols. That was Blake Edwards' Operation Petticoat, also released in 1959, and which also starred a pink submarine. Another Tony Curtis performance worth checking out is his serial killer in [...]...

Sad news out of Hollywood today: Screen legend Tony Curtis passed away in his Las Vegas home on Wednesday night at the age of 85, a victim of cardiac arrest.

Curtis was renowned on-screen for his machismo-oozing performance in "Spartacus" and his iconic cross-dressing turn in "Some Like It Hot"; off-screen he was known for his suave ways with the ladies -- he was married six times, most famously to Janet Leigh (with whom he had daughter Jamie Lee Curtis), and wooed the likes of Marilyn Monroe and Natalie Wood. In short, Curtis lived a life that could very well have been (and likely one day will be) a movie.

Curtis maybe gone, but his legacy lives on. After the jump, we count down his five finest roles.

5. "Houdini" (1953): Curtis teamed with first wife Janet Leigh to score his first box-office hit with this bio of magician and master of escape Harry Houdini.

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died. The NY Times is reporting the classically handsome movie star who earned an Oscar nomination as an escaped convict in Stanley Kramer.s 1958 movie The Defiant Ones, but whose public preferred him in comic roles in films like Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Great Race (1965), died Wednesday of a cardiac arrest in his Las Vegas area home. He was 85.

His death was confirmed by the Clark County coroner, The Associated Press reported.

As a performer, Mr. Curtis drew first and foremost on his startlingly good looks. With his dark, curly hair, worn in a sculptural style later imitated by Elvis Presley, and plucked eyebrows framing pale blue eyes and wide, full lips, Mr. Curtis embodied a new kind of feminized male beauty that came into vogue in the early 1950s. A vigorous heterosexual in his widely publicized (not least by himself) private life,...

Tony Curtis, star of Sweet Smell of Success, Some Like it Hot, and The Defiant Ones, died in Las Vegas Sept. 29, of cardiac arrest.

Tony Curtis, the debonair acting legend who was famously married to Psycho starlet Janet Leigh (with whom he begat actress Jamie Lee Curtis) died at 9:25 Wednesday, Sept. 29.

He starred most notably in 1959’s Some Like It Hot with Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe, scored an Oscar nomination for 1958’s The Defiant Ones, and played one of cinema’s most memorable publicists, Sidney Falco, in 1955’s Sweet Smell of Success.

Tony Curtis, the Oscar-nominated heartthrob and father of Jamie Lee Curtis best known for such hits as Sweet Smell of Success and Some Like It Hot, has died. He was 85. Curtis died Wednesday night at his Las Vegas home of cardiac arrest, the Clark County coroner told The Associated Press. Curtis, who had heart bypass surgery in 1994, suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and was hospitalized in July after he had trouble breathing. The actor almost died in 2006, when he contracted pneumonia and was in a coma for several days. Born Bernard Schwartz, Curtis, who joined the Navy during World War II, signed a contract with Universal Pictures in 1948 at age 23 and made his film debut a year later in Criss Cross. Handsome and athletic, Curtis admitted that he banked on his looks early in his career, but he became a respected actor with a trio of acclaimed hits: 1957's Sweet Smell of Success,...

Tony Curtis, the Bronx tailor's son who became a 1950s movie heartthrob and then a respected actor with such films as Sweet Smell of Success, The Defiant Ones and Some Like It Hot, has died. He was 85.

The actor died about 9:25 p.m. Pdt Wednesday at his Las Vegas area home of a cardiac arrest, Clark County Coroner Mike Murphy said Thursday.

After a series of frivolous movies that exploited his handsome physique and appealing personality, Curtis moved to more substantial roles, starting in 1957 in the harrowing show business tale Sweet Smell of Success.

In 1958, The Defiant Ones brought him an Academy Award nomination as best actor for his portrayal of a white racist escaped convict handcuffed to a black escapee, Sidney Poitier. The following year, he donned women's clothing and sparred with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon in one of the most acclaimed film comedies ever, Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot.

Update: Jamie Lee Curtis has released a statement: "My father leaves behind a legacy of great performances in movies and in his paintings and assemblages. He leaves behind children and their families who loved him and respected him and a wife and in laws who were devoted to him. He also leaves behind fans all over the world. He will be greatly missed." __________ Tony Curtis had one dream: to be in the movies. He succeeded. And how. Curtis, a last link to a bygone Hollywood of classic films (Spartacus, Some Like It Hot, The Defiant Ones) and classic stars (Marilyn Monroe, Jack Lemmon, Cary Grant), died Wednesday. He was 85. Photos: 2010's Fallen Stars Nevada's Clark County...

Tony Curtis, a heartthrob of the 1950s, died of a cardiac arrest at his Las Vegas home Wednesday, reports the Associated Press.

Born Bernard Schwartz in the Bronx, he was discovered at the age of 23 by a talent agent, and landed a contract at Universal, where his name was changed to Tony Curtis.

The actor appeared in more than 100 films, but was best known for "Some Like It Hot," "Sweet Smell of Success" and "The Defiant Ones,...

"Some Like it Hot" star and father of Jamie Lee Curtis suffered cardiac arrest.

By Gil Kaufman

Tony Curtis in 1970

Photo: Jones/Express/Getty Images

From sword-and-sandal epics to the most famous drag show in movie history, Hollywood legend Tony Curtis did it all during his long career on the screen. The actor died on Wednesday in his Las Vegas of cardiac arrest at the age of 85.

Though he earned an Oscar nomination for his role as a an escaped convict in 1958's "The Defiant Ones," Curtis is best remembered for his role alongside Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe in Billy Wilder's 1959 comedy classic "Some Like It Hot." A dashing ladies man with a reputation for a wandering eye, Curtis donned women's clothes in the movie to play a jazz musician on the run from the mob who, along with cohort Lemmon, makes the acquaintance of singer Sugar Kane (Monroe). Hilarity ensues.

Hollywood legend Tony Curtis has died at the age of 85.

Jamie Lee Curtis' actor father passed away on Wednesday after suffering a cardiac arrest in bed at his Las Vegas home.

No further details were available as WENN went to press.

Born Bernard Schwartz to Jewish immigrants from Hungary, the star endured a tough upbringing in the Bronx borough of New York, which saw him spend a year in an orphanage with his younger brother Julius because his parents were too poor to feed them.

He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II before deciding to pursue his love of acting and enrolling in the Dramatic Workshop of The New School in New York with German director Erwin Piscator.

He moved to Hollywood in 1948 when he was 23 and landed a contract with Universal Pictures. It was then that Schwartz changed his name to Tony Curtis, adopting his first name from the book Anthony Adverse and his last name from Kurtz, from his mother's family.

Curtis made his film debut with an uncredited appearance in 1949's Criss Cross, but it was only in the mid-1950s that he emerged as a breakout star with roles in movies including 1957's Sweet Smell of Success and alongside Sidney Poitier in The Defiant Ones (1958), a performance which landed him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

He also starred in dramas The Outsider and The Boston Strangler, but he will perhaps be best remembered for his performance in Some Like It Hot (1959) with Marilyn Monroe and Jack Lemmon. In 2000, the American Film Institute named the movie classic the greatest American comedy film of all time.

Curtis also embarked on a variety of TV projects and was immortalised as 'Stony Curtis' on popular cartoon The Flintstones in the early 1960s. In the '70s, he co-starred with former James Bond actor Roger Moore in The Persuaders! series, and went on to land roles in U.S. TV shows McCoy and Vega$.

The actor scaled down the number of films he made in the 1980s and embarked on a career as a surrealist painter. His works became such a hit in the art world, he was able to command more than $25,000 (£16,700) a piece and his painting The Red Table went on display at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2007.

Curtis was later awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and was presented with the prestigious French honour, the Order of Arts and Letters, in 1995. He was also an Emmy nominated star and collected two Golden Globes, in 1958 and 1961.

His final role as an actor was in 2008 romantic war drama David & Fatima, in which he starred with Oscar winner Martin Landau, although he expressed a desire to return to the screen earlier this year.

Outside Hollywood, Curtis was also known for his high-profile personal life - he was married to actress Janet Leigh for 11 years and they had two children together, Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis, who both followed their parents into showbusiness.

He openly admitted to cheating on Leigh during their union and divorced her in 1962 to wed Christine Kaufmann, his then-17-year-old German co-star in Taras Bulba. He fathered two kids with her but his second marriage lasted just four years.

He was married a further three times and had two more children with third wife Leslie Allen, although their son Nicholas died from a heroin overdose in 1994, aged 23.

Renowned womaniser Curtis later revealed he had had a brief fling with Marilyn Monroe in 1949, and detailed their love affair in his autobiography American Prince: A Memoir.

Curtis was dogged by ill health in his later years and came close to death when he was struck down by pneumonia and fell into a coma in December 2006. He regained consciousness several days later but the virus left him weak and he was resigned to using a wheelchair to get around as he could only walk short distances.

He was hospitalised in August last year when he suffered an asthma-like attack and was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (Copd), a condition which sent him to seek medical attention again in New York in early 2010.

In July, Curtis was admitted to hospital in Las Vegas after another Copd attack after being taken ill at an exhibition of his artwork.

He is survived by his fifth wife Jill Vandenberg Curtis, who he wed in 1998 despite their 42-year age difference, and his five children.

Tony Curtis, one of the beefcake screen stars of the 1950s who went on working for the next four decades, has died, his daughter, Jamie Lee Curtis, told Entertainment Tonight. The cause was cardiac arrest in his Las Vegas home early Wednesday, the Clark County coroner told the Associated Press. The star was 85 and had been admitted to a Las Vegas hospital for tests in mid-July after he had trouble breathing. Curtis, who also suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, nearly died when he contracted pneumonia in December 2006 and remained in a coma for several days. 'Good-Looking Kid'Unlike another pretty face of his generation,...

Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon in Billy Wilder‘s The Fortune Cookie Twelve Walter Matthau movies will be presented on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, Aug. 11, as part of TCM’s "Summer Under the Stars" series. I’m no Walter Matthau fan. His on-screen grumpiness has always left me feeling grumpy myself. For that reason, Matthau vehicles have never been a priority of mine. In fact, I’ve only seen five of the films being shown on Matthau Day. [Full Walter Matthau schedule.] Of those, Sidney Lumet‘s Fail Safe (1964), about the consequences of our species’ nuclear folly, is by far the best. Matthau has a supporting role — not a terribly sympathetic one — as Fail Safe belongs to Henry Fonda, who delivers one of his most effective performances as an American president attempting to prevent a Us plane from nuking Moscow. Fail Safe has unfortunately been overshadowed by Stanley Kubrick‘s Dr. Strangelove, released in...

The Alamo Guide

for December 10th, 2009 If you’re at the S. Lamar theater this weekend, and you see a bunch of groggy ass, smelly, crazy-looking people wandering out of the theater around noon on Sunday, don’t worry. They won’t hurt you, they will have just sat through a full 24 hours plus of movies and they’ll be in desperate need of sleep. I’ll be one of them. It’ll be awesomely exhausting! Aside from that, if you got tickets already (if not, toooo bad), you can see the folks from Broken Lizard with their newest film The Slammin’ Salmon, but the most important thing that you should do is Go See Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call New Orleans!!! Yes, the name is long, and the trailer makes it look kind of silly, but the hype over at Alamo Headquarters is ridiculous and the few people in...

Caro Jones, a casting director for television, film and theater for more than four decades, died Sept. 3 in Los Angeles following a 14-year battle with multiple myeloma. She was 86.

Jones cast more than 1,000 TV shows, pilots, movies of the week and miniseries and worked on films including two from director John Avildsen: best-picture Oscar winner "Rocky" (1976) and "Save the Tiger" (1973) with Jack Lemmon in one of his two Academy Award-winning turns.

Jones began her career as an assistant casting director for the Theatre Guild in New York for its live television production "The United States Steel Hour." One of her first office assistants was Les Moonves, now president and CEO of CBS Corp.

On the dramatic anthology series, which ran from 1953-63 on ABC and CBS, Jones worked with many actors who were just starting their careers -- Johnny Carson, Carroll O'Connor, Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, George C. Scott,...

From this Sunday, February 1 through Tuesday, March 3 Turner Classic Movies (TCM) begins their annual 31 Days of Oscar, which brings you night after night of Oscar winning and nominated films uncut and commercial free on TCM and I have put together for you a mini guide for films to look for each day so you can either sit down and enjoy them as they play or set your DVR to record them for later. Either way, this is a great way to knock off so many of those classic films from your must see list. First, how about the TCM video montage preview. Can you name the films?

Now, for the full schedule you can click here to download the Pdf or you can browse TCM's online calendar at the 31 Days of Oscar official site. Because one thing is for sure, even though I list films for every single day below...