FILM 1952: A STAR IS BORN

FILM 1952: A STAR IS BORN

TRIVIA:  Bradley Cooper said that Lady Gaga was the one who convinced him they should sing live. Gaga said she hated watching movies where the actors were not lip-syncing correctly to the songs, and to avoid this and get it right they needed to sing live for the film. This was what caused Cooper to get more extensive vocal training.

Some of the scenes were filmed at the Coachella Festival in 2017, where Lady Gaga was the first female headliner in ten years. Festival-goers paid ten dollars to see the scenes being filmed, although recording devices were locked away to prevent any footage being leaked.

Like his character Jack, Bradley Cooper dealt with both alcohol and drug addiction. He has spoken publicly about how sobriety saved both his life and career.

Bradley Cooper had to undergo a full body spray tan everyday and endure menthol around his eyes to look bloodshot and high. Meanwhile, Lady Gaga remained bare faced with only a lip balm and moisturiser on majority of the filming.

Bradley Cooper was so bowled over by Lady Gaga's rendition of the classic French song "La Vie en Rose" when he first heard her sing it for a cancer benefit at the home of philanthropist Sean Parker, he insisted on including her performance of the song on the film's soundtrack.

Lady Gaga and Judy Garland were the same age when they starred in their versions of the film.

Lady Gaga is now one of the only artists to have the #1 song, #1 album and #1 film at the same time in the UK and Australia.

Talks of a fourth A Star Is Born remake began in 2011 with Clint Eastwood attached to direct and Beyoncé set to star, however, the project was delayed due to Beyoncé's pregnancy. Talks with Christian Bale, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Will Smith to play the male lead failed to come to fruition.

Dave Chapelle's character name: Noodles was derived from his profession of being a drummer. However, his drumming scenes in the film were ultimately cut.

The only film of the year to be nominated for both the Best Lead Actor and Lead Actress Oscars. The 1937 and 1954 versions of the film were also nominated in both these categories.

Many of the film's songs were written by Gaga and Mark Ronson, a renowned producer who is credited with having discovered Amy Winehouse and collaborated with her troubled career for a long time. He can be seen dancing in Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk videoclip, which he also wrote.

The film's cinematographer Matthew Libatique was recommended to Bradley Cooper by Jennifer Lawrence whose film Mother! (2017) was filmed by Libatique.

FILM 1729: ALL ABOUT STEVE

TRIVIA: Sandra Bullock won the "Razzie" award for Worst Actress and actually showed up to the annual Razzies event to claim her prize. She brought a wagon full of DVDs of this film for the 300 attendees and asked them to watch or re-watch the movie. If in fact the audience decided she was NOT the Worst Actress and changed their minds, Bullock promised to come back to the Razzies next year, turn back in her award and buy drinks for everybody.

When Mary is soaking in the tub, the song in the background is sung by Helga Bullock, Sandra's mother.

The screenplay for this film was featured in the 2006 Blacklist; a list of the "most liked" unmade scripts of the year.

FILM 1573: JOY

TRIVIA: Joan Rivers is portrayed in this film by her real life daughter Melissa Rivers.

Despite earlier reports, this movie is not a biography of Joy Mangano. Annie Mumolo's original script was based on Mangano, an Italian-American inventor and entrepreneur known for inventions such as the self-wringing Miracle Mop and Huggable Hangers. She is the president of Ingenious Designs, appears regularly on US television shopping channel HSN, and holds more than 100 patents. When David O. Russell came onto the project, he added many more supporting characters and interwove Mangano's original biography with stories of other women changing their lives. Russell admitted he was in no hurry to meet Mangano in real life during filming because he wanted to make the movie his own way. He only spoke to Mangano on the phone. Joy's last name is never mentioned in the film, and she is not a native of Smithtown, NY, on Long Island's north shore.

The fourth collaboration between Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence. They previously starred together in Silver Linings Playbook (2012), American Hustle (2013), and Serena (2014).

Except for Neil Walker, none of the principals' last names are ever stated.

Isabella Rossellini and Diane Ladd co-star in this film and also co-starred in Wild at Heart.

Film 1096: American Hustle

Trivia: The fight scene that takes place in the bedroom between Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence is completely improvised. A version of it had been written in the script, but the actors were struggling to connect with it, so director David O. Russell ultimately decided to allow them to say what they wanted.

According to Christian Bale much of the movie was improvised. So, during the shooting of the film he noted to David O. Russell, "You realize that this is going to change the plot greatly down track." To which the director replied, "Christian, I hate plots. I am all about characters, that's it."

David O. Russell stated that Robert De Niro didn't recognize Christian Bale on the set even after they were introduced to each other. De Niro pulled Russell aside, pointed to Bale and asked who he was. First De Niro didn't believe it was Bale but after Russell convinced him of that De Niro noted, 'Wow, he looks really different", and nodded his head as a sign of approval. Russell then had to re-introduce the two now that De Niro knew who Bale was.

Christian Bale achieved the physical traits of his character by gaining over 40 pounds, getting a comb-over and slouching his posture and ended up herniating two of his disks in the process.

The film is a fictionalized telling of the Abscam (short for Arab scam) scandal of the late 1970s and early 1980s, an FBI operation that began as an investigation of trafficking in stolen property, but was later expanded to include political corruption.

David O. Russell wrote the characters of Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Lawrence, Louis C.K. and Robert De Niro expressly for each of the actors to play them.

David O. Russell developed and expanded the role of Rosalyn Rosenfeld specifically for Jennifer Lawrence, who drew inspiration as well as the accent for the character from watching The Real Housewives of New Jersey (2009). Rosalyn is based on Cynthia Marie Weinberg, the wife of Melvin Weinberg (who was the basis for Irving Rosenfeld).

In the early 1980s French director Louis Malle adapted the Abscam story into a film script entitled "Moon Over Miami", with Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi set to star, with Belushi playing a conman & Aykroyd playing an FBI agent, but Belushi's death in March 1982 scuttled plans for the film.

Film 1058: The Words

Trivia: Lee Sternthal and Brian Klugman wrote the script back in 1999. As friends of Bradley Cooper before his Hangover fame, they ask him to play the lead, he accepted then and kept his word more than 10 years later.

When Rory find and reads the Old Man's manuscript, the first page shown on-screen is actually an excerpt from Ernest Hemingway's memoir, "A Moveable Feast", discussing one of his early short stories called "Up in Michigan". Nearly all of Hemingway's other early works were lost because the suitcase his wife had packed them in was stolen from a train in Paris when she left in unattended for a few minutes; the Old Man's story clearly parallels this event.