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Margaret Whitton
Margaret Ann Whitton (November 30, 1949 – December 4, 2016) was an American stage, film, and television actress. Life and career Whitton was born on Fort Meade, Maryland, a US Army base in the suburbs of Baltimore. She spent many of her formative years in Japan; her father was an Army colonel, and her mother was a nurse. The family eventually relocated to Haddonfield, New Jersey, and then to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where Whitton started acting at Northeast High School. She made her Off-Broadway debut in 1973 with ''Baby Goya'', and her Broadway debut in 1982's '' Steaming''. Whitton did her primary film work between 1986 and 1993. Her most visible roles were that of socialite Vera Prescott in '' The Secret of My Success'' (1987), and spiteful baseball team owner Rachel Phelps in '' Major League'' (1989), and its sequel ''Major League II'' (1994). Whitton also appeared in '' The Best of Times'' (1986) and ''The Man Without a Face'' (1993). Her other film roles included parts ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major League (film)
''Major League'' is a 1989 American sports comedy film produced by Chris Chesser and Irby Smith, written and directed by David S. Ward, that stars Tom Berenger, Charlie Sheen, Wesley Snipes, James Gammon, Bob Uecker, Rene Russo, Margaret Whitton, Dennis Haysbert, and Corbin Bernsen. Made for $11 million, ''Major League'' grossed $75 million worldwide. ''Major League'' deals with the exploits of a fictionalized version of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. It is the first installment in the ''Major League'' film series and spawned two sequels (''Major League II'' and '' Major League: Back to the Minors''), neither of which repeated the success of the original film. Plot Former Las Vegas showgirl Rachel Phelps inherits the Cleveland Indians baseball team from her deceased husband. She hates Cleveland and intends to move the team to Miami by exploiting an escape clause in their contract if their season attendance remains low. She instructs general manager Charlie Donovan to fire t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dramedy
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical hour-long legal or medical drama, but exhibit far fewer jokes-per-minute as in a typical half-hour sitcom. In the United States Examples from United States television include: ''M*A*S*H'', ''Moonlighting'', ''The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd'', '' Northern Exposure'', '' Ally McBeal'', ''Sex and the City'', '' Desperate Housewives'' and '' Scrubs''. The term "dramedy" was coined to describe the late 1980s wave of shows, including ''The Wonder Years'', ''Hooperman'', ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'' and ''Frank's Place''. See also *List of comedy drama television series *Black comedy *Dramatic structure * Melodrama *Seriousness *Tragicomedy *Psychological drama References Comedy drama Drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Monsters (1989 Film)
''Little Monsters'' is a 1989 American fantasy comedy-drama film starring Fred Savage and Howie Mandel and directed by Richard Alan Greenberg. It tells the story of a boy who befriends a real-life "monster under the bed" and discovers a secret world of monsters who sneak into children's bedrooms at night to pull pranks on them. Although the film failed financially, receiving a limited theatrical release due to Vestron’s bankruptcy, it obtained a cult following on home video and is considered a requisite title in the gateway horror genre. Plot Brian Stevenson, an 11-year-old boy, and his family has just moved to suburban Boston, and he feels isolated in his new neighborhood. One morning, Brian finds himself blamed and wrongfully punished for several things he did not do. Insisting on his innocence, he blames his 8-year-old younger brother, Eric, who claims to have seen a monster the night before. At school, Brian gets into a fight with bully Ronnie Coleman. That night, upon ret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ironweed (film)
''Ironweed'' is a 1987 American drama film directed by Héctor Babenco. It is based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name by William Kennedy, who also wrote the screenplay. It stars Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep, with Carroll Baker, Michael O'Keefe, Diane Venora, Fred Gwynne, Nathan Lane and Tom Waits in supporting roles. The story concerns the relationship of a homeless couple: Francis, an alcoholic, and Helen, a terminally ill woman during the years following the Great Depression. Major portions of the film were shot on location in Albany, New York, including Jay Street at Lark Street, Albany Rural Cemetery, and the Miss Albany Diner on North Broadway. Despite mixed reviews and being a box-office bomb, ''Ironweed'' received two nominations at the 60th Academy Awards, Best Actor (for Nicholson), and Best Actress (for Streep). Synopsis During the 1930s depression, Francis Phelan (Nicholson) wanders the city. Francis is a washed-up and retired baseball player ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baby Boom (film)
''Baby Boom'' is a 1987 American Romance film, romantic comedy-drama film directed by Charles Shyer, written by Nancy Meyers and Shyer, and produced by Meyers and Bruce A. Block for United Artists. It stars Diane Keaton as a yuppie who discovers that a long-lost cousin has died, leaving her a fourteen-month-old baby girl as inheritance. The film received generally favorable reviews and was a modest box-office success during its original run, eventually grossing $26 million. The film spawned a Baby Boom (American TV series), television series of the same name (1988–1989) and was nominated for two 45th Golden Globe Awards, Golden Globe Awards. Plot J. C. Wiatt is a driven Manhattan management consultant (nicknamed the "Tiger Lady") committed to her demanding and high-profile job. She lives with her boyfriend Steven Buchner, an investment banker. They both are happily focused on their careers and have no interest in having children. Notified that a distant cousin has died and le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
9½ Weeks
''9½ Weeks'' is a 1986 American erotic romantic drama film directed by Adrian Lyne, and starring Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. Basinger portrays a New York City art gallery employee who has a brief yet intense affair with a mysterious Wall Street broker, played by Rourke. The screenplay by Sarah Kernochan, Zalman King and Patricia Louisianna Knop is adapted from the 1978 memoir of the same name by Austrian-American author Ingeborg Day, under the pseudonym "Elizabeth McNeill". The film was completed in 1984, but did not get released until February 1986. Considered too explicit by its American distributor Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the film was heavily edited for release in the United States, where it was a box office bomb, grossing $6.7 million on a $17 million budget. It also received mixed reviews at the time of its release. However, its soundtrack sold well and the film itself became a huge success internationally in its unedited version, particularly in Australia, Canada, Franc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Lampoon's Movie Madness
''National Lampoon's Movie Madness'' is a 1982 American comedy film produced by '' National Lampoon'' as the second film from the magazine. The film was originally produced under the title ''National Lampoon Goes to the Movies''; completed in 1981, the film was not released until 1982, and was reedited and retitled as ''Movie Madness''. ''Movie Madness'' consists of three short segments which satirize personal growth films, glossy soap operas, and police stories. The first two segments of the film, ''Growing Yourself'' and ''Success Wanters'', were directed by Bob Giraldi, while the film's final segment, ''Municipalians'', was directed by Henry Jaglom, and featuring Julie Kavner's first film appearance. Its title song, "Going to the Movies", was sung by Dr. John. The film was a critical and commercial failure. Cast Growing Yourself ''Growing Yourself'' has a confused family man (Peter Riegert) who throws his wife (Candy Clark) out of the house in order for him to "grow" a new path ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Teenage Hitchhikers
''Teenage Hitchhikers'' is a 1975 exploitation comedy road movie written, directed, and produced by Jerome S. Kaufmann. Kathie Christopher and Sandra Peabody star as Mouse and Bird, two teenage girls who embark on a journey West in search of freedom, excitement, and independence. Cinematographer Bill Lamond signed on to the project after being approached by Kaufmann to work on the film. Kaufmann and Lamond worked at the same television advertisement company. Production began in September 1973 for a week on a low budget of $15k. It was released into drive-in theaters in 1974 to generally favorable reviews that highlight the comedic timing of Christopher and Peabody and the film's social commentary. The film is one of filmmaker Quentin Tarantino's favorite films and got included in the sixth semi-annual lineup of his Quentin Tarantino Film Festival in 2005 in Austin, Texas. Plot Mouse and Bird are struggling to find assistance in traveling west in an attempt to start a new life. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bear Stearns
The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was a New York-based global investment bank, securities trading and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 as part of the global financial crisis and recession, and was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chase. The company's main business areas before its failure were capital markets, investment banking, wealth management, and global clearing services, and it was heavily involved in the subprime mortgage crisis. In the years leading up to the failure, Bear Stearns was heavily involved in securitization and issued large amounts of asset-backed securities which were, in the case of mortgages, pioneered by Lewis Ranieri, "the father of mortgage securities". As investor losses mounted in those markets in 2006 and 2007, the company actually increased its exposure, especially to the mortgage-backed assets that were central to the subprime mortgage crisis. In March 2008, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York provided an emergency loan to try to avert a sudden co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joe Coomer (author)
Joe Coomer, born Joseph Alan Coomer, is an American fiction and nonfiction writer who lives outside of Fort Worth, Texas, and in Stonington, Maine. Born November 3, 1958, in Fort Worth, Texas, Coomer attended the University of Kentucky between 1977 and 1979 and subsequently attended the University of Texas at Arlington a single semester. He completed his undergraduate degree at Southern Methodist University in 1981. Coomer wrote his first books while working at his family's lumber yard and working several part-time jobs. His first novel, The Decatur Road, won the Jones Fiction Prize from the Texas Institute of Letters in 1984. The book originated as three short stories created for his senior thesis project. He married Heather Hutton, whom he had met in Taos, New Mexico, in 1986. They were wed in the Coomer family compound on the site of a home they were building. The couple established two antique malls in the Dallas-Fort Worth area shortly after they wed. They divorced in 200 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Bird Of The Air
''A Bird of the Air'' is a 2011 American romantic drama film directed by Margaret Whitton and starring Rachel Nichols and Jackson Hurst. It is based on the novel ''The Loop'' by Joe Coomer. Synopsis Lyman is a highway worker who spends most of his days barely speaking due to his shyness and a past trauma. This changes when he encounters a parrot owned by Fiona, a peppy librarian that takes an immediate interest in him. Cast * Jackson Hurst as Lyman * Rachel Nichols as Fiona *Linda Emond as Margie *Buck Henry as Duncan Weber *Judith Ivey as Eleanor Reeves *Gary Farmer as Charles Ballard *Genia Michaela as Amber *Anjanette Comer as Mrs. Weber *Phyllis Somerville as Ivy Campbell * Erik Jensen as Bearded Man *Matte Osian as Trucker *Rocco Sisto as Security Guard *Louis Zorich as Stowalski Development Plans to adapt Joe Coomer's novel ''The Loop'' were first announced in 2009, under the working title of ''The Loop''. Rachel Nichols and Jackson Hurst were announced to perform a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jeffrey Hatcher
Jeffrey Hatcher is an American playwright and screenwriter. He wrote the stage play ''Compleat Female Stage Beauty'', which he later adapted into a screenplay, shortened to just ''Stage Beauty'' (2004). He also co-wrote the stage adaptation of '' Tuesdays with Morrie'' with author Mitch Albom, and '' Three Viewings'', a comedy consisting of three monologues - each of which takes place in a funeral home. He wrote the screenplay '' Casanova'' for director Lasse Hallström, as well as the screenplay for '' The Duchess'' (2008)."Psychological Thriller" ''The Union City Reporter''; April 11, 2010; Page 13. He has also written for the Peter Falk TV series '' Columbo'' and E! Entertainment Television. Career His many award-winning original plays have been performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and regionally across the US and abroad. Some of his plays include ''Three Viewings'', ''Scotland Road'', ''A Picasso'', ''Neddy'', ''Korczak's Children'', ''Mercy of a Storm'', ''Work Song: ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
