Category Archives: On This Day

“How can a motion picture reflect real life when it is made by people who are living artificial lives?” –Miriam Hopkins

Posted on October 18, 2025 by sheila

It’s Miriam Hopkins’ birthday today. A famous scene-stealer, her film career was relatively short, but she appeared in some drop-dead classics. There hasn’t been a lot of ink spilled on her, although her fan base is pretty solid. She appeared … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged | 8 Comments

“Being known for musicals is a great thing.” — Zac Efron

Posted on October 18, 2025 by sheila

“It’s weird, but I don’t feel like think I deserve any of the attention. There’s really nothing but one audition for a Disney Channel movie that separates me from 2,000 other brown-haired, blue-eyed guys in L.A., you know?” — Zac … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged | 3 Comments

“I’m not the person I was at 28. The passion is still there but the rage mostly isn’t.” — Marshall Mathers

Posted on October 17, 2025 by sheila

Music is reflection of self We just explain it, and then we get our checks in the mail It’s fucked up, ain’t it? How we can come from practically nothin’ To bein’ able to have any fuckin’ thing that we … Continue reading →

Posted in Music, On This Day | Tagged | 7 Comments

“I watched myself in Red River and I knew I was going to be famous, so I decided I would get drunk anonymously one last time.” – Montgomery Clift

Posted on October 17, 2025 by sheila

Montgomery Clift on the set of “Red River” (1948) He was right. It’s his birthday today. Such a superb actor. Such an influential career … with such a tragic ending. But still. He inspired a generation. Here’s a link to … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged | 16 Comments

“Dancing in Tijuana when I was 13 — that was my ‘summer camp.’ How else do you think I could keep up with Fred Astaire when I was 19?” — Rita Hayworth

Posted on October 17, 2025 by sheila

It’s her birthday today! In early 2016, it was all Rita Hayworth all the time at my humble abode, due to the research I did for my essay on Gilda, included in the Criterion Collection release of Gilda. Gilda represented … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, On This Day | Tagged , , , | 26 Comments

“I guess I became an actress because I didn’t want to be myself.” — Jean Arthur

Posted on October 17, 2025 by sheila

It’s her birthday today, one of my all-time favorite actresses! First up, two pieces I wrote for Film Comment: For my “Present Tense” column, I wrote about her career and her distinctive voice. For TCM Diary, I wrote about onscreen … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, On This Day | Tagged , , , | 16 Comments

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.” — Oscar Wilde

Posted on October 16, 2025 by sheila

It’s his birthday today. One of my heroes. His mother, Jane Speranza Francesca Wilde (aka Lady Wilde, aka “Speranza”) was an incredible woman, in the Irish literary history canon, and there before her son. (She has a cameo in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Books, On This Day, Theatre, writers | Tagged , , , , , | 22 Comments

“Quite frankly. I was all talent and no looks.” — Angela Lansbury

Posted on October 16, 2025 by sheila

It’s her birthday today. Even if you came to Gaslight clean, without knowing a thing, which is hard to believe, but let’s just pretend: Even if you knew nothing about it, it would be instantly obvious that the teenage girl … Continue reading →

Posted in Actors, Movies, Music, On This Day, Television, Theatre | Tagged , | 10 Comments

“You cannot write and answer the phone.” — Paul Durcan

Posted on October 16, 2025 by sheila

Today is his birthday. I love him. He died in May of this year. Paul Durcan’s poems are chatty, observant, scathing, often very funny. He uses long humorous titles: “The Divorce Referendum, Ireland, 1986”, or “Irish Hierarchy Bans Colour Photography”. … Continue reading →

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“I mean, that’s the community of what we do, the difference between me and a streaming service. You actually know it’s me.” — Bob Mould

Posted on October 16, 2025 by sheila

For about a year, I posted all the music writing my brother Brendan O’Malley did on his old blog, because my brother is such a good writer, and these pieces are all so great I wanted to highlight them. I … Continue reading →

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