Rob Lowe's 'Love Life' tidbits, Kyle Chandler: Lowe's rival in 'The Lyons Den'

“There’s this unbelievable bias and prejudice against quote-unquote good-looking people, that they can’t be in pain or they can’t have rough lives or be deep or interesting.” —Rob Lowe on the Problems With Being Pretty Source: www.nytimes.com

Rob Lowe’s second memoir, 'Love Life,' is more notable for what isn’t there than what is. For instance, there’s no mention in the just-published book of the infamous sex tape he filmed with an underage teen, the nanny lawsuits, or if he ever got anything in return for sending a nude photo of himself wrapped in a toy snake to Andy Warhol.

What Rob Lowe, now 50, does want you to know, however, is that he’s older and wiser and loves his family — especially his wife, Sheryl — very, very much. At times, he seems a little bit like his character Chris Traeger from 'Parks and Recreation': buoyantly optimistic with a belief that hard work and dedication are the ultimate determinants for success. Still, there are plenty of anecdotes from the 259-page memoir that Lowe fans will enjoy, including why he turned down 'Grey's Anatomy' and behind-the-scenes tales from the set of the short-lived 'Lyons Den'.

1. In order to fit in with the other kids, a teenage Rob Lowe bought a pipe and pretended to smoke pot. It was his first real attempt at acting.

2. He learned that a “young, successful actress” he was dating was also sleeping with Warren Beatty ... from Warren Beatty.

Lowe, who was about to break out with 'The Outsiders,' was being cuckolded by someone far more famous than he was at the time. This unnamed young love interest apparently reminded Beatty of his onetime sweetheart Natalie Wood ... who had been cuckolding a pre–Splendor in the Grass–fame Beatty by simultaneously sleeping with Frank Sinatra. Oh, the parallels!

3. Being a regular at Lakers games informed Lowe’s “transgendered Bee Gee” look in Behind the Candelabra. Lowe based his look on shiny, plastic-looking guys he used to see courtside. It was such a success that, during the shoot, Matt Damon couldn’t look at him without busting a gut.

4. After Jewel filmed a kissing scene with Rob in The Lyons’ Den, she wiped the back of her hands across her lips in disgust. After seeing Jewel’s performance in Ang Lee’s Ride With the Devil, he convinced the studio to hire her as a love interest for a four-episode arc in The Lyons’ Den, his flailing NBC legal drama. However, when shooting a climactic make-out scene, Jewel brought her boyfriend, an iconic rodeo champ, to the set, and kept trying to get out of macking with Lowe. She eventually acquiesced, but not without a public display of discomfort.

5. Ryan Murphy wanted Lowe to star in Nip/Tuck. Over lunch after the fact, Murphy told Lowe that he’d written the part of Dr. Christian Troy with Lowe in mind. But since Ryan Murphy wasn’t yet “Ryan Murphy,” Lowe’s agents never even showed him the script.

6. CBS honcho Les Moonves talked Rob Lowe out of taking the lead role in Grey’s Anatomy. In 2004, Lowe was deciding between headlining CBS drama Dr. Vegas and taking the part of Dr. Derek Shepherd on Grey’s Anatomy (which would eventually be taken by Patrick Dempsey). Even though Lowe thought that Grey’s had the better script, he listened to Moonves, who was arguing that ABC hadn’t launched a successful new drama in more than a decade and that Grey’s wouldn’t be any different. Dr. Vegas lasted one season.

7. Rashida Jones calls him a “benevolent narcissist.” Well, it's better than “benevolent dictator.”

8. He went on a date with Madonna at the Palladium in New York. Madonna had just released Like a Virgin and he had just wrapped up St. Elmo’s Fire. They were sitting in the VIP area when she said she wanted to go dance in the crowd. Rob thought she was nuts and didn’t go. She told him, “I’m just not going to let success fuck up my fun.” Source: www.vulture.com

THE LYON'S DEN: "At the time NBC was the best network on TV. I felt like home after so many years on 'The West Wing'. So I read 'The Lyon's Den' and jumped on board. We set out to find a cast of great actors. I read with everyone we saw, culled the field down to two or three finalists for each role and selected them to bring before the studio; my criteria were clear: I want actors who can actually act, I don't want everyone to look like a model and above all [I want] charisma. Our final cast was: Kyle Chandler, Elizabeth Mitchell, David Krumholtz, Matt Craven and James Pickens Jr.

So on the last day, I invited my office rival, the future coach of 'Friday Night Lights', Kyle Chandler, to a final showdown. In it, he confronted me about secretly being on antipsychotic meds and my involvement in my mentor's death. I walked toward him with a smile, blithely confessed to the murder, then stabbed him to death with my steak knife. I then finished my meal, walked to the office balcony and committed suicide by throwing myself off. End of series." -"Love Life" (2014) by Rob Lowe

Following the demise of "Early Edition," Kyle Chandler tried his hand at other series, though none survived more than a season. He played Joan Cusack's love interest in the sitcom "What About Joan" (ABC, 2001) and worked against type as a heel lawyer in the Rob Lowe courtroom drama "The Lyon's Den" (NBC, 2003-04) named Grant Rashton who had an illicit love affair with Ariel Saxon (Elizabeth Mitchell).


Clip of Rob Lowe, Kyle Chandler and Elizabeth Mitchell in the 2nd episode of the 2003 show Lyon's Den.

Veronica Mars: An Original Mystery, Screwball & Noir Connection, Early Edition

Released earlier this month, the Veronica Mars movie was written and directed by show creator Rob Thomas (who also co-created another cult favorite series, Party Down). In the film, Veronica (played again by Kristen Bell) returns to her hometown of Neptune, California, years after the show’s conclusion to investigate a murder that her former flame, Logan Echolls (Jason Dohring), is accused of.

But while fans (or “Marshmallows”) eagerly wait to see if Veronica Mars will be getting the sequel treatment, they can already find out what happens next to the beloved private investigator. Picking up almost three months after the events of the movie, 'Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line' (Amazon) is the first installment in an all-new original mystery book series. Co-written by Thomas and author Jennifer Graham, the novel finds Veronica back in Neptune, this time trying to solve a missing person’s case. And when a second girl with unexpected ties to Veronica’s past goes missing too, it’s up to Veronica to uncover the truth surrounding one of her most personal cases yet.

-My favorite crime writer is probably Ed Brubaker. He and Sean Philips put out a comic called Criminal that I re-read half a dozen times while working on Veronica. It’s not a mystery per se, but it is pure pulpy noir in the very best sense–full of antiheroes, bad decisions, lost causes, tortured pasts, haunting secrets, and grit, grit, grit. Anyone who’s into Veronica‘s darker genre nods should absolutely check it out. I also re-read a lot of classic hardboiled and noir material while I was working on the book–Raymond Chandler, Patricia Highsmith, Dashiell Hammett, Chester Himes, Micky Spillane. I wanted to make sure the cynical, hard-edged element of those writers took up some residence in my prose. And I’m a Gillian Flynn fan, too.

-If you were a private investigator, what’s the first mystery you’d try to solve?

-This question runs the risk of exposing me as a total ghoul, because I am a little bit obsessed with famous unsolved murders. Zodiac, the Boy in the Box, the Black Dahlia, the Axeman of New Orleans, the Cleveland Torso murders. The obvious Whitechapel legacy. But morbid curiosity aside, I’d like to believe I’d also put my skills towards exposing corruption and inequality. Neptune is a convenient microcosm, but there are a lot of Sheriff Lambs in the world. Source: popbytes.com

"Noir images, motifs, and characterizations appeared superimposed on the comedies. The clever and conniving woman in screwball was actually a comical sister of the self-serving seductress in noir. The screwball male, when portrayed as the object of the female's intentions, was oftentimes as hapless a figure as the doomed noir protagonist. There was a similarity in the complexity of plot construction. It became apparent that an undercurrent of cynicism ran like a continuum from the screwball comedies of the 1930s directly into the noir films of the 1940s. In 'Screwball Comedy: A Genre of Madcap Romance', Wes D. Gehring offers: In many ways -particularly female domination- screwball comedy of the 1930s and early 1940s anticipates the more sinister woman-as-predator film noir movies of the 1940s. One might even call screwball comedy an upbeat flipside of noir. In fact, the quasi-screwball comedy 'Thin Man' series might be seen as a bridge between the two genres, especially with the original novel being penned by Dashiell Hammett, also author of 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941), which became an early noir prototype." -"Screwball Comedy and Film Noir: Unexpected Connections" (2012) by Thomas C. Renzi

Screwball Comedies of the 1930's and 40's: "It Happened One Night" (1934) - The first true screwball comedy. The ultimate cover-up of a lovemaking scene in a romantic comedy occurs when the Walls of Jericho come down by choice of Gable and Colbert once the plot resolves in Ellie being freed of her marriage and knowing Peter wasn't out to get the reward money Ellie's father had out in finding her. Peter doesn't want the money and also confesses his love for Ellie. Let's also not forget the scene where Claudette Colbert shows her leg along a country road in order to get someone to stop and give her and Gable's character a lift. Even Colbert considered it a bit saucy doing that at the time (and it was all Frank Capra's idea!)--but showing leg fell within the Hays Code acceptability. Source: voices.yahoo.com

At times, "Early Edition" (1996-2000) is like a fairly tale. There is a certain sense of whimsy in the story, a sense of irony. People used to say Capra-esque. When asked how he would respond if he knew the newspaper headlines a day in advance, Kyle Chandler says with a smile: "The first thing I'd do is go to a convenience store and get a tall fountain drink and fill out some lotto tickets. And then... I would help people. I would like to believe that anyone with even the smallest conscience would want to help someone if they had access to the information that my character has." -The Free Lance Star ('Early Edition Delivers Moral Dilemma') & Insider Magazine (1996)

Kyle Chandler: "I enjoy the screwball comedy when it presents itself. I like opposites. When it's a serious scene, I like to find the comedy. We have very good writers [in 'Early Edition']. And the mixture of comedy and drama, it's a dream for me as an actor." -TVGen / Yahoo! Chat Session with Kyle Chandler and Alex Taub (1998)

John Wayne: The Life and Legend by Scott Eyman

Though in other ways he was very well aware of what he was doing. In 1957, at the peak of his career, he is reported to have said that the person on the screen wasn’t really him. “I’m Duke Morrison, and I never was and never will be a film personality like John Wayne. I know him well. I’m one of his closest students. I have to be. I make a living out of him.”

John Wayne may have been a major star and audience favorite from 1939 till his death, but in fact his popularity continued long after: 20 to 30 years later he remained among the top five American film stars of all time. On one occasion, he said, “I’ve played the kind of man I’d like to have been.” Which is very close to a remark made by another superstar from the Golden Age of Hollywood; Cary Grant said more than once: “Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I’d like to be Cary Grant.”

Of course, those times are gone forever. Currently, there are many film stars but virtually none with the iconic status of Cary Grant or John Wayne. Or James Cagney, for that matter, or Jimmy Stewart, or Katharine Hepburn, or Bette Davis, or Humphrey Bogart. These were more than simply good or great actors playing roles, they were brand names you could happily invest in, and rarely be disappointed. Source: www.nytimes.com

“Life’s hard. It’s even harder when you’re stupid.” —John Wayne

The story of the christening of John Wayne varies only slightly in the telling. Raoul Walsh had approached Fox Film Corporation head Winfield Sheehan regarding a western about the pioneers' trek west. The film was to be based on a Saturday Evening Post serial by Hal G. Evarts entitled 'The Shaggy Legion' that ran from November 30, 1929, to January 4, 1930, and was later published as a novel. The serial's title referred to the last great herd of buffalo, but Walsh's imagination converted it into a vast saga of western expansion, a sound version of 'The Covered Wagon' or 'The Iron Horse' – two of the greatest hits of the silent era. Walsh was afraid that the sophistication of an experienced actor would creep through and be apparent to the audience. Raoul Walsh claimed that he came up with the name "Wayne," and that Sheehan added the "John," but Duke said that the whole thing was Sheehan’s idea. Sheehan was a fan of Mad Anthony Wayne, the Revolutionary War general, because "he had been tough and a non-conformist."

The "John" seems to have been an afterthought, but it worked – gave the two halves of the name the equivalence of two blocks of granite that miraculously fit together. -Excerpted from 'John Wayne: The Life and Legend' (2014) by Scott Eyman. Source: www.mensjournal.com

Wayne’s co-star in Seven Sinners was Marlene Dietrich, who was also coming off a career-changing hit: Destry Rides Again. The first time Dietrich saw Wayne was in the commissary at Universal. She leaned over to director Tay Garnett and said, “Daddy, buy me that.” Wayne had been trying to be a better husband, but he made an exception for Dietrich, as many did. It seems that Dietrich made the first move by inviting him into her dressing room. Wayne nervously looked around and said, “I wonder what time it is?” Dietrich lifted her skirt to reveal a garter with a watch attached. She looked at the watch, then moved toward Wayne, saying, “It’s very early, darling. We have plenty of time.”

Neither Wayne nor Dietrich attempted to conceal the affair. On particularly hot days, Dietrich would have ice-cold champagne brought to the set for the cast and crew, and to pass the time while the lights were being shifted she would play the musical saw. “She would open her legs,” remembered William Bakewell, “put a regular saw in it and with a violin bow, play ‘Annie Doesn’t Live Here Anymore’ with a wow in it. She was an interesting woman.” Wayne rarely spoke of what transpired behind closed doors with Dietrich, or with anybody else, but he retained fond memories of her. “She was great, just a German hausfrau. She used to cook pressurized beef to make beef bouillon for everybody. It may have been an act, but it brought her a great deal of enjoyment.” As she grew older, it suited Dietrich’s ego to deny that she and Wayne had had an affair, probably because he didn’t fit in comfortably with her elite roster of European intellectual lovers —Josef von Sternberg, Erich Maria Remarque, Jean Gabin, etc. “My mother thought all [Hollywood] people were vulgar,” said her daughter, Maria Riva. “She thought Lubitsch was extremely vulgar.” Dietrich also cast aspersions on Wayne’s mind, although that had not been her main area of interest: “Wayne was not a bright or exciting type, [not] exactly brilliant, but neither was he bad.”

The relationship with Dietrich continued for another year and a half. Early in 1942, Wayne and Dietrich were reunited on a remake of 'The Spoilers.' Dietrich’s agent, Charles Feldman, had bought the remake rights to the Rex Beach novel for $17,500 in July 1941, packaged it, and turned around and sold it to Universal five months later for $50,000 and 25 percent of the profits. Ollie Carey was amused by the affair. “You can tell —the way they look, the way they talk to each other, the way they flirt. Of course, Marlene was double gated, you know. She had a very masculine-looking young woman that hung around the place a lot. But even so, Duke was quite taken with her and I could tell that Marlene was taken with him as well.”

'The Spoilers' was another hit, grossing nearly three times its cost. Six months later, Wayne began his third and final film with Dietrich.

'Pittsburgh' was again produced by Feldman, who sold Universal the script for a cheap $13,500, although the deal also involved the studio paying Feldman 12.5 percent of the first $240,000 in gross profits. (Feldman would eventually realize $147,843 as his share, a lot more than Wayne’s flat $50,000 salary, which was also outpaced by Dietrich’s $100,000 and Randolph Scott’s $65,000.) Wayne and Dietrich never worked together again, although there were occasional meetings. Wayne always broke into a fond smile when the subject of Dietrich came up, and his précis description of his experience both on and offscreen was enthusiasm itself: “Fantastic!” -"John Wayne: The Life and Legend" (2014) by Scott Eyman

Kyle Chandler [who played Raoul Walsh in the TV film 'And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself' in 2003] recalls: "I pretty much grew up out in my pasture and in the woods, living out those characters. If it was a war, I'd be running through the creek... 'The Sands of Iwo Jima.'

Everything that John Wayne ever did. There were no kids who lived nearby, so I think that had a great deal of influence." Like those old John Wayne movies, 'Homefront' [found] itself in a life-or-death battle. Last week 'Homefront' scored a major victory, finishing second ahead of NBC's troubled news magazine.

Homefront has developed a core of viewers who appreciate its strong cast, surprising plot twists (i.e., a newspaper writer's murder), humor and history. Creators Lynn Marie Latham and Bernard Lechowick are exploring the birth of suburbia and advent of television in suburban Cleveland in 1948. Al Kahn (John Slattery) is accused of being a Communist sympathizer, and Italian war widow Gina Sloan (Giuliana Santini) has flashbacks about her Auschwitz concentration camp stay.

Chandler, his baseball career in doubt due to a knee injury, continues his verbal sparring with former girlfriend Ginger (Tammy Lauren). The season ends with their wedding - not bad for a romance that wasn't projected to last more than three episodes last spring. -"Homefront: a role easy for Chandler to play" (1993) by John Kiesewetter - Cincinnati Enquirer

John Wayne's second wife was Esperanza Baur (nicknamed 'Chata') - they got married on 17 January 1946 and they divorced on 1 November 1954. "After years of push-pull across the U.S.-Mexican border, Wayne and Chata were finally married on January 17, at the Unity Presbyterian Church in Long Beach. Mary Ford and Olive Carey were matrons of honor, and Ward Bond was best man. Herbert Yates gave the bride away, and Wayne’s mother hosted the reception at the California Country Club. John Ford boycotted the wedding, and he didn’t mince words with his surrogate son: “Why’d you have to marry that whore?” he asked Wayne.

For a time, the marriage seemed to be in rough equilibrium. Michael Wayne would say that Chata was cute. Nice shape, pretty legs, good with the kids. “She was like a kid herself,” said Mike’s wife, Gretchen. “She drank like a man and loved to play cards, so that would have worked for Michael’s dad. But the problem would be that if he was out playing cards, Chata wanted to be out playing cards too. She wasn’t going to stay home and make bouquets. They never had any children; Michael’s dad said it was because she was too mean.” Besides her presumed virtuosity in bed, Chata could match Wayne drink for drink, which made for a household with a high degree of volatility; one writer noted, “No one has ever accused Wayne of being shy in going after the things he wants . . . but he displays an incongruous timidity when it comes to insisting that Chata comply with his wishes.” -"John Wayne: The Life and Legend" (2014) by Scott Eyman

Orson Welles' memorabilia, back in time with Kyle Chandler, Noir's unfathomable universe

Orson Welles would have preferred making the memorabilia available to film buffs and fans as opposed to sending them to a museum. "It's about the last thing he would've wanted. He just did not believe in schooling, he did not believe in academic things," Beatrice Welles said in a telephone interview. "And museums kind of have that connotation and I thought 'No, this is not right for him.'" In all, she is handing more than 70 items over to Heritage Auctions, which will stage the auction on April 26.

"People are still talking about him decades after his death," Barrett said. "One of the enduring signs of fame is when young people know who someone is — someone who might have passed away decades ago." Barrett said she thinks Welles' old Bell & Howell movie camera will be one of the bigger sellers. According to his daughter, he used the camera for home movies.

Other items are reminders of Welles' more painful Hollywood experiences. Two scripts for "The Magnificent Ambersons," a 1942 film he wrote and directed, reveal two different endings Welles had in mind; neither ended up in the film. The movie, which centers on a spoiled heir's attempt to keep his mother from marrying her first love, was famously re-edited by someone else. "They kept on changing his pictures around and not letting him finish them. That hurt him," Beatrice Welles said. "The only one he was allowed to do completely from start to end was 'Citizen Kane.'"

Long considered Welles' masterpiece for its innovations in editing and cinematography, the 1941 "Citizen Kane" follows the lonely life of wealthy publishing magnate Charles Foster Kane. Not among the auction cache is any Rosebud-type childhood memento of Welles'. Rosebud was the name of the sled mourned by the titular character in "Kane" that burns at the end of the film. According to Beatrice Welles, director Steven Spielberg bought a version of the sled in 1982, also at auction, and was later teased by her father about its authenticity. Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

"Memories are radically unstable. Memories are always already re-visions of a past. Memories are also fixed as memorabilia, collections of ticket stubs, photographs, wine corks, baseball cards. Thought to preserve the memory in some platonic form (like Hume's idea of memory as a copy of an original experience), memorials and memorabilia (evidence verité) are better understood as refashioning past events and people for the present and future. Film is reconstituted and revised memory. It's a paradoxical living memory that emerges in present time." -"Persuasive Visions: Film and Memory" (2012) by Jessica Silbey

On August 14, 1945, the day the war ended, a raucous crowd who had been waiting in Washington’s Lafayette Square for official word, quickly swelled to fifty thousand when the news came. In New York the cork popped, and animal spirits foamed up. A laughing, screaming, yelling, dancing, singing, drinking, kissing crowd of more than 750,000 people packed Times Square. By Wednesday it would grow to 2 million. A Brooklyn war wife described the scene: 'All the streets were jammed with people, mostly servicemen, packed in tightly from curb to curb. Confetti and streamers were ankle deep and were being sold at every street corner. Policemen and M.P.s took no heed of the goings on like the sailors and soldiers grabbing every woman and girl in their arms and passionately kissing them in spite of kicking, screaming, and protesting.'

A nurse named Edith Shain heard the official announcement on the radio while on duty at Doctors Hospital on the Upper East Side. Without changing out of her white uniform, she and a coworker hurried to Times Square. She didn’t get very far down Broadway before a sailor grabbed her and mashed his lips on hers while bowing her back in a dance-floor dip [...] Hank Thompson was a performer who sang about straying men in songs like “Soft Lips” and “The Grass Is Greener Over Yonder”. He had a hugely popular hit in which a young man is drawn to the bars and dancehalls in the war towns. Called “The Wild Side of Life”, with a tune based on the old Carter Family song “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes,” it contained the line “I didn’t know God made honky tonk angels/I might have known you’d never make a wife.” -"The Noir Forties (2012) by Richard Lingeman

Laura Leighton & Kyle Chandler in "Early Edition", Everybody Goes to Rick's (2000) episode: Gary travels back in time to 1929, and is the proprietor of a speakeasy at the location where McGinty's is currently located. Gary must try to prevent the St. Valentine's Day Massacre.

Kyle Chandler had extensive college theater experience and a love for the game of baseball. The Buffalo native grew up an Atlanta Braves fan, suffering through a pennant drought in the 1970s and '80s not unlike that of Cleveland Indian fans. He has been a familiar face since the early ‘90s, from his leading roles on the series 'Homefront' as injured Cleveland Indians outfielder Jeff Metcalf and 'Early Edition' as Gary Hobson, a stockbroker turned hero who had the ability to change the course of the future.

In 'Man, This Joint Is Jumping' (Episode 9, Season 1) of 'Homefront': Everyone is jumping at the chance to win a local dance contest, hosted by Allan Carmichael. Ginger Szabo and Jeff Metcalf win the contest and are given the chance to go to Hollywood. "I was broke when I got the job," Chandler says, "the very first scene I did with Tammy Lauren was a love scene - the first one I'd ever done on film - and I was too nervous to know whether it really worked or not. But after that, I felt very comfortable in any scenes with her. We just hit it off from the start, like old buddies." Lauren knew when to throw a little weight around - she cleared the set to make Chandler more comfortable for that first kissing scene. He says the one thing about his 'Homefront' performances that galls him is his baseball swing. Although he played some little league baseball, "I think you can tell from my swing that I'm not a professional. It's very hard to duplicate a pro's style. -Cincinnati Enquirer (1993)

Answering the question "What is film noir?" is as slippery and as convoluted as the genre itself. The short answer is that it describes a type of black-and-white urban melodrama made after World War II in which a violent, duplicitous woman leads a gullible tough guy to his doom. So far, so good. But what of Leave Her to Heaven, one of the most beautiful Technicolor films ever made? Or Out of the Past, set primarily in the rustic eastern Sierras? The Maltese Falcon was released several months before Pearl Harbor, every woman in In a Lonely Place is absolutely respectable, and there are scores of noirs in which the hero emerges sobered but unscathed. It wasn't just the movies: the whole world was going cuckoo. Think of the mad drippings of Jackson Pollock, the rapid-fire discordance of Charlie Parker, the demented poetry of Tennessee Williams, the rising popularity of psychoanalysis and of existentialism —a philosophy that centers on "the plight of the individual in an unfathomable universe," a pretty fair summation of the best noirs ever made. Tough new hyper-realistic films from the rubble-filled streets of Rome had an immediacy that captivated U.S. audiences, and American filmmakers returning home from Midway and Anzio and Buchenwald would never make the same kind of movies again. Celluloid like that is combustible, but it will never die. Source: www.pacificsun.com

Reluctant Heartthrobs: Humphrey Bogart, Jimmy Stewart, Kyle Chandler

There are handful of actors who will forever be ingrained in the canon of film history. John Wayne, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, James Dean, Gregory Peck, to name just a few. One of the most iconic actors of all time, Humphrey Bogart, gets his own four-movie Blu-ray collection this week. The four blu-rays included in “The Best of Bogart Collection” are literally just the four previously-available releases in a new case (and nowhere near as extensive career-wise as the DVD-only box set released for the legend a few years ago). The transfers are solid (although “Treasure” looks grittier than I remembered it being stand-alone) and the collection includes a remarkable array of special features when taken as a whole. There’s a reason we still watch Humphrey Bogart movies and likely will for decades to come. “The Humphrey Bogart Collection” proves why.

"Casablanca" (Special Features):
o Commentary by Roger Ebert
o Commentary by Historian Rudy Behlmer
o Introduction by Lauren Bacall Additional Scenes & Outtakes
o Scoring Session Outtakes
o Bacall on Bogart
o You Must Remember This: A Tribute to Casablanca
o Featurette As Time Goes By: The Children Remember
o Production Research Gallery
o Homage Cartoon Carrotblanca
o Who Hold Tomorrow? : Premiere Episode From 1955 Warner Bros. Presents TV Series Adaptation of Casablanca Audio-Only Bonus: Radio Production with the Movie’s 3 Key Stars
Source: www.hollywoodchicago.com

Kyle Chandler as Gary Hobson in Early Edition: "Everybody Goes to Rick's" (Episode 21, Season 4) - Chicago stockbroker Gary Hobson has lost everything he once considered precious; his job, his home, his wife, and now he thinks he might also be loosing his mind. When tomorrow's newspaper mysteriously arrives on his doorstep, delivered daily by an orange cat, Gary gets alarming a look into the future. In this episode, the paper transports Gary back to 1929 Chicago to save a young man from the St. Valentine's day massacre.


Video clips featuring the Valentine's Day Massacre theme. Original Scarface - 1932, Director: Howard Hawks, Actor: Paul Muni; Al Capone - 1959, Director: Richard Wilson; Actor: Rod Steiger; Some Like It Hot - 1959, Director: Billy Wilder, Actor: George Raft; The St. Valentine's Day Massacre - 1967, Director: Roger Corman, Actor: Jason Robards; Early Edition - 1996-2000 (Season 4, Episode 21: Everybody Goes to Rick's - 2000), Actor: Kyle Chandler

Frank Capra's 1946 fantasy is such staple viewing at Christmas that it's hard to comprehend its commercial failure. Many cite a crowded marketplace as the prime reason why It's a Wonderful Life suffered, but the tragic elements of the story could have deterred many from snapping up tickets. After all, when we encounter James Stewart's George Bailey, he's planning his own suicide on Christmas Eve - a premise that would be too dark for even a festive edition of EastEnders. Source: www.digitalspy.co.uk

-Kyle, how do you feel about being called this generations "Jimmy Stewart?"

-Kyle Chandler: That's a great compliment, I've been called a lot worse, I know that. I don't consider myself a Jimmy Stewart, but I appreciate the compliment. And I hope I'm doing good work. -TVGen/Yahoo! Chat Session with Alex Taub (October 15, 1998)

"I thought of myself as a good kid in high school. But I was misunderstood. I'd get into trouble - for drinking a beer in the parking lot or smoking a cigarette behind the gym - and people would look at me a lot differently. Especially the principal. He really didn't care for me. My father had died my first year in high school, and after that, when men would come down on me, I would feel cornered. I'd feel, 'No way, buddy. You ain't telling me nothing.' And I'd stand up to them and say, 'Wait a second. You explain to me what you're talking about, so I can understand you.' And the principal didn't appreciate that attitude coming from a 16 year-old kid. But he never tried to get to know me, either." I sort of wish he'd have patted me on the shoulder once in a while and said, 'If you need to talk to anyone, I'll talk to you.'" Did I ever try to be a better kid? yeah, I was always trying to be good and stuff. That's what was so frustrating. Because, as I said, I felt that I was a good kid. But maybe I'm forgetting all the bad things I did." -Kyle Chandler: Jeff Metcalf on ABC's Homefront (Fresh Voices TV, interview with Lynn Minton, 1992)

Born Kyle Martin Chandler on Sept. 17, 1965, the future star was one of five children born to Edward and Sally Chandler, who resided in Buffalo, NY. The clan moved twice during Chandler's childhood - once to Lake Forest, IL and later to Loganville, GA. While residing in the Peach State, the Chandlers lived on a remote farm with few neighbors, leaving the youngster to keep himself busy watching the sole television station that reached their home: a new UHF station owned by Ted Turner. Chandler quickly fell in love with the steady diet of classic Hollywood films, and entertained friends and family with skits based on the characters he saw and enjoyed.

His interest in performing developed even further while attending the University of Georgia. At the urging of some theater major friends, he auditioned for a role in a production of Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" and landed the part. The experience inspired Chandler to declare theater his major. While still living in Georgia, he was contacted by an ABC talent scout who brought him to Los Angeles. Minor roles on TV series like "China Beach" (ABC, 1988-1991) in 1989 led to the supporting part of Pvt. William Griner on the Emmy-winning Vietnam-era drama, "Tour of Duty" (1987-1990).

This, in turn, led to another series regular role in another historical drama - this time as a baseball player in post-World War II America in the multi-award-winning, "Homefront." It was with the role of Jeff Metcalf, that Chandler first stood out from the competitive pack. Switching mediums, he made his NYC stage debut as the bare-chested drifter romancing Ashley Judd in the 1994 Broadway revival of "Picnic," a role previously played by the likes of Paul Newman and William Holden. "Early Edition" earned Chandler a Saturn Award for his efforts.

In 2006, Chandler earned rave reviews as a doomed bomb squad leader on a two-part episode of the popular medical drama, "Grey's Anatomy" (ABC) - an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor and raised his profile considerably. Perhaps in part due to his memorable guest turn on "Grey's," that same year, Chandler was chosen to top-bill the small screen adaptation of Peter Berg's 2004 film, "Friday Night Lights" (NBC/DirecTV, 2006-2011).

The series, which chronicled the trials and tribulations of a rural Texas high school football team, struggled to find its footing in the Nielsen ratings from the start. American Film Institute named it one of the best shows of the season. Chandler was widely praised for his performance, which earned him an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in 2011. Source: www.tcm.com


"Homefront" - Episode 4, Season 1 'So All Alone': Jeff is hiding Ginger from everyone because she's just been humiliated by Caroline. Ginger has made the situation more embarrassing by announcing that Caroline uses spermicide. Jeff gets up and closes and locks the door to the attic. He comes back and takes Ginger's beer from her. A moment of awkwardness before their first kiss. They bump noses, finally kiss and fall to the bed. Scene fades away.