Movies&Tennis

I'll also point out that there's an 'unofficial' Baby of the House as well, the youngest MP by age. Father of the House is, as RoverandOut says, basically an honourary function that works only at the beginning of the Parliament. I believe the Father of the House also gets to speak first in debates after the frontbenches...but otherwise it has just as much meaning as Mother of the House.

Wouldn't say Bottomley...when Dennis Skinner was in a similar position in 2019 the cameras didn't even go the announcement at the count. Father of the House is an important role but only really the political nerds would know who was in that role. Heavy chance is that Diane Abbott would be given the Labour whip back and be allowed to retire as a Labour MP so i doubt you'd get anything there - although if she does run as Labour she's next in line to be Mother of the House after Harriet Harman's retirement. If she does retire Angela Eagle becomes Mother of the House but Labour would have to have a terrible night for her to lose...

Listening to the valedictory debate on Friday and Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans mentioned two names - John Howell and David Duguid who are ‘recovering’. Howell already announced he’s standing down but no word from Duguid yet - worth remembering should he run again and win…

Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr dead at 87: https://apnews.com/article/louis-gossett-jr-dies-1e86e1441ec8b614a282f3de22490a07

Shot of her on stage tonight… https://x.com/ruddick/status/1771672269720268824?s=46&t=wwnuCz-mCX2KuaQWKZFAKA

Cross-posting here Seiji Ozawa, who was a 2015 honoree... https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/feb/11/seiji-ozawa-obituary

I think the issue with acting Dames is that they tend to award those in British theatre early - Kristin Scott Thomas for example - then they wait a little longer for the ones high in British cinema - eg Julie Walters - and then the ones who make their career in the US rather than the U.K. tend to have to wait til they’re super old or not at all - see Angela Lansbury and Olivia de Havilland. Seems to me that the damehood can depend on the amount of impact you have on U.K. rather than international cinema/TV. Obviously the rare exception such as Julie Andrews or Elizabeth Taylor but it’s much rarer for an ‘international’ British star to get a damehood early.

Cross posting here the death of Norman Lear. He's the 6th Kennedy Center Honoree to die this year, making this year the deadliest since 2003. He's also the 4th honoree on this year's deathlist to die, besting last year's 3. Given the hit rate perhaps worth considering one or two honorees who've not made the list before - Leontyne Price, John Kander, Clint Eastwood or Berry Gordy next year...

Punchbowl News is reporting she's died - a very reliable source.

Just a couple of lists for completeness sake: Top 20 oldest living recipients: Norman Lear, Dick van Dyke, Mel Brooks, Leontyne Price, John Kander, Berry Gordy, Joanne Woodward, Clint Eastwood, Sonny Rollins, James Earl Jones, Carmen de Lavallade, Rita Moreno, John Williams, Chita Rivera, Quincy Jones, Carol Burnett, Willie Nelson, Marilyn Horne, Shirley MacLaine, Seiji Ozawa Pre-00s surviving recipients (given the lifetime achievement aspect, living 20+ years after receiving the award is notable!) Leontyne Price (1980), Joanne Woodward (1992), Marilyn Horne (1995), Edward Villella (1997), Bob Dylan (1997), John Kander (1998), Willie Nelson (1998), Judith Jamison (1999), Stevie Wonder (1999) Recipients who have died in 2023: 5 (Wayne Shorter, Harry Belafonte, Grace Bumbry, Tina Turner & Tony Bennett).

Apologies for starting a new thread if no one thinks its worth it, but I thought its probably worth starting a thread on recipients of the American Kennedy Center Honor, the award given to (usually) five individuals from the arts every year who are selected for making an indelible effect on American culture. Because of the very nature of it, the vast majority of the recipients are elderly, and it's rare that anyone under 60 is even awarded in the first place (although there have been some recent exceptions). I wouldn't usually start a thread like this but it's notable that halfway through this year 5 of the recipients have died and nine recipients are on this year's list. The full list of recipients through the years is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_Center_Honors Plenty of older Deathlist-worthy names cropping up there every year worth taking a look at.

If this works as a general guide the living Oscar nominees who were nominated in the 40s and 50s are: Ann Blyth (1945 - the last survivor from the 1940s). 1950s Nancy Olson (1950) Lee Grant (1951) Terry Moore (1952) Leslie Caron (1953) Eva Marie Saint (1954) Marisa Pavan (1955) Don Murray (1956) Carroll Baker (1956) Patty McCormack (1956) Joanne Woodward (1957) Russ Tamblyn (1957) Shirley MacLaine (1958) Susan Kohner (1959) The vast majority of these were nominated in the supporting categories where during the early years the younger generations used to get nominated (nowadays it tends to be older people nominated in supporting) if we're judging their level of fame. Either way...not many left at all and only Caron, Baker, Woodward & MacLaine are the only leading nominees left. And only MacLaine and Woodward had multiple nominations in decades outside the 50s (MacLaine in the 60s, 70s and 80s and Woodward in 60s, 70s and 90s). Caron only got one more in the early 60s.

There are 9 Kennedy Center Honorees on this year’s list - DvD, Bennett, Belafonte, Brooks, Woodward, Lear, Nelson, Rollins and Turner. Traditionally 2-5 Kennedy Center Honorees die each year. On the 2022 list, of the 8 Honorees 3 died so I’d say the odds are that we lost at least one of the 9 this year, if not more.. Given that the Kennedy Center award is a lifetime achievement award, the recipients tend to be old anyway but it’s always a decent guess that one of that list will shuffle off this year…

Hate to be the pedantic one but as an Oscar nerd she was nominated for Gaslight in 1944, not 1949 as it says on the main page...

The list started with 8 Kennedy Center Honorees. 3 have gone so far (Poitier, Lynn & Lansbury) and given 2 of those have gone in the last 2 weeks and these things come in threes... think it might be one of the remaining 5 - van Dyke, Bennett, Belafonte, Brooks or Ronstadt. Given he's known to be in the most decline of the lot I think I'll go with Bennett...