Monthly Wallpaper - May 2009: Animal Actors

With the Calendar Wallpaper for the month of May, Movie Dearest is going to the dogs ... and lions and yearlings and bears, oh my!

That's right, it's a salute to our favorite Animal Actors, including stars both canine (Toto, Asta, Lassie and Old Yeller), equine (the Black and the Pie) and porcine (Babe), plus a whole slew of penguins and even a whale named Willy.

Just click on the picture above to enlarge it to its 1024 x 768 size, then right click your mouse and select "Set as Background", and you're all set. If you want, you can also save it to your computer and set it up from there, or modify the size in your own photo-editing program if needed.

Women We Love: Dixie Carter

This is the first in a four-part salute to the Designing Women We Love, the first season of which finally makes its DVD debutMay 26:

Object of our affection: Dixie Carter, actress.

- Her career began in New York, on the Broadway stage with the musicals Sextet and Pal Joey and on the daytime soap operas One Life to Live and The Edge of Night.

- Primetime called, and she answered by co-starring in such sitcoms as Diff'rent Strokes and Filthy Rich; the latter was created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, which led to Carter's most famous role, that of the strong-willed and outspoken Miss Julia Sugarbaker on our beloved Designing Women.

- Subsequently, she has appeared in the series Ladies Man, Family Law and, in an Emmy Award nominated performance, Desperate Housewives, which was created by Marc Cherry, her former assistant on the set of Designing Women.

- Back on Broadway, she played Maria Callas in Master Class and Mrs. Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie.

- Most recently, she co-starred with her husband Hal Holbrook in the film That Evening Sun, which won a special jury prize for its ensemble cast at the SXSW Film Festival.

Reverend’s Reviews: A G’day for Surfing!

Hottie Australian surfers dominate Newcastle (opening in limited release this Friday), a stunningly photographed, well-acted coming of age tale set among the beaches and waves of the port city that lies north of Sydney. Here, 17-year old Jesse (Lachlan Buchanan) yearns to win the Junior Surf Pro final and get out from under the shadow of his older brother. Similarly, Jesse’s fraternal twin brother, Fergus (the cute Xavier Samuels), is out to prove himself … and perhaps find first love with another guy, Jesse’s friend Andy.

I saw Newcastle during last summer’s Outfest in LA, and was immediately overwhelmed by how gorgeous the movie is. The underwater camera work during the surfing sequences is amazing, truly putting viewers in the midst of the action. Also, first-time feature writer-director Dan Castle (click here for my interview with him) revels in the unabashedly sexy bodies of his cast members. Newcastle should not to be missed by anyone into surfing and/or beautiful young men.

UPDATE: Newcastle is now available on DVDfrom Amazon.com.

Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Cinematic Crush: Evan Marriott

This is the final post in our eight-part look at the Hunks of Reality TV:

Crush object: Evan Marriott, reality TV personality.

- He became famous for starring in the controversial reality dating show Joe Millionaire, the premise of which had him posing as a wealthy bachelor when in fact he was a just a working class guy.

- In "real" reality, he was a construction worker and (as it was discovered later) a former underwear model.

- It was later revealed on Secrets of Reality TV that (no surprise) most of the hit show was fabricated, including the infamous "oral sex in the woods" moment. A second season (without Marriott) titled The Next Joe Millionaire, was a high-profile failure.

- Nevertheless, he parlayed his fleeting fame into appearances on the game shows Hollywood Squares, Family Feud and 1 vs. 100. He also appeared as a contestant on Battle of the Network Reality Stars and hosted of his own dating show, fittingly titled Fake-a-Date.

- He has also tried his hand at acting, usually as a variation of his Joe Millionaire persona, such as on The Simpsons and in the low budget comedy Miss Cast Away.