Links to the past with relevance today:
PEOPLE: Ten years ago today, June 25, Farrah Fawcett (1947-2009) died after a long fight with anal cancer. Now, those who were around her recall her mission to destigmatize the killer disease. Her oncologist, Dr. Laurence Piro, recalls:
“Farrah was very practical about the fact she might be famous, but when it came to cancer, no one was special. She was brave and heroically so. She hated hearing her name and anal cancer in the same sentence, but it was important for the stigma to be broken. She wanted to raise awareness from the very beginning.”
THR: A delicious appreciation of Meatballs (1979), a good-bad movie if ever there were one!
VARIETY: Amazing piece on Esther Eng (1914-1970), a Cantonese-American woman who produced and directed films in the '30s and '40s. Apparently, only two of her productions survive (from 1941, and a late-career film shot in 1961), and her story is mostly known because of a photo album discovered in a Dumpster.
JOE.MY.GOD.: Harriet Tubman (c. 1822-1913), the abolitionist and activist, may yet wind up on a U.S. $20 bill — a new investigation seeks to uncover why plans to make her the first black woman on U.S. currency were stalled.
BOY CULTURE: Do not miss the 1968 doc The Queen — it was given a ravishing new 4K restoration, dahhhling, and you KNOW it's beautiful. Details on where to catch it!
EW: Stan Lee (1922-2018) died last year, but his final project, A Trick of Light, will be published as a hardcover book in the fall.
