Hollywood Birthdays: You're Not Getting Older...

In Hollywood, you're not getting older, you're just getting that much closer to your first plastic surgery.
.
Today is Daniel Craig's 42nd birthday, and no plastic surgery needed, thank you.

.
.

.
.
.
Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Jones, who just passed away in December, would have been 91 today.
.
(click on "Jennifer Jones" in the Labels column at the right of this page)


. . .

.


(laraine newman as connie conehead)

Laraine Newman, one of the original cast members of NBC's "Saturday Night Live", is 58 today. Laraine was one of the "Not Ready for Primetime Players" during the golden days of SNL, 1975-80, back when the show was actually funny. Newman never achieved the same level of fame of her fellow cast members, but she has worked steadily since SNL, especially as a voice-over actress for animated series. Laraine gave us some memorable, hilarious characters on SNL; remember Laraine as Connie Conehead, the sexy teen alien who was only too ready to embrace the sex, drugs and rock and roll culture of the 1970's? Oh, baby!

(laraine newman, far left, with her fellow Not Ready for Primetime Players)

Today would have also been Desi Arnaz's 93rd birthday. Desi, who died in 1986, rose to fame when he co-starred with his wife, Lucille Ball on CBS's "I Love Lucy", one of television's all-time, most beloved shows. Two things that surprised many in the television industry about Desi, one is that he turned out to be quite a capable comedian in his own right, despite the fact that Lucy was the star, and that he proved to be an incredible businessman. Desi parlayed the success of his t.v. show into his own production company and eventually bought the old RKO film studio lot, which became home to other classic t.v. shows, "The Andy Griffith Show", "Star Trek", "Mission: Impossible", "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "That Girl". Desi was ahead of his time on many fronts in the business, he was the first to film his t.v. show in front of a live studio audience, and one of the first to film his show using movie studio techniques, (35mm film instead of kinescope), which provided high quality reruns for syndication. Also, Desi bought the episodes of "I Love Lucy" at a low price from CBS, because he, unlike the network, recognized the potential of the "rerun". Needless to day, Desi's "naive and inexperienced" business practices ended up making Lucy and him multi-millionaires many times over.