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Ava Gardner Frank Sinatra Norma Shearer Bob Hope and Doris Day Ann Miller Loretta Young Kim Novak Elvis Presley   Merry Christmas, everyone!

In honour of Norma Shearer's 114th birthday, which was on Wednesday, this week on «Film Friday» I bring you what is arguably one of her most iconic pictures. Directed by George Cukor, The Women (1939) begins when Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell) learns from her manicurist, Olga (Dennie Moore), that Stephen Haines, the husband of her cousin Mary (Norma Shearer), is having an affair with a predatory perfume clerk named Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford). A notorious gossip, Sylvia shares the news with her Park Avenue friends and then sends Mary for a manicure with Olga so that she hears the rumour herself. Mary's mother, Mrs. Morehead (Lucile Watson) urges her to ignore the gossip, but she cannot control herself when she encounters Crystal at a fashion show. To Sylvia's delight, the meeting between the two rivals makes the front page of the society columns, which leads Mary to ask for a divorce.   Joan Crawford, Rosalind Russell, Norma Shearer, Joan Fontaine, Mary Boland and Pau...

Douglas Fairbanks presents Janet Gaynor with the first ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in 7th Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1927) and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). Mary Pickford poses with her Oscar for Best Actress. She won for her work in Coquette (1929), her first talkie. Norma Shearer receives from Conrad Nagel the Oscar for Best Actress for The Divorcee (1930). Marie Dressler and Lionel Barrymore were the Best Actress and Best Actor winners at the 5th Academy Awards. She won for Min and Bill (1930) and he for A Free Soul (1931). MGM chief Louis B. Mayer presents producer Carl Laemmle with the award for Best Picture for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). Helen Hayes proudly holds her Best Actress Oscar for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931). Shirley Temple gives Claudette Colbert the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in It Happened One Night (1934). It Happened One Night also earned Clark Gable th...