WASHINGTON (AP) — Just in time for a new movie about the making of “Mary Poppins,” the 1964 Disney classic starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke has been selected for preservation at the Library of Congress so future generations of Americans can see it.

On Wednesday, the library is inducting 25 films into the National Film Registry to be preserved for their cultural, historical or cinematic significance. This year’s selections include Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction,” the space race film “The Right Stuff,” and Michael Moore’s documentary confronting the auto industry, “Roger and Me.”

Curators said it was a coincidence that they selected “Mary Poppins” just ahead of its 50th anniversary and during the release of the new Disney film “Saving Mr. Banks,” which is about the making of the movie. Steve Leggett, program coordinator for the library’s National Film Preservation Board, said “Mary Poppins” had been on the short list of picks many times before.

“It’s just a title that everyone has seen and recognizes, and the musical numbers and just the Julie Andrews and the shim-shim-a-ree — it’s just become a real, imbued part of our culture,” he said.

The films chosen this year span from 1919 to 2002 and include Hollywood classics, documentaries, silent films, independent flicks and experimental pictures. Congress created the program in 1989 to ensure that gems from American movie history are preserved for years to come.

Some are chosen for their influence on films that would follow, as with “Pulp Fiction” from 1994. The film board called it a milestone for independent cinema, and Leggett noted Tarantino’s “stylized violence and kind of strangeness” in the cinematography.

Older films often become endangered of being lost, said Librarian of Congress James Billington, “so we must protect the nation’s matchless film heritage and cinematic creativity.”

This year’s selections represent the “extreme vitality and diversity of American film heritage,” Leggett said. Many illustrate American culture and society from their times, he said.

The oldest films joining the registry this year are from the silent era. They include 1920’s “Daughter of Dawn,” which featured an all-Native-American cast of Comanche and Kiowa people, with a fictional love story and a record of Native American traditions of the time. The 1919 silent film “A Virtuous Vamp,” a spoof on workplace romance, made Constance Talmadge an early film star. And “Ella Cinders” from 1926 featured the famous actress Colleen Moore.

Earlier this month, the library released a study that found 70 percent of America’s feature-length silent films have already been lost.

Other notable selections this year include the 1956 science-fiction film “Forbidden Planet,” which depicted humans as space travelers to another planet ahead of the real space race to the moon; the popular Western “The Magnificent Seven” from 1960; and the 1946 film “Gilda,” which is the first in the registry featuring actress Rita Hayworth. Also included is the 1966 adaptation of “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf,” starring the real-life couple Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The movie earned Oscar nominations for them both, a win for Taylor, and launched the screen-directing career of Mike Nichols.

Original prints of even newer films, such as Michael Moore’s “Roger and Me” from 1989, have become endangered. In a statement to the library, Moore said he learned last year that there were no more usable prints left of his film about the hemorrhaging of jobs at General Motors in Flint, Mich.

“Over the years, this movie has received many acknowledgements, but this is certainly the one I cherish the most,” Moore said of the movie’s selection for preservation. “The true regret I have is that the cities of Flint and Detroit, which are at the center of my film, are now in much worse shape — as is the American middle class in general.”

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Library of Congress: http://www.loc.gov

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Follow Brett Zongker on Twitter at https://twitter.com/DCArtBeat .

WHY IS ANYBODY SHOCKED? HIS JFK MOVIE WAS MORE LEFT WING PROPAGANDA! MOST

OF HIS MOVIES SUCK! MOST HOLLYWEIRD IS NOTHING BUT PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL ANTI

AMERICAN GARBAGE! THEY REWRITE HISTORY TO PUSH THEIR ANTI AMERICAN CRAP

IN MOVIES AND TV AND MEDIA TO BRAINWASH THE RETARDED VOTERS WHO BELIEVE

ALL THAT PROGRESSIVE CRAP! HIM AND SEAN PENNHEAD SHOULD GO LIVE IN ONE

OF THESE FING COMMUNIST COUNTRIES AND BE BANNED FROM U.S. WHERE THEY ARE

FREE TO MAKE THEIR STUPID MOVIES AND MAKE MILLIONS OF DOLLARS! HIPPOCRITES!

LOOK AT THE WINTER THE WORLD IS HAVING AND IT’S NOT FING WINTER AND YET THEY

ARE STILL PUSHING THIS CLIMATE CHANGE GLOBAL WARMING CRAP! LOOK AT THE GAY

LESBIAN SICK CRAP THEY ARE PUSHING ON THE YOUNGER GENERATION THAT THIS

IS NORMAL AND ALL THE OTHER PROGRESSIVE GARBAGE! I BOYCOTT HOLLYWEIRD

AND PMSNBC AND OTHER LIBERAL BIAS MEDIA AND TV NETWORKS! BOYCOTT!!!

YOU MEAN NO MORE RACIST  BLACK ANTI WHITE  MOVIES COMING OUT FROM OPRAH

AND OBAMA AND THE REST OF THE RACIST PUSHING LEFT WING MEDIA???

By Brent Lang
TheWrap

A sexist local news anchor with a bit of a drinking problem may turn out to be the year’s best advertising pitchman.

Chrysler took a risk when it tapped Ron Burgundy to be the face of its Dodge Durango brand, but the car giant’s collaboration with the Channel 4 news star’s alter-ego Will Ferrell and paramount Pictures has been reaping dividends leading up to this week’s release of “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues.”

Ferrell, the film’s director Adam MacKay, ad agency Wieden + Kennedy, and Funny or Die’s commercial production company, Gifted Youth were the creative forces behind the 70 spots, which find Burgundy expounding upon everything from the number of packs of gum that can fit into a Dodge’s glove compartment to the mysteries of its voice-activated navigation system (no it’s not a real woman in there!).

Also on TheWrap:  How Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy Became Dodge’s Best Car Salesman Ever

The ads have been hailed for their sense of humor and Chrysler is laughing its way to the bank. The company reports that year-over-year sales of Durango were up 36 percent in November and increased by 59 percent in October when the commercials began airing.

“The engagement with this campaign has been huge and the mere fact that it has found its way into pop culture is the biggest indication of success,” Olivier Francois, Chrysler Group chief marketing officer, told TheWrap.

“We approached the campaign through the lens of someone who could tell the story of the Dodge Durango’s horsepower, fuel efficiency and technology in an entertaining way,” he added. “We thought, who better than Ron Burgundy?”

Movie review: ‘Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues’

That has led to more than a half-billion media impressions, the company told TheWrap.

Among the numbers of note:

Total views for all Dodge/Burgundy spots on YouTube, across all channels: more than 21 million.

Durango website visits: up nearly 80 percent.

Search volume for “2014 Durango”: up 89 percent, while search volume for “Dodge Durango” is up 56 percent.

Purchase intent among customers: rose 54 percent in the weeks after campaign launched, according to a survey by automative information hub Edmunds.com.

Tom Meyer, president of TheMarketingArm’s entertainment practice, said the campaign has been effective in part because Ferrell did so many different Dodge ads.

“The Dodge campaign with ‘Anchorman 2’ is nothing short of brilliant and it never would have happened if Chrysler and Dodge had not had a very open mind,” Meyer said. “There are so many different pieces of content that I don’t think they risk overexposure. If they did one spot, people would be turned off, but they were smart and kept making new pieces of content. It’s always new and all of it has been funny.”

Watch the video:

Related stories from TheWrap:

‘Anchorman’ Ron Burgundy, Robin Thicke Duet Christopher Cross’ ‘Ride Like the Wind’ (Audio)

Ron Burgundy Is Taking Over the World: 5 Reasons He Might Be Wearing Out His Welcome

How Will Ferrell’s Ron Burgundy Became Dodge’s Best Car Salesman Ever

NEW YORK (AP) — Olivia de Havilland has offered a rare public comment to say that she is “shocked and saddened” by the death of her sister and fellow actress Joan Fontaine.

Fontaine died on Sunday in Carmel, Calif. She was 96.

The sisters had reportedly feuded for decades and de Havilland has often declined to talk about Fontaine.

The 97-year-old longtime resident of Paris said in a statement Monday that she was grateful for the “expressions of sympathy.”

De Havilland and Fontaine are among Hollywood’s most famous siblings. The fellow Oscar winners and stars from Hollywood’s studio era are known for their many screen achievements and for a rivalry that at times became public. Fontaine was openly critical of de Havilland.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — In his storied career, stage and screen actor Peter O’Toole, who died Saturday at age 81 following a long bout of illness, dynamically pronounced countless memorable characters, from the daring T.E. Lawrence in “Lawrence of Arabia” to amorous Maurice in “Venus.”

He earned four Golden Globes and an Emmy for his work, and holds the record for the most acting Oscar nominations without a win — eight.

However, in 2002 O’Toole was presented the Academy Honorary Award for his entire body of work. In his acceptance speech he joked, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, my foot!”

Here are the late actor’s eight nominations and who he lost to each year:

— T.E. Lawrence in “Lawrence of Arabia,” 1962. Lost to Gregory Peck, who starred as lawyer Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

— King Henry II in “Becket,” 1964. Rex Harrison, who starred as Professor Henry Higgins, opposite Audrey Hepburn, in “My Fair Lady,” took home the Oscar.

— King Henry II in “The Lion in Winter,” 1968. Cliff Robertson won the award for his touching performance in “Charly.”

— Arthur Chipping in “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” 1969. Bested by John Wayne, the star of the western “True Grit.”

— Jack Arnold Alexander Tancred Gurney, the 14th Earl of Gurney in “The Ruling Class,” 1972. Lost to Marlon Brando, who won for his lead role as mafia patriarch Don Vito Corleone in “The Godfather.”

— Eli Cross in “The Stunt Man,” 1980. Lost to Robert De Niro, who starred as a self-destructive boxer in “Raging Bull.”

— Alan Swann in “My Favorite Year,” 1982. Ben Kingsley won the Oscar for playing the famed Indian freedom fighter Mahatma Gandhi in “Gandhi.”

— Maurice in “Venus,” 2006. Forest Whitaker took the top honor that year for his portrayal of the brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland.”

LONDON (AP) — Known on the one hand for his starring role in “Lawrence of Arabia,” leading tribesmen in daring attacks across the desert wastes, and on the other for his headlong charges into drunken debauchery, Peter O’Toole was one of the most magnetic, charismatic and fun figures in British acting.

O’Toole, who died Saturday at age 81 after a long bout of illness, was fearsomely handsome, with burning blue eyes and a penchant for hard living which long outlived his decision to give up alcohol. Broadcaster Michael Parkinson told Sky News television it was hard to be too sad about his passing.

“Peter didn’t leave much of life unlived, did he?” he said, chuckling.

A reformed — but unrepentant — hell-raiser, O’Toole long suffered from ill health. Always thin, he had grown wraithlike in later years, his famously handsome face eroded by years of outrageous drinking.

But nothing diminished his flamboyant manner and candor.

“If you can’t do something willingly and joyfully, then don’t do it,” he once said. “If you give up drinking, don’t go moaning about it; go back on the bottle. Do. As. Thou. Wilt.”

O’Toole began his acting career as one of the most exciting young talents on the British stage. His 1955 “Hamlet,” at the Bristol Old Vic, was critically acclaimed.

International stardom came in David Lean’s “Lawrence of Arabia.” With only a few minor movie roles behind him, O’Toole was unknown to most moviegoers when they first saw him as T.E. Lawrence, the mythic British World War I soldier and scholar who led an Arab rebellion against the Turks.

Related: O’Toole scored 8 Oscar nods, but won none

His sensitive portrayal of Lawrence’s complex character garnered O’Toole his first Oscar nomination, and the spectacularly photographed desert epic remains his best known role. O’Toole was tall, fair and strikingly handsome, and the image of his bright blue eyes peering out of an Arab headdress in Lean’s film was unforgettable.

Playwright Noel Coward once said that if O’Toole had been any prettier, they would have had to call the movie “Florence of Arabia.”

Prime Minister David Cameron said Sunday the movie was his favorite film, calling O’Toole’s performance “stunning.”

In 1964’s “Becket,” O’Toole played King Henry II to Richard Burton’s Thomas Becket, and won another Oscar nomination. Burton shared O’Toole’s fondness for drinking, and their off-set carousing made headlines.

O’Toole played Henry again in 1968 in “The Lion in Winter,” opposite Katharine Hepburn, for his third Oscar nomination.

Four more nominations followed: in 1968 for “Goodbye, Mr. Chips,” in 1971 for “The Ruling Class,” in 1980 for “The Stunt Man,” and in 1982 for “My Favorite Year.” It was almost a quarter-century before he received his eighth and last, for “Venus.”

Seamus Peter O’Toole was born Aug. 2, 1932, the son of Irish bookie Patrick “Spats” O’Toole and his wife Constance. There is some question about whether Peter was born in Connemara, Ireland, or in Leeds, northern England, where he grew up, but he maintained close links to Ireland, even befriending the country’s now-president, Michael D. Higgins.

Ireland and the world have “lost one of the giants of film and theater,” Higgins said in a statement.

After a teenage foray into journalism at the Yorkshire Evening Post and national military service with the navy, a young O’Toole auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and won a scholarship.

He went from there to the Bristol Old Vic and soon was on his way to stardom, helped along by an early success in 1959 at London’s Royal Court Theatre in “The Long and The Short and The Tall.”

The image of the renegade hell-raiser stayed with O’Toole for decades, although he gave up drinking in 1975 following serious health problems and major surgery.

He did not, however, give up smoking unfiltered Gauloises cigarettes in an ebony holder. That and his penchant for green socks, voluminous overcoats and trailing scarves lent him a rakish air and suited his fondness for drama in the old-fashioned “bravura” manner.

A month before his 80th birthday in 2012, O’Toole announced his retirement from a career that he said had fulfilled him emotionally and financially, bringing “me together with fine people, good companions with whom I’ve shared the inevitable lot of all actors: flops and hits.”

“However, it’s my belief that one should decide for oneself when it is time to end one’s stay,” he said. “So I bid the profession a dry-eyed and profoundly grateful farewell.”

In retirement, O’Toole said he would focus on the third volume of his memoirs.

Good parts were sometimes few and far between, but “I take whatever good part comes along,” O’Toole told The Independent on Sunday newspaper in 1990.

“And if there isn’t a good part, then I do anything, just to pay the rent. Money is always a pressure. And waiting for the right part — you could wait forever. So I turn up and do the best I can.”

The 1980 “Macbeth” in which he starred was a critical disaster of heroic proportions. But it played to sellout audiences, largely because the savaging by the critics brought out the curiosity seekers.

“The thought of it makes my nose bleed,” he said years later.

In 1989, however, O’Toole had a big stage success with “Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell,” a comedy about his old drinking buddy, the legendary layabout and ladies’ man who wrote The Spectator magazine’s weekly “Low Life” column when he was sober enough to do so.

The honorary Oscar came 20 years after his seventh nomination for “My Favorite Year.” By then it seemed a safe bet that O’Toole’s prospects for another nomination were slim. He was still working regularly, but in smaller roles unlikely to earn awards attention.

O’Toole graciously accepted the honorary award, quipping, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride, my foot,” as he clutched his Oscar statuette.

He had nearly turned down the award, sending a letter asking that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hold off on the honorary Oscar until he turned 80.

Hoping another Oscar-worthy role would come his way, O’Toole wrote: “I am still in the game and might win the bugger outright.”

The last chance came in, for “Venus,” in which he played a lecherous old actor consigned to roles as feeble-minded royals or aged men on their death beds. By failing again to win, he broke the tie for futility which had been shared with his old drinking buddy, Richard Burton.

O’Toole divorced Welsh actress Sian Phillips in 1979 after 19 years of marriage. The couple had two daughters, Kate and Pat.

A brief relationship with American model Karen Somerville led to the birth of his son Lorcan in 1983, and a change of lifestyle for O’Toole.

After a long custody battle, a U.S. judge ruled Somerville should have her son during school vacations, and O’Toole would have custody during the school year.

“The pirate ship has berthed,” he declared, happily taking on the responsibilities of fatherhood. He learned to coach schoolboy cricket and, when he was in a play, the curtain time was moved back to allow him part of the evenings at home with his son.

O’Toole’s death was announced by agent Steve Kenis, who said the actor had been ill for some time.

His daughter Kate said the family had already been overwhelmed by the expressions of sympathy.

“In due course there will be a memorial filled with song and good cheer, as he would have wished,” she said in the statement.

Entertainment Tonight

Admired actress Joan Fontaine, best known for her roles in the Hitchcock films “Suspicion” and “Rebecca,” has passed away, according to The Hollywood Reporter. She was 96.

Fontaine was born Joan de Beauvoir de Havilland to British parents — her father: a patent attorney; her mother: a stage actress, whose stage name was Lillian Fontaine — in Tokyo in 1917.

After her parents divorced, Fontaine, her mother, and her older sister, Olivia, moved to California. She made her acting debut in a stage production of “Call It a Day” at 18 and soon after made her film debut with a small role in the 1935 comedy “No More Ladies.”

Six years later, Fontaine was nominated for her first Oscar for starring opposite Laurence Olivier in the 1940 Alfred Hitchcock-directed mystery thriller “Rebecca.” She didn’t have to wait long to take home her first Oscar, as she was granted the award for Best Actress in 1942 for “Suspicion,” another Hitchcock mystery flick.

She was nominated for another Oscar two years later for the drama “The Constant Nymph.”

After 30 years of film acting, she undertook her last film role in the 1966 horror film “The Witches” and only took on TV roles after that. She officially retired in 1994, after six decades in Hollywood, with the TV movie “Good King Wenceslas.”

Fontaine was married four times, divorcing her fourth husband in 1969 at the age of 52. She is survived by her daughter Deborah and adopted daughter Martita.

The Hollywood Reporter, which confirmed the news with Fontaine’s assistant, said that no immediate details of her death were available.

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By Todd Cunningham
TheWrap

“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” dominated in its debut at the North American box office Friday, rolling up $31 million and putting itself on pace for a three-day total of around $75 million.

While massive, Peter Jackson’s hotly anticipated sequel first-day numbers are slightly behind those put up by the first film in the trilogy, “An Unexpected Journey,” which took in $37 million on its opening Friday and totaled $85 for the weekend.

Critics’ Reviews: ‘Desolation of Smaug’ and more new films

That one was in 4,045 theaters, but “Desolation of Smaug,” from Warner Bros., New Line and MGM, is on 3,903 screens and facing more formidable competition. First-night audiences gave “Smaugâ€� an “A-â€� CinemaScore, in line with critics who have been generally positive.

Last weekend’s No. 1 movie “Frozen” took in $5.1 million Friday and is looking at a three-day total of around $25 million in its third week of wide release. It was actually a little behind the weekend’s other wide release, “Tyler Perry’s A Madea Christmas,” after Friday, but the Disney Animation 3D kids film is expected to surge when families turn out on Saturday and Sunday. It’s in 3,716 theaters.

Lionsgate’s “Madea Christmas” brought in $5.7 million from 2,194 locations Friday, putting it on pace for weekend in the $16 million range, on the low end of expectations for the holiday comedy. Perry’s Madea movies have on average opened to $28 million and his last one, 2012’s “Madea’s Witness Protection,” opened to $25 million.â€�Madea’s Christmasâ€� received an “A-â€� CinemaScore, so word of mouth should help.

“The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” was fourth on Friday with $4.1 million, and will likely finish the weekend with around $14 million. If that holds up, Jennifer Lawrence’s Blockbuster sequel will have brought in nearly $360 million domestically.

Disney’s “Thor: The Dark World,” “Relativity’s Christian Bale drama “Out of the Furnace” and the Vince Vaughn comedy “Delivery Man” followed, and all will wind up at between $2 million and $3 million for the weekend.

Oscar hopefuls “Philomena” and “The Book Thief” were next, with Open Road films action thriller “Homefront” next.

‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Reviews: Bilbo’s Back – But Is He Better Than Ever?

Disney CFO: ‘Star Wars’ Will Follow Marvel Strategy

‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Review: Peter Jackson’s Second Verse Is Better Than the First

Loved his movies ,,,

Gone too early ,,,

What a disgrace!

It is official. Oscar is dead.