In a wonderful incidence of historical synchronicity, Steve Coogan (the British comedian best known for his character Alan Partridge, a pathetic, ultra-middle-class TV personality) and Roger Moore (Partridge’s stylistic idol, and his favourite Bond by far) were born on the same day – Coogan in 1965, Moore in 1927.

There’s a lot that could be said about both Coogan and Moore, but how could anyone do it better than this clip, viewable after the jump.

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The work of Edgar Allen Poe, who died on this date in 1849 under what can only be called aptly mysterious circumstances, has never had trouble being adapted for TV and movies. Going by this IMDB list, there’s been at least one Poe-related film or show made almost every years since 1908. That’s a whole lot of Tell-Tale Heart Crew jackets.

Though there was a recent movie made about Poe’s bizarre final days, however, there has not yet been a full-on biopic.

Well, look who is seeking to rectify that situation:

As for the Poe pic, Stallone wants to get it done, and done right. He’s conscious of the demands of such a role, and he recognizes that, passion project or not, this might not be the vehicle for him to headline. “Of course, I’m not playing Poe,” he told Empire. “‘Yo, Poe!’ It won’t work! It’ll be some young actor because he dies at 39, but it’s gonna happen.”

“Yo, Poe!” heh heh heh… he’s still got it.

Author Truman Capote, who was born on this day in 1924 (he died in 1984), was known for three things: his 1958 novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s, his 1965 “non-fiction novel” In Cold Blood, and for being Truman Capote. He was a gossip-hound who did everything he could to become the kind of rich, eccentric celebrity he had always idolized.

So he would probably be very pleased at the meal that got whipped up in London to mark the opening of the West End production of Breakfast at Tiffany’s (or B@T’s as I have just decided I like to call it) … Read More

After Johnny Caspar takes over as the ruling crime boss in Miller’s Crossing, acquiring new money and power, but also a whole lot of new headaches, he complains: “Runnin’ things… it ain’t all gravy.”

Caspar was only expressing something that all those in charge eventually discover, something that Kublai Khan, who was born on this day in 1215, would have been very familiar with.

Khan, grandson to Ghenghis, fought off all pretenders to the throne — including his younger brother — and expanded the Mongol empire until it encompassed a fifth of the planet’s inhabited territory.

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Being a one-hit wonder is a little like being a famous assassin – you are known forever for one act. In 1958, Sheb Wooley, who died on September 16, 2003, was an actor and moderately successful country and western singer closing in on 40. He had played one of the heavies in High Noon, had a small part in Giant, and had appeared in a few dozen other movies and TV shows of a western bent. (Though it has never been confirmed, and wouldn’t have any significance for decades, he is also believed to have been the voice actor behind the original “Wilhelm Scream.”)

And then came “Purple People Eater.”

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On this day, 351 years ago, Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the English Commonwealth following the English Civil War, died as a result of a urinary tract infection. It was a rather ignoble way to go for the man who, however briefly, overthrew the English monarchy and made himself ruler of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Especially since it was also the anniversary of some of his greatest military battles.

Apparently the man who defeated the Scottish could not win out over his own kidneys.
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