Judgment Free

“Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure which you measure will be measured out to you.”

It seems deplorable to me that it has become a ‘social sport’ to exploit what we see as weaknesses in others in order for us to make ourselves feel better at another’s expense. It has become rampant! Sometimes it is because others don’t share our political or social views or we hold them up for ridicule for how they look. We look at people’s outsides when we should be taking a good look at our own insides. Trouble is we are probably too afraid to look at the face in the mirror. Instead of becoming a healing instrument we choose the low road of ridicule and chastisement where we might make better use of our time reflecting on our own lives.  

It would seem that if we tended to our own side of the street we might be better prepared for the world at large and be better equipped to offer healing solutions rather than taking the easier softer way spewing our own one sided “our way or the highway” because we have deemed we have earned it. We have earned nothing until we have walked in another person’s shoes. Until we do that it’s best we hold off on our next tweet, instant message or post on Facebook.  

Olivia de Haviland Turns 100

 Olivia de Haviland

This screen legend turns 100 this July 1. Her birth in 1916 actually took place in Tokyo Japan to British parents. Her mother Lilian Augusta Ruse a former actress and her father Augusta de Haviland who was an English professor and patent attorney. Although her parents divorced when Olivia was just 3 years old it was in High School that the “acting bug” infected her when she was cast in the Shakespeare play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. Hardly a coincidence she played in the role again on the stage and then later reprised it in the Warner Brothers screen version.  

Signed to a 7 year contract, as was the norm back then Olivia made 3 films in 1935,  “The Irish in Us”, “Alibi Ike” and the first with the co-star that she would be most closely associated with Errol Flynn, in “Captain Blood”. She would make a total of 8 films with her heartthrob. Although later in life Olivia claimed they never consummated their love affair their ardor was nonetheless very real. 

It was 1939 however, that David O. Selznick would tap her to play the very likable role of Melanie Hamilton in the 1939 blockbuster “Gone With the Wind” in which she would receive her first Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress which would later go to her other co-star Hattie McDaniel. In 1941 she was nominated again only this time to lose to her sister Joan Fontaine for best actress in the role opposite Cary Grant in “Suspicion”.  

As her successes continue to mount Olivia balked at the roles she was receiving from the studio and a court battle ensued. For 6 years as the suit continued Olivia was kept off the silver screen but in the end the court ruled in her favor and no longer could actors be held to contracts longer than 7 years. Performers could no longer be ‘property’ as studios contended they were. The decision became known as the “de Haviland decision”. 

Eventually she won her best actor Oscar in 1946 in  “To Each His Own”. Olivia now lives quietly in Paris France. She is also the subject of TCM’s star of the month in view of her Centennial birthday this month alongside a written tribute from her friend and the venerable TCM host and film historian Robert Osborne. This month the classic movie channel in honor of her birthday will feature 39 of her films some of them memorable and some not so memorable. All nonetheless worthy viewing of one of the last remaining living legends of the silver screen Olivia de Haviland.  There’s still one more turning 100 this year can you guess who it is?