Film

A half-century after his untimely death at the age of 38, celebrated tenor and movie star Mario Lanza is receiving fresh medical attention from a Baltimore doctor who takes a dim view of one of the singer's weight-loss treatments - injections of the urine of pregnant women, a controversial therapy with new followers today. Dr. Philip A. Mackowiak, vice chairman of medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and director of the Medical Care Clinical Center at the Veterans Administration Hospital downtown, teamed up with Armando Cesari, Lanza's Australia-based biographer, for an article about the singer's health issues just out in The Pharos, the journal of the medical honorary society Alpha Omega Alpha.

It's difficult to imagine what Laura Moriarty's four novels would have been like if she had chosen a place to live other than Kansas, with its endless wheat fields and abundance of ordinary light. Moriarty, 42, focuses her gaze on the most common, everyday things in the world - a single mom cooking a grilled cheese sandwich, a visit to the convenience store - and finds in them characters and events of remarkable depth, complexity and variety. Though the author is a Marine's daughter who was born in Hawaii and spent her childhood in places renowned for their physical beauty, she decided as an adult to settle in Kansas.

Three decades and more than 25 films into his directing career, and Barry Levinson is still mining his hometown for movie ideas. But his latest film, a horror-mystery about a murderous parasite let loose in the Chesapeake Bay, is about as far removed from the genial atmosphere of his first as two movies could be. If "Diner" made audiences yearn for the bygone days of the neighborhood greasy spoon, "The Bay" - set in the fictional bayside town of...

With almost 10,000 rooms for the taking, finding a hotel in Ocean City is a breeze. So why would Travel Channel's "Hotel Impossible" be filming an episode there this week? Turns out the Lankford Hotel at 8th Street and the boardwalk is getting a bit of a makeover. The fourth-generation owners of the nearly 100-year-old hotel are hosting a visit from the show's host, Anthony Melchiorri, who will be offering advice and making about $10,000 in improvements to the hotel. "Hotel Impossible" typically features lodgings that are in trouble or on the verge of closing.

HBO's Liberace film "Behind the Candelabra" was the highest rated premiere of a movie in the last nine years on the premium cable channel. And that's covering some very impressive ground, like "Game Change" and "You Don't Know Jack," to name a couple of made-for-TV movies on HBO in recent years. The first showing of the film at 9 p.m. Sunday drew 2.4 million viewers, according to Deadline. The last time any film did better was in May of 2004, when "Something the Lord Made," which was filmed in Baltimore, premiered to 2.6 million.

The Howard County Student Film Festival is seeking original film submissions from high schoolers. The festival is open to students from public and private schools. Films must be three to 10 minutes in length, original and family friendly. Submission deadline is Feb. 26. For more information, go to hocofilmfestival.com. div.talkforum #creditfooter { display: none; } div.talkforum .feedItemAuthor { display: none; } div.talkforum div.feedburnerFeedBlock ul li span.headline { font-weight:bold; margin:0; font-size: 12px; }

Alice J. Gordon, a film abd television extra who was also a volunteer, died Friday of renal failure at her home in Morgantown, W. Va. The longtime Rodgers Forge resident was 80. The daughter of a movie theater owner and a homemaker, Alice Jean Kamber was born in Winthrop, Mass., and raised in Manchester Depot, Vt., where she attended public schools. In 1956, she married Raymond Jay Gordon, a salesman, and settled in a rowhouse on Old Trail Road in Rodgers Forge. Since 2009, she had lived in Morgantown.

Decades ago, a trip to segregated Ocean City presented far too many challenges for African-American families. Instead they went to a sandy peninsula near Annapolis, known as "the beach," for a day's outing. Carr's Beach - its proper name - offered swimming, picnics and entertainment. Many recall performances by up-and-coming stars such as Louis Armstrong, James Brown and Ray Charles, who, while touring on the Chitlin' Circuit, stopped at Carr's, one of the few local venues open to black entertainers of that time.

One can almost guarantee that, if a movie gets very good reviews, it will not be shown at either of the local multiplexes. Granted, these films do not appear to be the heavy money makers that sex and violence produce and making a profit is of course the reason these theaters are in business. I'm wondering, though, if it wouldn't be possible for these multiplexes to dedicate just one of their 14 theatres to these "indie" films; and if necessary, perhaps Howard County could subsidize them.

KJ Mohr has programmed film festivals around the country for years. But it at started, she said, "for very selfish reasons. " "I devoured all the foreign videos from my public library, but I knew there was a lot of independently produced film out there that I did not have access to, " said Mohr, 38. "And the only way to get my hands on it was to organize public screenings. For years, Mohr, who was born in Ripon, Wisc., and now lives in Highlandtown, has worked with various LGBT film festivals.

One of the delights of summer is the HBO documentary series executive producer Sheila Nevins delivers. I have only seen the first two films this year, but I like them both. I love "Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer," which launches the series at 9 tonight. It's a look inside the feminist Russian art collective, its "Punk Prayer" protest in a Moscow cathedral and the trial that followed. The film reminded me as nothing else has in the last 40 some years what it felt like to be 18 years old in 1968 and hear the siren call of a cultural revolution.

Film festivals do a heft amount of grandstanding about representing diverse perspectives and expanding the definition of cinema. But when it comes to LGBT characters and so-called queer cinema, the festival circuit has a mixed track record. Sure, the winning flick at this year's Cannes Film Festival -- the creme de la creme of the festival circuit -- was about a lesbian romance . But films depicting same-sex relationships often get swept into their own awards categories or themed sidebars, making them unlikely to get the exposure necessary to jump into American theaters.

There's no one way to describe Sabrina Chap -- and that's what we love about her. She's a musician and songwriter - her latest album, "We Are the Parade" boasts a title track about marriage equality. She often performs with burlesque and variety shows. And she plays a mean kazoo. "Someone once called me a mix of Julie Andrews and Divine, which I love," said the 35-year-old, whose real last name is Chapadjiev. "I've also gotten 'Tom Waits with a hint of Phyllis Diller. And though she lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., Chap has often performed in Baltimore for the past few years.

John Williams has won just about everything there is to win in the music industry, including a slew of Grammys, Golden Globes, Emmys and no less than five Academy Awards - his record of 48 Oscar nominations is second only to Walt Disney. If the 81-year-old composer, whose career encompasses the campy mid-'60s vintage TV series "Lost in Space" and last year's sobering, soaring movie "Lincoln," wanted to rest on his comfy stack of laurels, no one would blame him. But Williams remains as busy as ever with film projects, commissions for concert works and conducting gigs.

HBO's Liberace film "Behind the Candelabra" was the highest rated premiere of a movie in the last nine years on the premium cable channel. And that's covering some very impressive ground, like "Game Change" and "You Don't Know Jack," to name a couple of made-for-TV movies on HBO in recent years. The first showing of the film at 9 p.m. Sunday drew 2.4 million viewers, according to Deadline. The last time any film did better was in May of 2004, when "Something the Lord Made," which was filmed in Baltimore, premiered to 2.6 million.

Katherine L. Vaughns, a University of Maryland School of Law professor and secretary of the Center Stage board who immersed herself in the arts community, died of pancreatic cancer May 4 at a Sinai Hospital hospice unit. The Bolton Hill resident was 68. "She was a great, great citizen of Baltimore," said Jed Dietz, director of the Maryland Film Festival. "We dedicated the opening night of the Maryland Film Festival to her. She was the most perfect board member. She did more than you asked, often before you asked.

Friday Update : Filming is going to be delayed until further notice, Spike TV spokesman Salil Gulati said. Another nightlife cable show is coming to Baltimore. After IFC's " Young, Broke & Beautiful " and HDNet's " Drinking Made Easy ," the Spike TV show "Bar Rescue" will film at Fells Point's J.A. Murphy's this week. The show, a kind of "Kitchen Nightmares" for bars, helps upgrade "failing establishments. " Host Jon Taffer, a restaurant and bar consultant who has an "in-your-face style and renowned method of management called "Taffer Dynamics," gets involved with every aspect of a bar's business -  menus, interior design, staff -  to "transform outmoded bars into vibrant, profitable establishments," according to a press release from the network.

A Baltimore County police officer pleaded guilty to misconduct and agreed to resign after admitting to filming himself numerous times engaging in sex acts and neglecting to respond to calls while on duty. Aaron Z. Pross, 29, who had been assigned to the Pikesville Precinct, took more than 120 images and 20 videos engaging in sexual acts with himself, including one where he masturbated inside his patrol car while reports of "possible guns involved," can be heard over a police radio, prosecutors said.

It used to be that the Maryland Film Festival was just a cool neighborhood event for Courtney Knipp - a bunch of obscure movies being shown just up the street from her home in Mount Vernon. Not anymore, not with thousands of film fans massing in and around the Charles Theatre , watching movies - 127 this year - - and comparing notes with hundreds of filmmakers from all over the world. This tiny corner of the Station North Arts District becomes the center of the film universe for one weekend every May. And that is so cool by Knipp.