Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw talks about her new book, ‘Backtalker’
NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with legal theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw about her new memoir “Backtalker.”
Napheesa Collier says her critique of the WNBA was ‘a little dramatic,’ but it worked
NPR’s Steve Inskeep asks WNBA star Napheesa Collier about the league’s new contract with the players, and the state of women’s sports.
Scott Turow’s latest real-life legal thriller: Suing Meta for copyright infringement
Five major publishing houses and the bestselling author are suing Meta and its CEO Mark Zuckerberg for allegedly training its Llama generative AI models on millions of copyrighted materials.
Milly Vitale: The Radiant Grace of Italian Cinema
Milly Vitale (1933–2006) was a radiant star of the post-war Italian cinema era, cherished for her delicate beauty and versatile acting range. Emerging during the height of the Hollywood-on-the-Tiber period, she became one of the few Italian actresses of her generation to successfully cross over into international productions.
Vitale is perhaps best remembered by global audiences for her poignant role in the 1955 musical film The Seven Little Foys, where she starred alongside Bob Hope. With her expressive eyes and graceful screen presence, she effortlessly transitioned between lighthearted comedies and intense dramas, embodying the elegance and resilience of 1950s womanhood.
Though she retired relatively early from the spotlight to focus on her personal life, Milly Vitale remains a beloved figure of Italy’s golden age of film, a luminous talent whose charm continues to captivate vintage cinema enthusiasts today. Explore these vintage portraits to rediscover the captivating allure of Milly Vitale, a true pioneer of the Italian crossover era.
Michelle Pfeiffer at the Miss California Beauty Pageant in 1978
Did you know that Michelle Pfeiffer was in beauty pageants once upon a time? She won the Miss Orange County beauty pageant in 1978 and finished sixth in the Miss California contest the same year. After her appearances in these pageants, Pfeiffer acquired an agent and began to audition for television and film roles.
Before she was an Academy Award-nominated actress and a Hollywood icon, 19-year-old Michelle Pfeiffer used the pageant circuit as a stepping stone to break into the industry.
In 1978, she competed in the Miss California pageant held at the Magic Mountain theme park in Valencia. While she didn’t take home the top crown, her participation was a pivotal moment in her early career.
She qualified for Miss California after winning the Miss Orange County title earlier that year. She ultimately finished in sixth place but was awarded the title of Miss Photogenic.
Pfeiffer famously entered the contest because one of the judges was a Hollywood agent. Her plan worked; the exposure helped her land her first agent, leading to her television debut later that year in an episode of Fantasy Island. At the time of the pageant, she was a student at Golden West College and worked as a check-out clerk at a Vons supermarket.
In a strange twist of Hollywood fate, the 1954 Miss California winner, Lee Meriwether, also went on to play Catwoman (in the 1966 Batman film), a role Pfeiffer would redefine decades later in Batman Returns (1992).
Pfeiffer has often looked back on her pageant days with a mix of humor and humility, noting that she initially viewed it as a practical way to bypass the “waiting in line” phase of pursuing an acting career. “I needed to learn how to act… in the meantime, I was playing bimbos and cashing in on my looks.”