Golden Globe winner Drew Barrymore will slide into the red leather chair opposite Robert Osborne for the first time beginning March 3 when Turner Classic Movies debuts Season 12 of “The Essentials” with an airing of Billy Wilder‘s iconic 1959 comedy “Some Like It Hot” and a late night presentation of Rob Reiner‘s 1985 cult classic “This is Spinal Tap.” Praises Barrymore of the heavy metal musical satire: “I couldn’t believe how groundbreaking this film was with its mockumentary style. They’re really having this perfect improv. I just appreciate it more and more and more and more.”
The line-up of films Barrymore and Osborne selected for the weekly Saturday 8 p.m. series is, ahem, eclectic to be sure. Among the flicks featured in the 2012 edition of The Essentials? The 1927 silent era “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans,” a pair of Richard Dreyfuss flicks from the 1977, “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and interestingly, Neil Simon‘s “The Goodbye Girl,” 1936’s “Camille,” 1953’s “The Band Wagon” and three more late-night editions of “The Essentials” featuring 1979’s “Kramer vs. Kramer,” 1969’s “The Wild Bunch” and 1985’s “Lost in America.”
And as Osborne promised when he chatted with Atlanta magazine last fall, the pair also selects director George Cukor‘s 1933’s “Dinner at Eight” starring Barrymore’s grandfather John Barrymore and great uncle Lionel Barrymore, giving Barrymore an excuse to dish on her famous film family’s history in Hollywood. Touts Osborne on the new season of “The Essentials,” “We’re thrilled Drew will be joining us throughout 2012. I think she’s going to surprise people with her passion for great cinema and her abundant knowledge of film history.”
