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...Stanley Donen died a week ago, and...was the last surviving major director of the Golden Age, mainly because he was barely out of short pants when he started. His films include On The Town, Singin' In The Rain, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, Indiscreet, Charade and Two for the Road. He started out directing Sinatra, Astaire, Gene Kelly, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, and hung in there long enough to direct Lionel Richie, Bruce Willis, Demi Moore (topless), and Michael Jackson (for a Jekyll & Hyde adaptation aborted after the child-molestation charges). And, speaking of the Oscars, the last magical moment...

Stanley Donen, the director of Singin’ in the Rain and other Hollywood classics, has died. He was 94. Singin’ in the Rain, from 1952, starred Gene Kelly and became a mainstay of popular culture. Donen was also a choreographer. Among other films he directed were the musicals On the Town (1949, starring Kelly and Frank Sinatra), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and Funny Face (1957), starring Fred Astaire and Audrey Hepburn.