The murder of Amie Harwick over the weekend reads like a Movie of the Week story from the ’70s or a bad Hart To Hart plot. She: a celebrity sex therapist based in Hollywood, former Playboy bunny, erstwhile fiancee of Drew Carey. Her assailant: ex-boyfriend against whom she’d twice taken out restraining orders who is also a photographer and, from the looks of him, knows his way around a steroid needle.

Last Saturday morning the boyfriend, Gareth Pursehouse, 41, allegedly broke into Harwick’s apartment in the Hollywood Hills. Neighbors heard screams. Then he allegedly tossed her off the third-floor balcony to her death.

Police have him in custody.

Just yesterday was reading about the murder of Sharon Tate in hills not far west in The Big Goodbye. I’m reminded of this essay I once read in (and wrote for) Newsweek. Then I’m reminded of this tweet from Better Call Saul executive producer Gennifer Hutchison, only a day or two ago:

Another victim of this crime, though self-inflicted: radio/TV gabber Wendy Williams, 54, who noted the murder on her TV show. She informed the audience of the details of the crime and that Harwick’s ex was Drew Carey, who hosts “The Price Is Right,” and then Williams, inexplicably, made a “Come on down” joke in reference to Harwick’s fall.

She’s still having a better morning than Mike Bloomberg, but…

To quote Huey Lewis in one of those BTTF films, “Gonna go back in time.” We began this project in 1939 and went forward, so now we’ll head in the other directions. Mostly uncharted waters for us, so we’ll let you know which ones we’ve seen and which ones we need to see.

1. The Adventures of Robin Hood: Buckle up your swash! This is the film that made Errol Flynn a screen legend. And it’s in color! Some actors deserve to be leading men. In like Flynn, indeed. This film and actor were the inspiration for the backstory in My Favorite Year some 40-plus years later.
2. Holiday: Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn fall in love a year before The Philadelphia Story. And Grant gets a chance to show off his acrobatic background.
3. Bringing Up Baby is the more celebrated film from this year that starred these Grant and Hepburn, but I prefer this No. 2. Still, there’s a great (for New Yorkers) line, when Grant charges into Hepburn’s apartment and notices she has a leopard for a roommate. “How can you live here?” he asks. “It’s rent-controlled,” she quips.
4. A Christmas Carol: The best of the lot. Not even close.

Haven’t seen, need to see: “Algiers” (the inspiration for Casablanca, right down to how they titled it), “Boys Town,” “The Lady Vanishes” (early Hitchcock film noir), “You Can’t Take It With You,” “Jezebel” (classic Bette Davis)

1. “I Pardon You” : President Trump pulls an Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes) from Schindler’s List, indiscriminately pardoning people. Of course the difference here is he’s not pardoning ill-fated Jews but white-collar grifters such as former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich and Eddie DeBartolo. Imagining he’ll pardon the Houston Astros tomorrow. Really enjoying this “Give Zero F*cks” phase of the Trump presidency. Corruption is the new black. It’ll only hasten the downfall, but at least he’s laying his cards on the table.
2. Coronavirus 2K: The coronavirus death toll tops 2,000 as China expels 3 Wall Street Journal reporters, who should perhaps considers themselves lucky.
3. The Big Goodbye: From the Medium Happy Readers’ Club. A just-released non-fiction history of the making of Chinatown and the three major names behind it: Robert Evans, Roman Polanski and Jack Nicholson. We just dove in a couple days ago and if you want to learn more about Hollywood of the late Sixties, you’ll love this. It’s sort of the cinematic spin on Echo In The Canyon. By Sam Wasson. Recommended.
4. Aubrey Huff ‘n Stuff: The San Francisco Giants tell Aubrey Huff, one of the key players on their 2010 World Series championship squad, that he’s not invited to their 10-year reunion. Bad move, Bay-bies. I don’t agree with just about anything that Huff tweets, but finding someone’s political or moral values offensive isn’t a valid enough reason for banishing him from this event. He’s not a criminal; he’s just MAGA.
5. Go! The NCAA is finalizing wording that will allow players to transfer and not have to sit out a year. Fine. The world won’t burn. This will mostly be utilized by quarterbacks who were already finding loopholes to avoid sitting a year. What I don’t know (because these stories mostly don’t hold my interest) is whether an SA may transfer before fall camp ends but before the semester begins and still play.

Okay, granted, this editorial is nearly 30 years old, but it still is worth a read. From an erstwhile high school and college schoolmate of William Barr.

The Attorney General grew up on the Upper West Side, not far from Medium Happy world HQ (so did Hollywood legend Robert Evans, by the way). What struck me here is that it didn’t take long to unearth that Barr is an alumnus of Horace Mann School in Riverdale, N.Y. (the nicest part of the Bronx, just across the Harlem River from the northern tip of Manhattan). Reading up on it, the school, founded in 1887, has a more noteworthy (and notorious) alumni roster than just about any university in the U.S.A. outside the Ivy League.

The MH Top Ten (in terms of notoriety AND fame) from Horace Mann:

10. Josh Molina, actor (The West Wing, other Sorkin projects)

9. Paul Zimmerman, a.k.a. Dr. Z, Sports Illustrated NFL guru

8. Eliot Spitzer, former governor and attorney general of New York

7. Ira Levin, author of Rosemary’s Baby and The Stepford Wives

6. Robert Caro: Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author, wrote The Power Broker

5. Renee Richards: pioneering transgender tennis player, doctor

4. William Carlos Williams, poet and medical doctor (“So much depends on the red wheelbarrow…”)

3. William Barr, Attorney General of the United States

2. Roy Cohn, lawyer and enabler of Joseph McCarthy and Donald Trump

1. Jack Kerouac, founder of the Beat generation

What now? To infinity and beyond? We may have an answer tomorrow so that we all don’t have to go cold turkey on cinema.

1. 1917: This must be the favorite movie of Tough Mudder types such as our friend Amelia Boone.
2. Ford V Ferrari: Loved Chris Rock’s line about this at the Oscars: “I own a Ford and a Ferrari—it’s no contest.”
3. Once Upon A Time In Hollywood: A better-than-average Tarantino film, which is to say it has plenty of magical scenes even if the story doesn’t hold entirely together for us. When Brad Pitt visits the Spahn Ranch, that’s the highlight of the film. And yes, that’s Laura Dern’s dad, Bruce, laying in bed as the invalid.
4. Parasite: Did it deserve all those Oscars? No. Did any film from this year? No. Not-So-Crazy Rich Asians Meet Crazy Poor Asians.
5. The Irishman: Skim at least an hour off this 3 1/2-hour Scorcese self-indulgence fest and you might’ve had a great film. Instead, it’s like watching an NFL game between two 9-7 squads.

Didn’t See, Wanna See: “JoJo Rabbit,” “American Factory,” “The Lighthouse.”