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Back in November 2007 Rose McGowan mentioned in our site exclusive Q&A that she would co-host The Essentials with Robert Osborne on Turner Classic Movies "Something I'm so excited to tell you is that I'm going to be co-hosting The Essentials with Robert Osborne on Turner Classic Movies (TCM). I'm beyond excited. To be discussing classic films with a brilliant film historian is a dream come true," she said. Rose became a movie fan at a young age, when she was growing up in an Italian commune. "It was a bunch of hippies and no money," McGowan told Robert Osborne during her 2007 stint as a TCM Guest Programmer. The commune didn't have a TV and, instead, relied on a cheap theater for entertainment. "I'm sure we went to one that would show three in a row for 25 cents, probably. They tended to be all old films."

TCM made the amazing news of Rose joining The Essentials official in early January 2008. McGowan says she was invited to co-host the The Essentials after being a Guest Programmer for TCM. "When they called me up to do this, I was just thrilled. I didn't even know I was going to get paid. I was so excited, I would have done it for free."

McGowan will take a chair opposite TCM host Robert Osborne, just as she did during TCM's Guest Programmer month in November 2007. Starting Saturday, March 8 at 8:00PM, Osborne and McGowan will introduce "must see" movies each week with an eye toward helping viewers better understand why these films are important and the impact they had on audiences and the culture at large.

"During our many shoots with Guest Programmers this year, we encountered a lot of celebrities who impressed us with their knowledge and love of classic film," said Tom Brown, vice president of original programming for TCM. "But Rose really stood out, because she was so passionate and insightful. We thought it would be great for her to share her passion with the audience by co-hosting The Essentials in 2008."

McGowan's first film as co-host of The Essentials will be Billy Wilder's serious-yet-comic classic The Apartment, which earned the Oscar for Best Picture of 1960. McGowan notes that Wilder is "the master of humorous loneliness." Other featured films will include Rebecca ("a great, atmospheric gothic-horror-romance," McGowan said); Paths of Glory ("not a war film, but a horror film about a man's ego"); Modern Times ("Chaplin is great at intertwining social commentary with physicality"); A Face in the Crowd (which stars Andy Griffith and is "a great example of why actors shouldn't be typecast"); Seven Brides for Seven Brothers ("a masculine film with great, subversive feminism"); and Woman of the Year ("proves you can be a feminist and still be a man").

Rose went through the movies while filming 50 Dead Men Walking in Ireland. "50 Dead Men Walking is a true story set in the late '80s about the (Irish Republican Army), and I play a woman who is in the highest level of the IRA, I went through about 40 movies in two days, but it was great because I'd do the movie and then go and watch a Doris Day film at night." She adds she's seen many of the classic films but "I had to go back and re-watch them with a different eye since I was going to be doing commentary on them."

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The Essentials airs Saturdays at 8:00PM ET on Turner Classic Movies

March 2008
3/8 The Apartment (View information)
3/15 The Music Box/Sons of the Desert (View information)
3/22 The Bad and the Beautiful (View information)
3/29 The Great Escape (View information)

April 2008
4/5 All About Eve
4/12 The Night of the Hunter
4/19 The Misfits
4/26 Paper Moon

May 2008
5/3 Rebecca
5/10 Now, Voyager
5/17 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
5/24 Paths of Glory
5/31 Psycho

June 2008
6/7 Fanny
6/14 A Face in the Crowd
6/21 Seven Samurai
6/28 The Spiral Staircase

July 2008
7/5 3:10 to Yuma
7/12 The Postman Always Rings Twice
7/19 You Can't Take it With You
7/26 The Bad and the Beautiful

August 2008
8/2 Modern Times
8/9 The Apartment
8/16 Swing Time
8/23 The Music Box/Sons of the Desert
8/30 Woman of the Year

September 2008
9/6 The Night of the Hunter
9/13 The Misfits
9/20 Witness for the Prosecution
9/27 Paper Moon

October 2008
10/4 Now, Voyager
10/11 Rebecca
10/18 The Great Escape
10/25 Psycho

November 2008
11/1 A Face in the Crowd
11/8 The Spiral Staircase
11/15 Paths of Glory
11/22 Fanny
11/29 The Postman Always Rings Twice

December 2008
12/6 Swing Time
12/13 3:10 to Yuma
12/20 You Can't Take it With You
12/27 Woman of the Year

January 2009
1/3 Modern Times
1/10 Dinner at Eight
1/17 Sweet Smell of Success
1/24 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
1/31 Witness for the Prosecution