In August we're doing something we've never done before on TCM, not once in the nine-plus years since we launched what Washington Post critic Tom Shales has called "the best cable channel in the known universe." (Thanks, Tom.) Each month, we usually do an extensive salute to one star (Greer Garson was our first honoree, in July '94, but in August we're toasting 31, count 'em, 31, of Hollywood's most revered heavyweights. A different star will bask in the spotlight for a full 24 hours. And we'll be running not only the films that best define the star - on August 26, for example, we feature Lana Turner in The Postman Always Rings Twice and The Bad and the Beautiful - add extra spice, we're also including some of the more obscure, if no less interesting, films made by each celebrity. (In Turner's case that would be her 1945 film Keep Your Powder Dry, in which, unusual for one of Lana's movies, both men and glamour are virtually non-existent, and the actress keeps her curves covered in a WWII Women's Army Corps uniform.) On August 4 we will present 24 hours of Joan Crawford. Among the 12 Crawford films we'll be showing are such perennial Crawford pleasers as The Women, Mildred Pierce and Humoresque, but also on the schedule is an obscure silent film she made in 1926, directed by William A. Wellman, called The Boob. (That word had a far different meaning 77 years ago than it does today.) On August 29 when we have Paul Newman in our spotlight, we'll be showing such Newman essentials as Sweet Bird of Youth, Cool Hand Luke and The Color of Money as well as the rarely-seen The Rack, a 1956 drama that was only the second film he made. (Newman made his debut in the 1954 Biblical hodgepodge The Silver Chalice; The Rack was filmed before, but released after, 1956's Somebody Up There Likes Me.) And who among us has had the chance to see the 1978 film version of Ibsen's An Enemy of the People starring Steve McQueen? It's a movie Steve insisted on doing because the character he played offered him a great acting stretch and was far from the type of role "Hollywood's coolest dude" usually portrayed. (Enemy turned out to be so far from what his fans wanted and expected, that few theaters booked the film, and even fewer people saw it. This response occurred at a time when McQueen was regularly listed among the industry's top five box-office "guarantees.") The controversial Enemy is but one of the 11 movies we'll be showing alongside The Magnificent Seven and The Great Escape during our McQueen mini-marathon on August 16. So, in a nutshell, it'll be great stars and great films mixed with great surprises all month long. It's a festival designed for all of us who can never get enough of Bogie and Bacall in The Big Sleep, or Marilyn and the boys in Some Like It Hot, or Clint in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly while, at the same time, offering the chance to see the only film Charles Laughton ever directed (The Night of the Hunter, airing August 6), the only film Gary Cooper ever produced (Along Came Jones, showing on August 13), the first film in which Gregory Peck appeared (Days of Glory, August 19), the final musical starring Doris Day (Billy Rose's Jumbo, August 30) and the only major studio project released without a director listed anywhere in the credits (MGM's Desire Me, showing August 6). Why was no director acknowledged? That, as they say, is another story - just one of many I'll be sharing with you as our star-packed month of August rolls on.