Cher joins Robert Osborne for TCM’s Friday Night Spotlight

Cher isn’t often an opening act, but in this case she’s obviously OK with it. On Friday she’ll join Robert Osborne to help kick off TCM‘s new weekly film showcase Friday Night Spotlight. She’ll introduce a collection of films built around a certain theme, and will be featured each Friday this month.

Cher, Robert Osborne host TCM Friday Night SpotlightThe overall theme this month is “A Woman’s World: The Defining Era of Women in Film,” and feature such classics as Mildred Pierce, The Best Years of Our Lives, His Girl Friday and The Women.

It’s a very busy time for Cher, as the celebrated singer and Academy Award-winning actress also is executive-producing and starring in a Lifetime documentary about her mother, Georgia Holt, called Dear Mom, Love Cher. But she doesn’t seem to mind this addition to her workload, absolutely glowing about her TCM gig in a statement.

“Working with Robert isn’t like working at all!” she says. “We can’t stop taking about the classics and obscure golden oldies. We talk though the breaks while they move the cameras, check the lighting and do the touch-ups. I can’t stop when it comes to the subject of old films, and then I get Robert going and then the crew and director finally say, ‘Ahh Cher? We have a show to do.’ Robert and I laugh and become gown-ups again. We don’t work. We play every Friday night in April! Come have fun with us.”

Here is the lineup for the April editions of Friday Night Spotlight:

Friday, April 5 
Theme: Motherhood
8pm — Mildred Pierce (1945)
10pm — Stella Dallas  (1937)
Midnight — Penny Serenade (1941)
2:15am — Bachelor Mother (1939)

Friday, April 12
Theme: War Effort and the Homefront
8pm — So Proudly We Hail (1943)
10:15pm — Since You Went Away (1944)
1:15am — The White Cliffs of Dover (1944)
3:30am — Three Came Home (1950)
5:30am — The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Friday, April 19
Theme: Working Women
8pm — His Girl Friday (1940)
10pm — Woman of the Year (1942)
Midnight — Tender Comrade (1943)
2am — The Devil and Miss Jones (1941)

Friday, April 26
Theme: Women Taking Charge
8pm — The Great Lie (1941)
10pm — Kitty Foyle (1940)
Midnight — The Palm Beach Story (1942)
1:45am — The Women (1939)

Photo: © 2012 TBS, Inc.