Gerard Butler hid his looks behind a mask and disfiguring makeup in The Phantom of the Opera. But onscreen in Dear Frankie, Butler shows sensitivity as well as quality. He plays a Scottish sailor hired by Lizzie (Emily Mortimer) to pretend he's the father of her son Frankie (Jake McElhone), a deaf nine-year-old living outside Glasgow who knows his crewman dad only from letters, delivered from an ever-traveling cargo ship. In truth, Lizzie writes the letters to protect Frankie from his dad's real identity. What could have been a sentimental train wreck emerges as a funny and touching portrait of three bruised people. First-time director Shona Auerbach refuses to blunt the edges of Andrea Gibb's script. A former photographer, Auerbach shows us the lived-in Scotland, not the postcard version. She does the same favor for the actors. Mortimer uncovers long-buried feelings in Lizzie. And Butler is quietly devastating in his scenes with McElhone, a real find. The film is unhurried, unslick and easy to hold dear.

“Oh Sherrie”

Steve Perry's girlfriend Sherrie Swafford was actually in the studio when Perry began writing this song--his lone Top Ten hit as a solo act--with two co-writers. The trio began at midnight one night with just "Oh, Sherrie!" and "hold on, hold on." Three hours later, they had a complete song. Swafford, however, had to wait until the next day to hear it. "Sherrie actually got tired and went to bed," Perry said. She also appeared in the video, but their relationship did not hold on for long.