Film Experience Blog

A weekly box office series, in beta, to see if we like. To remind you that you're here and not elsewhere and we can't just do things normally, we'll come at it from weird angles when we can.

Jeff Bridges stars in TRON GRIT

1. Little Fockers $30 NEW
2. True Grit $24.8 NEW
3. Tron Legacy $19.5 (cumulative: $87.3)
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader $9.4 (cumulative: $62.5)
5. Yogi Bear $7.8 (cumulative: $35.8)
6. The Fighter $7.6 (cumulative: $26.6)
7. Tangled $6.4 (cumulative: $143.6)
8. Gulliver's Travel $6.3 NEW 
9. Black Swan $6.2 (cumulative: $28.6)
10. The Tourist $5.4 (cumulative: $40.8)
11. The King's Speech $4.4 (cumulative: $8.3)
12. How Do You Know $3.5 (cumulative: $15)

With Little Fockers and True Grit topping the charts and we experience an unexpected flashback. Bridges & Babs haven't dipped into the top box office together since The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996). And this time Jeff is double-dipping.

♪ this is it... OHHHH i finally found someone... someone to share my life ♪♫

The first thing to note is that Jeff Bridges is hogging the higher altitudes of the chart as both True Grit's grizzled Rooster Cogburn and the god/father figure for Garret Hedlund (and cross-generational computer geeks) in Tron Legacy. I haven't seen the latter picture but it's good to see Bridges back in sleeker form again after those last two sloshed rundown beer-bellied men in Grit and Crazy Heart. The new old western is is now the Coen Bros' best opening narrowly beating Burn After Reading (2008) which, had almost exactly the same budget but more stars to sell itself with. No Country For Old Men (2007) is their highest grosser though. Will Grit surpass it?

art by Daniel Foez

Couple other things.

• You'd think the Narnia series would die as its box office descends with each film but it's still popular globally and the budget on this one dropped considerably. Does it show?
• Christmas was the first wide weekend for The King's Speech, arguably the only major film relying entirely on Oscar buzz to sell tickets. (You can't really count the films that have barely even tried to open and they are unfortunately many.)
• Tangled is holding well, despite losing some theaters to Christmas fare, demonstrating long legs to accessorize that golden hair. It'll need them. For some reason it cost $260 to make -- which is at quite a bit more expensive than the three animated films which have outgrossed it this year. Was it the frequent retooling that made it that expensive? It'll presumably be awhile before profits once you factor in marketing costs.

Speaking of animated fairytales... Does anyone else remember The Last Unicorn? Is that even on DVD? Here's Jeff Bridges (as the charming Prince) serenading/romancing Mia Farrow (the unicorn)



 It's not some sick interspecies romance because somehow she's a beautiful woman and not just a unicorn. No, I don't remember the story at all.

1. The Mirror Has Two Faces? Go. (even if you haven't seen it you MUST read this awesome review of it by Glenn at Stale Popcorn. It's laugh out loud funny)
2. Aren't you glad Jeff's musical talents improved before The Fabulous Baker Boys and Crazy Heart?
3. What did you see over Christmas?

Barbra Streisand

Here it is, in all its hot honey glory


I wish I liked Christina Aguilera more because I am so thankful that we'll have a musical to enjoy in the movie theaters this year. But still... CHER.

This photo begs the question, though...
The Hand Bra: Who wore it best?

...Oscar winner Francis Ford Coppola who will receive the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award for producing, iconoclast and French new wave legend Jean-Luc Godard (I'm guessing he won't show) and two Emmy winners, actor Eli Wallach and film historian/preservationist Kevin Brownlow.

Perhaps no one is receiving the Jean Hersholt Huminatarian Award this year and all three of those men are just the standard "Honorary Oscar"? Pity that the reports aren't specific on this detail. Brownlow is the name I wasn't familiar with. His career is a mixture of television work, film history, restoration work and documentaries.

...unfortunately you won't get to hear these accomplished men giving speeches about their life's work and the cinema. Again.

The Academy is still operating on that "Keep the old folks away from the stage! Get Miley Cyrus" edict from god knows when. Never mind that The Mileys (i.e. all celebrities who have no real business being at the Oscars because they have precious little to do with the art and glamour of either current movies or legendary ones) didn't turn the Oscar ratings around. The positive spin is that these presentations at the Governor's Awards on November 13th will be more like Oscar nights of old, parties to celebrity peers without those pesky commercial breaks, and merciless 45 second time limits on speeches. But honestly, if they're going to keep making the town's legends celebrate off camera as if they've expired -- what is this Logan's Run? -- they should at least let them collectively present Best Picture each year. Or something. Lord knows Oscar needs a new thinktank when it comes to Best Picture presentations. I mean, even after I gave them a detailed and sound argument that they have no imagination in this realm -- I even helped them with household name suggestions! -- they ignored me and went with Tom Hanks. Again.

I mean just once, Academy, try a legendary Actress. It's been 20 years since you let an Actress do it on her own (Barbra Streisand) and that was even an actress who you've let do it again since with a man. Why are you so stuck and repetitive? And if you're that stuck and you simply must pull from your list of "people who've done it before," pony up and ship Olivia de Havilland over from France for a real shocker.

My longwinded point is this: It better be an actress this year, since you went with all men for your honorary prizes. Here's a helpful reminder of living actresses -- some of them Oscar winners -- who have not presented Best Picture and who the general public would recognize.


That's what's called "scratching the surface"
You're welcome.

I could totally go on. Especially if you were willing to consider people who the public would recognize after a few seconds of "oh, yeah, right her. She's important!"
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Stale Popcorn Glenn surveys the 19 eligible films for the Australian Oscars.
I Need My Fix Jane Lynch gets a wax figure. Glee has now officially taken over the world. Watch it take over the Emmys next.
Hot Blog in depth Sissy Spacek interview. Goes all the way back to the early years.

I didn't work until I was 20. I just looked like I was 13.

HKMDB Daily Stills from the Chinese remake of What Women Want with superstars Gong Li & Andy Lau
Towleroad Jennifer Aniston as Barbra Streisand? People...


Scanners looks at how the reviews of Salt deal with Angelina Jolie's super-sized star persona
Box Office Mojo some release date shifts for Disney and two cancellations. Is the Beauty & The Beast 3D death another sign that 3D is over? If so, YAY! B&tB is perfect as is thankyouverymuch.
His Eyes Were Watching Movies Volver collects another fan. I honestly think that movie will continue to do so until it's regarded as one of Almodóvar's very best. Because it so is.
That Obscure Object old paparazzi photos sometimes freak me out. This is the Thelma & Louise stars: Susan, Geena and Brad. Ah, sweet bird of 1991 youth.
Empire when I read the capsule header or this article about Dolphin Tale starring Ashley Judd, Harry Connick Jr and Morgan Freeman -- that cast! -- I actually thought I had clicked on the wrong link and gone back to an article from the 1990s. True story, I did.
Low Resolution Have you read Joe's entertaining & thought provoking personal Emmy ballots? You should.

I'm a dancer!
One more round of applause for the "best shot" participants in case you missed their entries: the neon gynecology, the phallic solar plexus, the starry eyes, the sabotage, the makeup and the vomiting dolphin.

must read contemporary post of the day
Op-Ed Maureen Dowd and Sam Wasson, the author of that Breakfast at Tiffany's book discuss the sorry wrist-slitting state of the romantic comedy. They name names. Wonderful discussion. I just may read it again and buy Wasson's book.

must read retrospective post of the day
Nick's Flick Picks reviews James Cameron's The Abyss (1989). As per usual his insights are totally invigorating. He always makes me want to see movies again. You can miss so much. I love this bit on Ed Harris

Harris, whose charisma, gaze, and body were like a periodic table of virile emotion during this period in his career, is tremendously moving throughout this key sequence, and really throughout the movie.

"A periodic table of virile emotion"...god, what a gorgeous distillation of Ed Harris. When is his honorary Oscar coming (since the real thing seems ever out of reach)?

"Hello Gorgeous!"

Barbra Streisand turned 68 yesterday. I thought we'd celebrate with posters for every movie she ever made. Because we're crazy like that. And it's fun to see someone's complete cinematic history all displayed like so.





Babs is still one of the most famous people on the planet but I'm guessing that younger generations have quite the incomplete picture of her career. I'm guessing that that picture hangs in an old fashioned frame and shows the diva in a turtleneck sweater. Somehow her expression conveys stifling self regard, political activism and mega-wealth all at once.

But when I think of Babs, I laugh. Not at her but with her. Back in the day -- before most of us were attending the movies regularly (myself included) or even alive yet (myself not included) -- she was a corker of a comic actress. She could also swing dramatic as memorably as she could change keys. But if you peruse the posters above it seems clear that her giant movie stardom shrank just as soon as she swung dramatic in a permanent sort of way.

Questions for you

• How many of her 17 pictures have you seen?
• Isn't it weird that major stars never used to take supporting roles and now they all do?
• What's your favorite Streisand performance?
  

Babs is making a now rare return to the big screen this winter in the Meet the Fockers sequel. Will you see it?

For the final podcast, the original gang is back together: Nick, Joe, Katey and yours truly, Nathaniel. We'll be back soon for a new season but this time we close out the film year with the final discussion of Oscar's 2009/10 hoedown throwdown. You can download the podcast through Mediafire or Rapidshare. We're quite gabby this time (72 minutes) so bear with us as we pick apart the Oscar ceremony in our usual train-of-thought manner. Among the topics:

• Neil Patrick Harris's opening number. Did it really happen?
• George Clooney escape from his famous attractiveness
• Secret love for Hope Floats
• Smug and sour bitches
  
• Up in the Air's shutout and Jason Reitman's Oscar future
  
• Barbra Streisand's diva shit
• Can loving Gabourey Sidibe be wrong when it feels so right?
  
• Avatar in 20 years. Did the Academy dodge a bullet?
• Shouldn't all of the acting presentations have been famous duos rather than current co-stars (like Pfeiffer & Bridges)?
• Hidden satirical messages
  
• Nick's competing Precious allegiances
• Navigating the difficult post-Oscar period
  

Once you're done listening, continue the conversation right here. Are you glad "the ten" is booked for at least three years?

Previous Oscar Night Reviews: Fashion | Party Fashions | Tribeca Review | Best Moments | Worst Moments | Lingering Questions | Lingering (Gay) Questions | Hug it Out With Jeremy Renner | 'The Money Shot'

Jose here to commemorate Fanny Brice's birthday. The extravagant comedienne would've turned 118 today. Yes, seriously, watching her energy in films like The Great Ziegfeld (where she played herself) or listening to her vibrant musical performances it's easy to think that this woman could've lived forever.

A New Yorker born from Hungarian parents, she made a way for herself in the burlesque world and later by her association with Florenz Ziegfeld. She became a huge musical star and a popular radio personality with her Baby Snooks character.

But what remains fascinating about Brice is that she pulled off an enviable career using raw talent. Would someone like her fit in our current notions of what makes an entertainer appealing?

Sure her life was plagued with scandal (her marriage to Nicky Arnstein wasn't as tragically romantic as pop culture has us think) and that would've fit wonderfully in our tabloid loving society. But in an industry that has shifted towards the shallow, what do you think Brice would be doing if she had appeared this decade? She would've probably been relegated to supporting performances and deemed a "character actor" and her musical career would've been stalled because she wouldn't have looked good in a thong.

Casting the brilliant Barbra Streisand as Brice in Funny Girl (which brought her a much deserved Oscar for best Actress) and Funny Lady, was one of those rare moments of Hollywood genius where you can argue everything works for the best. Sure the movies are plagued with romantic fiction and invented plot twists, but as far as star charisma and talent go, Brice, and Streisand now, are in a league of their own.

Occasionally I'll look through my 'labels' in the internal machinery of this blog and think "my god! I never talk about [insert actor's name here]. Why? What's wrong with me?!?" Yesterday was such a day. The great Madeline Kahn would have celebrated her 67th birthday had she not left us far too soon, ten years ago in fact. Sniffle.


Team Experience
So, with fond memories of the genius comedienne on my mind, I asked a couple of my guest bloggers to tell me they're favorite Madeline Kahn moments. I need help you see. Obviously I haven't expressed enough love for her right here on my own. The damning evidence: No label before today.

Jose from Movies Kick Ass perked right up at the mention of her name:

Even if she was Oscar nominated two years in a row (for two comedies! One made by Mel Brooks!) my favorite thing Kahn did was her uptight, annoying Eunice in Peter Bogdanovich's What's Up Doc? Her exchanges with Babs are terrific and how she kept a straight face is miraculous. When she has gone through all the screwball hell Streisand subjects her to-including mistaken identity- it's priceless to hear her declare "I am not "A" Eunice Burns, I am "THE" Eunice Burns!" Only she could make disdain so funny and even lovable.

Everyone falls in love with Barbra Streisand in that movie. You're not supposed to root for Madeline Kahn's character but you simply can't go against her.

Glenn from Stale Popcorn starts down a familiar path and switches course

Is it too cliched if I say "Flames... on the side of my face," from Clue? It probably is, isn't it? However, if I truly must choose something that not every blogger in the known universe as quoted at some time or another, then I will go with Kahn's performance in History of the World: Part I. Her Empress Nympho is almost (repeat: ALMOST) as quotable as her Mrs White. If I had to choose just one moment though it would be her hilarious reading of "MY TITS ARE FALLING OFF!"

Kahn had such a way with line delivery, didn't she? I haven't seen it, but I'm sure she even got a few choice lines in when she did voice work in My Little Pony: The Movie. Oh yes, I'm sure she did!

Oh please, Glenn. You totally own that DVD. ;)

For my part, I always claim that my favorite Kahn lady is "Trixie Delight" in Paper Moon. Come to think of it, I bet Kahn's filmography rivals anyone's as character names go. Think about it: Eunice Burns, Empress Nympho, Lola Hopper, Lili Von Schtupp, Victoria Brisbane, Mrs. White, El Sleazo Patron, Estie Del Ruth, Trixie Delight. You need a fearlessly big talent to create characters worth of those monikers.



So, I always say it's my favorite but the competition is stiff and in truth I haven't seen Paper Moon since I was, like, 15. It's definitely time to revisit.

Paper Moon was only Kahn's second feature film but it brought her the first of two consecutive Oscar nominations. She lost to her co-star Tatum O'Neal, the lead who was slumming in the supporting category since she was only 10 at the time. O'Neal remains the youngest Oscar winner ever and her performance was a thing of natural beauty. But history-wise it still makes me a little sad for Madeline. Do you think she was jealous?


What's your favorite Madeline Kahn performance?
And have you, like so many of us, quoted "flames... ", more times than you can count?
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Robert Redford is in the air. He hasn't dissolved into something atmospheric (stop being so literal!) but his name keeps turning up. Last week his two early sexually fluid performances opposite Natalie Wood (This Property is Condemned and Inside Daisy Clover) were playing here in New York and next month in Brooklyn BAM Cinema hosts a retrospective. It culminates on September 13th with four films and the Sundance Kid himself in person. For whatever reason they've narrowed down the final four to Redford as romantic figure, often paired with true giants among actresses.

On the last day they're screening...

• Out of Africa (1985) The Best Picture winning bio in which Redford can't be tamed by Meryl Streep's author/heroine but gladly offers up shampoo and stud services.
  
• The Natural (1984) this prestige pic is a mythic baseball drama. Redford and cast are bathed in Caleb Deschanel lensed sunshine and the lovely ladies include then rising stars Barbara Hershey, Glenn Close (Oscar nominated here... though I'm still not sure why) and Kim Basinger.
  
• The Electric Horseman (1979) Redford and Jane Fonda fall in love at the rodeo. And compete in a Best Feathered Hair competition.
  
• The Way We Were (1973) in which Barba Streisand falls hard for Redford but McCarthy era Hollywood tears them apart
  

Here's the difficult part: You can only choose one. They screen simultaneously, somewhat staggered due to running times, and then the man himself appears to talk about his career to the moviegoing crowd. I'm tempted to go Horseman (the only one I haven't seen) but The Way We Were is easily my favorite among those films. It's so underrated and much more expansive than its veneration as Classic Chick Flick suggests. If you ask me, Barbra Streisand deserved the Oscar in 73. Her chemistry with Redford is every bit as remarkable as you've heard. No wonder Carrie Bradshaw obsessed so.
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For you I'm strong.
I can't do without'cha
Howcha magoucha?
Don't stay too long.
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Collections ~ It's Tuesday so there are new box sets available highlighting everything from tired hockey masked killers (you know who) to highly respected thespians (Peter Sellers and Alec Guiness) but the big ... make that B-I-G... deal for The Film Experience is the "Natalie Wood Collection" which includes six films. I haven't seen Bombers B-52 or Cash McCall but even if they're bad you still get to stare at her for two hours. Her beauty justifies most any running time.


The other four are more notable players in her filmography. There's the Edith Head costumed Helen Gurley Brown comedy Sex and the Single Girl (1964) and two true classics: the musical Gypsy (1962) and the legendary 'Warren Beatty Destroys Lives!' teen angst of the unbeatable Splendor in the Grass (1961). Adventurous movie fanatics might be most interested in getting a good long look at the underseen and idiosyncratic inside Hollywood drama Inside Daisy Clover (1965) from director Robert Mulligan (To Kill a Mockingbird). Natalie, 27 when the film was released, was too old for her role as an ascending teenage starlet, but Robert Redford is just right as her undeniably breathtaking but possibly gay lover. Ruth Gordon is her crazy mama (and strangely Oscar nominated though she's barely in the movie). Inside Daisy Clover's true Best Supporting Actress is Katharine Bard (someone I'd never heard of) who plays a slightly "off" Hollywood wife named Melora Swan. I was riveted every time she appeared. She was apparently a television actress and only made two feature films after this one. I guess nobody noticed how terrific she was. Shame.

From the Vaults ~ Being There (30th Anniversary) is sitting on my TV waiting for me to screen. I love Hal Ashby movies and I've never seen it. Oops. It stars Peter Sellers as a gardener who becomes a political advisor. Shirley Maclaine co-stars and they get Oscar winning support from Melvyn Douglas. When I wrote up that piece on The Little Mermaid two years ago, Bruno Paxton reminded me that I was giving it a teensy bit too much credit as THE comeback for Disney animation since Oliver and Company was a hit the year before. So yeah, 20th anniversary DVD for that cute 2D kitten. Finally Babs somehow found the time to return to her musical Yentl for an "Extended Directors Edition". Would that she would return to acting instead.

Newbies ~ Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist in which Michael Cera moves on from Juno (not the town in Alaska) and into Kat Dennings. Sweet funny movie with stellar comedic support from Ari Graynor. Can I see her in another movie NOW (previous posts)? There's also the Southern girl-fest The Secret Life of Bees starring actresses Queen Latifah, Sophie Okonedo and Dakota Fanning and singers Jennifer Hudson and Alicia Keys, Space Buddies which I'd really rather not type about... moving on! And Zack and Miri Make a Porno which I have yet to see. Worth a rental? Help me out.
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updated to correct box office errors & bring up to date to Nov 30th

With Twilight, the high school vampire romance, opening to huge box office, various websites are talking about director Catherine Hardwicke's "achievement". For the most part I hate the notion that box office is an achievement (maybe it is but it's no meritocracy) or that it's directly attributable to any one person involved. This is how many movie stars end up with oversized paychecks that they're rarely able to live up to (result = backlash). It's how many directors of questionable talent continue to get major gigs (consider the careers of Brett Rattner, Chris Columbus, et al) because they're smart enough to attach themselves to can't miss franchises. What I'm saying is this: I could've directed Twilight and it would've still opened to $69 million. My version would've changed a few things:

• A better wig for Taylor Lautner.
• No clothed scenes whatsoever for Cam Gigandet.
• Less boring ass moping/whining from Kristen Stewart (who may never be able to live that hospital scene down. That was the best take!? Ouch)
  
• Extra scenes that aren't in the book so that something happens besides stare-downs. My cat might love this movie
  
• More shirtless scenes for Edward... but not in the sunlight because I hate that stupid skin twinkle effect.

Come to think of it, I hated all of the effects in the movie. Yeah, I definitely would've fired some people. I can't recall the last time a movie with special effects this cheesy opened huge. Was it Van Helsing? Generally speaking blockbusters have top notch special effects even if they're dramaturgically challenged.


I'm joking of course (somewhat?). Catherine Hardwicke undoubtedly made a better film than I could have but her skills have nothing whatsoever to do with the box office. And while I thought this vampire yarn shabbily directed I suppose she'll always have the stunning and appropriately histrionic 13 as a first and more deserving claim to fame.

Enough boring ass moping/whining Nathaniel. Get to the list!


runners up

In an effort to expand my viewing habits, I decided to participate in the popular monthly horror event known as Final Girl's Film Club. Horror is the one genre I just about never watch so with stretching in mind I set out to view The Car (1977). Here I am trying to watch it with a tight deadline and something is wrong. The first image I see is a frozen looping one of Jamie Bell leaping onto the screen. Over and over again he joyously bounces and freezes. I'm quite content to watch Billy entering a frame but unless he's about to get run over by a killer car, something is wrong with this DVD. I attempt to skip ahead and I see only these static images for the first few minutes...


I can hear the soundtrack in fits and starts. Scary music plays and then I guess (can't quite see it) these bikers cycle their teen selves into a dark tunnel. When scary music is playing one must never enter dark places! Don't actors ever learn? Later I hear car sounds and and see a bicycle wheel. The kids are obviously still alive and probably outside the tunnel but something must be wrong: screaming can be heard. And then the damn DVD force quits. It's like my Mac knows that I'm a wuss and that even a PG horror movie might be more than I can handle.

I'm going to guess that the kids got run over. And then maybe the title appeared? If you've seen the film perhaps you can tell me how close I am.

Trying again...

[audio] indecipherable voices male and female [video] a woman with a blue robe --where are her hands? OMG where are her handsssssss!?! [audio] doors slamming shut [video] doors wide open in the frame! How creepy [audio] birds chirping [video] trees with (probably fake) foliage.

This movie is so abstract.

My fourth attempt.

James Brolin naked!?? I'm catching just this one frame glimpse. Am I missing 70s era nudity here or is he just wearing low riders? 70s nudity is the best. It's so real. No body doubles or surgically inflated parts. If I'm missing dangly Brolin Bits I am going to feel very cheated by and angry with Netflix right now.

This DVD I have cleaned and polished but it just ain't gonna play. I can't even view the trailer without static frame choppiness. I'm left with fleeting images of Brolin with his police officers. Brolin with mustachioed face. Brolin face-offs out in the desert with a gun. James Brolin might just be up against something primordial, supernatural... something unidentifiable EVIL. It's all very Llewelyn Moss vs. Anton Chigurh actually (well it is to me since I can't watch the movie). I can't ever see this car for more than two seconds so for all I know its license place reads BARDEM.


The only other thing I see is lots of shots of an ominous black car. Its windows are either dusted over or they're fully blackened out which is very Near Dark --are there vampires inside? I have no idea what this movie is about other than Brolin is a cop and he's being haunted by a black car that likes to rev its engines and (presumably) run people over... though I have no proof of this.

At one point I see a very brief fleeting image of Brolin superimposed with the grill on the front of the car (what's that called again? What? I don't drive. I live in NY where driving is utterly foolish. You can get everywhere faster on the train and cabs are just as dangerous as The Car) Confronted with this unintended double image, my mind races to Psycho and that final shot of Norma Bates and "Mother". And then the only thing I can think of is 'James Brolin is married to Barbra Streisand!' It's one of those common knowledge celebrity trivia that I always forget until something reminds me. That's Nuts, I know... but the faulty disc is playing headgames with me.


Babs was totally loveable in her 70s era incarnation so I don't mean to equate her with vehicular manslaughter. I can't help where my movie addled brain goes. Yet if Barbra Streisand were to psychically possess a car with murderous intention, I doubt that her hubby would be her chosen target. I'm thinking more along the lines of...


They'd better start running.

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Now, go to Final Girl for more from bloggers who were actually able to sit through this 70s picture. And if you like group activities, check out the first edition of the Musical of the Month. Any blog that participates will help determine September's Musical.
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navel gazing averse readers please ignore this post. I beg you. Thank you, -the management.

Is the blog too gay to function lately? Too superhero clogged? I tend to follow my moods but I worry that the film experience is a bit schizophrenic when my mood swings wildly from week to week, day to day... hour to hour? Next week: various film festival offerings --they're not exactly filled with homoeroticism and superheroes (unless the press notes are wildly off target)

Lately --was it those Disney hunks, the new Madonna video, the Savage Grace screening, all that showering? -- I've felt like TFE was getting even lighter in the loafers than usual. I worried, not in a self-loathing way, but in an all inclusive movie-loving way. I love the diverse readership I've built thank you muchly but you can't be all things to all people. What's more, I highly doubt that movie blogs written by straight men ever worry that they're being too narrow in their focus as they cover their cinematic interests. But such is the life of a navel gazing movie obsessed writer who loves actresses and superheroes and talky dramas and foreign films and a bunch of other things (as Gemini moods shift and strike) and who happens to be gay.

But this morning I breathed a giant sigh of relief. It's only a phase! Unbeknownst to myself I've merely been building up to the absolute gayest day of the year and had completely forgotten about. No, not gay pride... though in my opinion they should at least move National Coming Out Day to April 24th. For you see, today is the combined birthday of Shirley "It twirled up!" Maclaine (73), Barbra "Hello Gorgeous" Streisand (65) and flamboyant designer Jean-Paul Gaultier (55), he of the Milla Jovovich bandage dresses, Bruce Willis backless orange Ts, Madonna cone bras and Gael García Bernal in Bad Education costumes or lack thereof (among many other riveting accomplishments).

T'were a lot of gay birthed on this day.

I thought my blogosphere experience couldn't get any gayer this week and then, magically (but unsurprisingly) Planet Fabulon managed to up the homo ante with a video of Liza Minelli covering Donna Summer's Bad Girls. It's not Liza Minelli's birthday today but it really should be. That'd make this day complete. To get the Gay up front and center and therefore perhaps out of my system for a few posts (it's like totally singing along and out loud to that song that's stuck in your head. It's the only way to be free of it), here's a menage-a-cinque (is that an orgy?) of abso-fabu-lutely gayish vids. The aforementioned Liza number, Babs doing "My Man" (the Oscar was richly deserved) from Funny Girl, a hypnotic Jean Paul Gaultier perfume commercial, John Barrowman (Torchwood star) singing "I Am What I Am" from La Cage Aux Folles and finally, a really well edited film montage. YouTube has a lot of poorly edited clip reels but this one, promoting the book '101 Movies Every Gay Man Should See', is really well done and features a pleasingly diverse group of films: documentaries, foreign films, American Indies and classics. Can you name them? How many have you seen?






That's a whole lotta gay. That's enough gay even for today, which is gay-gay-gay. Peace out.

It's Tuesday. Time for "A History of..." But today we're doing things a little differently. It's an Illustrated History of Gender-Bending @ The Movies. Today's topic is inspired in part by the fact that it's the birthday of one hit wonder Jaye Davidson who startled moviegoers in The Crying Game many years ago.

1930s Marlene Dietrich puts on a suit. Garbo strolls around like she has an extra bit between her legs. Millions swoon.

1959 Hollywood's first transgendered gay marriage

1970s Susan Sarandon squeaks. Tim Curry peaks.

1980s Hollywood's gender-bending apex.
Dustin hoffman plays "Tootsie", Streisand is "Yentl", Julie Andrews plays a woman impersonating a man impersonating a woman. and Daryl Hannah begins passing.

1992 oops...


1993 Kurt Russell discovers eyeliner in Tombstone. Val Kilmer still upstages him.

1994 Guy Pearce cannot find a copy of The Texas Chainsaw Mascara. Still looking. Has now also misplaced his career. I swear that Guy. If his head weren't attached...

2006 Amanda Bynes in She's the Man finally replaces Barbra Streisand in Yentl as the world's most unbelievable and ugly boy. Babs sends 'thank you' note.

If you're here for the first time...
please check out the blog entire, homebase, and some other histories...
Jodie Foster * Bald Women * Sarah Jessica Parker *
Gay Cowboys * Julianne Moore's Screen Kids * Gyllenhaal
Enjoy!

Tags: She's The Man, gender, movies, Amanda Bynes, Barbra Streisand, celebrities, Rocky Horror, gay, transgender

Disclaimer: Due to double surgeries as a child Demi Moore was declared ineligible for this honor. I'm sure she's inconsolable and crying on Ashton's shoulder. But doing so with perfectly balanced ocularity.

My three favorite cross-eyed movie stars:


I have to admit right up front that I don't really know that much about 70s cult goddess Karen Black, star of 117 films or so since her debut in 1960 including seminal titles Five Easy Pieces (1970), Nashville (1975), and Easy Rider (1969). But when you have a rock band named after you "The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black" you are entitled to immediate props. Seriously, how many actresses can claim that? "Toto" wrote a song about Rosanna Arquette in the 80s but it's not like they retitled themselves. But back to Black. When you then opt to perform with said punk band? Double props. That's rather like Halle Berry showing up to claim her Razzie last year (the only "you gotta respect" move she ever made in my book).

Barbra Streisand I don't even have to explain, do I?

And then there is Mrs. Irving Thalberg, "The First Lady of MGM" herself Norma Shearer. Norma is one of those stars that time cruelly seems to have forgotten. Sure people remember The Women and her "Jungle Red!" climax. But the film is primarily a catty delicious ensemble and a great snapshot of who-was-who in 1939. Tis a pity because there's few 30s stars I'd more like to see experiencing a revival. I just watched The Divorcée(1930) in which she is also divine as a similarly wronged wife facing that typical 30s film dilemma: When your husband cheats do you embrace your inner modern woman and strike out or do you stand by your man like a good submissive wife? The role won her the Oscar.

You gotta respect a woman who was frequently written off as being opportunist (Joan Crawford on Shearer: "How can I compete with her? She sleeps with the boss!") but who acted up a storm, did big box office, and was opinionated to boot: On Gone With the Wind(1939) which she was offered: "Scarlett O'Hara is going to be a thankless and difficult role. The part I'd like to play is Rhett Butler." Love it. Shearer's retirement from movies was as sudden and final as Garbo's but just not as well timed for 'lost legend' status. After twenty-two years in the business, she married a man outside the industry who was 20 years her junior (*there's Demi weeping again. In even this she is bested*) and never worked again. I heart Norma. Show her some love. Put one of her movies on your Netflix queue.