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#BornThisDay: Actor, Joan Blondell

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August 30, 1906Joan Blondell, you’ve just got to love her. She was one of the most versatile stars of The Golden Age Of Hollywood. She never reached the very top of the Hollywood firmament like Bette Davis, Joan Crawford or Katharine Hepburn, but Blondell had a career in films that lasted for more than 50 years. She worked in at least 90 movies and also as a dependable guest or regular on dozens of television series. She is one of those actors who were able to move gracefully from leading roles to supporting player, from showgirl to character actor. Filmgoers in the 1930s truly identified with her blue-collar image.

Blondell was born into a vaudeville family in NYC. Growing up, her family’s act traveled from city to city, living in cheap hotels and sleeping in train stations.

Her look and demeanor made her perfect to play shop girls, clerks and gangster molls. Her working-class characters were so spot on that Blondell could never really convincingly play a society lady.  She was at her best as the gum smacking doll ready with a wisecrack on any occasion. For me, she still conjures up the ideal of a hard luck dame who has no time for self-pity, the tough-talking best friend everybody needs.

Blondell was sexy without being vulgar. Even when she portrays cynical gold-diggers, the Blondell character always comes across as loyal and decent when decency is least expected.

With her big round eyes, chubby cheeks, trademark beauty mark and generous smile, Blondell came across as approachable and thoroughly American. She was just the opposite of Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich, exotic creatures with symmetrical faces, so perfect, with their sharp cheekbones, seemingly unworldly. But, Blondell was pretty enough to have been in much demand endorsing popular beauty products.

Unlike Barbara Stanwyck, Blondell stated that she never had to fight hard for better roles or a higher salary. Other actors waged bitter battles with the studio chiefs over contracts, money and better scripts. James Cagney went on strike. Bette Davis went to Europe. Olivia De Havilland changed the Hollywood system forever when she fought and ultimately won a lawsuit against her contract at Warner Brothers that included the notorious suspension clause.

Blondell simply liked working as an actor, glad for that weekly salary, owning a house and an automobile, and the other things denied her as a child. But, she worked hard for her money, often making more than six films in a year.

“I never got away from that small salary, never did. I didn’t fight enough. You know, they’d bring in other studio stars for Warner pictures and I’d say: ‘Oh, you know I could have done that. Doggonit, why didn’t they give it to me?’ But I just didn’t put up a fight career wise. I didn’t even see the stuff I was in at the time. I just went home and skipped it all, from the rushes to the premiers. Every day was filled with work and my only relief was to get home.”

“We made films so fast and furiously: go in and do it and the next day start a new one. I just did it. During the Depression I was making more than six pictures year. I made six pictures carrying my son and eight when I was expecting my daughter. They’d get me behind desks and behind barrels and throw tables in front of me to hide my growing tummy. I never had more than two weeks off before starting a picture. I mean, just let me have the poor child and get back to work. The only other kind of vacation I had was in the middle of a picture with Pat O’Brien called Back In Circulation (1937) when my appendix broke. They took me to the hospital. Well, I was very near the end of that picture and about to start another, so they wanted me out of the hospital. The doctor said: ‘She can’t get out of this hospital.’ So they made a deal with the doctor to take me by stretcher to my house, and they had the set designer come and make it look like the bedroom Pat and I had done a scene in, and they got a crew of 60, sound and everything, and changed the end of the story so that I was sick in bed and that I’d marry Pat or something.”

Blondell’s casual remarks about her children are ironic. Her third husband, Mike Todd, described her as the most maternal woman he had ever known. He claimed that even when she was working in a film, she’d come home, cook, clean and make sure that the baby went to bed on time.

Her first husband was cinematographer George Barnes. He was adamant about not having any offspring. Barnes was abusive and insisted she have several abortions. After she had a son, he divorced her. That son, Norman S. Powell, became an accomplished producer, director, studio executive. He was officially adopted by her second husband, actor/singer/director Dick Powell. They had a daughter, Ellen Powell, who became a noted studio hair stylist. Powell left Blondell for another blond star, America’s sweetheart, June Allyson.

The marriage to Todd, her third, was an emotional and financial disaster. Todd smacked her around and once held her outside a hotel window by her ankles. He lost millions of her dollars gambling and they went through a controversial bankruptcy. This time Blondell left him. Todd moved on to Evelyn Keyes and then tossed Keyes aside for Elizabeth Taylor. Got that straight?

Blondell gives a slightly fictionalized telling of her life in her well-written novel, Center Door Fancy (1972). It gives an account of her lonely, vaudeville childhood and big break in films. In the novel, Blondell portrays Powell as an insufferable narcissist, hopelessly cheap, and a dreadful racist and anti-Semite; a real dick. Todd comes across as a total tool and horndog.

She received an Academy Award nomination for her dramatic turn in The Blue Veil (1951). I think Blondell was especially good in A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1945), Nightmare Alley (1947), and Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957). She could do it all: Noir, Drama, Comedy, Musicals. In The Opposite Sex (1956), an unnecessary musical remake of the classic The Women (1939), Blondell is paired with her ex-husband Powell’s wife, June Allyson.

I saw her just last week in a terrifically funny and sly performance in Norman Jewison‘s The Cincinnati Kid (1965), and as a cynical, aging playwright in John Cassavetes’ twrrific tribute to Theatre, Opening Night (1977).

I am especially fond of her work in the demented Pre-Code mystery, Night Nurse (1931), opposite Stanwyck, directed by William Wellman.

If any of you kids are old enough, my generation best remembers Blondell for playing Lottie, a bawdy Seattle saloon owner, in the television comedy-western Here Come The Brides (1968-71) with the bluest skies you/ve ever seen, or for her witty bit in the musical Grease (1978).

Blondell’s final credits rolled on Christmas Day 1979, taken by that damn cancer at 73 years old. She is buried at one of my favorite spots in LA, Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

Blondell is proof that the best kept secret about The Golden Age Of Hollywood is just how hard people worked.

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Kanye Exhibits His “Famous” Sculpture & Neglects To Credit His “Inspiration”

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Before Kanye West took the stage at the VMAs he (remotely) premiered his sculpture, Famous, at the Los Angeles gallery, Blum & Poe. Not your typical gallery opening it was an exclusive, two-night private viewing of 13 wax celebrities sleeping in a gigantic bed.

Wife Kim Kardashian West, sister Kendall Jenner were live and in person but West himself appeared remotely via video. (Why? A way to seem more important, is to be too busy to show up to your own opening…?)

According to W Magazine, gallery owner Timothy Blum referred to West’s installation as,

a serious piece of art.

If you didn’t know that this was a work by Kanye West, and instead was the work of a known artist in the art world, the perception of the piece would be completely different—it would be celebrated and universally supported at the highest level.”

Which is the gallery’s back-handed way of saying, ‘people are going to this this is a joke and it’s not’?

But, as far as I know, he neglected to mention the backstory on where the idea came from. The sculpture was directly inspired by Vincent Desiderio’s painting Sleep, a fact the artist did not learn until the morning of the video’s premiere. According to the New York Times, the evening before, Mr. Desiderio, 60, was told cryptically that he was wanted in Los Angeles immediately. He met with Kanye and his “team” and shown the video. He was flattered and happy and is a fan. He received no money, and obviously, no credit either. Desiderio has said,

Kanye turned a mirror onto the wretchedness of self-obsession and solipsistic fame. He’s trying to work at the highest level artistically, and I admire that….

But if you ask me, Blum & Poe and Kanye could have exhibited Desiderio’s original painting along with West’s “homage.” Maybe the omission of the original “inspiration” is the ultimate comment on fame and being “famous.” Kanye said of the video at the VMAs on Sunday,

It was an expression of our now, our fame right now, us on the inside of the TV. This is fame, bro… We all came over in the same boat and now we all ended up in the same bed.

Yes, true. And if you don’t have any ideas of your own as an artist, borrow anothers. As I often like to say,

My work is totally original. I take other people’s ideas and make them my own.

Yes, I stole that quote.

Artist Vincent Desiderio's 2008 painting "Sleep"

Artist Vincent Desiderio’s 2008 painting “Sleep”

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(Photos, Ron Ben; via W)

The post Kanye Exhibits His “Famous” Sculpture & Neglects To Credit His “Inspiration” appeared first on The WOW Report.

Rudy Giuliani Blasts Beyoncé’s Political VMA Performance, “I Saved More Black Lives…”

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Beyoncé’s 16-minute performance of Lemonade at the MTV Video Music Awards blew everyone away on a few levels. But when Rudy Giuliani was asked about it on FOX & Friends, he went off. The performance contained a section where a group of women standing symbolized angels being “shot down” with red light, a reference to victims of gun violence. On the red carpet, she had walked with mothers of gun violence victims. Giuliani said,

It’s a shame. It’s a shame…

You’re asking the wrong person [what they think of the performance] because I had five uncles who were police officers, two cousins who were – one who died in the line of duty. I ran the largest and best police department in the world, the New York City Police Department.

And I saved more black lives than any of those people you saw onstage by reducing crime – and particularly homicide – by 75 percent, of which maybe four or five thousand were African-American young people who are alive today because of the policies I put in effect that weren’t in effect for 35 years.

So if you’re going to do that, you also should symbolize why the police officers are in those neighborhoods…

And what are you going to do about that? And what are you doing about it? To me, it’s two easy answers: a much better education and a good job. And what the heck have you done?“

Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade agreed with Giuliani’s criticisms, saying,

Beyoncé is an extremely popular and powerful performer, and when she does stuff like that, that message to the next generation is pretty indelible.

Prior to the awards, Beyoncé brought out Lezley McSpadden, Gwen Carr, Wanda Johnson and Sybrina Fulton — the mothers of Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Oscar Grant and Trayvon Martin to make a strong statement for Black Lives Matter.

Giuliani had previously criticized Beyoncé’s performance during the Super Bowl Halftime Show, which featured Black Panthers-inspired outfits and gestures and an on-field “X” formation to honor Malcolm X. Speaking to Fox News (where else?) the former New York mayor called the display

a platform to attack police officers.

He STILL doesn’t get it. White privilege is astounding. It even shouts over the protest of the murdered and the oppressed. I almost didn’t post this jackass’s comments but we can’t live in a bubble and ignore other positions. Gotta know what you are up against.

Beyoncé with the mothers of gun violence at the VMAs

Beyoncé and daughter, Blue Ivey with mothers of gun violence at the VMAs

(via Rolling Stone)

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New Ad Uses Offensive Breitbart Headlines To Get Out the (Democratic) Vote

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As it was announced, Breitbart news chief, Steve Bannon has left the website and is now running Donald Trump‘s Presidential campaign. Breitbart is one of THE most anti-LGBT, racist, and far-right publications in the country and now a new ad using headlines from the website has been released.

As Buzzfeed has posted, in he past reporters at Breitbart had complained they were not allowed to write negative pieces about Trump, and some thought Trump was secretly paying Breitbart.

To be clear, the video is ANTI-Trump and uses the headlines to make a point that the man has no business in The White House. In the video a woman and a man, read aloud real Breitbart headlines,

“Would you rather your child had feminism or cancer?”

“The solution to online ‘harassment’ is simple: Women should log off.”

“Trump: I’m too smart to imply Megyn Kelly was on her period. Pretty sure we knew what you meant, Donald.”

“Gabby Giffords: the gun control movement’s human shield.”

“Dear straight people: ‘I’m officially giving you permission to say gay, faggot, and queer.”

Watch. And, if you haven’t, register to vote here.

(via NCRM)

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#QuoteUnquote: Bianca Del Rio & Courtney Act on the State of Drag in 2016

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Drag had traditionally been not-for-primetime viewing, but RuPaul’s Drag Race changed that. There’s no denying the seismic shift in public attitudes towards the culture. Witness RuPaul’s Drag Con going into year three –and Mama Ru FINALLY getting nominated for an Emmy!

As All Stars 2 just premiered and the ninth season of Drag Race just started shooting, Bianca Del Rio and Junkee’s foreign correspondent Courtney Act sat down to discuss the state of drag today.

Do you think the purpose of drag is the same as it ever was, or do you feel it growing, or changing?
Bianca Del Rio:
Each person has a different mission for what they’re doing. Politics is usually something I stay away from. But I do find it fascinating, and anytime you’re in drag there’s huge attention brought to yourself. I think it’s great when they have a good cause… the majority of Bunny’s conversations are either political, or about somebody shitting or some man’s dick. That’s just all Bunny. It’s not really what I’m about. Courtney’s very political — and Courtney just likes to talk too… everybody has a different outlook.

Courtney Act: I think that drag has many forms and many functions. But there is still always something political about it. Someone like Lady Bunny — she’s so political I’m worried she’s going to burst a blood vessel. Bunny is probably one of the reasons why I’ve become so fascinated in American politics. I followed her, started reading her posts, and I was like ‘huh, yeah, she’s got a point’. The first Junkee video that I did explaining the American primaries, I think it’s had, like, 1.3 million views or something. Both Americans and Australians loved the video, because they were surprised that an Australian drag queen could explain a complex political process in a way that they understood.

Do you find that dealing with, or reacting to, hateful comments is all part of the job?
BDR:
Well, if it’s not your cup of tea, it’s not your cup of tea. How many times have you been at an event and someone comes in with a megaphone, telling you that you’re doing the wrong thing… and they actually change your life? How many people have stopped, put down a drink at Mardi Gras and said ‘they are so right’?

I think that if it’s not your thing, stay the fuck away. You know? And I’m always suspicious of a large group of men, who all come to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, and stay in a room together, to come preach about Jesus… there are some issues there, I have to say.

You’ve never seen a gay person peeking into a straight club, looking in the window saying ‘what are they doing?’ But, straight people love being a part of what the drag queens are doing. And if you want to, you’re welcome — but there’s also a way to behave. And I think that that’s where people lose their minds.

CA: I don’t get them often in real life but I certainly get them online. There is a certain kind of person who actively comments, and who negatively comments, on social media. Sometimes I want to retort back. I try not to, and if I do I try to do it in an educational way — because I think that when you reply to the hate comments, the people that do love you see you giving that attention. Like, they’re giving you love, and you’re not replying to them, and then someone who leaves a horrible comment gets a response and they’re like ‘well, wait — is that what we have to do to get a response?’

What does drag mean to you?
BDR:
For me in particular, it’s the ticket to get away with murder. If I don’t wear a wig, if I don’t wear makeup, I’m just called a nasty queen; I wear hair and makeup, they call me hysterical. I come from a theatre background, so I’ve always loved wigs and costumes and makeup and stuff so it’s always been part of it. It’s kind of been my armour.

It’s kind of fun to get to get to do the show and all of the fanfare, but by no means do I believe it. I don’t want to be a girl; I don’t have any ladylike tendencies. I’m a clown. And when I’m a clown, you’re welcome at the circus.

CA: I guess drag forced me to understand who I was, independent of what society said I should be. I tried so hard, for so long, to fit in and be what I was supposed to be, and at one point, I just ran out of fucks to give, I guess. It’s beyond performance for me; it’s definitely part of my identity. I really enjoy being Courtney. I think Bianca’s different, in that way. I think she puts on a costume and that’s her work uniform. Whereas for me, I think it’s a bit more woven in to my gender identity.

Is there anything you know now that you wish you knew when you first started doing drag?
BDR:
That drag is a trap! I didn’t plan on doing it this long, so it’s kind of weird that that much time has passed. Kind of surreal. You don’t realise that that many years have passed, and that it was going to be such a big part of my life. I’m not mad with the way it turned out, but I really didn’t think that at that time I would be doing it this long.

CA: As a young queer person, growing up as a male-bodied person there’s all of these examples of the male aesthetic that are sort of forced on us. I know that women have the exact same thing with beauty magazines, and these unrealistic beauty standards and expectations and just in general, like – what is put forward to us as examples of what we should be. There’s a lot of pressure. We think that we have to conform to that. Maybe it’s just a part of getting older, but I slowly sort of realised as the years go on that I don’t need to be any of those things, that I just need to be me. That’s kind of the constant reveal. It seems like every day there’s another.

Bianca, what’s something we might not know about Courtney? And Courtney, what’s something we might not know about Bianca?
BDR:
She has the worst gas ever! She will clear a room immediately. This pretty little thing has the most lethal farts ever. That’s what the world needs to know.

Another thing is that, she’s just as beautiful as she looks; she’s that as a person. She’s great. She’s one of my dear friends. Through this process we’ve become really close.

CA: I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that she said that I fart a lot. I don’t smell! It probably goes without saying but no man can resist the charms of Bianca Del Rio, not in a sexual way — but in a drinking way. If you go out, it doesn’t matter how strong your will is… you’re going to have a good time. You have no choice.

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(via Junkee)

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Crazed, Forest-Dwelling Clowns Terrorize South Carolina Community

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In addition to creepy clowns wandering the streets of Green Bay, Staten Island, Bakersfield, and the Rosehill cemetery in Chicago, now comes the disturbing news of a gaggle of demented clowns terrorizing a South Carolina town, attempting to lure children into the woods.

Greenville, South Carolina residents James and Donna Arnold, claim that two of their sons, aged 10 and 13, had encounters with the clowns, telling BuzzFeed:

“It’s getting a little ridiculous. My son, he’s seen 10 at one time. It doesn’t make no sense that they would be targeting kids,” Donna Arnold said.

[Our children] mentioned, ‘Mama, there’s clowns out there in the woods and they’re trying to get us to come out there. Some had chains, some had knives, and some were holding out money, saying, ‘Come here, we’ve got candy for you,’ but they wouldn’t go.

Well, fuck.

That’s not right.

Many sightings have occurred around the Fleetwood Manor apartment complex, setting the residents there on edge. A letter of warning was posted for the families there, saying:

To The Residents of Fleetwood Manor

There has [sic] been several conversation [sic] and a lot of complaints to the office regarding a clown or a person dressed in clown clothing taking children or trying to lure children in the woods. First and foremost at Fleetwood Manor Apartments childrens [sic] safety is a top priority. At no time should a child be alone at night, or walking in the roads or wooded areas at night. Also if a person or persons are seen you are to immediately call the police. Greenville County Police Department is aware of the situation and have been riding [sic] the property daily. Remember there is a 10pm curfew for the property so to ensure your childrens [sic] safety please keep them in the house during night hours and make sure at ALL times children are supervised. Anymore information that becomes regarding this issue will be sent out to all residents.
Thank you,

Property Manager

From PAPER magazine:

Another resident alleged that she saw a man dressed as a clown with a “blinking nose” standing under a parking lot post light (as only a clown does in the dead of night) as she walked home around 2:30 AM on the morning of August 21.

She claims the clown waved at her, which she reciprocated.

GREAT, NOW YOU’RE MARKED BY THE BLINKING-NOSE CLOWN. UNIDENTIFIED RESIDENT.

From Buzzfeed, again:

The deputy who compiled the report also wrote that several children said they “believe the clowns stay in a house located near a pond at the end of a man-made [trail] in the woods.”
Donna Arnold described the house as “abandoned.”

The investigating deputy followed the trail and wrote of having “observed a house near a pond that was located in the area behind the apartments,” but reported “no signs of suspicious activity or characters dressed in clown attire.”

The Arnolds told BuzzFeed News they and other residents are concerned for the children’s safety.

“We talk to them constantly [about stranger danger] because this is a bad neighborhood, but nothing like this has happened,” James Arnold said. “This is one of the neighborhoods where guys are walking around carrying guns, but we’ve had no clowns before.”

See also: The Grim Reaper Stalks Albuquerque Cemetery

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#Update: Chris Brown’ Arrested on “Suspicion of Assault with a Deadly Weapon”

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Photo, TMZ


Singer Chris Brown was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon tonight, LAPD Lieutenant Chris Ramirez said in a press conference.

Police were called to singer Brown’s L.A. home earlier today for a disturbance. Officers responded to a woman’s call for help inside Brown’s residence, an LAPD spokesman said.

Officers obtained a search warrant Tuesday afternoon. No arrests have been made, according to Lt. Chris Ramirez with the LAPD. Brown is at his residence with his attorney Mark Geragos, police told CNN.

In one video, the singer railed against the police and media and said he was being unfairly portrayed as a villain. In the video, Brown said,

Good luck. When you get the warrant or whatever you need to do, you’re going to walk right up in here and you’re going to see nothing, you idiots. I’m tired of … dealing with y’all.

…when I call the police for stalker people that are endangering my life, they don’t come until the next day. Then somebody make a fucked up allegation about me, and oh yeah the whole fucking SWAT team.“

According to TMZ, police retrieved at least one gun, other weapons and drugs from Brown’s home, after Chris threw a duffel bag out the window of his home … Cops raced to Chris’ home early Tuesday morning after a woman called 911 and claimed he pulled a gun on her.

Brown was put on probation for five years in 2009 after pleading guilty to one count of felony assault over an attack on then girlfriend Rihanna. He was jailed for almost three months in 2014 after violating his probation.

This story is still in progress. Who KNOWS what happened…? Stay tuned.

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UPDATE:
According to TMZ, Baylee Curran appeared on TMZ Live and told them she had partied with Chris in the past and he was always nice, but this time he appeared to be out of it … on drugs or alcohol.

She says she came to his house with a friend, spent a little time in the hot tub, and then walked back inside where a member of Chris’ crew was displaying jewelry. Baylee says when she admired one piece the guy went nuts, and then Chris followed suit by demanding she “get the f*** out” and pointed a gun at her.
The craziest part … as she tried to leave she says Chris’ people wouldn’t let her take her cell phone until she signed a non-disclosure agreement. She refused to sign, and she and her friend left.

(via TMZ, CNN)

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August 31st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!


#BornThisDay: Actor/Activist, Richard Gere

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August 31, 1949Richard Gere studied Philosophy at the University Of Massachusetts, but he had hoped for a career as a musician. But, he did go on to have an impressive stage resume. In the early 1970s, Gere landed the role of Danny Zuko in the musical Grease in London and he received rave reviews for an off-Broadway performance in Sam Shepard’s solo play Killer’s Head (1975), sitting in an electric chair, blindfolded, with his hands and torso tied to the chair. He starred in Martin Sherman’s gay-themed Nazi drama Bent on Broadway in 1980.

He gets a bum rap in my circle of friends, with plenty of snarky stuff on that Internet thing, plus there are those dreadful homophobic gerbil jokes to endure, but I have always dug Gere and thinking about him this morning, I easily remember plenty of exceptionally good performances, if no truly great ones. I think his Billy Flynn in the film version of the musical Chicago (2002) comes awfully close to greatness. But, like most of Gere’s career, my peeps are divided on Chicago, which I consider to be one the very best adaptations of a Broadway musical to film.

Gere made quite an impression on me the first time I saw him on screen in his career breakthrough in the dramatic thriller Looking For Mr. Goodbar (1977) opposite Diane Keaton.

He hit his groove when he had the title role in American Gigolo (1980). His performance was the personification of stylish smooth and cool. He became Hollywood’s go-to romantic male lead with his performance in An Officer And A Gentleman (1982) with Debra Winger. I have read that they did not get along when the camera wasn’t rolling, but they certainly had smoldering chemistry in the final cut.

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Early Gere fills my mind with the good stuff, like in one the greatest films of the 1970s, Terrence Malick’s Days Of Heaven (1978), and gay director John Schlesinger’s Yanks (1979). The middle period Gere has terrific work too, like in The Band Played On (1993), Primal Fear (1996), and Robert Altman’s underrated Dr.T And The Women (2000). But, I like him best as a silver fox, reminding me somewhat of my husband.

I understand that the original Japanese version is much better, but I found Gere to be heartbreaking in the American remake of Shall We Dance? (2004); jumpy and convincingly conniving in The Hoax (2006) as the infamous writer Clifford Irving; strong, smart and improbable as Bob Dylan in gay director Todd Hayne’s crazy, enigmatic I’m Not There (2007).

Throughout his career, Gere has devoted much of his time to social and political causes. He is a longtime practicing Buddhist. Gere co-founded the Tibet House in 1987 and he serves as the chairman of the board for the International Campaign For Tibet, plus his own Gere Foundation, all dedicated to help human rights in Tibet and support the Dalai Lama. He also works tirelessly for HIV/AIDS charities, especially in India. Gere has spoken openly about his affection for his gay brother and he has been a long advocate for Marriage Equality. I always gave him props for ignoring those gay rumors instead of denying them. Gere:

“It’s nobody’s business but mine who I’m fucking, who I’m not fucking. The rack sheets, the press blurbs, the gossip pages, it’s all crap. And in an interview, there are just so many different levels to respond to. They can’t possibly understand my deepest emotions.”

For 35 years Gere has watched as his co-stars in seven films were nominated for Academy Awards while he went seemingly unnoticed. I felt rather certain that Gere would receive an Academy Award for his performance in Time Out of Mind (2014), an empathetic examination of bureaucracy and street-life mundanity, where he is haunting as a homeless man. Again, he was overlooked.

This fall he will be seen in the political thriller Norman: The Moderate Rise And Tragic Fall Of A New York Fixer, and in the spring of 2017 in The Dinner, a drama with Laura Linney.

“I’m amazed that at my age these kinds of parts are still coming to me. I was figuring out last night that this is the fifth decade I’ve been in films and my sixth decade as an actor, so it’s crazy because I have no idea what people see in my performances.”

Anti-War Activist, Film and Theatre Actor, Pianist, Civil Rights Activist, Philanthropist, Catskills Inn Keeper, the newly single Gere celebrates his 67th birthday today, hopefully without a small rodent. Don’t you swoon just a bit at the glance of a photograph of Gere?

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#BeautyBuzz: Makeup Artist Pati Dubroff Spills the Tea on Her Celeb Clients

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I used to attend an ashram in upstate New York for years and there I met a lot of interesting, talented folks and one of them was makeup artist, Pati Dubroff. I’ve followed her work over the years and she has become one of the top go-to professionals for red carpet stars like Liv Tyler, Karlie Kloss, Kylie Jenner, Margot Robbie and Dakota Johnson. She’s now at Laura Mercier but she got her start assisting François Nars and traveling with Naomi Watts. She sat down with People magazine to share her beauty secrets. Here’s an excerpt,

I moved to New York City right after I graduated high school — pretty much the next day — and my first job was selling makeup at the Yves Saint Laurent counter in Bergdorf Goodman. I’m really grateful for it because it gave me the opportunity to put makeup on all different kinds of people and really practice all day long. I didn’t even go to any formalized schooling — I think of those days at Bergdorf’s as my prep school.

After that, I worked at MTV studios, which, in the early 80’s was a really exciting time to be there. Will Smith had a show called Yo! MTV Raps and I was in the studios doing makeup on the VJs and whoever came through. And then Cindy Crawford launched a show called House of Style and I started to do makeup for those shows in the beginning. Then I started to assist on fashion shows and I met with the big makeup artists of that time, and became Francois Nars’ assistant for a year and a half and I would go to Paris and Milan for shows and do photo shoots with everyone. It was a very exciting time to be in the fashion world. After assisting him I broke off and started doing work on my own and literally working with some of the photographers I had met at the assistant level. And that started my journey in the fashion world.

Who was your mentor?
François Nars. He wasn’t just someone who let me observe and he also let me be proactive, he was a great teacher in that he would do half the face and I would do the other half of the face. He’d ask me questions, he’d talk about why he was doing things. I learned how to be very precise and fast, which is so important because if you take too long on a base, you really just end up messing it up.

How did you land your first celebrity client?
It was Liv Tyler, when she was an actress but she was modeling too, doing fashion magazines. It really was the early stages of actresses making a big presence in the fashion world. She was one of the early ones I had shot a cover with — we met on a cover shoot for Jane magazine — and definitely the first one whose makeup I did for an award show. She was presenting at the Oscars with her dad and that was my first time doing anything for the Oscars. That was a long time ago.

When did branch out on your own?
When I worked with François, it was really fashion, fashion, fashion. We worked with Madonna, who was obviously a very big celebrity, but it was about the fashion. It was more and more actresses being photographed for fashion magazine covers and I started to find that what suited my personality was working with actresses and really making these women look like the most incredible versions of themselves. That’s really when I feel like I came into my own because I accepted that the world of Hollywood and the beauty of actresses was a good fit for me.

What’s your all time favorite look that you’ve created?
Most recently, I did Margot Robbie for the Suicide Squad premiere. It was perfect. Doing a lip like that is hard, really hard. I was online with my fingers and my toes crossed, hoping that it photographed well. It photographed perfectly.

What’s the most important lesson that you teach your clients?
To keep their brushes clean. People have to be taught that.

What would you say is the coolest part of your job?
When someone looks in the mirror after I’ve worked on them and they see a reflection back that makes them feel really confident and really beautiful and gives them a boost of beauty energy. That’s pretty darn cool.

Check out the full interview here and you can follow Pati on Instagram for a constant stream of gorgeousness.

A rare one indeed 🦄🦄🦄 #margotrobbie #suicidesquad #makeupbypati @kateyoung @renatocampora

A photo posted by patidubroff💋 (@patidubroff) on

Take me away… I want to be doing this right now.. 📷 @simonemmett #makeupbypati #TBT #rosiehuntingtonwhiteley

A photo posted by patidubroff💋 (@patidubroff) on

Streetside touchups on @sashapivovarovareal #bts

A photo posted by patidubroff💋 (@patidubroff) on

Heaven.. 🌞

A photo posted by patidubroff💋 (@patidubroff) on

Hallway Shenanigans #margotrobbie #caradelevingne @margotrobbie @caradelevingne #suicidesquad

A video posted by patidubroff💋 (@patidubroff) on

(via People)

The post #BeautyBuzz: Makeup Artist Pati Dubroff Spills the Tea on Her Celeb Clients appeared first on The WOW Report.

#HotDog!: The Top 10 “Weiner” Covers of the New York Post

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Anthony Weiner has taken abuse for that last name his whole life, I’m sure. But when you sext pics of your privates, you are DARING the New York Post to do their worst. Now in the fifth year of Weiner weenie scandals, their current cover is surely not the end of the puns. Now that his long-suffering wife, Huma Abedin, has filed for divorce, this isn’t so funny anymore. (We’re sorry. As the Post says, “you can’t spell humiliation without Huma…”)

What no “Sausage Party”? Insert your own Weiner (joke) here.

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(via New York Post)

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The Queen’s Looking for a Housekeeper (Not Beyoncé –THE Queen!) & the House is Buckingham Palace!

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You probably have a job, but just FYI…

After posting earlier this year for a “social-media manager” for Queen Elizabeth II, and recently putting up notices for a dishwasher and a chauffeur, Buckingham Palace is now looking for… a housekeeper. According to the Daily Mail, the housekeeping assistant will be expected to

“clean and care for interiors and items from carpets and furniture to historic vases and irreplaceable paintings.”

The applicant is also expected to,

take care and pride in their work and have excellent communication skills [and] good time management skills.

No salary is listed, but as part of this gig, you get to live in Buckingham Palace. In 2014, a similar job was listed with a “rather low” salary of about $18,000 a year, but the job allows for 33 vacation days, so there’s a full month off, besides weekends in Central London.

Did I mention that you get to LIVE IN BUCKINGHAM PALACE?

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(T/Y Tad; via Vanity Fair)

The post The Queen’s Looking for a Housekeeper (Not Beyoncé –THE Queen!) & the House is Buckingham Palace! appeared first on The WOW Report.

#HumpDayHottie: An Impromptu Locker Room Stripper Almost Gets Caught. Watch

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If you haven’t done it yourself, you know you’ve wanted to. After a tough workout, feeling all sexy, just set up your iPhone and capture some Britney strip tease moves for posterior – POSTERITY. This guy did –@GUTTER_SPICE on Twitter– and he almost got caught too.

Watch.

(via Queerty)

The post #HumpDayHottie: An Impromptu Locker Room Stripper Almost Gets Caught. Watch appeared first on The WOW Report.

September 1st: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch!

#BornThisDay: Actor/Singer, George Maharis

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GEORGE MAHARIS

September 1, 1928George Maharis:

“One unique aspect about Route 66 was it was shot on location all over America. Nobody else ever did that, to my knowledge. We worked six days a week, sometimes seven, because we were always behind schedule. You got up at 5 in the morning and you get back to your motel at 7 or 9 at night, sometimes even later. And when we’d move the company from one location to another, sometimes we’d lose two or three days of shooting.”

On this very date, September 1, in 1974, I was present at an all-male, coke-fueled party in the Hollywood Hills. I was an invited guest of the host, a noted theatre and film producer, and hand selected, so to speak, to be the date for a certain Oscar winning, non-closeted screenwriter. The party was in honor of the birthday of hunky actor George Maharis, who in mid-40s was still the best-looking and sexiest man in a room of 50+ good-looking, sexy men.

Maharis was certainly friendly enough, but he was ‘hands-off” to me. I could not stop gaping and gasping at his strong sexual allure and perfect body, as he moved through the house and pool area accepting best wishes, wearing the tightest of pants and a shirt open to the navel. Maharis had just posed nude for Playgirl Magazine a few months before and having seen the whole package in print, I was finding myself a bit dizzy at seeing him in the flesh.

A few months after the party, Maharis was arrested and charged with committing a sex act with a male hairdresser in the restroom of a gas station in LA. Maharis was booked on a sex perversion charge and released on $500 bail. Six years earlier, he had been arrested by a vice squad officer for lewd conduct for an incident in the restroom of a Hollywood restaurant; the officer claimed Maharis made a pass at him.

I was well acquainted with his acting from my father’s favorite television show, Route 66 (1960-64), a series so filled with hot cars and hot bods that I watched riveted, one of the few shows that my father and I shared. I usually joined my mother for Peyton Place (1963-66) or any of the variety shows. On Route 66, Maharis played dangerous, hot headed- Buz Murdock, and the show reeked of the rebelliousness and restlessness of youth in the 1960s. I tried not to show my excitement when watching it with my father.

Route 66 was about a pair guys and a Corvette who roamed the country together, often dressed in coats and ties for no apparent reason. Buz’s buddy Tad was played by an equally hot, blond Martin Millner. Maharis received an Emmy nomination for this role in 1962.

Contrary to popular belief, the Corvette convertible the characters drove for the existential B&W series was not red, blue or white, but brown, so that it photographed better.

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The series featured an amazing array of hundreds of cool guest actors, including from The Golden Age: Sylvia Sidney, Buster Keaton, Joan Crawford, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Rin Tin Tin, and newcomers Robert Redford, Gene Hackman, William Shatner, and little Ronnie Howard. Julie Newmar was especially memorable as a motorcycle riding free-spirit, a role she reprised in another episode. Ethel Waters guest-starred in a 1962 episode and was nominated for an Emmy Award, the first ever Emmy nomination for an African-American female.

Route 66 also boasted a silky cool jazzy theme song from Nelson Riddle that was a big hit on the pop charts.

An unusual element of the show was that it featured a sort of Shakespearean soaring dialog using free-verse poetry. Take this one from season one, episode four, The Man On The Monkey Board:

“Tod, I hope you live a long life and never know the blistering forces that sear and destroy, turn men into enemies and sweep past the last frontiers of compassion. Once you’ve seen that dark, unceasing tide of faces of the victims, the last spark of dignity so obliterated that not one face is lifted to heaven, not one voice is raised in protest even as they died…”

Route 66 made an imprint on American Pop Culture, however, Maharis left the wildly popular show before it ended its run. Glenn Corbett finished the season as Tod’s new buddy, Linc Case. The series lasted only one more season with the new combination. There has been much speculation as to why Maharis was gone from the series. Rumors were rampart that Maharis had left the series over a salary dispute, that he was difficult, or that he and Milner were having problems getting along.

Maharis now says the he had contracted hepatitis in 1962 and that the long shoots were so grueling that to continue would risk his health. He asked the producers to give him a less arduous schedule, but they refused.

But, others in the know claim that Route 66 producer Herbert B. Leonard discovered that Maharis was gay and was having a hard time keeping his star’s sexual activities away from the press. Leonard and Milner also claimed that Maharis used his illness as an excuse to break his contract so that he could break into movies.

Maharis eventually did break into movies, mostly forgettable B-films. He also worked on stage and had a nightclub act, but nothing ever matched his success as Buz on Route 66, and the series never recovered from his departure.

Maharis also had a recording career, releasing seven albums between 1962 and 1966. He regularly appeared in Las Vegas in the 1970s and 1980s.

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Maharis left acting in 1993 and is now an impressionist painter with gallery shows on both coasts. The still trim, talented and handsome, he is single and lives in both LA and NYC. I really desired him on that Sunday afternoon, 40 years ago, but maybe I still have a chance with him.

GeorgeMaharis

This 1973 photograph is by Ken Duncan, torn from my much treasured After Dark Magazine, it was on four different fridges in four different apartments, until it yellowed and turned brittle, like me.

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Geeks and Glamazons: Mama Tits, Terry Blas, Chris Riley, Diego Gomez and Terry Madison Avery

TS Madison Ate the Cheese Again on ‘Wait a Minute’!

#BigGayIceCream: Drag Race All Stars Queens Serve It Up To Their NYC Fans

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The cast of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars season 2 DO love their fans, so much so that they took over the Big Gay Ice Cream truck in New York City to hand out (free?) dairy treats. Alaska, Alyssa Edwards, Coco Montrese, Detox, Ginger Minj, Katya, Phi Phi O’Hara, Roxxxy Andrews and Tatianna were all asked what flavor of ice cream they would they be? No surprise that there’s more than one Rocky Road in the bunch.

Watch. (And watch All Stars 2 tonight at 8 on Logo!)

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ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

(via NewNowNext)

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Stream: Nomi Ruiz “Borough Gypsy II: Nomi vs Dilla” Mixtape (Free Download)

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It took a minute, but NYC singer/song writer/it girl Nomi Ruiz has finally released the mixtape Borough Gypsy II: Nomi vs Dilla she spoke about in our sit-down interview last month. This is her tribute to the influential underground rapper/ Grammy Award-winning producer J Dilla, who passed away back in 2006. Ruiz has taken original beats by Dilla, and layered her vocals on top. “I’ve turned to Dilla during many heavy times in my life to remind myself why I continue to strive for music and life itself”, says Ruiz. “Something about his music serves as a wakeup call when feeling lost and lonely in a fast paced world full of illusion and competition. Borough Gypsy ll : Nomi vs Dilla is not only a tribute to the late great composer James Dewitt Yancey, but also a thank you note to someone who has saved me and so many others with his work, bringing even more meaning to the ‘infamous shirt’ with it’s ‘unmistakable message’, J DILLA CHANGED MY LIFE.” Download Borough Gypsy II: Nomi vs Dilla below! (photo by Santiago Felipe)

 

Tracklist:

00:01 – Intro ft Blu Jemz
00:22 – Must B Good 2 U
01:56 – Night Pleasures ft Martine
03:56 – The Scent
05:15 – Fast Life
06:43 – Bullet Proof
09:01 – The Light
11:38 – Into The Wilderness
13:32 – Something More
15_09 – Dead 2 Me
16:14 – Funky 4 Ya

The post Stream: Nomi Ruiz “Borough Gypsy II: Nomi vs Dilla” Mixtape (Free Download) appeared first on The WOW Report.

After the Matt Bomer Casting Kerfuffle, Mark Ruffalo Reaches Out to Trans Community

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There was a bit of an uproar when it announced that Cisgendered Matt Bomer was cast to play a trans woman (who was also a sex worker… and a drug addict…GROAN) in the upcoming movie Anything. Trans advocates argued that such casting deprives trans actors of roles they’re overwhelmingly qualified for while perpetuating stereotypes about the community. Jen Richards, the trans actress and creator of the Emmy-nominated web series HerStory, tweeted her disapproval, noting that casting Cis actors was actually problematic for the trans community.

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Mya Byrne, a trans musician and poet, writes on HuffPo:

“There are many qualified trans actors and writers who could have played in and advised on the construction of the scenes you’re about to edit into a motion picture. They will lose more work because of this. We know you have good intentions. But those intentions have far-reaching after-effects that you, as cis men, don’t experience.”

Executive producer Mark Ruffalo addressed the backlash, tweeting “To the Trans community. I hear you,” Ruffalo said. “It’s wrenching to you see you in this pain. I am glad we are having this conversation. It’s time.” Then going on to say: “In all honesty I suggested Matt for the role after the profound experience I had with him while making The Normal Heart.” (In which Matt WAS excellent, no doubt about it).

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Of course: Whether “hearing” the issues actually, you know, SOLVES them, is a matter left to be seen. But yes, yes, start that dialogue Mark…

(via HuffPo and Towleroad)

The post After the Matt Bomer Casting Kerfuffle, Mark Ruffalo Reaches Out to Trans Community appeared first on The WOW Report.

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