We know how bad you yearn to know how people are doing after Ryan Serhant comes to their aid on Sell It Like Serhant, so we are sharing the knowledge with this bonus clip that updates you on how Erick, the rental apartment salesman from last night’s episode is doing since Ryan helped him get back on his game! Check it out!
Photograph from Oscars.com via YouTube
The first Academy Awards ceremony was held in Hollywood on May 16, 1929. Only 270 guest were invited and no there was no television broadcast, the only time in Academy Awards history that the ceremony wasn’t broadcast in some way; even a year later it was covered live on radio.
The name Oscar wasn’t used until 1934, when Sidney Skolsky used it in his Hollywood column to describe Katharine Hepburn‘s first Best Actress win. The name caught on and the Academy made the name official in 1939.
MGM art director Cedric Gibbons sketched the first figure of a knight holding a sword and standing on a reel of film with spokes representing the five branches of the Academy: actors, directors, producers, technicians and writers. The sword represented the protection for the welfare and advancement of the industry. Later in 1928, sculptor George Stanley redesigned the statue with an improved knight figure but removed the reel of film.
The winners that night:
Best Picture: Wings
Best Actor: Emil Jannings for The Last Command and The Way Of All Flesh
Best Actress: Janet Gaynor for Seventh Heaven, Street Angel and Sunrise
Best Director: Frank Borzage for Seventh Heaven and Best Comedy Director: Lewis Milestone for Two Arabian Nights (this was the first and only time the Academy split the Best Director award).
The nominees enjoyed their broiled chicken on toast with green beans as they sat waiting for the first ceremony to begin. No one was nervous; the 12 winners, and the 20 films that were given an honorary commendation, had already been announced in the Los Angeles Times in February.
The event was held in the Blossom Ballroom at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, a venue that had been built two years earlier and which, perhaps not coincidentally, counted Academy President Douglas Fairbanks as one of its investors.
Photo Hollywood Chamber of Commerce via YouTube
The ceremony lasted only 15 minutes and honored films released between August 1, 1927 to July 31, 1928. Fairbanks and Academy vice president William C. deMille (brother of Cecil B.) handed out the 24 carat gold-plated trophies (they are bronze-plated now).
It may have been the first Academy Awards, but it was the last to include silent films exclusively. Fairbanks had a bleak film future ahead as his career rapidly declined with the advent of the “talkies”. The talking picture was new, starting with the Jazz Singer (1927) with its famous line: “You Ain’t Heard Nothin’ Yet”. It reinvigorated the industry, which had been in decline. Gore Vidal, in his book Screening History (1992), wrote:
“Actually, the movies were not as popular in the 1920s as they had been before the First World War.”
The Jazz Singer was disqualified from competing for Best Picture because the Academy decided it was an unfair advantage to have films with sound compete with silent films. DeMille told the audience:
“There is only one award in this whole list that has anything to do with talking pictures. It seems strange when you stop and look over the field and see how many talking pictures are being distributed today.”
That first Best Picture winner, Wings, is a story about pilots in WW I. It was directed by William Wellman, and at two million dollars, it was the most expensive film in movie history.
Wings also won an award for something called best engineering effects. Now named Best Visual Effects, the term wasn’t used until 1938 when a film was actually recognized for its effects work, when a “Special Achievement Award for Special Effects” was given to the Paramount Picture’s Spawn Of The North. The following year, Best Special Effects became a recognized category. From 1939 to 1963, it was an award for a film’s visual effects as well as audio effects, so usually it was given to two people. In 1964, it was given only for visual effects, and the following year the Academy changed the name to “Best Special Visual Effects”.
Much of the chatter that year was about how Buster Keaton’s The General which had been snubbed. It is now considered a classic.
There was no red carpet. The ceremony wasn’t the fashion event it has become. Gaynor, who was 22-years-old at the time, wore a small off-the rack dress with a Peter Pan collar.
German actor Emil Jannings won the Best Actor, but the Academy might need to drop his membership and take away his statue because he went on to be named Germany’s “Artist of the State” in 1941, conferred on Jannings by Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels. Both awards are now on display at the Berlin Film Museum.
Another 1929 Academy Award statue that was to go on display was the honorary one that was presented to Charlie Chaplin. It was to be shown in a Chaplin exhibit in Switzerland in 2015, but it was stolen from the Paris offices of the Association Chaplin, which controls the rights to all things Chaplin. It’s reportedly worth one million dollars on the black market.
Originally a nominee for Best Actor, Best Writer and Best Director for The Circus (1927), Chaplin was removed from those categories so he could receive the special award, a change that the press attributed to his growing unpopularity in Hollywood. The special award read “for versatility and genius in writing, acting, directing and producing”. After living in exile, 43 years later, the Academy honored Chaplin with another Oscar.
(from left) Douglas Fairbanks Jr., Joan Crawford, openly gay actor William Haines, and Robert Montgomery, via YouTube
After the 1929 awards were presented, the real party began downtown at the glamorous new Mayfair Hotel, where the movie crowd kicked up their heels in Gatsby-era abandon, including Douglas Fairbanks Jr. and his flashy new fiancée, chorus girl-turned-It girl Joan Crawford.
The red carpet fashion commentators, swag bags and selfies had to wait until the 21st century.
Gaynor is qoted in Robert Osborne‘s 2013 book 85 Years of the Oscar:
“Had I known then what it would come to mean in the next few years, I’m sure I would have been overwhelmed. But I still remember that night as very special, a warm evening, and a room filled with important people and nice friends.”
Was season 3 your favorite season of RuPaul’s Drag Race? Were you not able to attend RuPaul’s DragCon LA? Have you been crying for days because you missed the Season 3 RuUnited panel at DragCon LA? Well you may not have been able to be there, but you can watch and get all the tea from that season and so much more! The panel featured Phoenix, India Ferrah, Mariah Balenciaga, Raja, Stacy Layne Matthews, Manila Luzon, Alexis Mateo and was moderated by Mark J. Freeman. Check out the video and get your tickets for RuPaul’s DragCon NYC so you don’t have to be late to the party and wait for the clips.
Raja and Aja of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 9 got together for a special LIVE edition panel of Fashion Photo RuView where they tooted and booted the outfits of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 premiere. The lewks ranged from works of art to some closet disasters and Raja and Aja didn’t hold back. Check out the clip to see which of the season 10 queens slayed the runway and which ones should have been booted off! Subscribe to WOW Presents Plus today for more episodes of Raja and Aja on Fashion Photo RuView!
With Christopher Reeve in “Superman” (1978), photo via YouTube
Margot Kidder was more than just the actor who played Lois Lane in the Superman films in the 1970s and 1980s. She was a passionate environmental and anti-war activist, someone whose own struggle with mental illness helped bring light to the stigma, and a movie star whose most famous role was a reflection on the progress of feminism in her era.
Lois Lane was a character who brought feminism to the notoriously male-dominated world of comics. She was both a competent, ambitious journalist who sniffed out stories and challenged Clark Kent with her dry wit; but she also was in constant need of Superman’s saving.
Kidder’s widely publicized manic episode in April 1996, left so many film fans wondering how Lois Lane could go from stardom to wandering around battered and confused through Los Angeles backyards. But, Kidder bravely answered the question directly: She had untreated bipolar disorder, and a mind and a body that needed help. She disliked the term “mental illness” yet she still talked openly about her personal struggles and how she worked to overcome them.
For more, read World of Wonder writer Trey Speegle’s personal remembrance and Stephen Rutledge’s celebration of one of her best films.
Now unless you live under a rock you know that RuPaul’s DragCon LA was this past weekend. And unless you live in the stone age you probably saw all the post on social media, especially the extravagant looks from the queens runway entrance and the ribbon cutting. But in case you do live under a rock in the stone age we are here to help. You can relive the glamorousness of this weekend with this clip of the Ribbon Cutting and Crowned Queen Runway Entrance from RuPaul’s DragCon LA this weekend! Relish in all the glamorousness and get your tickets to RuPaul’s DragCon NYC so you don’t have to catch it all after the fact.
There’s been a veritable cavalcade of DragCon posts here on the WOW Report as all week long we’ve been bringing you the nuttiest pics and most shelarious videos from last weekend’s festivities. Below is a roundup of some of the stuff you might have missed, including the Hot Guys of DragCon, the best fan lewkks, and a slew of informative panels.
Relive RuPaul’s DragCon by Watching the Ribbon Cutting and Crowned Queen Entrances
The Very Best Pics from #RuPaulsDragConLA2018 (Including the Queen’s Entrances)
Alexis Mateo and Fellow Latinx Queens Urge DragCon Attendees & You to Go Out and Vote!
Watch: MX QWERRRK VOGUING da House Down Hoofs, Meat & Greet RUPAUL’S DRAGCON 2018 (Pics)!!!
#ManCrushMonday: We’re Crushing on the Hot Guys of #RuPaulsDragConLA2018
Check Out Yesterday’s Panels and Get to the Convention Center for the Last Day of RuPaul’s DragCon
Billy Eichner Brings Glam Up the Midterms for an Amazing Panel With Alaska and Peppermint
Some of Our Favorite Lewks From Today’s RuPaul’s DragCon! Check Them Out
Oh the Queens Have Come to SLAY! Check Out the Action From RuPaul’s DragCon Today
Trixie Mattel Opens #RuPaulsDragConLA2018 with “Mama Don’t Make Me Put on the Dress” Watch
OMG! #RuPaulsDragConLA2018 is a SICKENING Instagram Goldmine. Look!
… and check here for Raja and Aja Tooting & Booting the Lewks from the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 Premiere at the Fashion Photo RuView Panel LIVE at RuPaul’s DragCon LA
It’s coming down to the wire with just six queens left, and the stakes couldn’t be higher as we head for the Drag Race finale.
Tonight:
The queens play a bootylicious game of Pants Down Bottoms Up, and Ru reveals that the acting challenge is for a new series called “Breastworld.”
Fun! Watch the first ten minutes of tonight’s episode below!
Also worth noting: Yummy trans activist, model, and actor Laith Ashley make his first appearance tonight as a Pit Crew member! Congrats Laith, we love you!
Rupaul’s Drag Race airs tonight at 8/7c on VH1.
TL;DR: My favorite panel was Wait, What? and Jasmine Masters’ Class was hilarious! Overall loved being in the Synergy room and learned so much! You can watch Fashion Photo RuView to enjoy it as I did. Get your tickets for RuPaul’s DragCon NYC so you can enjoy the amazing panels yourself!
I had the pleasure of working every panel in the Synergy room during RuPaul’s DragCon LA and as a first time attendee it was amazing! I am no newcomer to most of the shows that the panels were based off of, but I definitely learned so much more from the live panels and being in the room to see the action first hand, so here is my recap and take aways from every panel.
Jinkx Monsoon is a Hufflepup. For some reason that really surprises me and I don’t know why. But that wasn’t the biggest take away from the panel for me. It was great to see an adult friendship/parental relationship that is so strong. Jinkx and Nick have been roommates and to still have such a great friendship is so astonishing to me. Living with people is hard and somehow Jinkx and Nick did it and still work together so often and enjoy each other’s company. I get tired of people after watching the entirety of a movie with them, so kudos to them.
I have the same fashion sense as Raja and Aja, so basically I’ve made it in the world of fashion. Of all the outfits from the RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 10 red carpet premiere I only booted one, the same as Raja and Aja — Kalorie Karbdashian-Williams. I don’t know where she got that denim frock, but none of us were feeling it.
I also quickly learned how popular Fashion Photo RuView was for everyone! So many people lined up to get in for the panel and it broke my heart to have to turn so many people away. But I do have to say thanks for being so understanding. If I could have made the room magically expand I would have.
And check out all the lewks and Raja & Aja‘s live edition of Fashion Photo RuView!
Watching this panel made me want to call my brothers. I didn’t but the thought did cross my mind. To hear how Alaska and Cory overcame their differences as siblings to get to where they are now is so amazing. Also I am a sucker for sentiment so them sharing stories about their childhood was great! My favorite part of the panel had to have been when Alaska showed off the fan art that someone had made for her and given at the start of the panel. To see someone so appreciative of the art someone else made from the inspiration they give to that person is just so touching. I even got to chat with the fan who made the art after the panel and she was in awe of the fact that Alaska showed it off to the audience so long. She was touched and honored and really that’s why we’re fans of drag queens, they truly love us (their fans).
As a self-proclaimed party girl I am always here for tips on how to make it as the life of the party! This panel was great, because I never really know where to look for parties and such, I kind of have just mastered the art of stumbling upon things. If you are like me and don’t know where to look, check the Nightlife section of LA Weekly where Lina Lecaro, the panel moderator, writes.
HILARIOUS! Now Jasmine Masters’ Class is one of my favorite shows on WOW Presents Plus so seeing a live panel of it I was LIVING! Jasmine held nothing back by coming out of the gate asking the queens if they douche and if they were a top or bottom. She had me and everyone else in the room dying. The highlight of this panel had to be the audience Q&A which really ended up being Kennedy Davenport & Jasmine hitting on attractive men that asked questions and fans offering Jasmine some jush! Y’all ain’t it great to live in a city where jush is legal recreationally and you can offer up a J to your favorite queens?
I am a photo editing failure. My pics are almost never edited. I will choose one filter on Instagram and call it a day, but I learned so much during this panel. First thing I learned though was that Facetune 2, the newer app was actually free, whereas the first one cost $3.99. So get Facetune 2, because it has so much more available for your facetuning needs and spend that $3.99 on a subscription for WOW Presents Plus.
My first thought was how my Mama would be so happy that I was at church on a Sunday, then followed by oh, snap it’s Mother’s Day. But in regards to the service I was here for the message. The Selah Non-Denominational choir featured a variety of people from all walks a life and the song choices spoke to us being created perfect, which growing in a black Baptist church that is not always something you hear, especially being a part of the LGBTQ community. But this service just spoke to how we were made exceptionally and perfect. I was happy to be able to get back to a part of my faith and not feel like I wasn’t welcome or accepted.
Asia O’Hara had all the tips. She listed off every product she loves and uses which hunty, I was taking detailed notes on. As a woman of color I have the hardest time finding anything that works for me and all I want is a face beat so well that the gawds themselves compliment me. Asia answered all the audience questions ranging from Youtube channels she loves to how she picked her standard face. Also that head piece had me gagged.
My favorite show on WOW Presents Plus, because it’s like a raunchier, much more funny version of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader. I got to be Daddy G and quiz the queens and their live responses to questions were killing me! The biggest thing I learned is that Ongina is quick with the one liner shade. At one point she dropped one that was so good she actually walked out the room 
. Derrick Barry of course stepped her pussy up with her Wait, What? bedazzled athleisure outfit which was everything for me. I’m a sucker for a bedazzled crop top. But the biggest take away is that I know just about as much as Kimora Blac, so that’s where I’m at in life and you know, I ain’t mad about it.
Probably one of the most popular panels that weekend and rightful so. The Simpsons has been on tv for over 20 years and the amount of people that love that show is unreal. My favorite part of the panel was a clip that showed all the drag moments that have ever been in the Simpsons and I loved it! It’s crazy to think that even before RuPaul’s Drag Race was main stream, drag culture was referenced in pop culture, through The Simpsons. The other quality moment of this panel was of course when they showed the clip of Bart connecting all the megaphones together and then sayin, “Miss Vanjie.” Got to love when main stream media gets on the Vanjie train!
Overall I learned a lot from my time in the Synergy Room and enjoyed all the panels. I learned so much, met so many amazing fans of Drag Race (and me — thank you to everyone that recognized me from the Alaska promo video, you made me feel like a star), and of course I was gagged by all the amazing lewks that you all served all weekend long! I hope y’all had just as if not more of an amazing time than me!
Everyone knows drag queen reactions are the purest reactions, second to babies, so Aja, Chad Michaels, Jaidynn Fierce Diore, Jinkx Monsoon, Kimora Blac, Ongina, Raja & Raven sat down to give us their reactions on how they feel about Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again, coming to theaters July 20th! The queens hilarious reactions and fangirl moments are amazing, but honestly nothing beats the queens thirsting over Colin Firth. Personally I don’t get it, but hey to each their own. So check it out and tell us your reactions to the trailer as well!
Bickering (but loving) siblings Alaska and Cory take questions from the audience about their childhood, their dating habits, and the best and worst things about each other in this hilarious DragCon panel discussion. The takeaway? Cory is BACK, y’all – looking scrumptious and feeling feisty! Watch below!
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The best way to start your weekend is by binging on all your favorite WOW Presents Plus shows! The topic is technology on Wait, What? with Kimora Blac and Jiadynn Fierce Diore. We’re Feelin’ Fruity with Seth Bogart and Tammie Brown. Alaksa and Cory participate in the hot pepper challenge on Bro’Laska. Jaymes Mansfield and her mannequin head friend demonstrate how to tease a wig on How to Makeup. Morgan McMichaels reads some titillating missed connections on Craigslist: Missed Connections. Tatianna spills the tea on bottom shaming in a new episode of Tea with Tati. Hunty child what are you waiting for? Subscribe to WOW Presents Plus and get to watching! You know you want to!
Summer is almost here, which means you are probably hunting for a good beach read. Well, I know I’ve found MY summer book: Does It Fart: The Definitive Field Guide to Animal Flatulence by Dani Rabaiotti and ch Caruso. It looks like smelly good fun!
From Amazon:
Dogs do it. Millipedes do it. Dinosaurs did it. You do it. I do it. Octopuses don’t (and nor do octopi). Spiders might do it: more research is needed. Birds don’t do it, but they could if they wanted to. Herrings do it to communicate with each other.
In 2017 zoologist Dani Rabaiotti’s teenage brother asked her a most teenaged question: Do snakes fart? Stumped, Rabaiotti turned to Twitter. The internet did not disappoint. Her innocent question spawned the hashtag #doesitfart and it spread like a noxious gas. Dozens of noted experts began weighing in on which animals do and don’t fart, and if they do, how much, how often, what it’s made of, what it smells like, and why.
Clearly, the public demands more information on animal farts. Does it Fart? fills that void: a fully authoritative, fully illustrated guide to animal flatulence, covering the habits of 80 animals in more detail than you ever knew you needed.
What do hyena farts smell especially bad? What is a fossa, and does it fart? Why do clams vomit but not fart? And what is a fart, really? Pairing hilarious illustrations with surprisingly detailed scientific explanations, Does it Fart? will allow you to shift the blame onto all kinds of unlikely animals for years to come.
Get your copy here.
Also of note: There’s an informative spreadsheet here that answers all your burning questions about who does and doesn’t let it rip in the animal kingdom, including goats (yes they do, but their burps are worse), rats (yes, and they smell worse than dog farts), and soft-shell clams (no they don’t, but they can puke). Good to know!
This week on HEY QWEEN, Venus D’Lite from season 3 of RuPaul’s Drag Race stops by the sequin couch to spill some T with Jonny McGovern on her career start as a Madonna impersonator, her relationship with Lady Red Couture and her journey to RuPaul’s Drag Race.
In the episode, Venus also speaks about Shangela‘s entrance into the season 3 arena, her dark experiences after the show, and how she cleaned up and had her stint of reality shows including Botched and My Strange Addiction.
Watch Part 1:
Watch Part 2:
Watch Part 3:
Venus D’Lite also filmed a segment of LOOK at HUH, Hey Qween’s T spilling spin off where she gossips about the following: Madonna, Raja, Derrick Barry, Bianca del Rio, Shangela, Milk, Viva Sex, Chad Michaels & the entire cast of All Stars 3.
Watch Part 1 of LOOK at HUH:
Watch Part 2 of LOOK at HUH
Nineteen years after winning a jaw-dropping $2.5 billion divorce settlement, “catwoman” socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court, saying has no checking or savings accounts, has not invested in any stocks or bonds, and set up no retirement or pensions funds. Her only source of income? The $900 check she gets from Social Security each month. It’s a far cry from the wild spending reported in a 1998 interview with Vanity Fair in which she recounted dropping “$350,000 on a Chanel dress, building a $3million mansion for her daughter on the family’s Kenyan reserve Ol Jogi for her 17th birthday and her many plastic surgeries.
A tour of her home at the time, revealed that there was a glass case above Jocelyn’s bath to hold May Moon, her pet monkey. The pool room meanwhile had tanks filled with sand sharks, spotted eels, and neon tetras.
Times have certainly changed.
via Daily Mail:
Wildenstein’s lists 12 creditors with unsecured claims against her, including: the contractors who did work on her Manhattan apartments ($175,000); the owner of a Beverly Hills bungalow she rented back in 2014 ($165,000); a Manhattan furniture store ($80,000) American Express ($70,000); her architect ($25,000); a real estate agency ($12,000); and a storage company ($8,000).
There are four law firms who in total are owed over $273,000 as well as $30,431.00 that the socialite is paying to the New York State Department of Labor for what she describes as ‘law obligations.’
The list of creditors whose claims have been secured by property is shorter, which just four comapnies listed.
The values are far higher however, with Wildenstein owing $179,000 to the Board of Managers at Trump World Tower Condominium and $4.6 million to Castellan Capital, which is by far the highest debt incurred by the socialite.
Those are both secured by her $11.75 million apartments.
Wildenstein also owes $38,000 to Chase Auto Finance, which is secured by her 2006 Bentley, and $700,000 to a Manhattan storage company, which is secured by her furniture.
That last debt is another red flag, as she previously claims her furniture to be worth only $100,000, which would not be enough to cover that debt.
Her total personal property is valued at $16,386,100 and largely comprised of her apartment and the $4.5 million she has yet to receive from her divorce, despite her ex Alec having passed away in 2008.
The good news is that this amount exceeds the $6,380,080 she claims to owe her 16 creditors.
Poor dear. Adjusting to life as a pauper will be HELL.
(Photo: Pacific Coast News)
This week – instead of our usual window on Hollywood Blvd – we’re coming to you sort-of live from RuPaul’s DragCon LA 2018 with a CAVALCADE of RuPaul’s Drag Race superstars! Trinity Taylor from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9, Art Arya & Pangina Heals from Drag Race Thailand, Alexis Michelle from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 9, Morgan McMichaels from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 2 & All Stars 3, and Detox from RuPaul’s Drag Race season 5 & All Stars 2 join World of Wonder co-founder Fenton Bailey, Executive VP of Development Tom Campbell, and WOW Report Editor James St. James on The Runway at RuPaul’s DragCon LA 2018 on opening night – May 11, 2018 – for the WOW Report on Radio Andy on Sirius XM! We air TODAY at 3PM EST on SiriusXM, and again at 3PM PST (that’s 6PM EST). You can also catch the audio version on the SiriusXM app!
Skip forward to…
Skip forward to Trinity Taylor @00:11
Skip forward to Art Arya & Pangina Heals @13:05
Skip forward to Alexis Michelle @26:29
Skip forward to Morgan McMichaels @38:25
Listen in at 3:00PM EST and again at 3:00 PST (6 PM EST) on SiriusXM! Or listen whenever you want on the SiriusXM App!
And be sure to give your ears the gift of THE WOW REPORT on Radio Andy SiriusXM EVERY Friday.
Do something this weekend that makes YOU go WOW!!!
USGS Photograph taken on May 18, 1980, by Austin Post
May 18, 1980 – Boom!
We had only been a couple for a few months. My boyfriend (decades away from being my husband) and I only knew one other male couple in the world, friends from the theatre world.
Our first apartment was a breathtaking find, the top floor of a late 19th century mansion in the Browne’s Addition neighborhood of Spokane. Our living room was the vast former ballroom with a large balcony and the rest of our digs were the former servants quarters, a warren of small rooms tucked under the eaves. This section of the apartment ended with a large screened in summer porch. We paid an unheard of $200 a month to live in this luxury. Our friends thought we were nutty to spend so much.
Our first place, Browne’s Addition, Spokane, photo by S. Rutledge
We wanted our male couple friends to see our unusual, exclusive penthouse, and they were invited to brunch on a beautiful, warm spring Sunday morning. This couple was impressed with the living quarters and the meal. As we walked them to their automobile and hugged good-bye, we all looked at the western horizon. In the distance, the sky was a curtain of an uncommon grey and green. We all remarked at the weird weather coming our way.
We would soon learn that at 8:33am, Mount Saint Helens had blown its top in an unprecedented (in modern times) eruption of an active volcano in the Pacific Northwest. Within an hour, the city’s street lights had come on and by noon it looked like midnight. At 3pm the ash was mid-calf deep and it covered everything. We were getting conflicting directives from emergency authorities: don’t drive, wear a mask or protection- it will get in your lungs, don’t sweep it, don’t get it wet, hose it down, sweep it into piles, don’t panic, it can kill you. The fire stations issued masks. We were quick to get to the store and stock up on wine and pizza.
We spent three days locked in our apartment, listening to music, drinking wine, and making love. The ash would eventually permeate everything. It got into my considerably large album collection, including all of my obscure Original Cast recordings of Broadway Musicals. The ash got into the sleeves of the LPs and scratched the vinyl. The volcano’s spewing would lay waste to my music collection and it ruined my future husband’s work computer (which was the size of a large room).
We spotted drifts of the ash on the side of roads in Washington and Oregon for decades. The only good news: the ash was the perfect compound for pottery making, and an entire Mount Saint Helens ashtray industry was born.
The eruption was the deadliest and most economically destructive volcanic event in the history of the USA. 57 people were killed; 250 homes, 47 bridges, 15 miles of railways, 185 miles of highway were destroyed. Within moments of eruption, the whole northern side of the mountain slid away—the largest observed landslide on record. The eruption reduced the elevation of the mountain’s summit from 9,677 feet to 8,365 feet and replacing it with a one mile wide horseshoe-shaped crater.. The eruption lasted nine hours, followed by more eruptions over the next six years. More than two-thirds of a cubic mile of rock was ejected and pulverized to ash, which blasted up to 16 miles into the atmosphere. The ash-cloud was 10 miles wide, and the mushroom top was 40 miles wide and 15 miles high. Winds in the atmosphere dispersed the ash eastward at 60 mph, blanketing 11 states and several Canadian provinces with dust.
The ash was carried east all the way to Europe. It made for spectacular sunsets around the world for more than a year.
That night of the eruption, when we went to bed and physically expressed our love for each other, my future husband, bit my ear gently and whispered: ”Did the earth move for you, baby?”
We have a peek-a-boo view of the Mount Saint Helens from our house in Portland and I spy it often while driving around Portland, sometimes spewing out some steam. Mount Hood, also an active volcano is even closer to Portland. It is one of five active volcanoes in a hundred miles of our house. The Husband and I have aged 38 years since the big boom. We are considerably older and not nearly as frisky, but you never know when the mountain will blow again… “Did the earth move for you, baby?”
USGS Photograph
The deadly opioid Fentanyl, responsible for thousands of deaths nationwide, has reportedly started showing up in drugs other than heroin in California. The white powder is usually mixed into other opioids to produce a stronger high, but officials say it has increasingly been showing up here in other drugs like cocaine and methamphetamine.
via the LA Times:
Officials suspect that three men who died in downtown Los Angeles late last month had snorted cocaine laced with fentanyl, an incident that has further galvanized fentanyl fears.
“We don’t know whether this is an anomaly, or whether it’s a bellwether of something that’s about to hit,” said UCLA professor Steve Shoptaw, who studies substance abuse.
Several people in San Francisco have recently died from consuming fentanyl with methamphetamine, counterfeit Xanax or crack cocaine. There have been reports elsewhere of fentanyl in the rave drug MDMA.
“We aren’t seeing the volume or the impact that … is happening on the East Coast, but we know that could change,” said Rachael Kagan, spokeswoman for San Francisco’s Department of Public Health. “We’re really on high alert.”
In the last year in Southern California and the Central Coast, federal agents have repeatedly made seizures of cocaine with fentanyl, methamphetamine with fentanyl and ketamine with fentanyl, according to Timothy Massino, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration in Los Angeles.
“This is a fairly new phenomenon in this area,” he said.
Some experts believe dealers are adding fentanyl to their product to give it an edge or are trying to pass fentanyl off as another drug because it’s cheaper to manufacture.
And just what happens when someone overdoses on Fentanyl? Well, it ain’t pretty.
According to Live Science:
The most common characteristic, described in 20 percent of the cases, was that the person’s lips immediately turned blue, followed by gurgling sounds with breathing (16 percent of the cases), stiffening of the body or seizure-like activity (13 percent), foaming at the mouth (6 percent) and confusion or strange behavior before the person became unresponsive (6 percent), according to the report.
And your only hope of survival?
Fentanyl overdoses can be reversed with the same antidote that is used to treat other opioid overdoses — a drug called naloxone, which is sold under the brand name Narcan.
In the report, in 83 percent of the cases when naloxone was used, one dose was not sufficient. Instead, the respondents said that two or more doses of the antidote were needed to revive the person who had overdosed, according to the report.
Please play responsibly this weekend, Californians.
(Photo: Pixabay)
Adore Delano, the punk AF queer rocker, graces the cover of the first-ever Pride issue of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame-celebrated publication Alternative Press Magazine. For Adore’s first international cover, she joins the ranks of many other badass rockers who landed their first magazine cover with Alternative Press over the past 30 years, including Nine Inch Nails, Paramore, Fall Out Boy, twenty one pilots, Nirvana, Oasis, Radiohead and—one of Adore’s biggest influences—Marilyn Manson. CONGRATS, BB…WE ADORE YOU!!! Download Adore Delano’s new album Whatever, out now on iTunes! (Photog Giselle Dias)
Screen-grab from O Network via YouTube
May 19, 1941– Nora Ephron:
“Why do people write books that say it’s better to be older than to be younger? It’s not better. Even if you have all your marbles, you’re constantly reaching for the name of the person you met yesterday.”
Please, don’t even think for a moment that I consider myself to be in a category with her, or that I equate what I do with what she accomplished, but it is no secret that Nora Ephron is one of my writer heroes.
On a Seattle summer day in 1992, I survived my fifth callback audition for the role of Jay in a new film titled Sleepless In Seattle. I began to have that feeling that I always fought hard against in my acting days: I wanted this role. I wanted it something terrible. I could taste it. I visualized my name as the credits rolled. By this final callback, I was dizzy with the possibility. Jay was a small, yet showy role, well-written and very funny. I had been able to keep Writer/Director Ephron, the casting director, and assorted producers laughing with each read.
Leaving that callback, I found myself passing multi-hyphenate Rob Reiner in a hallway at the production office. After I tossed an ”I love your work” to Reiner, I thought to myself: I really admire Rob Reiner. I wonder what his connection is with Sleepless? Hmmm… he would be so cool to chat with. Maybe he will notice me as Jay and use me in one of his projects!
When I returned home, my agent had already called to let me know that Ephron and Co. thought I was ”splendidly funny and waggish” and they thanked me for sticking through all the auditions, but they had decided to go with Reiner as Jay in Sleepless In Seattle.
Ephron is my one of my top writing inspirations, but I didn’t much care for Sleepless In Seattle when I finally got around to seeing it years later on VHS, watched on a boat floating on Lake Union not far from the film’s actual location. My reaction to the film had little to do with my not being cast (how was I supposed to compete against Rob Reiner?), but I found it rather treacley and twee, plus I felt that the filmmakers got Seattle all wrong. Everyone else in the world seems to love it. Maybe I should watch it again.
Ephron had a sentimental streak, for sure, but she also brought her sharp New Yorker wit to glossy Hollywood rom-coms, with Academy Award-nominated screenplays for When Harry Met Sally (1989) and Sleepless In Seattle (1993), which she also directed. Her films are close in spirit to the sophisticated Katharine Hepburn/Spencer Tracy battle-of-the-sexes comedies of the 1950s.
Ephron’s parents were screenwriters Henry and Phoebe Ephron, who wrote Desk Set (1957) for Hepburn and Tracy. Their frothy Broadway play, Take Her She’s Mine (1961) is based on their daughter’s rebellious college days. It was adapted to film in 1963, with Sandra Dee in the role of the thinly disguised Nora. Later, Ephron wrote screenplays that were based on pieces of her own life. She created strong female characters that were never strident or domineering; they were simply the equal of men, but her essays were tougher and funnier than her films.
Ephron was born in Manhattan but brought up in Beverly Hills, the eldest of four daughters. Her sisters, Delia, Hallie and Amy, all became writers too. She wrote for the school newspaper at Wellesley College, where she graduated with a degree in Political Science in 1962.
She worked in the mailroom at Newsweek Magazine before landing a job as a columnist for the New York Post. She wrote articles for Esquire and New York Magazine, and she was pretty much the smartest journalist of her era, our own Dorothy Parker. She wrote satirical, self-deprecating pieces about her love for cooking, sex, and NYC.
In 1975 she met Carl Bernstein, a Washington Post reporter, now famous for his part in exposing the Watergate Scandal. They married in 1976. The couple wrote a screenplay for All the President’s Men, the movie based on Watergate, which was rejected in favor of the one written by William Goldman, but Ephron discovered she liked screenwriting.
For many years, Ephron was among only a handful of people in the world who knew the true identity of ”Deep Throat”, the source for her husband Bernstein and Bob Woodward during the Watergate scandal. Ephron claimed she had guessed the identity of Deep Throat after reading Bernstein’s notes, which referred to the unnamed person as “MF”. Bernstein claimed “MF” was short for “My Friend,” but Ephron guessed correctly that the initials stood for Mark Felt, the former associate director of the FBI.
After the breakup of her marriage, Ephron was open about the identity of Deep Throat. She revealed his identity to anyone who asked. This revelation attracted little media attention during the many years that the identity of Deep Throat was a mystery. Ephron:
“No one, apart from my sons, believed me.”
Photo from HBO via YouTube
Her first produced project was a script for the television movie Perfect Gentlemen (1978), starring Lauren Bacall.
Her first feature film screenplay was Silkwood (1983), written for her friend Mike Nichols. Silkwood is about the real-life Karen Silkwood, who died in suspicious circumstances while investigating abuses at a plutonium plant where she had worked. Nichols had not made a film for seven years. Silkwood concentrated on the daily life of its chain-smoking, foul-mouthed blue-collar heroine, perfectly played by Meryl Streep.
Photo from “Everything Is Copy”, HBO via YouTube
Streep plays a thinly disguised version of Ephron in the caustic Heartburn (1986), also directed by Nichols, about the breakdown of her marriage destroyed by the infidelity of her husband, played by Jack Nicholson. It was based on Ephron’s 1983 novel of the same name, a comic chronicle of her marriage to Bernstein, which ended in 1980 after he had a series of affairs. The publication of the novel resulted in Bernstein going a court order to prevent Ephron from writing about him again.
Ephron commented:
“I highly recommend having Meryl Streep play you. If your husband is cheating on you with a carhop, get Meryl to play you. You will feel much better.”
When Harry Met Sally (1989) was her biggest hit. Directed by Rob Reiner, the film is based on the break-up of Reiner’s marriage to Penny Marshall, and how he found himself back in the dating game. Reiner asked Ephron to do the screenplay which was based on interviews with Reiner. It starts with Harry (Billy Crystal) and Sally (Meg Ryan) posing the question: “Can men and women be friends or … does the sex always get in the way?”
Like most rom-coms, it is blissfully predictable, but the scene in which Sally demonstrates a fake orgasm in a delicatessen has become an iconic movie moment. The woman who utters the unforgettable: “I’ll have what she’s having” line, is Reiner’s mother, Estelle.
When Harry Met Sally was followed by the buddy comedy My Blue Heaven (1990) with Steve Martin and Rick Moranis, directed by Herbert Ross. It was a box-office dud, and after that, Ephron to decide to direct her own screenplays. She knew from her parents’ careers how powerless screenwriters can be. Ephron:
“One of the best things about directing movies, as opposed to merely writing them, is that there’s no confusion about who’s to blame: you are.”
Ephron had another big hit with Sleepless In Seattle, an unashamedly old-fashioned romantic comedy that was somehow made without me. It stars Tom Hanks and Ryan and is an homage to Leo McCarey‘s weepy An Affair To Remember. She paid homage to Hollywood again with Ernst Lubitsch‘s perfect The Shop Around the Corner (1940) as inspiration, using Hanks and Ryan again in You’ve Got Mail (1998).
Ephron’s last film is the blithe Julie & Julia (2009), which has my favorite Streep performance, playing celebrated chef Julia Child. I adore this movie.
Her essays, collected in Crazy Salad (1975), I Feel Bad About My Neck (2006), Wallflower At The Orgy (1970), Scribble Scribble (1978) and I Remember Nothing (2010), made me want to become a writer.
Ephron told few people she was sick and even her close friends were surprised and shocked by her passing. She was taken by pneumonia brought on by Myeloid Leukemia in June 2012, at 71-years-old.
Ephron’s openly gay son Jacob Bernstein, a NY Times writer, made an extraordinary HBO documentary about his mother, Everything Is Copy (2016). It is as brilliant as Ephron herself. It takes its name from a philosophy Ephron inherited from her mother, and it is a lovely and unexpectedly profound exploration of how she lived her life: “Take Notes. Everything is copy.” Have tissues close at hand when you watch it.
In her final book I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections (2010), Ephron published two lists:
WHAT I WON’T MISS:
Dry skin
Bad dinners like the one we went to last night
Technology in general
My closet
Washing my hair
Bras
Funerals
Illness everywhere
Polls that show that 42 percent of the American people believe in creationism
Polls
Fox TV
The collapse of the dollar
Bar mitzvahs
Mammograms
Dead flowers
The sound of the vacuum cleaner
Bills
E-mail. I know I already said it, but I want to emphasize it.
Small print
Panels on Women in Film
Taking off makeup every night
WHAT I WILL MISS:
My kids
Nick
Spring
Fall
Waffles
The concept of waffles
Bacon
A walk in the park
The idea of a walk in the park
The park
Shakespeare in the Park
The bed
Reading in bed
Fireworks
Laughs
The view out the window
Twinkle lights
Butter
Dinner at home just the two of us
Dinner with friends
Dinner with friends in cities where none of us lives
Paris
Next year in Istanbul
Pride & Prejudice
The Christmas tree
Thanksgiving dinner
One for the table
The dogwood
Taking a bath
Coming over the bridge to Manhattan
Pie
