Lost in the 21st Century

May 3, 2011 · 8:59 pm

Actress and Playboy Model Found Mummified

Another cheery story out of Hollywood from Salon.com:

It’s a well-documented fact that Hollywood is cruel to women, both those on the screen and those of us watching at home with our unrealistic body expectations. Somehow, I always manage to forget this fact right before I buy my ticket to the next “Transformers” film, but the story of Yvette Vickers is chilling enough to taint anyone’s idealization of the City of Angels.

Yvette was a cult-famous B-movie actress of the ’50s and ’60s, first appearing in “Sunset Boulevard” in a small, unaccredited role and moving up to star in such features as “Attack of the 50 ft Woman” and “Attack of the Giant Leeches.” She was also famous for her Playboy centerfolds, the first one of which was shot by noted sexploitation director Russ Meyers.

Sadly, Vickers died sometime earlier this year. As it turns out, she’d been dead for months, though the police just found her body in her Benedict Canyon home last week. According to the L.A. Times:

AND, in closing….

A really sad, stark reminder to any young actresses out there: No matter how high you’re riding now, there’s still a chance that everyone will forget about you and you’ll be dead for months before someone finds your body.

Link to full story: Actress and Playboy model found mummified – Celebrity – Salon.com.

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May 3, 2011 · 8:52 pm

Jim Caviezel Claims “The Passion of the Christ” made Him a Hollywood Outcast

It sounds to me, all these years after he played Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ,” that Jim Caviezel still hasn’t yet climbed down off the cross…..

And I hate to tell him, but Mel Gibson isn’t the best source for career advice….

And perhaps he should also consider that there are other factors in play-

Like the fact that maybe he’s just not that good of an actor…

Or is too much of a self-centered, self-important, paranoid personality even for Hollywood…

It also sounds like he’s made the career change to Professional Christian….

It probably pays better than acting- at least it did for Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson…

And it’s not all that different from acting….

From The Guardian:

“He said, ‘You’ll never work in this town again.’ I told him, ‘We all have to embrace our crosses,'” said Caviezel. He added: “Jesus is as controversial now as he has ever been. Not much has changed in 2,000 years.”

A passionate Christian, Caviezel told the audience at the First Baptist Church of Orlando he had learned to accept that the destruction of his acting career was a price worth paying. “We have to give up our names, our reputations, our lives to speak the truth,” he said. Though he labelled Gibson “a horrible sinner”, he said the actor turned film-maker should not be vilified. “Mel Gibson doesn’t need your judgment, he needs your prayers,” Caviezel said.

The Passion of the Christ was an enormous box office hit in 2004, taking more than $600m worldwide after attracting huge numbers of religious filmgoers. However, it was also the source of controversy with some critics accusing Gibson of antisemitism. Jami Bernard of the New York Daily News called it “the most virulently antisemitic movie made since the German propaganda films of World War II”.

via Jim Caviezel claims The Passion of the Christ made him a Hollywood outcast | Film | guardian.co.uk.

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May 2, 2011 · 8:02 pm

JCrew at Center of Gay Politics Again With Gay Couple ‘Happy Together’ in May Catalog – ABC News

Another reason for me to love J Crew….

I already have a closet full of their clothes…

This just makes me want to buy more to show my support!

Or at least use that as an excuse…

In any event, Thanks, J Crew!

J. Crew surprised consumers again with a May 2011 catalog that features its employees as models, including a gay designer with his boyfriend, who are described as “Happy Together.”

The preppie clothing giant was quiet on its presentation of the same-sex couple — “Our designer Somsack and his boyfriend, Micah” — but gay advocates applaud what they say is a strong message.

“Nothing is unintentional in this kind of marketing,” said Cathy Renna of Renna Communications, which serves the LGBT community. “Bravo to J. Crew.”

“It’s a giant step forward,” she said. “As an activist, it’s great to see a diversity of images and to see gay families represented in more regular media.”

via JCrew at Center of Gay Politics Again With Gay Couple ‘Happy Together’ in May Catalog – ABC News.

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May 2, 2011 · 7:59 pm

“Dorian Gray” to Appear as Wilde Actually Wrote It

Fascinating article from Salon.com about Oscar Wilde’s “The Picture of Dorian Gray” and the restored edition about to come out…

Altogether, the revised 1891 manuscript that eventually appeared in book form encompassed a whole series of changes and omissions designed to alter and conventionalize the “moral,” such as it is, by heightening the beautiful Dorian’s monstrosity and thus rendering him a far less sympathetic character than he had appeared to be in the original typescript. Looking at the typescript, then, we find more comprehensible Wilde’s oft-quoted statement on the book’s autobiographical elements: “Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be — in other ages, perhaps.”

Frankel has done much to place Wilde and his novel within the context of their time — “a heated atmosphere of hysteria and paranoia” about sexual “deviation.” The 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act was extended by Henry Labouchère, a radical member of Parliament, to include the criminalization of acts of “gross indecency” between men. (The Labouchère amendment was not repealed until 1956.) The vagueness of the amendment’s language — just what acts did “gross indecency” encompass, anyway? — caused fear amounting to paranoia among the homosexual community; as Frankel writes, “The conditions had been created for a series of homosexual scandals that would rock London and increase the level of homophobia in British society.”

The so-called Cleveland Street Affair, which broke only months before “Dorian Gray’s” first appearance, was the most spectacular of these, involving the infiltration and arrest of a ring of “rent boys” who worked by day as telegraph messengers and by night as prostitutes out of a brothel in Cleveland Street. A number of aristocrats and prominent military men were implicated; Lord Arthur Somerset, the Prince of Wales’ equerry, fled the country; a shadow was even cast on the name of the prince’s elder son, though that suspicion was subsequently proved groundless. “In the wake of the Cleveland Street Scandal,” Frankel explains, “Wilde’s emphasis on Dorian Gray’s youthfulness, or susceptibility to the ‘corruption’ of an older aristocratic man (Lord Henry), is one of the features of the novel that most outraged reviewers.”

via “Dorian Gray” as Wilde actually wrote it – Fiction – Salon.com.

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May 2, 2011 · 7:44 pm

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day

Let us never forget…

From the U. S. Holocaust Memorial Museum Website:

The internationally recognized date comes from the Hebrew calendar and corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on that calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw ghetto uprising. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah. When the actual date of Yom Hashoah falls on a Friday, the state of Israel observes Yom Hashoah on the preceding Thursday. When it falls on a Sunday, Yom Hashoah is observed on the following Monday.

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May 2, 2011 · 7:17 pm

Fantasia Barrino, ‘American Idol’ Winner, to Play Mahalia Jackson

And she may be talented enough to also pull this one off….

After seeing her amazing performance in “The Color Purple” on stage, I bet she can do it…..

I hope some of these movies I’m reading about come to fruition. There sure haven’t been many good ones lately….

I’ve only seen two in the past couple of months….”Source Code” was lame, but “Limitless” was pretty good…

Still, nothing else out there on the movie horizon that is very exciting….

Fantasia Barrino has had her problems over the past year, but unintentional weight gain is not one of them.

The “American Idol” winner has been seen with extra pounds of late, but she says it’s on purpose — she’s getting into character for a new movie, in which she’ll star as gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

“In fact, she’s just signed on to play the lead in Mahalia and has been told to gain 30 to 45 pounds for the role,” her rep told RadarOnline.com.

via Fantasia Barrino, ‘American Idol’ Winner, Gaining 30-45 Pounds For Movie.

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May 2, 2011 · 7:11 pm

Jeremy Renner: Steve McQueen In New Film

He just may be talented enough to pull this off….

From HuffingtonPost.com:

A newly famous action star isn’t just embracing superstardom, he’s kicking expectations to a whole new level.

Two time Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner is set to produce and star in a biopic of legendarily rebellious actor Steve McQueen, the Oscar-nominated icon who helped define the modern action film. Renner’s new production company, The Combine, will be behind the film, to be based on Marshall Terrill’s book “Portrait of an American Rebel” and “The Life and Legend of a Hollywood Icon.”

McQueen, whose career was launched to true stardom with the TV show “Wanted: Dead or Alive,” featured in a slew of popular action movies through the 60’s and 70’s, including “The Magnificent Seven,” “The Great Escape,” “Bullitt,” and “The Thomas Crown Affair,” amongst many others. He became at one point the highest paid actor in the world; his obsession with racing led him to do many of his own stunts and cemented his reputation as fearless leading man.

Renner has been on an epic run of his own; scoring back-to-back Oscar nods for action-filled dramas “The Hurt Locker” and “The Town,” he’ll appear in the new “Mission Impossible” film this summer with an eye on taking over the series from current headliner Tom Cruise. He’s now playing Hawkeye in the comic book epic “The Avengers” with director Joss Whedon, and he’s the choice to take over the “Bourne” films from Matt Damon.

via Jeremy Renner: Steve McQueen In New Film.