It stopped me cold, and I couldn’t change the channel. It was Barbara Stanwyck, in 1937’s Stella Dallas, a film I hadn’t seen in years. It’s the story of a working class mother who manages to marry into money, leaves her husband, then raises her daughter under difficult (and questionable) circumstances. Years later, when the […]
Losing Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor – screen legend, world-renowned beauty, Oscar-winning actress – has passed away. She died today, of congestive heart failure, at the age of 79. Like most who recall her in Butterfield 8 or Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, we think of her exquisite face and voluptuous body, her smoldering sexuality that heightened extraordinary […]
Magnani, Manolo, and Where’s My Life of French Chic?
Anna Magnani was peeling herself out of a black satin slip, splashing in a small fountain, and sputtering in Italian while the women on the street around her were trying on clothing. Furiously. It was all very Filene’s Basement. The original – in the 1960s. But what was an Italian film icon doing in the […]
Sandra’s Bangs (Living in a Fishbowl)
Yesterday I considered red paint for my walls, red paint for my hair, and settled for a new shade of vermilion on my toe nails. Last night, I also cut myself bangs. Very Sandra Bullock. And don’t we all know that she appeared at the Golden Globes with a new do? Blunt bangs, and commentary […]
Real Camille?
Bad Habits Okay, so send me to my room without supper. I watched the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills last night. The big moment was approaching! The Kelsey-Camille Kiss Off. How could I miss that? And might we actually see the real Camille, when vulnerable? Might we see the Real Kelsey – the one we’ve […]
01-01-11
Come on. It’s a cool number, isn’t it? 01-01-11? I love when dates dive into delicious and satisfying strings, when digits fall into obsequious and obedient order, when they arrange themselves into a poetic pattern that pleases me. Who doesn’t notice the tidy affectation of 1-1-11? Or the distinct delight that comes at certain hours […]
Kelsey and Kayte: Happiness at any price?
I’m harping. Can’t help it. This particular celebrity divorce (and subsequent engagement) has gotten under my skin. In part, because I feel no sympathy whatsoever for the wife, Camille Grammer, fully cognizant that the (sur)Reality lens distorts, and we really don’t know much about her. Me Generation, Part Deux? But I’m appalled at parading around […]
Kelsey and Camille (Why does their divorce offend me?)
Yes, I watch Bravo. No, I haven’t joined a 12-step program if there is one. Yes, I’ve admitted my problem, but I’m not planning on rectifying it anytime soon. And I confess: I am a viewer of some of the Housewives, including a backward glance at the perpetually petulant crew from Beverly Hills. Every time […]
Bags, Mags, and Shags
The best Rx: Take two chick flicks and call me in the morning.
Cynical, skeptical, or cautious?
We had both been waiting at the hospital for three hours. She’s a registered nurse, and was even more annoyed than I was. “I don’t know what could be taking so long for a few simple tests,” she says. “A little blood work and the basics. This is a woman’s clinic now.” I am sitting […]