What Historical Figures Would Look Like Today
In other news, Caligula was actually either Frodo or Mark Zuckerberg. Here’s another example of Zuckerberg/Little Boots. Of course that’s unfair. You can’t compare Zuckerberg and Caligula. One of them was a cold, unsympathetic, nearly inhuman monster whose almost god-like power nearly destroyed western civilization, while the other was merely a Roman emperor.
“Brian Dennehy, the regular-guy actor whose bulldog build, good-guy demeanor and no-nonsense approach meshed in an array of memorable roles for film, television and the theater, has died. He was 81.”
The Lost Cut is a recut version of Blade Runner created by splicing in other films that star Blade Runner cast members, plus more films starring those films’ co-stars, resulting in a masterfully edited cinematic rabbit hole where Rick Deckard is hunting down a cast of replicants including Gene Hackman (via The Conversation, one of Harrison Ford’s first films), Steve Martin (via The Jerk, which stars M. Emmet Walsh, who plays Deckard’s boss Bryant), and John Belushi (via The Blues Brothers, which features Ford’s Star Wars co-star Carrie Fisher).
The film follows Blade Runner’s broad story beats, but its narrative drifts wherever the added footage leads, like some kind of Burroughsian cut-up version of Ridley Scott’s film.
Anna Friel in The Look of Love (2013)
The Look of Love is a biopic of Paul Raymond, a British entrepreneur who turned various adult enterprises into a fortune large enough to get him labeled as Britain’s richest man. He started with strip clubs, moved up first to burlesque shows, then to naughty theatrical revues in the West End. He branched into publishing (Mayfair, Club International, Men Only), and systematically converted his cash flow into real estate holdings, which eventually got him the title of “The King of Soho” after he had acquired 60 of the 87 acres covered by that London district.
The Daily Mail covered the high points of his bio here.
The movie does present just about every detail mentioned in that article linked above, but all of that is just window dressing for the film’s dramatic heft, an in-depth portrayal of Raymond’s genuine love for, and over-indulgence of, his daughter Debbie, who gradually was pulled into his louche orbit of non-stop fun, sleaze and drugs. In the framing story, an elderly Raymond looks back on his life, wonders if he could have avoided all his parental mistakes by steering Debbie toward a more sensible path, one which would not have resulted in her death at 37 from a heroin OD. The old fellow seems a bit weak in the self-analysis department, because the film ends with him seeming to repeat all of the same mistakes with his oldest granddaughter. That conclusion emphasized a point made throughout the film, that Raymond, although basically a decent person, never learned from his mistakes, having lost the love of his life in the same way he lost his first wife, through a succession of misbegotten adventures with casual lovers, none of whom he cared to, or bothered to, hide from the women he loved and was living with.
The film’s treatment of the big-time world of sleaze is superficial and overly glossy. Raymond is pictured wandering through London without his usual retinue of bodyguards. No rivals get strong-armed, no public officials are pictured taking kick-backs, no feminists protest the objectification of women, and Raymond’s army of shifty attorneys is left in the background. Picturing all of that more accurately would have strengthened the film’s point that Raymond was reckless to draw Debbie into that world, and could have lent the film the gravitas it seemed to crave.
The film doesn’t really need to be weighty to be worthwhile, however, because it’s an easy one to watch, especially for male audiences, who should find it funny, sexy and nostalgic. The times and the styles are fun to remember; the screen is constantly filled with gorgeous eye candy; and Steve Coogan portrays Raymond as a charming fellow who’s quick with a quip.
“Last May, comedian/actor Amy Schumer and her husband Chris Fischer welcomed their first child to the world, a baby boy they named Gene Attell Fischer. Attell may seem like an unusual choice for a middle name, but it was a tribute to Amy’s very close friend and fellow comedian Dave Attell. Amy revealed that she and Chris officially changed Gene’s middle name to Dave.”
Their headline is promising; their evidence is unconvincing:
“Singles are tweeting the terms ‘nudes’ and ‘dick pics’ alongside the term ‘Coronavirus’ at a pace 384% higher than just 30 days ago.”
As on old college pal used to say, WWDFD. (Well, woop-dee-fuckin-do)
The article is not clear about exactly which portions will be “Live,” but from what I can gather, it will basically be Saturday Night Taped.
(The article is on NBC’s web site. If they don’t know, who does?)
Perhaps you don’t immediately recognize his name, but if you are a male baby boomer, I can just about guarantee that you’ve seen more of Mort Drucker’s art than of any other artist you can name. For more than 50 years he was MAD magazine’s go-to guy for celebrity caricatures. He has passed away at 91.
Here’s a tiny fraction of his work.
Susannah York in “Images” (1972)
You probably have not seen this film, even if you are a Robert Altman fan. It never received a normal commercial release in America. Some time later it was reported that the film’s original negative was burned by Columbia Pictures. Accidentally. Maybe. Director Altman himself expressed great surprise that a print was obtained by the Cleveland Cinematheque for an Altman retrospective in 2001!
Even if you love Altman’s films (I do), you may well hate this film (I do). I found it to be confusing and as dull as dishwater. My colleague, the late Tuna, also hated it and described it as follows:
“Images (1972) was a total mystery to me after watching it. Thank goodness there was a featurette on the DVD with Writer/Director Robert Altman. I learned that we are seeing life through the eyes of a schizophrenic (Susannah York). Nothing we see in the movie can be assumed to be real, but she may be married, writing a children’s book about unicorns, and staying in a vacation home with her husband. When she is not using voice-over to recite the book she is writing, she is having encounters with herself, her French lover who dies in an airplane crash, and other men. This is high on the list of films I will never see again.”
“John Prine, who for five decades wrote rich, plain-spoken songs that chronicled the struggles and stories of everyday working people and changed the face of modern American roots music, died Tuesday at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was 73. The cause was complications related to COVID-19, his family confirmed to Rolling Stone.”
“WWE WrestleMania 36, Day 1: Results, insane ending, match ratings and full recap”
UPDATE: WWE WrestleMania 36, Day 2
Hey, what can I tell ya? It’s the closest thing we have to a sporting event.
Like most late night shows, it stopped production in early March. Unlike the others, it is not returning.
“The audience for Lights Out has not been soft since its debut in July 2019. The show typically drew less than half the audience of its Daily Show lead-in.”
It is being shopped to other networks and platforms.
Huzzah!
The festival was canceled by coronavirus. The streaming arm of Amazon plans to distribute the new content for free.
“Not believing in a hereafter, I really can’t see any practical difference if people remember me as a film director or a pedophile or at all. All that I ask is my ashes be scattered close to a pharmacy.”
This guy has just won the internet. pic.twitter.com/wQWvKw4jco
— Teeta (@anitamassey86) March 25, 2020
They are down to the sweet 16 in the March Madness of King Don.
Trump has made so many crazy verbal gaffes that it’s difficult to choose a favorite, but I always enjoy these:
