Blogcritics Author: Maria Ciaccia

Book Review: The Star Machine by Jeanine Basinger

Maria Ciaccia — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 18:21:50 EDT

Film historian Jeanine Basinger looks into how stars were made during Hollywood's Golden Age.
Much has been written about Hollywood's Studio System and the stars of the 1930s-1950s, but there has been little said about the machinery and formula that actually went into creating the stars adored by the public. In The Star Machine, film historian Jeanine Basinger, Chair of the Film Studies at Wesleyan University who in her youth was a...

Announcement: Short-content feeds

Phillip Winn — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:00:00 EDT

Sunday, August 26, 2007, marks the switch of all Blogcritics.org article feeds from full-content to short-content. This is the result of several converging factors, and is unfortunately a permanent decision (as permanent as any decision can be on the web, that is). We are aware of all of the reasons that this is a Bad Idea, and we are aware that some of you will be quite upset about having to click on something to read the free content, and we're sorry. Unfortunately, despite great effort, full-content feeds are not currently economically viable. Two other factors are involved: full-content feeds have resulted in an unprecedented level of content theft, with BC content appearing on many websites, usually spam sites, without attribution or permission. This duplicate content causes a cascading set of problems, not the least of which is that search engines generally aren't favorable to duplicate content, and don't always guess correctly. Finally, our RSS advertising partner is strongly in favor of short-content feeds. We hope that you'll continue to subscribe to BC via RSS, and when an article grabs your eye, it's only a click away, still free on the BC website. Thank you for your understanding.

Oldies But Goodies Can Be Found Among Amazon's Top 100 DVDs

Maria Ciaccia — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 13:23:06 EDT

Surprisingly, it's not just the expected, hot new films like Blood Diamond that are hitting the Amazon.com DVD best-seller list these days - there are a few oldies in the top 100 as well.DVD best-seller lists are usually eclectic, but one thinks of a "top 100" list having the most recent films and TV shows, and certainly this is reflected in the Amazon top 20. Buffy the Vampire Slayer - Collector's Set at the time this writer checked Amazon was number one, followed by the BBC series Planet Earth, the blessed-by-Oprah self-help The Secret, and the newly-released film with Helen Mirren's Oscar-winning performance as The Queen. But a further look at the list can be revealing, for in a world of Buffy fans, there seems to be room for some items that we old-timers recognize, too.Though it's not ancient, it's interesting that 1990's Twin Peaks - The Second Season charts in at 22. For those who may not remember, Twin Peaks, which asked "Who killed Laura Palmer?" was a cult classic starring Kyle MacLachlan (most recently Orson Hodge on Desperate Housewives), Lara Flynn Boyle, Sherilynn Fenn, Ray Wise, Joan Chen, Richard Beymer, and many others. Twin Peaks was one of those shows that started brilliantly and then became weird for the sake of being weird, but the characters are great, and the episodes directed by David Lynch are true standouts. I'm assuming the people buying season two bought season one - because this is one series where each episode stands on the one before it.Number 28 is Bedazzled, a 1967 riff on Faust written by Peter Cook and starring Cook and his comedy partner, Dudley Moore. Cook and Moore, who were part of the "Beyond the Fringe" comedy troupe of the 1950s, were very successful, but this is actually the only film that showed their unique pairing to great advantage. Directed by Stanley Donen, the man responsible for films like Charade, Arabesque, and many musicals of the '50s and '60s, Bedazzled tells the story of a short order cook named Stanley (Moore). As he is about to kill himself because of his mad love for a waitress who works with him at Whimpy Burger, he meets George Spiggott (Cook), the devil, and sells his soul for seven wishes. It's not only a funny film but fascinating, as it was made before Dudley Moore became a movie star in 10 and Arthur. At number 40, we have the sixth season of the highly successful Murder, She Wrote starring the indomitable Angela Lansbury as mystery novelist Jessica Fletcher, who solves mysteries in her personal life as well as in fiction. Murder, She Wrote was a true breakout show - who knew people my parents' age were watching television? And who cared? CBS did, and trotted out many old stars, including MGM players from Lansbury's contract days such as Van Johnson and Hurd Hatfield, as well as some of her Broadway costars. The mysteries weren't much, but for 12 years, from 1984 to 1996, audiences ate it up. Thanks to Angela, TV later got The Golden Girls.The next oldie is a musical, at number 48 - Camelot, starring Richard Harris and Meg Bussert - but this isn't the movie Camelot, this is the 1982 Broadway production filmed by HBO, preserving Richard Harris' only stage role on film. Richard Muenz is Lancelot. Something amazing, amidst Grey's Anatomy and The Good Shepherd, to see a Broadway special in such company.If you had to guess which classic musicals would make the top 100, The Sound of Music would come to mind sooner or later. The 40th anniversary two-disc special edition starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer pops up at number 56 -and was released in 2005. Let's face it, The Sound of Music is a perennial with audiences, thus making it a perennial on best-seller lists. This is the film that saved 20th Century Fox from complete disintegration.It was mentioned above that The Sound of Music saved 20th Century Fox. At number 58 is a man who kept 20th Century Fox solvent for many a year - Tyrone Power. Power's major swashbucklers, 1940's The Mark of Zorro and the 1942 Black Swan are already out - Zorro, in fact, was released twice, once in black and white and once in double-sided black and white/color - but this set contains the remarkable Blood and Sand and Son of Fury from the early '40s, and the later films Captain from Castile (1947), Prince of Foxes (1949), and The Black Rose (1950). The latter three were made on location with gorgeous results, including an actual erupting volcano in Captain from Castile. The pre-order sales of Tyrone Power: The Swashbuckler Box Set promises another Power collection in the future. Legend Judy Garland is at number 63 in The Pirate, a beautiful 1948 film which also stars Gene Kelly and is directed by the brilliant Vincent Minnelli. Often overlooked, this film has a great script and a rich Cole Porter score - not to mention the talents of Garland, Kelly, and Minnelli. A definite must. Not due out until July 2007.Number 71 is 1977's Roots, one of the greatest miniseries ever produced, in the days when the networks had the money to do them. This is a four-disc collector's set, due to be released next month. It is the story of Kunta Kinte, who is abducted from his African village and brought to America as a slave. The series follows the family he eventually has and events in U.S. history such as the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and eventual emancipation of the slaves. The stars include LeVar Burton, Lou Gossett, Jr., Ben Vereen, Maya Angelou, Moses Gunn, among others. This isn't the first time Roots has been on DVD, but this promises to be a very special edition with an additional bonus disc, Crossing Over: How Roots Captivated a Nation and a documentary from 1978, Roots: One Year Later.In number 73 is that rumpled detective in the old raincoat, Columbo, with a new DVD set due out next week, Columbo: Mystery Movie Collection - 1989. Peter Falk came back as Columbo in 1989 after an 11-year break, and the series did some marvelous episodes. Six of them, including a personal favorite, "Mirrors, Smoke, and Shadows" are included here and are a must for fans of Columbo, one of the all-time great shows that was originally part of an NBC mystery movie series that rotated shows such as McCloud and McMillan and Wife. If you're old enough to remember that Sunday night series, you'll appreciate this bit of trivia: the original Columbo was onstage and played by Thomas Mitchell, Scarlett O'Hara's father.Richard Burton and Peter O'Toole star in Becket, the 1964 film coming out on DVD next month and currently in the number 88 spot. This is the true story of Henry II (O'Toole) and his complicated relationship with the Archbishop of Canterbury (Burton). The film won an Academy Award for Best Screenplay, and both actors received Academy Award nominations for their roles. A fantastic film.So while you're enjoying Rocky Balboa and taking in The Office, some of us will be watching a squinting detective, humming Cole Porter, and watching some classic acting. Thanks to DVDs and a great response from several generations of viewers, current and old favorites should continue to entertain for some time to come.

Maria Ciaccia went from singer to writer as a contributing editor to Hollywood Studio Magazine. In subsequent assignments for The World Times, Soaps in Depth, Washington Times, and PEOPLE magazine online, she has interviewed countless celebrities from film, television, and theater. She has appeared on E! Entertainment's Mysteries and Scandals and other programs. Maria is the author of three books and currently writes for the soap opera General Hospital's website on About.com.

Book Review - Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. At Least Some of Them

Maria Ciaccia — Sun, 26 Nov 2006 19:00:07 EST

It’s safe to say that Turner Classic Movies owns the classic film franchise. While the AMC channel goes for a different demographic, shows commercials and suffers an identity crisis, TCM continues to bring new fans into the movie world of the 1920-1960s and occasionally beyond. Their massive library includes silents and films produced before the Hayes Code took sex out of the movies and moved in morality. Anyone who watches TCM is able to experience the rich history of cinema, the magic of the studio era, and the enormous presence of its greatest stars, many of whom would be unknown to modern audiences had it not been for Turner Classic Movies.Well, some of its greatest stars. I’ve decided that TCM isn’t so much interested in old films as it is in TCM. That’s normal for any business and should be expected for one as successful as Turner Classic Movies. Case in point – they have recently published a book called Leading Men: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actors of the Studio Era. This is a follow-up to Leading Ladies: The 50 Most Unforgettable Actresses of the Studio Era. It would have been more honest to call the books Turner Classic Movies 50 Most... because in fact, as any film aficionado with half a brain can figure out taking a look at the Table of Contents, if you spent your career at Twentieth Century Fox studios, you just plain don’t exist.It’s not that TCM has anything against 20th Century Fox (although one might get that impression), it’s just that they don’t own any of their movies. There is the Fox Movie Channel to fill the gap, except that it doesn’t have anywhere near reach of TCM.So in this group of “the MOST unforgettable leading men,” one of the MOST unforgettable leading men has been left out – among others, but this omission is the most egregious. I speak of Tyrone Power, one of the handsomest men who ever lived, one of the great romantic leads and adventure heroes of the mid-20th century, a man who received 10,000 fan letters a day and whose personal life was followed in such a way as to make Paris Hilton’s life seem ignored: his three marriages, his love affairs with Sonja Henie, Lana Turner, Judy Garland, Anita Ekberg, Mai Zetterling, each of whom claimed Power was the great love of her life; his polo-playing, traveling, appearances anywhere and everywhere. Yeah. Somehow he didn’t make this tome...and it shouldn’t be any surprise, then, to learn that in the leading ladies book, one of the biggest box office stars of all time, Betty Grable, was also wiped off the face of the earth. She too made the mistake of working for 20th Century Fox Studios. I shudder – and I mean this, I shudder – to think what would have happened if Marilyn Monroe hadn’t done films outside of Fox, and therefore, if none of her movies were owned by Turner. A mind-boggler. One wonders if even TCM would have had the nerve to leave her out of a compilation. Why do I think they would have? For the record, TCM does own one film with Power in it – Marie Antoinette – produced by MGM; it’s the only loan-out that Darryl Zanuck permitted of his biggest star. That’s not enough for the actor be considered important to Turner Classic Movies. It is known for its exclusion of Power. There is a blog page that complains about TCM constantly, even showing a month-by-month grid for the channel that says: “No Tyrone Power” in each month, and criticizing the programming people “for their continued refusal to heed my pleas re: Tyrone Power.”Not that Power is alone among the great unwashed left out of “the 50 most unforgettable.” He’s in good company since Orson Welles isn’t in this book either. I guess it’s because Orson made all those little films. You know, Citizen Kane, The Third Man, Touch of Evil, Jane Eyre. You can forget Glenn Ford, Tony Curtis, Robert Montgomery and Joseph Cotton too. Richard Widmark – oh, sorry, he was under contract to 20th Century Fox. What was I thinking? At least Tony Curtis and Montgomery are mentioned in Robert Osborne’s disingenuous foreword. Apparently you’re not even allowed to PRINT THE NAMES of 20th Century Fox stars.TCM had to work damn hard to come up with 50 to meet its very narrow criteria. Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton appear in the book, for instance. Both of these men were tremendous stars. But Harold Lloyd and Buster Keaton were comedians. One would think that TCM would extend its list of publications by doing a book of comedians, which would certainly include these brilliant, innovative men at the top of the list. But then that would have left them with 48 unforgettable leading men. I have sad news for TCM anyway – Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd are not unforgettable. They’re forgotten. Should they be? No. But I asked my mother about them and watched her eyebrows furrow as she thought hard. Then I asked her about Tyrone Power and watched her face light up. My mother has dementia. So now who’s unforgettable? Barbara Cartland, when asked how she could write such hot, sexy books while she was still a virgin, answered, “We didn’t need sex. We had Tyrone Power.” She didn't say, “We didn’t need sex. We had Buster Keaton.” Somehow, when I picture a leading man, Buster and Harold don’t come immediately to mind. Neither does Mickey Rooney, but he’s included too.Let’s take a look at a few other measures... if for the sake of argument, the criteria wasn’t that TCM just happens to have a stake in keeping these names before the public. We’ll start with Quigley’s Top Ten Box Office Stars. Besides being crowned King of Hollywood in 1938, Tyrone Power placed at #10 in 1938 on the top box office list, #2 in 1939, which is above Clark Gable in the year of Gone With the Wind, and #5 in 1940. At the height of his career, his films earned $250,000,000; in 1939, the average cost to see a movie was $0.27. Do the math. After the war, he continued to be in the top 20. Errol Flynn, who is in TCM’s book and was known for heroic adventure films as was Power, made the list once, in 1939, when he placed #8. As far as swashbuckling, it is a fact that Tyrone Power was more expert with a sword than any of the actors who parried and thrust. This was noted by another fine swordsman who, portraying the villain, fought duels with these stars: Basil Rathbone. His swordfight with Power in The Mark of Zorro is considered the best ever put on screen. Career-wise, at the time of his early death, Tyrone Power was still an international star commanding big bucks and a percentage of the profits; in fact, when he was first offered and refused Witness for the Prosecution, Billy Wilder abandoned the project, only returning to it when Power agreed. By the time of his early death, Flynn was doing films with little or no distribution. His last movie, Cuban Rebel Girls, is a disgrace. Don’t get me wrong. Errol Flynn was incredibly handsome, charming, possessed one of the all-time great screen presences, and definitely belongs on a list of unforgettable leading men. But if he belongs there, so does Tyrone Power. Look for Anthony Quinn’s name on the top box office lists – you won’t see it. Ditto others in this book. Glenn Ford? I guess he wasn't much of a star. He was the #1 top box office in 1958 – number frigging 1 - #5 in 1956, #6 in 1959. A big zero. You might as well forget him – TCM already has. If you want to look at Oscars, show me Alan Ladd’s, Robert Taylor’s et al. and we’ll talk.Power’s films have been coming out at a fairly rapid rate on DVD lately, and this perhaps accounts for the fact that his annual memorial service at Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Valentino has a memorial service there as well) was packed, standing room only, and that the audience included someone with a script on Power’s life and a film crew gathering information for another project. Also, thanks to Tom Cruise and Clint Eastwood, Power has been in the news lately – accounts of Cruise’s Italian wedding to Katie Holmes make reference to the actor's marriage to Linda Christian in the same town, the so-called “wedding of the century” that was given enormous spreads in magazines including Life. Because of his resemblance to Power, Jesse Bradford was chosen to play the role of Rene Gagnon, whose nickname was “Tyrone Power” in the Eastwood-directed Flags of our Fathers, the film about the soldiers who raised the flag on Iwo Jima. Power is the subject of or included on many websites; one website devoted to him is over 600 pages. And if you’ve ever tried to buy any Tyrone Power material on eBay – have a box of smelling salts and a platinum credit card on hand.Of course all of these “lists” are arbitrary and controversial. There isn’t any greatest, best, or unforgettable, except those in your own hearts. There is enduring, such as James Stewart, and there is legendary, such as Humphrey Bogart. But TCM’s books aren’t about legendary, enduring, or unforgettable. They’re about TCM broadcasts.There isn’t anyone who loves Turner Classic Movies more than I do. Thanks to it, I have been able to see much more of the work of William Powell, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Kay Francis, Constance Bennett, Robert Montgomery, Norma Shearer, Rudolph Valentino, very early Barbara Stanwyck and Bette Davis in films that without TCM, I probably never would have seen. But TCM, you can’t rewrite history and just willy-nilly leave people out because they’re not on your channel, or exclude some stars to make room for people because you own more of their films. MGM, RKO, and Warner Brothers were not the only studios, though it may seem that way if you watch TCM. If you do indeed own the old film franchise with your film library and publishing company, a sense of responsibility should accompany that awesome ownership. Ignoring people like Orson Welles doesn’t cut it, particularly when young people are becoming interested in classic film and film history because of your channel. As for those 20th Century Fox stars, either cough up some money to license films such as The Mark of Zorro, Alexander’s Ragtime Band, The Razor’s Edge, Nightmare Alley, The Black Swan, Laura, Pinky, Pickup on South Street, Gentlemen's Agreement and All About Eve, or tell readers up front that while the stars you push may be unforgettable, they’re not necessarily the only stars or even the most unforgettable. There were others, but they just happened to primarily work for Darryl F. Zanuck.If you want a more definitive look at the great leading men, I suggest Hollywood Biographies: The Leading Men which is a 5-DVD set of 50 leading men, with a half an hour devoted to each star that includes career, personal life, interviews, and film clips. It’s not big budget, but if you're a newcomer to classic film and interested in learning, this is much more comprehensive and contains many names you will not find among TCM’s “unforgettables.” But the description of this DVD set isn’t “unforgettable.” It’s “legendary.” The best really is - if you’re less interested in silent films - The Great Movie Stars: The Golden Years by David Shipman. It's an old book but fantastic and available on Amazon. It's also worth looking for it on eBay.With the exception of Charles Boyer, neither TCM’s book nor the DVD set includes foreign leading men such as the phenomenal Jean Gabin or Marcello Mastroianni. There’s another book for you, TCM. See whose films you own and get on it.

Jerry Springer on Dancing With the Stars: Pre-judge Not

Maria Ciaccia — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 08:49:54 EDT

I had never watched Dancing with the Stars until my sisters got me hooked, but when I heard that one of this season’s contestants was to be Jerry Springer, I became nauseous. I mean, did I want to see this guy dance? The Sultan of Salaciousness? The King of Trash TV? Could I put up with that just to see Mario Lopez’s dimples and Emmitt Smith’s gorgeous smile?My only knowledge of Jerry Springer, admittedly, came from his TV talk show, which is like watching a bunch of circus freaks. You can be zapping with your remote and come up with something like this: A 15-year-old girl is telling her 60-year-old husband that she’s fallen in love with her cousin (could be a man, could be a woman, could be both). From that point on, it’s hard to understand what’s being said because of all the bleeps for the bad language; plus it’s also hard to see because the wife, for reasons known only to herself, has taken off her top, so there’s a big white box over her chest. Then the cousin appears.The husband, whose belt is around his thighs and whose stomach precedes him by a good three feet, lunges toward the new boyfriend, who is probably already the result of a marriage between cousins. The security guards arrive. Jerry stands to the side, holding his microphone. [Note: You would be zapping to a show like this in the past – today, apparently, there is no violence or foul language allowed on the program. I must have caught a rerun.] I admit I had Jerry all wrong, and like a lot of other Americans who watch Dancing with the Stars, I’ve fallen hard for Jerry Springer: father, dancer, trash talk show host, and a man whose name is the title of an opera where people sing expletives on high notes.Jerry decided to appear on Dancing with the Stars so he could do the waltz with his daughter Katie at her upcoming wedding. Katie was born without nasal passages, is legally blind, and partially deaf. She works with special needs children. She has a beauty that transcends all the leggy professional dancers with their sequined costumes. After Springer and his lovely partner Kym Johnson danced the waltz to “Could I Have This Dance?,” he went into the audience to hug his daughter. There wasn’t a dry eye to be found.At 64, Springer is an amazingly good sport and a game dancer. He plays maracas like a madman, leaps into the air, turns and lands on his knee, arms outstretched, wears a John Travolta Saturday Night Fever suit to introduce a disco segment, and rolls across the floor during the actual disco dance. He’s this year’s George Hamilton – not afraid to make a fool of himself or have a laugh at his own expense. Where Hamilton hit the nursing homes to get votes, Jerry went to the prisons – his people. When Kym was injured, one of the hosts asked him if he was concerned about the competition. “Oh, yeah,” he says, “I mean, there goes first place.” As of last week, he’s managed to hold on, but by October 25, he may be out.Normally, it appears to me like he wants off that show like nobody’s business so he can soak his aching muscles for a week in a hot tub. However, after the judges chastised him for his prank-filled toreador act last week, in which he looked like a waiter, he did want to come back: if he has to exit, he wants to do it with a better dance. On October 24, he did a fantastic job and looked great in his tux. “If I’m going to die,” he tells the emcee, “I wanted to go out with a better dance, and this is a better suit to be laid out in.”In researching Springer, I was surprised to find out a few things that many people probably already know. He was born in a London subway station after his parents fled the Holocaust. In 1949, the family immigrated to Queens, New York. He holds a degree in political science from Tulane University and a JD from Northwestern. He was a campaign aide to Robert Kennedy during his presidential run, and Springer himself was elected the mayor of Cincinnati by the largest plurality in history. After an unsuccessful run for governor of that state in 1982, he did nightly news and political commentaries for Cincinnati's WLWT-TV, winning 10 Emmy awards.So just how did a man of Springer’s education and political savvy come to host this show that bears his name? Well, it turns out there was another big talk show host at Cincinnati’s WLWT-TV by the name of Phil Donahue. When it came time to replace Donahue’s sober, issue-driven talk show, The Jerry Springer Show was developed as a replacement, modeled along the same line as Donahue’s. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately, I guess it depends on how you look at it), the show had a poor reception and the syndicators were ready to drop it. In order to save it, the format was changed to -- cough, cough -- a less serious one. I’ll give it to Springer, he’s put the name and money he’s made for himself to good use. He established a scholarship fund at the Keliman School (Chicago, IL) that serves inner-city youth. He was behind the effort to lower the voting age from 21 to 18, testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee to support ratification of what became the 26th Amendment to the Constitution. He’s Vice President of the Muscular Dystrophy Association. In his spare time, he hosts a radio show and writes and performs country music. That is, when he’s not tripping the light fantastic with Kym.Springer’s fame is now in the stratosphere. Besides gaining a new audience on Dancing With the Stars, Jerry Springer: The Opera, starring David Soul of Starsky and Hutch fame (I think he was Hutch, I always got the names mixed up) played the Cambridge Theater in London for 609 performances before embarking on a national tour of the United Kingdom. It has won many awards, including the prestigious Olivier Award for best musical of 2003. Whether it will reach our shores is dependent upon several things. Even if it plays Broadway, I wonder if the rest of the country is ready for a big man in a diaper, a leathered-up Brünhilde type doing a pole dance, paunchy people fighting and making out, and the aforementioned high-note profanity. Why pay for it when you can see most of that on TV for nothing?Whatever the fate of the opera and the outcome of Dancing with the Stars, the talk show host’s future seems secure. He’ll be able to dance with Katie at her wedding, and lots of people, including myself, won’t need a barf bag when they hear his name. When he says at the end of his show, as he always does, "Until next time, take care of yourself and each other," I’m going to believe he means it.

Make Me Beautiful: Are Nip/Tuck's Surgeons the Guys For You?

Maria Ciaccia — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 18:41:21 EDT

You can't say the FX network isn't daring.With some of the most innovative series on television today -- including Rescue Me, The Shield and the upcoming Dirt, which promises to be as uncompromising in its material as the other offerings -- FX is the network to watch. Or not. Some of their material is not to everyone's taste.Take the brazen Nip/Tuck. It's the story of two plastic surgeons, Christian and Sean, best friends since college, who are in practice together in Florida. Christian Troy (Julian McMahon) is a hot, narcissistic playboy who appears to have doggie-style sex every night. ("I thought we agreed," Sean screams at him, "No boob jobs for sex!").One of his lastest conquests is his somewhat disturbed psychiatrist (Brooke Shields). Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) is a family man with three children, although for the moment, the daughter is never seen or mentioned. Reconciled with his wife (Jolie Richardson), the couple has a new baby born with ectrodactyly -- which results in fused bones in the hands and feet -- on whom Sean plans to performs a series of operations.In its soap opera-ish first years, Sean was dismayed to learn that his son Matt isn't his son at all, but Christian's. Matt is a strange-looking boy whose appearance can remind people of Michael Jackson - I don't see it, but I've heard that stated. That's wierd because the actor, John Hensley, and Jackson share a common birthday. So if you were born on August 29th, you might be on the bizarre side, though I'm not sure that theory will really hold up.Matt's done it all. He's tried to cut off his penis, he dated a sex change (a friend's mom) and later a blonde white supremacist who tried to bleach her face because she thought her mother had black blood in her family. Now he's joined Scientology. The side benefit is that he can hit on the reformed former porn star Kimber (Kelly Carlson), who has slept with both his daddies. Kimber rejected him at first, but after reuniting with former fiancee Christian -- yes, he planned to settle down -- only to be totally rejected after sex, she's decided to take Matt up on his offer. Film at 11. And film on Nip/Tuck means you get to see everyone's ass multiple times and possibly some very graphic, gross, bloody surgery. If you faint at the site of blood, this may not be your show.The last couple of episodes guest-starred Rosie O'Donnell in a hysterical turn as a $315 million Power Ball winner who gets full body lipo and, of course, the de rigeur romp with Christian, for which she paid him $400,000. He needed the money to pay off Jacqueline Bissett - it's a long story. But her character, Dawn Budge, finds out it's lonely at the top. Her trailer trash family -- consisting of her second husband and her daughter -- desert Dawn, stating she was more fun before she had money.Personally, with that bank account, I wouldn't care what she was like, but some people prefer deep-fried Oreos, what can I tell you? While in Palm Beach, she was ear-jacked, i.e., she wore a pair of expensive diamond earrings on the street and some crooks swept by on motorbikes and took one ear and the accompanying earring. So in another episode, she's back in the offices of McNamara and Troy demanding a new ear so she can be ready for the dating scene.After she allows a nude mouse, Vincent, who has genetically grown her a new ear, to be sacrificed during surgery, Dawn, a ferret lover, asks herself where it all went wrong. She then re-finds herself by donating a kidney to Liz (Roma Maffia), the lesbian anesthetist of McNamara and Troy, whose kidney was stolen while she was having a one-night stand. These things happen. You really shouldn't go home with somebody you don't know very well. Of all people for it to happen to, it's a shame it had to happen to the wonderful, caring but lonely Liz. Dawn and O'Donnell are in good shape, though - O'Donnell is getting her own TV series based on Dawn.Despite the craziness described above, Nip/Tuck has provided audiences with some of the most poignant stories ever written for television: a Siamese twin separation, a hugely obese woman who had to be removed from her home, a woman with stigmata, an elderly woman who wants a face-lift so her Alzheimer's-afflicted husband will remember her. Always brilliantly written and beautifully acted, the only problem with Nip/Tuck is that, like many shows that have way-out story lines, it threatens to become weird for the sake of being weird. That's what happened to Twin Peaks - heck, it even happened to Dynasty, which was a wonderfully campy show until it became self-consciously camp. Writers run out of storylines, try to top themselves, and before you know it, you've lost interest in the characters whom you no longer know. The good ones turn bad, the bad ones turn good, everyone marries everyone else, children no one ever heard of appear, the gay go straight, the straight go gay.Speaking of which, the writers of Nip/Tuck have given Christian gay undertones this year. He's dreaming about being with Sean as an all-male resort. Where will this lead? Wherever it leads, I hope Nip/Tuck keeps its integrity, even if some of the characters have none. It's by far the most interesting, envelope-stretching series, and one of the most entertaining programs on television.Make me beautiful.

DVD Review: Marie Antoinette (1938)

Maria Ciaccia — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 14:11:18 EDT

The enormous star of the '30s, Norma Shearer, was all but forgotten until Turner Classic Movies began showing her films. Due to the renewed interest in Shearer, Loew's, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) has released 1938's Marie Antoinette.Planned by Shearer's husband, the brilliant producer Irving Thalberg, the actress proceeded with the sumptuous production after his death in 1936. It would be one of her last films before her retirement at the age of 39.Based on Stefan Zweig's heavily researched book on the Queen of France, the character of Marie emerges as a woman out of touch with the real world who was interested in clothes and makeup. As Louis, her husband, suffered from a medical problem at the beginning of their marriage that rendered sex an impossibility, she sought sexual release in the arms of Swedish Count Axel von Fersen (Tyrone Power).Once Louis had surgery, the couple had two children, and Marie became devoted to him. However, the "Affair of the Necklace" contributed to Marie's downfall, King and Queen were too detached from their country to see what was happening with the poor in France. They paid the price with the guillotine. No expense was spared in the production. The ballroom of Versailles was recreated, but doubled in size; designer Adrian created 34 of the most spectacular gowns ever seen on film, purchasing silks and brocades from France and gold and silver lace from Austria. A milliner once employed by the Russian Imperial Opera was employed to supervise the manufacture of the headgear.Due to the whopping, expanding $1.8 million budget, the idea of filming in color had to be abandoned, though sets and costumes were built for a color production. Still, Marie Antoinette is glorious in black and white.Instead of using MGM contract player Robert Taylor in the part of Axel, Marie's lover, Shearer demanded 20th Century Fox heartthrob, Tyrone Power, to be loaned to the studio. She immediately developed a crush on him. She wasn't alone. When writer Barbara Cartland was asked how she could write such romantic and passionate novels before she was married and still a virgin, she replied, "We didn't need sex. We had Tyrone Power."In one way, the role of Axel hurt Power's career, as his boss, Darryl Zanuck, upset by the size of Power's role, stated he would never again lend him to any studio. Thus, Power lost the role of Ashley Wilkes in Gone with the Wind, Paris in King's Row, and roles in other films. The rest of the cast is a brilliant array of MGM character actors: Robert Morley, Joseph Schildkraut, John Barrymore, Gladys George, and Anita Louise.Shearer gives one of her best performances as Marie, able to capture the queen's youth, vivacity and glamor. Her scenes during imprisonment are both harrowing and touching, helping to win Shearer an Oscar nomination. As von Fersen, Power (and the actor actually does speak Swedish in the film) is dreamy, romantic and passionate, and it is in his role where liberties are taken with the actual story. Other than that, the historical accuracy of the film is surprisingly good.If Marie comes across as a heroine, it must be remembered that this is Norma Shearer, who under MGM never came off as anything less! Schildkraut is appropriately wormy, and Robert Morley (in a role intended for Charles Laughton) is nothing short of brilliant. Barrymore, due to his dissipation, is relegated to a small role as Louis XV, but it's a showy one. The film is beautifully directed by W.S. van Dyke.Extras on the DVD include a vintage short Another Romance of Celluloid which goes behind the scenes on this and other studio productions of 1938, and "Hollywood Goes to Town." Highly recommended.