Style Icons: Female »Rue McClanahan

Golden Girl

First Bea, now Rue McClanahan. The Golden era of girls is truly coming to an end. And while the hit show they shared fame on is considered a kitschy guilty pleasure, it’s a surprisingly funny and watchable one thanks in no small part to the cast. Rue as the man crazy Blanche Devereaux, who worked more than one man to his death in her Florida retirement home bedroom, was hilarious.

Other appearances included outside my old apartment on Bedford Avenue as the mistress of ceremonies for the Dog Parade, and the Film Crew narrated lost classic B movie Hollywood After Dark.

And if we didn’t already love her enough, the world just learned that her apartment features this:

“The door to her office is another conversation piece. It is sculptured to look as though a naked woman was walking through it. The woman’s head and one breast extend into the hallway; her hand is the doorknob. From inside the office, you see her backside.”

as well as a secret passageway.

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Posted on June 13, 2010

Hunks »Buster Keaton

The Great Stone Face

Buster Keaton has been called “as beautiful but as inhuman as a butterfly” a fitting and poetic description of my personal favorite comedian of his time and genre. While his life was not all roses (he struggled with alcoholism) his work was influential and bring happiness to many.

His heyday was the 1920s but he continued to work well into his later life. My personal favorite appearance is as one of the “Waxworks” in Sunset Boulevard.

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Posted on May 31, 2010

Hunks »Sawyer

Josh Holloway

As I write this, I’ve yet to watch the series finale of Lost but I am already a bit sad to realize it’ll be the last I’ll be seeing of Sawyer. The handsome guy is rarely my favorite character in anything – I prefer quirkier heroes, but Josh Holloway’s Southern grifter has defied my tradition. While, let’s face it, the actor looks like he would be equally well cast in the latest crappy CW drama about models (maybe a Models, Inc reboot anyone?), Holloway has become the show’s most complex and consistently beloved characters: he is the best comic relief (no small feat with a kind hearted nerdy jolly fat man on staff), a believably redeemed schemer, and a sexified romantic lead rolled into one Steinbeck-reading, cage sex making rogue. I’ll miss you hoss.

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Posted on May 23, 2010

Hunks »Keanu Reeves

Utah!

Decided to follow up my trip down childhood heart throb lane (see River Phoenix) with his fellow My Own Private Idaho star, Keanu Reeves. Of course any young girl knows his name means “the breeze”, Sassy Magazine taught us that. As he was a cool, refreshing breeze, the kind of goofy, kind but totally hot man that we all hoped to end up dating some day. And while some might say his acting skills are lacking, I’d refer them to his  resume, which includes some pretty impressive and diverse stuff: Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, River’s Edge, Dangerous Liasons, Parenthood, My Own Private Idaho, The Matrix, Bram Strocker’s Dracula, and the mother of them all Point Break! So, ok, the quality of material has tapered off lately (Constantine, The Lake House, The Day the Earth Stood Still) but it doesn’t make his any less charming and it only makes that next movie where he’s really going to shine more exciting (though no word on when it’s coming.. could it be the live action version of Cowboy Bebop?). Also, once he nodded to my dad so you know he’s a good guy too.

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Posted on May 16, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Lena Horne

R.I.P.

A golden song voice and a beautiful face to match, Brooklyn born Lena Horne forged an inspiring and multifaceted career that didn’t even miss a beat as her strong political beliefs got her in trouble (she was blacklisted during the Red Scare. Not to be kept down by anyone, though, Horne continued on as a major civil rights activists while belting out “Stormy Weather” in night clubs and winning awards.

The gorgeous songstress with those dynamite cheekbones and adorable smile, passed away this week at the age of 92.

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Posted on May 16, 2010

Hunks »River Phoenix

Childhood Heart Throb Lost

After Stand By Me came out, to which my sister and I sobbed uncontrollably at with every viewing during the epilogue, River Phoenix officially became my second beloved heart throb. The first being Corey Feldman, who even people who find his has been realty TV career and excruciating impersonations to be awful, have to admit he was pretty darn charming in, especially for a seven year old girl with a soft spot for smart asses.

But Phoenix was something different. More serious, more brooding, and he quickly overshadowed Feldman (who also stars in Stand By Me) with his kind and deep soul, a kindness and deepness, I have to admit was lost to me as a kid when he was pudgier in The Explorers, where I failed to begin my crush on him.

Of course as well all know Phoenix met his untimely death far too early, just as he was really beginning to shine as a talented actor. His best role, in my opinion was My Own Private Idaho, which hinted at the kind of unique choices he would have been likely to make later in his career.

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Posted on May 9, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Lynn Redgrave

Georgy Girl

While Lynn Redgrave may lament the typecasting as she said as “the happy lass with the broken heart” that her iconic role Georgy Girl led to, it’s a pretty wonderful role to be remembered by. And if you’ve not seen it, I recommend after Lynn’s recent passing you check it out.

From a famous family of thespians, Lynn was known as the comedian, perhaps even the less perfect “ugly duckling” (though she was certainly by no means ugly at all), but that only made her a most sympathetic and lovely actress. She sucummed to a long battle with breast cancer.

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Posted on May 9, 2010

Hunks »Franco Nero

Italian Actor

Aside from Camelot, which I only have the vaguest recollections of as a child, I don’t believe I’ve seen a single frame of any Franco Nero film, but one look at his steely heart stopping gaze has made me a gigantic fan. I might even stoop to watch some old westerns to get an eye full. Aside from his Italian acting career, he has been married to the lovely Vanessa Redgrave not once but twice.

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Posted on April 25, 2010

Hunks »Edward Woodward and Patrick Mower

Callan’s Men

This week’s TV pick, Callan is packed with British manliness and Edward Woodward and Patrick Mower are among the most dashing examples. Woodward might be more familiar to you from the show The Equalizer which, I have to admit, I’ve never actually seen.

Mower is less well known having made a career in Britain as television spies or detectives with his squished in nose (a feature that always drives me wild – see Noel Fielding or Joaquin Phoenix).


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Posted on April 18, 2010

Style Icons: Female »Jadin Wong

Famed Dancer

When Jadin Wong passed away at 96 recently, it was proclaimed “the end of an era”. I was introduced to the brassy, ballsy, eccentric and spectacular woman in a clip from a Budd Mishkin interview where, at 90, she was still dancing and told the world that she “kicked tush”. From nightclubs to Broadway to comedy to film, her career was varied and pioneering.

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Posted on April 18, 2010