Oh LordieMost of the born again Christians I know would probably love the idea of Jesus being played by a good old Texan… but does he have to be such a damn hippie? Well, Ted Neeley, who has gained fame from the film and stage versions of Jesus Christ Superstar, is also a drummer, composer, and record producer.
He’s certainly my favorite depiction of the lord’s child, no offense Caviezel and Dafoe.
Believer in SantaShe warmed our hearts in Miracle on 34th St, but Natalie Wood was more than a cutesy little kid. In fact, she was known to be quite a temptress in the Hollywood scene, even in her teens (Warren Beatty, Steve McQueen, Elvis Presley and Michael Caine were all romantically linked to her). Her career shifted from childhood to more mature work with the classic Rebel Without a Cause, which also happens to be my favorite of her movies. Other key films are Splendor in the Grass, West Side Story, and Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice.
Wood died tragically after falling off a party boat while intoxicated in 1981.
Click here for the rest of Natalie Wood
Vengeful LovelyFull disclosure, I rented Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion for strictly vanity reasons. When I went dark with my hair and got a new brimmed Japanese hat, there was some image in mind that kept popping up. There was a trench coat, ravens, and a sharp knife…
Eventually I tracked down the image and the film series it came from and settled into this wildly stylized exploitation film. I quickly realized, of course, the I look nothing like the stunning Meiko Kaji, being that I am not a stunning Japanese beauty myself, but I can certainly claim her as a personal style icon. The vengeance outfit (trench and brimmed hat) is impeccable, but I also ran out to get liquid eye liner inspired by the perfect dark lids she somehow boasts while hog tied in solitary confinement.
Kaji’s 1973 film, Lady Snowblood was one of the inspirations for the Kill Bill films. Below/after the jump are some of images from the trippy, visually wowzer Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion.
Click here for the rest of Meiko Kaji
ActressI went on a recent binge buying cheap vintage magazines on eBay and while flipping through a Vogue from 1972 I was struck by the spectacular bohemian elegance of Silvana Mangano, a “secret star” who “rejects fame to live on a country farm as the woman she wants to be – a wife and mother.”
I’m floored by her intriguing beauty and her lifestyle but have to admit, I’ve only seen her on screen in here late career role as the Reverend Mother Ramallo in Dune. Must add more to my netflix queue! It turns out that her family is a bit more familiar to me: her husband was the late mega-producer Dino de Laurentis (Barbarella, Flash Gordon, Conan the Barbarian, Dune, Manhunter, Blue Velvet, etc); her granddaughter is the shiny toothed food hostess Giada de Laurentiis.
Click here for the rest of Silvana Mangano
Sure, I loved Fifteen; it was no Swan's Crossing or Degrassi, but is was excellent as far as teen stereotype driven melodramas go… I loved watching the sagas of Matt, torn between basketball and alcohol; his girlfriend Ashley (Laura Harris of my husband's dearly missed Women's Murder Club), who spoke as if she were on the verge of tears all the time; total bitch Brooke, hell bent on destroying the happiness of others; and Dylan, the cool guy with the leather jacket and the serious attitude… but that pig-faced little kid Billy Simpson, he was never my favorite.
Years later, that pig-faced kid is a pig-faced man, only now he's Van Wilder, and women are in love with his hunky body. Sure, he might be one of Hollywood's most commercially viable leading men (he was fine in Adventureland) and married to the gorgeous Scar Jo, but he'll always be Billy Simpson to me and, even worse, he reminds me too much of Dane Cook in the face to qualify as a hunk.
I actually feel kind of guilty disparaging someone who doesn't seem all that bad… I'm sure he's a nice person(?), but I simply cannot abide his status as a hunk.
Here's what I wrote on January 19th:
They are charming, sharp, handsome, hilarious, British, amiable, neatly dressed and likely a bit of a handful.?Altogether quite my cup of tea.?I think it unfair to put here preference for one over another, so I represent them collectively as they are my earliest, enduring crush.
RUNNERS UP:
Idris Elba
Sam Elliott
Danny McBride
Warren William
Mr Darcy
Joe Dallesandro
Here's what I wrote on May 4th:
Every quote attributed to (“I take a teaspoon of brandy when I feel spacey. It makes me come alive.” and?”I'd sell myself for a hat,”) or about (“Facts are not my mother's strong point”) adds to the charm of the willowy actress and style icon, Mimi Weddell.
While her old lady stylish eccentricities might call to mind the antics of the Beales, she never seems to teeter into such decrepit derangement. Instead, with a motto of “Rise above it!” she's an inspirational wonder with hundreds of hats (she and her millinery obsession are the subject of a 2008 documentary Hats Off that I am excited to see and wish would come to Netflix – check out the Algonquin release party photos here).
Here are some excellent photos of her and her adorably disorganized apartment taken by Brix Picks fave Tim Walker.
RUNNERS UPS:
Laura and Kate Mulleavy
Eiko Ishioka
Catherine Ribeiro
The Great Kat
Charlotte Rampling
Michelle Obama
I've got to admit that I was a little embarrassed to find Eli Roth so irresistibly and rather inexplicably cute in Inglourious Basterds – not because he was playing a head-bashing 'Bear Jew', but because he's behind the revolting torture franchise, Hostel.?/p>
As a long-time fan of horror films, I have to say that I've just never gotten on the relatively recent torture bandwagon and greatly prefer other sub-genres and wish the fad would give way to better stuff (see this week's movie pick). And I never trust any dude with a vigorous and vainglorious daily muscle-man work-out routine.
Still, one can't always expect good taste to go with good looks.
I vividly remember standing in front of a cardboard cutout of her in the grocery holding a pack of Coors, so in my mind I early learned that Elvira = Halloween + beer, and there's nothing wrong about that. Sure, Cassandra Peterson's shtick was not completely original, the lovely Vampira came before her, but beyond becoming the sex symbol of the scariest holiday, she's also a local girl who grew up dancing in gay bars in my hometown of Colorado Springs.
It may be one of my weirder quirks, but I've always found Bryan Cranston (Malcolm's dad) to be extremely sexy, even though his fatherly over-horniness kind of stranged me out, and I've yet to enjoy an episode of Breaking Bad.
If you don't recognize him from either of those shows his face should still be familiar as he's appeared in almost every popular series since the '80s including CHiPS, Falcon Crest, Baywatch, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Seinfeld, X-Files, and V.I.P.