Toxic Birthday Suits

Your cinematic birthdays for 12/02. If it's your big day, let us know.

Steven, Lucy and Warren

1894 Warren William, charming snake, pre-code movie star who was often paired with formidable actresses like Claudette Colbert (Imitation of Life, Cleopatra), Joan Blondell (Gold Diggers of 1933, Stage Struck) and Bette Davis (Three on a Match, Satan Met a Lady)
1914 Ray Walston, the Damn Yankees! devil had a lengthy career on screens small and large
1914 Adolph Green, musical giant of 'Comden & Green' fame. I can't even begin to choose a favorite song by that duo. Plus they wrote the screenplay to Singin' in the Rain!
1923 Maria Callas, La Divina. Fanny Ardant recently played her in Callas Forever. The next actress who'll have a go at her is Eva Mendes in Greek Fire
1925 Julie Harris was Oscar nominated for her film debut (The Member of the Wedding), co-starred with James Dean (East of Eden) and even found nighttime stardom (Knots Landing). But her real legacy is on the stage. Until this past June she was the only actor to have ever won five Tony Awards on Broadway (now she shares that honor with Angela Lansbury)
1943 Steve Rubell, 'Pasha of Disco' was portrayed on film by Mike Myers in the notoriously 'edited' 54 (1998). Has anyone had the chance to see the director's cut of that film?
1945 Penelope Spheeris, 90s film director (Wayne's World, Beverly Hillbillies, The Little Rascals) before female directors were a regular occurence. Here's a list of the top ten grossers by female directors.
1946 Gianni Versace, tragically slain designer. He dressed so many movie stars. His name was mangled so endearingly in Showgirls
1954 Dan Butler one of Hollywood's first out actors so put your hands up for him today. Though he's most famous for his years on Frasier as womanizing "Bulldog" he's also been in several movies from classics (Silence of the Lambs) to gay landmarks (Longtime Companion) to his own projects (he amusingly plays himself as an obsessive actor in Karl Rove, I Love You)
1956 Steven Bauer 80s hunk of Scarface and Thief of Hearts fame
1967 Nick Cheung Ka Fai Hong Kong star (Exiled, The Beast Stalker) who just won the Golden Horse (previous post)
1968 Lucy Liu "Cottonmouth"
1981 Britney Spears, ♪ toxic star, one-time-only movie actress, snake charmer

Today is also the 150th birthday of Georges-Pierre Seurat and 118th birthday of Otto Dix, two painters I love. Seurat, the famous pointilist, has never had a proper biopic though he was portrayed onscreen by Christopher Lee in Moulin Rouge (1952). He also inspired one of Stephen Sondheim's greatest musicals Sunday in the Park with George. That's a musical which should probably never be transferred to the screen but which should be seen on stage every single chance one gets. As far as I know (and it's very possible that I don't know enough in this case) Otto Dix, a neue sachlichkeit painter, has never been so much as a character in a movie. But I'm rather bewitched by Weimar era Germany and his portraiture is pretty incredible. More filmmakers should revisit that era. I could see whole mini movies within his weird and often unflattering portraits. Or at least movie-worthy characters.

Underappreciated: Tom Lenk

So another Halloween passed us by and I barely mentioned the greatest show ever (Buffy the Vampire Slayer). It's been off the air for five years but it's about the undead so I figure this justifies obsessing on it many years after its demise. After my third time chronologically through the series sometime in 2007, the Boyfriend demanded that I put the DVDs away for a good long while (even though he loves the show too). I'm a year sober now. Maybe in the spring he'll let me start from Season 1 Episode 1 again!?

Is this post filler? You'll be surprised to hear that it's not. I'm just rambling on my way to a new series recognizing underemployed/underappreciated actors in the hopes that some day some where some casting director will say 'that Nathaniel... he's so right!'. And here's where we begin.

I want to say congratulations to actor Tom Lenk who is now officially out of the closet. He's most well known if not famous for his recurring role as "Andrew" super-villain turned Scooby gang fringe-dweller on seasons 6 & 7 of Buffy. Joss Whedon was probably too much of a softie when it came to fan favorites on that departed show. He often let them take over and some overstayed their welcome (obviously Spike did --he was a great character but he made less and less narrative sense to keep around) and some would place Lenk's Andrew in that category, too. But when the show used Andrew sparingly to spike a scene with geeky amoral humor, Lenk always came through. So here's the very funny and talented Tom Lenk in two small doses, satirically embracing two icons of the gays, Britney with a great cabaret version of "Gimme More" and Madonna's "Hung Up".



Another reason to love Tom Lenk... he played "Tommy", a.k.a. 'Floyd's Boy' in the great Boogie Nights. See -- there he is!

These are the next stars. These are real people in the world.
-Floyd Gondoli, Boogie Nights (1997)

Anything connected to Boogie Nights is worth loving ...give or take f***in' idiot "Scotty" (Philip Seymour Hoffman)

You Ain't So Tough

So you're a member of the paparazzi. You tell your friends how hard it is; Britney Spears attacks you with an umbrella, David Schwimmer gives you the bird and Bjork goes ape-poopy on you at the airport. HA! That's nothing compared to the Ekberg treatment. Here's Anita in front of her villa in Rome in 1960 threatening paparazzi with ... a freaking bow and arrow!

When the paparazzi are outside my house (you wouldn't believe how often it happens) I usually just throw Coke bottles at them. Sometimes flaming sacks of dung. Depends on my mood. If I'm really annoyed, I'll call Bjork - she makes problems go away.

Blogosphere Multiplex: Gallery of the Absurd

Once a week I'm grilling bloggers I admire with questions about their own film experiences. This week's interviewee is 14 from "Gallery of the Absurd". Her insightful, funny and terrific illustrations on modern celebrity and gossip culture have been written up in the New York Post, Newsday, and are justifiably hot topics in the gossip blogosphere.

I won't even try to pick a favorite but if you're unfamiliar with her work look at: "Paris Hilton as a Proboscis Monkey", "Celebrity Endorsement Idea No. 645", and "The Sexiest Man in Hollywood" to get an overall feel.


10 Questions with 14
Don't be confused. The number of questions is ten. The name of the interviewee is "fourteen." Pay attention.

Nathaniel: How often do you go the movies?

14: I go see a movie about once or twice a month. I'd go more often, but there hasn't been much I've wanted to see. The thought of sitting in a crowded theater while watching Tom Cruise gnash his teeth while shooting ridiculously large guns and running from fiery explosions is just NOT the ideal movie going experience for me. MEOW!

Nathaniel: What --you don't think those large guns make him look enticingly manly? OK. Who is man enough to lure you into the theater with their action hijinx?

14: Manly. Tom Cruise. Those words just don't seem to fit together.

Gary Oldman will lure me into a theater no matter what role he's playing. I absolutely love to watch that man act. Johnny Depp lures me with his skills of quirky character performance and OKAY, I won't lie, his smoldering good looks. I am a big fan of Jeff Bridges, Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Samuel Jackson, Shirley Maclaine, Uma Thurman, and I better stop listing all of them now. To answer your question, I'd LOVE to see Mickey Rourke star in a summer blockbuster action film.

Nathaniel: What about Sin City? He was sooo good in that [FB Bronze Medal -ed]. Did that satisfy you or merely whet the appetite for more M-I-C-K-E-Y?

14: More mickey MORE!!!!

Nathaniel: So in your awesome illustration work, you're often taking already absurd celebs and zeroing in on why they're so nutso. Because of that special talent of yours you end up painting a lot of celebrities that many people love-to-hate like Tom Cruise, Nicole Ritchie [click on 14's illustration to the left readers -the details are wildly entertaining] and Kirsten Dunst, etc...) rather than those that everyone loves to love like, say, Meryl Streep. Is there any actor or actress out there that you'd love to have more of an excuse to draw? Which movie faces do you find most fascinating as an artist?

14: First, thank you for your kind works about my art. For now, I'm enjoying exploring what happens to a person when they get trapped (either willing or not) in the world of tabloid gossip. Their identity becomes less of an actor or entertainer and more of a character starring in a very public circus freak sideshow. Tom Cruise is no longer an actor, the tabloids have turned his character into a couch jumping crazy who believes an evil galactic ruler named Xenu brought humans to Earth and stacked them around volcanoes. Truth is stranger than fiction. I seek to observe and record celebrity gossip because I feel it's an interesting form of mythology. I want to understand why our culture is so obsessed with celebrity. For now, my focus will stay on gossip, but that is sure to change one day.

As for what movie faces I find the most interesting...I love older un-botoxed actors and actresses with character, confidence and charisma. I find them far more beautiful and interesting than fresh faced starlets.

Nathaniel: I once painted Julianne Moore and I must have thrown out a ton of rough sketches. I found her incredibly hard to capture even though I wasn't going for realism. Which celebrated face has plagued you the most as an artist --or does it always come easily?

14: I like your painting - she DOES have a very difficult face to capture!

There are some faces I just can't seem to "see". I can't paint Sienna Miller or Hillary Duff because I can't get my head around what they look like. Brad Pitt is difficult because his face changes from handsome to haggard within seconds. Right now I'm struggling with Janice Dickinson's face - she is extremely hard to draw because her features are so...stretchy and puffy. I usually do multiple sketches, some with my eyes half closed, in order to find the "essence" of the person I'm trying to paint.

It usually doesn't come easy except in the case of Britney Spears. I can paint her in my sleep.

Nathaniel: Re: Sienna and Hillary. I totally hear you. To me the fame that confuses me most is the generically pretty fame. In most cases you have to be slightly weird-looking to capture/keep the nation's attention. Like, say, Uma Thurman.

Anyway... What's your favorite movie? ever.

14: If I had to pick one, Seven Samurai.

Nathaniel: I noticed in your "about" page that you love Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle (as do I. Oh how I love it so). Which is your favorite?

14: I really haven't watched The Cremaster Cycle for the story, but I've viewed it several times for the breathtaking visuals, installations, costumes, sets, etc. The series gave me great inspiration for my work. If I must choose which episode is my favorite, I would say Cremaster 3.

Nathaniel: Edward Scissorhands or Captain Jack Sparrow?

14: Captain Jack! As much as I understand and appreciate sensitive misfits with dangerous hands, I'd much rather spend time with a swaggering adventurous pirate in search of lost treasure.

Nathaniel: Re: Art movies like Girl with a Pearl Earring or artist biopics like the Francis Bacon pic Love is the Devil or Ed Harris's Pollock. Any general or specific feelings on these? Hate? Love?

14: They were all good movies, especially Love is the Devil...but what I'm waiting for is a Salvador Dali biopic. Perhaps I'll write one.

Nathaniel: They make a movie of your life. Who would play you? What's the title? What's the rating?

14: Movie title: "A Fruit So Swollen With Juice, It Longs for the Prick of the Knife" Actress to play 14: A wild chimpanzee. The movie is rated: 1.6180339.....

THANK YOU!!!

Nathaniel: No, thank you 14. This was very fun.

Once again readers, check out 14's addictive and clever work at "Gallery of the Absurd."


New Reader?
If this is your first time here please check the rest of the blog or, in keeping with this posts theme, see a random assortment of the film experience's more gossipy/absurd moments: Paris is Only a City in France * Poptart Sandwich * A History of... Sharon Stone *

Other Interviews:
The Gilded Moose * Jay Lassiter * Dylan Meconis * Martha @ Cinematical * ultranow * fourfour * six things * How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons * Ron L'Infirmier * Thomas & Co.

To All Readers:
Any suggestions of bloggers you'd love to see featured? I'll try to rope them in.

Tags: movies, cinema, illustration, design, film, Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Matthew Barney, art

Blogosphere Multiplex: Gallery of the Absurd

Once a week I'm grilling bloggers I admire with questions about their own film experiences. This week's interviewee is 14 from "Gallery of the Absurd". Her insightful, funny and terrific illustrations on modern celebrity and gossip culture have been written up in the New York Post, Newsday, and are justifiably hot topics in the gossip blogosphere.

I won't even try to pick a favorite but if you're unfamiliar with her work look at: "Paris Hilton as a Proboscis Monkey", "Celebrity Endorsement Idea No. 645", and "The Sexiest Man in Hollywood" to get an overall feel.


10 Questions with 14
Don't be confused. The number of questions is ten. The name of the interviewee is "fourteen." Pay attention.

Nathaniel: How often do you go the movies?

14: I go see a movie about once or twice a month. I'd go more often, but there hasn't been much I've wanted to see. The thought of sitting in a crowded theater while watching Tom Cruise gnash his teeth while shooting ridiculously large guns and running from fiery explosions is just NOT the ideal movie going experience for me. MEOW!

Nathaniel: What --you don't think those large guns make him look enticingly manly? OK. Who is man enough to lure you into the theater with their action hijinx?

14: Manly. Tom Cruise. Those words just don't seem to fit together.

Gary Oldman will lure me into a theater no matter what role he's playing. I absolutely love to watch that man act. Johnny Depp lures me with his skills of quirky character performance and OKAY, I won't lie, his smoldering good looks. I am a big fan of Jeff Bridges, Gene Hackman, Meryl Streep, Samuel Jackson, Shirley Maclaine, Uma Thurman, and I better stop listing all of them now. To answer your question, I'd LOVE to see Mickey Rourke star in a summer blockbuster action film.

Nathaniel: What about Sin City? He was sooo good in that [FB Bronze Medal -ed]. Did that satisfy you or merely whet the appetite for more M-I-C-K-E-Y?

14: More mickey MORE!!!!

Nathaniel: So in your awesome illustration work, you're often taking already absurd celebs and zeroing in on why they're so nutso. Because of that special talent of yours you end up painting a lot of celebrities that many people love-to-hate like Tom Cruise, Nicole Ritchie [click on 14's illustration to the left readers -the details are wildly entertaining] and Kirsten Dunst, etc...) rather than those that everyone loves to love like, say, Meryl Streep. Is there any actor or actress out there that you'd love to have more of an excuse to draw? Which movie faces do you find most fascinating as an artist?

14: First, thank you for your kind works about my art. For now, I'm enjoying exploring what happens to a person when they get trapped (either willing or not) in the world of tabloid gossip. Their identity becomes less of an actor or entertainer and more of a character starring in a very public circus freak sideshow. Tom Cruise is no longer an actor, the tabloids have turned his character into a couch jumping crazy who believes an evil galactic ruler named Xenu brought humans to Earth and stacked them around volcanoes. Truth is stranger than fiction. I seek to observe and record celebrity gossip because I feel it's an interesting form of mythology. I want to understand why our culture is so obsessed with celebrity. For now, my focus will stay on gossip, but that is sure to change one day.

As for what movie faces I find the most interesting...I love older un-botoxed actors and actresses with character, confidence and charisma. I find them far more beautiful and interesting than fresh faced starlets.

Nathaniel: I once painted Julianne Moore and I must have thrown out a ton of rough sketches. I found her incredibly hard to capture even though I wasn't going for realism. Which celebrated face has plagued you the most as an artist --or does it always come easily?

14: I like your painting - she DOES have a very difficult face to capture!

There are some faces I just can't seem to "see". I can't paint Sienna Miller or Hillary Duff because I can't get my head around what they look like. Brad Pitt is difficult because his face changes from handsome to haggard within seconds. Right now I'm struggling with Janice Dickinson's face - she is extremely hard to draw because her features are so...stretchy and puffy. I usually do multiple sketches, some with my eyes half closed, in order to find the "essence" of the person I'm trying to paint.

It usually doesn't come easy except in the case of Britney Spears. I can paint her in my sleep.

Nathaniel: Re: Sienna and Hillary. I totally hear you. To me the fame that confuses me most is the generically pretty fame. In most cases you have to be slightly weird-looking to capture/keep the nation's attention. Like, say, Uma Thurman.

Anyway... What's your favorite movie? ever.

14: If I had to pick one, Seven Samurai.

Nathaniel: I noticed in your "about" page that you love Matthew Barney's Cremaster Cycle (as do I. Oh how I love it so). Which is your favorite?

14: I really haven't watched The Cremaster Cycle for the story, but I've viewed it several times for the breathtaking visuals, installations, costumes, sets, etc. The series gave me great inspiration for my work. If I must choose which episode is my favorite, I would say Cremaster 3.

Nathaniel: Edward Scissorhands or Captain Jack Sparrow?

14: Captain Jack! As much as I understand and appreciate sensitive misfits with dangerous hands, I'd much rather spend time with a swaggering adventurous pirate in search of lost treasure.

Nathaniel: Re: Art movies like Girl with a Pearl Earring or artist biopics like the Francis Bacon pic Love is the Devil or Ed Harris's Pollock. Any general or specific feelings on these? Hate? Love?

14: They were all good movies, especially Love is the Devil...but what I'm waiting for is a Salvador Dali biopic. Perhaps I'll write one.

Nathaniel: They make a movie of your life. Who would play you? What's the title? What's the rating?

14: Movie title: "A Fruit So Swollen With Juice, It Longs for the Prick of the Knife" Actress to play 14: A wild chimpanzee. The movie is rated: 1.6180339.....

THANK YOU!!!

Nathaniel: No, thank you 14. This was very fun.

Once again readers, check out 14's addictive and clever work at "Gallery of the Absurd."


New Reader?
If this is your first time here please check the rest of the blog or, in keeping with this posts theme, see a random assortment of the film experience's more gossipy/absurd moments: Paris is Only a City in France * Poptart Sandwich * A History of... Sharon Stone *

Other Interviews:
The Gilded Moose * Jay Lassiter * Dylan Meconis * Martha @ Cinematical * ultranow * fourfour * six things * How to Learn Swedish in 1000 Difficult Lessons * Ron L'Infirmier * Thomas & Co.

To All Readers:
Any suggestions of bloggers you'd love to see featured? I'll try to rope them in.

Tags: movies, cinema, illustration, design, film, Tom Cruise, Britney Spears, Matthew Barney, art

No. My First Name Ain't Baby. It's Janis. Miss Joplin if You're Nasty.

PopBytes has a wee report up that Britney Spears (yes, that one) wants to play Janis Joplin in a biopic. Ewww. But I personally don't think this biopic is ever going to get made. How many years have we been hearing about this biopic? How many leads has it gone through now? Let's see... Melissa Etheridge. Brittany Murphy (Seriously though, there's supposedly an insanely good audition tape of Brittany Murphy tearing it up as Janis floating around Hollywood) . Renée Zellweger Yuck. Pink. This is like Alexander the Great. Nobody is ever going to make a biopic about him. I don't care how many competing -- I --huh? I'm trying to write here. Stop interrupting me. What's that...?

No. My First Name Ain't Baby. It's Janis. Miss Joplin if You're Nasty.

PopBytes has a wee report up that Britney Spears (yes, that one) wants to play Janis Joplin in a biopic. Ewww. But I personally don't think this biopic is ever going to get made. How many years have we been hearing about this biopic? How many leads has it gone through now? Let's see... Melissa Etheridge. Brittany Murphy (Seriously though, there's supposedly an insanely good audition tape of Brittany Murphy tearing it up as Janis floating around Hollywood) . Renée Zellweger Yuck. Pink. This is like Alexander the Great. Nobody is ever going to make a biopic about him. I don't care how many competing -- I --huh? I'm trying to write here. Stop interrupting me. What's that...?

Poptart Sandwich

Lusty Monty of May: Nocturnal Editions


I was debating about whether or not to post this, me being regarded as such an innocent. But...what the hell. The other night, quite to my gay surprise I had an erotic dream about those once-dueling now kinda-over teen sensations Britney & Christina. I'm too shy to share details but it involved a big bed, these two very randy blond bitches, plus me (ahem). Normally I would have found this carnal r.e.m. nugget amusing in a pop-culture saturation way; even my dreams are star studded! But the week hadn't been normal. The embarassing truth was that the Brit' & 'Tina sandwich had fleetingly unnerved me. Following, as it did, another erotic dream two nights earlier that was also of the hetero persuasion albeit sans star wattage.

For a split second or two upon waking my whole 'living w/ boyfriend in gayMan-hattan' existence felt like a groggy sham. Ohmygod... am I straight? Laugh all you want beyootches. I'll join in. On about the third split second I realized that the last person who got busy with both XTina AND Mrs. Federline together was none other than Madonna herself. So I already had a little chuckle at my own expense.


Hetero fantasy flambé.