Sorry AFA, NBC didn’t cancel The Book of Daniel because of your efforts. They cancelled it because the show was just plain lousy. I tried to like it. I watched it every week and it was just bad. It had a great cast, but the writing was atrocious! The story lines were unbelievable and most of the dialog was laughable. It really seemed to be trying too hard to be good. I have to admit that this past episode was the best. There were two great moments. First, a great speech by Daniel about the loss of his mother’s mind to Alzheimer’s disease. Second, a great scene between Daniel and his adopted Asian son. Daniel comes to the conclusion he needs to be a father to his child, more than a best friend. Perhaps if it was given a little more time, it might have developed into something. I doubt it though. It tried to be a drama with funny situations, but it never pulled it off. There were also way too many story lines going on from the beginning. The American Family Association is happy tonight, but as usual… they are delusional.
Category: TV, Film, and Media
TV Shows, Movies and more
A Star Is Reborn
Last night I watched one of my favorite movies, A Star is Born, starring Judy Garland and James Mason. I loved this movie as a kid and I have fond memories of seeing the restored version in 1983. I attended a major re-premiere of the film at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Theater in Beverly Hills. 
I dont know how I was able to wrangle a ticket, but I am sure glad I did! I rented a tux, parked my rental car down the street, and walked to the Samuel Goldwyn Theater. I was very excited as I walked past the photographers on the red carpet and into the lobby. Inside there were many stars congregating, drinking champagne, and eating hors ‘deurves. I remember seeing James Mason, Gregory Peck, Maureen Stapleton, Rock Hudson, Vincente Minnelli, Liza Minnelli, and Lorna Luft. I talked to Liza about how much I enjoyed her work, and to Lorna Luft about Extremities, the play she was starring in with Farah Fawcett Off-Broadway.
At one point I had to visit the men’s room… and ended up talking to Rock Hudson at the urinal! I was just his type back then-young and blonde-thank goodness nothing happened or I might not be writing this today! I remember being appalled at the way the stars drank and ate like pigs! Maureen Stapleton was exceptionally piggish…stuffing chocolates in her face, and at one point, ripping fruit off a centerpiece until it fell apart and crashed to the floor! I met a black women who told me she was the girl who danced with Judy Garland in the Lose That Long Face number. The song was cut from the film and was now restored after 30 years. Talk about paying your dues! Eventually, it was time to be seated in the theater. I was ushered down to a great seat next to Vincente Minnelli! I didn’t talk to him because he seemed very frail, and was kind of propped up in his seat. 
Liza spoke about how her mother felt when they cut out Lose That Long Face…”She was very upset and I tried to calm her down. She came up to my room. I didnt know what to do – you know that helpless feeling – because I didn’t understand what it meant. So I put my arms around her, and I said, ‘What is it? Can I help?’ And she said, ‘they just dont care.'” Liza looked out over us in the audience and said, “Obviously they do care – very much.” The money that was raised from showings of the restored version of A Star is Born was going toward further film restorations. Many films made before 1950 have been lost forever due to their deteriorating film stock. Earlier in the evening, Fay Kanin, the president of the academy, said, “The 80s is the decade of preservation.”
God bless Ron Haver, the man who tracked down 20 minutes of
the missing 27 minutes of the film. In 1982 he spent over 8 months, searching more than 1600 film cans, looking for the footage at the Warner studio lot.
I remember Lorna spoke of trying to track down missing footage herself, and Joey Luft saying he was, “still in his mother’s stomach,” while the film was being made.
Words cannot express my feelings and the electric energy of the room, when the film actually began. I was mesmerized. The print was gorgeous! The soundtrack glorious! Thunderous applause occurred after every musical number. I never wanted it to end!
I really felt that I was a part of an important Hollywood event… sitting in that seat…with Vincente Minnelli leaning up against me!
Recommended links:
A Star Is Born : The Making of the 1954 Movie and Its 1983 Restoration
Brokeback Mountain Still Going Strong
Apparently even a Utah Theater banning the film, can’t stop folks from seeing the picture. What I find interesting is that they will show the movie Hostel, with it’s violence and sex scenes, but won’t show a beautiful, intelligent, film, like Brokeback Mountain. As I get older the hypocrisy of things really innerves me.
Kudos: Box Office Mojo
Gene Shalit Apologizes For The Term “Sexual Predator”
In describing the behavior of “Jack” I used words (“sexual predator”) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. . . . I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of ‘Brokeback Mountain.”
Today, The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation(GLAAD) said it received a statement from Gene Shalit, saying, “In describing the behavior of “Jack” I used words (“sexual predator”) that I now discover have angered, agitated, and hurt many people. I did not intend to use a word that many in the gay community consider incendiary. . . . I certainly had no intention of casting aspersions on anyone in the gay community or on the community itself. I regret any emotional hurt that may have resulted from my review of ‘Brokeback Mountain.’ ” Bravo to Mr. Shalit… we retract our accusation that he is a loser!
Kudos: GLAAD
First Loser Of 2006… Gene Shalit
In his review of Brokeback Mountain, Gene Shalit claims,”Jack, who strikes me as a sexual predator, tracks Ennis down and coaxes him into sporadic trysts.” What? Did he see this movie? It’s a tragic love story, stupid.
I am so sick of people trying to demonize homosexual love. Gay People are called child molester’s, sexual deviants, and sexual predators, all the time. When will the straight community get it through their heads… homosexuality is much more than a sex act! It is not a “behavior”, it is a whole personality trait! Unless you have the attention span of a grape nut, anyone who sees Brokeback Mountain will understand that it is the love that Jack and Ennis have for one another that keeps them getting together… and not just sex. Was Romeo and Julliet a story about sexual predators?
If Gene Shalit wants to reduce Brokeback Mountain to a story only about a sexual predator… again, I ask, did he see this movie? To be blunt, it is the Ennis character that “tops” the Jack character. If Ennis wasn’t into Jack (pun intended), I seriously doubt that he would be “up” to the challenge! Which leads me to another issue I would like to set straight for the “straight” community. Mom… don’t read this. Homosexuality is not about anal sex! Gay people can use a wide variety of ways to pleasure their partners…just as straight people. There are many gay people, lesbians included, that never get near the “back door”. Reducing one’s sexual orientation or relationship to a list of behaviors is irresposible and shows a total lack of respect for one’s fellow man and woman. When two people fall in love, sex is just the icing on the cake.
Kudos: NBC
Which Desperate Housewife Are You?
I just took a quiz to find out which Desperate Housewife I am. I figured I would probably be a Susan, and sure enough I am. If I were straight, the quiz says I should be married to Lynette… I can see that too, but if I were single I would want Carlos!! Carlos is hot!! I really enjoy this show. I loved Sex and the City and this has become my replacement since that ended.
Susan…My Alter Ego?
Lynette…my Wife?
Carlos…Hot!
Kudos: ABC
Brokeback Mountain or To Thine Own Self Be True
Tonight we saw one of the most talked about films of 2005, Brokeback Mountain. It opened in a limited amount of theaters several weeks ago, but now has reached our local AMC megaplex. The film is very rich in image and story. The acting is top notch all the way. My only complaint is that Heath Ledger mumbles an awful lot of his dialogue. Ledger’s character is a man of few words, so when he speaks you assume it must be important. Unfortunately, some of it is unintelligible. I can’t wait till the DVD version so I can turn on closed captioning! 
I really felt for the women in the picture. It must be a terrible feeling when you find out that your husband prefers to be with a man over you! I kept thinking about gay marriage. If society were more accepting of homosexuals, so many men would not have been forced to “live a lie”, in a loveless marriage. Society and some religious doctrine have done so much damage when they insist that homosexuality is not an intrinsic part of a person’s personality. They dismiss it as sin and thus create a terrible conflict within the child or adult who faces his/her sexuality. If it is sin, then I can choose to be straight. I really wish that heterosexuals could walk in a gay person’s shoes for a moment. What would happen if they were confronted with the idea that heterosexual love is wrong and they should choose not pursue it? What if the majority of people they meet were homosexual? How many healthy, happy, heterosexuals would there be? Not many, I’ll bet. In contradiction to the best available scientific evidence, I am gonna go way out on a limb here and say that maybe there are some people who actually sit down and make a decision to be gay or straight. I can tell you for certain that I have never met one, and I bet that most people who tell me it is a choice haven’t either. The religious right want us to change our behavior, but they can’t change who we are inside. Just as in Brokeback Mountain, we can marry, have kids and avoid having sexual relations with who we really want to, but that doesn’t change who we are… just our outward appearance. How does supressing the truth we know about ourselves glorify God or help the people we choose to lie too?
The biggest problem I have with the concept of “homosexuality as sin” is that it creates an atmosphere of hatred. If society believes that we are choosing to do things that are “wrong”, we are looked upon as immoral or “just plain bad”. We are taught from an early age that if we do bad things we will be punished. In some parts of our country, and in some parts of the world, people who do bad things are even executed! Ask yourself. Do you feel upset when a criminal goes to jail? Or a murderer is shot? If these people deserve it, then why shouldn’t a Mathew Sheppard or a Teena Brandon? Unfortunately, the concept of “homosexuality as sin” has created many people who think that their deaths were justified. I mean, after all, they were bad people anyway. If we teach that homosexuality is wrong, we are teaching that homosexuals are bad and should be punished, and that it is ok to deny them the their right to happiness. It is sad that situations depicted in Brokeback Mountain actually have happend and continue to happen. Two people should never be denied to express the love they have for one another.
Brokeback Mountain may be a fictional story, but one of its lessons is true whether you are straight or gay… to thine own self be true.
Dismay in December
Dismay in December
by
Betty Ann Fisher
All the rubble ’round me lies,
all shot to Heck before my eyes.
The trigger’s bent on that big gun;
he thinks I’ll buy another one.
The poor stuffed dog has lost his nose,
and someone stepped on the turtle’s toes.
He broke the pedal of the trike;
the one I was so sure he’d like.
The new rug’s all marked up with glue;
those Sparkle paints were something new.
The power saw and bench were nice,
but they’re all fouled up from slicing ice.
The chemistry set was just delightful,
but the smell, my dear, was simply frightful!
The test tubes are all broken now.
There’s not much left from the awful row
over who was going to eat the cake
that the small guy made with the Easy-Bake.
Santa’s gone for another year.
I’ve had my fill of joy and cheer.
In case he plans on coming back,
he can take the things in his big pack
to someone else’s sons and nieces,
or else stay around to mend the pieces.
Yes… I had an Easy-Bake oven as a child. And who says we aren’t born gay? Merry Christmas!
This poem is from my mom’s book, Please Delay Departure.
The Wizard of Oz
Tonight The Wizard of Oz was shown on TNT in High Definition. I swore I wasn’t going to watch it until I got the new 3 disc set of the film for Christmas, but I couldn’t resist taking a peek. I of course… was hooked instantly, and watched the entire thing! The new print is gorgeous. The colors are so rich and the images are very sharp.
As I write this I am pondering why this movie moves me so. I have seen it at least 50 times before, and it has never failed to please. I think when I was a child, I wanted to escape my world and visit my own, “Land of Oz”. I was an awkward, overweight kid, who didn’t fit in with his peers, and The Wizard of Oz took me away from my worries and troubles. I keenly identified with the role of Dorothy. Judy Garland’s performance was so real that I became empathetic to her character. When Dorothy was terrified, I was terrified… and when she cried, I cried.
Okay, I’ll admit it, I still cry… but it’s different now as an adult. Now at the ripe old age of 42, I find The Wizard of Oz touches me on a different level entirely. The feeling of “I wanna go home” pulls terribly at my heartstrings. I miss my brother, who died at his own hand. I miss my father who lost a brilliant mind to Alzheimer’s Disease, and then died. I miss my mother before she had a stroke. I miss the wonderfully talented, loving, friends and family who have passed away due to: aids, cancer, heart disease, and so many other illnesses. I miss the friends that fell by the wayside, but are still living. I miss the wonderful pets I’ve had… especially my dog Cuddles, and my very own dog named, Toto. I miss the 32 inch waist I had… for a minute! Okay I’ll stop, this is starting to sound like a Gilbert O’Sullivan song. I apologize.
All I really want to say is that The Wizard of Oz has something for all of us, no matter what are age. Its lessons are as relevant today as they were 66 years ago, when the movie premiered. I am sure they will be as relevant 100 years from now.
I plan to “never go looking any further than my own backyard,” and cherish each moment. I hope that you can too.
Oz Ruby Slippers Denied Insurance Claim
A pair of Judy Garland’s ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz that were stolen from The Judy Garland Museum have been denied their $1 million insurance claim. I think the thief will turn up eventually anyway. Witnesses say the thief was an older woman who had green skin, she can’t hide for much longer.
Kudos: Deluth Tribune News