Monday, March 10, 2008

Recycled Experience: A History of Sharon Stone

Former ice-pick twirler Sharon Stone turns the big '5-0' today. So we bring you this 2 year old post for your reading pleasure. Hey, surely some of you didn't see it at the time...

I haven't updated the history because Sharon Stone has pretty much disappeared from the spotlight these last couple of years. But she's still working. She was in the Sundance entry The Year of Getting To Know Us with Jimmy Fallon and Illeana Douglas and her most recent project Five Dollars a Day (with Allesandro Nivola and Christopher Walken) is in post. Both films are low profile so if there is to be Stone revival it'll have to come from the star studded Dirty Tricks (from Ryan Murphy of Running With Scissors and Nip/Tuck fame). That film seems to have lost its lead in its long pre-production period --Meryl Streep was previously expected to play Martha "the mouth that roared" Mitchell in the Nixon era comedy -- but it still has some A list supporting talent ready to go. Will that film ever make it before cameras?

A History of... Sharon Stone

1958 God begins to plan ahead for Marilyn Monroe's death. Knowing that mankind will need a replacement blonde icon to obsess upon, he plants Sharon Stone in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Instantly cognizant of his mistake he overcompensates dropping Michelle Pfeiffer in Orange County and Madonna in Detroit later that same year. Whew, close one.

1964 Young Sharon announces that she plans to be the next Marilyn Monroe. Her mother nods knowingly, later declaring to the press that her child was "always posing."

1977 Sharon moves to her Aunt's place in New Jersey. God quickly counters, positioning Madonna directly in a taxicab in Times Square. Madonna shacks up with a musician immediately. Sharon, slacking, waits four days to sign up with a major modelling agency.

1980 Stone is spotted briefly / obsessively (but without dialogue) in Woody Allen's Stardust Memories, an experience she describes as "losing her virginity." She does not mean this literally [we hope].

1984 Stone appears in a TV film with Rock Hudson. Decides to ditch "the next Marilyn" goal for "the next Liz Taylor." God remembers he gave Stone a 154 IQ. He also thinks it a better fit but makes note to keep Liz alive as long as possible anyway. Sharon marries her TV producer and gets her first memorable gig in Irreconciliable Difference as a slutty actress with pit hair who stars in a musical version of Gone With the Wind [I'm not making this up...]

1985-1989 Stone finds herself in a slew of embarrassing B movies and the pits of career desperation...

1990 ...leading her to join the other Hollywood sheep in the throes of Scientology. Soon she lands a standout gig as Arnold Schwarzenegger's violent slutty wife in Total Recall. To seal her breakout bid she poses nude for Playboy. She tells the press it's because she needed the money. Always posing, she is.

1992 Michelle Pfeiffer turns down Basic Instinct. God relaxes: That Pfeiffer thing sure was a good idea. After the rest of the A-Listers follow suit, Sharon Stone grabs hold of the role of Catherine "F*** of the Century" Trammel with a fiery "last chance" commitment. White dress + dirty talk + uncrossing of legs = superstardom. In her most shameless PR pose ever she tells the press that director Paul Verhoeven tricked her into it.

1993 Madonna disses Stone on Arsenio Hall, implying that her breasts are fake. So Sharon shows them again, following up her smash erotic thriller with another one called Sliver. She plays with some Baldwin brothers' penis.

Then again, who hasn't?

1995 Still desperate for the fame she has already gained, she turns her ACTING up to 11 for Martin Scorsese in Casino. People say that the expensive gifts she gave to every member of the HFPA won her that Golden Globe but I think it was born of pity. Shouldn't you get some sort of trophy if you blow Joe Pesci onscreen?

1996 At the heighth of her fashion stardom, she attends the Oscars wearing a gap shirt and makes best-dressed lists. Entertainment Weekly, never one to avoid a bandwagon, names Stone one of the top 100 movie stars of all time. Shirley Maclaine and Catherine Deneuve, unlisted, are pissed.

1998-2003 Her star already on the wane, she marries Phil Bronstein and moves to San Francisco where she suffers a heart attack. She adopts her first child and names him "Roan". We can only hope that he has his dad's surname. Sharon divorces Bronstein. During this time she also suffers a brain aneuryism. [I could tie this all in to the Liz Taylor reference but this is nothing to joke about.]

2004 Sharon wins awards for her service to the gay and lesbian community . She then appears in Catwoman cancelling out all previous humanitarian efforts.

2005 Bored unemployed movie st Sharon Stone adopts a second child and names him "Laird Vonne Stone", poor thing. God, feeling guilty, vows to help him stay skinny and popular.

2006 In preparation for the release of Basic Instinct 2 the "Tour of Crazy" begins. There's plenty of posing. From there I turn you over to the tireless crazy train coverage @ The Gilded Moose.


11 comments:

Anonymous said...

enjoyed that - hadn't seen it before. I'm not crazy about her on either a personal / professional level. She seems so desperate for attention & I question her sincerity with her various charity things. The deal with the director tricking her is pure BS. I'm sure they had to shoot / reshoot - over & over. She knew what that camera was focused on. She takes herslf very seriously.

ryansumera said...

nat, how bout a little addendum. broken flowers?

Anonymous said...

I always loved her...I was one of her biggest fans in her heydays...beautiful, charismatic, sexy...she was the best example of movie star Hollywood gave us during the 90s
Even if her movies are very often crap and they bombed at BO and she is not so lovable when she "poses", I can't help by appreciate her...maybe it's because that when she's on the screen it seems she easily takes our attention.
So, happy birthday, Girl!
Mirko

Anonymous said...

in retrospect this seems so mean :(

Anonymous said...

a star in the demi moore vein v v famous without ever being good at what she is supposed to do as a job except when she knoced clean out of the park in casino a deserved nod but not a win,she will be rembered as the lady from basi instinct,i feel she should've got kim basinger's role as therons mum in the burning plains.

oh and diabolique a guilty pleasure!!!!

Anonymous said...

Sorry, but I sorta love her. Actually, strike that; I'm not sorry!

I have always placed her second behind Thompson in 1992 for Best Actress (no; I'm not kidding) - I genuinely think it's a terrific performance.

Also loved the schlocky headlining non-Casino stuff she did in the aftermath of B.I. - Sliver; Quick & The Dead; Diabolique - it's a trilogy of fun trash, and she's magnetic in all three.

Also, although B.I.2 was a laughable mess, she was clearly the only person in the entire cast (and possibly crew) who had a clue what they were doing.

Happy Birthday Sharon. In this age of interchangable Albas, you make me nostalgic for your self-imposed movie star magnetism.

Rob

Anonymous said...

Wow, this History of.. is so mean. You're so mean, Nathaniel.
She's actually very good in Basic Instinct, Casino and good in The Mighty, Broken Flowers, Bobby.. and she was quite good as well in Total recall, The quick and the dead, irreconciliable differences, sphere...
Ok she's not a great actress and seems to be a bitch but still..

NATHANIEL R said...

well i meant it with love ---at least of her celebrity.

I'm not a big fan of her work but i don't question her starpower ;)

but it does read meaner than i remembered it.

Anonymous said...

do you like any of her work i thought she was equally good in bobby in my top 10 for 06 supp actresses,i agree fab in basic instinct no 7 on my best actress list. of 92.

Anonymous said...

aw, I love me some Sharon Stone.

Always a little bit crazy, but always a little bit fabulous, too.

I hope she gets some sort of big time come back role. At least to compensate for all of the good work she does raising scads of money for AIDS research.

Anonymous said...

With all the safe and sane stars, we need a little bit of crazy now and then. And, she has raised a lot of money for AIDS, and doesn't get the kudos she deserves for that.

She was very good in Last Dance, I thought (even if the film was mediocre made-for-TV stuff) and I admit that I spent far too many hours a few years back watching certain bits of The Quick and The Dead (my favorite part to rewind being the gunfight where she shoots a man in the cojones after he has sex with the barkeeper's thirteen year old daughter.)

RedSatinDoll