Saturday, September 06, 2008

There is Nothing Like a Dame

"My street cred is gone."
-Dame Helen Mirren on receiving the honor.
Dame Maggie Smith. Dame Judi Dench. Dame Agatha Christie. Dame Helen Mirren. Dame Peggy Ashcroft. Dame Eileen Atkins. Dame May Whitty. Dame Edna. Dame Shirley Bassey. Dame Julie Andrews. Dame Gladys Cooper. Dame Edith Evans. Dame Vivienne Westwood. Or Dame Elizabeth Taylor?

It's your choice. Just make one.

32 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dame Agatha Christie. A paperback left at a summer cottage, an easement when you're bundled up with the flu, one you haven't read at a used bookstore, the perfect travel accessory, the hotly snapped up book at the sidewalk booths in India - Dame Agatha is always a delight. And so wonderfully prolific.

Crisbrother said...

I'll go with.... Dame Agatha Christie.. i just love her books and her misteries.

Anonymous said...

there are very few women over 60 that i'm genuinely attracted to. Dame Helen Mirren; you are a babe.

Robert said...

I gotta go with Dame Helen Mirren too. She's the coolest chick this side of the Atlantic.


...er, that side of the Atlantic.

John T said...

Dame Maggie Smith-Jean Brodie is a perfect performance.

Hayden said...

Absolutely, with no question, the greatest actress of all time, Dame Maggie Smith.

Dame James said...

Dame Judi Dench...there is no other actress on the planet who can go from classy and ladylike one second to so frightening I'm afraid she's going to cut someone the next.

Slayton said...

You forgot Dame Joan Plowright and Dame June Whitfield (and, of recently, Dame Kylie Minogue). In any case, I'm waiting for Dames Miranda Richardson, Tilda Swinton, Brenda Blethyn, Fiona Shaw and Liz Smith.

NATHANIEL R said...

do we have a write-in vote for Dame James Henry?

Catherine said...

Having totally gone off Mirren since she made those remarks about date rape, I'm siding with the first two readers in saying Dame Agatha Christie. Each one of her books are perfectly formed diversions.

NATHANIEL R said...

wait what? i didn't hear about that. link please? what'd she say?

Catherine said...

I don't know how to link, sorry, but if you just Google "Helen Mirren + date rape", you'll get the story. Basically she gave an interview with GQ where she admitted she had been raped in her youth and went on to say that in many cases, the men shouldn't be prosecuted.

[i]The actress explained that if, for instance, a woman is engaged in voluntary sexual activity with a man but says 'no' at the very last minute, she'll have a hard time bringing the perpetrator to court, BBC News reported.

"I don't think she can have that man into court under those circumstances," she told the magazine. "I guess it is one of the many subtle parts of the men/women relationship that has to be negotiated and worked out between them," she said.[/i]

It's awful that she was raped herself, obviously, but saying stuff like this doesn't really help other woman in a position like that today.

Anonymous said...

I love my Dame Judi Dench

ryansumera said...

hmm. where is angela lansbury and why is she not a dame yet?

Anonymous said...

Dame Daphne Du Maurier, another superb writer

Crisbrother said...

i think that what dame hellen mirren meant to said is that women are not protected by law against this particular issue, wich must be read as a crititcal statement about the actual laws against raping of any kind, and that women and everybody should worry about this matter.

Laws are imperfect, and Mirren's words just reafirm it.

Anonymous said...

speaking 'bout dames... Why isn't the divine miss Julie Christie a dame yet ???? Btw, The Wrestler won the Gold Lion in Venice.

Hayden said...

Julie Christie is too fabulous for the Queen.

And as for Mirren's comment, I can't take it too seriously. The art of the celebrity interview is so deceptive and it's so easy for people to misspeak that I refuse to hold one comment against anyone. There's way too much evidence that Helen's a smart, kind, sassy old Dame for me to think of her differently over one little comment.

Walter L. Hollmann said...

oh, no. I can't choose between my favorite author, Dame Agatha Christie, and my favorite actress, Dame Maggie Smith! Should I go with equally-great Dame Judi Dench, or the always sexy Dame Helen Mirren?

Actually, now that I think about it, I love Dame Maggie because I once saw Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun back-to-back. Both based on Christie novels. Oh, Dame Agatha, you always get your man!

Anonymous said...

Shirley Bassey all the way.

Anonymous said...

Dame Maggie...Gosford Park, A Room with a view, California Suite, Tea with Mussolini, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne...Love her! I just saw her in The V.I.P.'s and thought she was pretty much the best thing about that film.

Anonymous said...

def dame maggie smith! for her mostly unseen perfomance in the lonely passion of judith hearne.

Anonymous said...

Agatha is a genius, Shirley is THE FORCE, Taylor is a jewel but I vote for Judi.

Jim

Catherine said...

Crisbrother, I agree with you that the first part of Mirren's comment could be taken that way. However, statements like, [i]"I guess it is one of the many subtle parts of the men/women relationship that has to be negotiated and worked out between them"[/i] and [i]"It’s such a tricky area, isn’t it? Especially if there is no violence. I mean, look at Mike Tyson. I don’t think he was a rapist."[/i] are a little harder to misconstrue. And Hayden, while I also agree with you that celebrity interviews aren't necessarily representative of the subjects themselves, clear-cut comments like these are still pretty damning. The fact that Mirren hasn't made any comment on the quotes, even after the story being picked up in major newspapers (as well as all over the internet) seems to indicate that this is how she really feels. Which is troubling.

Catherine said...

And I'm sorry I keep messing up the HTML tags on my quotes!

Crisbrother said...

well, unfortunatly, the sensationalist press always quote the "hottest" and "juciest" sayings, just to get more profit or create artificial mews and scandals.

That's precisely what dame Hellen Mirren meant to prevent, not making further comments about her quoted sayings, wanting that people read the full article and story, judging individually her complete words.

...Ok, in another news... Dame Agatha Christie ¡¡ROCKS!! hihi.

CanadianKen said...

I have a thing for Dame Anna Neagle. Love the way she looks. Although she reached superstardom in England playing regal and/or historical figures like Queen Victoria and Nell Gwynn in the 30's, she was also a dream of a dancer. When Hollywood (in the form of RKO) beckoned she came over and made some American movie musicals. In SUNNY,the one I like best,John Carroll shared a breezy chemistry with her. But it's a shame she never got to dance with Astaire. She was also born to play the lead in ANNA AND THE KING OF SIAM but, oddly,doesn't even seem to have been considered. And though Irene Dunne was a delight in many other films, I always found her Mrs. Anna to be pretty much of a shrug. Dame Agatha Christie's lots of fun. And so's Dame May Whitty. But I guess my heart's with Dame Anna.

Emma said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Emma said...

I second/third/fourth the love for Agatha! ♥

Unknown said...

i also love Dame Margaret Rutherford but its got to be Dame Maggie Smith..

Anonymous said...

It'll always be Dame Judi Dench for me.

Julienne said...

dame maggie smith.