Hump Day Hottie: 30 Years of Michelle Pfeiffer

Next Tuesday, November 25th marks the 30th anniversary of the very first filmed appearance of the legendary Michelle Pfeiffer. She had one line on a Fantasy Island episode... "Who is he Niobe?" To celebrate this landmark, Fran @ The Face (a great great pfan site) has compiled this video celebration.


Watch Michelle Pfeiffer, 30 Years of Career in Celebrity Videos | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

The first two minutes are montage but after that, it becomes a true event: a chronological completist stroll through her entire career (including TV appearances and voicework). It's 11 minutes and 47 seconds of Heaven... or my idea of heaven at any rate. One of my favorite things about the video is the thrill of watching the goddess get more and more beautiful as the years rush by. I also appreciate that the music changes just exactly when it should --round about 1987/1988 when her career went supernova (it was the combo of Witches of Eastwick / Married to the Mob / Dangerous Liaisons / Tequila Sunrise). This is my new favorite video. My cold dead heart nearly started beating again, my dry eyes nearly welled up -- so many memories rushing back along with reminder that I'll just never love another actress more ...and y'all know how big a statement that is given my, um, actressexual tendencies. Pfeiffer was with me as I took my first irreversible steps into cinephilia. She still sends me.

Here are my 10 arguably favorite pictures of Michelle Pfeiffer (yes I argue with myself about such things --you know it's so hard to choose)

Clockwise from top left: Photoshoot to promote Dangerous Minds (1995) -I heart the dangling "superstar", Herb Ritts imagined Pfeiffer as drag king in 1991, and finally: Actor/Photographer Jeff Bridges catches an candid moment on the set of Fabulous Baker Boys (probably 1988, she quit smoking not long thereafter) --I once nearly dropped... well way too much $ at a gallery for a breathtaking Bridges original of Pfeiffer atop the piano. If I were a rich man...


Left to right: by Rankin for Esquire in 2007 to celebrate her comeback, photographed by Davis Factor for Movieline in 2002... so atypically casual in denim.


Left to right: In 1990 by Jean Pagliuso when Russia House was coming out. That headshot is classic Pfeiffer. I'm not sure where I got the middle picture or who took it but it's one I've been obsessed with for a good while. Michael Thompson shot the actress for W in 1999... no one does ethereal miserabilism as well as she.


Left to right: Pfeiffer in Life magazine in 1986 by Co Rentmeester, Pfeiffer by Herb Ritts again in 1989 as she entered the pantheon of all time great silver screen beauties with the release of The Fabulous Baker Boys. It's never going to stop being frustrating that she lost the golden boy while everything in her career was screaming golden... even the photo shoots.
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I Link the Body Electric

I'm Gonna Link Forever...
Empire apparently after 28 years it's time for a Fame sequel.
Cinemavistaramascope Title Card (I love this series)
David Bordwell asks where the superhero movie craze came from? Comic books aren't exactly widely read.
My New Plaid Pants Harry Potter's Equus moment. Again.
All About My Movies lists the "cutest" films - not a list you see every day
Shoot the Projectionist 24 words on In Bruges and they're all spot on.

Belated Birthdays
Band of Thebes celebrates the work of Herb Ritts on a birthday I should've noted.
Stale Popcorn celebrates Madonna's 50th in a big way. Top 100 songs. Woot. My list would be so different but that mass of material to choose from is really something, is it not? Meanwhile Victim of the Time keeps his list to 50. I don't have time to join them but for the record my 2 favorite Madonna songs are Erotica and Like a Prayer... with roughly 25 others tied for #3 and 50 others tied fighting for the other top ten spots. That's how much bliss there is to choose from.

"Blinkered Fanboy"
That'd be me. Nothing Sacred and Jürgen Fauth both have issues with people who love Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Woody himself. Ah well. For the record: I don't need to "pretend" to like VCB or Match Point. I just genuinely do. This kind of reminds me of the time when Husbands and Wives came out and everybody was so busy hating Woody Allen for his questionable personal life and hard-to-miss problems with women that they forgot to notice how good the movie was. As for Allen's misogyny, I'm personally much more bothered by auteurs who just don't care about women at all (Chris Nolan, etcetera) than filmmakers who have massive hangups about them (Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock, etcetera). Slant also really hates the film... seeing its representation of two wealthy educated artistically inclined young women and their dalliances as somehow indicative of a statement that All Men are pillars and All Women are confused, which... well, it confuses me. I can't see anything that distastefully universal in the ultra specifics of this film.
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Madonna @ the Beach

Madonna in Hawaii in 1985.


She turned 27 that summer --the same day she married Sean Penn (August 16th). This photo (adorning wee Nathaniel's wall, poster-sized, much to his mother's dismay) was taken by legendary celebrity photographer Herb Ritts (1952-2002) and was one of the earliest of many iconic images he would take of his friend. They'd later return to sand and water (Malibu the next time) for the immortal Cherish video in 1989.

time capsule: Madonna's career had just gone supernova the previous year with the release of Like A Virgin in November. In 1985, Madonna was headlining the first of several classic concert tours "The Virgin Tour" and had just enjoyed her first starring role in a legit movie, Desperately Seeking Susan for which she won many good notices in the spring. That early Desperate film success was not an indicator of things to come. Movie critics were rarely kind again though she'd keep trying for another 17 years, finally throwing in the towel after Guy Ritchie's Swept Away (2002).

Other celebs making film debuts in '85:
Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg in The Color Purple (both ended up Oscar nominated), River Phoenix and Ethan Hawke as the young stars of Explorers, Josh Brolin in The Goonies and Viggo Mortensen (just two months younger than Madge) as a young gentle Amish men in Peter Weir's Witness. Good year.

Were you alive in the summer of 1985? If so, movie memories please...
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Hump Day Hottie: Djimon Hounsou

Djimon Hounsou, he of the 6’4” Olympian hard body, has one of those great Hollywood stories. Born in Benin he immigrated to Paris as a teenager where he lived on the streets until he was discovered (by Thierry Mugler to be precise) and thrust into the world of high fashion, catwalks, and print. Beloved by reknowned chroniclers of the male form like Herb Ritts (RIP) and Greg Gorman (nsfw Djimon) he eventually worked his way into the movies starting with Sandra Bernhard’s cult classic performance film Without You I’m Nothing (1990) –which you know makes me love him even more. Plus: it’s fun to say his name. (jee-mahn han-soo)

What makes Djimon Hounsou more desirable than the average model turned actor is that he is good at both professions. Just ask Cindy Crawford and thousands more: top notch model doesn’t often equal top notch actor. The combination isn’t quite as rare as that pink diamond that everyone goes batshit crazy for in Blood Diamond but it’s in the same ballpark: once in a blue moon.

That said Hounsou probably says yes too often as an actor. For an actor of mid level fame and a good amount of respect, why does he take those barely-there roles like Tomb Raider 2? And why on God’s green earth did he agree to get in that embarrassing colored breastplate for Eragon for instance? But it’s easy to see why casting directors are hot on him for genre pieces: it’s that otherworldly beauty (well another world than Hollywood at least), imposing physicality and screen presence even sans dialogue.

It wasn’t long ago that Hounsou was a surprise Oscar nominee for In America and he could be up for the same prize again for his new role as a fisherman turned action hero (well, sort of) in Blood Diamond. Though I should say this now: Calling Hounsou a supporting actor in this is like saying that Sidney Poiter was “supporting” Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones. This film is essentially about two African men, one white (ginormous movie star Leonardo DiCaprio) and one black (Honsou), who are both thrust into considerable danger while pursuing the same thing (the titular diamond) for different reasons. DiCaprio has the more complex role. But he’s white and this is one of those movies, the subgenre White Liberal Guilt Epic so you know that the black characters will be one dimensional. Hounsou’s character is such a saint in this movie that he doesn’t even seem to understand the concept of lying. He’s utterly confused when DiCaprio tells him to do so. He’s either a saint or he’s ridiculously stupid. I’m hoping that the critical awards momentum that Hounsou is experiencing is due to a climactic scene wherein he movingly talks his violent son back into his arms rather than for his other scenes which seem to consist of screaming but I have my doubts.

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And as a bonus, enjoy one of the happiest music videos ever made: "Love Will Never Do (Without You)" starring Janet Jackson and a bevy of hard bodies including Hounsou's. He's a little Kevin Aviance androgynous here but that's A-OK with us. He sure does look happy lipsynching. Other famous faces within include Antonio Sabato, Jr (the ex-Mr. Virginia Madsen, don'cha know) and one of Madonna's Blonde Ambition Truth or Dare boys, 'Carlton'.



Previous Hump Day Hotties: Scarjo & the twins a celebration of Scarlett and cleavage * Daniel "Bond, James Bond" Craig long time fancied, pre-007 * Brad Pitt golden über hotness and exhibitionist tendencies * Qi Shu & Chen Chang 3 times is not enough * Jamie Dornan & Asia Argento burning up Versailles * James McAvoy randy king of Scotland * Naomie Harris pretty chameleon * Hot on TV from "Agent Cooper" to "Faith" * Channing Tatum steppin' up and out * Hugh Jackman dancer, mutant, god * Uma Thurman 18 years of hotness. * Cheyenne Jackson Broadway to Hollywood * Season One of HDH Gyllenhaal, Li, Bernal, etc...

tags: Djimon Hounsou, movies, cinema, Blood Diamond, Africa, academy awards, celebrity, Leonardo DiCaprio