Helen Mirren... Not Usually One For That Waxy Look

One of the most brilliant things about Dame Helen Mirren has to be how lively and famously sexy she still is in her 60s. It surely has to do with comfort in her own skin since she doesn't seem to be trying to come across like some fresh 45 year-old. One can't really imagine her ordering up plastic surgery or botox. Is that why seeing her pose with her wax self amuses so?


This statue is one of the newbies at Madame Tussaud's in London. Have you ever been there? I went only once here in NYC and found it all surprisingly amusing. I was stunned to find that RuPaul got quite the goddess centerpiece treatment. And this was a couple of years before RuPaul's comeback on RuPaul's Drag Race.

Despite only entering the tourist trap once, I regularly see their statues outside since they're very close to one of the biggest multiplexes here. Waxy Leonardo DiCaprio is hanging outside right now in a suit.

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cinema
stale popcorn is counting down the 00s in a comprehensively personal way. Love it
92nd Street Y are you going to the Grease 2 Sing-along?
serious film wonders what film might eventually throw Citizen Kane from its "greatest" throne
hot blog James Cameron discusses science in his science fiction. I love this bit

Asked whether the Alien or a Na'vi would win a fight, Cameron's answer was, "Sigourney (Weaver) would win."

Heh and duh!


/film Ang Lee and the Life of Pi in 3-D
thompson on hollywood talks with Annette Bening about her awards-contender roles in Mother and Child and The Kids Are All Right
natashavc young hollywood '98 fetal flashback: Reese & Ryan
movies kick ass talks up Oscar's 1964 Best Actor race with friends

small screen diversion
critical condition a great thinky piece on Glee's Madonna episode
i need my fix an evening with Glee
what's good... let's hear it for Jonathan Groff's agent
newnownext rich from fourfour visits the set of RuPaul's Drag Race. Lengthy interesting piece with wonderful photos

back to big
Finally, I just wanted to draw your attention to a great reunion pic: Juliette Lewis and Robert DeNiro at the Tribeca Film Festival!


DeNiro showed up at the party for Juliette's latest pic Metropia (she's not in it -- sigh -- just voicework). I mean seeing these two together again is just bananas. The last time I saw them together Juliette was sucking on Bobby's thumb. Which was also bananas. In both connotative senses of the fruit.


At the risk of embarassing one of my best friends, I must ask that if you ever meet Nick Davis you demand to hear his Juliette/Cape Fear voice. It's so unnervingly spot on that the first time he did it for me it made me love both him and Juliette more. And I didn't think I could in either case! So while I'm spreading the link love, please note that Nick is still on his best actress tear having recently written up performances by Ann-Margret, Jane Wyman, Talia Shire and, most controversially, Maggie Smith. Read 'em.

"I was giving Michelle Pfeiffer, bitch"

TV @ the Movies

Did you watch the finale of RuPaul's Drag Race earlier this week? For the final challenge they had to do a catsuit clad catfight and a music video "scene" with RuPaul straight outta 80s era Dynasty. I fully expected the series outcome but I was still disappointed. Scary/beautiful Raven was robbed. She was great all season long but for the finale challenge she was the only contestant who understood and nailed the 80s.

"I'm channeling Lisa Lisa. I'm chanelling Kelly LeBrock. I'm channeling Teena Marie."

Raven (2010) & Kelly LeBrock (1985)

I believe this is the first time in the history of the English language that anyone has said "I'm channelling Kelly LeBrock." Or at least the first time anyone's thought of doing so since the mid 80s when LeBrock had her flash-in-the-pan as the ideal female in The Woman in Red (1984) and Weird Science (1985).

By the time they got to the music video challenge, Raven had a loftier icon in mind.

"I was giving Michelle Pfeiffer, bitch.
I was looking at myself in the mirror.
I was looking f***ing good."
___-Raven on RuPaul's Drag Race

I knew there was a reason I loved Raven best. I get his meaning but I love that you can punctuate the sentence either way: comma bitch to address the audience or capital B Bitch as in the name of said Look... 'giving Michelle Pfeiffer Bitch.' When staring at the mirror with 80s hauteur cool one could conceivably say one was 'giving Michelle Pfeiffer Bitch' and be fully understood.

Example: Michelle Pfeiffer giving Michelle Pfeiffer Bitch.


It's a look.
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