Cher Interviews! Can You Get Enough?

The great thing about Burlesque press is seeing how friendly Cher has become again. In TV interviews over the past years Cher has seemed tense and stern. It's fun to see her smiling again. 

A good online Cher interview:

• When asked her beauty secret: “There's a team of five dozen people and it takes them two hours."
• Asked about making friends on the road vs on the set: “You develop a real shorthand as to who you like…”
• “I’m never going to do a lot of films”
• Her secret to longevity: “I haven’t got a clue. I think it’s luck. I really do think it’s luck.”

The Movie Phone interview between Cher and Christina was fun:

• When asked about her favorite gift from a fan she talks about a painting, I think she's talking about that Ward Lamb picture again.

An essay on Cher's appeal as a gay icon:

• “Every gay icon possesses qualities through which we live vicariously…and with Cher you get more bang for your buck. It’s wish fulfillment on a grand scale.”
• "She’s 'a woman like no other.' That’s basically the front of the line for gay men.”

The New York Times Interview:

• She talks about needing foot surgery, and having aches and pains everywhere.
• The Times describes her as having “a magnitude of celebrity for which the word fame is pathetically insufficient…Cher has come to seem the Sherman tank of divas, sometimes under fire but seldom in retreat.”
• The author expresses discomfort with treating her like a mortal.
• The big news:  Cher will soon host and introduce old favorite movies to be shown after midnight on the TCM channel.  Can’t wait to watch old movies with Cher!!
• On her movie role choices: “Look, I have a very narrow range.” Me, I think think Cher should choose to a bad guy character next. Bad guys are fun to play. And she can exercize her bitchy look.
• She tells a funny story about Barbra Streisand: When she flashed back to her favorite exercise class in Beverly Hills decades ago, the fellow crunchers and squatters were Raquel Welch, and Ali McGraw…and Streisand, who “would go over, do two little things, and then walk around and talk,” Cher said.

Regis and Kelly

This was one of my favorite interviews, maybe because I could relate to Kelly's giddiness or because they asked really fun questions and got Cher talking about life at home.

• Regis said "You can't get bigger than this next guest."
• Kelly said: "This is the greatest moment of my life."
• Regis made me laugh when he joked with Cher: "Have you missed me at all?"
• Cher admitted she's a great cook (Sonny taught me) but she only cooks on special occasions. Her specialty is sauces (Sonny’s sauce). Don't you think Christy Bono, Chaz and Cher ought to get together to commemorate Sonny with book of his recipes?
• At Chez Cher, they do a traditional thanksgiving: turkey, mashed potatoes, spinach, sweet potatoes "with the bad marshmallows" and for Thanksgiving she dresses like a bum.
• Cher and Regis have known each other since The Joey Bishop Show.
• Cher says "We are all artists in our own life, all the star of our own life."
• Kelly called Cher the original performance artist.
• Cher said Lady Gaga's Meat purse “didn’t feel very nice.”
• Cher insists she's not threatening or menacing and that younger men are attracted to her because "younger men were being rasied by women like me."
• Cher claims she never sang in any of her movies? But she sang in Good Times, and for bits of Jimmy Dean, Mask (an entire song that got cut) and Tea with Mussolini.

David Letterman:

• Letterman reminded Cher it was 23 years ago that she was on the NBC show with Sonny. (That makes me feel old.)
• On signing autographs Cher says: "It takes as much time to say no as to say yes." (Can Cher do an intervention between autograph-hater Val Kilmer and the town of Pecos, NM?)
• On expensive Vegas show tickets “My fans have a hard time with it.”
• She has appreciated the Vegas show but likes arenas better. She jokes husbands must say: “I'll take you to see the naked old bitch and then I’m gambling.”
• When Letterman reads out a list of men, Cher smiles the biggest for Gene Simmons. The name Michael Bolton elicits a “nooooo!”  Letterman askes "how many? and Cher says "we're not talking Cleopatra numbers."
• November 13, 1987 was the airdate for the reunion with Sonny. On May 22, 1986 Cher called Letterman an asshole. For historians, Letterman said. Indeed, for historians. 
• Discussions of Cher's gargantuan fortune seem to embarrass her.
• Chaz thought about his gender change for 10-12 years. Letterman grapples with the difference between transgender and being gay. To my way of thinking: a gay man, for instance, likes men but also likes being a man. A man who wishes to become transgendered likes men too, but hates being a man.
• Cher says she approves of Chaz's decision although throughout the process was not always calm about it. People have told Cher that Chaz is very brave (this got applause). 
• They talked about the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Paul Shaffer doesn’t know anybody “over there” and Cher says “there’s a cool factor…if they don’t think you are…” Letterman said it's all about timing (in a self-knowing way, almost like he would take care of it.)

Good Morning America-Nightline-20/20:

The annoying Cynthia McFadden interviews. Yes, she annoys me…maybe through no fault of her own. She reminds me of an annoying woman I work with. But on some level I also think she reminds me of an annoying archetype, not quite smug, but smuggy. And I really do hate the big interview chopped up over three shows. Cheap, cheap, cheap. And you had to watch all three…because none of them aired the same soundbites.

Good Morning America called their segment “Cher Unplugged”

• The intro claimed incorrectly that Cher has had a #1 hit in the last five decades.
• There are still no clips available of the Vegas show…they always show Farewell Tour clips when talking about the Vegas show. Will we see a Vegas special soon??  Bette Milder's The Showgirl Must Go On special is airing New Year's Even on HBO. I wish I had HBO.
• On Motherhood: Cher said maybe she should have had children when she was older.

Nightline called their segment “Pure Cher”

• The intro compared her to the Statue of Liberty and claimed she has had a "hit record in last 5 decades."
• When asked about toughness, Cher says "No one’s tough all the time."
• She hates being called ma’am and "no Miss Cher."
• When asked about her movie roles, she said, “This is my fault, I’m sure. I haven’t stretched myself. I've done comfortable things." (I'm telling you, play a villain!)
• Cher likes Lady Gaga’s "balls to the wall" outfits. (I still think all her costume changes for the VMAs were a bit too much)
• Regarding the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: "Everything’s about being cool. Very little is about reality.”
• She feels she's been a good mother "in fits and starts."

20/20:

• The introduction traces her transformations from barefoot hippie (didn’t she always love shoes too much to ever go barefoot?) to sizzling singer to Oscar maven
• This is Cher and Cynthia McFadden's 4th interview in 10 years.
• Now the intro claims Cher has had "top 10 hits in five decades."
• Cher says she was freightened for Chaz in the, beginning of her transgendering, feeling her doctor's  didn’t do due diligence on account of her celebrity. But that Chaz is "the same person. It made him happy."
• When McFadden commented that now Cher has two sons, Cher said "I have 2 sons. Never thought that would be. You get what you get. You get what belongs to you.” That would have to be my favorite quote of all these interviews: you get what belongs to you.

Jay Leno:

• Leno and Cher talk about the specialness of getting her footprints at the Grauman’s Theater and her outfit snafu, the missing slip and the peek-a-boo turquoise g-string, Cher blanking on the spelling of her name. Where is the E? Jay said about adding Cher to the footprints: "You would've thought they’d have done it 20 years ago." Amen.
• They talked about Cher dating Leno's friend Ron Zimmerman and Cher called their relationship "hillbilly cousins" and talked about meeting him on Facebook.

Parade Magazine:

• They called her Malibu house "ponderously self-important."
• Cher talked about having 4 miscarriages and about Sonny’s womanizing ("five women weren’t enough") and how she later asked him how he juggled all those women logistically?
• She talked about Elijah's art shows and said he has been asked to design a Louis Vuitton label – considering the content of his last two shows, wouldn't it seem odd if he did that?

Vanity Fair:

• Cher talks about Elijah's art show and says he has sold everything.
• Cher says her kids both had the addictions of their fathers: heroin for Elijah, pain meds for Chaz but that Georgeanne and Cher didn’t get the addictions of their fathers. Georgeanne's Dad was alcoholic and Cher’s was addicted to heroin. Cher says she has "the constitution of a fruit fly."
• Her Grandma recently died at age 96 and that she "was a mean bitch most of the time."
• Interestingly, Cher's mom Georgia talks about her mother in the interview below: “my mother left when I was about 5…got custody of me at 12 and then she decided she didn’t want me. She told me to go back to my father." That sounds really awful.  How can that not affect you and your ability to mother? Affect your self esteem?
• Cher speculated that "if sonny had agreed to disband Cher Enterprises and start all over again, I never would have left." She said he had such a tight grip.
• She told a longer form of the old Johnny Carson story, where he kicks her out of the room.
• Robert Camilletti still comes over to Christmas dinner.
• Jen has been her personal assistant for 17 years; Deb has been with her for 34 years.
• They called Bob Mackie "the sultan of sequins."

Whew! A lot of tidbits to slog through, no?