Cher has been busy doing cool stuff all season and I have been unable to post about ANY of it and the Cher things just kept happening!

This year was a big lift with the Cher Beauty Book and the Chastity movie deep dive and after doing that I got busy working on a new Poetry PodClass on Big Bang Poetry so that has taken up all my writing time the end of this year.

But let’s get to all the things because we have a lot to recap.

Farewell to Friends

Dolly Parton RIP

On 25 August Dolly Parton passed away suddenly. Well not suddenly but she kept her condition under wraps from almost everybody and the universe was taken off guard by the news. There was national mourning. Everyone was just torn up!

Cher called into CBS to talk about her friendship with Dolly and lots of social posts that week used pictures of Dolly and Cher from Cher’s 1978 TV special.

And after Tim Curry also died that same day, there was a funny meme going around showing Cher wrapped in bubble wrap. All three stars turned 80 years old this year so Cher was on people’s minds.

We felt very fragi-lay that week.

Personal regrets: that Cher wasn’t able to do one of the Rock Star duets with Dolly. Their contrasting voices sounded great together. But Dolly did post on Twitter around that time that it was hard to top a friend like Cher.

 

Bob Mackie RIP

AND THEN, Bob Mackie passed away on 14 September (not even a month later!) and Cher seemed a bit more prepared for that passing.  My friend Sherry sent me the New York Times article where Cher talks about spending time with him before he died (paywall).

“In recent days, when Mackie was dying, Cher was there with him in Palm Springs, along with Joe McFate, Mackie’s design director. ‘I was with him, and I’m happy for him. Do you know what I mean?’ Cher said. ‘He was struggling. And Joe said it was, like, the best time he’s had in a long time, and I’m so glad I went.’ She said there had been a lot of joy. ‘We were laughing, talking about everything. I’m sorry that he was sick,’ she said, ‘but I know that he’s someplace better–designing dresses.'”

Here is Mackie’s New York Times obit.

Fans were still very sad about the passing of someone who has been closely associated with Cher since the very early 1970s (and so many of her compatriots and colleagues from that era have already passed). I’m glad Mackie had the chance to be feted with a nice documentary before he passed.

More regret: Mackie’s departure makes me selfishly sad that he will not be part of any future Cher tour and that quite possibly another Cher tour might not even seem worth doing for Cher without him. The only tour she did without him, Dressed to Kill, didn’t seem so happy from a costume-creating perspective. Although there were some outfits from that show I liked.

There will never be another Bob Mackie/Cher partnership though. End of an era.

Dinner with Cher

This fall Cher put out charity bids for another Cher dinner (the last was in 2024) for November 7, 2026. Good luck to everyone who entered. I did not enter this time (although it’s a great cause to benefit Cher Cares). My life is a million stressors right now and I didn’t even learn when the deadline was. But I’m sure it will be fun. Here’s the contest page.

I find it funny that the contest promises a good evening with Cher. Not a great one.

Cher Books

Cher: The Memoir, Part Two has been delayed three times. The first release date was supposed to be November of 2025. That was delayed to May 2026. The second delay was to November 17, 2026. The third delay was set to April 20, 2027. And although the cover has not yet been revealed, you can now pre-order the book. So that makes me think words might have actually been slung into paragraphs by now. Fingers crossed.

You can pre-order your book at your favorite bookstore. I am not doing that again this year either. I am just going to schlep myself down to a bookstore the day the book comes out. (It will be a Tuesday.) I wished I had done that first time.

Cher is getting a 33 1/3  book by Lior Phillips. (Thanks Robrt for notifying me.) This is a big deal for music nerds who have been eyeing the 33 1/3 series for years and wishing to see a Cher one. (Like the Funko Pops.)

You can pre-order a copy for the 12 November release.

Cher Albums

Cher has been very savvy about keeping her Christmas album alive among the fan base year after year (almost too savvy) with new variations and singles and remixes every November. This year’s offering is a limited-only DJ remix LP (with not only remixes but the inclusion of last year’s non-album single “Christmas Is Here”).

Apparently this LP goes on sale Black Friday (very annoying for those of us who try to not buy anything on Black Friday). And it felt kind of fly-by-night for a few days, only showing up on officially on Record Store Day’s website and not on the Warner Bros site or Cher’s own store.

But Cher sort of confirmed it on social last week:

I might take my chances and try to buy it the day after the release. Or next year used.

While searching for official news, I was surprised to learn how well her single “Christmas Is Here” did last year. It made it to #2 on the Dance Digital Song Sales chart! I did not know. To hear the song if you missed it last Christmas.

Cher at the Airport

Apparently catching Cher at the airport is like a free runway show (according to a Cher fashion book I read last year). And honestly, it kinda seems like that through the year. She’s still a paparazzi magnet for better or worse.

Cher was spotted at the JFK airport in New York City this 13 September sporting Chrome Hearts casual wear.

The Moncler Ad

On 10 September Cher attended the luxury outerwear Moncler’s Fifth Avenue Manhattan store opening party. She wore a very cute puffy jacket and matching skirt. Who wears a puffy skirt? Cher does.

Videos:

This was all a preview for the Pioneers In Moncler ad campaign which kicked off on 15 October with Grace Jones and South Korean singer Jennie.

So many great photos from this campaign which was directed by Gabriel Moses, shown with Cher in the last picture below.

(Click to enlarge.)

Apparently there’s a big ad on the building at Park Avenue and 23rd Street in Manhattan.

 

Videos:

The Cher Ad

The Cher Q&A

This is a great campaign. The choreography on the commercial is beautiful.

Articles:

https://www.designscene.net/2026/10/moncler-re-icons.html

https://www.complex.com/style/a/tracewilliamcowen/jennie-cher-grace-jones-moncler

Cher also did an interview for the campaign in Vogue.

US Vogue (paywall for me): https://www.vogue.com/article/cher-moncler-campaign-interview-10-14-2026

UK Vogue: https://www.vogue.co.uk/article/cher-on-being-a-style-icon

In the interview Cher talks about getting nervous before the shoot. She says black is her favorite color, followed by cream and white. “You’d never see me in orange,” she says, (except all those orange polyester outfits during The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour…literally the show’s signature color). She says she likes the simplicity of the Moncler coats. She credits the choreography of Luam Keflezgy and the help of her stylist Patti Wilson. Cher says she kept tripping on the skirt which was very long. She was promised one of those pair of sunglasses but never got them. (I wonder if it’s even difficult for her own brands to “get something to” Cher.)

Cher says she and her kids all ski and she likes to go to Aspen with family and friends. Cher is usually the person who is always feeling cold so she layers. She has a favorite pair of cowboy boots she always wears. She has them in multiple colors and materials.

Cher maintains that “switching” (or being a chameleon, reinvention basically) doesn’t make you an icon. Good point to make. Because many have tried. But she does say you have to be willing to push yourself into “the uncomfortable zone–sometimes it works and sometimes it’s a mistake.” And she talks again about her bumper car theory.

She talks about Mackie and says “Without Bob, I would certainly not be a fashion icon, because Bob really was so important in making me have my own look. I did things on my own but Bob was really the person that pushed me into those real glamour moments….Bob’s clothes, you could wear them inside out: they were so beautifully made.”

Cher talks about her 1986 Mohawk Oscar dress and that Don Ameche (whom she upstaged) was one of her favorite actors.

She claims  she’s “about to make an album” but we’ve been hearing that for years, even before the Christmas album. I’m convinced when music artists say “coming soon,” those words don’t mean what they think they mean.  They must live in an alternate time-scape than us.

Cher also hints about a song collaboration that is possibly iconic. Everyone in the rumor-sphere thinks this might be with Madonna, particularly a remix of Madonna’s single “One Step Away” but plenty of others (including A.I.) think this is unlikely.

We’ll know when we know.

Precious Moments Refurbished

I’ve saved this for last. Growing up everyone in Missouri had a plethora of Precious Moments figurines (like Hummels) about their houses. My family didn’t have them because we were from New Mexico and our house was a gallery of conspicuous Southwest- in-the-Midwest. But so many family’s I knew collected them. They were Christian-themed bisque porcelain figurines created by illustrator Samuel J. Butcher. There was even a Precious Moments chapel in Carthage, Missouri, with a gift shop. They were cute but kind of creepy like Margaret Keene’s big-eyed children paintings. 

Anyway, recently a friend of mine posted something on Facebook by a woman who repurposes old Precious Moments figurines into celebrities. I wasted no time getting my ass over there to request a custom refurbished Sonny & Cher.

Here is the picture she used, the figures she stared with and the final piece.

I love this! Genius!