a division of the Chersonian Institute

Category: Influence (Page 2 of 2)

Happy Halloween From Sonny & Cher

HalloweensandcThe cast of The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour with Jerry Lewis (and Teri Garr up in the left corner) circa early 1970s.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Don’t forget to watch Sonny & Cher visiting a haunted house in the 1960s.

Cherwolf

She’s posing with the Werewolf there. Cute.

And this year Kim Kardashian made another splash of a Cher-tribute. She arrived at Cindy Crawford’s annual Halloween bash as Sonny & Cher:

Kim-cher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cher tweeted that this Cherfit is called “Dream of India” and was designed by Bob Mackie for when Sonny & Cher presented at the Academy Awards in 1973:

Oscars1 Oscars4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love Halloween. I really do.

History of the Cher Look

KimcherDiscussion about the Cher look has been all over the news over the last few months. It’s cray-cray.

Kim Kardashian did a photographic Cher tribute of Cher that made a big splash:

Billboard
Harpers Bazaar
Daily Mail
People
The Today Show

And Cher approves of her “little Armenian sister"

 - People
 - US Magazine
 - Page Six

It’s odd to me the kind of sites that do Cher outfit reviews. It’s becoming the new click-bait.

JumpNow here is an outfit review with a point of view: the best jumpsuits of all time.

I even updated my own page of Cher in cowboy hats!

And various other articles posted giddy news about Cher’s health and beauty routines:

And in celebrity homes news…is the Sonny & Cher house haunted? It was back on the market with a new look (Architectural Digest)

Media History With Cher

GtI’m like a kid in a candy story with all this Cher scholarship out right now. Two more articles last week:

Cher Is Still Changing The Conversation In 2017 (BuzzFeed)

“Cher is still making headlines, after more than five decades in the spotlight, because she’s never stopped finding and mastering new outlets for her creative expression.”

The article talks about her “fierce tweets,” her “Cher-style viral disruption,” her ability to project an expression of a 'real' person, her outspokenness, her flamboyance, the way she “tends to downplay her hard work,” her history as a fashion trend-setter, a comedian, an actor, a “cross-genre, cross-generational pop artist,” her ability for “generating memes and moments for decades” and “meme-generating outfits.

Um, meme wasn’t even a word back when Cher was doing it.

The article credits her for a style that “that would eventually almost become commonplace on red carpets.” There’s a funny quote from her 1970s manicurist, Minnie Smith, who said, “What the hell different can you do with fingernails?” They found something.

According to BuzzFeed’s culture writer, Pier Dominguez, Cher has a “reliable self-awareness” and is able to maintain “a kind of “authentic down-home appeal” unfiltered and has become a “larger-than-life movie star” engaged in a “defiance of aging.”

He links to that crazy 1975 television duet with David Bowie. This clip has become a popular reference point since David Bowie died. For years I’ve never been able to decide whether these song mashups were brave or ridiculous. Probably bravely ridiculous.

And this NPR story by Desire Moses, Shocking Omissions: The Resilient Reinvention Of Cher's 'Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves' (NPR).

This piece talks specifically about the song “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves” as a vehicle for Cher’s “signature contralto” and androgynous vocals and that was a step away from Sonny’s “straightforward, cheerful music.”

We are reminded here that Cher lost a Grammy for this to Carole King’s Tapestry (not too shabby). Moses explicates the song  as ”a story of classism, sexism and racism,” and Cher's performance “whose strength lies in her embodiment of the character.” It’s the story of a woman who has been “shafted into the same life as the generations of women who came before her.”

I feel like a whole new generation has discovered this song.

“Cher’s emboldened drawls [a perfect way to describe her singing style] transformed the song into an urgent, beguiling pop smash” and “established a pattern of storytelling reliant on exoticism,” Moses says, in reference to “Half Breed” and “Dark Lady.” Moses calls Cher a “red-carpet trailblazer” and the “poster child of 70s glam,” an innovator one step ahead of the times.

This year's statements, my Cherfriends, are not things that have been typically said about Cher by the press. This feels like a pretty big shift toward sainthood.

Cher Slays the BBMAs

BillboardmagIt took me a moment to gather my thoughts this week and this is going to be a long post. Very exciting stuff going on and some of it very important to Cher scholarship.

The 71st Birthday Tributes

Remember last year on Cher’s 70th birthday when we had a plethora of celebratory articles? This year there were far fewer but then people were already talking about Cher’s Billboard award instead. Still there were some:

10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Cher – They even take issue with the fact that she’s not in the Hall of Fame yet.

Cher's Most Iconic & Controversial Fashion Moments of All Time (E! Online)

Our Favorite Quotes (Biography)

Cher: A life in photos

A Star Is Born: Cher turns 71 today (LA Times!)

Midriffs, Wigs, Sparkles & Boots: Cher’s Glam Concert Style Over the Years (Footwear News) – Footwear News??

Cher: See Her Top 10 Most Outrageous Outfits Ever

#BornThisDay: Cher (World of Wonder)  (thanks to Tyler)

Cher at 71: Her most incredible outfits in pictures (thanks to Tyler)

Bonus! Tour Cher's California Homes (Architectural Digest)

Kim Kardashian even had her own subset of birthday tweets and articles resulting from those tweets:

Billboard Sweetness

So, in support of Cher’s Icon award, Billboard Magazine did a series of tributes to her (see more in my opinion post, Cher’s Musical Oeuvre).

The interview: Cher Sounds Off on Trump's 'Cheating' & Why She's 'Not a Fan' of Her Six Decades of Hits

The article tallies up more famous Cher fans, (so now we have Pink, Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Gwen Stefani, and the already-mentioned Tracy Chapman and Chrissie Hynde). Pink calls Cher a smart “sharpshooting rock star.” The article covers facets of her reputation: her blunt opinions, clothes, her swearing, her “fearlessness.” It culls out her award winnings and record breaking chart appearances. This is an old school article that actually sends a reporter to visit Cher in her Cher lair. (Remember those interviews?) The article touches on her androgyny and how she solidified an image on her television shows as “a woman who claimed privileges usually reserved for men, including honesty, independence and confident sexuality.” That’s even understated IMHO. The article also talks about The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour’s technical innovations with chroma key. Author Rob Tannenbaum calls her current live show set a Parisian flophouse (nails it there) and says the show is “dizzying, festive and cheeky.” He calls her image during Geffen era the MILK of hair metal (funny and not totally off the mark).

This seems like a typo though: “There was one problem: no evident lack of talent.” Why would no lack of talent be a problem? There’s also at least one factual error,  stating that since Believe Cher has only released one album on a major label. She’s released two (Living Proof and Closer to the Truth on the same label).

The article states Cher has 3.3 million twitter followers and that Buzzfeed calls her “the world’s most beloved Twitter user.” (Sweet.)

Chad Michaels on Cher's Musical Legacy & What It's Like Impersonating the Pop Icon to Her Face

Michaels credits Cher with pioneering the music video on her 70s TV shows and talks about age-bracketing his shows for content. He calls Cher not only the Goddess of Pop but the Queen of Rock and Roll (yeah, let’s get that one going). He admits “it must be strange for any celebrity to come face to face with an impersonator” and he talks about working on stage parodies of Witches of Eastwick.

RaptureWhy Cher Is More Musically Radical Than You Think

This is an awesome piece by Joe Lynch who  talks about the sexism inherent in rock criticism. He gives only a partial list of Cher’s accolades, (awards, sales, endurance, record breaks), and says “Cher’s impact as a musical force is unfairly disregarded or minimized.” He says music history is “refracted through a male, rock-privileging lens. But it’s also a casualty of music fans’ obsession with authenticity.” I would argue that even under the authenticity rubric, (which is ludicrous in what is essentially a posing industry), the standards are not evenly applied depending upon the rock clique you belong to.

Lynch argues that it’s not even fair to judge artists who don’t have full control over their material because even auteur-film-directors don’t have full control of theirs. I think we can look even closer than film: did The Ronnettes fully control their material? Did any Phil Spector artists have full control? Because many of them are in the Hall of Fame. Lynch gives Cher credit for auto-tune and she should get credit for fighting for it if not coming up with the idea for it on her song “Believe,” (even though I think that is a problematic accolade in rock music, again around issues of authenticity).

We can all agree, like Lynch says, that Cher didn’t pioneer genres or “take lyrics to new poetic heights” but she did “forge an iconoclastic path for vocal and visual androgyny in pop culture that’s frequently overlooked.” (I would argue she also did that with glam rock).

And for the storyteller songs most derided in Cher’s catalog Lynch says, “It’s absurd to argue those songs could have been as effective in the hands of another singer—sure they’re good story-songs, but Cher’s delivery is what makes these admittedly dated pop songs resonate…” Lynch says Cher “teed things up for people like Bowie and Patti Smith, and the world would certainly be different if she hadn’t stayed so irrevocably Cher from the start.”

A Look Back on Her Film & TV Career

GwenHow Cher Transformed Fashion And Became One Of The Most Influential Style Icons In Red Carpet History

This article notes Cher’s influence on Katy Perry, Beyonce, Lady Gaga, and Rihanna, saying she has “left a trail of glittering breadcrumbs across the mood boards of designers and musicians.” Author Brooke Mazurek calls her “the original red carpet renegade and provides quotes from Michale Kors, Vogue Editor Andre Leon Talley and the Fashion Institute of Technology’s curator Kevin Jones. Mazurek also draws a line back to Marlene Dietrich and Josephine Baker and has Bob Mackie crediting Cher with bringing ethnicity to 1970s TV. (That is also a big thesis of the book Off-White Hollywood by Diane Negra).

Cher's 'Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves': Why It's One of the 20th Century's Greatest Songs

This is a great piece by Rob Tannenbaum who wrote the lead story. Cher is dismissive about the song and the length of the recording session but Tannenbaum calls the song “one of the most majestic pop hits ever made…a tale recounted at breakneck speed, of sexual hypocrisy…female and class consciousness…voyeuristic like a pulp novel…redeemed by a brash confidence Cher gives the narrator.”

Tannenbaum goes on to explicate the complicated story line, the implications of which most people blithely ignore as they sing along. This is real professional scholarship here! This could be a undergrad lit paper! Tannenbaum even deconstructs the song musically:

“The song feels urgent partially because of the breakneck pace: the band plays at 171 beats per minute. (For comparison, the Ramones’ “Beat On the Brat” is 157 BPM, and Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll” is 164.) When she reaches the chorus, Cher suddenly sings way in front of the beat, an expression of anxiety. The lavish arrangement feels vaguely “ethnic” or “exotic,” thanks to mandolin and calliope, and also threatening, due to the irregular meters and some shreds of dissonance. It has the grandeur of a Phil Spector production, but with B-movie horror mixed in to it.”

He points out that Cher is never sexually “apologetic or sorrowful…but savoring freedom and rebellion… delivers the line [“Papa would have shot him if he knew what he’d done”] with chilling delight…[making] it one of the most lurid and sexy lines in pop music, merely through implication.”

The song, written by Bob Stone, has “plot, detail and emotional complexity, and Cher belts it with a punkish defiance. As a song about prejudice, poverty, and the consequences of pregnancy for working-class women, 'Gypsys' has aged beautifully.” Yes, indeed.

Cher's 10 Best Trump Tweets

I love Billboard Magazine’s implicit affection for Cher’s anti-Trump tweets here. It’s their own condemnation of Trump and such a reflection of the mainstream, they let it go without any qualification or judgement. The article credits Cher as an advocate of LGBT and women’s rights, her political activism. Lauren Tom calls her a “a pioneer of female autonomy during a male-driven era.”

Older related links

Bob Mackie's Archives Unveiled: Iconic Designer for Cher & Diana Ross Gives Billboard a Peek Behind the Curtains (Oct 2016)

See Bob Mackie's Sketches for Classic Madonna, Cher & Tina Turner Gowns

Press Before the Show

SpeechThe internet was also full of stories rehashing the Billboard interview and reacting to Cher’s admission, (not nearly a new one), that she hates her own music. Every time she says that, people respond in such surprise.

After the BBMAs Coverage

My two cents: award shows seem now to be just excuses for launching elaborate musical performances from big arenas. I'm bored with it already, especially the Byzantine performances of Nicki Minaj (and ten variations of her throughout the night). I did enjoy the Chainsmokers (although it sounds like nobody else did), Julia (I like that funny "Issues" song), and Lorde's very inventive performance pretending to be at a karaoke club. I thought Celine was understated but great per usual (that crazy dress!). She had a lovely chandelier to sing under.

Gwen Stefani introduced Cher who then sang "Believe" and then we watched a career reel while Cher changed into the hole-fit and sang "Turn Back Time" and then accepted her award. I liked her speech which threw some props to Phil Spector, the Wrecking Crew, her mom, Sonny, David Geffen, Diane Warren and luck. Watch Celine Dion sing along to Cher.

GIF of Cher saying she can do a five minute plank.

Spend an afternoon with Cher GIFs!

Cher and Madonna, Kate Hudson, Bang Bang

MadonnaThe blog Cher News came back with some tidbits in August:

David Shelley, one of Cher’s guitarists passed away. The story has pics of Cher singing with him.
A good compilation post of anthemic Cher mixes (listen at work!)

In the news…

It seems Kate Hudson has come out saying she's been inspired by Cher. I don't really see it but…

My friend Christopher sent me this clip, Buddha Bar’s chill-out version of “Bang Bang.”

Mads2Cher tweeted about people comparing her to Madonna. Here are some concepts for scholarship so you can do your own comparison (play the fun home game version!):

  • Amount of reinventions over how long a period of time
  • Likeability, relatability
  • Types of personality qualifications (TV, film, music, stage)
  • Video presence versus variety show presence
  • Voice conventions
  • Beauty conventions
  • Acting reviews
  • Intellectual/cultural point of view, something to say
  • Types of Billboard success
  • As gay icon

Recap of Woman’s World Press Tour


943273_10201522820973247_1967374274_nThe Accolades:

After decades of dissings, then surprised condescension at her success in the 1980s, then the
1990s of affected interest with the turn into occasional accolades and credit,
the excitement of this round’s interviewers is palpable. I’m chalking it up to
the inarguable facts of her career piling up and The Cher Show kids finally finding their asses in interviewing seats.
It’s truly extra-ordinary and Cher is responding with
her grown-up voice and is downright verbose in her responses.

One of my favorite pile-ups of accolades was from SoSoGay,

“Before Beyonce,
before Gaga. Before Rhianna and before Katy. Before Britney, Christina, Cyndi
and Celine. Before Whitney and Mariah, and before Madonna. Before colour
television, before the Vietnam War, before man walked on the moon. Before the
decimalized pound. Before everything, before time immemorial…There was Cher….this shimmering vestibule of unrelenting
fabulousness….her sparkling tsunami.”

Ed Brody, the author, tells me Burlesque was amazing and to get over myself. I laughed at that. I wish I could. But that’s the cross a scholar bears.

Here’s more overview of the love:

  • A Cher fan said
    she was coolest person ever since he can remember (Watch What Happens/Andy Cohen)
  • Andy Cohen said as a kid he watched The Cher Show and “when she came down the
    ramp, life, hope, goose bumps, gave me fairy dust, inspiration” came too. He said Cher
    was putting to bed all the kids in America. (Watch What Happens/Andy Cohen)
  • Anderson Cooper said he grew up adoring Cher—and
    his mom (Gloria Vanderbilt) said Cher was her
    fantasy daughter. Kelly Ripa is also a fan. One caller said he had to get high
    to talk to Cher (Watch What Happens/Andy Cohen)
  • Dan Taylor called her the female artist of rock
    and roll, the iconic lady (WCBS).
  • On Sirius/XM radio’s Studio54 channel, the hosts Marc Benecke and Myra Scheer were very
    excited. (I just got a new car so have free XM for 3 months or something–whohoo!). In
    their intro, they played “The Shoop Shoop Song,” “Believe,” Turn Back Time,” and
    “Woman’s World” clips. On the Town Hall interview with Cher,
    (the inaugural), Myra noted that she was Steve Rubell’s executive assistant at Studio 54 in New York City.
    They called her major star, a guiding star, a role model with 250 world-wide
    awards in music, TV and film, including a Golden Globe, an Oscar, an Emmy, a Grammy,
    and a hit song in every decade “since 1910” Cher joked. At the first break,
    they played “Take Me Home” (and noted the song was on the Studio 54 album). The next
    break “Turn Back Time.” The next break “I Found Someone” (and here a salamander
    crawled up our faux-bedrock wall and stopped to listen). The next break “Believe,” “Strong
    Enough” next and during the final break “Women’s World.” Many of New York’s straight men asked questions
    during this interview and I love how straight men in NYC love her. You don’t see this so much in LA and the Midwest.

Candidness: Cher seemed so much less guarded in her face, body, and with her words.

  • The New
    York Times
    said what they used to say about her in the 1980s, “In this age
    of rigidly controlled star-bots, no topic seemed to be off-limits (except her
    relationship status).”
  • She appeared on The Today Show with Savannah Guthrie, (perky like Katie
    Couric) and was so nice and comfortable in her PJs. After the interview,
    Guthrie gushed about Cher to her co-anchors, calling Cher
    an unassuming charmer. I was impressed how easily Guthrie could kid with her.
  • On Z100, the DJ played “Does Cher Care” asking Cher irreverent questions about Paula Dean (Cher feels she’s not
    misunderstood, just wrong), Sandra Bullock’s new movie trailer: is it
    overexposed, will it be good? Is Cher even interested (Cher said it looks
    cool), about the never-ending cupcake craze (Cher said it sucked to begin with and
    prefers Hostess cupcakes), should Snowden be punished or kicked out of China/Russia?
    (Cher said this was above her pay grade).
  • Andy Cohen launched CherMaggedon with a plethora
    of games, including Truth or Cher—the Truth
    question being who her greatest lovers were (She said they’d all been
    exceptional. Andy said “That’s a list!” and she answered, “Not a long list but a
    good list.” He got her to admit Tom Cruise in the top 5 when prompted). In the
    Dare, Andy Cohen quoted Moonstruck
    and asked Cher to slap him while saying “Snap
    out of it.” In another segment Gypsies Tramps and Tea, Andy Cohen asked for
    Cher’s opinion on: Elvis (didn’t know him), Whitney (didn’t know her), Nick
    Cage (he’s crazy but I love him), Meryl (my idol), Phil Spector (he’s crazy and
    only paid me $25 for a year’s work), Michael Jackson (I have TMI!), Tom Cruise (He wasn’t
    a scientologist then and they were hot and heavy for a minute), ever having a lesbian lover?
    (who hasn’t). She said she stole a horse when I was 13 and took it to Santa Ana. If she could
    meet anyone? She’d ask Jesus “Dude, what’s the deal?” Her favorite decade was the
    80s (so much fun, could go naked swimming). On her bucket list? (I thought she said to build
    Balobgese house but is that right??). Her best movie role was Moonstruck.
    Does she have a boyfriend? (The moment anyone knows, you don’t have one; so she
    keeps that on the low down now—that’s a great answer actually). For the Jackal of the Night: Cher picked Senator Ted Cruise because he’s an a-hole who
    doesn’t like gays or foreigners. According to Andy, the show said “Cher” 29 times – which was a record.
  • During Andy Cohen’s Aftershow, he asked her what
    sent she would use for a scented candle (Uninhibited); she says she watches
    CNN/MSNBC. Anderson Cooper made a surprise appearance and said Cher calls in all the time to help people but low key (that she did so
    with Hurricane Katrina). They asked her about the Supreme Court decision on gay
    marriage (about time, she said) and they tried to play Kiss, Marry, Shag with
    her (with Quaid who she’d say she’d marry and Nicholson & Cage but she
    never finished the list.) They ran a Hair Chertrospective at the end.

Cher was great fun through all these shenanigans.




WomanssingleThe New Album:

  • On Live Chat NY, Cher
    said the video wouldn’t be released until September (which is very strange since
    a video might have helped the single). Cher
    said the newspaper wig was her wigmakers idea and kinda a nightmare. She said
    her favorite songs on the album are “Lie to Me” (a Pink song), “My Love” (a
    future single), Take It Like a Man” (a future single), and Dressed to Kill.”
    She said she recorded “Woman’s World” in an hour (on Z100 she said the song sang itself) and
    she co-wrote the song “Lovers Forever” which is actually old and was written for the movie
    Interview with a Vampire. She said
    the album has dance, rock and ballads and she hopes it will generate three videos.
  • On Z100 Cher said recording is still scary and
    tenuous and she is not Cher fan, that recording studios are not her favorite place to be, that she feels more confident
    on stage (where I shine) because she feels she’s a good entertainer (vs. a singer).
  • To Andy Cohen, Cher
    said Lady Gaga didn’t like their duet but that she felt it was good. Cher said this was her best album and her best songs and she loved that she didn’t have to lower her keys.
  • WCBS noted that this is her 26th
    album. She said here it was very eclectic with dance, ballads, a country song, and
    some funky banjo in one song and a U2-sounding 9/11 song called “Sirens.”
  • On XM she talked about the writing of “Woman’s
    World.” As she said in “Believe”-era interviews, there’s no overt personal connection to the song. She said the writer was a guy and
    his idea was that women are strong and now demand their rights. (In this light,
    I think the setup suffers from slight condescension, which isn’t the writer’s fault, but a generational interpretation, ex: we don’t need men to tell us this.) Myra said the song was
    very “I Will Survive of the 21st Century.” (I thought that label should
    have been applied to the song “Strong Enough” with its 1970s sound). Cher
    said the song was like “Believe” in that she didn’t like the second verse,
    which was too similar to “Believe.” Cher said
    she won’t cry twice, which is why in “Believe” she added the more empowering line: “Maybe
    I’m too good for you.” She wants to show that women are resilient. Myra said although Cher
    didn’t write it, she owned it. Cher’s mom said
    that about her The Voice performance.


GypsiesorigOld Songs:

  • On Live Chat NY, Cher
    said she turned down “Turn Back Time” around 1000 times and then did the song
    in an hour. She said her favorite song of her own is “Song for the Lonely.” The
    interviewer said she loves “Baby Don’t Go”
    and Cher said that was a great song and very  definitive Sonny & Cher.
  • On Z100 the DJ said Cher
    has embraced change through the eras vs. musicians who say “this is the kind of
    music I make” and aren’t flexible. Cher said
    she gets bored and likes to try new ideas. Cher
    said she can’t think of anybody my age who
    is making records to get on the charts or anyone who performs onstage with no clothes.
    (She’s so funny!) They talked about “Believe” and auto tune and the vocoder and pitch machines. I get confused during such tech talk.
  • On WCBS, Cher
    says she almost threw away “Believe” although she thought it was a “beautifully
    constructed idea.” She talked about the first time she heard herself on the
    radio, for her song “Baby Don’t Go.” They were at her mom’s house where their managers
    were living (because they were all poor). They were in the living room listening
    to KFWB and had all been calling on all their phones to the radio station to get it played. Cher said it was an out of body experience with everybody
    screaming when the song came on. They said they all wanted to go to the Cadillac
    dealership with bag full of money and buy a Cadillac.
  • On XM, Cher
    said she hasn’t a clue about her longevity in the business. She agreed with a
    fan that she liked the “Walking in Memphis”
    video and was the first to play Elvis. (Like originally? Like in 1971, which is
    my theory that she’s been doing Elvis since then?)

General Music:

On Live Chat NY, Cher says she Pink, Adele, and Amy
Winehouse; On XM she said she still has her favorite go-to song (but said
it makes no sense) as Procol Harem’s “Whiter Shade of Pale.” SoSoGay reporter
mentioned that her song from Not.Com.merical, “With or Without You” taps into
that Procol Harem sound.


MaskMovies & Broadway:

  • According to Live Chat NY, Cher has no word on the
    status of Drop Out or Bet and Flo, movies once listed on her IMDB page. For her
    next movie, she seeks a non-glamorous role in an independent film. She says she
    will never do Shakespeare.
  • She also says she got her Silkwood offer on a Wednesday matinee of her Broadway show, Come Back to the 5 & Dime, and she liked
    doing a play, found it comforting. (Live
    Chat NY)
    She said Broadway was not easy but you get an immediate reaction. (XM)
  • According to Live Chat NY she’s still writing
    for her Logo show.
  • The DJ of Z100 told Cher
    he used to watch Mask over and over with
    his sister. On Z100 and XM, Cher said she was
    sick during the offer to do Thelma &
    Louise
    but that what belongs to you comes to you. She  regrets not being able to do it but feels it
    was meant to be “Sue’s” part.
  • Andy Cohen during his Aftershow asked Cher if she keeps in touch with the Mermaids daughters, Winona Ryder and Christina Ricci. Cher says they grew up and she hasn’t seen them lately. She
    said “Noni” went through a strange period but seems back on track and she
    remembers sneaking Christina M&Ms during the shooting when directors
    thought Christina was too chubby and banned them from her trailer. Cher
    said she loved the family-feeling of movies and talking to the tech people. She said
    she had a great time on Burlesque.
  • On WCBS, Cher
    retold the story about a crowd laughing at her name during the Silkwood preview (Nichols told her the
    previews were out and she went to a Tom Cruise movie in Westwood to see it with
    her sister and her manager, Billy Sammeth). She said it was organic laughter and therefore
    pretty painful. At the eventual premiere the audience clapped at her name in
    the credits.
  • On XM, Cher
    admitted not knowing how’s she’s persevered in a youth-oriented film industry. Myra calls her fearless. Cher said you evolve. Mark said she has communication
    with audience. Cher said she is likable. She
    said her most memorable moment was winning the Oscar. It was amazing to her since
    it took so long to get an acting job. She said Robert Altman was such a rebel. Mike Nichols told her when he saw the Saturday matinee about the
    character of Dolly that they couldn’t find anyone for the role before they found Cher and so they we were just gonna
    write her out; Mike said, “She’s a lesbian, but really lovely.” A fan asked if
    she would do more musicals? She said she wasn’t planning any but she enjoyed
    singing in a film.
  • One fan on XM commented on her sexy glamor and
    sensitivity in movies from Moonstruck
    to Jimmy Dean. Cher
    joked that she could multitask. She said, I am who I am for better or worse, a
    lot of worse. She said she likes play in her work and that sometimes she stops
    doing it when she feels she has nothing to offer.

Twitter & Star
Fights:

  • On Live Chat NY, Cher
    admitted on Twitter it’s hard to read jokes and emotions, saying, “Words can’t
    see a smile, can’t get emotions.” She said she tweets in the middle of the night
    like a vampire. To Andy Cohen she says she’s good with Madonna.
  • Andy Cohen asked her about Nicki Minaj throwing
    shade on her. She said people come and go. Snap!

Exercise & Free
Time:

  • On The
    Today
    Show Cher says for free time, she sees friends, goes to the Bahamas,
    paddle  boards, goes hiking, or somewhere
    like Nepal.
  • On XM she talked about working out, working her
    “ass off” now because when you’re older it gets harder. But she was always into
    sports and running as kid, climbing trees. She had “so much energy.” Official exercise started for her during The Sonny
    & Cher
    shows where she took a dance class during their lunch breaks.
    She said you have to change it up to trick your body. The same exercise stops
    working. Now she does yoga, pilates, weights and the trampoline to music, bouncing,
    she says, makes her happy.

Outfits:
Inlove

  • In the New
    York Times,
    Cher said her favorite dress
    was the Oscar Snub Dress: “If you could have seen it up close. It was cashmere,
    the beading was beautiful, they made earrings and the headdress was exquisite.
    It was impeccable. It was beautifully done.” (And Cher
    would know a headdress). She also stated “Camp is in the eye of the beholder.”
  • On The
    Today
    Show she said she doesn’t mind people hating what she wears.
  • On Andy Cohen she wore space platforms shoes and
    black and white geometric jacket and pants. Cher
    scholar Robrt Pela noted that this outfit matched the back cover of Sonny & Cher’s In Case You’re In Love album.
    She stated her that her favorite outfits where the Oscar dress, and her first
    Indian “costume,” and the “Turn Back Time” outfit (Which one? The concert hole fit or the
    video V fit?)
  • On XM, a fan asked what her outfit inspirations
    were. She said her first inspiration was Bob Mackie. She loved that her
    friend said her hair on The Voice
    looked like a chicken from the 4H club. She says she has a  good humor about it. But she said the outfit
    and wig didn’t translate on the show (I agree: too many cuts and closeups). Cher said art should provoke conversation, not that she
    can say my hair was art, but she was going for Luxe Punk.

Concerts:
Helen-Mirren

  • On LiveChat NY, Cher talked about
    her first live appearance in bowling alley and Sonny pushing her on stage. She
    said about her Caesars shows:  “They were
    very staid.” (New York Times) and that
    fans couldn’t afford the show so there was an older, low energy audience. She came
    to understand “you don’t get to decide how they’re gonna enjoy it. They get to
    decide.” She said on tour she saves her voice and doesn’t talk, lives like a
    nun.  She said in the 1960s people threw
    rings on stage, in homage to the fact she had rings on every finger (I did not
    know that.). She said “Song for the Lonely” is impossible to sing and she didn’t
    tape Caesars show. (Live Chat NY)
  • The New
    York Times
    was with Cher at the Marquee
    during a very long wig change. Manager Lindsay Scott was asked, “How much of
    his life is spent waiting for Cher to change
    her outfit and get trussed up?” “A good amount.”
  • In the Marquee video itself, Cher
    made a speech about when she was unc2ool and a has-been, “you guys have always
    been there.” Cher watched some drag queens/impersonators
    dance to a mix of her songs and she danced and sang along, smiling.
  • On Z100 she said she might tour next year. The
    DJ asked her about seeing all those cell phones now at shows. She said smart
    phones weren’t around yet during her farewell tour years.
  • During the Macy’s 4th of July
    Spectacular, I loved the long hair and the pants. Is that chain mail back in
    action? Mr. Cher Scholar made many positive remarks, (She looks cool here,
    looks younger, like the big hoops, she looks great). The women in audience
    really seem into it. Cher smiles a lot and
    throws out sultry looks. She did lip sync but in the bootleg pre-tape, you can
    hear her singing. She comments about dressing age-appropriate (not quite yet; age appropriate would be dressing like Helen Mirren above…can you believe they’re less than a year apart in age?). She talks about her choreographer, Doriana
    Sanchez, and about getting free M&Ms vs Dr. Pepper backstage.
  • Cher announced
    she’ll be performing a Today Show
    concert on September 23. The hosts said to “expect a legendary crowd.”
  • Cher said her least
    favorite song to do live is “Jessie James.” She talked about touring with sonny
    in early 70s on the club circuit where they had to cook in our room but used
    Chastity in act; She used to lead the orchestra. (Watch What Happens/Andy Cohen)
  • On XM, Cher
    said hearing her records again, she felt they sound better. For live shows you
    need to speed them up because the audience needs excitement. She said singing
    live is a crap shoot. She said sometimes her musical director  Paul Mirkovich changes up arrangements. A fan asked if there was a drag queen better
    than she was? She picked Elgin Kenna and called him a genius artist.

TV Shows:

  • To Andy Cohen, she talked about Farrah Fawcett’s
    appearance on The Sonny & Cher Comedy
    Hour.
    “She had tits and I didn’t” so Farrah got all the crews attention.
    She said one of her favorite things  with
    Sonny was the Raymond Burr blooper (long form) and on XM she said the blooper
    was “so us.” She also agreed she loved her West Side Story performance. She
    said there were 14 costume changes on her show with Sonny.
  • On WCBS, she said her appearance on The Voice was awful and scary. Before
    the show she told her mom she would either be the greatest reinvention of herself
    or it would be “get thee to a nursing home.”

Family & Friends:
Hersonny

  • Cher said her mom would be a guest judge on RuPaul’s Drag Race and Chaz was great
    performing in “30 Minute Musical” (Live Chat NY), the episode spoofing Independence Day and Chas played the
    president.  (Watch What Happens/Andy Cohen)
  • Cher said Sonny’s
    funeral was very Italian with everybody cooking. “The only person not there was
    Son.” Cher said they didn’t sing to Chaz at
    bedtime, they read her stories. (Watch What
    Happens
    /Andy Cohen)
  • ON WCBS, Cher said her mom’s best advice was to never
    litter and that Cher has never seen Chaz better
    in his life.
  • On XM someone asked for Cher’s
    advice to new artists. Cher said entertainment
    and fame are so different now, everyone has an immediate clothing line (I
    wonder how Sonny would have operated in this era). Cher
    said Sonny instilled in her the idea never to believe in a no. She said she should
    have stopped years ago when all signs pointed to no, but like a bumper car she
    keeps going, it’s in her family DNA. She said far more talented people don’t
    make it. She hears friends saying older people should move over to give the
    kids a shot, but the women in her family are not moving out of the way.
  • On XM they asked her for her best personal and
    professional decade. She said all decades have had their over parts and have
    also spiked up. “They said I reinvented myself but it was untrue…I’m just me.”
    She couldn’t decide on a best decade, saying the 1960s were the beginning, the
    1970s had the TV show, the 1980s had the movies and was the best decade
    personally.
  • On WCBS Cher said she was still working with Children’s
    Craniofacial Association.
  • In The New
    York Times,
    Cher said Robert Camilletti was
    her easiest relationship and of her two husbands, Sonny she was most attached
    too: “It wasn’t like anything before or after. And it wasn’t all roses. It was
    very Russian roulette.”
  • On XM she said her true love was Robert Camilletti and Ronnie Zimmerman was the one who could make her laugh so hard she cried.
  • XM asked her for advice for parents. She said I’m on twitter with your
    kids. She said it’s hard to stop telling your kids what to do but you need to think of them as people and cut
    them some slack and do fun stuff with them. You’re not just there to boss them around. But teenagers
    are crazy. You need to guide them more because you worry about them all the time. Her mom told her never
    lie, litter, or talk back. But she learned to drive when she was 11 and her mother assures her she was
    a mercurial child. “Chaz was an angel all the time. Elijah is like me.”

Her Character:

  • Calls herself mercurial (Sirius/New York Times) and says
    her worst habit is worrying too much (Live Chat NY). If she could go back in
    time as superpower to meet an Egyptian whose name I couldn’t catch or to send the
    paparazzi into space (Live Chat NY). She said her biggest obstacle is her up
    and down moods and she works to stay in the center and not be over emotional
    (WCBS).
  • On XM she was asked if she would change anything
    she’s done. “How long do we have,” she asked and then said the truth would be too
    personal. She believes what belongs to you comes to you.

Plastic Surgery:

In the New York Times,
Cher admits her limited movie offers might be due to her wrinkle-free visage,
that her look might make it “hard to be anyone but Cher.”
She said this idea “didn’t feel very good. But it was true. I get that. I
understand that.” She was also asked about Chad Michaels allegedly having
surgery to look more like her: “If it doesn’t bother him, it doesn’t bother me.
I don’t feel creepy. I don’t.”

A Book:
Ft

To Andy Cohen, Cher admitted she once wrote “a half-assed book.” But before she write the bigger book, people have
to die off. She said she and friend, Paulie, talk about it all the time.

Shy Kid to Superstar:

My iPod shuffle served up the Sonny & Cher b-side “Hello
during Cher’s big June/July press push. I was
taken by how far she’s come in her confidence.

We’ve also come to a point of critical mass in her career, where no one (including Cher herself) can pretend this is her first album, movie or project and dismiss or ignore all the preceeding history. I love it when she talks about experiencing showbiz over so long a period of time and, as you can see, all these interviews reflect the breadth of her work, from live shows to TV shows to music albums to being a fashion icon. It’s all here.

 

Chad Michaels Excels on Drag Race

Chad3Chad Michaels (far right) made it to the top three of Ru Paul’s Drag Race at the end of the season along with with Phi Phi O’Hara and Sharon Needles (middle, who won). It would seem there was no official second or third place on Drag Race this year.

I watched the entire season for the most part in three days last weekend. By far, Chad was the prettiest in most challenges, and in some challenges the only one to really get it right (see the inaugural ball challenge below).

He was thrown some shade for his age (being over 40), his plastic surgeries and (from judge Michelle Visage) for being too perfect and not messy enough. Ru Paul also challenged Chad at the end of the season to tap into his emotions more.

Chad did a pitch-perfect Cher send-up in the impersonation challenge fThreechersor the “Snatch Game” episode, which was a spoof on The Match Game show. See the animated gifs of the episode from “Of Coursets a Drag.”

Chad, Sharon Needles and Latrice Royale were my favorites. And if Chad was not destined to win, I’m glad it was Sharon.

Sharon Needles pushed the envelope, was witty and cute as a button in his scariness. He raised the competition to a level of performance art.

At the end Ru told Ch Sharonad he raised the level of the competition this season and was a real class act. Which was true: he played the adult in the room, the negotiator, the conversation starter, the mama of this den of bees, always trying always to stay above the DRAMA.

But he was in a real bind competition-wise because it was only in the moments of messy fighting that Chad was able to show that emotional side: fighting with Sharon’s icky hetero-drag-model, confiding in Sharon about Phi Phi’s treachery (on an Untucked episode), and crying when discussing gay marriage and when apologizing for being harsh on Phi Phi’s innocence/immaturity.

If he had showed too many of these moments, maybe he wouldn’t have looked so classy.

Chad1

I’m a huge fan of Drag U but this is my first full season watching Drag Race. This is because watching bitch-fights sometimes gives me high anxiety. But this season was exciting (Willem getting kicked off suddenly, the spectacle of the big finale) and emotional (drag queens crying) and also sometimes uncomfortable (the political challenge, the episode trying to drag out butch dads).

Latrice

Watch for Latrice on Drag U next month. Her blue boat/blue hair outfit killed me!

Latrice Royale
Chad Michaels
Sharon Needles

 

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