Category: Peripherals (Page 8 of 21)

After Joan Rivers passing, Cher tweeted:

"Am heartbroken about Joan. When I was young, I was going through a tough time and I thought about Joan. She had told stories about her tough times – I got stronger".

Cher also referred to her friend Kathy Griffin who she credits with getting her and Joan Rivers back together:

"Kathleen, I can never thank you enough for bringing Joan to the house that night. You two together is something that I'll never forget. Two girls in rare form.”

I kinda remember that tweet about Kathy and Joan years back.

Read more at Cher News.

This has been a rough month for losing celebrities.

After seeming to be a day away from intensive care yesterday, Joan Rivers has died as a result of complications from vocal cord surgery. 

Cher and Joan once swapped garage sale stories on The Tonight Show, where Cher would appear when Joan was guest hosting. Cher was also one of Joan’s inaugural guests on her own late-night show.

Later there were rumors of a tiff between them, but a few years ago they seemed to have reconciled and Cher posted many supportive tweets over the last few days.

"Just heard about Joan. My heart will break. I'm still betting on her." and "Hey Joan, hurry and get well. I know you and you're the toughest chick on our block."

If you want to get an idea of how tough Joan Rivers really was, watch her documentary, A Piece of Work (2010). My favorite part of the documentary of Joan Rivers was seeing her rifle through her elaborate cabinet of organized jokes.

Cher also said, "I love her! Have known her since Uncle Sam was Nephew Sam."

Cher also posted the above photo on twitter. A twitter fan asked Cher, "Do you still have that dress? It's gorgeous!" Cher replied, "I can get one toe into it! You must realize that I was almost 5-foot-8 and weighed 106 pounds until 48. Wee little thing."

Cher also defended Joan’s daughter, Melissa: "Shame on those who say 'Melissa refuses to believe a world might exist without her mom Joan Rivers in it'. She loves her mom. We all do. Heartless… They have no empathy. It's a story to them. For Melissa, it's her beloved mother, whom she might lose. Their lives are intertwined."

At right, Elton John, Cher, PeeWee Herman and Joan Rivers on the first episode of The Late Show with Joan Rivers. Read more at Cher News.

Lauren Bacall also passed away on August 12.

Cher posted: "To Have & Have Not" along with a crying icon.

So James Garner dies. My husband woke me up one morning with the news. I've just started him watching old Rockford Files episodes. For years I've loved the 1970s-lingo-laden TV show. I even spoofed it on Ape Culture years ago in a mash up with Nancy Drew.

After he died, there were plenty of nice obits, I liked this one: The New York Times.

Turner Classic Movies and Robert Osbourne also did a nice tribute with a night of his movies. This year Mr. Cher Scholar and I have watched Support Your Local Sheriff, Malone, The Great Escape, and Victor/Victoria. The last movie was Mr. Cher Scholar's idea. He kept telling me how great the movie was and I had always heard it was some kind of great misfire.

It was shockingly good. I didn't love Julie Andrews in the lead role (as I don't get sex appeal from her) but I guess that was Blake Edwards' way of showing off his wife's miraculous singing octave range.

In any case, is it such a surprise I've become a huge James Garner fan? He's just another dark haired, high-cheek-boned, multi-category star who claims to be part Cherokee.

I'm glad I read his delightfully catty auto-biography before he died. Both one of the obits and Robert Osbourne described his genius as being his wide range of facial expressions, from bemused to perplexed to annoyed to outraged to flummoxed. He could perform without even speaking.

In Esquire Magazine in 1979, Robert Altman even said “I have long thought that Jim Garner was one of the best actors around…He’s often overlooked because he makes it look so easy.”

As a crusty, reluctant hero, writer Mary McNamara called him an

“Alpha-male of the sort that hadn’t existed before…After Garner, they could be funny, irritating, lazy, fearful, and complicated. Without James Garner there would be no Indiana Jones, no Starsky and Hutch, nor Gregory House, no Patrick Jane, certainly no Robert Downey Jr. as Sherlock Holmes….And he managed to do it without coming off as self-satisfied, which is simply miraculous.”

The later could also be said of Cher. And for all of his reluctant heroism, he was awarded a Purple Heart from his injuries in the Korean War.

Recently, we watched a good 1977 episode of Rockford Files called "Quickie Nirvana." One of the hipster characters in it had this to say to Rockford as he was trying to locate a man wearing a fur vest:

“Fur vests died out when Sonny Bono went network.”

"Went network." So 70s funny. 

And then on the note of celebrity deaths, Robin Williams committed suicide. I wasn't a huge fan of the hyper-comedy improv of Robin Williams (post Mork) but many comedians were and it's been sad to hear their tributes. I did, however, enjoy the more low-key Williams in movies like Good Morning, Vietnam, The Fisher King, and Dead Poets' Society.

Cher's comments included:

Oh Robin. He was a sweet lovely man. He ran high voltage. Mind always going. It was who he was. I know well… Many times from high, there is only low. So sad. I was with him a little while ago – we pretended to see sharknados!

 "I have known him a long time. Saw him open for Martin Mull once pre-'Mork & Mindy'. 'Good Morning Vietnam', 'Awakenings', 'Mrs. Doubtfire', 'Good Will Hunting', 'Birdcage', 'Dead Poets Society', 'The World According To Garp' – my favorites. He couldn't feel our love for him."

"Many of us actors, singers, writers suffer from this gift/curse in disproportionate numbers. Some artists feel that this is the only way out. There was a book written about artists with manic depression, 'Touched By Fire'. I call it my gift/curse – it gives great but can take all."

"If he could see our reactions, he might have kept on trying? Maybe not forever, but feeling love gives you hope. Even so, nothing stops, too low. Artists (especially) are hard wired delicately. I liken it to a faulty emotional thermostat. You can set it, but it goes too high then too low. There is a great chasm between onstage, film, fame and life! One is such heightened reality and after heights there can be great depths."

Watch the scene Cher does with Robin Williams in Sharknado!

In the August 22/29 issue of Entertainment WeeklyAug 22/29 with Robin Williams on the cover, there is a two page spread of Dr. John (who is old but is not dead) appreciation that actually mentions Sonny & Cher:

“His debut, Gris-Gris, might never have existed without the generosity of the famed duo, who allowed the young sideman to borrow their unused hours in an LA studio for his own recordings."

Allegedly, we can see him in this video of Sonny in Cher recording in 1966. This video is a reality-tv as we can get!

RuPaul’s Drag Race was on a few Monday’s ago and I just watched it. The challenge was for the drag queens to pretend to interview Chaz Bono and Georgia Holt. Chaz seemed very bemused-to-annoyed during all but two of the interviews. Georgia tried to appear upbeat but most of them were pretty bad. One queen kept saying “that’s amazing” and “that’s so cool” inappropriately when Georgia talked about starving during the depression. One asked only yes or no questions, one ignored Georgia entirely (even when Chaz tried to steer the interview towards her), and one queen kept calling Chaz Chad (this one got the boot). One queen made the faux pas of doing a Cher impersonation. Chaz commented that unless it’s a Chad Michaels performance, why bother? It must be very uncomfortable for Cher’s family to endure Cher impersonations. For whom does an impersonation impress? Cher is really un-imitable. As The Beat Goes On tele-drama proved, it's damn near impossible to cast a faux Cher. I sometimes feel tributes are closer to the mark. The Neil Diamond-tribute SuperDiamond was almost better than the real thing. Tributes seem to get closer to the tone of the person somehow and put less emphasis on exterior mannerisms.

One queen asked Georgia about her almost-abortion of Cher. Gerogia claimed she was simply stunned by the question but the look on her face was sheer shock and dismay. The abortion-questioning queen apologized to Georgia later and Georgia was gracious with her forgiveness. In the Untucked aftershow (which I am thankful my DirectTV DVR is automatically taping), the queen expressed dismay that they would both tell Cher he was an asshole.

Apparently the queens suffered from nervousness but these were mostly weird interviews. Of note, Chaz talked about his feelings of identity at age 13 and Georgia said she saves everything.

Paul Abdul was also a judge on the show and the Lip Synch for Your Life was done to her "Vibeology."

Chaz was a diplomatic and nice judge, commenting on nerves, and those who appeared uncomfortable as interviewers. He was always nice about it. 

All the queens defend Cher in Untucked show.

The aussie Courtney Act conducted the best interview and won the challenge (and some wigs). She was very like-able and flirted with Chaz. Her wing costume was also amazing. Bende la Crème was also very good.

Courtney Act (Shane Jenek) and Adore Delano (Danny Noriega) are two Drag contestants who have previously competed on American Idol. Shane tried out as a man and did not make the tryouts. He came back the next day as Courtney Act and made it. Watch him perform on Australian Idol Season 1. Danny Noriega competed as himself. Watch his performance on season 7.

Danny Noriega/Adore Delano & Shane Jenek/Courtney Act

Once in a while I do indulge in one of my  minor celebrity obsessions. I have a short list of them and after reading The Garner Files by James Garner, which I found at a used book store, my Rockford Files and James Garner obsession has surged. I've cued up The Americanization of Emily (with Julie Andrews), and Support Your Local Sheriff on GreenCine. Mr. Cher Scholar has also taped The Great Escape  for us on cable. I’m especially interested to see Support Your Local Sheriff, the movie Garner says is the best satire of a western. Since John worked on season two of the Hulu show Quick Draw, I thought he might be interested in this one too. Quick Draw just received some good press from TV Guide who called it "an offbeat show you should be watching" and the show was also listed as the part of the future of television in an essay by HDVideo Pro: "TV V.2.0 : Led by streaming and binge viewing, television is going through a revolution").

Anyway, there are rumors that James Garner might be on near death due to another recent strokes. I’m glad he wrote a book and a feisty one at that, full of Hollywood and political dish. Like Cher, he’s another outspoken progressive.

There were a few excerpts in his book pertinent to Cher scholarship. As you know (especially if you’ve read Cher Zine 3), I am a passionate defender of Cher’s work in commercials. I’m happy to say James Garner is on my side. He talked about his experience doing those famous Polaroid commercials with Mariette Hartley.

“I had a lot of fun doing them. I’ve been asked a hundre times about the “stigma” of doing commercials. Well, I’m an actor. I hire out. I’m not afraid of hurting my image. I figured if Henry Fonda, Laurence Olivier, John Wayne and Orson Wells could do commercials, so could I. If you do it right, you don’t demean yourself by selling a product and you can be just as good in a commercial as in a feature film.”

Like Cher, James Garner was both a TV and movie star and he talks about how hard it used to be to jump from TV (where there was a real stigma) to movies:

“Throughout my career, I’ve gone back and forth between television and movies. I started on TV back in the 1950s, did movies in the 60s, went back to television in the 70s and did them both from then on. Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen and I were the first to make the leap from TV to movies, but it was unusual. Television was a second-class medium for a long time. When we started, being on television carried a stigma. There was a pecking order: stage actors were next to God, film actors were right up there with the angels, TV actors were beneath them, and commercial acting was the dregs. If you were  a television actor, you weren’t allowed to do movies…Today if you have a hit on TV, you get just as much respect, maybe because there’s so much competition on television…I always felt movies were easier. The pace was slower and the pay was better. Television was more demanding, both mentally and physically.”

Garner has plenty to say about Hollywood and fame. Here are some excerpts:

“It was once reported that I paid the seller of maps to the stars’ homes to take me off the list, but that’s not true. I may have threatened to give the guy a shot in the mouth, but I didn’t bribe him.”

“I hate everything about show business but acting…I don’t read anything they write about me. I never liked making personal appearances or getting my picture taken…I’d rather dig a ditch than do an interview, let alone a press junket where you sit in a hotel room all day while a hundred reporters work you over one by one. I never liked premieres or entourages or anything associated with celebrity. I’m not too crazy about limousines, either.”

“I don’t give a damn about awards…I didn’t get into the business to be better than anyone else.”

“I couldn’t stand fan magazines. Even as a teenager, I new they were bullshit. I’d look at Photoplay and think, What a bunch of phonies!…I never understood the whole fan thing, because I’ve never been a fan of anybody. How can you care so much about someone you never meet?…The fan magazines were so sleazy, they weren’t saved in libraries like old issues of Life or The Saturday Evening Post. I’m glad.”

“I hate Hollywood. You say, 'Good morning' in this town and they say, 'What did he mean by that?' Maybe that’s why they never understood me…The industry is like it’s always been, a bunch of greedy people…I never got along with studio executives…They’re in constant fear of losing their jobs, which makes them indecisive. In negotiations, their goal is to get the best of you, not to make a good deal for everybody involved…Hollywood is dishonest, it’s petty, and it’s ageist…It’s worse for accesses. Women come into their own in middle age—their smarter and more attractive. I thought Lana Turner was much more interesting at forty than she was at twenty….William Goldman was right: in Hollywood, nobody knows anything.”

And if you like those blurbs, this book is full of a small-town boy from Oklahoma speakin’ his mind.