a division of the Chersonian Institute
As Sonny says in Good Times, everyone's a critic today!
Seriously, mostly people sigh wistfully for the woebegone days of Cher’s fake-nakedness. This guy, Johnny Dee, blames Cher for the slutty stylings of today. But we all know pop culture was slutifying long before Cher came along with her navel-sequins and scandalous arm pits.
Porn meets pop: Cher has a lot to answer for
How did a basque and fishnets become the uniform of girlie pop? It all started in 1989…
Here’s a great clip of Liza on The Craig Ferguson Show. Okay where have I been? This guy is freaking funny! Liza says Cher is freaking funny. It all comes full circle.
Great, great interview (even if it didn’t gush about Cher).
http://wickedgayblog.blogspot.com/2009/08/wicked-cool-liza-discusses-gays-cher.html
Besides "Walking in Memphis" mashups, here’s something else I love to death, Sonny & Cher singing "Stagger Lee" on The S&C Comedy Hour. I used to play this song over and over on my cassette player (as recently as 2002 when I was still walking around Marina del Rey with my walkman and my old dog Helga (RIP). I adore the S&C version. It’s so 70s-cool.
My bf and I (with the help of the video-editing skillz of my father) are making videos for our wedding reception. Lots of wedding drama ensued this week – both good and bad – from guest-list drama, to invitation-envelope drama, to dress drama. Meanwhile, my bf and his mom are picking through Mickey Gilley songs for their special dance (Gilley is his moms fav artist and she goes to see him in Branson all the time).
To get a video started, my dad sent me Gilley’s version of “Bring it On Home to Me” which I love and wish they would dance to. However, my bf is stuck on "A Room Full of Roses" but this is kind of a depressing song and his mother prefers "True Love Ways."
Listening to them all I came across Gilley’s version of "Stagger Lee" which reminded me to look up and see who all recorded it (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagger_Lee_(song)It’s). It's allegedly based on a true story about a cab-driving murderer from, of all places, St. Louis, Missouri (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stagger_Lee_Shelton.
Anyway, the S&C show version ROCKS and I wish there was a YouTube clip o that.
You may have heard that Adam Lambert did not win American Idol last night. He came in second to the very likable Kris Allen. However, Adam remains the blazing star of the show, even in Kris’ estimation.
See? That’s how nice Kris is.
Time Magazine recently published an article about how Idol has produced many singers who can sing perfectly pleasant songs, but Adam is idol’s very first star. In fact, they called him the Un-Idol.
Adam has a kind of Cher-like quality about him, not just because he blew “Believe” out of the water during Hollywood week. The guy is just full throttle and there’s this sense of fulfilled theatrical promise about him. He was strategically polished for an Idol contestant, which made him an almost unfair competitor in this decidedly amateur show. His versatility was engaging. He could do soul, alt-country, torch and then fire his pipes like an 80s glam rocker, a reincarnated Freddie Mercury.
But I think in some sense he was my fantasy of what fully-fulfilled Cher singer could be – had she embraced a 100% torch theatricality that the splendid Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour solos only hinted at.
This article by Mary Zeiher catalogs his key performances on the show (including a slam on Cher’s performance of "Believe").
“Adam Lambert American Idol performance #2: Remember in Hollywood Week when he sang Cher's "Believe"? When I heard what he was going to sing, I immediately thought "Oh, we are done with Adam Lambert. No one can do that song well. Cher doesn't even do that song well." But again he out-shone the competition.”
I actually disagree with her assessment and think although I don't love the song, Cher does as well as anyone with it.
On a related note, Bette Midler had something nice to say about (gasp!) Cher and then something a bit odd to say about Adam Lambert:
If he doesn't win American Idol, Midler doesn't think it means homophobia has reared its ugly, discriminatory head. "Don't take it as a slap in the face if you're a gay person," she said. "I pray that people don't get pissed off."
(Well, Adam did really well in this year's Idol competition so I don’t see evidence of widespread homophobia in American voters, who are every day skewing more tolerant in national polls on gay issues. I guess Family First-types could be behind all the Kris votes… but man, what a pathetic waste of time that would be, dudes.)
On Cher —
"I saw her show, and it was unbelievable," Midler gushes. "It was absolutely terrific. I had a great time. She looked great, sounded great and gave it her all. And I got a photograph with her, so I'm happy."
Is she fer real?
I need to rephrase that: this is the boring story that would not die. Cher swore on TV. First it wasn’t okay; then it was okay; now it’s not okay again. I’ve culled the pertinent details (in my estimation anyway) from the USA Today story by Joan Biskupic:
“A Supreme Court ruling Tuesday that upholds a prohibition of expletive outbursts on broadcast originated with a case over an appearance by Cher at the 2002 Fox Billboard Music Awards show in Las Vegas.”
“A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a federal prohibition on the one-time use of expletives in a case arising partly from an expletive uttered by Cher at a Billboard Music Awards show in 2002. The ruling, by a 5-4 vote and written by Justice Antonin Scalia, endorsed a Bush administration Federal Communications Commission policy against isolated outbursts of, as Scalia said from the bench, the "f-word" and "s-word." The ruling does not resolve a lingering First Amendment challenge to the 2004 policy that is likely to be subject to further lower court proceedings. Tuesday's decision reversed a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit that had said the FCC's decision to sanction "fleeting expletives" was arbitrary and capricious under federal law.
[I hear “fleeting expletives” and I think of a cartoon of a sprinting “foul” word.]
That lower court had agreed with Fox Television Stations, which broadcast the Billboard awards, that such isolated utterances are not as potentially harmful to viewers as are other uses of sexual and excretory expressions long deemed "indecent" and banned by federal regulators. Dissenting were liberal Justices John Paul Stevens, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer. In a statement by Breyer, signed by the others, they said the FCC "failed adequately to explain why it changed its indecency policy from a policy permitting a single 'fleeting use' of an expletive, to a policy that made no such exception."
The policy dispute had been shrouded by partisan differences and moral overtones of what is best for young viewers.
[Yeah but what’s new?]
For quite some time there has been a ton of links clogging up my blog to-do list. I’m just gonna throw them all up here now just so I can move on with my life. You can link wherever strikes your fancy. My take for must see items have a star (or two) next to them.
Cher’s last words on her farewell tour:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxoKm81YzeQ&NR=1
**S&C Bible ad revisited:
http://www.bay-of-fundie.com/archives/1207/lol-sonny-and-cher (This is actually hilarious. Remember this bible ad from posts back? In this version, people have written in funny comments in S&C's thought bubbles – don’t skip the comments below either.)
Follow the link below for a short video of Cher dancing with the Jackson 5 on The Cher Show; and below that is audio of Cher talking about the experience.
I notice on these commentaries (from The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour, for example), her initial memories go right to the clothes she was wearing or some aspect of putting together the outfit. I think this is why she would be a breathtaking judge on Project Runway. And likewise here, Cher remembers Bob Mackie telling her she was getting too thin. She also remembers how challenging it was for her to learn the J5 moves (it took her all day) but how fun it was to work with so many people on those variety shows.
What the devil is that fellow doing in the foreground?
http://www.hollywoodoutbreak.com/2009/03/28/cher-ing-memories-of-a-young-michael-jackson/
My bf and I spent one evening watching the new Rona Barrett DVD Rona Barrett’s Hollywood, a set of iconic interviews of 70s celebrities.
Honestly, we were struck by how fresh and honest the interviews were in comparison to the stale, stiff Barbara Walters interviews we’ve come to know over the last 25 years. Don’t get me wrong: I have loved me some Barbara Walters interview in my day. But seriously, I can’t stand The View and haven’t watched a pre-Oscar special in years.
Interestingly, in Rona Barrett’s interviews there are no “million-dollar” questions and yet somehow she gets into a superstar’s comfort zone with graceful civility. Personally, I think this is because she knows how to have a comfortable conversation and celebrities feel at ease. I’m reminded of Jon Favreau’s Dinner for Five shows except without the extra four dinner guests. Which means less grandstanding chat between stars.
My bf thinks Ron’s gift is that she sounds genuinely interested.
Cher Scholar JeffRey had this to say about the prospect of watching Rona Barrett’s new DVD: it feels like visiting a friend I haven’t seen in a long time.
In the DVD’s Cher interview, Rona says she’s known Cher since Cher was a “street kid” in the 60s and that she
admired Cher because she “had guts” and was honest. The interview takes place after Cher’s breakup with Sonny and David Geffen, right as she was falling in love with Gregg Allman. She squeals with affection and like other interviews of the mid-70s, she is unusually unguarded and open. She seems remarkably comfortable. She has striking eyebrows, long eyelashes, glamor nails and uses phrases like “bummed out.”
As I watched it I thought what a beautiful mouth Cher had. And those teeth. The Rona Barrett DVD is full of very 70s celebrity teeth, pre-hyper-perfection. I miss Cher’s teeth. I do not miss Burt Reynolds’ teeth, however. It’s also amazing how candid Rona gets asking about sex and Cher talks about how liberated and sexually free she had planned to be after leaving Sonny. However, she just wasn’t the type to sleep around. Great interview!
Many people my age also remember Rona Barrett’s fan magazines of the 70s that sat on newsstands right along Picture Screen and Photoplay. Magazines full of Sonny & Cher candid photos and wacky stories. Recently, a friend of mine gave me this copy (cover above; click here to see full image) of Rona Barrett’s Hollywood 
from a celebrity-signing fair in LA.
Inside Cher is on practically every page, but the magazine has two (two!) full-page articles about her as well. The first one discusses the recent calls for censorship on The Cher Show – was Cher dressing too slutty? According to one Ohio TV station manager she was. Fans were asked to fill out a questionnaire on the topic.
Click here to read the full text and fill out the survey. (You may need to adjust your screen resolution.)
Please forward your responses to the comments section of this blog post!
In the back of the magazine there’s a second article, this one an interview in color with Laverne. Sweet! Click here to read the full text. When I saw Cher in Las Vegas last weekend, Cher’s mock interview with Laverne before Laverne’s “I Got to be Me” video reminded me of this article. Laverne deserves more airtime. Cher may have changed. But Laverne stays the same.
Anyway, I had the privilege of being able to interview Rona Barrett last week about the new DVD, her charity foundation and the Rona Barrett magazines.
Click here to read the full interview where she talks about interviewing Cher and Cher’s longevity.
L.A. readers
should know that Rona will be appearing for a DVD signing Wednesday, March 25 at
7:30 p.m. at the Barnes & Noble located at The Grove at the Farmers Market (Fairfax &
Third).
Over the last two weeks there has been some blogging Cher activity:
Bloggers think Cher should go on Dancing with the Stars
http://www.mashget.com/most-viewed/2009/03/09/who-should-go-dancing-come-on-cher/
Their argument:
“Cher's used to the outlandish, fringe-filled costumes favored by [the show].”
Hmmm. Weak. Cher did a show where she danced with stars: it was called The Cher Show. Dancing with the Stars is allegedly scrapping the barrel this season. Cher has better things to do…like coach the upstarts on American Idol.
Dave Barry blogs briefly on Cher
http://blogs.herald.com/dave_barrys_blog/2009/03/why-we-need-str.html
WHY WE NEED STRICTER GOVERNMENT CONTROLS ON CHER: Man Distracted by Cher Shoots Wife
Okay…his post is mostly a one-liner title joke. But I thought it was funny. And I don't usually find him funny anymore.
Here's the actual article on the shooting incident: http://www.murfreesboropost.com/news.php?viewStory=15671
I’m a bit worried about taking my bf to see Cher’s Vegas show this week now. What if he shoots me accidentally during the Laverne video?
Am I being mean or was it surprising that this incident happened in Murfreesboro Tennessee? And what exactly were this couple watching Cher do that was so distracting they forgot they had a gun in play?
Certainly it couldn’t have been last week's Entertainment Tonight segment.
Cher Scholar Rob sent me two videos recently, The Captain and Tennile song that was written for Cher just prior to her joining with Black Rose (it sounds more like filler to me than something Cher would do): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4nSGvei1aA
And a video of rocker Ryan Adams and Neal Casal talkin' about Cher’s Ass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYJ02BWesaE
The Cher's ass coversation is pretty funny.
Here are some picture's of Cher's ass to refer to as you are watching the discussion unfold.
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