I was very excited Cher made this kewl list! Cher directed the video and cast her boyfriend at the time, Robert Camilletti. Allegedly her record label balked at that and Cher ended up hawking those fitness clubs to fund the production of the video herself. A real Cher DIY moment.
Category: Television (Page 23 of 24)
Click here for a very funny blow-by-blow on the “I Found Someone” video and a link below so you can verify the essay’s claims – among which are:
- Cher walks out of the mirror room into a bedroom, which like the mirror room, appears to be decorated by Pottery Barn.
- Neither of them appear to be wearing a shirt, so rubbing foreheads basically equals full-frontal on-camera penetration.
- Most of the single’s kick comes from Cher selling the hell out of it.
- We hit the chorus and cut to Cher in performance, leading her band in front of a sparse crowd. She’s wearing a totally indecent outfit: a black mesh bodysuit over a black bra and panties, covered by a black leather jacket that she keeps trying to shrug off.
(That is actually an incorrect yet very hilarious description of the hole-fit – CS) - I don’t think there’s another 42-year-old woman on the planet who could have pulled this look off.
- Back to the Pottery Barn bedroom…Cher pulls chainmail pantyhose up her leg, fluffs her hair, and fastens the chainmail pantyhose to (yes!) a chainmail garter.
- In the Pottery Barn bedroom, Cher throws some clothes into a suitcase, and then hurls a framed photo of her and Boytoy against the floor. If you watch in slow motion, you can see that the glass is broken before it hits the tiles.
(I actually captured a screen grab of this above - CS)
At the end of last year Jimmy Dean sent me some taped TV appearances on DVD. I talked about Black Rose and Monte Carlo earlier, but I was finally was able to watch the 20/20 interview from Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean when it was originally a play on Broadway.
This instantly brought back memories for me. This was back in 1981 before Entertainment Tonight and its insane spawns that all seem like the same show now. Back then you couldn’t get a Cher sighting outside of shows like 20/20. I remember taping this interview (the first Cher interview I ever taped in any format) on my old, top-loading tape recorder. I was 11 or 12 years old and playing back my little audio-cassette, I about memorized every word of this interview. Seeing the visuals again after all this time feels truly bizarre yet thrilling. This interview had some amazing early-80s photos of Cher. I wish I could find a copy of it on the youtubes.
Some highlights
- Cher says she hopes the critics don’t make Hamburger Helper out of her. Hamburger Helper, remember that?
- She made 4k a week. The producer of the show noted that other stars on Broadway were making 50-60k a week then, so we are made to understand Cher was getting a very low salary-of-love.
- Cher also confirmed that it took her 6 weeks to earn what she was earning in 11 minutes doing her show in Vegas. She said then (and she said recently about her new Vegas show) that the money doesn’t matter; but someone must have cared enough about the money to have figured that out.
- Her teeth look amazingly crooked from the angle they filmed the interview, more so than on any TV appearance I can recall. I always say I miss Cher’s old, crooked teeth - but have you ever seen a modern star with such crooked teeth? When I was seven I remember my parents saying “Why are you a Cher fan? She has crooked teeth!” I couldn’t figure out what someone’s teeth had to do with anything – but who even remembers Cher had crooked teeth these days? She had awesome teeth. It had everything to do with the way she moved her mouth so lusciously.
- Cher is seen gleefully dancing at Studio 54 and they put up a picture of her with Ron Duguay. I know
she was supposed to have dated this hockey star at the time but I never knew if I should believe it or not. But now that she confirms she once dated Tom Cruise, I guess anything is possible. - 20/20 reminded me that People Magazine (the issue which ran during her Broadway run, the one with that fold-out cover with her kids) called her “The First Lady of Flash.” This is probably the best, most succinct and inclusive accolade to date – and it’s an old one.
- Cher actually squeals in this interview.
- She says she’ll be nervous before she goes out for her debut performance as Sissy and says she’ll probably have to go to the bathroom and be sweaty and cold.
Okay…so the big day arrived this week and reviews are literally pouring in on Cher’s Caesar Place show. I don’t want to read them until I see the show next week. I don’t even want to look too hard at the photos. I don’t want to discuss the new stuff until I see it. Which is extremely, extremely hard!
In fact, for any of the other tours (there have only been three I’ve been able to see live in my lifetime – Heart of Stone, Believe, and Never Can Say Goodbye), I’ve never been able to resist. And I’m getting very, very excited about seeing the show and reading over everybody’s thoughts. I just hope I don’t get hit by a bus before I can see it! (I always think that right before new Cher product drops).
In fact, I don’t feel like talking about anything else but this thing I can’t talk about!!
But I did post my France pics and here are the Cher-centric ones:
John on the Seine like that Sonny & Cher album back cover pic.
Don’t these chateaux entryways look like Cher’s house??
I can totally see why Cher wants to be buried at Pere LaChaise cemetery in Paris. It’s very goth. I can see her with a tomb not unlike the one above, but hopefully with some subtle half-breed design in the stained glass…hey, for the fans.
Cher river, Cher valley, Cher county seat…lots of Cherness in the Loire Valley.
I can also take this time to answer a few Cher questions from the blog.
Jimmy wrote:
“AND, Mary, why haven’t you digressed about the fact that these unlikely 3 would do something together so out-of-line for their personalities???? love and kisses-jimmy”
Jimmy is right. I could easily do an essay about the old 70s-variety format and how we just don’t get miraculous celebrity combinations singing medleys apropos of nothing like we did back in the day. It’s heartbreaking because I’d watch any show that could convince Bono to sing a Madonna medley with Barney and Tiger Woods. Who wouldn’t watch that?? It’s TV Gold.
Michael asked:
“Okay, so combining “she’s overdue a juicy boxed-set” and “It’s my dream job really”…How about you tell us what you would put in the ultimate Cher box? Anything you ever wanted on CD, DVD, books, whatever. I’m totally curious what you’d put.
There’s so much I could do as curator of a Chersonian Institute. Really, I don’t know where to start. Her video collection needs a serious overhaul. More and more we’re finding amazing gems of foreign video clips for old Cher hits on the you-tubes.
I haven’t wrapped my head around what a good box-set of CDs would be. I know the mix I normally make my friends has too many non-hits on it to ever make bank. Other than the obvious of doing notes for the four-CD Warner Bros 1975-1977 re-release collection we’re so overdue, I don’t know what other regurgitation of her greatest hits I would feel morally okay with dumping into the pile of too-many-already.
I would love to do a coffee-table book of photographs and essays compiled by various writers on Cher’s career and her cultural relevance. That would be the dreamiest.
Well kids and kidlets, France is upon me. I’m very excited and I’m getting a bit nervous. But mostly excited…for three reasons. First of all, I’ve never taken a long vacation for myself, even one week away that wasn’t obligated to some dysfunctional family event of some kind. It’s been 40 years of weekend trips here or there just for moi. Secondly, I’ve never left the US…period. Not from not wanting to, mind you. I’ve been wanting to since college. But either I had no money, no vacation time (due to traveling home for Christmas or 4th of July for aforementioned dysfunctional family events), or no courage to go it alone. Thirdly, going to France is a lifelong dream come true, way back to when my brother came home from a week in Le Mans after his high school French three-week trip, bringing back cheese, a porcelain mime doll and news of a hit from Soft Cell. Turns out they were a year ahead of us with “Tainted Love.” How cultured they were! I was in 6th grade and decided it was my destiny to learn French. But lo and behond, French class was pure hell…for six years. But then I met the former French-majoring, Proust-studying bf and he didn’t seem nearly as uptight as all my former French teachers were. My dream was soon re-awakened.
The bf and I got our euros recently at the Del Amo mall. We have a suitcase full of maps and guidebooks and all our little tubes of toothpaste, fold-up toothbrushes and little bottles of lotions and shampoo. I’ve been cramming French phrases like Mon ami est une moyen-pantalon! and Quel dommage! I’ve started a carnet de voyage, a French-style journal of our trip.
And I promise to look for Cher references while I’m away but you shant be hearing from me. You’re on your own for two weeks. Here’s a list of Cher videos to keep you company.
Cher singing "Mama (When My Dollies Have Babies)"- A weird and wonderful version of same from Switz.tv show "Let’s go."
In color at a creepy doll factory! Cher slouches in the corner! Then suddenly pops into the foreground! Then sits on table!! Why wasn’t this on the DVD video collection?? It’s amazing! - Sonny & Cher on The Beat Club singing “Then He Kissed Me”
This show is so hip; look at that girl doing the backstroke – classic! Arms did so much more work in dancing back then. Lots of shots of shoes and backs of pop stars. - Same show with Sonny singing "Laugh at Me."
Wow. That crazy suit in action from the In Case You’re In Love cover. 
- And speaking of videos that would have made a lame DVD collection stupendous: the trippy "Circus" video.
Have a great two weeks!
I want to take a moment to finish up reviewing bootlegs Cher peeps have sent me. Regarding the 60s set I got for purchasing two posters off eBay, I have three clips left. I also just received a new and fabulous DVD from Jimmy (aka gypsy90028) that I’ll start discussing, as well.
Back to the Late 60s…
The Smothers Brothers
Most of us have seen Cher singing “Alfie” on this show. I never ceased to be amazed by Cher in that short baby-doll dress.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lDSf0A9RTk
The Jerry Lewis Show
Now this show had some cool effects with background projections and whatnot and Cher arrives with BIG mascara. Things have clearly gotten out of hand in that regard. S&C sing “What Now My Love” and you can see Cher is definitely more confident these days. Lots of finger snapping goin down. And doesn’t Cher have skinny legs though?
Are they lip synching again? Cher gets ready to sing “You’d Better Sit Down Kids” introducing it proudly as a song “my husband wrote for himself.” I was reminded watching this clip how unusual the song is being about broken homes and change and all, that painful moment when a parent has to explain divorce to their kids. Have you ever heard anything like it…before or since?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJlubAgs7uM
Glen Campbell
We’ve already seen the super-fine duet of Cher singing “All I Really Want to Do” with Glen on his variety show. If not, get his latest DVD. It’s fabulous.
On that episode, Cher also sings “The First Time” in a set looking like a bedroom after a cheap one night stand. Cher’s eyelashes have improved. And she’s growing out her bangs….they look like little orphans, uncut and running away. She gives Glen a big smile and he asks if Sonny produced that song. She again proudly says that he wrote that song and doesn’t someone in there say “and he can cook too.”
Then things really gets crazy with Neil Diamond. He’s just become successful (and it now occurs to you 40 years later how rarely you see him on TV). Cher is in an Indian top and they all three do a medley of Diamond hits up to that time, which include “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime" (full with emotive ‘Oh Yeahs’), “Kentucky Woman,” “Brother Loves Traveling Salvation Show” and “Sweet Caroline” which we only recently found out is about Caroline Kennedy. Come on, Neil! That ruins it! I thought it was another song about booze all this time!
Now skip to the early 80s…
Black Rose on Midnight Special
I had never seen Black Rose in action. And I loved it. I was amazed by it. This is honestly a side of Cher no-one gets to see. It never appears in biographical footage and it’s a phase of her career mostly ignored. And even though I would accept the critique that Black Rose was no great shakes when you stack them against Hall of Famers, they was fairly a good enough new band that could’ve stood up against other new bands out there.
Because it was Cher’s third or fourth or fifth (according to your timeline) incarnation, she brought all her former incarnations’ baggages, infamy and expectations to the act which was unfortunate. Had Cher started her career entirely with this band, they may have evolved and succeeded and we’d probably see Cher as a respected rock singer today alongside our other stellar rock chicks.
And this is one of the many instances where Cher had to pay her dues (not with drugs or alcohol or poverty, but with no respect); and it also exemplifies ironically in reverse why she should be a hall of famer because she took such risky risks musically in almost every musical genre and survived some huge failures but prevailed to bigger and better successes down the line.
Her rock moves here are fully and faithfully performed in “Never Should’ve Started.” Physically she dances with hard rock enthusiasm no one had seen before and would never see from her again. She rebelliously sings the word ‘bitch’ in the song “Julie” and tries to sing eye to eye with Les Dudek in “You Know It.” However, he’s no Sonny. Like Gregg Allman before him and Richie Sambora after him, no "real rocker dude" seems to have the balls to sing while looking Cher dead in the eye so intently as Sonny did. But she kept trying.
For Cher, loving you must mean singing live with you.
Something bothered me throughout the three songs on Midnight Special: who the hell is that guy on the left, the backup singer. He plays air guitar as if he’s the main act. And yet, with that tight shirt, he seems more like a dancing bodyguard than an actual band mate.
And I know she’s trying to dress down now but is that a hole fit she’s wearing under that sweat shirt?? I think I see a sequin.
In any case, out of love for rock music, Cher wanted to be in a band against her career’s common wisdom. And she had enough conviction to try to sublimate her image and name to try to make it work. However, as we all have come to now know: such a thing is ludicrously impossible. And that’s probably the idea at which most of the ridicule started. Therefore, no one give the act a fair, pure looksee.
See? Even Wikipedia considers it "a Cher album"
The Monte Carlo Show
This DVD also included the Monte Carlo show in its entirety, something I’d never seen before either. I’d been surviving ravenously from clips online. I was so entranced when I watched it I didn’t even take any notes. Now looking back, I must say honestly it felt a little rough compared to Celebration at Caesars a year or so later. Caesars was so smooth and slick and it had that big awesome shoe. I feel the Monte Carlo show stumbles starting directly with Laverne. We expect the big Cher entrance, not a fake out. The fake out with the drag Cher is much better played after the intermission, as Cher did it during her Heart of Stone tour.
However, I love, love, love the outfits in this show. And the dancing makes me nostalgic for the late 70s and early 80s. That encore crotch shot was scandalous! I played it for my bf when he got home!
What really fascinates me is the stupifying contrast between Black Rose and Vegas Cher in 1980. Consider with these:
Merv Griffin clips of Black Rose
(Merv Griffin? No wonder they had a hard time getting steet cred!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omdLRZE5Zh4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EB4aSGF66Qs
Then Monte Carlo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pFMc668T8xo
This photo is here in honor of the new sun-glasses I bought this week. The rest is miscellaneous knits and gnats:
Tyler on Chergroups posted this interview last week – more preview info on the show plus a sneak peak at the outside of the Cher store! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KNbEv-0DX8
Speaking of Tyler, he did a great video tribute to Cher singing "Nature Boy" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PkQJRLTJ5M with some rare photos. I’m envious of 
his rare photos.
And there’s a new fun online game: Cher or Drag Cher: http://cityrag.blogs.com /main/2008/02/cher-or-drag-ch.html. I missed one!!!
And here’s a photo of Cher in Beverly Hills recently. I love her bun!
The Latest News Clips
(as posted on Cher groups)
Honestly, a good source for the latest Cher clips is always Cherworld.com. It’s an amazing Cher site that fishes out the late-breaking Cher news so you don’t have to. Cherworld’s on it!
Items covered in latest interviews
• Farah Fawcett’s cancer treatments with embalization and cyber knives
• Dangerous pug-faced paparazzi
• Cher’s good genes
• Cher’s good ex-boyfriend Gene
• Sonny ghost
• Cher’s Elvis teen crush (and she still didn’t go to Vegas with him?? Imagine if your teen crush invited you to Vegas for the weekend. Tell me, who is it? Would you go? I just got over my teen crush…last month. So no, I guess I wouldn’t go now.)
• Cher’s good health habits with the succinct quote: “I never saw drugs do anything good for anyone.”
• Her other tips for longevity including love well…and often.
So, it irks me that latest press reports state Cher is set to record her 27th album (one source even said 25th). Not to be a Cher nerd (too late), but It’s only 25 when you only count studio solo albums. But why leave out Sonny & Cher, Allman and Woman, Black Rose and the live albums? It’s so much more impressive to say she’s starting to record her 36th album (which includes the three major live albums and the Good Times soundtrack album –with all its original material– but not Chastity because it was mostly instrumental.)
It’s all about me
And this Cher nerd is feeling a little wiped-out and overwhelmed at the moment. Basically too much going on right now and I need to simply simplify. Helping my parents with their reunion/50th Anniversary party this summer, planning for my trip to Paris with the bf (which includes brushing up on my French, planning our itinerary and buying suitable non-American looking clothes so I wont be ostracized as a tourist), working on a somewhat large poetry project, and studying Spanish, Information Architecture (and now Project Management) for work.
I’ve had to put off my second class in ceramics for the time being. Which smarts.
At least Valentines Day is a hurdle that has passed. My bf and I have really sorry luck on romantic holidays including anniversaries. This year traffic made my bf late and our restaurant had some crisis and couldn’t seat anybody. After hearing angry comments from other couple’s left waiting in the lobby for 40 minutes, we left and went to a Mexican dive (my favorite, Rosa’s, on PCH). But overall, better than some fiascoes of years past. This year I got my bf a slew of chocolates and a singing Johnny Cash card. I also bought a singing Sonny & Cher card for myself. They were $4.99 each. The S&C card said:
“You got the honey,
I got the bees.
You got the mac,
And I got the cheese.
You got the hand,
I got the glove.
But the best part of all is…Inside: we got the love.”
And then the card played:
“I got you to kiss goodnight
I got you to hold me tight
I got you and I wont let go
I got you to love me so
I got….you babe.”
Really loud. Honestly, it was lame. I guess it’s important to have it for historical purposes. To document the crap our Hallmark society puts out. I hope the estate of Sonny Bono received a good chuck of that $4.99.
Grammys: What are you wearing?
For more information on Cher’s outfit last week at the Grammys, visit Julia Gerard who designed Cher’s fitted skirt. J. Gerard holds shop on Melrose Avenue in West Hollywood. My obsession with the show Project Runway makes me wonder if Cher would like Jeffrey Sebelia from last year.
The new show
In the Feb 10 edition of the La Times there was a full-page ad that said:
Cher
opening may 2008
The Coliseum
Caesars Palace
Las Vegas
I almost got excited until I noticed it was in the same Cher font as used for the Farewell tour and Living Proof. This goth font has been used for so many years it’s becoming like that Barry Manilow font he on all his albums from the first one in 1972 to the Even Now album in 1978. It was a butt-ugly font, too. Cher’s font is not butt-ugly but it does make me worry that the Vegas show will recycle things. I saw the Farewell show about…um….5 times. Which seems like a lot but in Willie Wonka terms is like that scene when Charlie was in class and asked by his teacher how many Wonka bars he had 
bought hoping for a golden ticket and all the other kids were like “you only bought two? How insane is that?” and Charlie felt like a dolt. Well, that equates to how I feel when I tell other Cher fans I only saw 5 or so farewell tour shows. But believe me, five was enough. Nothing changed except an incredibly shrinking set list.
All I am saying is that I yearn for new font assets. It’s not that I hate these goth assets. They’re strong and ballsy and look like they’ve been around for centuries. What’s not to like?
This all may sound crabby but I’m really looking forward to this year’s show. I hope to see lots of stupidly large headdresses. Headdresses like in Celebration at Caesars – so big Cher could only make it down a few steps before cute male dancers are forced to come to her aid.
And is Cher at the Coliseum really the official title of the show? Not quite the pizazz of The Showgirl 
Must Go On or the simple artistry of The Red Piano.
"As many of you know, I first started singing when Lincoln was president." — Cher, 61, as she introduced Beyonce and Tina Turner.
OMG! blog called the dress hideous. What are your thoughts?
There’s a great collage of photos on Cher World.
Btw, Tina Turner was awesome last night.
Access Hollywood
http://video.accesshollywood.com/player/?id=215877
http://www.accesshollywood.com/article/8327/Cher:-Farrah-Fawcett-Is-Cancer-Free/
Entertainment Tonight
http://www.cherworld.com/news/?p=462
Extra
http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2008/02/cher_gene_simmons.php
http://extratv.warnerbros.com/2008/02/cher_gives_us_her_three_tips_t.php
