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New Century, New Cher Model

June 7, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 1 Comment

It's always something. The last few weeks I was tied up with a big office move over at CNM. This summer is going to be busy I can tell you. I have a family reunion in less than four weeks, a few trips and then hopefully some peace and quiet for much of the rest of the year. We’ll see if that turns out.

In the meantime, Cher debuts as the model for Marc Jacobs! How fun! She's part of the new Marc Jacobs fall line along with Willow Smith (announced so far). So that’s why she attended the MET gala with Jacobs. Sweet, sweet PR.

Anyway, Cher is not the first celebrity matron to grace the covers of mega-designers of late. Joan Didon (one of my favorite writers…especially about all things California) was recently featured on something as was Joni Mitchell.

The Cher news esssploded on the Internet when it was released at the end of May. Here are just a sampling of the news stories, which were all positive by the way, about her new one-picture spread:

https://www.yahoo.com/style/at-69-cher-is-a-marc-jacobs-model-120018127743.html (Yahoo! News – on their home page where I first saw the news)
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/cher-shows-that-ageing-beauty-will-always-be-more-classy-than-all-that-booty-10287943.html (The Independent)
http://www.eonline.com/news/660422/cher-looks-fierce-as-ever-in-marc-jacobs-fall-2015-campaign-see-the-pic (E! Online)
http://radio.com/2015/05/27/cher-marc-jacobs-fall-2015/ (Radio.com)
http://www.refinery29.com/2015/05/88143/cher-marc-jacobs (Refinery 29)
http://www.fashiontimes.com/articles/21129/20150527/marc-jacobs-taps-cher-front-fall-2015-ad-campaign.htm (Fashion Times)
http://www.thefashionspot.com/buzz-news/forum-buzz/595469-cher-marc-jacobs-fall-2015-ad-campaign/ (The Fashion Spot)
http://fashionista.com/2015/06/cher-marc-jacobs-ad-campaign?utm_source=Fashionista&utm_campaign=fa018135a5-&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_4bdacaea8a-fa018135a5-408227689#! (Fashionista)
http://www.style.com/trends/industry/2015/marc-jacobs-cher-fall-campaign (Style.com)
http://www.style.com/beauty/hair/2015/cher-marc-jacobs-campaign-long-hair (More on Style.com)
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/05/27/cher-marc-jacobs_n_7452262.html (Huffington Post)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/27/cher-marc-jacbos-ad_n_7450946.html (Another Huffington Post story)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cher-stars-marc-jacobs-fall-798302 (Hollywood Reporter)
http://www.today.com/style/cher-marc-jacobs-ad-featuring-icon-revealed-t23136 (The Today Show)
http://entertainthis.usatoday.com/2015/05/27/the-face-of-marc-jacobs-new-campaign-is-cher/ (USA Today)
http://stylenews.peoplestylewatch.com/2015/05/27/cher-models-for-marc-jacobs/ (People Magazine)
http://www.foodworldnews.com/articles/20026/20150601/cher-fronts-marc-jacobs-2015-fall-winter-campaign-photos.htm (Food Wold News!!)
http://dailyreview.crikey.com.au/down-the-youtube-fitness-rabbit-hole-celebrities-fashion-and-cher/24319 (The Daily Review talks at length about Cher’s fashion marks)

Fashion rags are saying she looks "fierce" and "as glamorous as ever."

Speaking of fashion statement,I forgot to post this last time but Cher herself posted a tweet pic someone sent of her Legolified. Her Lego version is wearing the famous duct-tape Bob Mackie fit.

Impersonations and Tributes for Cher’s Birthday Week

May 21, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Impersonations

This week another Christina Aguilera impersonation video came up online. She does impressions of Britney Spears, Cher, Shakira, Sia and Lady Gaga. I thought the Sia and Lady Gaga ones were very funny. The Cher impersonations are hard and usually miss the mark. This one is pretty typical in that way but the Adam Levine as an accountant is pretty funny.

Online Birthday Cards

Cher's 69th birthday was yesterday and tributes appeared from all over the entertainment Internet:

An Unforgettable Look At Cher Through The Years, In Honor Of The Star's 69th Birthday (Huffington Post)

Celebrate Cher's 69th Birthday with 69 GIFs Showcasing 69 Reasons Why She's the Greatest (People)

Turning back time and looking at Cher's most iconic moments! (Woman’s Day)

Happy Birthday, Cher! 9 Times the Diva Defied Age (ET Online)

10 Things Millennials Don’t Understand About Cher (VH1) – This one was my favorite!

Cher’s craziest outfits: 23 of the singer's most outrageous fashion over the years (British Telecommunications)

Notable Tweets

Cher's tweets about the Amtrak Crash got some ink alongside tweets by Donald Trump. But unlink Trump, Cher didn't assume her presidency would solve all the world's ills.

The Hill
CNN

Cher Photographed in Spring

May 12, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Lip-lickin' delight! Cher has been out and about in New York City. Lots of lovely pics as a result.

Boss ‘O Tweets

And although Cher was all over the red carpet this week and on TV doing whatnot, the most exciting coverage to happen recently, in my humble opinion, was a review of Cher’s tweets by The Guardian. The Guardian writing about Cher tweet! Maybe it’s the Cher nerd in me but…

Long story short, Sonny was once the only butt of Cher’s wisecracks. Now the world gets to enjoy them.

There was also a recent story about Cher's Baltimore tweets.

In Music

Some exciting music news regarding Cher's song “Believe.” It gets a well-rated review in the cover by rapper MNEK and I agree it’s nifty!

Ben E. King passed away. This is a good time to revisit Sonny & Cher’s version of “Stand By Me.” I’ve always thought this version was very creative and outside-the-box.

I just saw the Muscle Shoals documentary last week. Cher has a few photos in the movie, outtakes of the headband shots also seen in the Rhino collectors CD of her 1969 album Jackson Highway. Nothing particularly noteworthy about her in the movie except for the fact that they say she was the first customer at the Jackson Highway studio in 1969 after the four "Swampers" decided to leave the FAME Studios to create their own rival studio.

Cher Appearances

So there was this big New York Met Gala this week. And EVERYONE was there. Remember how Cher showed up at the 1975 Met Gala (40 years ago beotches!) with Bob Mackie in that wow-ser dress? So does everyone else remember that, including Kim Kardashian and the press.

Harper's Bazaar story about the designer Cher went with this year. (Marc Jacobs)

Vogue coverage of the dress.

New York Times coverage of the dress.

Cher World Coverage.

Kim Kardashian said her dress was tribute to Cher’s 1975 dress (Daily Mail).

The Independent.

Express.

Oh, but Kim’s been tributin’ Cher for a long, long time! See the photo breakdown (Daily Mail). Didn’t you always figure Kim, being another Armenian and all, has always been a big Cher fan?

Also ran: Kanye West was at the gala with Kim and he spoke to Cher (allegers) thanking her for popularizing autotune. Is that for reals?

Gala pics (click to enlarge):

After the gala, Cher went strolling around in NYC (Cher World).

Check out those shoes and those bell bottoms!

Television

While Cher was in New York, she took time to say goodbye to the funny asshole on Late Night with David Letterman (Cher World). More coverage in Entertainment Weekly and News Day. And also on some site called Classic Hits.

Pics (click to enlarge):

Recognize that jacket from the 1980s when Cher was living in NYC?

Peripherals

Cher also did a publicity photo shoot with Heidi Shink and Chaz (Cher World).

Last week I was searching for something about Cher long ago in Bust or Bitch Magazine and I found this, a review of good and the bad in the book Becoming Chaz: http://bitchmagazine.org/post/bibliobitch-transition-by-chaz-bono.

Movies

A blogger writes about what the movie Mask means to her all these 20 years later (Huffington Post).

Cher and Bob Dylan

April 28, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 2 Comments

Cher scholar Robrt Pela did some research on Cher and Bob Dylan and found this very cool video explaining the initial meeting between Cher and Bob Dylan as pictured to the left.

They met other times, however. Dylan was on David Geffen’s record label while Cher dated Geffen. She also ran into him while with Gregg Allman. See the photos below.

Bob Dylan always seems happy to see her and yet equally happy to dis her in regards to her version of “All I Really Want to Do” and his comment about calling “Dark Lady” trash when she played it for him and Geffen back in 1974.

To paraphrase what Rosie O’Donnell once said about Sonny, “Sit and spin, Bob Dylan!”

Out-take of the above meeting:

Cher singing happy birthday to Bob Dylan in 1974:

In the late 1970s:

The Wrecking Crew Movie

April 28, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 2 Comments

I went to see The Wrecking Crew movie again at my local art theater in Albuquerque. It was a big hubbub there on Saturday night with oldies fans and press coverage. I sat next to a grizzled old DJ who lamented that Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell and Chubby Checker were not yet in Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He admitted it was very political.

Before the movie ran, pics of the wrecking crew artists flashed on the screen. One was Cher at the Hollywood Bowl. I wasn’t able to find it online but the man in the row behind me said, “so beautiful!”

Denny Todesco, the director, called all the movie's hardcore fans "wreckies." He said he started working on the movie in 1996 when his Dad Tommy Todesco was diagnosed with cancer. Nineteen years later, the movie is getting theatrical release. Todesco used Kickstarter and donations to pay off the crazy $500,000 in licensing fees for all the music in the film.

Afterwards, we had a Q and A with Denny and Marty Cooper. They talked about the Jack Nitzsche song "Lonely Surfer."

Denny Todoesco said the only criticism anyone had about “Snuffy Garrett” was that he wouldn’t let the musicians fix mistakes or do it better once Garrett felt he had a take he felt was sell-able.

When I saw the movie at the Arclight in LA many years ago, Todesco said he couldn’t get Leon Russell for an interview. Someone in the audience said, “I can get you to him.” Leon is in the new cut wearing a pinstripe suit and twirling a cane around like the New Orleans mafia. Todesco said he never could get Tom Petty, Max Weinberg or Bonnie Raitt and said he didn’t know if this was them or “their people” who were impenetrable. But he got Cher early on it sounds like! I was worried new Leon Russell footage would deplete the Cher footage in the movie but she’s still prominently in there.

Todesco mentioned an interview he had done for the Mark Maron podcast. If you're interested in more about The Wrecking Crew, it's really good.

In the podcast, they also discuss the Muscle Shoals movie. From this trailer, it doesn't look like Cher is in this one although Gregg Allman is. For a nano-second at the end of the trailer you can see a flash of Cher's album go by. I was wondering if they were going to cop to it.

The Wrecking Crew website store is full of great stuff now: http://store.wreckingcrewfilm.com/. You can get a coffee table book, a DVD or Blueray of the movie with six hours of footage! There's also a cool Goldstar jacket available. I was inspired to get Tommy Todesco and Hal Blaine’s books after seeing the movie again. They both have sucky reviews on Amazon and Todesco’s book lists only one paperback copy the seller wants $999 for. What the hell? You can get an eBook copy for $25 (actually an outrageous price for an eBook, too).

But that Hal Blaine! What a cutie he was.

Cher Endorses Heidi Shink

April 28, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

So Heidi Shink, Chaz Bono’s former girlfriend, is running for city council in West Hollywood. This is her page: http://www.heidishink.com/.

For the record, I kind of like Heidi Shink. She seems to have spunk. And like Lou Grant, I like spunk. She also came across well in the book Becoming Chaz when Chaz describes the hullabaloo their band endured at the hands of their producer Mark Hudson. (Remember Husdson was Cher’s friend going back to the late 1970s, appearing with her and the Hudson brothers on Merv Griffin’s daytime show and co-writing her tribute to her failed relationship to Gregg Allman, "My Song."

Forget about harassment, team Shink had me when Mark Hudson started painting his beard.

But wasn’t Cher’s song “Disaster Cake” about Heidi Shink? Am I mixing Chaz girlfriends here? Do I have my lazy scholarship down right?

"Disaster Cake" doesn’t sound too much like an endorsement. It's true, maybe Heidi was young and silly then. Maybe she’s more endorse-able now. In any case, I think we need a new song. I propose “Best-for-West-Hollywood Cake.”

Stories about the endorsement:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cher-endorses-west-hollywood-city-788706

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/cher-backing-son-chaz-bonos-791357

http://www.people.com/article/cher-chaz-bono-bandmate-city-council

Story about the hysteria caused by the endorsement:

http://www.wehoville.com/2015/04/20/opinion-cher-endorsing-shink-sparks-silly-hysteria/

Cher as Armenian

April 28, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

A recent US Magazine has the Kardashian clan exploring their roots with a visit to Armenia on the 100th anniversary of Armenian genocide. Cher went to Armenia back in the 1990s with Robert Camiletti.

Recently, Cher called on Turkey to admit the genocide: http://armenpress.am/eng/news/801610/cher-urges-turkey-to-acknowledge-genocide.html

Turkey resisted: http://us.cnn.com/2015/04/24/europe/armenia-turkey-massacre/index.html

The press will stay on the story: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-blm-news-bc-turkey23-20150423-story.html

Cher admits she didn’t have as much contact with her Armenian relatives but that doesn’t mean her Armenian side is less important than her other heritage. Sometimes absence matters as much as does presence.

You can explore the reasons why a certain side of the family is missing. For instance, why didn’t Cher see her Dad enough? He was allegedly a mess. Why would he have been a mess? Maybe his parents coddled him too much (just a hypothetical—I don’t know these people!). Why might he have been coddled? Because his parents were genocide survivors and they were just happy to have a family alive and breathing. Why was there a genocide in Armenia? Well, for that we turn back to the Turks.

Whatever the story, every decisions her relatives once made has impacted her life in some way.

Other Armenians of note: http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/04/22/cher-kim-kardashian-and-andre-agassi-armenias-a-list-diaspora/

Honored in Brazil, Nick Vanoff, InStyle Mag, Kenneth Goldsmith

April 13, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Been tied up doing the National Poetry Writing Month challenge this month (I have to write a poem a day) and obsessively watching episodes of Schitt's Creek, the new Canadian sitcom on Pop TV staring SCTV's Catharine O'Hara and Eugene Levy. Thankfully it's Canadian and may not get cancelled just because it's on Pop TV and no one knows where that is. It's very funny.

Cher Stuff

A few weeks ago I received a few missives from the Cher store that items were 50% off if you spent over $30. As it turned out only three items were 50% (of which I only wanted one) and to get over the $30 hurdle without buying a $75 sweatshirt you didn't want, you had to buy one of the other sucky three items. So I went over to ebay and bought a Mark Twain magazine to abate my shopping frustration.

Peripheral Stories

Nick Vanoff’s house for sale: ‘Sonny and Cher’ Producer’s Beverly Hills Estate Listing for $25 Million

(Wall Street Journal) (Realty Today)

I love it when poetry and Cher collide. This month is full of that sort of thing. Remember David Essex on Cher's solo show? He now has a book of poems!

Take a look at him now and then watch him with Cher singing "The Long and Winding Road."

Honors & Awards

AIDS Activism

Cher was recently honored at the ‘Inspiration Gala’ in Brazil.

Articles announcing the award:

Articles about Cher's visit to an art gallery before the ceremony:

Artnet
Page Six

Cher's tweet Saturday: "Brazil is lovely. Went to art show last nite & fell in love with MAGIC GOLDEN Art piece by 85 year old woman…IT WAS SOLD. HAD FUN ANYWAY."

Coverage of the event:

amfAR CEO Kevin Frost spoke passionately about amfAR’s Countdown to a Cure for AIDS initiative, with the goal of developing the scientific basis of a cure by 2020. Announcing a $100 million cure research investment strategy, Frost stressed that “amfAR has the will, the commitment, and the know-how to get this done, and to truly make AIDS history.” Frost then presented the amfAR Award of Inspiration to Cher. Speaking of her willingness and ability to use her fame for the greater good, Frost described her as one of the great champions in the fight against AIDS. Cher received a standing ovation and encouraged the audience to “help bring an end to this terrible disease” before bringing fellow honoree Jean Paul Gaultier on stage for a kiss.

Cher World has great coverage with lots of pics: http://www.cherworld.com/cher-news/cher-honoured-at-amfar-2015-brazil/ (Cher World covering the art gallery event: http://www.cherworld.com/cher-news/cher-visits-brazil-for-charity-event/)

My favorite pics (click to enlarge):

Fashon

InStyle Magazine is inspired by Cher's timeless jeans.

Recognized for blunt tweeting

Must-follow-Monday: Cher

Cher Research

Good resource for research on Cher singles and international album covers.

The Perils of Fame

The National Enquirer on stands now claims that Cher is dying. Cher refutes this.

My co-worker sent me this amazing story about a guy whose iPhone was stolen and he became suddenly famous in China. Lots of good commentary on the perils of fame and why the famous need "teams."

A follow up on the Edith Hill and Eddie Harrison story:
http://entertainment.inquirer.net/167192/cher-paves-way-for-elderly-womans-homecoming-after-a-court-dispute

Arts and Literature

Review of the Scottish S&C Musical (The Guardian)

The April month of Poetry was dedicated to hip hop poetry and it was interesting to see so many kudos thrown to The Wu-Tang Clan. Kenneth Goldsmith is a conceptual poet who's conceptual manifesto is published in the same issue. Since Cher is often accused of being artificial (by rock and roll standards), I have long been collecting commentary about artifice in art. Goldsmith had three things to say about this:

"Authenticity is another form of artifice."

"At this point in time, it's hard to verify authenticity, singularity, or proper sources for anything. Instead, in our digital world all forms of culture have assumed the characteristics of dance music and versioning, where so many hands have touched and refined these products that we no longer know, nor care, who the author is — or was."

"Auto-tune your next book of poems."

Movie Alert, Toto Bro RIP, Cherity and Cher Impersonators

March 22, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Toto

Another Toto member and Porcaro brother has died. Toto's bassist, Mike Porcaro, died last week at age 59. David Hungate was their original bassist. Mike's brother, drummer Jeff Porcaro, died in 1992 at the age 39. David and Jeff were members of Sonny & Cher's band during the early 1970s, later becoming founding members of Toto with David Paich (also of Sonny & Cher's band and of "David's Song") and Steve Lukather. Many Toto members have worked with Cher over the years as studio musicians and as inspiration. Read Mike's New York Times obit or more about the history of Toto.

The Wrecking Crew Movie

Great news! The Wrecking Crew documentary is coming to an art house near you! I saw an LA screening of this movie back in 2008 and did an expensive blog post about it. Cher in not only interviewed but you learn a lot more about the musicians Sonny & Cher were working with in the 1960s. There is some good old S&C footage here and as the press for the movie states, these musicians were “the unsung heroes of the West Coast Sound."

About the movie: http://www.wreckingcrew.tv/
Screening dates near you: http://www.wreckingcrew.tv/screenings.php

Go see this movie!

Cher Offers to Help 96-Year Old Edith Harrison

In other big news this week, Cher offered to help 96-year old Edith Harrison return home in Virginia.

The Washington Post story:Cher, yes that Cher, fights to help 96-year-old keep her Virginia home
The Today Show story: Cher pledges to help 96-year-old woman with dementia return home
The Huffington Poststory: Cher Promises To Help 96-Year-Old Woman With Dementia Return Home

Cher offered to help pay for needed upgrades to Hill's family home in Alexandria and some medical expensive because Cher was inspired by the love story between Edith and her husband Eddie Harrison who died after they were forcibly separated in December. The story was picked up in at least 145 outlets as of last week.

Cher Impersonators

Stef and Johnny, Peter and Lily, and Sonny and Cher

There are a plethora of Cher impersonators. In my humble opinion, (thffffffft), the best ones don't try to sing. Maybe they can perfect the Cher twang or vibrator or her smokey contralto, but they just can't get the deadpan, cool distance of her persona, which is why our most famous Cher impersonator doesn't sing.

It's rare to find some Sonny & Cher impersonators (even harder to pull off), but there's a new Scottish pair doing a tribute play called "And the Beat Goes On." The Sonny might just be on to something with his stern Sonny stare. But the clothes need a little workup and what's with the teddy bear?

Kathy Griffin Opens Up About Her 'Fashion Police' Exit

Griffin does a very funny Cher impersonation in her act and her friend Cher expressed support last week when Griffin quit Fashion Police…and I do, too. I love how Griffin and Kelly Osbourne have stood up to bullying, especially calling it out among the LA fashionauts.

New Twitter Fight, Wu-Tang Clan, Cher Musical, Movie Premiere

March 14, 2015 / Cher Scholar / 0 Comments

Twittery Punches

Cher's Latest Twitter SmackUp Participant: Piers Morgan.

These things are starting to feel like setups, like you know when the Porter Waggoner show got really bad in the 1980s and you would have bet money the no-talent guests were paying Porter to be on the show? I wonder if somewhere there are auditions to have cat-fights with Cher on Twitter. I’m not criticizing…just saying it’s getting vaudevillian.

Stories:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6487640/piers-morgan-cher-fishnet-stockings-twitter

http://www.cbc.ca/news/trending/cher-smacks-down-piers-morgan-for-tweeting-she-s-too-old-to-wear-fishnets-1.2980404

Music

Apparently, Wu-Tang Clan previewed their Once Upon a Time in Shaolin album recently at MoMA PS1 in New York City. Previously they auctioned the album online and the album wont' be made commercially available for 88 years. In this article from Art News the interviewer presses the artists about working with Cher, who replaced Ol’ Dirty Bastard on part of the project. We find out that not only is Cher singing in a small part of one song, but that clip ends the album AND that Cher appears earlier in the album in a skit!

Dammit. Will we ever hear this skit? Excerpts from the Art News interview:

Frere-Jones asked about a sample of a voice he heard at the end of the last track.

“That’s actually,” Cilvaringz said, rubbing his jaw. “Cher? That’s Cher.”

Frere-Jones followed-up about Cher, who apparently acts in a skit on the record and sings, and why she appears on the record.

“I wanna ask you a question,” RZA said. “Did you ever have a crush on Cher?”

“Yeah, of course,” Frere-Jones said.

“Well, okay then,” RZA said.

“Not to get on Cher too much,” he said a few moments later, but she truly was “the kind of woman where they only made one of her. Like who made that?” he asked, waving his hand vertically. Sade, he said, is another woman like that.

Though he didn’t draw the comparison himself, RZA said he wanted the album to be something like that and made reference to another one-of-a-kind woman, this one more related to Staten Island.

“It’s like the Statue of Liberty,” he said. It exists in only one place but belongs to everyone who experiences it.

A Springfield, Illinois, man has created a musical featuring 23 Cher songs called Dark Lady. "I discovered a story line in her songs," creator Mike Sheedy says.

I have a friend who wrote a play based solely on the lyrics of Paula Abdul. These kinds of projects fascinate me. This, however, is more like Mamma Mia! or Movin’ Out (featuring the songs of Billy Joel). I think they call these jukebox musicals. As Sheedy has found out, he can't mount his show without securing the rights to all the songs. No small boulder to roll up a hill. In the meantime, he's created a show poster with his daughter in the staring role.

Movies

Cher World is reporting that Cher attended the premiere of the film Dignity with Chaz who appears in the movie as Jerry the Hoarder. I made the mistake of reading the comments on this post. I never do that. I don’t know why I did it this time. Some fans have critiques of Cher’s look and latest concert that confound me. They want her to be something she’s not, like Katy Perry. Why do I read comments??!!

The pic at the top is from the same premiere only showing Cher's full outfit and a very stern look in her eyes that reminds me of when I met her at a bookstore all those years ago.

Chaz's IMDB page has a great pic.

Press

The Boston Herald declares Cher still in a league all her own. So don’t compare her look or her work to things kids like Katy Perry are doing! Sheesh people.

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