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Magazine Alert, Auction Alert, Movie Date Alerts

June 8, 2010 / / 3 Comments

Ad Cher's on the July cover of Architectural Digest on news stands now.

As the cover girl for July's edition of Architectural Digest, the diva reveals the "spiritual and spunky" interior of her Los Angeles duplex … and a bit of her naughty side.

Interesting note: the space was designed by interior designer Martyn Lawrence-Bullard.

   

 

 

Movie Notes:

According to the Washington Post, Cher's movie Zookeeper (voice of the giraffe) will open July 8.

And everyone is still saying Burlesque will open Thanksgiving Day.

And apparently one of Cher's songs in Burlesque was written by Diane Warren:

Nmpa Announces Diane Warren As 2010 Icon Award Honoree

Recently, Diane wrote an original song performed by Cher in the much-anticipated Screen Gems' movie, Burlesque starring Cher and Christina Aguilera. Other beloved hits include If I Could Turn Back Time performed by Cher, I Get Weak performed by Belinda Carlisle and Un-Break My Heart performed by Toni Braxton.

 

Another Cher garage sale: June 24 & 25

Auction



Crucifix And what's a Cher sale without crucifixes?

Literally lots of them.
Crucifix2

Juliens Auctions' "Hollywood Legends" sale is taking place in Las Vegas at planet hollywood. There are a plethora of other celebrity items, but Cher has 7 pages of her own junk to sell us, including scripts, roller skates ($300-500 for those babies), table tchotkes, wall mirrors, jewelry, Sonny costumes, Cher costumes, Bob Mackie sketches and the ubiquitous gothic books and trinkets.

Interesting items include:

Continue reading

Oh The Horror–The 80s Are Back

June 8, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Scan002Well, the 80s are trying to make a comeback. Can't say I'm happy about it. Can't say I don't feel a pang of distress to see bright-colored, alternative outfits similar to the ones I wore in high school as I was crying on the shoulder of a friend because of some heartless boy who most likely dressed in similar silly ensembles. If I wanted to go back to that fashion statement, I'd have Molly Ringwall's oeuvre of fine films to take me there, including particularly Sixteen Candles and Pretty in Pink.  Why do I feel like crap when I watch those? Because I felt like crap when I first watched those.

But the signs of 80s-revival are everywhere: big hipped, baggy, paisley monstrosities worn by contestants on this year's American Idol; David Bowie's "Modern Love" popping all up along my car radio dial; big, big, big hair in the fashion ads of LA Magazine. What's an 80s-era runaway TO DO??

It's funny that I remember the 70s bellbottom jeans revival of the 90s and my older co-workers having similar traumas flashing back to their own innocent eras ("I wore those in high school…never again!").

I never thought it would happen to me. The 80s were so in your face. Those shoulder pads. I spent hours un-sewing shoulder pads from various things. Even purses seemed to have shoulder pads. And of course, everything was pink, my hair was red, my earrings were huge (huge earrings are also back), I wore big obnoxious pink bows in my hair (all of which is pictured above). My friends all had alternative haircuts.

It's really hard to live through this again.

In the 80s, Cher made bombastic power ballads that we will soon be re-hearing on the radio again, along with the old Madonna, Duran Duran and redundant big hair bands. But for Cher the 80s was more than big hair and big music. It was also a new identity and respectability. Videos on MTV, Jack LaLanne ads, good movie reviews, an Academy Award, and tough-chick fashion magazine covers. I liked that part of it, the tough style of the chain mail and leather jackets, the rock-solid bod, the f-u attitude. Even the makeup was strong.

I did acquiesce a few days ago to this pathetic 80s scene. I heard John Waite singing "Missing You" on the radio and I thought, Ok 80s, you can come back.

Updates in Vegas, Love, Charity and Oprah

May 30, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Cherx-large While convalescing (which entails staying away from the computer, sad to say), I went to see Cher and Barry Manilow in Las Vegas during the first weekend of May. My friends Julie and Dave and Nellie went with us.  The opening monologue still went on too long and generally confused Nellie, a Vegas singer and dancer. But the show as a whole was pretty great, especially with the new Bob Seger segment – a seedy rendition of "Fire Down Below" spliced with a fun-loving version of "Old Time Rock and Roll. Cher comes out as a male pimp/gangster (see Mackie sketch below…the real image of it is far more amazing, however) with a gargantuan feather towering over her head. Like in the video "Walking in Memphis" she nearly successfully sublimates her physicality with masculine motions. She appears tinier as a result. Just as when she does Elvis in the video. She quickly transforms onstage into a sexy redheaded moll in a yellow dress for the second song. Great sexy set and a creative and exciting performance. It steals the show for me. She sings "Love Hurts" now from the big pearl.

The set list:Mackie4FireDownBelow

I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Laverne segment
Fire Down Below
Old Time Rock & Roll
The Beat Goes On
All I Really Wanna Do
Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves
Dark Lady
Half Breed
Don't Leave Me This Way
Take Me Home
Love Hurts
After All
Walking In Memphis
If I Could Turn Back Time
Believe  

It was like a high school flashback to see Barry Manilow the next night. Actually, it was not my choice to see Barry. I've long lost touch with his career. But my husband chose Barry over a Cirque show, reasoning that Cirque will be in Vegas forever; Barry may not be with us forever. Since I was a pre-teen I've seen Barry quite a few times, including at the Hilton a few year's back when he first came to Vegas. His show at the Paris casino was very emotional for me somehow. Our tickets upgraded to the orchestra so I was closer than I've ever been and everything was much smaller scale and personal, including a lovely tribute the paintings of the Louvre.  He did a breath-taking (literally) rendition of "Weekend in New England" and no fans were asked to sing "Can't Smile Without You" for which I was thankful. It was very sad to think this may be the last time I'd ever see him.

But enough of that…Cher's Got a New Boyfriend!

Ron The news outing started here.

He's a comic and comic book writer. Here's his Wikipedia Page.

He had me at comics.

You can purchase his Ultimate Adventures book on Amazon.

He's also interestingly a Howard Stern co-hort and his dating  of Cher has been discussed on Stern's radio show:

HOWARD MIGHT DROP IN ON CHER

Howard looked forward to his weekend trip to LA, saying he might go visit his old friend Ron Zimmerman at his new girlfriend's house: "[I'm] probably going to go up to Cher's Malibu place and hang with her and Ron…Cher doesn't know anything about it." Howard joked that Cher would probably sequester him to a 'safe room': "Ron told me they have a special room for people like me at Cher's house. Like Ron's riff-raff friends."

Cher's New Charity Donation

http://www.peoplepets.com/news/celebrities/cher-bedazzles-a-dog-to-help-homeless-pets/1

Bedazzles a Dog to Help Homeless Pets

The one and only Cher is stepping up to help homeless animals this weekend in the Cherpetsbest way she knows how: with outrageous fashions and lots of sparkle! The pop diva is donating this crystal-studded ceramic dog to the Animal Foundation's Seventh Annual Best in Show event. Decorated with 11,520 Swarovski crystals, the dog will be available for auction, with proceeds going to charity.

The flashy canine was all the singer's idea, inspired by the glittery, sequined costumes of her current Las Vegas show. And though many Sin City headliners are donating similar works to the auction, Cher is by far the biggest name to participate.

Best in Show is a fund-raiser that showcases 60 dogs available for adoption from the Lied Animal Shelter in Las Vegas.

Josh and Cher on Oprah!

Oprah arranged a meetup between Cher and her huge fan Josh. I agree with Kitty's comment on the show positng: https://cherscholar.com/cherblog/2010/05/tv-alert-orpah-.html

It was very touching and I thought Josh was amazingly eloquent and possessed. Here is the experience in a nutshell (with a tiny bit of extra footage not seen on the show): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1xQb15ENtk

And finally, an astute Cher Scholar emailed me this clip of Paul Anka singing the song "Flashback" just like Cher sang it on her 1976 I'd Rather Believe in You album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5RzOlDE7mk

Speaking of album, many new Cher album rumors are flying, including one that Cher would sing a new single "Already Been There" on the May 18 World Music Awards. There was no hint of that on the WMA web site and not surprisingly it didn't happen. Cher is also stoking rumors that she will tour again to support the new album, rumored to be released in conjunction with her new movie Burlesque around Thanksgiving this year. 

TV Alert – Orpah

May 7, 2010 / / 2 Comments

Gal_oprah Cher will be on Oprah Monday May 10 (check your local listings). According to my Comcast listing, she'll be appearing with a fan. Interesting!

By the way, Cher Scholar is on non-Cher-related medical leave and convalescence and hopes to be back soon for further snarky Cher dishing!

Name Dropping at the Academy of Country Music Awards

April 21, 2010 / / 5 Comments

DCher-cma Does Cher plan to lasso some young and defenseless country singer with that chain on her hip?

The funny thing about Cher's Sunday appearance on the ACMA's is the sound of Reba McEntire introducing her. God love her, it came out more like ChhErr.

And Cher got a Standing O from this surprising audience. Well, it shouldn’t be such a surprise that they love a good femme-Elvis when they see one. Awww, they’ll all just closet fans, you know it.

But to back it up, Cher talked about her "country creds." You know, creds…credentials…authenticity. Hmmm. I would have bought it more if she had worn a cowboy hat.

I would seriously like to hear more details about her mom  Georgia Holt's gig with “a little band called Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.” Cher also teased us about a duet with “my good friend Merle Haggard (wouldn't that be sweet!); but then she followed it up by saying she had a "hard time wrapping her head around "Haggard & Cher." She also spoke about the first song her mom ever taught her, "Hey Good Lookin."

At the end, Cher introduced Blake Shelton, who performed his No. 1 hit “Hillbilly Bone” with Trace Adkins. Blake had this to say:

“I’ve never met Cher, probably never will, but knowing that she said my name on national television – that’s badass.”

His girlfriend, Miranda Lambert, who scored various awards the same night for Video of the Year, Album of the Year and Top Female Vocalist of the Year, attended the show with her little shelter dog from Ada, Oklahoma, a dog coincidentally named “Cher.” During the show, the puppy waited backstage in the dressing room.

Jeremy Helligar of True/Slant had this to say about Cher's appearance:

Phase Two of Project Cher’s Comeback officially began on Sunday night with her appearance at the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, where she’s been performing regularly since 2008. (Phase One was her presenting gig with Christina Aguilera at the Golden Globes in January.) She’s no doubt hoping it culminates with her third Oscar nomination for Burlesque, her first movie since Stuck on You in 2003.

Cher is the kind of star that we simultaneously love and laugh at, so there’s a surge of optimism surrounding her comeback hopes (or maybe that’s just among her gay fans). Though the presence of her more polarizing costar Aguilera means it could go either way, when it comes to Cher, who launched previously successful — and improbable — comebacks in 1979, 1987, and 1998, anything can happen, and it usually does.

Sources:
http://www.okmagazine.com/2010/04/miranda-lambert%e2%80%99s-dog-cher-brings-good-luck/

http://trueslant.com/jeremyhelligar/2010/04/19/a-cher-resurrection-j-lo-redux-what-will-be-the-greatest-comeback-of-2010/

An old People Magazine about Georgia Holt (who's larger story seems like it would be a very interesting tale): http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20071447,00.html

 

The Blog Post of Leaked Things

April 15, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Cherlasvegas The Burlesque script has been leaked: http://cher.yuku.com/topic/10365/t/Burlesque-Spoiler-But-Really-Cool.html

Good lord, exactly what piece of this movie will be a surprise to us come fall? I plan to do a 5-minute reenactment of the movie for my husband this Friday nite. That’s the risk of constant PR/leaks. That or fans will be whipped up into such a frenzy they might spontaneously combust. Not a pleasant way to die.

But somewhat less pleasant than being the scientist with an idea to cure cancer who dies at a Cher show with other "nameless, faceless" putzes in a Cher-grand-entrance tragedy, as was so put in Cher’s year-3 opening monologue leaked this week.

My Husband Shoulders Through The Casablanca Years

April 15, 2010 / / 0 Comments

6369420150_large Imagine my husband trapped in this car, which looks similar to my ride sans pimping.

Because I'm working on a zine article about Cher's Casablanca tenure, my husband was made to suffer listening through three Cher albums last night while I was driving us to Hollywood. First we stopped on LaBrea to eat in Little Ethiopia at Rahel's. It was amazing and vegan. Lovely interior. We were the only ones in there all night. Then I took us to Amoeba Records where I picked up 3 Cher lps and 2 used CDs. More on those later. I usually try to even out my Cher purchases at Amoeba with some Elvis Costello or some Eels…just because the place is so painfully hip. But not this time. The horn-ripped-glasses-wearing attendant didn't even seem phased. In fact, he tried to cross-sell me the Half Breed album that was sitting in the Recent Arrivals bin. Then we went to Hustlers to spend the wedding shower gift-card we received almost a year ago. I can’t tell you what we purchased there but let's just say it involves The Munsters.

So after a full run through of Take Me Home, Prisoner and the bulk of Black Rose, I have to tell you John did not hold up well. And he is usually loathe to critique Cher in front of me. Even at the aforementioned wedding shower during the cut-throat Newlywed Game. When asked to name something he was sick of hearing about, he refused to say Cher. This is despite the fact that all other guests were imploring him to say Cher. I said Cher without skipping a beat. He said Barry Manilow. It was an odd moment of pop culture shame for me, that wedding shower moment: a) because my celebrity obsessions were public knowledge and even I am creeped out by this, and b) Barry Manilow? I didn't even talk about Barry Manilow when I was 10 years old and obsessed. There's just nothing to explicate with Barry Manilow. There really isn't.

By the end of the car ride last night John was reduced to yelling at policemen who were holding up the 405 freeway and gesturing frantically for our exit. All I can say is I've had to listen to plenty of The Decemberists over the last four years.

Sonny & Cher…Get It?

April 9, 2010 / / 1 Comment

Sunni & Shi'a

Sunni-shia

Wow. Hasn’t it been since like the late 70s since we’ve seen a good Sonny & Cher political cartoon?

(Thank you JeffRey for sending this to me.)

So I spent Easter day in San Diego and I must stay it was both a culturally enriching and perilous experience. Due to my old age and utter glee at being able to afford a short trip, I, many times over, forgot to pay attention to the GET GAS light that was blaring at me all morning. At one point my husband says, “Do we need gas” and I noticed the red and bright dashboard notice. Immediately after that, we passed the big blue inflatable King Kong waving to us from the east side of Highway 5 and I pulled off to the very next off-ramp…which alarmingly turned out to be the La Jolla Parkway! My beloved Bluebell sputtered and chugged out of fuel just as we were trying to make it over the steep Parkway overpass, a quarter of a mile from the gas station. 

Thank God, John mentioned gas when he did because just moments and ten yards of pavement sooner, we would have been stuck on a death-defying, shoulder-less stretch of lane-merging Parkway. The nearness of a possible wreck made me start to hyperventilate soon after we pulled over. John called AAA and we got gas within 20 minutes. But in those 20 minutes of waiting I was convinced a speeding, merging SUV would veer off the road and crush the three of us (our furkid Franz was along for the ride), smashing us into a little tin can. I couldn’t help but think of two things: 1) at least I will die with those I have most loved and 2) was I just singing “There But For Fortune” this morning when we passed that wreck on the 405?

But on the bright side…

We saw the lovely San Marcos area, took a hike with ocean views, ate at the scrumptious Los Primos Mexican takeout place in Carlsbad, walked around Old Town (where a new “heritage” cul-de-sac of Victorian houses hovers intimidatingly over the old adobe streets) and Balboa Park, where we marveled over the Easter flowers and international cottages. We took home some BBQ from Kansas City BBQ near the Martin Luther King promenade and the Gaslight Quarter. It wasn’t very good and I almost wished we had instead patronized Jim Croce’s wife’s restaurant Croce’s.

Because I love Jim Croce songs.

We were driving home during the big Earthquake happening just below the border, one that everyone else felt except us (even our friends up in LA felt it). Was it because we were driving? We stopped at a rest area around that time and our furkid went nuts, barking at everyone and sniffing the ground. I thought the stress of being stranded on a highway with half-wit human parents who keep stranding him on highways (if he remembers Christmas day getting stuck between Barstow and Needles with a blown-out tire and a Needles gas station worker telling us angrily “No one will help you today! It’s Christmas!”) and all this highway shoulder time was finally taking its toll on him. But quite possibly, it was his heightened sensitivity to Earthquakes.

  

Would Marcel Proust Pastiche Cher?

April 1, 2010 / / 0 Comments

Proust I find Cher scholarship everywhere…even when I'm wallowing in high-art subjects like French writers.  Listening to a books on tape during my daily commute, I've been enjoying the biography of Marcel Proust by Edmund White.

At one point, he talks about how Proust enjoyed writing “voluntary pastiche” (or impersonations) of famous society types, writers and actors of the day. He called them voluntary because he was willfully impersonating them in order not to “involuntarily” copy them later on in his own works. In other words, he did send-ups of other famous writers to get their iconic styles out of his system.

White states that Proust liked to pick writers like Flaubert and avoided others like Voltaire because their “simple and straightforward style was difficult to parody,” White continues, “just as Drag Queens avoid doing unadorned beauties such as Audrey Hepburn and are inspired by highly-constructed women such as Mae West and Barbra Streisand.”

Interesting way to put it: highly-constructed woman vs. simple and straightforward. It's the best reason I've heard put forward as to why certain celebrities are more easily and wantonly impersonated. If something is organic or direct, there’s no layer of added style to grab on to. And reasonably, it would be hard to do something as inauthentic as the art of impersonation on subjects so intensely authentic.

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