{"id":8504,"date":"2025-09-12T14:00:58","date_gmt":"2025-09-12T20:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/?p=8504"},"modified":"2026-03-30T09:02:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T15:02:06","slug":"three-documentaries-with-cher-bob-mackie-diane-warren-and-kevin-aucoin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherscholar.com\/cherblog\/2025\/09\/three-documentaries-with-cher-bob-mackie-diane-warren-and-kevin-aucoin\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Documentaries with Cher: Bob Mackie, Diane Warren and Kevin Aucoin"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week Mr. Cher Scholar was out of the house for an evening which gave me a chance to catch up on my Cher-related documentaries, which included watching the final cut of Bob Mackie: Naked Illusion<\/em> (2024) and first-time watching Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story<\/em> (2017) and Diane Warren: Relentless<\/em> (2024).<\/p>\n

I would have imagined these subjects to be as different as could be; but I was surprised by many interesting similarities (aside from Cher\u2019s stage-stealing presence in each of them). All three of these people, (Bob Mackie, Diane Warren and Kevin Aucoin), knew from a very<\/em> young age (like under 10 years old) exactly what they wanted to do with their lives vocationally and each one of them began working on their professional goals as teenagers, becoming known in each case as artists who started out very young. Aucoin and Mackie achieved success younger than Warren, but she made herself known to professionals in her field around the same age. They were all hustling early, with little interest for anything else.<\/p>\n

Both the Mackie and Warren documentaries open with alternate takes of Cher\u2019s \u201cTurn Back Time.\u201d (How could a documentarian resist using that song if Cher is involved, I guess). Mackie\u2019s movie uses a slow rendition and Warren\u2019s doc uses an acapella version.<\/p>\n

Both Mackie and Aucoin practiced drawing pictures of celebrities when they were young boys. For Mackie it was old movie and musical stars and their outfits. Aucoin did faces and was obsessed with Barbra Streisand and he played Streisand and Cher records all the time, to the chagrin of the cis-gendered brother he shared a room with.<\/p>\n

In all three cases, these artists are or were ubiquitous in their field: Diane Warren has written for more recording artists than any other songwriter, \u201call the real stars\u2026the biggest stars wore Bob Mackie\u201d and Kevyn Aucoin was the makeup artist most favored by the female models, musicians and actresses of his time.<\/p>\n

Bob Mackie \u201cmade them look like the superstars they were.\u201d Kevyn Aucoin’s presented them at their most beautiful. And Diane Warren gave them number one hits.<\/p>\n

All three documentaries talk about matching or unveiling the unique characters of their clients: matching the right song to the right artist, designing a costume to \u201cpick up on somebody\u2019s essence\u201d and designing makeup to accentuate a person’s unique beauty. In the Mackie documentary Law Roach says, \u201cevery superhero has his costume\u201d and Mackie gave stars theirs. Diane Warren and Kevyn Aucoin likewise gave their artists extraordinary assists.<\/p>\n

In Mackie and Warren\u2019s case, they did not become divas in the way Kevyn Aucoin allegedly became. They also survived their fame and he did not. But they all suffered bullying and trauma for not conforming to social norms as kids. (Which was news to me watching all three docs.)<\/p>\n

Paul Stanley is seen in Warren’s documentary stating that her genius is her lack of a fingerprint, meaning the university of her songs. Warren calls it a kind of openness. It’s hard to disagree with this in a business sense. (Her success speaks for itself.) But I would disagree in an aesthetic sense. Every great writer has a fingerprint, a unique vocabulary of words or styles. And I was comforted to learn Diane Warren was as eccentric as she is and not as \u201copen\u201d and unspecific as a person. The uniqueness is where the true gold lies and Warren seemed refreshingly unique under all those hits.<\/p>\n

Cher\u2019s presence in each of these documentaries is different and those differences were fascinating to compare.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Bob Mackie and Cher are almost synonymous. Aside from his ingenious work on The Carol Burnett Show<\/em>, his career seemed to soar right along his glamourous make-overs of Cher in her 1970s variety shows and later live appearances and tours. His documentary dramatically recounts the dress she wore to the first Met Gala in 1974 and the effect it had on everybody attending. I never get tired of hearing Hal Rubenstein\u2019s retelling of his Lillian Gish conversation that night, seeing Lillian Gish at the Meta Gala sitting all by herself, lit by only one candle. And when she sees Cher walk by she exclaims, \u201cOh my! Look at her.\u201d Rubenstein adds, \u201cso did everyone else in the room.\u201d (The story has such undertones of changing Hollywood beauty standards and passing the torch.)<\/p>\n\n\t\t