Stacie Orrico, 28
Jessica Biel, 32
Lil’ Flip, 34
Ronan Keating, 37
David Faustino, 40
Matthew Marsden, 41
Tyler Florence, 43
Julie Bowen, 44
Tone Loc, 48
Laura Harring, 50
Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 52
Ira Glass, 55
The post March 3: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.
March 3, 1926– James Merrill:
He was a beautiful man who wrote beautiful, accessible poetry. His work was autobiographical in source and theme, but never actually confessional.
Merrill was the only child of Charles E. Merrill, one of the founders of financial services giant Merrill Lynch. His extremely wealthy family had estates in Southampton and Palm Beach, plus a penthouse at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhattan. Poor little James was never lived in one place for very long.
A public man and a giant figure in the world of finance, Charles Merrill worried about having a sissy son. When he discovered his son’s first lover, the Greek poet Kimon Friar, he hired a hooker to convert James to heterosexuality. Yet oddly, he was quite accepting and proud of his son’s poetry. His father published his son’s first book of stories and poems himself, when Merrill was just 16 years old. He was taught German and French by his Prussian nanny. He had the money to go where he wanted, study where he wanted, and to meet the very best people.
Merrill graduated from Amherst College in 1947. His first book, First Poems, was officially published in 1951. In 1953, he met David Jackson, an artist and writer who would be Merrill’s partner for the next 40 years, even if they were anything but monogamous.
Jackson was thought of, as anyone would have been in his place, of being a gold-digger. Truman Capote once asked him:
“Tell me, David, how much do you get a throw?”
The special quality and luminescence of Merrill’s poems was noted from an early age. His verse is formal, but witty, with a depth of real feeling beneath a coy facade. His poetry meant a great deal to a lot of readers.
But early critics wrote that Merrill’s poetry was brittle, neurotic, and unworldly (like that’s a bad thing). Some of that had to do with the era’s pronounced homophobia and even class resentment.
Merrill was a big fan of the opera. He and Jackson would get stoned during intermission at the Met.
Both men had a longtime obsession with Merrill’s homemade Ouija Board, where they communicated with spirits on the other side, including famous dead poets.
Merrill and Jackson would bring out the Ouija after dinner along with the brandy. Their two decades of séances were the inspiration for Merrill’s famous epic 560 page poem The Changing Light At Sandover which won the 1983 National Book Critics Award. Merrill took the Ouija Board sessions seriously. They made him feel frightened, but exhilarated. He strongly believed in a spirit world, but he sometimes he simply dismissed them as mere entertainment. I understand, having spent some time moving that planchette around on an Ouija board myself. There might be something to it.
Merrill lived in a pre and post-Stonewall world and he felt the new shifting backdrops of a life in the closet, Gay Liberation, and HIV/AIDS, with the slang, choices, and conditions for being a queer changing with the times.
Merrill had an enormous appetite for sexual encounters. He had many lovers. He also had many STDs. He was ultimately taken by complications from HIV. Even though he was fully out of the closet by then, he did not speak publicly about his diagnosis. Merrill:
“In my opinion there cannot be too much denial.”
His poetry never shied away from his life as a queer. Merrill won nearly every major American prize for poetry: two National Book Awards, The Library Of Congress’s Bobbitt National Prize, Yale University’s Bollingen Prize, and the Pulitzer Prize.
Merrill and Jackson shared a famous, much written about house in the village of Stonington, Connecticut, and the couple spent part of each year in Athens. Greek themes, locales, and characters occupy a prominent place in Merrill’s poetry. Later, Athens was replaced by Jackson’s own 300 square foot home in Key West, a far cry from the houses he had grown-up in. Merrill’s poem Clearing The Title is about this cottage at 702 Elizabeth Street.
Though Merrill was very wealthy his entire life, he loved a rather modest life and he understood the financial situation of artists of all kinds and he founded the Ingram Merrill Foundation, a permanent endowment created for writers and visual artists.
As Merrill grew older, the polished and taut brilliance of his early poems changed to an informal, relaxed style, even though he had already been established in the 1970s as one of the finest poets of his generation.
Merrill served as a Chancellor of the Academy Of American Poets from 1979 until his passing. He contributed generously to literary causes, the arts, and PBS.
In his memoir A Different Person (1993), Merrill writes a very candid portrait of gay life in the 1950s, and about of his relationships with lovers past and imaginary including writer Claude Fredericks, art dealer Robert Isaacson, and Jackson. At one point, Jackson and Merrill lived in a fairly long 3-way relationship with actor Peter Hooten.
For over 30 years of Merrill, Jackson and friends used that special Ouija board for Merrill’s writing. The sessions brought many ghosts into their lives. But, near the end of his life, Merrill discouraged other people from ever using or playing with the Ouija board.
Merrill put down his pen for good in 1995, taken by complications from HIV, while vacationing in Arizona, where he had gone thinking the hot dry air would be good for his health, just a month before his 69th birthday.
If you want to know more, and you really should, try James Merrill: Life And Art (2015) by Langdon Hammer.
But nothing’s lost. Or else: all is translation
and every bit of us is lost in it
and in that loss a self-effacing tree
Color of context, imperceptibly
Rustling with its angel, turns the waste
To shade and fiber, milk and memory.
The post #BornThisDay: Poet, James Merrill appeared first on The WOW Report.
Yesssss, queen! It’s World Book Day! Buy a book! Borrow a book! Read a book!
Not much of a reader? Don’t know where to start? Well, have we got a suggestion for you!
The World According to Wonder is the wildly glamorous coffee table book featuring never-before-seen photos and exclusive stories from some of the world’s most controversial, exposed and interesting personalities (AKA the chicest book EVER) is available RIGHT NOW!. And for anyone who wants a hard copy (that you can hold, feel, touch, LOVE), you can get yours on Amazon.com! Become a wowlebrity and get yours today!
It’s also available on the iBook store! You can get a digital copy for $9.99!
Here are just a FEW of the GAYMAZING portraits you’ll find in this scintillating tome!
Here’s Ru and WOW’s very own Tom Campbell giving you the hard sell
And check out the behind-the-scenes video below:
These people seem to be enjoying it.
Still aren’t convinced? Here’s an excerpt:
circa 1988. From top, left: Michael Musto, Trade, David Goldman aka Betty Jack DeVine, Albert Crudo, Randy Barbato, RuPaul Charles, Nelson Sullivan, and Fenton Bailey, photographed by Dick Richards outside his Atlanta home.
“At the time, we were broke, living in a sixth-floor walk-up in crack-infested Alphabet City. It had that inverse kind of glamour that people bedazzle as ‘bohemian’: drug dealers, addicts, hookers, and even a psychotic murderer. The fag-end of the American dream. We loved almost every minute of it!
“There was a lone club, the Pyramid, on Avenue A and 7th Street – the very edge of civilization. There was something about the place. It pulled people in. Fabulous drag artistes. Hapi Phace. Tabboo. Faye Runway. Sister Dimension. Lypsinka. And occasionally, from Atlanta, the not-yet-famous RuPaul and Lady Bunny. Todd Haynes debuted his notorious Karen Carpenter film there. Victor Weaver and Trey Speegle hosted “Straight to Hell” strip parties on Sunday nights. And on hand almost every night was Nelson Sullivan, a gentleman charmer with the most languid southern drawl and a fag in his mouth, videotaping everyone and everything.
“That camera was like a pirate’s parrot, permanently perched on his shoulder. He said that one day he was going to edit his thousands of hours of material into a public access cable show. But on July 4, 1989, he dropped dead of a heart attack. Nelson’s death was our call to action. We didn’t really know what public access was, but we soon learned. Cable companies had to make a couple of channels available for local community access. In other words, people could make their own shows and get them on TV. Simple as that. They could be about whatever they wanted them to be. There was no editorial screening process. Slots were assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. Manhattan’s public access channels presented a glittering seam of talent. Willa Sands – possibly tipsy – hosting Happy Hour. John Wallowitch – no less tipsy – banging out “Sing Along in Lithuanian” on the piano and knocking back Long Island Iced Teas. He was friends with Warhol, reportedly. Mrs Mouth, who painted a face on her upside-down chin then talked about picking her nose. And, for the adults, Voyeur Vision, where viewers could call in and talk to comely Lynn lying on a bed, touching herself where they requested. And veteran fixture Robin Byrd, in her trademark crocheted bikini, introducing strippers.
“It was pure Videodrome, but without the inconvenience of sprouting a video vagina. We figured there was no reason we couldn’t make a public access show, so we came up with the idea of Flaunt It! TV, a talk show taped once a week at New York’s Limelight nightclub, and hosted by us. Quentin Crisp, Kate O’Toole, Sigue Sigue Sputnik, Michelangelo Signorile, Michael Musto, and a monosyllabic Stephen Saban were some of the long-suffering guests on the short-lived show. It wasn’t exactly ratings gold. It ran for four episodes before we collapsed in exhaustion, followed by a prolonged period of deep depression. Not that failure ever stopped us. In the long run it was our fuel.”
To read more, buy The World According to Wonder on Amazon.com or from the iBook store today!
The post It’s World Book Day! Celebrate with Your Own Copy of The World According to Wonder! appeared first on The WOW Report.
Cutie Tom Goss stopped by the WOWPresents studio and filmed an all-new web-series called Hot Messages, the show where we take sex app trollers, and we turn it into song! Watch the first episode “Jacksonville” below.
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In addition to meeting all your favorite drag queens and going to the amazing panel discussions, RuPaul’s Drag Con is your one-stop shopping mart for all things FAAAAAAABULOUS. We’ve got your every drag need covered, hunty. There are wig emporiums and corset stores and makeup vendors and more jewels than the Tower of London. I know I can’t wait to go on THE SPREE OF A LIFETIME!
Let’s take a look at some of the exhibitors who will be on the floor this year.
1. Elea’s Closet has all sorts of pageant jewelry – enormous rings, necklaces, bracelets in dazzling Swarovski crystals – but I’m just gagging over this headpiece. It’s perfect for the stage, the red carpet, or just chill in’ at your corner pub!
2. Arda Wigs has wigs, yes, but so much more! Makeup! Makeup supplies! Crafts! Paints! Dyes! Airbrush kits! But back to the wigs… I’m a fiend for this adorable Cosplay Wig Lolita Drag Long Curly Wavy Cute Candy Striper Ponytail Clip Thin Mint Brown Green front. NEEEEEEED IT.
3 Ms Martha’s Corset Shoppe is your online purveyor of fine silk and leather cosets. Lots of really great finds here, but I think this little black leather Bullet Bra Corset is my fave… It’s a great corset for Rockabilly looks, superhero cosplay, and pin-up photography…. the molding, construction and style of this beauty make it THE corset to own this year. It can be styled as a halter or crisscrossed in the front for more of a peek-a-boo bust line –
The post RuPaul’s DragCon 2016 #MeetTheVendors: Elea’s Closet! Arda Wigs! and Ms Martha’s Corset Shoppe! appeared first on The WOW Report.
We caught up with all 12 of the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 and them each 8 questions! Get to know your new queens’ favorite pizza toppings, drag inspirations, albums, crushes, and auras!
Check back every day! We’ll be posting each queen’s Q&A in reverse alphabetical order until the Drag Race premiere March 7 on Logo!
The post 8 Things You Need to Know About ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 8 Queen Chi Chi DeVayne! appeared first on The WOW Report.
The super handsome Cha Cha Bitch himself AB Soto stopped by to model some of his favorite LOCKWOOD51 items! Check out Mr. Soto wearing the Honcho Muscle tee and shorts, as well as the Banana Tank and matching Board Shorts! You can come shop LOCKWOOD51 at RuPaul’s DragCon 2016!
Here’s more info on LOCKWOOD51 from RuPaulsDragCon.com:
Wearing his formative, instinctual passion for music, skateboarding and art on his sleeve, LOCKWOOD51 was a valuable asset to companies like Vans, Altamont, and Nike giving them the punk rock roots and street style they were hunting for. During his corporate career, he dealt with all sorts of homophobia and hid his sexuality so he could keeping advancing in that plastic, hostile environment. As a break from the daily grind, he started freelancing with NYC’s NastyPig on the side while the idea for Lockwood51 was forming.
Turning his back to everything sold to him as success, he moved to Los Angeles with a mission of attacking homophobia head on. He founded Lockwood51 to make the most personal, heartfelt work of his career and is now working fulltime to make #fuckingradgayshit and pursue a radical gay agenda called the #gaywave. It’s a taste of the new Left Coast and it’s igniting right now at the ground level.
The post #DragCon2016: Check Out These Smoldering Pictures of AB Soto Wearing Pieces by RuPaul’s DragCon Vendor LOCKWOOD51! appeared first on The WOW Report.
Oh to be 15 y/o again… Back-in-the-day, I spent about five years living abroad in Berlin. I wasn’t 15, but I can totally understand the sentiment that indie pop group Evripidis & His Tragedies conjures up in infectious new video/single Fifteen Again. It kinda reminds me of a snippet from Brazilian film The Way He Looks, and Belle & Sebastian’s song There’s Too Much Love. Originally from Greece, now living in Barcelona after a stint in London, Evripidis Sabatis is no stranger to embracing new environments. And with each new adventure, one is born again…making new friends, cruising for boys, and creating narratives that leave a lifelong impression. The innocence and freedom of being a teenager never really returns, but Sabatis does a great job of helping us take a trip back, if only for few minutes. Evripidis & His Tragedies third album Futile Games in Space and Time is due later this month. In the meantime, check out Fifteen Again below!
The post Watch: Boys, A Lake and Summertime Frolicking In Evripidis & His Tragedies’ “Fifteen Again” appeared first on The WOW Report.
Chaz Bono
David Schiff
Wash Westmoreland
Traver Rains
Bryan Rabin
Doron Ofir
Andrea Bowen, 23
Whitney Port, 28
Len Wiseman, 40
Ivy Queen, 41
Patsy Kensit, 45
Evan Dando, 46
Sam Taylor-Wood, 46
The post March 4: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.
March 4, 1954– Catherine Anne O’Hara:
“The people who present themselves as normal and nice and good are often the scariest monsters in the world.”
Gosh almighty, I love Canada and the citizens of our neighbor to the north. Vancouver, British Columbia is one of my favorite places on our pretty spinning blue orb. The Husband & I chose to be married there on the 25th anniversary of our being a couple, October 9, 2004.
I am zany for so many Canadians that have contributed to popular culture: k.d.lang, Joni Mitchell, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Robert Goulet, Justin Bieber. Canada elected that handsome 6’ 2’’ Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau (who is married to Jennifer Aniston, I think). But none are more loved by me than those great comic actors out of Canada: Jim Carrey, Margaret Atwood, Martin Short, Gilda Radner, the cast members of Kids In The Hall (1988- 1994) and especially SCTV (1976-1984) starring: Eugene Levy, John Candy, Harold Ramis and Rick Moranis, made all the difference for my getting through the 1970s and 1980s.
Last year, The Husband and I really dug the new series from Canada, Schitt’s Creek, created by, written and starring SCTV’s Eugene Levy and featuring his frequent partner Catherine O’Hara. Schitt’s Creek is a wicked, witty show about a very rich, pampered family that suddenly find themselves broke and are forced to move to Schitt’s Creek, a rube filled town that the father, played by Levy, had bought as a joke birthday present for his son. It is a sort of Green Acres (1965-71) for the new century. I only watch it after smoking a little pot, just as I did for my SCTV viewing back in the day. It is a CBC production, aired in the USA on something called the POP network, channel 4 on the evil Comcast’s Portland lineup.
O’Hara is much loved at this house. Her resume includes those Christopher Guest mockumentary films: Waiting For Guffman (1996), Best Of Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003) and For Your Consideration (2006). If that wasn’t enough, O’Hara is also terrific in my favorite Scorsese flick, After Hours (1985), and beyond nutty in Beetlejuice (1988), and DICK TRACEY (1990). O’Hara also had a swell story arc on my all-time favorite TV series, Six Feet Under, back in the early aughts. O’ Hara brings depth to many a shallow character. Her dry wit and trademark deadpan lends a surprising complexity to her crazy characters. She is a fearless actor. Her Cookie Guggelman Fleck in Best Of Show was a performance worthy of an Oscar, or at least a Blue Ribbon. It is not easy to be talented actor playing a really terrible performer, so I have to name Waiting For Guffman as my favorite of her roles.
In 2014, Canada honored O’Hara with a postage stamp. That’s right, you can lick O’Hara! I wonder if the USPS would ever do that for me. I understand in our country you have to be dead to get a stamp, so I am working on that.
O’Hara was born in Toronto, a terrific city. If you are smart with your arithmetic, I’m not and have to use my fingers, she is celebrating her 62nd birthday today and she still looks smashing.
I first noticed O’Hara back in the mid-1970s on the sketch comedy show, SCTV (Second City TV), alongside Andrea Martin and crew. In a career lasting four decades, O’Hara has starred in such diverse films as Home Alone (1990), Orange County (2002), Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events (2004) and Penelope.
She is a favorite of director Christopher Guest and also Tim Burton who used her so affectively in Beetlejuice, Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) and Frankenweenie (2012).
For her role in the television film Temple Grandin (2010) O’Hara earned her nominations from the Emmy Award, Satellite Award, and the Screen Actors Guild Award. She has won an Emmy for SCTV, and National Board Of Review named her Best Supporting Actress for For Your Consideration and Best Song for A Mighty Wind.
O’Hara is one of those funny women who are also crazy beautiful. She really is the successor to Madeline Kahn. I feel she deserves status as a true Gay Icon.
The post #BornThisDay: Actor, Catherine O’Hara appeared first on The WOW Report.
For the last month – leading up until Monday night’s big Drag Race premiere – we’ve been posting amazing looks from the season 8 queens’ Instagram accounts – alphabetically, of course.
Today, we’ve got that nutty fashion clown from Brooklyn: Thorgy Thor!
Mellow with cello
Classic Rizzo-inspired Thorgy
“Business casual at Santa Con” – channeling Elaine Stritch
Goddess of Thunder
Prehistoric snow beast in Brooklyn (with giant fork)
The Michael Jackson/Haysi Fantayzee drag mashup you didn’t even know existed
Constructivist Thor
Ape-chic
Older, more elegant ape-chic
The instantly iconic fat suit look from the New York premiere. LOVES IT!
the Drag Queen,, Chi Chi DeVayne, Cynthia Lee Fontaine, Dax Exclamationpoint, Derrick Barry, Kim Chi, Laila McQueen, Naomi Smalls, Naysha Lopez, and Robbie Turner‘s looks – and keep checking back with the WOW Report for more RuPaul’s Drag Race news to come)!
The post RDR 8: Top 10 Instagram Looks of Thorgy Thor appeared first on The WOW Report.
If you’re in the Miami area today and tomorrow, this is an absolute MUST-SEE event! A pop-up immersive installation of Mapplethorpe’s work is on view at Miami Dade College’s Wolfson Campus from 5PM until 10PM daily. Come face to face with his most provocative masterpieces. Presented on a scale worthy of its artistic impact, this digital gallery features rare and revealing commentary from the photographer himself.
The installation commences its tour at MDC, accompanying the presentation of the HBO produced documentary, Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures. The film receives its Florida premiere tomorrow at this year’s Miami International Film Festival. Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato (HBO’s Party Monster,The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and Wishful Drinking) have compiled archival materials and never-before-seen photographs and footage, to offer an intimate look at of one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
The installation will be on view at Kyriakides Plaza daily and features larger than life projections ranging from some of Mapplethorpe’s famous images to more personal works, plus rare commentary from the artist himself. (via MDC News)
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures – Mobile Art Gallery
Miami Dade College, Wolfson Campus
Kyriakides Plaza
March 3 – 5, 2016
5 pm – 10 pm daily
Tickets not required
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures – Film Screening
Miami International Film Festival
East Coast Premiere
Regal Cinema
March 5th, March 12th
Other pop-up installations will appear in NYC and SF
The post Happening RIGHT NOW! A Pop-Up “Mapplethorpe: Look At the Pictures” Exhibit in Miami! appeared first on The WOW Report.
Well, this is exciting news! Cosmetics mogul and New York nightlife institution Dianne Brill has joined the WOW MCN with her new YouTube channel “The Brill of it All” – and you are NOT GOING TO WANT TO MISS A SECOND OF THE FUN. Topics range from how to enter a room (“Think whip cream thoughts!”) to how to answer a ringing phone (with a “tel-a-pur,” of course) – it’s all incredibly goofy, incredibly informative, and incredibly Dianne – like getting your own personal tutorial from the Queen of the Night herself. Give her some love and check out the videos below ASAP.
And new episodes featuring interviews with downtown super-luminaries Joey Arias and Amanda Lepore COMING SOON!
The post Nightlife Icon Dianne Brill Joins the WOWPresents YouTube Network with her Series “The Brill of It All” appeared first on The WOW Report.
In addition to all the queens and WOWlebrities you can meet if you come to RuPaul’s DragCon and all the fabulous panels, there will also be vendors where you can buy the BEST merch! Like Giraffe Soul! They have wearable items such as shoes, wallets, purses, as well as journals & sketchbooks, and a few specialized items such as game boards, flasks, and cake plates! Each item is custom created to be one-of-a-kind utilizing a variety of media including comics, vintage magazines, and graphic novels. Check out their website.
The post GAG on the Wearable Art from RuPaul’s DragCon Vendor Giraffe Soul appeared first on The WOW Report.
We caught up with all 12 of the queens of RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 8 and them each 8 questions! Get to know your new queens’ favorite pizza toppings, drag inspirations, albums, crushes, and auras!
Check back every day! We’ll be posting each queen’s Q&A in reverse alphabetical order until the Drag Race premiere March 7 on Logo!
The post 8 Things You Need to Know About ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race’ Season 8 Queen Bob The Drag Queen! appeared first on The WOW Report.
This is HAH-larious! French comedians Grégory Guillotin and Jonathan Demayo pull a little joke on straight boys, and end up with a social experiment that shows how uncomfortable heterosexual men are with even the slightest affection shown by another man. In the video, Grégory and Jonathan take turns riding up an escalator. On the opposite descending escalator, straight-appearing men have their hands stroked by the two pranksters. Needless to say, there were a lot of vitriolic reactions. See for yourself below!
The post Watch Straight Boys React To Being Stroked By Other Men On Escalator appeared first on The WOW Report.
Eva Mendes, 40
Jake Lloyd, 25
Kimberly McCullough, 36
Niki Taylor, 39
Jolene Blalock, 39
Kevin Connolly, 40
Matt Lucas, 40
Charlie and Craig Reid, 52
Adriana Barraza, 58
Penn Jillette, 59
Marsha Warfield, 60
Eddy Grant, 66
Elaine Paige, 66
Murray Head, 68
Dean Stockwell, 78
The post March 5: It’s YOUR Birthday, Bitch! appeared first on The WOW Report.
March 5, 1922: Pier Paolo Pasolini:
“If you know that I am an unbeliever, then you know me better than I do myself. I may be an unbeliever, but I am an unbeliever who has a nostalgia for a belief.”
Pier Paolo Pasolini has the dubious distinction of being one of only three great filmmakers that I can recall who was murdered. Americans William Desmond Taylor (1872-1922) and Thomas Ince (1882-1924) both were killed under situations murky and still unsolved. Taylor was found dead in his apartment, shot in the back. It has long been suspected that starlet Mary Miles Minter, still in her teens, and her mother were behind his demise. Ince was a guest on a weekend yachting excursion hosted by newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. It seems that one of the guests, Charlie Chaplin, was having an affair with Hearst’s mistress, the beautiful, talented Marion Davies. Hearst, seething with jealousy, loaded a pistol and attempted to kill Chaplin, only to accidentally shot Ince by accident instead. Both cases have never been solved to satisfaction. Pasolini’s killing continues to confound.
Pasolini’s murder was most probably an assassination by the Mafia at the request of someone in the Italian Right-Wing who loathed the openly gay, Marxist, atheist, and extrememly popular artist, poet, actor, writer, cinematographer, composer, political theorist filmmaker. At the time of his demise, Pasolini had 25 films to his credit. In the the late 1940s and 1950s, Pasolini was a dedicated Communist.
In November 1975, shortly after the release of his controversial last feature film Salò, Pasolini was run over several times by his own car. His killer has never been found, though he had made so many enemies because of his political views and his connections to the Rome underworld that nearly everybody in the city was a suspect. Pasolini had picked up a teenager hustler that evening. The young grafter was arrested, but later recanted his confession, claiming that three men with Southern Italian accents killed Pasolini. Details of the crime make it quite impossible to have been the work of just one person.
I saw Pasolini’s most famous film at the Film Forum in NYC in 1976. If you wish to see it, don’t do so on a full stomach. It is the most nauseating work of art I have ever seen. Salò, known here as The 120 Days Of Sodom is an updating of the Marquis de Sade‘s 1780s novel, setting the story to the final days of Mussolini‘s depraved inner circle.
In his poetry, journalism, novels and films, Pasolini championed the poor and disenfranchised of post-war Italy, mingling an intellectual Leftist views with his fierce Franciscan style Catholicism. His best film, The Gospel According To Matthew (1964), was dedicated to John Paul XXIII, the first Pope to connect Catholicism with Marxism. Pasolini pointedly omitted the word “Saint” from the title. It was shot in the lunar landscape of Italy’s Basilicata region, where crazy Mel Gibson filmed his own lurid Christ extravaganza, The Passion Of The Christ (2004).
Pasolini graduated from Bologna University in 1943, after which he moved with his parents to a small town in Fruili near the Yugoslavian border. The great wine region of Fruili was the birthplace of Pasolini’s mother, who played the Mary in The Gospel According To Matthew.
In 1949, Pasolini was charged with “corruption of minors and obscene acts in a public place”, leading to his being kicked out of the Italian Communist party. I know how he must have felt. I’ve been asked to leave a party on occasion. He relocated to Rome with his mother in tow. Post-war Rome was a rough place with gangs of tough young men ruling the city at night. The street violence found its way into Pasolini’s film versions of the Greek Myths Oedipus Rex (1967) and Medea (1970), which starred the great soprano Maria Callas in her only film role, albeit with no singing.
The 1960s brought American style with Coke, jeans and rock music to Rome. This was the backdrop for Mamma Roma (1962), with Mamma played by Anna Magnani as a streetwalker determined to provide for her pretty teenage son. With enough money, she promises him, they can move into a respectable neighborhood. But, the son sinks deeper into the city’s thieving underworld.
I was mesmerized by his film Teorema (1968) where an angelic, and way too handsome Terence Stamp seduces everyone in a bourgeois Milanese household: the religious maid, the icy mother, the homely daughter, the closeted son, even the powerful father. Amid erotic tension and emotional fireworks, each family member comes to a new understanding of their life. Ero pazza per questo film , quando ho Frist visto in classe cinema nei primi anni 1970 .
If you are brave (remember that Pasolini’s films were made to outrage), also check out: The Hawks And The Sparrows (1966), The Decameron (1971), and his happiest, hippiest film, Canterbury Tales (1972), with plenty of nudity, sex, and slapstick.
Near the end of his life, Pasolini lived in an opulent apartment in the best neighborhood in Rome. He bought a Maserati and an Alfa Romeo. To the press, he dismissed the poor as having lost their innocence to the consumerism.
I am not certain that I have ever really grasped the meanings of films of Pasolini. Have I ever mentioned that I once had 6 semesters of Film Theory and History Of Film? I often feel like such a dummy, I can’t hammer a nail, I can’t cook, I can’t use a pencil sharpener, but at a cocktail party I am able to spout shit like this.
The post #BornThisDay: Filmmaker, Pier Paolo Pasolini appeared first on The WOW Report.
In an interview with Howard Stern this week, Tina Fey let everyone know really felt about all things Hollywood,
“I’m so glad I live here [in New York City], because halfway through [the Oscars], I was like, ‘This is some real Hollywood bullshit.’ Everyone’s telling me what to do. People are yelling at me about rape and corporate greed, but really, it’s climate change.
I was like, ‘Guys, pick a lane. Like we’re going to fix everything tonight.’ And also, like, ‘You’re all rich. Why are you yelling at me about corporate greed?‘”
Leonardo DiCaprio, who used his Oscar win to tell the world about climate change, was another of Fey’s topics during her interview,
“I always am psyched when someone is articulate with those things because, let’s face it, actors are very stupid. But he’s so smart and his speech was so cogent.“
Stern tried to point out that DiCaprio, a notorious womanizer, should focus more on climate change instead of dating models,
“How do you fuck that many women without a conscience? Does that give him a free pass to fuck all these women in a misogynistic way?. Does it make it OK to be misogynistic as long as you’re for the environment?“
But Fey shut him down,
“That doesn’t affect the green footprint, no matter how many women you fuck. As long as you WALK over to them.“
And she stood up for the recent Oscar-winner when Stern tried yet again to accuse him of being misogynistic, saying,
“Is it misogynistic to sleep with a bunch of women who want to sleep with you? No. I don’t think it’s misogynistic. I think everybody there is up for it, but also cause he’s still cute.“
Meanwhile, it has been pointed out the hypocrisy of Leo’s stance being that he flys private and rents luxury yachts, that burn fuel like driving 100 cars at once. He HAS been a target of Fey’s ribbing in the past. At the Golden Globes in 2014, she introduced him saying,
“And now, like a supermodel’s vagina, let’s all give a warm welcome to Leonardo DiCaprio.”
Tina’s been doing the media rounds promoting her new film Whisky Tango Foxtrot which has been getting mixed reviews. (61% on Rotten Tomatoes) You can listen to the Stern interview below.
The post Tina Fey Says the Oscars Are “Some Real Hollywood Bullsh*t” –But Defends Leo’s Womanizing appeared first on The WOW Report.
Former supermodel Jerry Hall, 59, said ‘I do’ to 84-year-old media mogul Rupert Murdoch in London. Murdoch tweeted:
“Feel like the luckiest AND happiest man alive. No more tweets for 10 days — or ever!“
Murdoch gave Hall a $3 million, 20-carat diamond ring which despite being the mother to four of Mick Jagger’s children, Jerry has never had an engagement ring. Her bridal dress was designed by her old pal Vivienne Westwood.
The reception will include many high-profile political and celebrity figures like Sir Michael Caine, Prime Minister David Cameron, playwright Tom Stoppard, with glam wife Sabrina Guinness, comedian Eddie Izzard, artist Tracey Emin, actor Richard E. Grant, composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, Live Aid founder Bob Geldof and former Rolling Stone Bill Wyman & his wife, who is Hall’s best friend.
The couple met in Australia just last August, when Jerry was touring in a production of The Graduate. Their first public outing was at the Rugby World Cup final and he proposed at Christmas. Jerry’s old friend, actress Joan Collins said that Jerry gushed:
“I’m in lurve! Rupert just proposed!“
A friend of Jerry’s said:
“He is simply dazzled by her and she doesn’t have to worry about him going off with someone else, which makes a change after Mick. Also unlike Mick, Rupert is a man who likes being married. In fact, he told her that very soon after they met and it went down well as Jerry craves security.“
They have ten children between them — he has six, Prudence, 53, James, 43, Lachlan, 44, Elisabeth, 47, Grace, 14 and Chloe, 12; she has four, Lizzy, 32, James, 30, Georgia May, 24 and Gabriel, 18.
Mick Jagger, 72, is said to be appalled when he heard that Jerry was to marry Rupert— she did not warn him of the announcement in advance. He is “absolutely staggered and horrified.” A friend of the star — who is currently in the middle of an extensive South American tour with the Stones, said:
“He has been seething because this means that Rupert Murdoch is going to become a part of his extended family, … Mick has a real problem with that.“
How come? Well, it was Murdoch’s tabloid newspaper, the Sun, which broke the news that Mick had fathered a baby by a Brazilian model, Luciana Morad and THAT affair ended his marriage to Jerry, costing him millions in a legal settlement after he was kicked out of the family home.
And of course, Murdoch is worth $12 BILLION to Mick’s $300 million. The media, after the initial half-hearted congrats have been taking jabs at the couple too – Murdoch for being old and Hall for being a gold-digger.
Peggy Drexler in an opinion piece for CNN.com, called Why Marry?, wrote,
“Murdoch’s split from his third wife, Wendi Deng, was high-profile and undoubtedly humiliating. Though Deng denied having an affair with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, a good friend and godfather to one of Murdoch and Deng’s two children.
A marriage to Murdoch comes with enormous wealth, power and an international platform that’s far greater than Jagger’s…. if a marriage between independent individuals in pursuit of love and companionship and irrespective of need –sprinkled with a bit of entirely natural “look at me now” revenge– isn’t wholly modern, I don’t know what is.”
As I’ve said before, I hate Murdoch’s politics, but it’s hard to begrudge people’s happiness, however late in life. We should all be so lucky to be giddy in love in the third act.
To the press, they were just Mick & Jerry in their heyday
(via The Daily Mail)
The post #Hitched: Jerry Hall Marries Billionaire Mogul Rupert Murdoch (& Ex Mick Jagger Is NOT Happy About It!) appeared first on The WOW Report.
