Many singers have transitioned nicely into movies. Look at Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Doris Day, Bing Crosby, Whitney Houston, David Bowie, Bette Midler, Jennifer Hudson. But personally, I’m fascinated with the cinematic hiccups- and not the obvious disasters like Mariah…
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I was recently spring cleaning and getting rid of a lot of old VHS tapes when I came across a pile I had squirreled away in the closet that really started me laughing. In the old days, I used to…
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I have to admit that now when I go to a movie and the lights dim and a title card flashes across the screen with “Previews Of Coming Attractions” my heart sinks. It didn’t use to be that way, but…
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Yes, I killed Lucille Ball. Not with a gun or anything. After all, she did die of a heart ailment. But I think in some way I contributed to the demise of the doyenne of American Comedy- that Mercurochrome-haired woman…
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Most of us learn the hard way that honesty is not the best policy. When friends ask you to comment on their work, outfit or new lover, they’re basically begging for a positive review. In Hollywood, as in Washington, it’s…
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When you look back at your life as if it was a movie, there are main characters, there’s a supporting cast, and there are plenty of unpaid extras. But there are also very special characters that crossed your path that…
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Opening Friday May 11th at the IFC Center is Revenge, a deliciously nasty, bloody slice of female retaliation film. They say revenge is a dish served cold. Well that doesn’t apply to pretty, hot sexpot Jen (Matilda Anna Ingrid Lutz),…
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Gun Crazy (Warner Archive) There are film noir films and then there is Gun Crazy (1950), Joseph H. Lewis’s brilliant criminal couple-on-the-run film. It starred John Dall as a crack marksman who gets involved with a beautiful, but deadly, carnival…
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Hollywood just loves giving itself awards. There’s Oscar, Emmy, the Golden Globes, the People’s choice, etc. You can barely turn your television on in the first couple months of the year without stumbling over an image of some actor breathlessly…
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Watching the first season of David Simon’s terrific HBO series The Deuce, set amid the seedy, crime-ridden Times Square of the 70s, made me incredibly nostalgic. Yes, I’m one of the few who genuinely miss the scary old 42nd Street,…
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