Mr. Wow Blog
No Cleavage, Please–We are The Golden Globes! And Other Matters…
1:57 pm | December 15, 2017

Author: Mr. Wow | Category: Point of View | Comments: 12

FRIDAY, December 15 2017

“NO ONE wants to look sexy!”

    That’s what Hollywood stylist Elizabeth Stewart told The Hollywood Reporter’s  Booth Moore  recently, in the matter of how the ongoing Fall of Alleged Harassing Men will affect fashion choices at the coming Golden Globes ceremony on January 10th. 

   Wow.  Is this what “empowerment” has come to?  That cleavage, a long well-exposed leg, a tight fit, will somehow be counter-productive to women who are bringing truly serious accusations of harassment, coercion and rape against powerful men?  Are we going to go back to “she asked for it” because of how she was dressed?

   The GGs are an awards ceremony—and without a doubt the silliest and most fun.  People tune in for the cameras sweeping the ballroom, to catch pleasantly liquored-up stars make faces, mingle, cuddle and (if your lip-reading skills are good enough) say wonderfully terrible things.  People also tune in for–cleavage, long legs and a tight fit!  That’s entertainment.  That’s female glamour since the old days of the Nickelodeon.  It will be a sad thing if women feel they have to cover up to convey solidarity with their abused sisters.  The show itself is likely to be a nerve-racking, overly political self-righteous mess anyway.  At least give us something to look at. 

   Designer Prabal Gurung, described as “politically outspoken” also contributed to this Hollywood Reporter article.  He said, “Women can dress however they want, to show their body or cover it.”  Then he added, “being sexy or not is an individual choice—the problem is the gaze.”

   The gaze?  The male gaze, which will always objectify a woman? (Just thinking, or saying, “she’s hot!” doesn’t make you Harvey Weinstein.)  Or the female gaze, that surveys a woman critically or enviously or admiringly?  And let’s not forget that over the past twenty years or so, women have been much more open in their own objectifying gaze of men.  If Zac Efron and Hugh Jackman came onstage at the Globes and performed a “Magic Mike” routine, few women would look away.

    The atmosphere right now is a French Revolution-style cross between “The Twilight Zone” and “The Crucible.” PBS’s Tavis Smiley is the latest to be eliminated—he says he’ll fight back.  More disturbing is the Netflix executive who was fired after one of actor Danny Masterson’s accusers approached the exec in public—he was coaching a soccer game.  He did not know who she was. (Masterson has been accused of rape by several women; he was fired from Netflix’s “The Ranch.”)  The woman said, “Why hasn’t Danny Masterson been fired?” The exec said “Netflix does not believe these allegations.” Which, at that point, prior to Masterson’s firing, was likely what he thought he was supposed to say.  Now he’s out.  So, nobody can say “we don’t believe this” without the fear of losing their livelihood?  

   We live in interesting times.

BULLET

I SAID above that The Golden Globes is the silliest awards show.  Always has been. Put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press, it is often mind-bending in its nominations and wins.  But, the event itself is fun.

    This year is no exception.  I won’t run through every category, just a few particular nods or snubs. 

   First off, the exclusion of “The Big Sick” from Best Picture, Comedy or Musical category is criminal. No other word.  I love this movie.  It made me happy this year–a huge achievement.

   “All the Money in the World” which nobody has seen except members of the Hollywood Foreign Press, received three nominations, Michelle Williams for Best Actress, Drama, Ridley Scott as director, and Christopher Plummer in the Supporting Drama category.  Maybe they deserve it, but it looks more like the HFP wanted to honor Ridley Scott for erasing the ruined Kevin Spacey in the role of J. Paul Getty, and replacing him with Plummer, so swiftly.  It was quite a feat.

   I’d prefer to see Timothee Chalamet win Best Actor in a drama, for “Call Me By Your Name.” But because Daniel Day-Lewis has announced that “Phantom Thread” will be his last film—honest, this time—he might snag it.  Timothee is very young.  Time is on his side.

   I am totally on board for Frances McDormand in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.”  The movie is a totally wild black comedy and McDormand’s performance is epic, baroque, searing.  Ditto one of her brilliant co-stars Sam Rockwell, who is justly nominated in Best Supporting.  Rockwell has been chugging along, doing amazing work for years. He has been grossly under-honored.  (Woody Harrelson is also terrific in this.  Woody seems to get better every time he sets foot in front of a camera.)

   Best Actress, Comedy?  Margot Robbie, hands down for “I, Tonya.” 

    Best Supporting Actress?  I adore Laurie Metcalf, and she almost walks away with “Lady Bird.”  But she has been well-awarded over the years. Allison Janney is monstrously good in “I, Tonya” (as Tonya Harding’s mother.)  She, too, is award-laden. But I’m a little off the great Ms. Janney so long as she continues to appear in the lamentable sitcom, “Mom.”  So, I go with Mary J. Blige for “Mudbound,” a powerful film, in which Blige transforms herself admirably in attitude and appearance.

   In the TV drama category, Elisabeth Moss will probably take it for “The Handmaid’s Tale.”  But I’d not object to delicious Claire Foy for “The Crown,” Caitriona Balfe for “Outlander” (I love a good supernatural bodice-ripper!)  or the amazing Maggie Gyllenhaal in HBO’s otherwise VERY unfairly overlooked “The Deuce.” 

   Lastly, let’s consider Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie.  I’ll be fine with Nicole Kidman or Reese Witherspoon in “Big Little Lies.”  Or the exquisite Jessica Lange in “Feud: Bette and Joan.” (I’m afraid I lost interest in Jessica Biel and “The Sinner” halfway through.)  

    As for Susan Sarandon, who played Bette Davis in “Feud,” I couldn’t have been more impressed by her performance—she was great. So great, in fact, that now, every time I see her, I always somehow see Miss Davis. 

    But—and here we become openly childish and peevish and, yes—unfair.  I kind of got over her stupidity in voting for Jill Stein last year. Que sera, sera.  But recently she went down another rabbit hole of imbecility by declaring that if Hillary Clinton had been elected we’d be at war!  Look, I voted for Mrs. Clinton without much enthusiasm. I don’t think she should have run at all.  But I sure don’t think she would have led us to war, no matter how else she would have inevitably disappointed us. 

   Susan Sarandon is a great actress.  And she has a right to her opinion.  And I have the right to say I don’t want to see her win a Golden Globe.  I guess that makes us both idiots.
BULLET

ON SUNDAY evening at New York’s Film Forum, Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s epic and notorious 1963 film, “Cleopatra” will be screened. According to legend, it was a “bomb.”  According to the facts, it was the highest grossing film of the year. It simply could not, at that time, make back its  $40 million-plus cost.

  Film fans will recall that there were two productions of “Cleopatra.”  First, there was the London production, which was scrapped because the star, Elizabeth Taylor almost died of pneumonia.  Many millions had already been spent. ET’s near death only increased her popularity—so much so that she won her first Oscar for “Butterfield 8.”  The Rome production, a year later, was equally fraught, for different reasons. During filming Taylor became, for the second time, the world’s most notorious husband-stealer—snatching married co-star Richard Burton, and tossing Eddie Fisher’s scalp in the singer’s face. (Fisher’s betrayed ex-wife, Debbie Reynolds couldn’t stop laughing.)

   The scandal–Taylor denounced by the Vatican!–the enormous costs, and the tenuous financial state of 20th Century Fox, all colluded to undermine the film itself, which was elegant and literate, with a lot of spectacle thrown in.  “Cleopatra” looks a lot better now 50 plus years later.  And The New Yorker’s Richard Brody gives the film a long-overdue positive review in the current issue. 

   The movie has a hypnotic quality based very much on the fact that Mankiewicz, who knew Taylor well—he had directed her in “Suddenly, Last Summer”–began to tinker with the script as he watched Taylor and Burton become increasingly besotted.   There is eerie prescience in the scenes between Taylor and Burton (she and Rex Harrison—as Julius Caesar—also click very well.)  La Liz and Richard not only seem to be playing out what was happening to them at the time, but in many ways, how their real-life relationship would flower, bloom and if not quite wither, then become depressingly laden with too much excess.  As Elizabeth herself would state, after their first separation in 1973, “Perhaps we have loved each other too much.”  

   Go see “Cleopatra” as it was meant to be seen, on the big screen. (Call 212-727-8110).  And you are made of stone if you are not affected when Taylor/Cleo desperately clutches Richard/Mark Antony and cries out, “How it hurts. How love can stab the heart!”
BULLET

ENDTHOUGHT:  This has been on my mind for a year.  The year’s almost done and I simply can’t help myself.

    I don’t know the personal habits of Steve Bannon—thank goodness.  But no matter how closely aligned he is to the president in matters of policy (I use that word loosely), I find it hard to believe Bannon was ever in the same room with 45.  No matter his issues, the commander-in-chief is famously a germaphobe and a clean freak.  He hates shaking hands, etc. He admires well-put-together people.  Steve Bannon looks like he hasn’t showered in months.  His hair is greasy, his skin is perpetually blemished.  He dresses like a rag-picker. (Believe me, considering my own haphazard wardrobe choices critiquing somebody else’s clothes is a daring leap for me to make, about anybody!) 

   Mr. Bannon doesn’t seem to care what he says or how he says it, but right now he’s suffering some pain in the wake of Doug Jones’ surprise win in Alabama. Bannon might consider, while he plots his next outrage, trying to make himself appear…neater. (I heard some speculation on one of those pointless eight-people cable news channel panels, that Bannon always looks like he’s just come off a bender.  But like the president, Bannon is abstentious. Lips that touch liquor, and all that.) 

   Even Bannon’s slavery-loving friend Roy Moore wore a suit and tie–along with that handy gun.   Bannon is a sinister guy.  But smart.  Surely he is smart enough to know his unkempt appearance makes him seem more sinister. Perhaps that’s what he wants to convey?  Or maybe he just thinks his casual approach to grooming will endear him to the “working class.”?  

    Does he not realize that once work is done, these good people bathe?

Comments:
  • Claudia

    Thanks for this! I wasn’t planning to watch, but now am looking forward to it, and keeping an eye on your notes.

    2:10 pm | December 15, 2017
    • Mr. Wow

      Thanks, Claudia.  Not looking forward to any of the awards shows but will watch, natch.

      2:51 pm | December 15, 2017
  • Rho

    So glad you started this. I will watch.

    12:14 pm | December 16, 2017
  • BabySnooks

    I am still in shock over Susan Sarandon’s “we would be at war” proclamation she made to further defend herself . She wanted to make a statement. Now she’s made two. 
    Steve Bannon is playing the part as they say. And looking it. Scary to think that he has a following.  But he does. Ever scarier is that they are allowed to vote 
    I rarely watch the awards show but I will watch and hope Susan Sarandon not only loses but is booed when her name is announced along with the other nominees. 

    1:15 pm | December 16, 2017
  • lulu

    I love women who dress sexily without showing her ‘goods’. I am reminded of Grace Kelly, Loretta Young, and more recently, most of the time, Julia Roberts and Emma Stone. Maybe I am too old fashion but once you have seen everything any of the Kardashians, Beyonce, or others have to offer it becomes boring!!!!  That goes for men as well.  Give me how Cary Grant or Robert Wagner dressed.As far as award shows, I like the Golden Globes the best. I used to love the Academy Awards but now I find them a total messy boring broadcast. It would be wonderful if new masterminds reinvented award shows.Happy Hanukkah, Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanza, and all the rest to all the Wowettes!!!Looking forward to seeing the decorations at Denis and B’s home again this year.

    1:49 pm | December 16, 2017
  • rick gould

    Hey Mr. W and Friends,
    I seems to be stuck in the ’50s lately. Maybe it’s because I feel like we’re reverting to the ’50s again!
    Anyway, here’s my latest, ‘Imitation of Life’ with Lana Turner and Juanita Moore. It’s got everything: racism, sexual predators, problem children, and childish superstars…plus lots of glitter and tears! https://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2017/12/imitation-of-life-1959.html

    Cheers, Rick 

    12:42 am | December 19, 2017
  • rick gould

    Loved your column on your “interview” with Elizabeth Taylor!
    I guess great stars, like the ones in the sky, are best viewed from a great distance : )
    Cheers, Rick

    12:47 pm | December 21, 2017
    • Mr. Wow
      If Miss Taylor had been less…”edgy” it would have been a far less interesting interview.  Didn’t change how I felt about her, because I had never viewed her through violet-tinted glasses to begin with.  

      Merry Christmas!  
      9:25 pm | December 23, 2017
  • DanS

    I tend to demure on the topic of women struggling in a
    society that wants to simultaneously sexualize and marginalize them because I’m
    a white man and I’ve essentially been carried through my charmed life on a
    palanquin. Or so I’m told. I can’t fully inhabit someone else’s experience, but
    it takes little imagination to see why it’s an issue that a woman has to
    struggle with the perceived sexiness of her outfit, lest society presume a
    bunch of things about her character based upon her fashion choice. I don’t have
    any good answers for that, but it’s silly that a woman is looking to choose
    between the gold sequin dress and the red sequin dress and has to debate which
    one society will judge her less harshly for.

     

     

    The Big Sick was just a really great movie. It helps
    immensely that it was written my star Kumail Nanjiani and his real-life wife
    and was based on their first year of being a couple. That really gives it some
    heart. Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri is one I would’ve thought
    was a Coen Brothers movie (particularly with it starring Frances McDormand) had
    I not seen the credits. I’m surprised there are so many things listed here that
    I’m familiar with. Usually, I’ve never even heard of half the things that are
    nominated.

     

     

    As someone who unenthusiastically voted for Hillary Clinton,
    I have a bit of incredulity for any claims that America would currently be in a
    worse position right now had she been at the helm. I suspect that our nation’s
    allies in the UN wouldn’t have just overwhelmingly voted to essentially call
    her an asshole that they don’t have to listen to. Some small part of me admires
    President Trump’s ability to bulldoze ahead with bad decisions in the face of facts,
    critics, reality, morality, and plain good sense.

     

     

    Recently, Republican representative Peter King out of New
    York said that Steve Bannon looked like a “disheveled drunk” and that the
    Republican party should distance itself from him. My thought is “Why abandon
    him now?” When you look at everything the Republican party is currently doing,
    it’s like they’re taking notes right out of a Steven Bannon manifesto.

     

     

    Maybe I’m a pessimist, but I’m reluctant to fully celebrate
    the defeat of Roy Moore. At best, I’d call it necessary, but not sufficient. It
    doesn’t really feel like a rebuke of his awful rhetoric. It doesn’t feel like a
    turning of the tide for the Democratic party. It took all the power of the
    Democratic party with the support of a few Republicans before a civil rights
    hero could barely beat a child molester. It was basically a dead heat between
    the best that the Democrats had to offer versus the worst that the Republicans
    had to offer. Even in Republican-heavy Alabama, that shouldn’t have been a
    close race. I fear that there’s still a rough slog to come before we can start
    dreaming about progress again.

    12:29 pm | December 22, 2017
    • Mr. Wow
      Dear Dan–

      I’m NOT encouraged by Roy Moore’s very narrow defeat, and I am even more discouraged that Democrats seem to think they are going to perpetrate a “bloodbath” on Republicans in 2018.   I’m from Missouri on that one.  We are in pitch black times, and I don’t see a way out for a while–if, frankly, ever.  45–I use his name a little as possible–has altered the country irrevocably.  His stupidity and coarseness are terrible to watch, but when the next would-be despot comes in, then is the time to really worry.  He–or she–will be smarter, more controlled, more ideologically dipped in concrete.   And the Democrats have nobody.  (If Kirsten Gillbrand thinks  forcing Al Franken out of the Senate somehow sets her up for a presidential run–we’re so moral!– she is very much mistaken.   If we see a female president in our lifetimes, it will be a staunch, scary conservative woman.) 
      9:38 pm | December 23, 2017
  • Connie

    For some reason I remember you tonight and decided to go looking for the WOWOWOW website which is gone I guess but you are still here.  I’m glad to find you and I’ve been reading blog entries that I missed before.   I always enjoyed your posts and I like you and sympathized with your depression because I have struggled with it for years too. I am glad to finally know what you look like and who you are.  I think you are remarkably attractive, but you are not as I pictured you, much cuter.  

    9:08 pm | December 23, 2017
    • Mr. Wow
      Dear Connie…

      Thank you.  I’m more or less over the worst of my depression, although I’m kind of generally depressed and fearful over the state of the country, and all that–keeping my passport handy.  Not kidding!   And thank you for the compliment, which comes at an excellent time, with my 65th birthday less than two weeks away.   How did you picture me–more severe?  Thinner?    Anyway, have a very merry and happy and especially a healthy 2018.  
      9:29 pm | December 23, 2017
  • Leave a Reply to BabySnooks Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *