happy birthday Carolyn Jones

when she was Mrs. Aaron Spelling

happy birthday Ann- Margret

happy birthday Norman Bel Geddes

your unearthly, monumental vision for Max Reinhardt’s The Miracle blew the world away. Barbara bel Geddes was your daughter

happy birthday Lionel Barrymore

you could be such an insufferable hambone so often. But you were absolutely magnificent in King Vidor’s sublime The Stranger’s Return (1933) one of the most overlooked great films ever made

https://m.ok.ru/video/1237973862914

happy birthday Blossom Dearie

Paulina Porizkova: Phoenix

How cool was it to see “Paulina,” single name only, as the world once knew her when she was THE beauty queen of all supermodels back in the 1980s, on the Oscar red carpet last night, the delightfully surprising arm candy of Aaron Sorkin?

There’s always been a special place in my heart for her, especially after seeing her winsomely ingratiating movie debut in way back in 1987, in Anna, in which she handily faced down Sally KIrkland’s tour-de-force Oscar-nominated turn. My Film Journal review of that movie had my first quote pulled from it for the film’s Oscar campaign that year and, more recently, I have been following her bumpy trajectory since reading of the death of her husband of almost 30 years rock star, Rick Ocasek, of the Cars. They had two grown sons and had been separated for a couple of years, but amicably, or so she thought. That was before she discovered that she had been completely cut out of his will, a situation which led to hard times during which she moved out of the UWS brownstone that was home for decades and was forced to borrow money from friends to buy groceries.

Side note: I was sitting in Zabar’s little stop-and-go cafe, one of my former favorite haunts, if only to be entertained by the loud and lively convos of the yenta kaffe-klatches that would assemble there, about a year before Ocasek died. He actually materialized in the joint, to buy some Danish, very determined-looking (those stars are always so pressed for time). And I remember thinking, “Hey, he’s not quite so weird-looking anymore, he’s kinda aged or grown into that teeny-tiny head which made his marriage seem a bit Beauty & the Beast…and what a nice houndstooth coat!”

She has been amazingly open about her current life on social media, and following her has been fascinating, as well as uplifting. This big second chapter in her life – at 56 – has her literally starting all over again in a completely independent life which she had not known since meeting Ocasek when she was 19. She had admitted, amusingly, to dating online, and look what happened?

below are a couple of articleswhich delineate this supermodel’s inspiriting phoenix rise from the ashes of despair. Good on ya, girl!:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2020/10/17/paulina-porizkova-moves-out-new-york-home-ric-ocasek/3693269001/

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/paulina-porizkova-dating-sex-in-50s-181031344.html

#paulinaporizkova

Anjelica & Joan

there are a few legendary friendships which fascinate me more than my own… like their’s, with their big, bold, glamorous and fascinating art-filled lives:

https://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/new-again-anjelica-huston

I think we are overdue for a follow-up dual interview with them, but in the meantime, here’s another one from the past:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/bffs-anjelica-huston-joan-juliet-buck-reminisce-102014458848.html

R.I.P. CHRISTA LUDWG

in a word, DIVINE

#christaludwig

Paradise Garage, Remembered

This is just about the best article about the best dance club EVER…plus the top jams that raised that roof are included for your listening ecstasy

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/mar/28/larry-levan-disco-dance-nicky-siano-dj-harvey

Happy birthday Anita Loos

a truly great, truly iconic screenwriter

cecil beaton sketch