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Wednesday
Today Web and Celeb
  • The talented gay actor Rupert Everett (Marlowe in "Shakespeare in Love") announced that he's writing a James Bond film script in which it is revealed that Bond is gay. He also said that his Bond will be more like Fleming's books: aggressive, scary, and unnecessarily violent. I suppose he'll be a better agent than the other Bond, because he'll be impervious to the charms of female enemy agents. Bond, Jameth Bond. He drinks his grasshoppers frapped, not stirred. Two straws, no umbrella. Possible titles include "The Guy Who Loved Me", "Dr. Yes, Yes, a thousand times yes", and "For You Guys Only". You know, I never thought Roger Moore was that good for the part, but now I'm reconsidering.
  • Pam Anderson, the birds and the bees. A friend visited Pam in Monte Carlo and said that birds flew onto Pam's balcony and started mating, so Tommy Lee rushed out with his video camera and taped it. This is all true. And you thought "Return of the Jedi" was a bad sequel?
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  • Maybe you can help
  • FR asked me to post this. He made some captures from a hardcore film, then lost the name of the film, and couldn't find it again. The actress is Sacha Collins, and she's a fox. Apparently she was a model in Belgium and this was her first video. I know this is obscure, but can anyone name this Belgian movie?
  • Here is another one somebody needed an ID for. I don't remember who sent me these, but who is this beautiful woman?
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  • Deneuve in Pola X
  • Look at that. Just when you wonder if anything in the in-basket will suprise you, you find a couple of captures of Catherine Deneuve's topless scene in "Pola X", and they come from someone whose name and e-mail address aren't familiar to you. Just like that.
  • One more frame of Deneuve in the tub. She does look splendid. She is 55.
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  • The Realist
  • The Realist turned in some beautiful collages of lovely Thandie Newton in Beloved. Here is the scene where she seduces Danny Glover
  • more of the Glover "bewitching"
  • rear view as Oprah walks her to the porch
  • close-up of her chest
  • full frontal in broad daylight, but with a prosthetic tummy, and a non-prosthetic Oprah

  • more of the porch scene. This is really a very good movie with the power to please no one, and no box office appeal.

    First of all, it is most likely to appeal to those who read and liked the brilliant novel by Toni Morrison. Unfortunately, that book is difficult to bring to life. Like most great works, it is subtle and inexplicit, inviting the reader to think and wonder. Is Beloved really the missing daughter in the flesh, a supernatural being, a manifestation of Sethe's guilt, an imposter? The book leaves plenty of room for reader interaction. The movie chose to make her a fully realized corporeal entity, and the director and actress chose to have her play the role as kind of a serious version of Jerry Lewis. She talks in a mentally-impaired Linda Blair Exorcist voice, and moves as if unable to control her hands and feet. In effect the movie tells us precisely and exactly what Beloved is like, something the book left us more room to picture on our own, and frankly, I didn't much care for the image they chose. I think many who loved the book will feel the same way.

    Secondly, the book is deeply mystical, and uses a complex interweaving of timescapes, together with a jumble of interior monologues, blocked memories, reality, manufactured memories, and the supernatural/mystical. The book uses these elements effectively, because certain characters have to discover the truth about certain events in the same way the reader does, or the technique will not produce the desired effect. It is difficult to translate this into film, although this film does quite a good job, in my opinion. Unfortunately, that extends the running time substantially. (171 minutes)

    What do we have left? A movie unable to please those who loved the book, and generally far too complicated and somber for those who are unfamiliar with the book.

    Forget the merit of the movie for a minute - who did they think would be the audience? The intellectuals who loved the book? That's a pretty small potential audience to build on, and the film is obviously not designed for the mass market.

    Therefore, the movie was doomed to disappoint viewers and those who invested in it.

    Is it a bad movie? Hell, no. It is a good story, powerfully told. It is fundamentally decent. It is well photographed, well acted, and I liked the score. Oprah and her production company are to be thanked for bringing such a treasure to the screen. Jonathan Demme obviously thought he was directing a movie that would be considered a masterpiece. His attention to detail was surprising. He has one scene over Sethe's shoulder where a Riverboat can just be seen cruising by. First of all, to hire a Riverboat just to appear far in the distance over someone's shoulder - well, that is worthy of Welles or Tarkovsky (to be fair, they used the boat in one other panoramic shot of the river). But second of all, that set-up required the actors to start the scene at precisely the right time, and stand in precisely the right place to allow the camera to catch the boat. Turn the shoulder wrong - no boat!. It is a good movie, but I just hope they weren't planning on a profit.

    I'm one of the few who liked it, but I liked it a lot. It paints a picture of the difficulty of good people to keep their moral compasses in extraordinary times. The period of slavery and the American Civil War probably dislocated more moral magnetic norths than any other time I can think of, and it was a struggle to keep on the level of humanity and civilization that we humans think we have achieved. I felt the movie made this point movingly. I do think it was more difficult to relate to Sethe's strongest actions without a harsher pictorialization of the hardships she endured and expected her children to endure, but I really am not convinced this was a flaw at all. The picture chose subtlety over melodrama, and perhaps that was a good choice.

  • This is Lisa Gay Hamilton, who played Sethe (the Oprah character) in the flashbacks
  • HUGO does Henstridge
  • As always, some elaborate and high quality video collages from HUGO. This time, Natasha Henstridge in Maximum Risk. Ya know, I liked Henstridge better with the blond hair.
  • Natasha Henstridge (and another of our favorites, Jean-Claude van Damme) in Maximum Risk
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  • Harry Lime
  • The Third Man is certainly up on the latest stripping news. He doesn't do his own scans or captures, but occasionally he stumbles across something we have to know about. These pictures represent Christy Canyon in a club date just last week (5/21) in Columbus, Ohio.
  • Canyon
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  • a couple more of Canyon in explicit poses. This a little less explicit ...
  • .. and this a little more
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  • DonBun
  • DonBun's presentation today is Dinosaur Island, and the quality is superior. Sharp images, natural colors, good size. So some remarkable work from DonBun. Three of Griffin Drew and three of a young Michelle Bauer. Here's Bauer
  • Bauer
  • Bauer
  • Drew
  • Drew
  • Drew
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  • Zononon Zor
  • More outstanding variety and classics from ZZ. Here's lovely Olivia de Havilland. (No nudity)
  • Alan Smithee
  • The mysterious Alan Smithee sent in two of Valeria Golino in Piccoli Fuochi. The quality of his tape was not so good, but Golino is naked and the images are new to me, so no complaints here.
  • Golino again.
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  • noteworthy
  • ex-Playmate Linda Weismeier as June Knockers in Malibu Express.