The Original Video Vixens

Oh, sure, it starts going downhill after 1970; but even by the time you get to The Three Degrees performing at some downmarket beauty pageant, it's still better than anything you'll see Beyonce or Rihanna perform at the VMA's.

Reconsidering Richard Crenna

RICHARD CRENNA
November 30, 1926 - January 17, 2003

It was easy to overlook Richard Crenna - or, at the very least, take him for granted. His rugged, reassuringly solid presence in every other TV movie of the 1980's (and, somewhat less nobly, the Rambo series) made him a familiar, if not terribly exciting, face and name. But digging deeper into his career and filmography is an eye-opening experience. For one thing, his list of leading ladies is nothing if not impressive. There was Gloria "I Married a Monster from Outer Space" Talbott in an episode of the western series Frontier (1956)...

...the Destitute Man's Gloria Grahame, Cleo Moore, in the pulpy neo-noir Over-Exposed (1956)...


...an even-wackier-than-usual Shirley MacLaine in the subversive spoof John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (1965)...


...the luscious Ann-Margret, and even more luscious Louis Jourdan and Chad Everett, in Made in Paris (1966)...


...a terrorized Audrey Hepburn in her Hollywood swan song, Wait Until Dark (1967)...


...Dame Julie Andrews in the campy, cult-ish Star! (1968), in which they locked lips and clashed plaids...


...and the intense, drag queeny Janice Rule in the sub-Jackie Susann howler, Doctors' Wives (1971).


Clearly, a re-evaluation of Mr. Crenna's ouevre is in order. Oh, and as the deal clincher, we realized that, as the unfortunate husband of Kathleen Turner in Body Heat (1981), Crenna displayed an admirably lean physique at age 51; we would have kept him and dumped William Hurt who, frankly, always sort of freaked us out. Creepy dude.

Birthday Girls

"MAMA" CASS ELLIOT
September 19, 1941 - July 29, 1974

MISS FREDA PAYNE
September 19, 1942

TWIGGY
September 19, 1949

The Lady is a...

...Star! (1968)
Dir.: Robert Wise

Cast: Julie Andrews, Richard Crenna, Robert Reed (!)

Costumes: Donald Brooks

Found HERE

Girls With Guitars

DUSTY SPRINGFIELD: THE ACOUSTIC BEEHIVE (GREAT NAME FOR A BAND, NO?)

THANKS, PANCAKES BARBARA!

ROCK 'N' RHYTHM ROYALTY: NORMA JEAN RICHARDSON aka "DUCHESS"

SOPHIA LOREN AT HOME, 1964

MAE WEST: COME UP'N PLUCK ME SOMETIME

DORIS DAY, CHANNELING NANCY SINATRA

MAMIE VAN DOREN: THE GIRL WHO INVENTED ROCK & ROLL

KIM NOVAK AT HOME, 1964

SINGING NUN #1: JULIE ANDREWS

SINGING NUN #2: DEBBIE REYNOLDS

WANDA JACKSON, THE QUEEN OF ROCKABILLY

FRANCOISE HARDY: GALLIC GAL WITH GUITAR

Smooth Operator

One of our favorites: the heart-stoppingly handsome John Gavin. Often dismissed as cardboard or wooden, we think he's underrated; good-looking as he was, we're sure Kubrick and Hitchcock wouldn't have cast him in Spartacus or Psycho (both 1960) if they didn't think he could bring something to the table besides an utterly fabulous chest. Although, frankly, that would be enough for us.



Equally at home in the glossy environs of Imitation of Life (1959) and Back Street (1961) as he was on the dusty trails of his Western TV series, Destry (1964), Gavin also proved he could ably spoof his square-jawed matinee idol image in Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967) -- unlike Hitch or Kubrick, we think it's a fairly safe bet that Ross Hunter, who cast Gavin in five films (including the three mentioned above) was undoubtedly smitten.

JOHN GAVIN'S QUINTET OF ROSS HUNTER PRODUCTIONS, FROM TOP: IMITATION OF LIFE (1959) WITH LANA TURNER; MIDNIGHT LACE (1960) WITH DORIS DAY; TAMMY TELL ME TRUE (1961) WITH SANDRA DEE; BACK STREET (1961) WITH SUSAN HAYWARD; THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE (1967) WITH JULIE ANDREWS

Gavin's career faltered after Millie; he famously lost the role of James Bond when Sean Connery was lured back for Diamonds are Forever (1971). He turned his attention to the stage, appearing in, among other productions, Michael Bennett's See Saw (1973). Gavin replaced the original male lead, Ken Howard, in the original Broadway production with future Knots Landing star Michele Lee, and then toured the country with the show, opposite Lucie Arnaz.

After two terms as President of the Screen Actors' Guild, and a string of guest spots on such obligatory 1970's fare as The Love Boat and Fantasy Island, Gavin withdrew from entertainment and became the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico during the Reagan administration; he is currently retired, and, judging by the most recent photo below, looking just dandy.

We love the hat and the knit tie.