Friday, July 1, 2011
Demented Diva
Jane Russell: a life in clips
We look back at Jane Russell's movie career, from The Outlaw through Gentlemen Prefer Blondes to her late-60s cameos.
As a 20-year-old and the object of Howard Hughes's attentions, Jane Russell was force-fed into a series of low-cut dresses for The Outlaw (1943).
She plays Doc Holliday's girl Rio, who falls in love with a wounded Billy the Kid when he hides out with her, on the run from Pat Garrett. Not remotely historically accurate, this blood-heat western is best remembered for the censorship squabbles over exactly how far Russell was allowed to lean over while tenderly ministering to the Kid. Hughes's legendary underwired cantilevered brassiere was designed during the shooting of the film, but Russell denied she ever wore it.
The Paleface (1948) was a real change of pace: a comedy western with Bob Hope as the useless dentist Peter Potter, who plays husband to Russell's deep-cover Calamity Jane. Songs, giggles and full Technicolor, it was a recipe for success that made a sequel, Son of Paleface (1952), inevitable. Here's Hope and Russell doing Buttons and Bows – so good they had to do it twice. Russell gets a bit more of a look-in in the second film.
Another profitable pairing for Russell was with lazy-eyed Robert Mitchum, opposite whom she played nightclub canaries in two successive noirs: His Kind of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952). In the former, she and Mitchum meet up in a sleazy Mexican bar, while the second, a globetrotting affair in the mould of Josef von Sternberg's pre-war Shanghai Express, has Russell belting out torch classics like One for My Baby. Von Sternberg, though, was fired during production after repeatedly clashing with Mitchum; Nicholas Ray was brought in to finish things up.
Russell's best-known film, and the one she'll always be remembered
for, is one in which, even though she had top billing, she pretty much
played second fiddle to emergent superstar Marilyn Monroe. The "two
little girls from Little Rock" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) were perfect sweater-girl fantasy figures for the mid-1950s: Monroe blonde and ditsy, Russell dark and sassy. Russell's apparent acceptance of Monroe's bombshell superiority – and ability to parody it – won her lots of friends. She may not have got to sing Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, but she did have Ain't There Anyone Here for Love.
After this high point, Russell's star began to decline. Howard Hughes had her courting controversy once again in The French Line (1954), in
which she pranced around in a then-outrageous swimsuit with holes cut
in it. She made the epic cattle-drive western The Tall Men (1955) for director Raoul Walsh, opposite Clark Gable; her own production outfit made Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), a sort of semi-sequel to Blondes, with Jeanne Crain in the Monroe role, and she played tough in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), as a hardboiled dancehall hostess who tries to make a go of it in Hawaii.
The truth was, though, that as the 1950s wore on, Russell's smouldering, tight-lipped charms seemed more and more out of place, and, after the failure of The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957), she more or less packed in movie-making. Her commitment to Christianity and rightwing politics – surprising, you might think, for such a censor-baiting figure – helped push her away from Hollywood. She made a few cameos in the late 60s – including a turn in biker exploitation flick The Born Losers (1967), the original Billy Jack movie – but nothing she was ever proud of.
She plays Doc Holliday's girl Rio, who falls in love with a wounded Billy the Kid when he hides out with her, on the run from Pat Garrett. Not remotely historically accurate, this blood-heat western is best remembered for the censorship squabbles over exactly how far Russell was allowed to lean over while tenderly ministering to the Kid. Hughes's legendary underwired cantilevered brassiere was designed during the shooting of the film, but Russell denied she ever wore it.
The Paleface (1948) was a real change of pace: a comedy western with Bob Hope as the useless dentist Peter Potter, who plays husband to Russell's deep-cover Calamity Jane. Songs, giggles and full Technicolor, it was a recipe for success that made a sequel, Son of Paleface (1952), inevitable. Here's Hope and Russell doing Buttons and Bows – so good they had to do it twice. Russell gets a bit more of a look-in in the second film.
Another profitable pairing for Russell was with lazy-eyed Robert Mitchum, opposite whom she played nightclub canaries in two successive noirs: His Kind of Woman (1951) and Macao (1952). In the former, she and Mitchum meet up in a sleazy Mexican bar, while the second, a globetrotting affair in the mould of Josef von Sternberg's pre-war Shanghai Express, has Russell belting out torch classics like One for My Baby. Von Sternberg, though, was fired during production after repeatedly clashing with Mitchum; Nicholas Ray was brought in to finish things up.
Russell's best-known film, and the one she'll always be remembered
for, is one in which, even though she had top billing, she pretty much
played second fiddle to emergent superstar Marilyn Monroe. The "two
little girls from Little Rock" in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) were perfect sweater-girl fantasy figures for the mid-1950s: Monroe blonde and ditsy, Russell dark and sassy. Russell's apparent acceptance of Monroe's bombshell superiority – and ability to parody it – won her lots of friends. She may not have got to sing Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, but she did have Ain't There Anyone Here for Love.
After this high point, Russell's star began to decline. Howard Hughes had her courting controversy once again in The French Line (1954), in
which she pranced around in a then-outrageous swimsuit with holes cut
in it. She made the epic cattle-drive western The Tall Men (1955) for director Raoul Walsh, opposite Clark Gable; her own production outfit made Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), a sort of semi-sequel to Blondes, with Jeanne Crain in the Monroe role, and she played tough in The Revolt of Mamie Stover (1956), as a hardboiled dancehall hostess who tries to make a go of it in Hawaii.
The truth was, though, that as the 1950s wore on, Russell's smouldering, tight-lipped charms seemed more and more out of place, and, after the failure of The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957), she more or less packed in movie-making. Her commitment to Christianity and rightwing politics – surprising, you might think, for such a censor-baiting figure – helped push her away from Hollywood. She made a few cameos in the late 60s – including a turn in biker exploitation flick The Born Losers (1967), the original Billy Jack movie – but nothing she was ever proud of.
Elizabeth Taylor's Jewelry Valued At $150 Million
"Good Morning America" took a look at Elizabeth Taylor's jewelry collection, reportedly valued at $150 million.
The icon once talked to Barbara Walters about her love for all-things-bling, explaining, "The beauty, the perfection, God's workmanship. They're all from the ground." Her affinity for gemstones began as a child and continued as she counted husbands. Walters asked her if it was awkward for her new men to see their predecessor's presents. "So I've been told," Liz remarked. What did she do about it? "Encourage them to give me more." Naturally.
The icon once talked to Barbara Walters about her love for all-things-bling, explaining, "The beauty, the perfection, God's workmanship. They're all from the ground." Her affinity for gemstones began as a child and continued as she counted husbands. Walters asked her if it was awkward for her new men to see their predecessor's presents. "So I've been told," Liz remarked. What did she do about it? "Encourage them to give me more." Naturally.
The Taylor-Burton Diamond
The Taylor-Burton
Richard Burton's first jewelry purchase for Elizabeth Taylor was the 33.19-carat Asscher-cut Krupp Diamond, in 1968. This had formerly been part of the estate of Vera Krupp, second wife of the steel magnate Alfred Krupp. Miss Taylor wears this stone in a ring. She has worn it in a number of her post-1968 films, during her interview on CNN's Larry King Live in 2003, and just about everywhere else she goes. Next came the La Peregrina Pearl for which Burton paid £15,000. The stone has a long and complex history. For Elizabeth's 40th birthday in 1972 Richard Burton gave her a heart-shaped diamond known as the Taj-Mahal. The stone is fairly large and flat, with an Arabic inscription on either side. It is set with rubies and diamonds in a yellow gold rope-pattern necklace. "I would have liked to buy her the Taj-Mahal," he remarked, "but it would cost too much to transport. This diamond has so many carats, its almost a turnip." Then he added, "Diamonds are an investment. When people no longer want to see Liz and I on the screen, then we can sell off a few baubles."
By the far the best known of Richard Burton's purchases was the 69.42-carat pear-shape, later to be called the Taylor-Burton Diamond. It was cut from a rough stone weighing 240.80 carats found in the Premier Mine in 1966 and subsequently bought by Harry Winston. Here there is a coincidence: Eight years before, another cleavage of almost identical weight (240.74 carats) had been found in the Premier. Harry Winston bought this stone too, commenting at the time, "I don't think there have been half a dozen stones in the world of this quality." This wouldn't be the first time the Premier Mine would have the last word because the 69.42-carat gem cut from the later discovery is a D-color Flawless stone.
After the rough piece of 240.80 carats arrived in New York, Harry Winston and his cleaver, Pastor Colon Jr. studied it for six months. Markings were made, erased and redrawn to show where the stone could be cleaved. There came the day appointed for the cleaving, and in this instance the usual tension that surrounds such an operation was increased by the heat and glare of the television lights that had been allowed into the workroom. After he had cleaved the stone, the 50-year-old cleaver said nothing -- he reached across the workbench for the piece of diamond that had seperated from it and looked at it through his horn-rimmed glasses for a fraction of a second before exclaiming "Beautiful!" This piece of rough weighed 78 carats was expected to yield a stone of about 24 carats, while the large piece, weighing 162 carats, was destined to produce a pear shape whose weight had originally been expected to be about 75 carats.
Elizabeth Taylor wearing the Taylor-Burton Diamond in a necklace
by Cartier featuring a number of smaller pear-shaped diamonds.
The diamond was put up for auction on October 23rd, 1969, on the understanding that it could be named by the buyer. Before the sale speculation was prevailing as to who was going to bid for the gem, with the usual international names being kicked around by the columnists. Elizabeth Taylor was one name among them and she did indeed have a preview of the diamond when it was flown to Switzerland for her to have a look at, then back to NYC under precautions described as "unusual".
An illustration of the Taylor-Burton set in a necklace containing
several hundred small round brilliants and a marquise shape.
Harry Winston
The Taylor-Burton, with a label of 'the Cartier Diamond', being
displayed at one of the Cartier stores, in the brief period after
Richard Burton bought it but it had not yet been handed over to him.
"The peasants have been lining up outside Cartier's this week to gawk at a diamond as big as the Ritz that cost well over a million dollars. It is destined to hang around the neck of Mrs. Richard Burton. As someone said, it would have been nice to wear in the tumbril [a farm cart for carrying dung; carts of this type were used to carry prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution] on the way to the guillotine."
Shortly afterwards on November 12th, Miss Taylor wore the Taylor-Burton in public for the first time when she attended Princess Grace's 40th birthday party in Monaco. It was flown from New York to Nice, Italy in the company of two armed guards hired by Burton and Cartier. In 1978, following her divorce from Richard Burton, Miss Taylor announced that she was putting the diamond up for sale and was planning to use part of the proceeds to build a hospital in Botswana. In June of 1979 Henry Lambert, the New York jeweler, stated that he had bought the Taylor-Burton Diamond for $5,000,000.
By December he had sold the stone to its present owner, Robert Mouawad. Soon after, Mr. Mouawad had the stone slightly recut and it now weighs 68.09 carats. Before the recutting, the curved half of the stone's girdle had a very round outline, it is now a little more straight at that end. It also had a small culet, which was made even smaller after the recut. Sources: Famous Diamonds by Ian Balfour and My Love Affair With Jewelry by Elizabeth Taylor.
Richard Burton's first jewelry purchase for Elizabeth Taylor was the 33.19-carat Asscher-cut Krupp Diamond, in 1968. This had formerly been part of the estate of Vera Krupp, second wife of the steel magnate Alfred Krupp. Miss Taylor wears this stone in a ring. She has worn it in a number of her post-1968 films, during her interview on CNN's Larry King Live in 2003, and just about everywhere else she goes. Next came the La Peregrina Pearl for which Burton paid £15,000. The stone has a long and complex history. For Elizabeth's 40th birthday in 1972 Richard Burton gave her a heart-shaped diamond known as the Taj-Mahal. The stone is fairly large and flat, with an Arabic inscription on either side. It is set with rubies and diamonds in a yellow gold rope-pattern necklace. "I would have liked to buy her the Taj-Mahal," he remarked, "but it would cost too much to transport. This diamond has so many carats, its almost a turnip." Then he added, "Diamonds are an investment. When people no longer want to see Liz and I on the screen, then we can sell off a few baubles."
By the far the best known of Richard Burton's purchases was the 69.42-carat pear-shape, later to be called the Taylor-Burton Diamond. It was cut from a rough stone weighing 240.80 carats found in the Premier Mine in 1966 and subsequently bought by Harry Winston. Here there is a coincidence: Eight years before, another cleavage of almost identical weight (240.74 carats) had been found in the Premier. Harry Winston bought this stone too, commenting at the time, "I don't think there have been half a dozen stones in the world of this quality." This wouldn't be the first time the Premier Mine would have the last word because the 69.42-carat gem cut from the later discovery is a D-color Flawless stone.
After the rough piece of 240.80 carats arrived in New York, Harry Winston and his cleaver, Pastor Colon Jr. studied it for six months. Markings were made, erased and redrawn to show where the stone could be cleaved. There came the day appointed for the cleaving, and in this instance the usual tension that surrounds such an operation was increased by the heat and glare of the television lights that had been allowed into the workroom. After he had cleaved the stone, the 50-year-old cleaver said nothing -- he reached across the workbench for the piece of diamond that had seperated from it and looked at it through his horn-rimmed glasses for a fraction of a second before exclaiming "Beautiful!" This piece of rough weighed 78 carats was expected to yield a stone of about 24 carats, while the large piece, weighing 162 carats, was destined to produce a pear shape whose weight had originally been expected to be about 75 carats.
Elizabeth Taylor wearing the Taylor-Burton Diamond in a necklace
by Cartier featuring a number of smaller pear-shaped diamonds.
The diamond was put up for auction on October 23rd, 1969, on the understanding that it could be named by the buyer. Before the sale speculation was prevailing as to who was going to bid for the gem, with the usual international names being kicked around by the columnists. Elizabeth Taylor was one name among them and she did indeed have a preview of the diamond when it was flown to Switzerland for her to have a look at, then back to NYC under precautions described as "unusual".
An illustration of the Taylor-Burton set in a necklace containing
several hundred small round brilliants and a marquise shape.
Harry Winston
The Taylor-Burton, with a label of 'the Cartier Diamond', being
displayed at one of the Cartier stores, in the brief period after
Richard Burton bought it but it had not yet been handed over to him.
"The peasants have been lining up outside Cartier's this week to gawk at a diamond as big as the Ritz that cost well over a million dollars. It is destined to hang around the neck of Mrs. Richard Burton. As someone said, it would have been nice to wear in the tumbril [a farm cart for carrying dung; carts of this type were used to carry prisoners to the guillotine during the French Revolution] on the way to the guillotine."
Shortly afterwards on November 12th, Miss Taylor wore the Taylor-Burton in public for the first time when she attended Princess Grace's 40th birthday party in Monaco. It was flown from New York to Nice, Italy in the company of two armed guards hired by Burton and Cartier. In 1978, following her divorce from Richard Burton, Miss Taylor announced that she was putting the diamond up for sale and was planning to use part of the proceeds to build a hospital in Botswana. In June of 1979 Henry Lambert, the New York jeweler, stated that he had bought the Taylor-Burton Diamond for $5,000,000.
By December he had sold the stone to its present owner, Robert Mouawad. Soon after, Mr. Mouawad had the stone slightly recut and it now weighs 68.09 carats. Before the recutting, the curved half of the stone's girdle had a very round outline, it is now a little more straight at that end. It also had a small culet, which was made even smaller after the recut. Sources: Famous Diamonds by Ian Balfour and My Love Affair With Jewelry by Elizabeth Taylor.
Monday, June 27, 2011
Jessica Lange
The actress may be most notable for her performance of Frances Farmer (ranked #85 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time in 2006) in Frances, and Tootsie. Both from 1982, for which she was nominated on Oscars in two categories at the same time, becoming the first such female since Teresa Wright in 1942. Her other significant roles featured Patsy Cline in Sweet Dreams (1985), Carly Marshall in Blue Sky (1994), Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire (1995), Irma Applewood in Normal (2003), and Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens (2009). Amongs other, she has won two Academy Awards, four Golden Globes, and lately an Emmy Award.
After three decades in front of the camera, Lange has realized her dream of being on the other side of the lens, and published in 2008 her own collection of black-and-white photographs, simply entitled 50 Photographs (powerHouse Books). Their exhibition, along with series of her films, was presented at the oldest international museum of photography and film George Eastman House, to be awarded by the first GEH Honors Award in 2009. Since 1982, Lange has lived with the Pulitzer Prize-winner, Sam Shepard.
Early life
Lange, the third of four children, was born in Cloquet, Minnesota, the daughter of Dorothy Florence (née Sahlman) and Albert John Lange, who was a teacher and salesman.Her maternal grandparents were of Finnish descent, while her paternal grandparents were German and Dutch. She studied art briefly at the University of Minnesota before going to Paris, France, where she studied mime with Étienne Decroux. She returned to New York in 1973 and took acting lessons while working as a waitress and a fashion model for the Wilhelmina Models agency. She was discovered by the fashion illustrator Antonio in 1974.Career
In 1976, Dino De Laurentiis cast her in his film motion picture remake of King Kong, which both started and almost ended her career. Although the film was a box office hit, critics were not kind to Lange and the film and Lange did not appear in another film for three years, when Bob Fosse cast her as the glamorous figure of death in All That Jazz (1979). The unfavorable reviews were devastating but critics took notice with her impressive turn in Bob Rafelson's remake of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981).Her performance in her next film, Frances (1982), in which she portrayed actress Frances Farmer, was highly lauded and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She received two Academy Award nominations that year, the other for Best Supporting Actress in the comedy Tootsie (1982), for which she won. She continued giving impressive performances through the 1980s and 1990s in films such as Sweet Dreams (1985) (playing country/western singer Patsy Cline), Crimes of the Heart co-starring with Diane Keaton and Sissy Spacek, along with Sam Sheppard (1986), Music Box (1989), Men Don't Leave (1990), and Blue Sky (1994), directed by Tony Richardson, for which she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She portrayed the wife of the titular legendary Scottish hero in Rob Roy with Liam Neeson (1995).
Since 2000, Lange has mostly appeared in supporting roles on screen. In 2006, she appeared as part of the ensemble cast of Kathy Bates and Joan Allen in Bonneville. In her most recent film, she played Edith "Big Edie" Bouvier Beale in Grey Gardens (2009), a film based in part on biographical information, and in part on the 1970s cult documentary. Her performance earned her an Emmy Award.
Humanitarian work and political views
She is a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). She has also been a public critic of former U.S. President George W. Bush, once calling his administration, "a self-serving regime of deceit, hypocrisy and belligerence."Personal life
Lange was married to photographer Paco Grande from 1970–1981. Since 1982, she has lived with playwright/actor Sam Shepard. She has three children, Alexandra (born 1981) from her relationship with dancer/actor Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Hannah Jane (born 1985) and Samuel Walker (born 1987) with Shepard.Filmography
Cinema
Television
| Television | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Director | |
| 1981 | The Best Little Girl in the World | ? | Sam O'Steen | |
| 1985 | Cat on a Hot Tin Roof | Maggie | Jack Hofsiss | |
| 1992 | O Pioneers! | Alexandra Bergson | Glenn Jordan | |
| 1995 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | Glenn Jordan | |
| 2003 | Normal | Irma Applewood | Jane Anderson | |
| 2004 | Peace by Peace: Women on the Frontlines | Narrator | Lisa Hepner | |
| 2007 | Sybil | Dr Cornelia Wilbur | Joseph Sargent | |
| 2009 | Grey Gardens | Big Edie | Michael Sucsy | |
| Documentaries | ||||
| 1981 | Notre Dame of the Cross | Herself | Daniel Schmid | |
| 1994 | A Century of Cinema | Caroline Thomas | ||
| 1997 | Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's | Shari Springer Berman Robert Pulcini | ||
| 2003 | XXI Century | Gabriele Zamparini | ||
| 2005 | The Needs of Kim Stanley | Dani Minnick | ||
Stageography
In 1992, Lange made her Broadway-theatre début in New York City opposite Alec Baldwin in Tennessee Williams's A Streetcar Named Desire. She appeared in the West End in London, United Kingdom, in 2000, as Mary Tyrone in Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. In 2005, she returned to Broadway in another Tennessee Williams play, The Glass Menagerie with Christian Slater.| Theater | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Title | Role | Director |
| 1992 | A Streetcar Named Desire | Blanche DuBois | Gregory Mosher |
| 2000 | Long Day's Journey into Night | Mary Cavan Tyrone | Robin Phillips |
| 2005 | The Glass Menagerie | Amanda Wingfield | Rupert Goold |