Friday, January 09, 2015

I Didn't Say It ...

Mike Huckabee, on why he’s leaving Fox News:

"I've never had so much fun in my life. I've met people I never dreamed I'd meet and I've played music with legends in the music business. But I also realize that God hasn't put me on Earth just to have a good time or to make a good living, but rather God has put me on Earth to try to make a good life. There's been a great deal of speculation as to whether I would run for president. And if I were willing to absolutely rule that out, I could keep doing this show. But I can't make such a declaration."

Wait. So, um, God wants you to leave Fox News? Good on God. But if you want people to believe — at least those folks who believe in God — that with all that’s going on in the world, with terrorism, and famine, and death and disease that She’s taking one second to send you a message about running for the White House again, again, you’re more delusional than even I ever thought possible.
Frank Bruni, in a New York Times column, pondering about our political dynasties:

"Jeb and Hillary. Hillary and Jeb. It’s getting to the point where a mention of one yields a reference to the other, where they’re semantically inseparable, presidentially conjoined. Should we just go the extra step, save ourselves some syllables and keystrokes? The 2016 matchup as envisioned by many: Jebary. Or, more economically still, Heb. The fascination with this pair as possible rivals for the White House makes perfect sense, because it defies belief. We’re talking about tomorrow while trafficking in yesterday. We’re saying we need to turn the page by going back to a previous chapter. We’re a country of self-invention (that’s the myth, at least) in thrall to legacies and in the grip of dynasties, riveted by the mightiest surname in modern Democratic politics and its Republican analogue, imagining not just a clash of the titans but a scrum of the successors."

Well, I can see Hillary in the White House, but Jeb? We’ve gone down that road with two other Bush’s and I know we can do better than that.
Benedict Cumberbatch, on Alan Turing, whom he is playing in The Imitation Game:

"He's a man who died tragically early due to a government he helped free from fascism by his work in World War II cracking the Enigma Code, rewarding him for his nature for quietly confessing to who he was - as a gay man in a time of intolerance in the 50s.”

Even why helping with the war effort in a way no one had ever done before, Turing was literally, physically tortured for being gay.
Jamie Dornan, on wearing a special ‘sock’ for the sex scenes for 50 Shades of Grey

“Your dignity is intact as much as it’s all tucked away in a little flesh-coloured bag… As a guy you put all your essentials in a little bag and you tie it up like a little bag of grapes and it’s tucked away. It’s quite a peculiar thing to do every day.”

Is it just me, or would anyone else want to be the one to tie up Jamie’s essentials at the start of filming and then let them out at the end of the day.
Russell Crowe, on women in film not aging gracefully:

“The best thing about the industry I’m in — movies — is that there are roles for people in all different stages of life. To be honest, I think you’ll find that the woman who is saying that [the roles have dried up] is the woman who at 40, 45, 48, still wants to play the ingénue, and can’t understand why she’s not being cast as the 21 year old. Meryl Streep will give you 10,000 examples and arguments as to why that’s bullshit, so will Helen Mirren, or whoever it happens to be. If you are willing to live in your own skin, you can work as an actor. If you are trying to pretend that you’re still the young buck when you’re my age, it just doesn’t work.”

I think Crowe has a point. Jennifer Aniston, for example, is a forty-five year old woman but she’s still playing at least 15 to 20 years younger.
That said, the double standard of men in Hollywood acting onscreen with actresses young enough to be their granddaughters, should also be addressed. I saw a graphic yesterday that showed when Denzel Washington was in his 30s and playing married onscreen, the actress who played his wife was twenty-eight. Now that he’s sixty, the actresses who play his wife in films have aged to their mid-30s.Double standard Hollywood.

10 comments:

  1. Alan Turing - a hero in every sense of the word.

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  2. Jamie Dornan? No, Nob, it's not just you.

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  3. OMG! Sorry about the digit-slip, BOB. I didn't mean to. - HONEST!!!!!

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  4. I'd love for Elizabeth Warren to be the next president of the US; both Jeb and Hillary carry too much baggage

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  5. @TDM
    Ain't he, though?

    @Raybeard
    Uh huh! =)

    @Helen
    Me, too, but she says she won't run and she seems to be fairly honest with what she says!

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  6. When I first heard of Turing, I was curious as to why he was mentioned only rarely in any of the histories, and upon finding out he was gay, the light bulb went on.

    While Russell Crowe has a good idea, its only part of it. If Hollywood would hire actresses of the proper age for their leading men, the older actresses could find great parts.

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  7. the huckster needs to go back under his rock, STFU, and stay there til hell freezes over.

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  8. When Lauren Baccall died one of the reasons I was sad was because she didn't keep butchering herself to stay looking 'young,' yet she kept herself in the public eye, kept working and didn't become a relic of the past. There aren't many female movie stars who manage that.

    Maybe if young actresses turned down parts opposite men twice their age, but then they'd be putting a bomb under their own career and in a profession where most people are unemployed a lot of the time you wouldn't want to do that.

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  9. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-30735673 thought this would horrify you as it horrifies me; Russia can only get worse with Putin at the helm, trying to find objects of hate to distract attention away from his failings

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  10. @Helen
    It does horrify me. Just when you think it can't get worse over there, it does.
    And it is all to distract from their leader's shortcomings.

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