Faye Dunaway

Hermione Gingold As Evita????

The role of Evita Peron has appealed through the years to grand divas like Patti LuPone, Faye Dunaway, Madonna, and that Argentinian woman from last year. But did you know that froggy-voiced, bulging-eyed British vaudeville entertainer slash actress Hermione Gingold sort of had a shot at it?

Christina Crawford Improves Her Stage Act

When I saw it recently, Christina Crawford's presentation Surviving Mommie Dearest (at the Snapple Theater Center) was a little bizarre because the bulk of it involved her showing a documentary that includes lots of her facing the camera and telling stories about mama, Joan Crawford. Christina saunt ... More >>

Christina Crawford Has No Sympathy For Faye Dunaway

At her Surviving Mommie Dearest show last night, Christina Crawford took questions from the audience, so I raised my little hand and said, "Faye Dunaway was always embarrassed by Mommie Dearest..." "She should," interjected Christina, sharply.

"Aimee Semple McPherson Was Nothing But A Whore!"

Since Kathie Lee Gifford has co-written that Scandalous musical about Aimee Semple McPherson, maybe someone should tell her to add the above little tidbit. It was uttered with conviction by none other than the immortal Bette Davis. The two-time Oscar winner is quoted in Elizabeth Fuller's book Me ... More >>

Faye Dunaway's Puzzle Put Back Together By Her Ex-Director/Lover

Puzzle of a Downfall Child is the 1970 drama by Jerry Schatzberg in which Faye Dunaway plays an ex model reminiscing about her life of cover shoots and breakdowns. Last night at Film Forum, Schatzberg presented a restoration of Puzzle and also spoke to the crowd about his achievement. Schatzberg, ... More >>

'Universal 100': Better Than the Studio Tour

The best of Universal's history hits Film Forum

Ernest Borgnine's Weirdest Movie

No, it wasn't Marty, From Here To Eternity, or even Johnny Guitar. It was a wacky little 1972 alleged comedy called Bunny O'Hare, in which he and Bette Davis were a plumber and a widow who dressed up as hippies and robbed banks, funkily escaping on a motorcycle. Those two old coots were no threat ... More >>

On Its Centennial, Paramount Pictures Celebrates Its Peak: The 1970s

New Hollywood's apex

That Dangerous Looking Homeless Lady Was Actually Faye Dunaway

The Drama Book Shop, the West 40th Street treasure for theater folk and those that care about them, once called the police on an Oscar winner! This is from the New York Times article about the place. "Stars shop without fear of harassment by the star-struck, and the occasional out-of-work thespi ... More >>

Faye Dunaway Updates Her Fans On Master Class

At least I think it's Faye Dunaway. On Twitter, @RealFayeDunaway has been saying that her long-awaited film version of Master Class is in post production. Master Class is the Terrence McNally play about opera diva Maria Callas instructing some young hopefuls with brash charm and putdowns. Faye ha ... More >>

Ladies Be Manipulative: Power-mad and Out for Revenge in Love Crime

My Book Is Available For Ordering

​My newest book, Fork on the Left, Knife in The Back, has an official pub date of September 1, but one of my millions of fans (shut up) has alerted me to the fact that it's available on Amazon and in fact she was just told her copy shipped right away. It's a preemie baby, and such a cutie!

Jimmy McMillan, 'Rent Is Too Damn High' Guy, Is Getting Evicted

​Remember Jimmy McMillan, the "Rent Is Too Damn High" guy who ran for governor of New York, and also has something of a musical career? The New York Post reports that he, like Faye Dunaway, is having real estate troubles. Also like Faye Dunaway, his troubles are with his landlord, who wants to ... More >>

Faye Dunaway Is Being Sued by Her New York Landlord Over Her Rent-Stabilized Apartment

​Shockingly, Faye Dunaway is facing eviction in Manhattan housing court. More shockingly, Faye Dunaway pays $1048.72 a month for her rent-stabilized 1-bedroom walkup on East 78th. Slightly less shockingly, Dunaway may not actually inhabit the apartment, but instead lives in California, per a l ... More >>

Faye Dunaway Named In Eviction Lawsuit!

​Oscar wining goddess Faye Dunaway just might get thrown out of her one-bedroom walkup in the east 70s. But apparently she doesn't live there anyway. See, in order to keep a rent stabilized apartment in NYC, it has to be your primary residence, and Faye's landlord is claiming that she really ... More >>

Interactive Mommie Dearest Was A Scream

​ Mommie Dearest is the unwitting 1981 comedy about celebrity child abuse, but it was funnier than ever at last night's interactive version of the camp classic at the Ziegfeld. The event ballsily started with go-go boys running down the aisles with empty popcorn buckets that the audience was ... More >>

The 10 Best Female Outfits in Movie History

​ Who cares about the men? They always wear suits or sweaty T-shirts. But from the beginning of cinema, Hollywood's ladies have gotten swathed and feathered and dressed and undressed in ways that have made the fashion world rock with diversity and delight. My 10 all-time fave looks are:

Blind Items! Blind Items! Blind Items!

You figure out the names.

Faye Dunaway's Master Class Movie: What The Hell Happened?

​The screen version of Master Class--directed by Oscar winner Faye Dunaway, who stars as opera diva Maria Callas--was scheduled to come out in 2010. But it ain't ready, divas. A while ago, I had gotten an anonymous tip that people had stormed off the set for some reason and there was major t ... More >>

BROKEN DOLL

Sympathy for the model

Mommie Dearest Dish From Rutanya Alda

​Rutanya Alda played loyal housekeeper Carol Ann in the 1981 flick about Joan Crawford's abuse of little Christina, who fought back with a tell-all. She's interviewed in my current column, but here are some more tidbits she revealed to me (which will be in her upcoming book, The Mommie Deares ... More >>

Colin Firth Said the C-Word!

Speechifying on Broadway, plus plenty of cussing and discussing

The Wire Hangers Incident Never Happened!

​If you're gay and of a certain age, the iconic scene from Mommie Dearest where Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford shrieks at her daughter Christina, "No wire hangers!" has been ingrained into your being like Man Tan. Well, a new book about Joan by Donald Spoto says it's pure fiction. In Possesse ... More >>

Patti LuPone Calls Andrew Lloyd Webber "An Alcoholic"

​In 1994, Tony winner Patti LuPone was bumped from the starring role in Sunset Boulevard by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber, though she'd been promised the Broadway run after doing it in London. Well, some people might have just gone home and cried about it, but some people ain't Patti! Don't c ... More >>

The Bette/Joan/Faye Connection

​In 1973, Joan Crawford told a paying audience that Faye Dunaway was the only current movie actress who "has the talent and the class and the courage to become a real star." Poetically enough, Faye went on to play Joan in the 1981 film Mommie Dearest.

Faye Dunaway Eats an Egg

​And turns it into a three-act opera. This is what acting is all about, people. Focus. Determination. Cholesterol.

Name The Best Film About Alcoholics

​There have been so many good movies made about drunks, you wonder why booze can inspire so many artists while ruining so many lives. No matter. My personal favorites are:

Faye Dunaway Is a Big, Old Diva--Namely Maria Callas

​The last time I interviewed Oscar winner Faye Dunaway, I asked her what was taking so long with her proposed film adaptation of Master Class, in which she would recreate her L.A. stage role of opera diva Maria Callas. Faye looked as confused as when Mommie Dearest started being promoted as c ... More >>

Three Days of the Condor

Re-Viewing Films With Diminishing Returns

​Since I've already seen every movie ever made, I have to watch them all over again or I'll have chunks of unfilled time on my agenda. But in doing so, something very dispiriting happens sometimes. When I re-view movies that blew me away when I was younger, they don't always hold up! Yes, Nas ... More >>

How Michael Jackson Would Have Looked Without All That Surgery

Michael Jackson used to downplay the amount of surgery he had--I think he copped to one nose tweaking and perhaps an occasional eyebrow tweaze--but we know better. The guy had even more surgery than Kathy Griffin and Faye Dunaway combined. But what if he'd gone au naturel? What if he'd never touched ... More >>

Who's The Most Beautiful Screen Goddess of All Time?

Mind you, I'm not including anyone from the silent era because I'm always too busy reading their lips to assess their attributes. But looking through my old issues of Hollywood Confidential--and skimming through some Peoples for updates--I've decided that the 10 runners-up for "most stunning cinema ... More >>

LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS

When children make you want to screen

Oscar Nominee Swallowed After BJ!

Ken Russell and other crazy people we love.

Performances That Should Have Been Nominated For an Oscar

Faye Dunaway Still Full of Piss and Vinegar

Overlooked and Undervalued, the Films of Jerry Schatzberg

Forgotten auteur of 70s skepticism and American waywardness

MORE WIRE HANGERS

Do it for Mommie

Network Encore? I'm Glad as Hell.

We interrupt regular programming to take you back to 1976's darkly comic masterpiece.

NY Mirror

Thursday 8/10

NY Mirror

Prophecies Fulfilled in a Cerebral, Caustic American Classic

In Bad Company

The girl can't help it: Obsessive, ruthless temp learns how to climb the ladder of success

Movie-Star Glamour Drips From Dancers; Choreographer Collaborates With Filmmaker

Death Valley '74

The Desert of the Steal

Next of Kin in Shades of Gray

Archival and Departure

Maybe, in Our Hemmed-In World, One Step Back Could Mean Two Steps Forward

The Uninvited

NY Mirror

Faye said she felt Chinatown 'gave people something to put their dreams on.' (It's better than a wire hanger.)