Joan Crawford

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 >>

Cinderella Star On Not Having To Compete With The Matilda Girls

Laura Osnes is very good in Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and as a result, she's one of the frontrunners for the Tony Award for best actress in a musical. One of the other frontrunners (or four of them, actually) would have been the girls who star in Matilda, alternating in the role. But in ... More >>

Christina Crawford: Mommie Dearest Killed Her Last Husband

I've written about how at an event years ago, Christina Crawford suggested that mommie dearest Joan Crawford killed her last hubby, Pepsi head Alfred Steele, but Christina didn't get to elaborate as to just what she meant by that. When I cornered her after her talk to ask for some expansion on the ... More >>

Joan Crawford Shopping With Little Girl: "Did She Say Weirdo?"

This little known short film of Joan Crawford's, The Big Rock Candy Mountain, has the great screen star philosophizing about meat while shopping in a grocery store with a little girl who gets pummeled up and down the aisles with Joan's wisdoms and queries. Among Joan's saltier bon mots: "Did she s ... More >>

Moose Murders Author Is Bringing The Legendary Flop Back! Here's All The Dish!

If Carrie the Musical can crawl back through the wreckage, why not Moose Murders? The 1983 Broadway flop was a door-slamming, bad-taste comedy set in a mountain lodge full of nefarious, low-level show biz types, and I actually sort of enjoyed it. But the critics went savage on the show and it clos ... More >>

The Ultimate Gay YouTube Collection

You don't have to be gay to enjoy the staggeringly entertaining and wildly campy clips I've compiled for you, but it helps. Simply click on the links and you'll see: Joan Crawford/Cyd Charisse, "Two Faced Woman" (narrated by Debbie Reynolds, of course). This defies description. Must be seen to be ... More >>

Madonna vs. Elton And Gaga: This Reminds Me Of Something

Feuds have made Madonna exciting again, from Elton John snarling at her at every swivel to Lady Gaga appropriating Madonna's chord progression -- not to mention her spotlight -- in a "reductive" way. And I've figured out what this all reminds me of!

Who Dubbed Which Stars' Voices In Movie Musicals?

Ever watch a star belt out a song in a movie musical and think, "Wow! I didn't know they could sing!"? Well, they couldn't! So many times, a perfectly nice-looking performer with lovely sounds emanating from their mouth is faking it like a drag queen doing Britney -- or even like Britney herself.

Another Rave For My Book!

Writes Jed Ryan: "Loaded with an infinite number of priceless zingers, Fork ... is the equivalent of the cocktail hour at a gay wedding, where Tony award winners and aging Hollywood legends mix with go-go boys, porn stars, and self-aggrandizing pseudo-celebs.

New Charles Busch Play! My Review

​As with his 2000 hit comedy The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Charles Busch's Olive and the Bitter Herbs concerns a mature, emotionally jangled New York City Jewish woman who's prone to outbursts but whose outlook is changed as a result of a seemingly mystical occurrence. This time, the woma ... More >>

The 10 Best Bitchy Comments Of All Time

​Who would know better than me? The 10 dissiest, wickedest, bitchiest sass-o-grams (whether in movies or in life) are as follows: 10) "She doesn't write, she types!" (Gore Vidal re popular author Jackie Susann) 9) "She looks like a truck driver in drag." (Truman Capote re the very same ... More >>

Lucille Ball's Two Least Favorite TV Guest Stars

​When Bette Davis dropped out of a guest role on The Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz Show, they naturally got Tallulah Bankehead to fit the arm swiveling bill. Who was a mess. According to the new book, Lucille Ball FAQ, Tallu came to work intoxicated, crashed a production meeting, and when Lucy com ... More >>

A Broadway Leading Lady With Real Balls

At age 76, the theater vet is a real doll in Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest

Joy Behar And I Discussed Chris Brown And Charlie Sheen On Her Show

​And it was a riot. I can't find a link, so I'll have to just relate the dizzying highlights to you. About Chris Brown's disastrous GMA interview, I said: "Well, I can understand getting mad when an interview doesn't go the way you expected. I mean, I thought we were going to talk about my ... More >>

Susan Lucci's Real-Life Soap Operatics Revealed

​The worst thing that ever happened to Susan Lucci was finally winning the Emmy award in 1999. It suddenly made her less interesting than she was as a perennial bridesmaid, always longing for the validation of her peers. But she's still a legend--and really nice, despite the fact that her Al ... More >>

HBO's Mildred Pierce: A Good Review!

​Joan Crawford must be rolling because Todd Haynes has apparently done a solid job in adapting Mildred Pierce into a five-hour HBO miniseries that will premiere on March 27. Cultural critic Brendan Lemon liked Kate Winslet in the part--she's right for it, and has the time to flesh it out--and ... More >>

PTA Embezzler Is the Worst Mom of the Year

​Cobble Hill mom Providence Hogan is the new Joan Crawford. Although she never hit her daughter with a hanger, she did steal upwards of $5,000 from her child's school while acting as the PTA treasurer.The New York Post reports, "She had worked as treasurer for the parent group for at least thr ... More >>

Octogenarian Showstopper Rules New York!

Revived: Marilyn Maye and Sally Kellerman. Clubs aren't dead yet, either.

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

New York Tale: Loyal Butler Scores $8.4M Estate

​There's a classic New York tale in the Wall Street Journal's new Greater New York section and it's one that's got to set teeth on edge over at the rival Times for a couple of reasons. The story's about how a loyal immigrant butler -- one Indra Tamang who was raised in a "mud house in a farmi ... More >>

The Women

How Old Are Sandra Bullock's Characters?

​ I'll answer that for you: They're all of indeterminate age. But sometimes they're supposed to be around 35, and that's amazing considering Sandra herself is reported to be anywhere between 45 and 49! In last year's All About Steve, no one mentioned her age, even as she dove on Bradley Coope ... More >>

The Unknown

The Naked Truth About Porn Prince Michael Lucas

Wear a condom while reading this: My sit-down with the Russian-born gay-porn czar

Catfight Alert: Faye Dunaway vs. Hilary Duff!

I couldn't let the week go by without weighing in on the war between those two thesping titans, Oscar winner Faye Dunaway and crap star Hilary Duff. Faye recently mouthed off on the upcoming remake of Bonnie and Clyde, which costars the Duse of the nail salon crowd, Duff. As the Joan Crawford imp ... More >>

Clip Job: Bringing Good Cinema to the Village

Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archivesDecember 14, 1961, Vol. VII, No. 8Amos Vogel of Cinema 16By J.R. GoddardFeelings about Cinema 16 are wide in range. Ask any of the film society's thousands of past or present members and opinions will vary from "Man, what a drag!" to "My best Sun ... More >>

Mario Lopez's Underwear Dis

Chattin' with Loretta Lynn and John Leguizamo; Carol Burnett in action; adventures of Nick Adams

Talking With Ira Sachs

Xecrets and lies with the director and screenwriter of Married Life

Eve Adamson, 1937–2006

Remembering the founder of Jean Cocteau Rep

Tough Love

The romantic fever dreams of an underappreciated master

The Life Aquatic

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

Life in the Shadows

Hollywood hoods and vamps prowl Manhattan's mean streets; we watch from inside cars

Film

Fifty Years Later, an All-star Service Drama Still Makes Waves

Those Lips, Those Lies

Is Michael Jackson guilty of more than dysfunction?

Film

Morrissey's Vamps and Tramps Subvert Tinseltown Icons

David Roter, 1947–2003

Rubble Indemnities

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

Come Softly to Me

A Pettibon Primer

Boobism and Cubism

The trouble with the Met's latest fashion exhibit

Kiss-Kiss of Death