Blogs
August 13, 2012"A lot of people who sing can't sing," Christine Jorgensen told me in 1981, "but at least I admit it!"
The groundbreaking transsexual had come in from her home in Laguna Beach, California to make her New York cabaret debut.
Her act consisted of saucy impersonations of Marlene Dietrich and Tallulah ... More >>
Voice Choices
July 11, 2012Blogs
June 14, 2012Female division. In the talking era. According to Michael Musto. Feel free to do your usual whining and add your own faves.
Blogs
April 5, 2012They're all in John DiLeo's new book Screen Savers II: My Grab Bag of Classic Movies, and not surprisingly, a bunch of them involve Susan Hayward.
In fact, as anyone with any breeding knows, the above scene has Hayward as aging battleax Helen Lawson getting into a tussle with Patty Duke as pill-pop ... More >>
Blogs
January 30, 2012I recently posted a YouTube video of clips showing who dubbed the singing voices for various screen icons so they could sound as hot as they looked.
It was eye- and ear-opening, a vastly entertaining glimpse into Hollywood magic-making that you cineastes adored.
Well, by popular demand, the person ... More >>
Columns
December 21, 2011I provide the milk and cookies, you provide the names
Blogs
December 12, 2011In Albert Nobbs, Glenn Close (above) convincingly plays a woman who dresses like a man in order to nab some employment in 19th-century Ireland.
But it's the kind of stunt that can also nab you awards consideration.
Blogs
June 22, 2011Barbra Streisand, 'Yentl'I gave the guys their turn at drag validation.
Now let's go for the guys who happen to gals.
Which of these screen ladies convinced you, intrigued you, and really grabbed you in their macho getups?
By the way, in the above photo, Barbra's the one on the right.
Voice Choices
April 6, 2011Experience the glamour of cinema
Blogs
March 2, 2011Let's time travel to the 1960s, when sex was just as wonderfully dirty, but much more shameful about it.
As you know, President John F. Kennedy slept with everything that wasn't nailed down, but one of his more glorious conquests was screen legend Marlene Dietrich, whom he romanced after inv ... More >>
Voice Choices
February 23, 2011Blogs
February 7, 2011
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:
Voice Choices
January 5, 2011Darkpop mainstays get a new incarnation
Voice Choices
December 29, 2010Blogs
November 23, 2010Christmas 1962. Noel Coward was having a star-studded house party in wonderfully neutral Switzerland.
After dinner, the double pianos were enchantingly taken over by Coward and Kay Thompson (you know, Liza's godmother; the fab woman who wrote Eloise and sang "Think Pink" in Funny Face).
Film
November 17, 2010Voice Choices
November 10, 2010Voice Choices
November 3, 2010Blogs
October 12, 2010Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives.
August 20, 1970, Vol. XV, No. 34
Film in Focus
By Andrew Sarris
President Richard M. Nixon may not be quite the cinephile his recent press notices would seem to suggest. Or so we are led to believe by a recent Variety follow-up to the ... More >>
Blogs
July 13, 2010"What does it matter what you say about someone?" Marlene Dietrich says about Orson Welles at the end of Touch Of Evil. What, indeed? Except that now, at the end, we should say a few things about George Steinbrenner that even out the other things we remember all too well: the ridiculous outbu ... More >>
Blogs
March 2, 2010What next--Valerie Harper as Tallulah Bankhead?
I am so kidding. I just wrote about Harper's appeal, which some queens who've seen her as Tallu are kvelling about.
And I do think Gwynnie Paltrow was astonishing in Shakespeare in Love and deserves a shot at a juicy role like pants-wearing, N ... More >>
Voice Choices
March 2, 2010Jackie Kennedy and Marilyn Monroe had more than JFK in common
Voice Choices
October 20, 2009Columns
September 1, 2009Fame, the musical is watered-down, unlike von Trier's Antichrist.
Voice Choices
August 11, 2009Blogs
April 13, 2009Gay icon"These deeply personal, campy, and insightful essays illuminate the eternal bond between gay men and their fabulous diva icons," says the blurb on the back of a new book called My Diva. And you know it's true because that blurb was written by yours fucking truly!
The book has 65 gay men bea ... More >>
Voice Choices
April 8, 2009Articles
March 18, 2009Theater
January 21, 2009Drugs! Sex! But not much shock in these two shows.
Theater
July 23, 2008Voice Choices
July 2, 2008An evening with boylesque babe La JohnJoseph
Blogs
June 16, 2008Film
September 4, 2007From blacklisted in the U.S. to the Black Wave in Yugoslavia
Theater
July 10, 2007The Spiegeltent returns with teak, velvet, and nipple glitter
Music
January 23, 2007Film
September 5, 2006Erotic obsession and cold, cruel truths about unrequited love
NYC Life
November 1, 2005Why peroxide rot is, like, officially over
Film
September 13, 2005Thrill of the still: How an image from Wong Kar-wai's art-house hit keeps you gazing
Film
June 14, 2005Sly stalwarts, newly uncovered rarities in pre-Code series
Screens
June 14, 2005NYC Life
January 4, 2005NYC Life
December 28, 2004Film
May 4, 2004Could be verse: Brad Pitt's beefcake Achilles is a heel in a streamlined, digitized Iliad
Theater
January 20, 2004Have legs, will travel: Ute Lemper offers a worldly cabaret
Film
December 9, 2003Blonde venus, blue angel: Applying a last touch of lipstick to a sultry creature of illusion
Film
September 30, 2003Film
June 25, 2002World's Hardest Movie Quiz
Film
July 10, 2001NYC Life
May 29, 2001Film
December 14, 1999- More >>
