Thursday, February 05, 2004
A Cold Season for Bare Breasts on TV
The fallout over Janet Jackson's exposed right breast continues, threatening to cleave a nation into two opposing camps--the moralists ever-ready to perk up at the slightest opportunity for outrage, and the jaded sophisticates, whose hope for a more enlightened, European-style response sags every time the former gang get shaking.
For those of us culture war non-participants, we who simply want to see a little tit now and again, it is now time to hit the video store. The following titles were important to me as an adolescent. May they help see you through these bleak times:
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh)
- Trading Places (Jamie Lee Curtis)
- Black Widow (Barbara Hershey)
- Tequila Sunrise (Michelle Pfieiffer)
- Kentucky Fried Movie (the ever-so-tasteful shower scene)
PLUS: Silver lining alert!
1. NBC has announced is will mercifully cut a scene from tonight's 'E.R.' which would have shown the bare breast of an 80-year-old woman. (Note to Zucker: Time to fire the guy who thought that was sexy!)
2. A nifty new term: "wardrobe malfunction"!
-- "Flags Keep Dropping on Super Bowl Stunt" (Washington Post)
-- Also: Secret CBC Memo Expresses Outrage (The Kicker)
The fallout over Janet Jackson's exposed right breast continues, threatening to cleave a nation into two opposing camps--the moralists ever-ready to perk up at the slightest opportunity for outrage, and the jaded sophisticates, whose hope for a more enlightened, European-style response sags every time the former gang get shaking.
For those of us culture war non-participants, we who simply want to see a little tit now and again, it is now time to hit the video store. The following titles were important to me as an adolescent. May they help see you through these bleak times:
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Jason Leigh)
- Trading Places (Jamie Lee Curtis)
- Black Widow (Barbara Hershey)
- Tequila Sunrise (Michelle Pfieiffer)
- Kentucky Fried Movie (the ever-so-tasteful shower scene)
PLUS: Silver lining alert!
1. NBC has announced is will mercifully cut a scene from tonight's 'E.R.' which would have shown the bare breast of an 80-year-old woman. (Note to Zucker: Time to fire the guy who thought that was sexy!)
2. A nifty new term: "wardrobe malfunction"!
-- "Flags Keep Dropping on Super Bowl Stunt" (Washington Post)
-- Also: Secret CBC Memo Expresses Outrage (The Kicker)
Wednesday, February 04, 2004
Gibson to Delete Controversial Price-Gouging Scene from 'Passion'
A bemused Mel Gibson continues to feel the heat from Jewish groups concerned over perceived anti-Semitism in his new film. In the latest development, the 'Passion of the Christ' director threw his hands up and agreed to cut a scene in which a guileless savior is brazenly overcharged on a new pair of sandals by a pair of conniving Jewish merchants.
The scene hasn't been deleted permanently, however. Gibson reportedly vows it will reappear, along with scenes "Jews Eat Babies" and the musical number "The Christ-Killer Samba" as DVD extras on a special version to be available next fall in Bavaria and certain parts of Wyoming.
-- Get full details. (NY Times)
A bemused Mel Gibson continues to feel the heat from Jewish groups concerned over perceived anti-Semitism in his new film. In the latest development, the 'Passion of the Christ' director threw his hands up and agreed to cut a scene in which a guileless savior is brazenly overcharged on a new pair of sandals by a pair of conniving Jewish merchants.
The scene hasn't been deleted permanently, however. Gibson reportedly vows it will reappear, along with scenes "Jews Eat Babies" and the musical number "The Christ-Killer Samba" as DVD extras on a special version to be available next fall in Bavaria and certain parts of Wyoming.
-- Get full details. (NY Times)
Tuesday, February 03, 2004
Hollywood Casting 101
From Slate's synopsis of Joe Eszterhas's memoir, "Hollywood Animal":
Pick back up on Page 172, in the chapter called "Michael Eisner Pimps the Teamsters." During preproduction on the movie Flashdance, Paramount chose three candidates for the lead role: Leslie Wing, Demi Moore, and Jennifer Beals. Eisner, then head of the studio, gathers more than 200 union members in a screening room and shows them footage of all three. "I want to know one thing from you guys after you've seen it," he shrieks. "I want to know which of these three young women you'd most want to fuck." Beals gets the part.
-- Read the full synopsis (Slate)
From Slate's synopsis of Joe Eszterhas's memoir, "Hollywood Animal":
Pick back up on Page 172, in the chapter called "Michael Eisner Pimps the Teamsters." During preproduction on the movie Flashdance, Paramount chose three candidates for the lead role: Leslie Wing, Demi Moore, and Jennifer Beals. Eisner, then head of the studio, gathers more than 200 union members in a screening room and shows them footage of all three. "I want to know one thing from you guys after you've seen it," he shrieks. "I want to know which of these three young women you'd most want to fuck." Beals gets the part.
-- Read the full synopsis (Slate)
