#showbiz personified

[bitter69uk]

On this day 69 years ago (14 September 1955), a promising still mostly unknown 22-year-old rhythm and blues musician calling himself Little Richard (Richard Wayne Penniman) recorded the outrageous landmark rock’n’roll single “Tutti Frutti” at J & M Studio in New Orleans. In his ambitious 2024 book The Secret Public: How LGBTQ Performers Shaped Popular Culture (1955 - 1979), Jon Savage (author of the 1991 tome England’s Dreaming: The Sex Pistols and Punk Rock – a sacred text for me) argues “Tutti Frutti” represents year zero and forensically deconstructs and analyzes the song. “From the first eruption to the final exclamation, “Tutti Frutti” had a harsh, relentlessly driving sound, with an unrestrained vocalist who punctuated the simple lyrics with gospel shrieks and weird outbursts,” Savage writes. “Honed in the dives and drag bars of the American South and informed by his thorough knowledge of the sexual underground, Richard’s lyrics were a deliberate provocation: “Tutti frutti, good booty / If it don’t fit, don’t force it / You can grease it, make it easy …” In the volatile climate of 1955, they were also a barrier to any kind of wider exposure. [Producer Robert] Blackwell knew that a verse about sodomy would create such a storm as to kill both the record and Richard’s career. Substitute lyrics were needed if the record was ever to get a chance of airplay … Riffing off this basic phrase, Richard pounded the piano, yelled, shrieked and testified over just under two and a half minutes, and in doing so opened up the underground that he had inhabited … By early November, “Tutti Frutti” had sold 200,000 copies, entering the R&B charts in the middle of the month at #12. It was the breakthrough sound of freedom, couched in an extreme androgyny. The game was on.”

[bitter69uk]

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends!

LIBERACE, 1971.

Photo: uncredited.

Clothes: Wendel, of San Francisco.

[illusion-of-death]

Saskia, 2 and 12? :]

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Is it cheating to say "literally everything"? I feel like that might be cheating. So if I had to choose one specific notable trait of hers, it would be just how dedicated she is to her community (and just how much her community realizes and acknowledges that). Where I live right now is a SUPER individualized society in comparison to the culture I was raised in, so I find it really comforting to see a community like Stationary Hill, where everybody unashamedly loves one another so, so much. And Saskia is, ultimately, a place personified.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

The lazy answer would probably be to point you to my fic Pay What You Owe, because that involves a TON of speculation as to exactly what could have occurred in Saskia's early life to lead her to go down the path of abetting the Breach that she'd chosen by the time canon rolls around. But something I don't think the fic makes quite as clear as I'd initially set out to imply was that I think Saskia probably has some very mixed feelings about her art. We know she used to be a Big Deal in the Un's entertainment scene, and we know that the Trust used to mean something to her, and I get the feeling that her eventual disillusionment with the latter very likely had something to do with the former. She clearly still loves to sing and perform for her community, but I suspect there's a whole other aspect to her experience with showbiz that she prefers not to bring up.

Thanks for asking!

[standbyplacesplease]

SM ASTROLOGY

Aries

You have a natural leadership that makes the role of SM come easily to you. Your dynamic personality and strong ego (come on, admit it!) can keep a complex tech running along smoothly. However, you can step on a few toes with your super-confident attitude – and it usually surprises you when people take things the wrong way. You hate being told what to do, though occasionally you should slow down and listen to the carp with decades of experience under his tool belt. You are quick to come up with solutions to problems, and directors usually appreciate that you maintain shows consistently and with excellent quality.

Most likely to lead the parade to the bar after rehearsal.

Taurus

You are the epitome of patience, and never sweat the small stuff. You are content to rule over the theatre from behind your SM station, watching everyone hustle and flow as you calmly impose order over this chaos. People enjoy working with you because you always have your eye on the big picture. Sometimes your slow walk and quiet watchfulness are mistaken to mean that you are less than enthusiastic about your show. But those who know you best know the truth: you are a fierce defender of your production’s best interests, and you’ll win any shouting match if it finally comes to that. In fact, you’d really excel as a producer. When people need someone to put a foot down, they come straight to you.

Most likely to keep the company from giving out comps like candy.

Gemini

Your SM motto is “Communicate!” No one can top your skills at moderating discussion, passing along information, and keeping all members of the cast and crew in touch. Your paperwork is informative and lively. You are a true master at running production meetings. However, you might tend to debate issues longer than necessary because you can see all sides of an argument naturally – which sometimes leaves you caught in the middle. You tend to move quickly, and can jot down complex blocking on the first go.

Most likely to be the best cue caller on Earth.

Cancer

You adore the now-you-see-it-now-you-don’t illusion of theatre magic. You are definitely most comfortable backstage, under the blue glow of work lights. While you can guide a show competently through rehearsals, it is backstage where you really shine. You can call those visual or “feel” cues perfectly every time because you are always in the moment when it comes to performances. While you’re not one for the spotlight yourself, you love the warm-and-fuzzy feeling when a cast bonds and the audience gives a standing-O. You can tend to get sick easily, especially during a stressful tech.

Most likely to have the Mary Poppins Bag of kits – and to be called “Mom” by the cast.

Leo

You have the natural qualities of a mentor, and can guide a production from start to finish using sheer will alone. People naturally look up to you, and you take this and run with it (even when you secretly know you’re not quite sure what you’re talking about sometimes). Your showbiz motto could be “High Class, Baby!” You want everything done with no expense or effort spared – you’ll settle for nothing less than the best in all things. You’re extremely independent, but might do well to delegate more tasks to your ASMs. You secretly love the backstage gossip and can be quite susceptible to flattery.

Most likely to give speeches – about tardiness, show concept, backstage protocol, anything really.

Virgo

You are tops when it comes to organization. Even your prop tables are taped with perfect right angles. Your pencils are perfectly sharp and your paperwork is pristine (even if it takes you a while to file reports because you’re fussing with line spacing). Sometimes you can get impatient when the “creatives” are taking too long to debate character motivation or the exact shade of green that expresses the emotion of this scene. But you have saved the day more than once because while everyone else was looking the other way, you quietly put everything in order.

Most likely to guard your kit like a lion.

Libra

You are level-headed and patient – even when everyone around you is beyond stressed. Your calm demeanor makes you extremely valuable during crazy techs, and cast and crew alike a drawn to your easy-going friendliness. You are able to prioritize tasks and to defuse various crises as soon as they arise. You aren’t the perfect caller, or paperwork maven, or the master fixer. In a way, you are very good at all areas of SMing, while you don’t necessarily excel at any – except providing an enthusiastic but realistic outlook at all times.

Most likely to be the Go-To person for all things show related.

Scorpio

You just belong in the theatre. The drama, the craziness, the long hours, the nighttime schedule – it fits you perfectly. You become extremely attached to productions you’re working on, and are most likely to suffer from Post-Dramatic Stress Disorder after closing. But for each show you work, you give it your all. You work especially well with directors and actors because you appreciate the emotional demands of theatre. Measuring ground plans and making run sheets are definitely not your favorite activities – you’ll delegate these to your ASMs whenever possible.

Most likely to get involved in a show romance.

Sagittarius

You want the biggest, craziest, sparkliest shows you can find. Musicals are your favorite – with the glitzy costumes, the big sets, the intense cue sequences, and the glitter drops (love the glitter drops!). You enjoy theatre not for the emotional catharsis but for the pure entertainment factor. You are always the cheerleader for whatever production you are on, and can make people smile through even the most painful tech. Typical SM neuroses -– pristine paperwork, overstocked kits, impeccable call boards – are not for you. Sometimes people might accuse you of being a little slap-dash in your execution. But gosh darn it, you just love the theatre, and you’re guaranteed to give ‘em a great show every time.

Most likely to secretly want to be an actor.

Capricorn

You are the perfectionist SM personified. Not because you’re neurotic or naturally orderly, but for the pure challenge of it. You enjoy SMing because it allows you to use all your skills, constantly learning how to do things better. Though you’re patient in your way, you can be quite demanding when others don’t live up to your expectations. You have a certain detachment from your shows because for you they are exercises and learning opportunities. But this constant personal challenge means that you are inevitably very good at what you do. Your ASMs think you are god.

Most likely to have run sheets drafted before rehearsals even start.

Aquarius

You are an SM because you love being a central part of the creative process. You are imaginative, energetic, and friendly. However, you might not be the most practical SM – paperwork and call boards with hospital corners are not where you excel. With your inventive mind, you can come up with amazing creative solutions to most dilemmas – especially in regards to props and costumes. You are likely to have a few silly toys in your kit alongside your pencils.

Most likely to be SM + costumes + props + carpenter + house manager + program designer + ...

Pisces

Your independent, non-competitive nature makes SMing a good position for you. You’re rather optimistic and can always see the best in people and situations, though you can get emotionally attached in rehearsals. While running through the tragic scene, you’ll be the first one with tears in your eyes – but be careful that you don’t go home in a foul mood, too. You might find it hard to sit through long rehearsals or to park yourself at the SM desk through a show (wireless headsets were made for SMs like you!).

Most likely to give counseling sessions to sobbing actors backstage.

[arlenwolf]

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[lethesomething]

An otome lover’s guide to A3

So. A3.

Not an actual otome, but the actor management game and anime from Cybird (of Ikemen All the Things fame) has a bunch of boys. Ok, so a Lot of Boys. All the Boys, in fact. And men. Some of them are like thirty. Which is refreshing.

Where do you even begin telling them apart? Here is an Attempt, based on the first season of the game.

Spring troupe: The Vanilla boys

Bright, youthful, mostly kinda normal. This troupe stands out  for its overall lack of experience and its anime protag willingness to overcome hurdles. Most resembles the main team in a sports anime.

Sakuya Is baby. This boy is a golden retriever puppy that has yet to realize he's ended up in human form. Orphan street urchin with a heart of gold. He's kinda useless as an actor but he will ganba all the way until he makes it. Protect him. Mostly from himself.

Masumi A Giant Friggin Red Flag. Weirdly obsessed with MC. His personality apart from stalker syndrome is what I like to call 'the Kageyama Tobio': genius at one thing and uninterested or terrible at everything else. He is seemingly incapable of social interactions and at best uninterested in any of them apart from MC. Also really harsh on people who don't perform to his standards, which is almost everyone.

Tzuzuru The Self Sacrificing One. Look, this dude gave up most of his dreams to look after his siblings, and he literally joined you because otherwise he'd be sleeping in a cardboard box (Why are all these dudes street urchins?) Wants to be a playwright so he foregoes any semblance of sleep to finish scripts. Has the spinal cord of a jellyfish unless in Very Specific Cases. Cute when he pouts. Pouts a lot. Someone save him.

Itaru Jekyll and XxHydexX. Super cordial professional by day, game addict that will murder you for messing up his kill streak by night. He's So Friggin Pretty why is he a dick?? Doesn't really know if he's even into this theatre thing. You know he is. Of course he is. Calms down tremendously over the course of the arc, just don't, you know, get between him and his gamer score I guess.

Citron What the Foreigner. Mysterious foreign prince possibly on the run from his parents/the cops. Your theatre is a convenient hiding place for him, because obviously getting into showbiz is what you do when you want to remain anonymous. Speaks Japanese in a weird way. In fact, he sounds Exactly Like Utapri's Cecil despite having a different VA.  Quirky to a fault. Has potentially been trained as some kind of covert operative but is surprisingly cheerful about everything.

Summer Troupe: The Diva's

A group of highly talented dudes with varying degrees of social issues. Most resembles the cast of a smaller indie otome game.

Tenma The Arrogant One. A child actor from tv wanting to learn stage work. Has zero social skills. He's brash, completely full of himself and extremely critical of everyone else. Needs to learn the Power of Friendship which, spoiler, he obviously does, albeit in a very tsun kindof way. Can't let them know you care, ever.

Yuki Salt Personified. This kid is friggin 14 years old and wears dresses but he will rip you to shreds with his words. Winner of the most deadpan delivery of burns. He's in middle school ffs. Really into fashion. Resident costume designer. Potentially serves as a representation on gender roles in theatre, but the whole thing is fairly lowkey. The team, bless them, just accept him for who he is, sharp tongue and all.

Muku The Soft One. Another middle schooler, this one is way less sharp with his words. Into shoujou manga. Has severe insecurities and a propensity to start sentences with 'um'. Shaking leaf, what is he doing on a friggin stage. He actually has pink hair, could he BE any more squishy. Protecc.

Misumi The Weird One. I realize several characters fit that description, but Misumi is obsessed with triangles and lives in a  liminal space between realities so I don't know what to tell you. Also he's like… spiderman. Inhuman amount of acrobatics. Another homeless street urchin (Tokyo - is it Tokyo??? - appears to have an issue, guys). Sweet dude though. Chill and positive about everything, as long as it is triangular.

Kazunari The Influencer. Resident designer and bigshot on social media. He's down with Literally Everything. Likes everyone, is cool about every instance. Unerringly positive to an unhealthy degree. Really, Really conflict averse, even. You could call him painfully insecure, but that's like most of the cast. Wearer of hats in a non-ironic way.

Autumn Troupe: The Delinquents

This troupe consists almost entirely out of (ex) violent delinquents and (ex) criminals. The tough guys, no one here is totally innocent. Most resembles the cast of a beat-em-up.

Banri The Number One. Hotshot teenager who's never tasted defeat in his life. Good at anything without trying, so he never tries. Obsessed with outperforming Juza because he's like the one dude Banri can't beat at fisticuffs. Honestly kinda insufferable for most of their arc.

Juza The Lone Wolf. Cursed with a resting bitch face and an inability to perform in social settings. Considered a delinquent and constantly challenged to fights. Is actually sweet lamb, just with lots of muscles. Cripplingly low self esteem. Wants to act to be someone else. Protect at all costs.

Omi The Responsible one. Wait, that was an option?? Big brother type. Perfect son in law. A keeper. This guy is mature and he cooks and it makes me wonder what's wrong with him. There's probably a dark secret (narrator voice: there was a dark secret).

Taichi The Sunshine Child. Really into yoyo's. Like the toy, not the male subspecies. Has the hair colour and the vocal volume of a shonen jump protag. Bouncy and very loud. Feels way younger than the middle schoolers, though he's in high school.

Sakyo The Debt Collector. Actual yakuza agent. The one the theatre owes a lot of money too. Secretly really loves the performing arts, because of course he does. Massive tsun. I wasn't looking at you, baka. Should have been an accounting professor in another life. Wordy.

Winter troupe:The Drama Team.

No really, most of them have drama and angst written all over them. Only team that consists entirely out of actual adults. Angsty adults, but still. Most resemble the cast of a daytime soap opera.

Tasuku The Defector. The top actor from the rival gang troupe that joined Mankai instead. Fitness buff. Pretty clear about his boundaries for right and wrong. Sweet bean, really. Has a lot of emotions about his childhood friend Tsumugi. Seems to have a lot of feelings in general. Red oni type.

Tsumugi The Subdued one. Talks like a wallflower, looks like he got his fashion choices out of a high end french magazine from the eighties. One of the boring ones. Cinnamon roll. Blue oni. Massive self esteem issues due to past trauma. Weird relationship with his childhood friend Tasuku. They'll work it out, you know they will.

Hisoka The Narcoleptic. Literally washed up and adopted by the  theatre group that found him. Weirdly good at acting. Sleeps about 80 percent of the day. Needs to be poked and cajoled with treats. Might actually be a cat. Has no recollection of his life before he was picked off the street by a desperate director.

Homare The 'Extra AF'. A poet who dresses in loud costumes and has really stupid hair. Loud, overtly confident in his bad poetry and just generally confusing to watch. A Gentleman. Flamboyant. Kinda gay coded. Hisoka's crutch and the only reason that man is able to perform like a human being.

Azuma The Flirty One. A Cuddling Professional, because this is a teen rated game and we can't put in an actual prostitute or host. Unnaturally pretty. Indeterminate age. Sensitive. At least one of these dudes has empathetic abilities, may as well be the cute one. Extremely flirty and Experienced (tm) at life.

[chiseler]

Puttin’ on the Ritz

No fame is more fleeting than the showbiz kind. Some entertainers are just too much in and of a particular time. In the 1920s Harry Richman was a big star, billed as the Greatest Entertainer In America. He could sing and play piano, dance and act a little; he ran a hugely successful nightclub, was the toast of Broadway and, very briefly, a star in Hollywood; he wrote or introduced several songs that are still sung. But most of all he just personified the Roaring Twenties. He was the sleek, rakish, vaguely smarmy bon vivant in top hat and tails who was enjoying the decade's non-stop party as much as you were. It's been said that he was to the 1920s what the Rat Pack were to their era. Harry's career peaked just as the party crashed to a halt at the end of the decade, and he faded out in the 1930s. If his name comes up at all today, it's probably less often as an entertainer than as a footnote in aviation history.

He was born Harry Reichman in Cincinnati in 1895. His dad, a Russian Jewish immigrant, started out peddling eyeglasses door to door, carrying all his equipment on his back. He worked his way up to a prosperous wholesale business and real estate empire, and developed a taste for the high life. It killed him by the time Harry was an adolescent. In his thoroughly entertaining (sometimes suspiciously so) 1966 autobiography A Hell of a Life, Harry paints himself as a fecklessly scheming kid who grew up quick. At nine, he writes, he was a weekend ticket taker at an amusement park, shortchanging every customer he could because he was saving up to marry his childhood sweetheart. One night he showed off his ill-gotten riches by taking the girl out on the town. They stayed out too late to go home, so Harry got them a hotel room. When the cops burst through the door in the wee hours they found the kids sleeping fully clothed on separate beds. A doctor confirmed that the girl's honor was intact. Her dad put the kibosh to their romance anyway.

Harry's mother bought him piano lessons, dreaming he'd be a concert pianist, but like most kids at the time he was more interested in ragtime and jazz. He left home at around fourteen and headed to Indianapolis. There he and a kid who played fiddle went door to door in the kind of neighborhoods where an upright in the parlor wasn't uncommon. They'd bang out a few popular tunes for spare change. As Remington & Reichman they were soon touring the very small-time Webster circuit of vaudeville theaters in the Dakotas and Canada, known to vaudevillians as the Death Trail. Harry kept working his way around the west, singing at the piano in saloons and whorehouses, working as a singing waiter in restaurants, as part of a "Hawaiian" hula act in a circus sideshow. At the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco he was in a musical act that opened for Harry Houdini, fifteen shows a day. Playing in Los Angeles clubs favored by the movie crowd he got to be pals with Charlie Chaplin and Al Jolson, whom he idolized. Jolson got him a shot at Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic, the late-night club revue that gave Eddie Cantor his big break. Harry raced to New York, but flopped and was canned after only one night. He was so despondent he ran off and joined the Navy.

He arrived back in New York in 1920, just when Prohibition did too. Now he and the city were ready for each other. On vaudeville stages he found work as an accompanist for headliners like the singer Nora Bayes and the beautiful twin Dolly Sisters, and for a while was Mae West's on-stage pianist and straight man. He was reluctant to speak lines at first because he had a lisp that he could hide more easily when singing. West convinced him it was a distinguishing feature. He soon got top billing on his own on the Keith-Albee circuit. He also played at ritzy speakeasies like the Beaux Arts, where, he claims, Prohibition's hostess with the mostest Texas Guinan stole her signature line "Give the little girls a big hand" from him.

Nils T. Granlund, known as NTG, was both a radio pioneer and the publicist for Marcus Loew's movie theater empire. He hired Harry to headline live radio shows from Loew's State Theatre, the movie palace in Times Square. Harry plugged new songs on air, like Billy Rose's "Does the Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?" With NTG's help he opened his own Club Richman just behind Carnegie Hall. Harry made it one of the most opulent and exclusive nightclub/speakeasies in town. A lot of Broadway and movie stars became regulars, as of course did Mayor Jimmy Walker, and the Vanderbilts and Whitneys, and foreign royalty -- you saw everybody who was anybody there.

Or wanted to be somebody, like the chorus girl Lucille Le Seur. Accounts vary as to how Lucille got into the swank club. In one version, she convinced NTG, her sugar daddy at the time, to get her a spot in the club dancing the Charleston. NTG introduced her to Loew, who arranged a screen test at MGM, where she'd get her first tiny roles in 1925. Studio chief Louis B. Mayer decided her name sounded like Le Sewer, so the studio ran a publicity campaign in which the fans got to give her a new name: Joan Crawford. She never liked it.

For his part, Harry claimed that he discovered Crawford. He did have an eye for the beauties. He was one of the first to spot Jean Harlow, Sally Rand and Maureen O'Sullivan. Harry was an infamous ladies' man, bedding a long line of beauties from chorus girls to socialites to Harlow, maybe Rand, and Clara Bow. According to Harry, his office at the club had a secret door for sneaking them in and out while their husbands or dates drummed their fingers at their tables thinking they were just taking a long time powdering their noses. He says that the Hollywood Bowl couldn't hold all the women he had, and classes himself "a specialist in man's favorite sport."

Between the club and his other gigs Harry minted money and became the playboy nonpareil. He wore the finest bespoke suits and carried a gold cigarette case with his initials on it in diamonds. He commuted in a Rolls from Manhattan to his big house out on the water in Beechhurst, Queens, where he had a yacht and threw Gatsby-like parties for celebrities, beauties and millionaires. He learned to fly and kept a growing fleet of planes at nearby Flushing Airport. Harry worked hard, played hard, drank oceans of booze and smoked whole fields of tobacco. Everyone marveled at his stamina and joie de vivre even in that over-the-top decade.

In 1926, while still playing the host at his club, Harry got a featured role on Broadway in George White's Scandals, one of several knockoffs of the Ziegfeld Follies. After a boffo year it toured other cities, including Cincinnati, where, he notes ruefully, it tanked. In 1930 he headlined Lew Leslie's International Revue, where he introduced "On the Sunny Side of the Street." And in 1931 he made it, finally, into the Follies as well. He got his choice of songs to perform, including "Lullaby of Broadway." He was at the top of his career in those shows, the king of Broadway; his friend Eddie Cantor memorably said he wore Broadway like a boutonniere.

He didn't do so well in Hollywood. He starred, playing himself as "Harry Raymond," in the 1930 musical Puttin' on the Ritz, in which he introduced the song by his pal Irving Berlin. The movie did mediocre business then and is barely watchable now except for that number, Harry gliding around in front of an army of dancers with his top hat tilted over one eye. His recording of the song, which some consider the best, was a hit. (Among his other records are Berlin's "Blue Skies," his own "Muddy Waters" and a pretty wonderful Jolson-ish rendition of "Ain't She Sweet.") While in Hollywood to make the film he met Clara Bow. Teamed up at first for publicity purposes only, they became a hot item and got engaged. Then she suddenly married someone else. Hearing the news, he says, was the only time in his life that he fainted.

He'd make only two more feature films and one short. He sums them up this way: "All were forgettable. It became clear to me that whatever I had was best projected in person, either on the stage or in a night club." By the time he made the last film, released in 1938, he was well past his prime. When the Depression hit and then Prohibition ended, guys like Harry, icons of the Roaring Twenties, just didn't fit the new reality. To his credit, he didn't hang around like some other ghosts of the 1920s did. He left New York and settled in Miami, which was booming and lousy with new nightclubs where he could coast for a few years on his dazzling past. He went fishing with Hemingway and played with his airplanes.

His real fame in the 1930s came in fact as a flyer. In the mid-1930s he'd set altitude and speed records. Then in 1935 he and the pilot Dick Merrill made the world's first round-trip transatlantic flight in a single-engine plane. They filled the plane with tens of thousands of ping-pong balls as flotation devices should they land in the soup. Harry being Harry, after reaching Wales on the outward leg of the trip, they flew on to Paris to party all night with Maurice Chevalier before making the return flight. They landed upside-down in a Newfoundland bog, but they made it. It wasn't as big a deal as Lindbergh's one-way crossing in 1927, but Harry calls it the high point of his life.

Harry didn't make much news after that. He played some clubs through the 1940s, his looks and voice rough from all that carousing and smoking. He still had lots of friends in the show business who tried to engineer comebacks for him, but the public had long since forgotten him. By the time A Hell of a Life came out in 1966 he'd spent the millions he'd made in his heyday and was living alone, quietly and frugally, in Burbank, an old guy who'd gone full-tilt as long as he could, had a hell of a lot of memories and not too many regrets. He died in 1972.

by John Strasbaugh

[oldshowbiz]

Showbiz Personified 

[bisluthq]

Honestly you don’t have any right to call a family toxic and this isn’t even coming from a swiftie perspective but you just can’t call a whole ass family toxic just because they are business minded and competitive and shit. Andrea didn’t force Taylor to join showbiz or ever pressured her into doing anything nor did Scott she was the one who pressured them to take her to Nashville because she wanted it SO bad. Andrea is obviously super different to Anne who’s just a softie mummy to Harry while Andrea is a softie mummy but she’s also her hardcore business manager and career handler that doesn’t mean it’s toxic between them. Same with her Dad they have so many wholesome moments like him giving out guitar picks and shit. With Austin it doesn’t seem toxic at all lmfao I think he realised from a younger age that Taylor is gifted and like she’s the it child of the family with a real vision at a young age and his parents decided to follow her dreams with her and I don’t think it bothers him that he works for his sister. Maybe I’m projecting but my Dad has a family business and my brother and I don’t have the same business mind as my elder sister who my Dad taught all the business to so now we essentially work for her lol because she is our CEO. I agree our family gatherings are also business meetings but that legit doesn’t mean we are toxic at all. You just can’t know family dynamics by looking from the outside like ever we can guess about Joe and Taylor’s relationship dynamic by looking from the outside but family dynamics idk lol. Austin imo doesn’t get compared to Taylor at their family gatherings and seeing their home videos I think they’re a super cute and wholesome family and all of them love Tay a lot lol it doesn’t seem toxic. I agreed with you earlier on your takes about Tays family being a business family so she now wants to spend time with Joes fam which is chilled out but calling Taylor’s family toxic is a bit much and not true really.

I’m not reading all that but the Swifts are toxic as shit die mad bestie.

Andrea might not have wanted Taylor to go into show business but she actively wanted her to be a champion equestrian. You ever met a chill sport mum with a champion? Especially a horse mum? Lmao those women are COOKED dude.

That woman is TIGER MUM personified and yes that’s toxic as shit. It works but it’s toxic.

Stay mad and we can all die poor because our mums didn’t push us like that and wouldn’t dance on the graves of our enemies like that bad bitch.

The fact that she’s sold softie mum on anyone when she would shank people if she had to in order to make Taylor Taylor is testament to how bad a bitch she really is.

[updatesnews]

Erin Boag – Strictly’s Queen of the Ballroom gives the inside scoop on the show | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

Erin Boag – Strictly’s Queen of the Ballroom gives the inside scoop on the show | Celebrity News | Showbiz & TV

What a week! First Robert Webb left due to ill health and then Ugo Monye can’t dance tonight because of back problems. But despite the drama, Shirley Ballas will be, as ever, serenity personified. Have you ever wondered how pint-size Shirley manages to measure up to her fellow judges? Well, I can let you into a secret: Queen Shirley sits atop four cushions – red velvet of course as befits the…

[keanuital]

Decoding The Keanu Reeves Enigma 

 Clean talking, slightly withdrawn if not aloof, simplistic and utterly uncomplicated. There is really a barrage of salutations one can construct about Keanu Reeves, rather, about his usually calm disposition in life. He doesn’t party, at least, not that much, is hardly seen enamouring fans on swelteringly exquisite red carpet events but even then, commands attention and boy- some respect in worldwide media.

What makes Keanu Reeves a sensation?

For someone who at 53 looks not a day beyond 35 or 38, his famous mugshot is yet to star alongside cosmetic creams and all that age-defying paraphernalia. One reckons, Hollywood, at best, personifies a stage where Keanu simply steps on, acts, does well and bows out gracefully upon a films’ release.

That is, in effect, the Keanu Reeves ideology- simple and unflustered by all that is happening around him

For a bloke who was born in Beirut, but grew up in icy cool Canada and eventually drove all the way to L.A. in a laid back Volvo wagon, life’s resembled a rollercoaster ride, considering Reeves has battled more personal ups and downs than there are palpitations in an ageing heart patient’s lifeline.

With releases like the Matrix trilogy, Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Constantine and more recently, the John Wick series, Keanu’s given major box office hits, rather, delivered magnanimous bazookas built on painfully exorbitant investments and yet, when it has come to cashing on his good looks and charming persona, Keanu doesn’t seem to rest on his starry aura.

He instead hangs out with people like a commoner, eats an odd sandwich at a Manhattan joint, takes to the stairs on a subway station and, even vacates his seat for ageing commuters.

But is that the reason why Keanu has proved to be so endearing to an audience base that measures upto millions of fans, undivided in their love for Hollywood’s ‘nice man’? Or could it be that implicit in Keanu’s memorable journey, one wherein he’s covered the long mile from Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey to delivering an insanely gaudy hit such as John Wick. 2- there lies a man boasting on monk-like qualities.

If you saw 47 Ronin, where Reeves settles scores with the merciless shogun responsible for killing his master, fans saw in his warrior- a combatant who understood the meaning of peace. If you’ve witnessed the grand silence in his fiery Buddha eyes in 1993’s The Little Buddha- then it was impossible not to understand the middle line Keanu walked between disconsolation from the material world and the incessant quest to discover the peace within.

Fans have often jokingly lauded Keanu as Hollywood’s own Buddha. How else would one explain Keanu’s frequent trips to the ‘land of the rising sun’? How else would one make sense of Keanu opting to play the enlightened one when right at the start of his career, when playing the poignant spiritual character also carried the risk of branding Keanu as a fit for offbeat Hollywood roles, not necessarily concerning mainstream lead roles in commercial potboilers?

It isn’t too hard to ignore the fact that Keanu, a man sitting on an accumulated wealth of $350 million preferred to give away his earnings from the famous Matrix movies to the men and women who toiled arduously behind the scenes of the famous sci-fi series. Neither is it easy to disassociate oneself from the fact that in an age where actors and fashionistas prefer to indulge in rose-tinted lifestyles emblazoned with luxuries, buying island after island in an expansive display of material gatherings, dare on say spoils, Keanu prefers to design bikes and opts to go demon riding.

Not the one you’d see hotting up the town on a Halloween night, nor the guy you’d liken to a spoilt dude who enters a club armed with two blondes for company, Keanu has lent magnificent meaning to his surge for creativity ever since he came up with Arch motorcycles, evidently stemming from his desire to build lasting exotic American bikes.

The man, once famously ‘memed’ as Sad Keanu, when he appeared somewhat haggled and lost eating a sandwich all by himself on a warm, fuzzy New York afternoon, with BBC going as far as inviting Keanu into their studios to figure out just what was going on with him, his style statement is one that is marked with utter simplicity, distancing himself from uber-cool shenanigans of modernistic style.

There is nothing edgy, not even bordering on showbiz lines of eccentricity when we spot Keanu in a press conference or a movie promotion duo, dressed in all blacks with brown shoes and unkempt hair. The growing, waywardly mane only goes to complement the reticence blossoming in an unhurried gait.

With fans dying to see Keanu reprise his role as John Wick in yet another enactment of the down on his luck, killing machine, and who knows even as Ted, with Keanu himself yet to confirm either movies, one expects Hollywood’s showman to carry on his intriguing journey with the same passion with which the lost, gangly youth in him found is way back home in My Own Private Idaho.

[astorytellerforthatgirl]

Maine Mendoza and Her Enthralling Enchantress Moments last 3.14 (Blog Entry #6 of 7)

With all the previous blog entries I have written for this 7-part blog series, this one, I bet, will be your favorite. As much as I want to describe and narrate Maine in details during #EnchantressMaine23 in part 1, I decided she deserves a lone and separate blog entry dedicated for her moments from that special event.

All superlative adjectives may have already used to describe Maine by her fans, casual observers, colleagues in showbiz industry, credible writers, and respected personalities from other fields. They used those adjectives too even in the past birthday parties prepared by fans for Maine, 

For all the moments I saw Maine in #EnchantressMaine23, I will use enthralling to describe her enchantress-like moment. Enchantress means a woman possessing magical powers. In some context, it is used to describe a beautiful woman captivating people’s heart as if an unexplained magic just happened. Enthralling means fascinating and captivating. 

It is a good thing I am aware I will see Maine. At least I know how to prepare myself. Na-orient ako kung baga. I just got my dinner plate from the buffet and I haven’t even yet got back to my seat when people crowded the main entrance of the venue. They were all smiling and putting their phones up. Some in video mode while others in photo mode. In just seconds, I heard them all adorably saying, “Maine!!!” I was heading back to my seat with the dinner plate on my hand when I turned towards the direction where I heard them calling the celebrant’s name. She wore a gorgeous yellow silky gown with black details in a free-flowing cut design. I know nothing about make-up so I tapped a friend’s help who is adept with beauty essentials: ”High-raised bun with fringed full bangs. Eyeshadow, a mix of grey and black smokey eyes with a hint of brown. A basic thin lined eyeliner, not too overpowering but emphasizes her long false eyelashes and the shine in her colored eyes. V-shaped mauve pink blush on that emphasizes her cheekbones and mauve pink lipstick. Overall, her makeup is a mix of basic to doll up. In between, not too thick to cover everything but not too thin to not emphasize her features.” Maine is stunningly beautiful that night. She fascinated everyone with her enchanting charm. I was surprised for a while and as Maine slowly walked from the main entrance to the red carpet. I briskly walked back to my seat, put down my plates, and stood there to see her closely. Table #5 is where I sat and the red carpet is just on my right side 2-3 feet away.  She walked graciously as she waved to everyone. Her other hand held her gown for her to avoid tipping over. Maine took her time walking towards the stage, took the steps, and sat on the couch. Official photographers approached Maine, arranged her gown by spreading it, and let Maine posed for the camera. With numerous magazine covers and other photoshoots, she is so familiar with how to project for the camera. Maine clasped her wrists together, opened her palm as if forming a bud in her hands, and placed it below her chin. She looked like a doll, a princess, and a personified sunflower that moment.

Maine was so immersed with every moment in that party as I saw her reactions. Her laughter is one of the best reactions for me. Her eyes became small as she laughs, it’s as if you can just draw a single line if you sketch her facial features. She laughed heartily too as she opened her lips wide to let those laughter come out freely. Maine listened intently and sang along to the different songs and with every performer that night. I would love to hear more of her jazzy voice soon not just with few lines but through albums, digital streaming, singles, music videos, and concerts. She reacted too with every funny antic of the hosts. I like Maine’s rapport with Oreo, she really trust him enough as shown with her comfortable body language towards him.

I witnessed more of Maine’s appreciative and grateful heart in some of the magical moments that night. She felt at ease as the organizers and committee members sang “I Can”. Maine sang along in the chorus while she smiled at everyone and looked at the projector screen. It was a trip down memory lane for me seeing that AVP with their pictures together with Maine. I sensed familiarity and comfort between them.  She marveled at both the edible cakes and the projector cake. She even uploaded that projector cake in her IG stories. Maine’s connection to fans is special as well. Aside from hugging and holding the hands of Singing Angels Quartet, she hugged elderlies too in the photo opportunity per table. Her expressive eyes showed she truly care for her supporters and Maine has a soft spot for us.

I saw her childlike heart more when she gave the heartfelt message. Everything is so surreal for Maine. She admitted it is still unbelievable, despite being nearly three years in the industry. She kept on thanking all of us for the support we gave for the continuous support we will always give. When she said that the only reason why she said sampu is to prepare herself if one by one, her supporters leave, it will not be that painful. Her voiced cracked a little, tears were slowly glistening in her eyes, and she stopped for few seconds. That is the closest moment I personally saw her in that glimpse of her vulnerability. Afterwards, she changed the mood by childishly saying no she won’t cry. She then twirled around and sat on the floor as her gown spread. In that position, Jester placed Oreo beside Maine and said, “Oh Beauty and the Beast!” Maine laughed heartily again. I understand in a way why she does not want to cry. It is truly heartwarming to see Maine in that shift of vulnerability to laughter.

Even when Maine left the venue, she waved at us and smiled. She were saying some words but I wasn’t able to hear clearly because she doesn’t had a mic. That 3.14 is indeed a cut above the rest from all the recent memories I have in my life.

I do hope and pray Maine will always be an enthralling enchantress. May that magic in her heart, and her childlike personality overflowing with love and gratitude, nurtures more as she traverses in this journey we all call Life.

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[lbmockingbird]

Post Number 3

I guess I have really entered the world of SM.  Thank you all so much for your nice responses to my previous post.  I was totally shocked.  I thought I only reached one person.  I almost had a heart attack when someone quoted what I said about SH growing balls, getting fired and taking the OL fans with him.

Doing that could only be wise in the “best possible world” and that’s not where showbiz or the internet lives. If shippers are right about the in-between-the-lines scenario, Sam has actually showed courage many times, and when things are posted like the fist bump photo, both he and Cait seem to get punished.

The little video with Sam saying the way to get ahead in showbiz is to “always say yes” is sadly true -- until you have made THEM a shit-load of money (I’m not sure OL has done this), and you have a representative who is more powerful than you are famous.  A good public relations rep or agent could have shown STARZ that the way they are selling OL is bad for Sam, Caitriona and the show. The necessary “yes” would have been to a different question.  

I criticize their PR but not Lionsgate or STARZ.  LG makes very good movies and STARZ is actually very brave in the projects it produces and offers a better movie selection than the other cable channels.  I beg them to change their strategic strategy (heads up to WickedCoolNE).  I cannot find anyone in LA who watches OL even among my friends who have STARZ in their cable packages. 

I posted an article Liz Smith wrote about Lois Smith’s memorial on Twitter, if any of you want a taste of who she was.  Please read it and imagine what it would be like if she was here to deal with the current mess. (S & C & STARZ should call her PR partner Leslee Dart.)  Lois was charm and good will personified, but if someone crossed the line watch out.  I once saw her go after a photographer with a big, black purse who was trying to get to Liza Minnelli.  William Shatner would have to hire security protection.  

I named this blog Tell Your Story Walking because when I worked for Liza, her wonderful, totally gorgeous, dresser would sometimes get a little annoyed with me and say, “Tell your story walking, kid.”  I’ll tell you some stories as we go along.  In the meantime, please keep believing in Caitriona Balfe, Outlander, each other, and Sam Heughan, too.

Here’s Lois Smith and Ordinary Bob trying to change the world:

[shoukatali]

Veteran Actress Resham is Finally Getting Married

Veteran Actress Resham is Finally Getting Married

Even if you don’t follow the Pakistani showbiz scene that extensively, chances are you do know of a few legends who personify Lollywood. And when we speak of legends, we can recall the evergreen actress Resham, a veteran of the industry.

Turns out Resham has huge plans for next year. And here’s what she’s being up to.

Legendary Actress Resham is a Pakistani celebrity powerhouse. She remains one of…

[chiseler]

PUTTIN’ ON THE RITZ

No fame is more fleeting than the showbiz kind. Some entertainers are just too much in and of a particular time. In the 1920s Harry Richman was a big star, billed as the Greatest Entertainer In America. He could sing and play piano, dance and act a little; he ran a hugely successful nightclub, was the toast of Broadway and, very briefly, a star in Hollywood; he wrote or introduced several songs that are still sung. But most of all he just personified the Roaring Twenties. He was the sleek, rakish, vaguely smarmy bon vivant in top hat and tails who was enjoying the decade's non-stop party as much as you were. It's been said that he was to the 1920s what the Rat Pack were to their era. Harry's career peaked just as the party crashed to a halt at the end of the decade, and he faded out in the 1930s. If his name comes up at all today, it's probably less often as an entertainer than as a footnote in aviation history.

He was born Harry Reichman in Cincinnati in 1895. His dad, a Russian Jewish immigrant, started out peddling eyeglasses door to door, carrying all his equipment on his back. He worked his way up to a prosperous wholesale business and real estate empire, and developed a taste for the high life. It killed him by the time Harry was an adolescent. In his thoroughly entertaining (sometimes suspiciously so) 1966 autobiography A Hell of a Life, Harry paints himself as a fecklessly scheming kid who grew up quick. At nine, he writes, he was a weekend ticket taker at an amusement park, shortchanging every customer he could because he was saving up to marry his childhood sweetheart. One night he showed off his ill-gotten riches by taking the girl out on the town. They stayed out too late to go home, so Harry got them a hotel room. When the cops burst through the door in the wee hours they found the kids sleeping fully clothed on separate beds. A doctor confirmed that the girl's honor was intact. Her dad put the kibosh to their romance anyway.

Harry's mother bought him piano lessons, dreaming he'd be a concert pianist, but like most kids at the time he was more interested in ragtime and jazz. He left home at around fourteen and headed to Indianapolis. There he and a kid who played fiddle went door to door in the kind of neighborhoods where an upright in the parlor wasn't uncommon. They'd bang out a few popular tunes for spare change. As Remington & Reichman they were soon touring the very small-time Webster circuit of vaudeville theaters in the Dakotas and Canada, known to vaudevillians as the Death Trail. Harry kept working his way around the west, singing at the piano in saloons and whorehouses, working as a singing waiter in restaurants, as part of a "Hawaiian" hula act in a circus sideshow. At the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exhibition in San Francisco he was in a musical act that opened for Harry Houdini, fifteen shows a day. Playing in Los Angeles clubs favored by the movie crowd he got to be pals with Charlie Chaplin and Al Jolson, whom he idolized. Jolson got him a shot at Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic, the late-night club revue that gave Eddie Cantor his big break. Harry raced to New York, but flopped and was canned after only one night. He was so despondent he ran off and joined the Navy.

He arrived back in New York in 1920, just when Prohibition did too. Now he and the city were ready for each other. On vaudeville stages he found work as an accompanist for headliners like the singer Nora Bayes and the beautiful twin Dolly Sisters, and for a while was Mae West's on-stage pianist and straight man. He was reluctant to speak lines at first because he had a lisp that he could hide more easily when singing. West convinced him it was a distinguishing feature. He soon got top billing on his own on the Keith-Albee circuit. He also played at ritzy speakeasies like the Beaux Arts, where, he claims, Prohibition's hostess with the mostest Texas Guinan stole her signature line "Give the little girls a big hand" from him.

Nils T. Granlund, known as NTG, was both a radio pioneer and the publicist for Marcus Loew's movie theater empire. He hired Harry to headline live radio shows from Loew's State Theatre, the movie palace in Times Square. Harry plugged new songs on air, like Billy Rose's "Does the Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?" With NTG's help he opened his own Club Richman just behind Carnegie Hall. Harry made it one of the most opulent and exclusive nightclub/speakeasies in town. A lot of Broadway and movie stars became regulars, as of course did Mayor Jimmy Walker, and the Vanderbilts and Whitneys, and foreign royalty -- you saw everybody who was anybody there.

Or wanted to be somebody, like the chorus girl Lucille Le Seur. Accounts vary as to how Lucille got into the swank club. In one version, she convinced NTG, her sugar daddy at the time, to get her a spot in the club dancing the Charleston. NTG introduced her to Loew, who arranged a screen test at MGM, where she'd get her first tiny roles in 1925. Studio chief Louis B. Mayer decided her name sounded like Le Sewer, so the studio ran a publicity campaign in which the fans got to give her a new name: Joan Crawford. She never liked it.

For his part, Harry claimed that he discovered Crawford. He did have an eye for the beauties. He was one of the first to spot Jean Harlow, Sally Rand and Maureen O'Sullivan. Harry was an infamous ladies' man, bedding a long line of beauties from chorus girls to socialites to Harlow, maybe Rand, and Clara Bow. According to Harry, his office at the club had a secret door for sneaking them in and out while their husbands or dates drummed their fingers at their tables thinking they were just taking a long time powdering their noses. He says that the Hollywood Bowl couldn't hold all the women he had, and classes himself "a specialist in man's favorite sport."

Between the club and his other gigs Harry minted money and became the playboy nonpareil. He wore the finest bespoke suits and carried a gold cigarette case with his initials on it in diamonds. He commuted in a Rolls from Manhattan to his big house out on the water in Beechhurst, Queens, where he had a yacht and threw Gatsby-like parties for celebrities, beauties and millionaires. He learned to fly and kept a growing fleet of planes at nearby Flushing Airport. Harry worked hard, played hard, drank oceans of booze and smoked whole fields of tobacco. Everyone marveled at his stamina and joie de vivre even in that over-the-top decade.

In 1926, while still playing the host at his club, Harry got a featured role on Broadway in George White's Scandals, one of several knockoffs of the Ziegfeld Follies. After a boffo year it toured other cities, including Cincinnati, where, he notes ruefully, it tanked. In 1930 he headlined Lew Leslie's International Revue, where he introduced "On the Sunny Side of the Street." And in 1931 he made it, finally, into the Follies as well. He got his choice of songs to perform, including "Lullaby of Broadway." He was at the top of his career in those shows, the king of Broadway; his friend Eddie Cantor memorably said he wore Broadway like a boutonniere.

He didn't do so well in Hollywood. He starred, playing himself as "Harry Raymond," in the 1930 musical Puttin' on the Ritz, in which he introduced the song by his pal Irving Berlin. The movie did mediocre business then and is barely watchable now except for that number, Harry gliding around in front of an army of dancers with his top hat tilted over one eye. His recording of the song, which some consider the best, was a hit. (Among his other records are Berlin's "Blue Skies," his own "Muddy Waters" and a pretty wonderful Jolson-ish rendition of "Ain't She Sweet.") While in Hollywood to make the film he met Clara Bow. Teamed up at first for publicity purposes only, they became a hot item and got engaged. Then she suddenly married someone else. Hearing the news, he says, was the only time in his life that he fainted.

He'd make only two more feature films and one short. He sums them up this way: "All were forgettable. It became clear to me that whatever I had was best projected in person, either on the stage or in a night club." By the time he made the last film, released in 1938, he was well past his prime. When the Depression hit and then Prohibition ended, guys like Harry, icons of the Roaring Twenties, just didn't fit the new reality. To his credit, he didn't hang around like some other ghosts of the 1920s did. He left New York and settled in Miami, which was booming and lousy with new nightclubs where he could coast for a few years on his dazzling past. He went fishing with Hemingway and played with his airplanes.

His real fame in the 1930s came in fact as a flyer. In the mid-1930s he'd set altitude and speed records. Then in 1935 he and the pilot Dick Merrill made the world's first round-trip transatlantic flight in a single-engine plane. They filled the plane with tens of thousands of ping-pong balls as flotation devices should they land in the soup. Harry being Harry, after reaching Wales on the outward leg of the trip, they flew on to Paris to party all night with Maurice Chevalier before making the return flight. They landed upside-down in a Newfoundland bog, but they made it. It wasn't as big a deal as Lindbergh's one-way crossing in 1927, but Harry calls it the high point of his life.

Harry didn't make much news after that. He played some clubs through the 1940s, his looks and voice rough from all that carousing and smoking. He still had lots of friends in the show business who tried to engineer comebacks for him, but the public had long since forgotten him. By the time A Hell of a Life came out in 1966 he'd spent the millions he'd made in his heyday and was living alone, quietly and frugally, in Burbank, an old guy who'd gone full-tilt as long as he could, had a hell of a lot of memories and not too many regrets. He died in 1972.

by John Strasbaugh

[pinkvilla]

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is sexiness personified on the cover of Filmfare

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan oozes sexiness as she struck a pose on the cover of Filmfare

Filmfare just dropped its May issue about Woman Power in B-town! And who better than Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to grace the cover of this issue as she leads the pack!

Recommended read:  Abhishek Bachchan and Irrfan Khan in Ronnie Screwvala's next comedy

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is oozing sexiness on this cover shot! She is seen wearing her long black, voluminous hair in soft and tight curls. For makeup, she wore a fresh face of makeup with smoky eyes, luscious lashes, well-shaped eyebrows and nude glossy lips. She wrapped herself up in a warm and fuzzy navy blue jacket with red stripes on the borders. She wore the jacket off-shoulder, flaunting her décolleté.

This issue also features Deepika, Priyanka and other trailblazers of Bollywood amongst the power girls of showbiz. The issue hits stand on 8th May 2017, we cannot wait to get our hands on this copy! What about you?

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was last seen in a sexy and seductive cover shoot for Filmfare alongside her Ae Dil Hai Mushkil co-star, Ranbir Kapoor, which created quite the steer and Ranbir's and Aishwarya's fans went gaga over their chemistry not only on the cover shot but also in the movie!

Recently there were rumours about how the power couple of the B-town, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan are high in demand as according to the latest reports an ace director is planning to rope in Ash & Abhi for his next!

We think she looks steamy and sexy in this cover! What about you? Comment below and let us know.