#and Raquelle as Martins role

[thisisworsethanitlookslike]

I am still thinking about Barbie in The Magnus Archives,,,,,, I want to make a comic,,,,,

[porterdavis]

There's only so much hush money trial coverage or SCOTUS arguments (audio-only) that I can endure, especially when it involves a lot of posturing and lying by hyper-conservatives in positions of absolute power. So...

I plucked this movie - Hannie Caulder - out of my Plex account for diversion. A 1971 Western which can't even reach the status of 'spaghetti', but 90 minutes of Raquel Welch tipped the scales. A highlight was seeing the trio of Ernest Borgnine, Strother Martin, and Jack Elam as bad guy brothers. Very little acting abilities displayed but a lot of camp.

Robert Culp was a strange choice to play lead in a Western but he didn't disgrace himself.

The movie is certainly dated but enjoyable, despite a contrived, mysterious ending.

I turned my movie day into a double feature with The Shadow Riders, chosen because the twin leads were Tom Selleck and Sam Elliot, both nearly unrecognizable in this 1982 oater. Katharine Ross provides the love interest. Dominique Dunne had a role shortly before she was murdered.

I was struck by how both movies utilized music to direct the audience's mood. There was nothing subtle about the soundtracks.

I think I'll conclude my Western viewing today with Quigley Down Under. I've seen this one before but I'd like to re-visit my all-time favourite villain -- Alan Rickman.

You can probably tell I love being retired.

[roccinan]

I know it's only been a day but I'm dying of curiosity, have you watched the spinoff yet? What are your thoughts?

Hi anon! As you can see, I posted an initial ramble in an earlier answer LOL I talked about my feelings for the new characters there so I won't bore you and repeat it.

In a nutshell: new banda was "meh." Cameron was hot and I hope she gets more breakout roles, but the character was written like a Tokyo/Nairobi knockoff without any of their depth or magnetism. And I personally didn't like how her backstory was treated (it wasn't taken seriously for the right reasons imo). Keila was surprisingly likable but I keep making a lemon face when I remember her being horny for Bruce's sweat. Same for Bruce. He would have been enjoyable if not for the pubic hair fetish that he keeps bringing up asdfasdf

I was most interested in Roi, and he didn't disappoint, but I was baffled over why the spinoff ignored the most important question: how did he meet Andres and why did Andres take him in?? Genuinely needed a flashback there.

Main questions that the show needs to, but didn't answer:

How did Damian/Keila/Roi/Cameron/Bruce meet Andres?

Why did Damian/Andres choose Cameron and Bruce to help?

Why weren't any of these people in the mint and bank heists? You can argue that Bruce/Keila/Cameron weren't close to Andres, but nothing indicated Damian and Roi would abandon him. Alicia "exposed" their identities, but they don't know she did that so it's HUH

Why did Andres replace them all with Jakov, Martin, and Santiago? I mean, I would too LOL but in universe, there needs to be some explanation

Why is he calling himself Berlin?

We also still have no idea why Andres and Sergio have different surnames since this show addressed nothing about them having the same or different parents. No idea when or why Andres became a thief, how he came to love heisting, etc. Overall, the spinoff chose to flash romances between the new characters instead of giving us more information about Andres, which was a stupid move imo.

That said, there were things I did like about the spinoff:

Aside from that hilarious tracksuit, Pedro pulled the various turtlenecks off more or less. He was gorgeous more often than not, but for what? smh

The ending was tight, exaggerated, and fun

I actually was hyped when Alicia and Raquel showed up

Lots of jokes/moments landed and made me laugh out loud

Camille topping Andres every chance she got was Quality content

The heist itself didn't have me on pins and needles, but it was entertaining and I never got bored of it

I liked that aside from Roi, Andres wasn't close to any of the young people on the team- that makes more sense with his character and also helps me forget the 27yo comment asdfadf

The shoutout to Sergio :') Hermanito lives rent free in Andres' mind

General elements that I wasn't a fan of, aside from the forced romances:

Not a berlicia shipper, but come on- why would you put Alicia and Andres in the same time space and NOT have them interact!?

The car race confused me, and not just because Cameron's phone breakdown made me cringe. I honestly don't understand why the racers needed a girl to stand on the roof. What purpose? How does that help or hinder the race- what- at first, I thought the girls were going to whack each other with sticks or try to break the other person's car and this was a high stakes death battle. But no, they just did this to be cool.

Speaking of the race, I think too many "cool" moments became boring because they were tailormade for the cool new stars; there should have been more moments like Berlin at the "opera"-- Ex. we should have gotten Damian and Andres at that race instead of Cameron and Roi- that would have been so much funnier, and thus more memorable

Andres' speeches were repetitive and made no sense, even for him. BUT it was hilarious how in the show's effort to ignore Martin, everything Andres says and does makes it look like he's waiting for his one true love in the form of Palermo, a man; even that no homo moment with Roi was so on-the-nose it has to be foreshadowing Martin XD

The ending with Camille was too open for my taste, especially pointless because we KNOW they don't end up together

BUT I do want a season 2, just so we can see Martin entering Andres' life and a glimpse of Sergio + any scrap of an actual backstory for Andres. They already did the romcom route, so maybe they'll experiment with yet another genre in s2, who knows lol.

[lboogie1906]

Wendy Raquel Robinson (July 25, 1967) is an actress. She is known for her roles as high school principal Regina “Piggy” Grier on The Steve Harvey Show and as sports agent Tasha Mack on The Game.

She was born in Los Angeles. She attended Howard University, where she graduated cum laude with a BFA. She made her acting debut in 1993 on an episode of Martin. She guest-starred on episodes of Thea and The Sinbad Show. She co-starred in Minor Adjustments. She appeared on the short-lived sketch comedy series Cedric the Entertainer Presents. She made guest appearances on The Parkers, All of Us, and The New Adventures of Old Christine. She has appeared in several films including The Walking Dead, followed by roles in A Thin Line Between Love and Hate, Ringmaster, Two Can Play That Game, and Rebound. She played Miss California in the film Miss Congeniality.

She appeared on Grey’s Anatomy. She was cast as Cruella de Vil in The Descendants. She has appeared in the film Flatliners and had a recurring role in The Mayor.

She was cast in the comedy-drama series Grand Hotel. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #sigmagammarho

[docrotten]

FANTASTIC VOYAGE (1966) – Episode 146 – Decades Of Horror: The Classic Era

“Twelve minutes left. What a time to run out of sugar!” Especially when you’re having a little coffee with your sugar. Join this episode’s Grue-Crew – Chad Hunt, Whitney Collazo, Daphne Monary-Ernsdorff, and Jeff Mohr – as they gaze in wonder at Fantastic Voyage (1966), remarkable for its special effects and for being one of Raquel Welch’s 1966 breakout roles.

Decades of Horror: The Classic Era Episode 146 – Fantastic Voyage (1966)

Join the Crew on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel! Subscribe today! And click the alert to get notified of new content! https://youtube.com/gruesomemagazine

ANNOUNCEMENT Decades of Horror The Classic Era is partnering with THE CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIE CHANNEL, THE CLASSIC HORROR MOVIE CHANNEL, and WICKED HORROR TV CHANNEL Which all now include video episodes of The Classic Era! Available on Roku, AppleTV, Amazon FireTV, AndroidTV, Online Website. Across All OTT platforms, as well as mobile, tablet, and desktop. https://classicscifichannel.com/; https://classichorrorchannel.com/; https://wickedhorrortv.com/

A scientist is nearly assassinated. In order to save him, a submarine is shrunken to microscopic size and injected into his bloodstream with a small crew. Problems arise almost as soon as they enter it.

  Director: Richard Fleischer

Writing Credits: Harry Kleiner (screenplay); David Duncan (adaptation); (story by) Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby (as Jay Lewis Bixby)

Music by: Leonard Rosenman

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Film Editing: William B. Murphy

Sound Department: Walter Rossi (Sound Effects) (uncredited)

Art Direction: Jack Martin Smith, Dale Hennesy

Set Decoration: Walter M. Scott, Stuart A. Reiss

Visual Effects: 

Art Cruickshank (special photographic effects)

L.B. (Bill) Abbott (special photographic effects) 

Emil Kosa Jr. (special photographic effects)

Marcel Delgado (miniatures) (uncredited)

Selected Cast:

Stephen Boyd as Charles Grant

Raquel Welch as Cora Peterson, the technical asst for Dr. Duval

Edmond O’Brien as General Alan Carter

Donald Pleasence as Dr. Michaels

Arthur O’Connell as Colonel Donald Reid

William Redfield as Captain Bill Owens

Arthur Kennedy as Dr. Peter Duval

Jean Del Val as Dr. Jan Benes

Barry Coe as communications aide

Ken Scott as a Secret Service agent

Shelby Grant as nurse

James Brolin as technician

James Doohan as Dr. Sawyer (Hypothermia technician) (uncredited)

Raquel Welch passed away on 15 February 2023, so the Classic Era Grue Crew thought a fitting tribute would be to cover one of her first breakout roles. Released a few weeks before One Million Years B.C. (1966), Fantastic Voyage features her as the only woman in a seven-member ensemble cast populated by excellent character actors, and she proves herself up to the task. The film’s crew is also the recipient of two Academy Awards with an additional three nominations. The Grue Crew goes a tiny bit giddy over this influential classic from the 60s. Check out what they have to say.

At the time of this writing, Fantastic Voyage is available to stream from most PPV sites, and as a very economical Blu-ray treatment from 20th Century Studios.

Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era records a new episode every two weeks. Up next in their very flexible schedule is one chosen by Daphne, the BBC TV Live production of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1954), starring Pete Cushing, Yvonne Mitchell, Donald Pleasence, and André Morell!

Please let them know how they’re doing! They want to hear from you – the coolest, grooviest fans: leave them a message or leave a comment on the Gruesome Magazine YouTube channel, the site, or email the Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast hosts at feedback@gruesomemagazine.com. To each of you from each of them, “Thank you so much for watching and listening!”

Check out this episode!

[college-girl199328]

Raquel Welch, the big-screen star of the 1960s and ’70s who gained fame in movies including Fantastic Voyage, One Million Years B.C., Myra Breckinridge, and many others, died today after a brief illness was confirmed by her reps at Media 4 Management.

Welch’s career spanned more than 50 years, 30 films, and scores of TV series and appearances, including about a dozen visits to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson spanning two decades and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Imagen Foundation in 2001.

Born Jo Raquel Tejada on September 5, 1940, in Chicago, Welch's family moved to San Diego when she was a toddler on a theatre arts scholarship, and she began her career as a local TV weathercaster before landing guest shots on classic TV series such as McHale's Navy, Bewitched, The Virginian, and others, including Cora in the wild 1966 sci-fi film Fantastic Voyage, which also starred Stephen Boyd and Edmund Gwenn and only had an hour before they returned. 

The film won Oscars for its visual effects, art direction, and set decoration and became a cult classic with a 91% Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Welch then starred as a clan cavewoman in the 1966 British film One Million Years B.C., another wild tale set in a time when humans and dinosaurs coexisted; a slightly censored version of the film was released in the United States, and the film became a TV staple in later years, inspiring her to star with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook in the London-set 1967 comedy Bedazzled and opposite James Stewart, Dean Martin, and George Kennedy in the 1968 western Bandoler.

Welch continued her big-screen career alongside some of the era's biggest stars, including Burt Reynolds in the 1972 cop comedy Fuzz, Richard Burton in Bluebeard the same year, and James Coburn, Richard Benjamin, and others in Herbert Ross' The Last of Sheila, written by Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins and starring Richard Chamberlain, Oliver Reed, and Michael York in 1973.

That film earned Welch a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical, and it spawned a 1974 sequel, The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge. She also appeared in the 1976 ambulance-crew comedy Mother, Jugs & Speed, alongside Bill Cosby and Harvey Keitel; her other films from the era were Kansas City Bomber, a 1972 drama set in the then-popular world of roller derby; The Beloved (1971); and the western Hannie Caulder, which she co-starred in with Robert Culp and Ernest Borgnine. 

Welch was never shy about fighting for herself and her place at the Hollywood table. In that context, she made a very different set of headlines in the 1980s when she sued MGM over being dumped from starring with Nick Nolte in Cannery Row to play an empathetic prostitute in the David S. Ward-helmed movie based on the work of John Steinbeck. Welch was booted off the project by the studio over a contract violation in which she insisted on having her hair and makeup done there.

MGM said no and replaced Welch with Debra Winger to make peace by taking another role, but after being rebuffed by the studio, then run by David Begelman, Welch hit back and sued MGM for $24 million.

Making headlines all over the world, Welch alleged in her suit that the studio had built the movie and its financing around her and then used the hair-and-makeup dispute as a way to get a younger actress in the hooker role through the courts and appeals, but Welch ultimately was awarded a $10 million verdict in 1987, which, of course, generated a whole new set of headlines for her.  

By the late 1970s, Welch's film career had peaked, and she began doing more TV work in 1979, appearing in a couple of Season 2 Mork & Mindy episodes with Robin Williams, and she continued to appear in telefilms throughout the decade, including the title role in "The Legend of Walks Far Woman," a 1982 NBC telepic about a woman who murders her abusive husband, and the role of a successful woman whose husband is murdered.

She later did a memorable cameo as herself in 1994's Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, wrestling Leslie Nielsen's Lt. Frank Drebin onstage at the Oscars, and briefly appeared as Mrs. Windham-Vandermark herself in the classic 1997 Seinfeld episode "The Summer of George," which featured the actress mistakenly presenting a Tony Award to Michael Richards' Kramer, with unexpected repercussions.

Other 1990s TV guest roles included Evening Shade (reuniting with Reynolds), Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Lois & Clark, and multiple episodes of Spin City and C.P.W. Her small-screen credits since then include a recurring role on the 2002 PBS series American Family, which starred Edward James Olmos and Sonia Braga, along with 8 Simple Rules, CSI: Miami, the telefilm House of Versace, the short-lived CBS sitcom Welcome to the Captain, the Canadian comedy Date My Dad, and her career, Welch appeared on scores of TV talk, game, and awards show; hosted Saturday Night Live during its first season in 1976; was a presenter at multiple Academy Awards and Tony Awards ceremonies; appeared on Bob Hope comedy specials and toplined her own specials; in 1970, 1974, and the 1980 CBS special Raquel! showcased Welch’s comedy, dancing, and singing skills, earning a 51% share.

She also was a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and talk or variety shows hosted by Oprah Winfrey, Craig Ferguson, Bonnie Hunt, Dick Cavett, Mike Douglas, Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Merv Griffin, and others twice on Broadway: the first time in 1981, when she filled in for a vacationing Lauren Bacall in Woman of the Year 1997, and the second time in 1997, when she played the lead role of Victoria Grant in Victor/Victoria, replacing original star Julie Andrews.

Despite her Golden Globes win and nomination, Welch never earned an Oscar or Emmy nomination during her long career; other accolades include an ALMA Award in 2001, a Western Heritage Award for The Legend of Walks Far Woman, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996 by her son, Damon Welch, and daughter, Tahnee Welch.  

[whileiamdying]

Raquel Welch Is Reinvented As a Latina; A Familiar Actress Now Boasts Her Heritage

By Mireya Navarro June 11, 2002

On ''American Family,'' the PBS television series about a Mexican-American family in East Los Angeles, now in its first season, Aunt Dora is the drama queen of the family, a passionate, romantic woman who might have become a Hollywood star had she vigorously pursued her acting career. The actress playing Aunt Dora is Raquel Welch, who infuses the role with her familiar sultriness and smoky voice.

Nevertheless the sight of Ms. Welch in that role might bewilder some fans who remember her best for films like ''Fantastic Voyage,'' ''One Million Years B.C.,'' ''Kansas City Bomber'' and ''The Four Musketeers,'' as ''Woman of the Year'' on Broadway and in nightclub acts in Las Vegas. Dora, you see, is a Latina, a title Ms. Welch herself is claiming for the first time after nearly 40 years in show business.

''I'm happy to acknowledge it and it's long overdue and it's very welcome,'' she said in a recent interview at the Watergate Hotel in Washington. ''There's been kind of an empty place here in my heart and also in my work for a long, long time.''

Jo-Raquel Tejada, born in Chicago of a Bolivian father and an American mother, is taking to her heritage with gusto. Not only is she playing Dora as well as the film role of Hortensia in the 2001 romantic farce ''Tortilla Soup,'' she is also strutting her ethnicity in events like the American Latino Media Arts Awards and other public appearances.

''Latinos are here to stay,'' she told her audience at a National Press Club luncheon last month. ''As citizen Raquel, I'm proud to be Latina.''

As both citizen Raquel and Raquel Welch, sex symbol and pinup girl, Ms. Welch has bridged two eras. She has worked in the Hollywood that made her a blonde and tried to take away her first name as well as in the Hollywood that now considers Latinos hip and pays Jennifer Lopez up to $12 million a picture.

Ms. Welch grew up with a father who tried to assimilate at all costs, even banning Spanish at home. But now, at 61, she is riding the wave of new Latino generations that flaunt their ethnic pride and behave with the confidence of a major demographic force.

These days Ms. Welch is learning Spanish from tapes, planning her first trip to Bolivia in August to meet relatives and working on her own Latino film project. After fifty-some movies and worldwide celebrity, she is embracing the identity she said she had to reject to break into film.

''It was told to me that if I wanted to be typecast, I would play into that,'' she said, by emphasizing her Hispanic background. ''You just couldn't be too different. My first big breakthrough part in 'One Million Years B.C.' they died my hair blond. It's a marketing thing. And now I'm sure there are a lot of people who are marketing specialists just for the Latino community. They want those 35 million people to buy their products and to vote for them.''

Today, some people note, there is still plenty of casting of Latino actors as non-Latinos. Felix Sanchez, president of the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts in Washington, an advocacy group for Hispanics in entertainment, said the message to many actors still was that they had to eliminate ethnicity to succeed.

''They're able to be ethnically present to the Latino audience but ethnically invisible to a majority audience,'' Mr. Sanchez said. ''That's the comfort level of film and television today. We need to move it beyond that to where our culture and identity are fully integrated in a character.''

But others argued that for every Martin Sheen or Cameron Diaz, actors of Spanish and Latin descent who usually portray non-Latin characters, there is an Esai Morales or Andy Garcia, who play Latino characters or alternate ethnic roles.

''We can have Latino actors play Latinos or non-Latinos -- it doesn't matter,'' said Luis Reyes, co-author of ''Hispanics in Hollywood: A Celebration of 100 Years in Film and Television'' (Lone Eagle, 2000). ''We just need a diversity of images. If you have diversity, at least the negative images don't bother you because that's not all you see.''

That Ms. Welch feels comfortable calling herself Latina and has found solid Latina roles to play reflect fundamental changes in Hollywood. Latinos have been part of motion pictures since the industry's inception, but their depiction in movies has fluctuated wildly, from amoral bandits to aristocratic Latin lovers, for instance, depending on the politics and events of the time, film historians say.

Some portrayals were so offensive that in the 1920's Mexico and other Latin American countries called for a boycott of American films. But there were also periods when Latinos were popular -- the Latin lover craze, the Carmen Miranda comedies -- particularly in World War II when much of Europe was closed off as a market and movies turned to Latin America instead.

For many Latino actors, success depended on fitting the all-American mold. There was Rita Hayworth, the sex symbol of the 1940's who in real life was Margarita Carmen Cansino, born to a Spanish father and an Irish mother. And there was Anthony Rudolph Oaxaca Quinn, born in Chihuahua, Mexico, of Mexican-Indian and Mexican-Irish parents, and better known as Anthony Quinn.

''He had to be somewhat Anglo or European in order not to be dismissed,'' Ms. Welch said Quinn told her when they discussed the subject before his death last year.

In her own case, Ms. Welch gave in on the hair but not on Raquel, her paternal grandmother's name. (Welch was her first husband's name.)

''I thought, well, if I can't even have the Raquel, that's really selling out completely, that's really turning my back on everything that I really am,'' she said.

She played a Latina in only two movies, a Mexican in ''Bandolero!'' and a Mexican Yaqui Indian in ''100 Rifles,'' in which she is better remembered for her interracial love scenes with Jim Brown.

Ms. Welch said she never hid her ethnic background, but it never became common knowledge. Instead, she wore a fur bikini and was typecast as a sex symbol.

Then again, for Ms. Welch, who grew up in La Jolla and San Diego, playing a Latina would have been more of a departure than playing a glamorous bombshell. She said her father was dead set on raising his three children as American as apple pie. An ambitious immigrant who came to the United States from Bolivia to study engineering, Armando Carlos Tejada never looked back. Ms. Welch said her family never visited Bolivia. And it was not until her 30's, when her grandmother came for a visit, that Ms. Welch finally met her namesake.

''Those people who wanted to make it in the American system found it necessary and desirable to kind of suppress their Latino quality,'' she said of her father. ''He never spoke any Spanish in the home, so as not to have us have an accent. We never were in a neighborhood where there were other Latinos around. I didn't know any Latin people.''

For a long time, she said, she resented her father for what she calls overkill. She said his effort to erase his ethnicity was ''a lie, a lie that worked as far as blending in.'' But eventually she came to understand him.

''In a way he didn't have a choice,'' she said. ''There was a sense of shame on his part, of the confusion and the prejudice around against Latins,'' Ms. Welch said. ''So he suffered a great deal. I suffered some. My suffering is more of a kind of psychological feeling of not knowing who I am.''

But the Mexican-American director and writer Gregory Nava (''El Norte,'' ''Mi Familia,'' ''Selena''), who grew up in San Diego, said he knew about Raquel Tejada. As a boy he remembered her winning the title Fairest of the Fair at the San Diego County Fair, part of a pageant trifecta in 1958 in which she also won Miss La Jolla and Maid of California.

''She was the most beautiful girl in town,'' Mr. Nava said. ''The whole Latino community was very proud of her.''

When the time came to cast Dora for ''American Family,'' a character based on one of Mr. Nava's aunts, he needed an actress who was not only beautiful but also charismatic. Mr. Nava, 53, decided to take Ms. Welch out to dinner and ask her to play Dora.

''She said, it's too late for me to be Latina,'' he recalled. ''I said, it's never too late.''

On the series, alongside actors like Edward James Olmos, Sonia Braga and Esai Morales, ''she's totally believable,'' Mr. Nava said. ''Obviously, it's there,'' he said of her Latina essence.

Mr. Reyes, the writer, says Ms. Welch has nothing to lose by taking Latina roles.

''She's 60 years old, and how many roles are there for 60-year-old women?'' he said.

But while Ms. Welch, who can still wear tight jeans and a low cut T-shirt, may be finding new roles in her current incarnation, she said she had not been showered with offers. Despite signs of a more auspicious climate for Latinos in Hollywood, they are still largely absent from movies and prime-time television.

Ms. Welch has developed her own wig and beauty product lines. She has a son, Damon James Welch, a computer consultant and aspiring actor, and a daughter, the actress Tahnee Welch. Richard Palmer, a restaurateur, is her fourth husband, and they live in Beverly Hills.

''I do feel very fortunate now at this point in my career, where I'm definitely middle aged and I'm not getting the kind of young leading lady parts anymore, that I have discovered and have been gifted with this role on 'American Family' where I can feed myself personally as a human being,'' she said.

On the set of this other American family, she said, ''I feel completely like I belong.''

[greysautomation]

Penguin from batman

Penguin from batman tv#

It also picked up nods in the same categories at the Bafta Awards where it again was thwarted by Death Becomes Her and The Last Of The Mohicans. It was recognised at the Oscars and Baftasīatman Returns received Oscar nominations in the Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup and Hairstyling categories but lost out to Death Becomes Her and Bram Stoker’s Dracula respectively. Written and performed by Australian troubadour Vance Joy, acoustic ballad Riptide reached No.10 on the UK charts in 2013.įeaturing the lyric ‘I swear she’s destined for the screen/Closest thing to Michelle Pfeiffer that you’ve ever seen’, the song was partially inspired by the actress’ performance in Batman Returns. McDonald’s was forced to scrap its Happy Meal tie-in following floods of complaints from parents about the film’s violent tone. Reviewers weren’t the only ones to get a little upset about Batman Returns’ inherent darkness. Tim Burton’s Batman films are virtually technicolour fairy tales compared to Christopher Nolan’s gritty reboot, but back in 1992 critics weren’t prepared for dark, comic-book tales.Įsteemed reviewer Roger Ebert argued that ‘superheroes and film noir don’t go together’, while the Los Angeles Times described its tone as ‘claustrophobic, oppressive’ and one which ‘strangles almost all the enjoyment out of the movie’. In a 2007 interview she revealed she never wanted to see a Catwoman costume again, perhaps due to the fact that it was so tightly sealed she only had a brief amount of time to act her lines before she passed out. Michelle Pfeiffer wasn’t a particular fan of the wardrobe department’s work. Indeed, 12 king penguins and 30 African penguins were used over the course of the shoot, with men in suits, robotics and CGI standing in for the real thing during the more difficult scenes. While computer generated animation was used for the bats, The Penguin’s bird army was a mixture of nature and technology. Sadly, the aging star fell ill shortly before filming and he had to be replaced by Pee-wee Herman, aka Paul Reubens, who also reprised the role for several episodes of Gotham.

Penguin from batman tv#

The original Penguin was supposed to make a cameoīurgess Meredith, who played The Penguin in the cartoonish 60s TV series, signed on to play the Penguin’s father Tucker Cobblepot. The director only agreed to return when he was given more creative control and allowed to commission a rewritten script from Heathers screenwriter Waters. Tim Burton appeared to have had enough of the Caped Crusader after bringing him back to life with 1989’s Batman, describing the possibility of a sequel as a ‘most dumbfounded idea’. Marlon Wayans had not only been cast as Robin in Batman Returns, he’d also been measured up for a suit.īut he never got to wear it onscreen when the sidekick was rested due to the film having too many characters. These included John Candy, Bob Hoskins, Dean Martin, Christopher Lloyd and Dustin Hoffman. Marlon Brando was just one of several big-name actors who were considered for the role of The Penguin before it was given to Danny DeVito. Marlon Brando could have played The Penguin The musical icon, who instead took a role in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, had previously passed on another role Walker then assumed – Max Zorin in A View to Kill. But none other than David Bowie was the first name that producers had in mind. Named after Nosferatu actor Max Schreck, Batman Returns’ all-human villain was played by Christopher Walken. Producers wanted David Bowie to play Max Schreck Madonna, Cher, Raquel Welch, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bridget Fonda were just some of the other names in contention for the role.īut no one was more distraught on missing out than Sean Young – the actress actually turned up to the production offices in a homemade Catwoman outfit to demand an audition.

[disneytva]

The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder Announces Nearly 25 Guest Stars

It’s a family thing. 🗣 Celebrate 20 years of The Proud Family with some of the star-studded cast of The Proud Family Louder And Prouder, an Original Series premiering in 2022 on Disney+! 

The guest-starring voice cast will feature some of the entertainment industry’s biggest names, including Lizzo, Lil Nas X, Chance the Rapper, Normani, Leslie Odom Jr., Tiffany Haddish, Lena Waithe, Anthony Anderson, Gabrielle Union, Debbie Allen, James Pickens Jr., Courtney B. Vance, Jane Lynch, Marsai Martin, Jaden Smith, Glynn Turman, Lamorne Morris, Brenda Song, Tina Knowles, Eva Longoria, Holly Robinson Peete, Al Roker, Bretman Rock, Gabby Douglas, Laurie Hernandez, and Dominique Dawes, with more to be revealed.

Recurring stars include Asante Blackk as Penny’s boyfriend, Kareem, and Artist “A Boogie” Dubose as Maya’s gamer brother, Francis “KG” Leibowitz-Jenkins. Raquel Lee Bolleau reprises her role as Nubia Gross, and Marcus T. Paulk is back as Penny’s classmate, Myron.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Proud Family, a few stars from the revival are sharing what the iconic original series meant to them. Normani calls her own grandmother Suga Mama, she says, “because it’s literally what my household looked like.” Similarly, Blackk shares, “The different characters and personalities in the show reflected what was going on in my home.” Johnson says the original animated series “was a huge part of my childhood, and I hold that very dear to my heart.” Keke Palmer adds, “Even though it was on a kids network, it still had the right amount of edge for it to be accessible to everybody.”

[vintage1981]

Happy Birthday Martine Beswicke!

Martine Beswicke (born 26 September 1941) is an English-Jamaican actress and model perhaps best known for her roles in two James Bond films, From Russia with Love (1963) and Thunderball (1965), who went on to appear in several other notable films in the 1960s. In 2019, she was inducted into the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards' Monster Kid Hall of Fame.

Beswicke is best known for her two appearances in the James Bond film series. Although she auditioned for the first Bond film Dr. No (1962), she was cast in the second film From Russia with Love (1963) as the fiery gypsy girl, Zora. She engaged in a "catfight" scene with her rival Vida (played by former Miss Israel Aliza Gur). Beswicke later stated that there was as much bad feeling with Gur offscreen as well as on, with the film's director, Terence Young, encouraging Beswicke to get rough with Gur.

"I was a very nice girl but Aliza was a cow. We had terrible clashes and I was disgusted with her. I had a lot of anger inside of me so that [fight] scene was a perfect way to work it out. We rehearsed the fight for three weeks but when we shot it, Aliza was really fighting. Everyone encouraged me to fight back, so I did. We got into a real scrapping match." — Martine Beswicke[9]

Beswicke then appeared as the ill-fated Paula Caplan in Thunderball (1965). She had been away from the Caribbean so long that she was required to sunbathe constantly for two weeks before filming, to look like a local.

Beswicke went on to appear in One Million Years B.C. (1966) opposite Raquel Welch, with whom she also engaged in a catfight. She played Adelita in the well-regarded Spaghetti Western, A Bullet for the General (1966) opposite Klaus Kinski and Gian Maria Volonté and played a villainous role in the exploitation thriller The Penthouse (1967). She then appeared in various Hammer Films, most notably Prehistoric Women (1967) (aka Slave Girls) and the gender-bending horror Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde (1971), in which she played the titular villainess.

She had a supporting role in the Italian sex comedy The Last Italian Tango (1973). She then starred as the Queen of Evil in Oliver Stone's 1974 directorial debut Seizure. In the 1970s, Beswicke moved to Hollywood and regularly appeared on both the big and small screens. She made numerous guest appearances on television series, including Sledge Hammer!, Fantasy Island, The Fall Guy, Mannix, The Six Million Dollar Man and Falcon Crest. In 1980, she played the lead role in the comedy film The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood.

Beswicke's career was active well into the 1990s. Since then, she has mainly participated in film documentaries, providing commentary and relating her experiences on the many films in which she has appeared. She owned a removals business in London, but is now semiretired except for her guest appearances at international film conventions.

After a 24 year absence from the screen, Beswicke came out of retirement in 2018 to appear in House of the Gorgon opposite fellow Hammer film actors Caroline Munro, Veronica Carlson, and Christopher Neame.

[blorbosexterminator]

I think fans said Lisboa knew the plan just as well as Sergio and Martín, because she studied it a lot with Sergio, but that just makes no sense, it's not the same as years of thinking about it. And other arguments were like she was neglected in s3-4 and would shine in the leader role which is true, but like a meta reason, doesn't make sense in universe.

It makes zero sense. They studied the plan for like 2 months. Martín literally MADE the plan, every single move. And Sergio had been there from the beginning. Like sure, Raquel would be the best choice if Sergio, Martin, Bogota and Jakov died or smth.

I honestly hate that argument. Treating the character like a little child. "Now give her something because we've neglected her lately." Like it's the writers' problem writing a whole new story with no real place for Raquel in it. And that IS the problem. The solution isn't to randomally insert her in any bossgirl position, the solution would have to considered her position from the start and see how they could have played that card to strengthen the narrative, the role of any truly strong character. In-universe Raquel being a more suitable leader than Palermo makes no sense. Raquel was never even a criminal before it lmfao. An realistically, if the banda is super-critical of Palermo because he was an outsider, they would be even more critical of Raquel. Generally, the entire plot line of getting Raquel in the bank is stupid af. Her place was outside. The entire reason of the plotline is to have some fake plot-twist/shock cliffhanger and to prolong the show for the absloutely useless military entering the bank then. The most suitable place for Raquel was outside, even if not beside Sergio. They could played on their division outside, they could have both been in a different place to pull the police in different directions and play with them.

At the end of the day, what matters most is the in-universe logic. And you can see that the commonality between all bad scenarios, scenes and storylines in the five seasons run is that they were all things done for receiving meta praise and were careless of the in-universe structure and logic of things.

[justforbooks]

Sharon Vonne Stone was born on March 10, 1958. She is an American actress, producer, and former fashion model. She is the recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award, as well as having received nominations for an Academy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

After modelling in television commercials and print advertisements, she made her film debut as an extra in Woody Allen's comedy-drama Stardust Memories (1980). Her first speaking part was in Wes Craven's horror film Deadly Blessing (1981). Also in the 1980s, Stone appeared in Irreconcilable Differences (1984), King Solomon's Mines (1985), Cold Steel (1987), Action Jackson (1988), and Above the Law (1988). She found mainstream prominence with her part in Paul Verhoeven's science fiction action film Total Recall (1990).

Stone became a sex symbol and rose to international recognition when she starred as Catherine Tramell in another Verhoeven film, the erotic thriller Basic Instinct (1992), for which she earned her first Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. She received further critical acclaim with her performance in Martin Scorsese's epic crime drama Casino (1995), garnering the Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

Stone received two more Golden Globe Award nominations for her roles in The Mighty (1998) and The Muse (1999). Her other notable film roles include Sliver (1993), The Specialist (1994), The Quick and the Dead (1995), Last Dance (1996), Sphere (1998), Catwoman (2004), Broken Flowers (2005), Alpha Dog (2006), Basic Instinct 2 (2006), Bobby (2006), Lovelace (2013), Fading Gigolo (2013), and The Disaster Artist (2017). In 1995, she received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and in 2005, she was named Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in France.

On television, Stone has had notable performances in the miniseries War and Remembrance (1987) and the HBO television film If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000). She made guest appearances in The Practice (2004), winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series, and in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2010). Stone has also appeared in the series' Agent X (2015), Steven Soderbergh's Mosaic (2017), The New Pope (2019) and Ryan Murphy's Ratched (2020).

For her leading roles in erotic and adult-themed feature films such as Basic Instinct, Sliver, and The Specialist, she created a "tough-talking, no-underwear, voyeuristic, cool-as-ice, sex symbol" status during most of the 1990s. Stone has appeared in the covers and photo session of over 300 celebrity and fashion magazines throughout her four-decade acting career; in 1986, she graced the June–July cover of French Vogue, and to coincide with the release of Total Recall, she posed nude for the July 1990 issue of Playboy, showing off the muscles she developed in preparation for the film. Following Basic Instinct, photographer George Hurrell took a series of photographs of Stone, Sherilyn Fenn, Julian Sands, Raquel Welch, Eric Roberts, and Sean Penn. Stone, who was Hurrell's reportedly last sitting before his death in 1992, is also a collector of the photographer's original prints and wrote the foreword to the book Hurrell's Hollywood.

In 1992, she was listed by People as one of the "50 most beautiful people in the world". In 1995, Empire chose her as one of the "100 sexiest stars in film history", and in October 1997, she was ranked among the "top 100 film stars of all time" by the magazine. In 1999, she was rated among the "25 sexiest stars of the century" by Playboy. She has been the subject of four television documentary specials, and several biographies have been written about her. On her sex symbol image, Stone told Oprah Winfrey on Oprah Prime in 2014: "It's a pleasure for me now. I mean, I'm gonna be 56 years old. If people want to think I'm a sex symbol, it's, like, yeah. Think it up. You know. I mean, like, good for me". In 2015, Stone posed naked for the September issue of Harper's Bazaar magazine, in which she stated: "At a certain point you start asking yourself, 'What really is sexy?' It's not just the elevation of your boobs. It's being present and having fun and liking yourself enough to like the person that's with you".

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

[roccinan]

I was surprised that alicia and raquel would be in the spin off but also feeling a little bit disappointed. Because I was expecting Martin and sergio lol. It almost look like alicia and raquel are the substitute for Professor and Palermo characters that gone missing from berlin spin off.

Me too, anon! I joked about the possibility with @nharidy and we actually did hope to see a Raquel cameo, but with the two of them there, not sure how exactly it connects to the plot but I'm sure there will be something. I don't really follow the lives of every cast member, but I think Najwa and Itziar were busy with other projects before this, so I don't think they're in Huge roles this time. But hopefully we can see them having a cool extended cameo- like, maybe they and Andres never directly cross paths, but somehow indirectly aid each other in whatever they're doing (Ex. Raquel catches the bad guy because of something Andres' gang did, Andres gets away with something because Raquel intercepted a rival gang, etc.)

Still disappointed we have no news on Alvaro and Rodrigo, but at this point, I think the producers KNOW the fandom's clamoring for those two. So Palermo at the very least might still show up, but they're going to wait until like, November to reveal it for maximum impact XD

[tcm]

Norma Shearer: The Self-Made Star By Raquel Stecher

Norma Shearer was the epitome of ambition. Early in her career, Shearer had disastrous encounters with Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld and pioneer film director D.W. Griffith, for whom she appeared in a bit role in his film WAY DOWN EAST (’20). They basically told her that she’d never make it in show business, noting that her figure didn’t fit the ideal standard and the cast in her right eye gave her a slightly cross-eyed appearance. But that wasn’t a deterrent to Shearer. She was a woman in control of her career. Shearer worked with a doctor on manipulating her right eye, she learned how to dress to compliment her figure and she became an expert on how to look best in front of the camera.

Shearer soon caught the eye of Louis B. Mayer who put her under contract. She climbed the ranks to become an important player at MGM not by luck or talent but through hard work. She wasn’t satisfied with limited screen time, weak characters and poor lighting. She wanted leading roles, top billing and the best hair, make-up and costumes that a major studio like MGM could provide. She wasn’t destined to be a star. She made herself one.

Over the trajectory of her career, Norma Shearer constantly fought tooth and nail for better and better roles. She went from bit player to leading lady and proved her worth with films that turned into box-office hits. She successfully made the transition from silent to sound with THE TRIAL OF MARY DUGAN and THE LAST OF MRS. CHENEY (both ‘29). Her husband, movie mogul and producer Irving Thalberg, didn’t believe she had what it took to star in the sexually charged pre-Code THE DIVORCEE (’30). Shearer proved him wrong with a glamorous George Hurrell photoshoot that demonstrated she had sex appeal. She went on to star in the film and won the Academy Award for her performance. She was also nominated for her performances in THEIR OWN DESIRE (’29), A FREE SOUL (’31), THE BARRETTS OF WIMPOLE STREET (’34), ROMEO AND JULIET (’34) and MARIE ANTOINETTE (’38).

Critics might point to her advantageous marriage to Thalberg as the sole basis of her success. And while she tended to lean on the powerful men in her life, Shearer didn’t rest on her laurels. She carved a path for herself in the industry. But when Thalberg died at the tender age of 37 in 1936, Shearer not only lost the love of her life but also her biggest champion. She negotiated a six-picture contract with MGM. A few more hits came her way through a variety of “prestige” pictures and her last two box-office hits THE WOMEN (’39) and ESCAPE (’40). She took some time off before making WE WERE DANCING (’42), which was a critical and commercial failure.

Unfortunately, it was around this time that Shearer was making some bad decisions. She turned down plum roles in films like MRS. MINIVER (’42) and NOW, VOYAGER (’42). Her appearance was everything to her, and she did not want to be relegated to playing older women on screen. Now in her 40s, her days of being a romantic leading lady were quickly winding down.

Shearer’s next picture, HER CARDBOARD LOVER (’42), would be her last. For the film, she re-teamed with director George Cukor, with whom she had a good professional and personal relationship. The film is just the sort of high society romance she craved, and playing a woman desired by two charming men (George Sanders and Robert Taylor) seemed ideal. But the film was out of touch with contemporary audiences. Cukor later regretted making the film, saying “the plot was already too dated to engage a wartime audience.”

HER CARDBOARD LOVER put the nail in the coffin of Shearer’s acting career, although she wasn’t quite ready to admit to it. The film completed her obligation to MGM, and she informed Louis B. Mayer that she would not renew. A few weeks after the release of the film, Shearer married ski instructor Martin Arrouge and was preparing for a new chapter in her life.

According to Shearer biographer Gavin Lambert, “she denied that she had given up on acting and said she would return to the screen if the right part came along.” And a few projects did come her way. Using her strong connections in the industry, she made an attempt to produce a film adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Last Tycoon, which was partially based on the life of her husband Thalberg. Several attempts were made, but the project never came to fruition. (It was later adapted in 1976 and directed by Elia Kazan.) According to Lambert, Daniel Lewis of Enterprise Productions was working with Shearer in 1948 on a film project. When the film ARCH OF TRIUMPH (’48) set the company back financially, Shearer’s project was scrapped.

For a while, Shearer focused her attention on two things: discovering new talent and protecting the legacy of Irving Thalberg. Shearer came upon a picture of Janet Leigh and soon convinced talent agent Lew Wasserman to take a chance on the young woman whom she believed had star potential. For the biopic of Lon Chaney, MAN OF A THOUSAND FACES (‘57), Shearer insisted on casting the actor who would play Thalberg. Shearer spotted a young Robert Evans, who had acted as a child on stage but was then in the clothing business, at the Beverly Hills Hotel where she was currently living. Shearer and her husband Arrouge approached Evans and got him the part, which catapulted the future producer and studio head’s Hollywood career. Gavin Lambert notes that Shearer turned down Normal Lear and Bud Yorkin who were interested in making a biopic on Thalberg. Shearer said, “I do not believe it is something Irving would want and I would never consent to someone else playing me on the screen.”

Even out of the spotlight, Shearer seemed always to be in control of her destiny. She retreated from public life, preferring to spend time with her husband and a close-knit circle of friends. She never did return to acting but left behind a legacy fit for the Queen of MGM.

[dormarunt]

The punishment, lol, yeah i'm happy for palermo and all, but that was stil a plot hole, just forgetting about it like this.. and for bogota, his reaction makes sense, no? martín betrayed them, risking all their lives, he doesn't beat him up like did with gandia but very disappointed in his friend. what is strange though is that bogota supported tokyo's coup. like wtf?? that made 0 sense, but nothing made sense about the coup so..

I mean, yeah, Bogota's reaction is that of betrayal but also - yes, he did support Tokio's coup. I think the whole "Palermo freeing Gandia" didn't make a lot of sense, and was written in to serve the plot rather than the character. They needed chaos inside the bank, but also they needed a reason for Palermo to no longer be in charge because Raquel would join them in the bank soon, and the writers really didn't know what to do with her (and it does make sense for her to have a commanding role and so on). So a lot feels just-- manufactured to serve the plot. Or, idk, it's all done so smoothly done that it completely escapes me, lol.

Either way, I didn't see the Bogota & Martin friendship in seasons 3&4, but I'm really glad we got to see in in S5!

[bitter69uk]

Recently watched: Fathom (1967). Tagline: “The world's most uncovered undercover agent!” Full disclosure when I claim, “I watched”: in truth, I only tuned-in for the last 30-minutes or so and then it was mostly background noise while I was working. But I did glance up occasionally and caught the gist! Fathom is one of those larky tongue-in-cheek deliberately campy post-James Bond spy movie parodies that were pervasive in the sixties for some reason (see: the terrible Matt Helm series starring a tipsy and indifferent Dean Martin). Essentially, Fathom positions Raquel Welch as a kind of female James Bond and is a rip-off of the 1966 movie Modesty Blaise starring Monica Vitti.  (The makers of Fathom didn’t foresee Modesty Blaise would belly-flop at the box office. As would Fathom. Turns out there was no demand for a female James Bond. Fathom was apparently intended to be the first in a series of films, but that idea was quickly abandoned). 

None of Fathom seemed to add up or make sense. Raquel is glamorous American skydiver Fathom Harvill caught up in a mad whirl of international espionage and intrigue … something something … there’s a stolen necklace … something something … lots of skydiving and chases … something something … the villains all seem to inevitably have British accents … something something. (Bear in mind Fathom was virtually over by the time I started watching). 

At this point the statuesque and glamazonian Welch was still a hot young starlet on the ascent (Fathom was one of her first lead roles). She certainly looks spectacular. Her tawny mane of hair is tousled, teased bouffant perfection (in fact, it’s the exact same coiffure Ann-Margret wears in The Swinger (1966)). Her inch-long false eyelashes and extensive contouring make-up offer a veritable masterclass for drag queens. While critics at the time pilloried Welch’s acting as “wooden”, I like the deliberately (?) bad, slightly dazed and naïve babydoll tone of Welch’s performance here and she demonstrates comedic ability. I’d argue Welch's acting choices in Fathom anticipate Jane Fonda in Barbarella (1968) or, in fact, her own later career-best performance in Myra Breckenridge (1970). In terms of sex appeal, though, for me Welch is overshadowed by her leading man, rugged Italian American actor (and former Mr Shelley Winters) Anthony Franciosa – sporting a bleached blond dye job! In summary: Fathom is precisely the kind of movie that inspired the Austin Powers franchise.