2. Shirley Bassey, Every Breath You Take Naturally I’m a huge Bassey fan and understand that being gloriously dramatic is as vital a quality of the Bassey gestalt as beaded dresses and money notes, but…
Year: 2013
Blog posts
Painful Corners: The Time I Was a Cabaret Singer For One Night
“We all have skeletons in our closet, but mine is belting Stephen Schwartz’ ‘West End Avenue’ in a cellar club on Bleecker Street.” I suppose desire for fame and fortune, to “make it big,” is…
Stargayzing Mix Tape: The Most Unbelievable Cover Songs of All-Time! #1: Rita Coolidge Covers Tempted by Squeeze
One of the regrettable consequences of the end of the Easy Listening/Middle-of-the-Road (M.O.R.) era and the reign of singers who rarely, if ever, wrote their own material, is the complete absence of incredible cover…
When Special Effects Meant a Good Script and a Movie Star: Robert Redford in The Candidate (1972)
I just read a long article in Entertainment Weekly about the misfortune of the VFX industry which, despite the absolute prevalence (and to me, tyranny) of special effects-driven fare, would appear to be struggling…
Movie Quote of the Day: Night and the City (1950)
“Harry is an artist without an art.”…
The Truth Comes Out! The Sexual Secrets of the Golden Age of Hollywood’s “Gentleman Hustler” Revealed!
Though there has been much written about whether iconic stars of Hollywood’s Golden Era were gay or bisexual, confirming the veracity of these allegations was nearly impossible during the period that the studios’ all-powerful…
Eating With the Stars: Ida Lupino’s Plum Cake
“My agent had told me that he was going to make me the Janet Gaynor of England – I was going to play all the sweet roles. Whereupon, at the tender age of thirteen, I…
John Water’s 10 Favorite Overlooked Movies
One of my favorite books as a kid was the original Book of Lists (1977) which I frequently site as an influence on Stargazing (along with Rona Barrett’s Hollywood, the Merv Griffin Show, and…
Stargayzing Quote of the Day: Edward G. Robinson
Edward G. Robinson was not only one of the great character actors of the classical period of American film, but also a very erudite man who amassed a distinguished collection of impressionist paintings, which…
An Open Letter to Christina Aguilera Exposing the “Dirrty” Secret She Doesn’t Want You to Know
I will never forget the moment you turned to me and asked sincerely “have you ever heard of a singer named Blossom Dearie?” Dear Christina, How I hoped to never have to go public…
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