|
|
CLUB 86
2001: A Face Odyssey
by Mookie 2001-08-15
|
|
This article shared 1269 times since Wed Aug 15, 2001
|
|
"You need a scorecard to keep track of who's dating who in Hollywood these days," observes Charlene Tilton, a scribe for the Globe tabloid, tossing cardboard Olympian tens and nine-point-fives around like evil eavesdropping boomerangs with gossip-mongering guidance systems. "It hasn't been this crazy since Liz Taylor and Richard Burton!"
Although we live in an age where Prince has likened himself to Beethoven and Puff Daddy claims his romance with J.-Lo. akin to that between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, the Cruise / Kidman divorce still packs a punch. While John Cusack dumps Neve Campbell only to date ex-Seinfeld ex-Affleck babe Shoshanna Lonstein, jealous Jack Nicholson proposes to ex-soul mate Lara Flynn Boyle, Julia Roberts and Lyle Lovett kiss and make-up, WWF star Chyna busts big daddy bo Triple H. in flagrante delicto and news that Bill Clinton tried to steal Julie Cypher from lesbo rocker Melissa Etheridge back in '92 shimmies up the sides of our collective unconscious like juicy slop in a pig trough, the Blue Ribbon Porker remains The Wall Street Journal's "Most Powerful Man In Hollywood," risky business herself, Mr. Thomas Cruise.
After all, one of the greatest directors of the 20th Century actively solicited Tom and then-wife Nick for nine months before they agreed to shoot Eyes Wide Shut: But don't for a second think that Stanley Kubrick was simply and innocently bedazzled by those pretty boy snouts & trotters. The perfect and perfectly orchestrated casting points to a very special subtext, an arduous, sly reality that both supports and obfuscates the dreamy allegory of a complex marriage on the rocks, told within and about a world of deception and illusion.
Although Kubrick's last film went over-the-head and between-the-legs of most critics and movie-goers, his themes are crystal clear, their expression obsessively, breathtakingly realized: Husband Bill, played by Cruise, lies compulsively to his wife Alice, played by Kidman, who equally compulsively tells the truth. By living a lie, nothing is real for Bill, so everything becomes possible, thrusting him into a world of desire expressed outside himself; by teasing her husband with truth, everything is real for Alice, so only one path is possible, forcing her to play out her feelings in dreams. That interplay, the point of singularity between wakefulness and sleep, perception and illusion, truth and fiction, fidelity and infidelity, the reds and the blues, reaches a zenith by movie's end, when we realize that neither partner has ever actually betrayed the other: Perception eventually supercedes reality, re-shaping it, over-powering it. Such an ongoing, unresolved dichotomy compels the astute viewer to ask: "If we're damned if we 'do,' and equally damned if we 'don't,' then what, if anything, is left, and how can we really know anything at all?" Not to end his career on a false or incomplete note, Kubrick answers that question, through the forever truthful lips of Alice, with perhaps the ultimate homage to Nature, the movie industry, and symbolically the high-profile Hollywood marriage of Tom & Nicole: "Let's just fuck."
As Peter Sellar's Inspector Clousseau would say: "Not, any more," while skeptics might scratch their heads and balls and mutter, "-;if ever." With their divorce finalized, Nicole is now, officially and for the record, free to date Russell Crowe, George Clooney, Ewan McGregor or the ghost of Stanley Kubrick, and Tom is equally free to date Penelope Cruz on the cover of People magazine and sue gay porn star Kyle Brandon in the court of law. Meanwhile, we can't help but visualize Stanley lying there, six feet under and grinning, oh so mischievously. Much like a dream, a multimedia processed Hollywood dream, we wake up in 2001 to find the very archetype of heterosexual glamour, success and envy disrupted, disjointed and perhaps a flat-out lie, a computer-generated phantom, like those pixellated studio additions blocking the orgy scenes in Eyes Wide Shut, steering the movie clear of an NC-17 rating, fun for the whole family!
Of course, not everyone's fooled, or even remotely shocked, for that matter-;But we're all entertained. Most of those "in the know," especially in the entertainment industry, acknowledge, accept and effortlessly perpetuate the lies. After all, Hollywood is all about the creation and sustenance of Illusion, a business plan that permeates every level and every nook of show biz: It always has, and it always will. Truth might be stranger than fiction, but it sure doesn't sell; and if you think that "Coming Out" doesn't hurt someone's career, then go ask Scott Thompson-;Or, or, what's her name again?-;Oh, yeah. Ellen.
Meanwhile, all these straight people are having loads of fun! Nicole, divorce proceedings aside, got shady and mucked-up Russell Crowe's roe with Meg Ryan, while Meg's ex Dennis Quaid has hooked-up with Shana Moakler, Olympic boxer Oscar de la Hoya's ex, who's just … Q.: Is anybody really keeping score? Does anybody really give a shit? A.: YES. "Incoming!"
-; But hey, do you really think those talking velociraptors in Jurassic Park III are gay? |
|
|
|
This article shared 1269 times since Wed Aug 15, 2001
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97 2024-03-22 - series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...
|
| | WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21 - It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21 - Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15 - Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer 2024-03-08 - Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor 2024-03-01 - Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctora film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...
|
| | Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes 2024-02-27 - February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...
|
| | SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors 2024-02-25 - Queer entertainers made their markalthough not a major oneat the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...
|
| | WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar 2024-02-23 - The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Kristen Stewart, Rock Hudson, Talia Keys, 'True Detective,' Marvel comic 2024-02-23 - At the Berlin Film Festival, Kristen Stewart defended her photo shoot for a Rolling Stone magazine cover that went viral and divided audiences on social-media platforms, per The Hollywood Reporter. "The existence of a female body ...
|
| | Second Glance Productions hosts LGBTQupid Soiree 2024-02-16 - In celebration of Valentine's Day, Chicago based film and media production company Second Glance hosted The LBGTQupid Soiree. The event, which was focused on spinning attitudes on this particular day, was presented at The iO ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Elton John, Hannah Gadsby, video game, Jennifer Lopez, queer thriller 2024-02-16 Video below - Sir Elton John has sold his Atlanta home and is now auctioning off more than 900 of his personal items that were kept in the 13,500-square-foot condo, The Daily Mail noted. The massive collection includes rare ...
|
| | GALECA announces nominees for the Dorian Film Awards 2024-02-07 --From a press release - Feb. 5, 2024 - GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics, consisting of over 500 entertainment critics, journalists and media icons, today announced the group's democratically chosen nominees for its 15th Dorian Film Awards. All of ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ JoJo Siwa, Tom Holland, Bowen Yang, Pet Shop Boys, Mariah Carey 2024-02-02 - In the wake of Nigel Lythgoe exiting So You Think You Can Dance, queer personality JoJo Siwa is returning to the series, per Deadline. Siwa, who was a judge on season 17 of the Fox show, will replace Lythgoe, who left ...
|
| | Leather Archives & Museum announces 2024 Fetish Film Forum 2024-01-27 --From a press release - CHICAGO, Illinois—After a wildly successful inaugural year, including a 10-film series at the Leather Archives & Museum and a 5-film series at FACETS, the Leather Archives & Museum is thrilled to announce the continuation of Fetish ...
| |
|
|