Posts tagged ‘pop culture’
Seen and Heard on Hollywood Boulevard:
“Lovely Ladies Waiting for a Bite”*
* From Les Miserables
“My idea of a movie star is Joan Crawford, who can chew up two directors and three producers before lunch.” — Shelley Winters of Joan Crawford (Photo by: George Hurrell)
“I think my mouth just opens, and I spontaneously say things that occur to me.” — Helena Bonham Carter (Photo by: David Torcivia)
“I knew that with a mouth like mind, I just hadda be a star or something.” — Barbra Streisand (Photo by: Allan Warren)
“I have a mouth, and I’m not afraid to use it.” –Megan Fox (Photo by: Nicoles Genim)
“I ate a bug once. It was flying around me. I was trying to get it away. It went right in my mouth.” — Hilary Duff (Photo by: David Shankbone)
Betty Jo Tucker is a movie critic extraordinaire, currently serving as editor/lead critic of ReelTalk Movie Reviews and hosting “Movie Addict Headquarters” on BlogTalkRadio. An author herself of Confessions of a Movie Addict and Susan Saradon: A True Maverick, she took time out of her busy schedule to review Hollywood or Bust. Her review, posted on authorsden.com, is reposted below.
Hollywood or Bust Book Review
Posted: Friday, July 19, 2013
Happiness for movie fans like me is reading “Hollywood or Bust” by Susan Marg! I love all the quips, quotes, and off-the-cuff remarks from some of my favorite actors and actresses that are included in this fascinating anthology. So, of course, I found Marg’s revealing, star-studded book impossible to put down once I started it.
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As someone who has had a longstanding love affair with the cinema for over fifty years, I was surprised to find so many delicious surprises in Hollywood or Bust. For example, why did Mel Brooks start out as a drummer? What did Sandra Bullock learn from directing a film? How does Harrison Ford define a movie star? What did Elizabeth Taylor have in common with the critics? Why did Michael Caine want to win an Oscar? And that’s just the tip of the show-biz iceberg.
The complete title of this entertaining read is Hollywood or Bust: Movie Stars Dish on Following their Dreams, Making It Big, and Surviving in Tinseltown. And “dish” they do — from the price they pay for stardom and what they think about acting as a career to their feelings about each other as well as about directors, writers, studio executives, agents, and the Oscar. According to Marg, their observations “are caustic, critical and cynical on the one hand — but they are also eye opening, amusing, inspiring, and in some cases, even endearing.” Most of all — to me — they are extremely readable.
Marg calls herself a writer, a reader, a television watcher, a moviegoer, a theater attendee, and a museum visitor. She is also the author of Las Vegas Weddings: A Brief History, Celebrity Gossip, Everything Elvis and the Complete Chapel Guide, published by Harper Collins. To read more about Marg, go to her interesting popular culture blog “The More Things Change” at www.susanmarg.com.
Let’s see how well you know your movie stars past and present. Identify the speaker of the quotes below. It’s multiple choice – how hard can it be?
Answers can be found in Hollywood or Bust: Movie Stars Dish on Following their Dreams, Making it Big, and Surviving in Tinseltown (the page number on which the quote can be found follows the quote) or at the end of the quiz.
Let me know how you did.
1. I don’t use any particular method. I’m from the let’s pretend school of acting. (page 59)
A. Harrison Ford
B. Robert Pattinson
C. William Shatner
D. Paris Hilton
E. Hugh Grant
2. I’ve always had confidence. Before I was famous, that confidence got me into trouble. After I got famous, it just got me into more trouble. (page 43)
A. Don Johnson
B. Sean Penn
C. Bruce Willis
D. Clark Gable
E. Eddie Murphy
3. The secret of having a personal life is not answering too many questions about it. (page 38)
A. Lindsay Lohan
B. Rock Hudson
C. Bill Clinton
D. Joan Collins
E. Barbra Streisand
4. I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion. (page 119)
A. Charlie Sheen
B. Dennis Hopper
C. Quentin Tarantino
D. Will Smith
E. Nicolas Cage
5. I’m very fond of doing movies where men fight over me. (page 64)
A. Angelica Huston
B. Elizabeth Taylor
C. Kerry Washington
D. Megan Fox
E. Marlene Dietrich
6. The only thing I have a problem with is being labeled. (page 91)
A. Elvis Presley
B. Johnny Depp
C. Peter Dinklage
D. Bela Lugosi
E. Esther Williams
7. I want to do something gritty, something real funny, a real smelly part. (page 83)
A. Gwyneth Paltrow
B. Meryl Streep
C. Joan Crawford
D. Hugh Grant
E. Meg Ryan
And the answers are:
1. I don’t use any particular method. I’m from the let’s pretend school of acting.
When you play a vampire or the captain of the USS Enterprise, it helps to have an imagination. But the correct answer is (A) Harrison Ford, who has also gone up against aliens from other worlds and lived to make another movie.
2. I’ve always had confidence. Before I was famous, that confidence got me into trouble. After I got famous, it just got me into more trouble.
(C) Bruce “Trouble is my Middle Name” Willis is correct.
3. The secret of having a personal life is not answering too many questions about it.
(D) Joan Collins often gives good advice, but when you’re testifying before a grand jury, like Bill Clinton, or in front of a judge, like Lindsay Lohan, I’d listen to my lawyer.
4. I am not a demon. I am a lizard, a shark, a heat-seeking panther. I want to be Bob Denver on acid playing the accordion.
Any of these wild men might describe themselves as a heat-seeking panther, but only (E) Nicolas Cage wants to be tripping on Gilligan’s island.
5. I’m very fond of doing movies where men fight over me.
Elizabeth Taylor might have had Eddie Fisher and Richard Burton going at it in real life. (A) Angelica Huston prefers to keep the drama on the big screen.
6. The only thing I have a problem with is being labeled.
When Pirates of the Caribbean 5 is released in 2015, who will be able to think of (B) Johnny Depp as anyone but Captain Jack Sparrow, if they don’t already?
7. I want to do something gritty, something real funny, a real smelly part.
Hugh Grant took to the streets and back alleys for excitement. (B) Meryl Streep gets her kicks from the parts she plays.
Hollywood Or Bust! 