Flu, anyone?

Me, not looking too hot for a Hollywood star.

I tell you it is no fun staying in bed, wrapped with blankets, and drinking a ton of water. But, I am doing this with the faint hope of getting healthy within a few days. Now, I'm not pointing any fingers, but last week, while at a party at my good friend Joan Crawford's home, I did notice a few other people looking a bit "peaked".


Poor Ray, he looks like he doesn't know what hit him!



Robert Montgomery the morning after Joan's party.


Whenever my good friend, Joan Crawford, feels under the weather, she knows whom to call. Here's a pic of her at last week's party:



Luckily for Joan, her very good friend, George Hurrell, can work magic with a lens and manages always "to tweek" an image a bit, so that Joan will always look her very best. This is the picture of Joan that appeared the next day in the Hollywood gossip sheets:



Just received a call from my dear friend, Bette, whose voice I could barely recognize. She thinks that she may have caught some sort of a flu bug at Joan's, too.



In the 1934 article posted in Trouble in Paradise George Hurrell names Joan Crawford as his favourite subject. (Bette thinks this is because there may have been something between them. What do you think?)

This is what Bette got when she asked Hurrell for some backlighting:


And this is what Joan got when she asked for some backlighting:

You be the judge!

C'mon, everybody! Tis the season to be jolly!

What some grandmothers won't do for their grandsons! Too cute! I like it that she can play the piano, sing, and look at the camera (her grandson) all at the same time! Happy holidays!

New Zealand Gingerbread Men

For all of us who have fond memories of Rotorua... with a Christmas twist! I love that their feet are slightly more browned than the rest of their bodies. Did you see the Smartie fall off of his chest (we know that these are males because they get to stick their tongue out!) Also, did you notice how the cookie crumbs bounced with each move? Their moves and singing is just like how the Maori do it. Haka!!!


The Gingerbread theme continues...

A 70s sweetie for your sweettooth!

Wishing everyone a romantic Christmas this year.

Remember to show that "special someone" that you care this Christmas.

Like Grant's character, Roger Thornhill, in North by Northwest, sometimes things can get a little too exciting to be fun.

The following excerpts are from an article by Stephen Marche, The Weekend Post
Published: Saturday, December 13, 2008

"We will be the most boring party."

Bob Rae uttered these words about the Liberals as he stepped down from the leadership race earlier this week.

Now that Bob Rae has decided he wants to be boring again, and Michael Ignatieff is officially the interim leader of the Liberals, the drama of the past two weeks seems to be winding down, and with distance, we can start to ask ourselves what kind of drama this very Canadian (non)coup has been.

I hope Bob Rae is correct when he says that the Liberal party and Canadian politics are going to become boring again. Let's hope then they can all get to work on making the economy boring and helping to spread boredom in Afghanistan.

Having an exciting political life is an overrated experience. We all bemoan public apathy over elections, but that's a sign of health: People don't have to care. The United States recently had the largest election turnout in memory, which was treated as a cause for celebration. Far from it: The voters showed up because of two wars and a collapsing economy. That's the kind of excitement we can all live without.

For those who have difficulties sleeping at night, here's a video to help you dream sweet dreams. Rita Hayworth dreaming of a familiar prince

(Should we be surprised that this clip came from a film entitled: "You Were Never Lovelier"? That she definitely was.)


The Great Fred Astaire


Quotations on Fred Astaire:


Our homeward step was just as light/As the tap-dancing feet of Astaire/And, like an echo far away,/A nightingale sang in Berkeley Square.

Eric Maschwitz's lyrics to A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square with music by Manning Sherwin


He's a genius...a classical dancer like I never saw in my life.

Mikhail Baryshnikov in "Interview with Mike Wallace", 60 Minutes, CBS Television. February 18, 1979


He was not just the best ballroom dancer, or tap dancer, he was simply the greatest, most imaginative, dancer of our time.

Rudolph Nureyev quoted in Cooke, Alistair. "Fred Astaire Obituary", Letter From America, BBC World Service, June 1987


When I was in the Soviet Union recently I was being interviewed by a newspaperman and he said, "Which dancers influenced you the most?" and I said, "Oh, well, Fred Astaire." He looked very surprised and shocked and I said, "What's the matter?" He said, "Well, Mr. Balanchine just said the same thing."

Jerome Robbins


No dancer can watch Fred Astaire and not know that we all should have been in another business.

Mikhail Baryshnikov


There never was a greater perfectionist, there never was, and never will be, a better dancer, and I never knew anybody more kind, more considerate, or more completely a gentleman...I love Fred, John, and I admire and respect him. I guess it's because he's so many things I'd like to be and I'm not.

Bing Crosby in a letter to John O'Hara as quoted in Thomas, Bob. Astaire, the Man, The Dancer


By far the gentlest man I have ever known.

Frank Sinatra


Once after a dinner party, Gregory Peck and I drove Fred Astaire home. Fred lived in a colonial house that had a long porch with many pillars. When we dropped him off, he danced along the whole front porch, then opened the door, tipped his hat to us, and disappeared. Wow! Greg and I couldn't speak for a few minutes. It was a beautiful way to say thank you.

Kirk Douglas in Douglas, Kirk. Let's Face It. Wiley, 2007


I remember when I was doing a film with Fred Astaire, it was nothing for him to work three or four days on two bars of music. One evening in the dark grey hours of dusk, I was walking across the deserted MGM lot when a small, weary figure with a towel around his neck suddenly appeared out of the giant cube sound stages. It was Fred. He came over to me, threw a heavy arm around my shoulder and said: "Oh Alan, why doesn't someone tell me I cannot dance?" The tormented illogic of his question made any answer insipid, and all I could do was walk with him in silence.

Alan Jay Lerner in Lerner, Alan Jay. On the Street Where I Live. New York: Norton, 1978. p.89.



Fred Astaire with his first dancing partner, his sister Adele


God respects us when we work,
but he loves us when we dance.

~ Les Blanc (also attributed as a Sufi saying)

Making the most of the 20+ cm of snow that fell yesterday.

In the tiny pine grove in front of my house. Isn't snow wonderful?

Fantasy pic of "Tactful Typist's blind dates all show up at once" or "The Case of the Desirous Dilemma"

No, Tyrone Power isn't missing. He snapped the photo just as I entered the room, as evident in the glances of Rock, Cary, Marlon and Greg. (That little black dress was worth every penny I paid for it!)