Second Annual Christopher Reeve Foundation Celebration

Robin Williams attends the Second Annual Christopher Reeve Foundation Celebration at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Thank goodness for Robin Williams. He was such a great friend to Christopher Reeve. He financially supported Reeve after that fateful accident and never made a song and dance about it. As far as acting goes, the best thing Williams ever did was The World According To Garp. I was so surprised with this film - I cried like a baby. Nanoo nanoo was no where to be seen (oh maybe just a little bit).



Ofcourse John Lithgow worked on Garp as well and here he is lending his support.

Deathtrap is my favorite Christopher Reeve film. Michael Caine was his usual brilliant self (just forget Blame It On Rio for a second). A play written by Ira Levin, his other credits include The Stepford Wives and one of my dark favorites, Rosemary's Baby.

If I think of Michael Caine and blink, I see Alfie. The style of this film and Caine's trail blazing performance would influence many actors and directors alike. Shelley Winters co stars with Caine which leads me to one of my favorite scenes of all time - her mammoth swim in the seventies classic, The Poseidon Adventure.

I remember my Dad asking me if I wanted to go and see The Poseidon Adventure. My first reaction was 'Is it scary?' I was only about 10 at the time and was going through a difficult faze coming to terms with the concept of death. My parents were sensitive to this to a point. 'Nah, its just a great adventure'. Suspicious, I went along anyway and loved every minute of it.

Roddy McDowall was in Poseidon and luckily for me turned up in The Planet Of The Apes. This is another poignant moment in my film education. Sitting with Mum and Dad in the loungeroom - volume unusually high - light flickering from the telly - no one moved. From the moment that Charlton Heston delivered his bleak diatribe about human existence I was hooked. During the shoot chimps, apes and orangutans were deliberately segregated from each other. I wonder how the people that played the humans in the film felt?

The ultimate love scene. Who would of thought that I'd end up smooching one of my favorite actors, Charlton Heston (just try and forget about the gun lobby for a second also). Just think Soylent Green and The Omega Man and now you're with me.

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers Receive Key To The City

Tom Petty shows off the Key to the City of his hometown of Gainesville, Florida, during a press conference at the Stephen J. O'Connell Centre. The Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan proclaimed September the 21st to be "Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Day." You know I think its great that Tom Petty is letting the sun shine on his face once again - its just that I don't know if I can bear looking at those chompers.

Ahh, here's a closer look at those teeth. Yes I remember them well singing 'Stop Draggin' My Heart Around' with Stevie Nicks. I couldn't take my eyes of them. I always wondered if he ever had a fling with ol' Stevie - the hippy songbird that led an army of girls to wear cheese cloth dresses and burn incense in lieu of washing.

Well she used to be Lindsey Buckingham's gal and I don't know if she still held a candle for him because he sounds like a right ol' pig. I remember seeing one of his exes on Geraldo. She said that he was a wife bashing nut - going off the deep end about nothing and then pretending to be happy as Larry.

Stevie Nicks was interviewed about her career after it well and truly fizzled and would lament that her biggest regret was not having children. She said back in her day with Fleetwood Mac it was literally a choice between the two.

Hey these guys looked just great back then. Unlucky for me, I found there music excruciating in the height of their success. It would take me years to buckle and listen to Rumours again. I have to say that it's in my top 100 - you take a listen to my favorite song from the album in the Greatest Hits section.

In 1977, when Rumours first came out, I was moving from my ABBA stage to thankfully a better destination.....

ACDC before Bon Scott chocked on his own spew.

2006 Robot Show - South Korea

Humanoid robot 'Eve R-1' is getting her hair brushed at the 2006 Robot Show, Kintex Centre in Goyang, South Korea. Eve can sit down, stand on her feet and can move all her limbs in a fast motion. I'm sure there are many optional modifications but how useful is she really? The thing is I think that robots are great. I want them like no one else. Its just that I want them like we all imagined years ago - like we were promised - capable - flexible - human like - unable to be detected as a machine merely for the fact that they never sleep (and have a sad life long quest for a human heart). What is wrong with all of this is that technology on the robot front seems to have slowed down - all the robots look and act like they are side show exhibits. They are stupid and slow, not worth the trouble. When the space race started and everyone was excited about the future and colonizing other planets - we thought that things would go full steam ahead - as if everything would look like 2001: A Space Odyssey and so on. The future is nothing like what we thought it would be.




See this is not what its all about. She looks like a mannequin - not someone you would have walking around the house saying "Good evening, how can I be of assistance?". Its something you'd keep in the garage with all the other junk you're sick of (like those dumb robot dogs everyone seemed to be so impressed with). I'm being harsh on ol' Eve, but when will the people that make robots realize that you need to set the replicants from Blade Runner as your bench mark?

A replicant owl from Blade Runner. The guys from Tyrrell Corporation knew what they were doing.

Even back in 1927 we had a vision of the future that was over the top in Metropolis.

The prediction is that by 2017, most homes will have some form of robotic help.

Robert Mapplethorpe: Still Moving & Lady

Patti Smith and Photographer Robert Mapplethorpe (must be a relative of the late Robert Mapplethorpe) arrive at the 'Robert Mapplethorpe: Still Moving & Lady' private view at the Alison Jacques Gallery, London. The gallery will continually screen Mapplethorpe and Smith's black and white film Still Moving (1978) and also Mapplethorpe's color film Lady (1984), made in collaboration with Lisa Lyon. Photographs of Patti Smith etc. (including unique works and early polaroids) and well-known silver gelatin photographs will all be there.

Patti Smith's relationship with Robert Mapplethorpe was intense. She describes their first meeting - "The first time I saw Robert he was sleeping. I stood over him, this boy of twenty, who sensing my presence opened his eyes and smiled. With few words he became my friend, my compeer, my beloved adventure". Patti Smith, 'The Coral Sea', 1996.

Patti and Robert.

A textural feast.

A classic shot of William Burroughs.

In September 1951 Burroughs accidentally killed Joan Vollmer, his common law wife. They were partying in a room above a bar when he announced to the assembled company he would perform a shooting in the 'William Tell' style. Vollmer placed a glass on top of her head and Burroughs shot at it with the gun he carried - missing and killing her. Burroughs was never tried for the accident but did spend 13 days in jail before the killing was deemed "criminal imprudence". Burroughs lament's; "I'm forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death..."

Dear Robert Mapplethorpe.

Robert Mapplethorpe started The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation soon before he died in 1989. It aims to promote photography, support museums that exhibit photographic art, and to fund medical research and finance projects in the fight against AIDS and HIV-related infection.

Spalding Gray

I did the unthinkable the other night. I watched most of BEACHES again. Its just that this time I watched the middle of the film which is odd I know its just that I had never seen the middle - I'd dabbled in the beginning - fought tears at the end and left it at that. Because of my BEACHES tardiness I had never known about the presence of Spalding Gray. Before I get into Spalding, I must explain why I choose to dip my feet into the murky-tissues-not-enough-excruciating-depths of BEACHES. Its that I have a fascination with the junior Bette Midler in the film, Mayim Bialik. Even someone that has been cloned for the role wouldn't even come close.

Mayim Bialik

See, she's only fascinating to all Bette Midler fans and my sad, sorry, self. Anyway, when I watch this mutant Bette, I think of her mother or father ramming Bette Midler videos down her throat and WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? keeps flashing in my mind. Lucky for Mayim, she has mostly worked in trashy TV series since but her last job was in CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM so life is looking up.

Barbara Hershey's lips.

The above photo is too small to do justice to my second reason for watching BEACHES. I've always thought that Barbara Hershey was a reasonable talent verging on not bad. When I see her in this film I'm left with the feeling - What in the hell are you doing? She made herself look ugly in that twisted-plastic-surgery-gone-wrong way with too much collagen ferried into her lips.

Anyway back to Spalding, he is a great actor turning up in all matter of projects from THE KILLING FIELDS to an absurd series like THE NANNY but most of all he is a writer and compelling presenter of his words. MONSTER IN A BOX did it for me. You can't take your eyes off Spalding when he talks about his life. He talks about his relationship with his mother, her suicide and the life he made for himself which presented massive highs and lows. He is one of those crafty people that makes the bleak funny and the embarrassing truth worth shouting from the roof tops. Unlucky for us all, he lost his battle with depression in January, 2004.

Dear Laurie Anderson created a fluent sound track to MONSTER IN A BOX and years later would speak at Spalding Gray's memorial service.

Acupuncture

While I was underneath the pins and the pleasantries of my local acupuncturist, the 63rd Annual Venice Film Festival was underway. Even though my dearest pin pusher was thinking of my holistic health and well being, he wasn't to know that things of a more urgent nature where filling the streets of Italia and my consciousness.

Here's Scarlett Johansson waving to some people on the street - delightful.

I saw Sandra Bullock in The Lake House with Keanu Reeves (a reliable source informs me he has the most beautiful complexion and the demeanor to match - thanks A!) I also have another dark secret to reveal - I love soppy love stories and absolutely loved this film (I went on my own because everyone I know refused to sit through it) - majority of reviewers say it stinks but who cares!

Here's one of the most talented and gorgeous actors of our time - Adrien Brody (The Pianist).


Everyone was invited - Valentino Rossi.