It's all about how you feel

"I don't care what birthday you're on. It's all about how you feel. There are days when I feel like 30. The oldest I go is 50 in my mind. The number doesn't matter. But I do have a sense that I have some wisdom now. It's good to be wise. It sure beats being young and clueless."

"I want women to be liberated and still be able to have a nice ass and shake it."

"Possessions have never meant that much to me... I've never erected a lifestyle that would put possessions in a position of controlling me."

"All you really need in life is some fresh water, a good hat, and a really good pair of shoes."

"I've made so many movies playing a hooker that they don't pay me in the regular way any more. They leave it on the dresser."

The magnificent Miss Shirley MacLaine blows out 90 candles on her cake today!

All hail.

By way of a celebration, here's her triumphal solo moment from Sweet Charity [that was one of the films we watched at our "Film Club" on Saturday]:

Shirley MacLaine - If They Could See Me Now

...and here she is, just being Shirley:

Shirley MacLaine - I Love It

Facts about Miss MacLaine:

• She got her big break on Broadway when lead Carol Haney sprained her ankle during a production of The Pajama Game. As her stand-in, MacLaine went on in her place and captured the interest of movie producer Hal Wallis and Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first film The Trouble With Harry.
• It was her suggestion that Bob Fosse, whose musical Pajama Game gave her her first big break, direct her movie Sweet Charity.
• Allegedly during the filming of The Children's Hour, the co-stars made a deal: Audrey Hepburn would teach Shirley how to dress if Shirley would teach her how to swear.
• Shirley has co-starred with many of the greatest names in Hollywood including Paul Newman, Dean Martin, Elizabeth Taylor, Yves Montand, Jeanne Moreau, Jack Lemmon, Chita Rivera, Peter Sellers, Meryl Streep, Robert Mitchum, Anne Bancroft, Louis Jourdan, Jack Nicholson, Clint Eastwood and Olympia Dukakis, and was notoriously the only female member of the "Rat Pack"; she went on tour with longtime friend Frank Sinatra in 1992.
• Miss MacLaine has has been nominated for six Academy Awards, and when she finally won the Oscar for Best Actress in 1983 for Terms of Endearment, she became the first actor to say "I deserve this" during an acceptance speech.
• She has also been nominated for six Emmys (winning once) and 19 Golden Globes (winning four, as well as "Most Promising Newcomer" in 1955, "Most Versatile Actress" in 1959, and the Cecil B. DeMille award in 1998).
• Barbra Streisand and Shirley, who share a birthday, apparently celebrate it together every year.

Shirley MacLaine's 20 best films, ranked by The Guardian.

Many happy returns, Shirley MacLaine (born Shirley MacLean Beaty, 24th April 1934)!

Excess is success

"I really don't understand minimalism. It is so polite and boring. If you don't want anyone to notice you, you should stay home and grow your own vegetables."

"Fashion should be something that in the morning, when you open your window, you say, 'Oh fantastic, sun!' Then you take your shower, you say, 'OK fantastic, which colour I wear today because I feel happy?' This should be fashion."

"In my planet, fashion, I'm the only straight man."

"What is too much? There is no such thing!"

"Excess is success."

The "go-to" designer for a raft of celebrities, from Brigitte Bardot and Sophia Loren to the Beckhams, Britney Spears and Jennifer Lopez, the great Italian fashionista Roberto Cavalli has departed to bestow endless swathes of leopardskin and animal print upon the glitterati of Fabulon.

The catwalks are going to be a lot less camp and glamorous now he's gone...

RIP, Roberto Cavalli (15th November 1940 – 12th April 2024)

Making an entrance

The Divine One

We have a centenary to celebrate...

One of the most distinctive and remarkable singers ever, the much-missed magnificent Miss Sarah Vaughan was born one hundred years ago today!

Suffice to say, her music speaks for itself:

Sarah Vaughan - The More I See You

Sarah Vaughan - Tenderly

Sarah Vaughan - The Nearness Of You

Sarah Vaughan - Fascinatin' Rhythm (live, 1988)

No-one else could do what "Sassy" did!

"I am not a special person. I am a regular person who does special things."

"When I sing, trouble can sit right on my shoulder and I don't even notice."

"There's a category for me. I like to be referred to as a good singer of good songs in good taste."

"As soon as I hear an arrangement, I get ideas, kind of like blowing a horn. I guess I never sing a tune the same way twice..."

"There are notes between notes, you know."

Sheer class.

Sarah Lois Vaughan (27th March 1924 - 3rd April 1990)

Weekend Reading

He pushed the boundaries of excess

From the fantastic tribute in the Evening Standard by David Johnson (editor of one of my fave websites Shapers of the 80s):

The press called them the “New Romantics” and the “Blitz Kids”, declaring the Eighties the “Age of the Pose”. Art-school tutor Rosetta Brooks compared their self-consciously styled poses to “street theatre ultimately extended into continuous performance as a post-punk embodiment of Gilbert and George in one person (the individualist).” Each poser, she believed, is a ready-made. Step forward fashion student Stephen Linard, who ticked all the above boxes – a flamboyant Canvey Island boy, ...who yearned to make a statement in every street or room he graced.

Arriving at St Martin’s School of Art in London (1978-81), Linard pushed the boundaries of excess…His outrageous fashion details flagged direction for the two dozen sharpest Blitz Kids who shaped the New Romantics silhouette from the Blitz onwards...

“The competition pushed you on... you might change what you were going to wear eight times on a Tuesday to try to outdo everyone else at the Blitz.”

...“The Blitz was an art students’ club. The place was choc-a-bloc with artists: Brian Clarke, Zandra Rhodes, Molly Parkin, Antony Price, Duggie Fields, Kevin Whitney and us because it was halfway between Central School and St Martin’s. People who said ‘Oh you Blitz Kids don’t DO anything’ were talking rubbish, because WE all did. We were the ones with our work in the glossy magazines long before the rest.”

Always centre stage...

With friends/fellow squatters that included Boy George, milliner Stephen Jones, "scene queen" Princess Julia, the faboo Eve Ferrett, assorted fashionistas such as The Clothes Show's Caryn Franklin and art-model Sue Tilley, and the Pet Shop Boys, and clients that included Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Spandau Ballet, Fun Boy 3 and even David Bowie, he became legendary in couture circles. He was unique!

RIP, Stephen Linard.

[click any pic to enlarge]

Liza!

...it's her world, we merely inhabit it.

Many happy returns, Miss Liza May Minnelli (born 12th March 1946)!