Beauty Break: Smoking Kills (Glamorously)

Confessions, multiple: I have never been a smoker, I've been thrilled and proud of my friends whenever they've kicked the habit, I have never once missed the days when bars / restaurants allowed smoking...

... but I miss smoking in the movies. 

Rock Hudson blowing smoke rings

Fifty years ago this very day the Surgeon General first deemed it hazardous to your health and over the next fifty years it's slowly faded from the movies. Nowadays when you see smoking onscreen, it's nearly always to signify "rebellious character" or "villain" or is shot through some sharp retro-commentary filters: see everything about everyone in Mad Men or David Straitharn's whole act in Goodnight, and Good Luck. 

I know smoking is wrong. I know it kills. I hate the way it smells. But those tendrils of smoke on screen or a movie star's lips around a cigarette look so damn sexy. Here's proof...

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Where My Girls At: Post-Halloween Edition

TWO DAYS LATER... I've sucked at Halloween lately which is why I'm having trouble letting it go this weekend. I mean I really have. It was once my favorite official holiday (I'm still petitioning for Oscar Night to be a Federally recognized holiday because, duh, that's the best one) but for the past couple of years I haven't dressed up or celebrated and just haven't been feeling it. So Imma have to start planning my costume for 2014 now just so there's no backing out. If you've ever lost the love for a holiday and reclaimed it, do help me out in the comments. What to do???

Since the clock falls back one hour tonight (daylight savings endeth) I'm using that an excuse to pretend time and calendares are completely fluid/meaningless and it's not too late to post these pictures of two of TFE's most favorite ladies/actresses/divas/witches Nicole Kidman and Angela Bassett doin' the holiday up... and Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy co-starring again post The Heat for a little trick-or-treating

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American Horror Story Coven: "Bitchcraft" & "Boy Parts"

So Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy have finally done it. After years of wooing me with meaty roles for actresses of a certain age (meat served bloody raw) in their American Horror Story anthology series, I am down for watching it as it airs. It's been clear for some time that the creative team's orientation is fully aligned with the Actressexuality™ named and promoted by TFE for several years now. Thus, a natural kinship exists even if yours truly is squeamish about horror. I have been mostly agnostic when it comes to Jessica Lange my whole life (though I thought her "Sister Jude" on Asylum was easily her best work since the 80s) but when it comes to two-time Oscar winner Lange paired with Sarah Paulson, Oscar winner Kathy Bates, Oscar nominee Gabby Sidibe, Lily Rabe, AND Oscar nominee Angela Awesome Basset? Uncle! I surrender to your casting voodoo. 

Kathy Bates in "Coven"

Please to Note: I did try to watch the first two seasons but in both cases, I eventually bailed after a few episodes from the gore and the, how to put this, unwatchable epileptic fits of lensing and editing and framing. Listen, I can live with frenetic editing (you kind of have to since the late 80s) knowing that when I need a fix of long takes that let me enjoy great acting, I can always seek out auteur films. (Odd that it would be auteurs, who so thoroughly OWN their pictures, that would be the only ones to just hand said pictures to the actors on occasion). But it's not just the genre or the typical short attention span in cutting that has previously made AHS unpalatable for me.

The show, or at least the first handful of episodes of its previous seasons, often appeared to have been shot and edited and framed by a group of wild, bug-eyed, A.D.D. addled 12 year old boys... albeit uniquely pervy pre-teens who were raised in asylums and jacked off to photos of grande dame actresses while horror movies were projected on continual loop on the grey walls of their prison. The only break in horror programming was obviously the complete filmography of Jessica Lange.

...or at least the lobotomy scenes from Frances (1982).

It wasn't just quick cutting but canted cameras, baroque flash cuts, inebriated camera swerves, you name it. But let's put that behind us and move on to Season 3's first two eppys after the jump. Spoilers ahead obviously.

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The Link is Doomed

How Are You I'm Fine Thanks has an adorkable crush on Hawkeye from The Avengers but thinks he's going to get Jossed. Yeah, he's evil that way.
Coming Soon Yep, Barbra Streisand is still trying to get Gypsy remade. They've now hired Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park, Downton Abbey) for the screenplay.
Salon hung with Peyman Moadi (A Separation) during his Oscar trip and recounts all the star meetings (Streep, Pitt, etcetera). Note: Salon spells it Payman Maadi.
In Contention Viola Davis settling into leading-lady status. Will she avoid Angela Bassett's fate?

Rope of Silicon listens to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo audio commentary. I love that David Fincher talks about Scotty the cat! The best part of a movie is always the cat...if it has anything to work with, that is.
24 Frames examines the reasons John Carter may have failed and one of them -- too complex for the Transformers crowd -- is way too depressing for me. Yikes.
Stale Popcorn makes a case for the beaten-down Best Original Song category.
My New Plaid Pants smacks our face with "Moments of Awesomeness" in the Golden Trouser awards
Wow Report "my theory about Elizabeth Banks and this dress"
MUBI the SXSW winners

Must Read!
Pajiba our friend Joanna who you've met on a few episodes of "red carpet lineup" right here shares 115 reasons to love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The show just celebrated it's 15th anniversary. Can you believe it?.

I loved this visual countdown so much I almost read it twice in a row. Let me know your favorites of her 115.

Must Vote!
Vanity Fair is hosting a "sexiest animated character" March Madness bracket (i keep wanting to do a tournament and I never settle on one topic. grrrr). You need to go and vote because clearly people are voting not on sexiness but just on which movie they like. I'm sorry but how is Belle (Beauty & The Beast) sexier than Pocahontas (Pocahontas) even if her movie is way better!

Must Watch!
It's only 11 days until MAD MEN returns! SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE... it's the only show post-Buffy that we've ever obsessed over as much. Can't wait to see which movies they'll reference this year... and which year they're even in for that matter.

RIP Whitney Houston (1963-2012)

Jordin Sparks and Whitney in the forthcoming "Sparkle"Breaking news as CNN is currently investigating the discrepancies within the details but Whitney Houston has died at the age of 48, the day before the Grammys no less. She won six of the music industry's top prizes over the span of her career, the last in 2000 for "It's Not Right, But It's OK".

She'll always be remembered as one of the great voices of the 80s and 90s but her career had been quiet for a decade, plagued as it was with substance abuse. I'll personally never forget that chilling "crack is whack" Diane Sawyers interview but there were occasional intermittent signs that Whitney was on the mend. She had recently returned to acting filming a remake of Sparkle with "American Idol" alum Jordin Sparks. 

That musical is currently in postproduction aiming for an August 2012 release date. Whitney's movie career previously was sparse and short but started with a supernova: The Bodyguard (1992) was a smash hit at the box office and the music was an even bigger deal launching a series of hits and becoming the bestselling soundtrack of all time.

Houston jumped from A list co-star to A list co-star: Kevin Costner to Angela Bassett to Denzel Washington. (I remember being miffed at the time that Angela Bassett had to take second billing but I was a possessed Bassett fan in college and hoping to see her snag a second nod for her literally fiery work in Waiting To Exhale.).

The song everyone remembers from The Bodyguard is of course Dolly Parton's immortal "I Will Always Love You". My fondest memory of the song is actually Dolly Parton related. My friends and I would always be like 'ka-ching. You get that money, Dolly!' whenever Whitney held that crazy note which was, appropriately, ALWAYS ♫ since she didn't seem to need to breathe and the song was always on. Mostly out of loyalty to Dolly and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas where 'I Will Always' was first movie-fied but maybe also because I go weak at the knees for a sparkly headdress or wrap, I was more partial to "I Have Nothing."

Rest in Peace, Whitney Houston.  Your voice had plenty and you gave quite a lot of it to the world.