Thoughts I had while staring at Nicole Kidman in "V" Magazine

Nicole Kidman just keeps whipping us into submission. Yes, yes, "Uncle!" You're a great actress and infinitely obsession worthy. But bow down we must, again, as The Paperboy nears movie theaters. Hurry up and get her already, movie! Her latest ploy is dressing up (by which I mostly mean undressing) for V Magazine.

The V doesn't stand for "Voilà" but... Voilà. Here she is boys...

More thoughts / drrty photos after the jump... 

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Tuesday Top Ten - Motion (Picture) Sickness

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JA from MNPP here. First off, my apologies to those of you with weaker constitutions. This might not be your sort of Top Ten list today. With that out of the way, want to know why I still won't eat cherries to this very day? Since it's "The Witches of Eastwick week"I think y'all can probably put two and two together. Take a giant silver bowl of them, stir in a trio of witchy women under the influence of one Big Bad, and shake thoroughly - out spills what might be the always game Veronica Cartwright's most memorable cinematic moment. (And this is a woman who has been terrorized by Hitchock's birds and phallically attacked by HR Giger's Alien, so she knows from memorable scenes.)

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You'd be excused for expecting it to be the walls and furniture to be what tumbles out of her mouth since she spends the first half of the scene devouring the scenery in a tour de force of bravura overacting, but the devil's in the details - that red-stained torrent of cherry pits is something you just don't forget, even 25 years later. (Watch the whole scene here.)

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So in it's honor, a list!

Here are 9 more cinematic spews... from Bridesmaids through The Exorcist

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Twins: "You and I... we're exactly the same"

Since we're celebrating twins until the stars move on from Gemini, I wanted to give a shout out to the figurative kind as well.

Due to sad circumstances offline I'm way behind on "Hit Me With Your Best Shot"  though I did watch Joan Crawford in Possessed recently to catch up. Crawford's camp icon status got me to thinking about the best camp masterpiece in the past 25 years, one that we already covered in the first season of the best shot series. (Showgirls is hard-wired into my neural pathways so it's very easy to access). The legendary so-bad-it's-good movie pits "Goddess" superstar Cristal Connors (Oscar-worthy Gina Gershon... and I'm 100% sincere) against naive crazyperson Nomi Malone (Razzie winner Elizabeth Berkley). Cristal insists repeatedly that they're one and the same, virtually identical. Nomi vehemently disagrees but the movie itself is in Cristal's headspace through and through.

The best shot from the movie? Cristal, Nomi, and Nipples after the jump...

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Linksplosion

Scribble Junkies wonders if short men make better directors
My New Plaid Pants sneak peaks End of Watch with Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena
IndieWire Oops, we deleted the movie. The growing pains of digital cinema
Cinema Blend Joss Whedon on his success with The Hulk. Speaking of...
Tom Shone thinks the Hulk is the only thing he got right.
Huffington Post thanks the foundations laid down in the Whedonverse for The Avengers success
USA Today gets good quote from the Core Four in The Avengers. And everyone has a good laugh about Mark Ruffalo in his motion capture phase. The man himself:

The first day of the leotard I said, OK (expletive), get a good laugh. Let's just get it out in the open. There was a lot of snickering and off-color jokes about the leo part of my tard. I don't think that needs explaining. 

Wow Report the best job in Hollywood is...
ASME announces the best magazine covers of the year. Truly odd choices here, I have to say. Mila Kunis' GQ cover is the only actress cover featured. 
Guardian sad legal battles over the Zsa Zsa Gabor estate. The famous actress is 95 and is probably not long for this world
Forbes released their list of the 100 Most Powerful Women in the World. The highest and only ranked actress is Angelina Jolie at 29 (unless you think of Beyoncé #18 as an actress). 
Newsorama has a ten-wide list of things we've learned from The Avengers... but it's more about what Marvel Studios can learn from it. 
The Mary Sue Brave's Princess Merida already showing up at Disney parks 

Theater Watch
Potentially terrible news for New Yorkers. The fate of the awesome Zeigfeld Theater on 54th street is up in the air. That's a pity. This is hallowed ground we're talking about. It's one of the few single screen ginormous theaters left. It's where I saw Moulin Rouge! for the first time. It's where I saw Michelle Pfeiffer in the pflesh and its the only suitable place for big deal starry movie premieres in Manhattan. Please don't close up!

This Weekend's Must Read...
The Hairpin points us to this amazing Elizabeth Berkeley interview right before Showgirls (1995) came out. It's hilarious and fascinating and sympathetic in retrospect. So much titillating delusion.

I thought, ‘I have to do this.’ I mean, this role, I would kill for. It’s very rare you read a script where the whole focus of the film is on a woman. Also, I’m so passionate about what I go after and I really felt a lot of connection with the character right away...

The bottom line is the character is so emotional. She’s constantly on the edge of a breakdown so that was hard because what’s two minutes in her life was 17 hours for me. There was one scene in particular where I’m on stage auditioning for the showgirl spot where Alan Rachins’ character is wanting me to put ice cubes on my nipples. That was so difficult. Everyone on the set just felt really upset by it because the fact is that goes when showgirls audition. I mean, it’s part of the process.  

Authenticity!

RuPocalypse Now

Did any of you watch the premiere of RuPaul's Drag Race Season 4? I'm always wanting to write about it because, more than most performers, drag stars love to mash up pop cultural influences including movies. It's not only the typical Gay Films that get referenced but camp classics of all sexual persuasions (Waterworld classifies as a straight camp classic, right? I mean it's dreadfully serious about itself but it's terrible) and even regular classics, albeit usually the feminine ones. The theme of the first episode was the apocalypse and the first part of the contest was a photoshoot in which the queens were sprayed with "toxic waste" while Ru shouted out instructions. At one point Ru yelled "give me Karen Silkwood!" I can't picture The Great Lady Streep watching this sort of thing but I bet she would have chortled.

Despite all the cultural referencing its evident (sometimes) that many queens are merely parroting the past without actually knowing what they're referencing. So I tend to gravitate towards the smarter queens who are a little more savvy about drag as art and understand gay culture's magpie qualities

WillamIt's dangerous to choose favorites early on in competition shows but I love Willam (Willam Belli) because he seems smarter than the room and could actually back up the bravado and name dropping. He's got a long list of film and TV credits.

 I'm a successful drag queen. I'm not some bitch who has to show for a dollar."

"I've worked with Oscar Winner Diane Keaton," Willam bragged in the after show. Not just Diane Keaton, bitches. Oscar Winner being a title like Dame, see. 

My other instant favorite was Sharon Needles who won the apocalypse challenge by understanding what they were looking for: creative scary theater. The winning look and more movie notes after the jump.

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