Haikus from Carina Chocano in today’s New York Times Magazine:
Your “Good Will Hunting”
‘Twas a masterpiece. It’s true:
We liked them apples.
You played the private
In “Saving Private Ryan.”
Saved? Died? Can’t recall.
Who was Jason Bourne?
An American James Bond.
Without all the sex.
You’ll soon be playing
Liberace’s muse. Homework:
Shine candelabra.
Your best role? No way.
But best-named role: “Glory Daze”‘s
Edgar Pudwhacker.
He’s playing Liberace’s muse? Liberace had a muse? Did Liberace actually write songs…did he sing? Is that a stupid question? I don’t even know what he did. I just remember watching wrestling once as a kid and he was ringside, I think-
It’s news to me about Damon being in the Liberace movie. But to fill you in, Liberace was a pianist. He was beloved by people like my grandmother, who otherwise wouldn’t know classical music if it fell on top of them. He was extremely flamboyant, wearing suits full of sequins, playing at white grand pianos that were adorned with candelabras.
Here’s the info on the Liberace movie, which will be directed by Steven Soderbergh:
http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20303839,00.html
Dude too many things in that article jump out at me.
“Glitter Man”?
Michael Douglas will be playing him.
At his height he made more money than Elvis and The Beatles?!
Is this Soderbergh’s final movie before retirement?
And he used to drive to his piano in a Rolls Royce? Oof. Really, man? You can’t just walk?
I don’t mean to hijack this thread, but…good lord…was I under a rock? How do you miss something this ostentatious?:
I don’t know; maybe it’s generational. He was a household name when I was a kid. He even played a villain on the old Batman show. Until recently an entire museum in Las Vegas was devoted to him (it just closed, one of the more unusual victims of the recession). His death was very controversial, for he died of AIDS but his people called it something else.
Liberace was very well-known in Australia as well – when he toured Australia in the early 1970s it was a major media event. Even as a young kid I can remember a lot of headlines being generated at the time of his death.
He tried his hand at movies with a starring role in the mid-1950s with ‘Sincerely Yours’ which was a notorious flop. But he did have an amusing cameo in the 1965 black comedy ‘The Loved One’ (clip here). I saw this film at a cinema several years back and there were chuckles and gasps of surprise when he appeared, which did demonstrate that he was still known many years after his death.