A girl called Billie

"Perhaps it sounds like false modesty, but I know I could have done far more with my acting life than I have... I had a collaboration with Beckett; I was a conduit for him. But I've never really felt like a proper actress."

"I always thought [acting] was a bit of a flibbertigibbety occupation."

“Death’s not one of those things that frighten the life out of me. Getting up on stage with the curtain going up frightens me more."

RIP another of our most beloved actresses, Miss Billie Whitelaw CBE (6th June 1932 – 21st December 2014)

The sun a spark

"The days are short,
The sun a spark,
Hung thin between
The dark and dark."
- John Updike

“And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive."
- Susan Cooper

Midwinter's Day or Yule.

It gets better from now on...

Liberace lives!

You couldn't make it up.

From The Guardian:

Liberace is set to tour the world as a hologram. A simulated version of the late pianist will be resurrected by some of the same people who staged Coachella’s holographic Tupac Shakur, with a début performance scheduled to take place in Las Vegas.

“This is a major step in the evolution of this medium for entertainment,” Hologram USA’s Alki David said in a press release. The show will be so “lifelike”, he predicted, that “the room will be filled with all of the great singer’s charm and charisma”.

The cyber Liberace will also be able to interact with audience members. “You’ll feel the warmth from his heart, the sparkle of his eye and the pure lightning from his fingertips,” explained Jonathan Warren, chairman of the Liberace Foundation.

The Liberace Foundation is a full partner in Hologram USA’s plans, loaning the company the footage and artefacts that will allow them to create their hologram.

The date of holo-Liberace’s Las Vegas premiere will be announced “very soon”, organisers said. Described as a “full-scale, long-running” show, the high-tech soiree will later be “roll[ed] out across the USA and … globally”.

To quote the saintly Lee himself:"You can have either the Resurrection or you can have Liberace. But you can't have both."

Memento mori

She made her name in movies alongside Steve Reeves, Marcello Mastroianni, Frank Sinatra, Isabelle Adjani, William Holden, George Segal, Tony Curtis, Anthony Quinn, Anna Magnani and Rod Steiger. Yet with her stunning looks, she could steal a scene from anyone. Not least in this classic scene from the comedy How To Murder Your Wife:



RIP Signora Lisi. We wish we could have partied with you...

Virna Lisa Pieralisi (8th November 1936 – 18th December 2014)

Enjoy it!

"Unpack your sense of humour, and get on with living and ENJOY IT."

Sir Noël Peirce Coward (16th December 1899 – 26th March 1973)

PS That picture of The Merm and The Master is the latest addition to our "Wall of Fame" here at Dolores Delargo Towers...

Skin deep

From Dame Joan Collins' regular column in The Spectator:

“Like many British actors and actresses, I fly to the US two or three times a year, with my new and nifty global entry card. Though you do hear some horror stories, I have rarely - if ever - had any problems with US immigration, until last month.

Because I apply moisturiser on long trips, quite liberally, my hands were covered with lotion at the border control counter, which meant my fingers didn’t make a strong enough impression on the fingerprint scanner. My immigration form came out of the printer with a large and very ominous X on it. This alarmed the official, who decided to leave me standing next to his desk while he waved forward and collected the forms of those whose fingerprints had made the grade.

After an interminable parade of obvious stares and hidden snickers from the successful entrants, he made me take off my hat and glasses and peered at me. I felt like a criminal caught at the border while trying to immigrate into the US illegally. He cross-examined me ruthlessly - ‘What do you do?’ ‘Why are you here?’ ‘What are your plans in this country?’ Several other officers were called over to discuss me; my passport was inspected thoroughly and scanned time after time.

That was a lot of fun after a ten-hour trip from Heathrow, and all because I moisturise."

Be warned - too much Oil of Ulay and you're suddenly a terrorism suspect. Osama bin Laden swore by it.

Beautiful people

From Featureshoot:

For Beautiful by Night, San Francisco-based photographer and film-maker James Hosking chronicles life in Aunt Charlie’s Lounge, the one and only gay bar left standing in the Tenderloin, a neighbourhood that decades ago was renowned for its thriving LGBT community. In tracing the nightly routines of three of its older drag queens - Donna Personna, Collette LeGrande and Olivia Hart - Hosking traces the rich history and uncertain future of drag in the crime-ridden area.

In recent years, the Tenderloin has seen thirty-five times the crime rate of surrounding areas, and its decline has come at the expense of a once-flourishing gay nightlife. Hosking was drawn to those queens who had experienced those early years of drag, those who pushed through their fears of prejudice and societal disapproval to practice what they love. Hosking was endeared to Aunt Charlie’s, in part because of its imperfect performances. The club has no windows and no stage, and the queens must wind in and out of the crowd during their sets, for which they choose their own songs.

More than just a means to making a living, drag is an enduring and lifelong passion. “I think they’d miss it if they stopped,” says Hosking.

And here is the documentary Beautiful by Night, for your delectation:



James Hosking website