Today's secret celebrity identity is one I've known about for some years. As I searched for photos that would best demonstrate the similarity of the (apparent) two identities, I came across a video, rendering the photo comparison a second rate demonstration. Without further ado, I give you Michael Keaton posing as Tim Hudak, an MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) of Ontario, Canada:
Showing posts with label celebrities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label celebrities. Show all posts
Wednesday 1 April 2009
Sunday 29 March 2009
Celebrities' secret identities
Just when you thought it was safe to take a shower...
...the psycho goes from scaring thousands of theatre goers to scaring millions of Ontarions.
Top: Anthony Perkins in "Psycho".
Bottom: Dalton McGuinty - Premier of Ontario, Canada.
...the psycho goes from scaring thousands of theatre goers to scaring millions of Ontarions.
Top: Anthony Perkins in "Psycho".
Bottom: Dalton McGuinty - Premier of Ontario, Canada.
Friday 27 March 2009
Returning from the edge of the abys...and obese
I've been a fan of hers for over 35 years ever since I watched her at the age of fifteen (her age, not mine) on the hit TV series "One Day at a Time". Her sweet looks and the apparent lack of scandal that often follows child stars, kept her close to my heart over the years. It didn't hurt that she had an Italian surname as I do.
I was delighted to "see her again" after being out of the spotlight for, gulp, decades, when she started doing Jenny Craig commercials. Of course, I had no idea that the petite girl had let herself get "very large", and I think I'm being kind when I use that term, but I was pleased as all-get-out to see that she had whooped her disorder and was much slimmer at the time of the commercials.
I have a thing about over-weight people--not a good thing. I can't seem to get past it. It's a personality flaw (mine, not theirs). Sooo, I felt that Bertinelli was still kind of chubby. There's a word I like to use for attractive women who are a bit overweight--"thick". Every time I saw one of her commercials, as much as I squinted, I just couldn't quite shoe-horn her into the "thick" category.
Maybe it was the image that I carried around so long that made the "new" Valerie look to me to be bigger than she really was. Regardless, I got a very pleasant surprise today. I happened on an ad for a People Magazine story about Bertinelli getting into a bikini to celebrate her 49th birthday.
I have another quirk, and again, not a good thing--I keep forgetting how old I am (and look) and catch myself being too critical of others about my age and sometimes even much younger than I. But, I have to admit that this fine lady looks as good in a bikini today as anyone at any age does. She has completely returned from obesity. To have come back around to "thick" would have been terrific, but she has come all the way back to a slim, beautiful, vivacious "girl".
Congratulations, Valerie! Your adoring fans would love to see you on the screen again, big or small (the screen, not your size)!
I sure hope they didn't photoshop her image. A guy with even my poor skills can produce results like this...
I was delighted to "see her again" after being out of the spotlight for, gulp, decades, when she started doing Jenny Craig commercials. Of course, I had no idea that the petite girl had let herself get "very large", and I think I'm being kind when I use that term, but I was pleased as all-get-out to see that she had whooped her disorder and was much slimmer at the time of the commercials.
I have a thing about over-weight people--not a good thing. I can't seem to get past it. It's a personality flaw (mine, not theirs). Sooo, I felt that Bertinelli was still kind of chubby. There's a word I like to use for attractive women who are a bit overweight--"thick". Every time I saw one of her commercials, as much as I squinted, I just couldn't quite shoe-horn her into the "thick" category.
Maybe it was the image that I carried around so long that made the "new" Valerie look to me to be bigger than she really was. Regardless, I got a very pleasant surprise today. I happened on an ad for a People Magazine story about Bertinelli getting into a bikini to celebrate her 49th birthday.
I have another quirk, and again, not a good thing--I keep forgetting how old I am (and look) and catch myself being too critical of others about my age and sometimes even much younger than I. But, I have to admit that this fine lady looks as good in a bikini today as anyone at any age does. She has completely returned from obesity. To have come back around to "thick" would have been terrific, but she has come all the way back to a slim, beautiful, vivacious "girl".
Congratulations, Valerie! Your adoring fans would love to see you on the screen again, big or small (the screen, not your size)!
I sure hope they didn't photoshop her image. A guy with even my poor skills can produce results like this...
Sunday 1 February 2009
Life is ebbing away
I'm 54 years old and I'm dying. I don't have cancer. I don't have heart disease. I don't have any terminal affliction at all. As I was watching a documentary about the making of the 1957 movie Sweet Smell of Success (starring Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis and Martin Milner, best known for Adam-12), something I've been feeling for a few years now suddenly became clear. Every time another celebrity from my early life passes away, so too does a piece of me. I have seen hundreds of heroes and villains alike go to the great beyond. This evening, it felt like there's very little left of me to die.
It doesn't help that I have lost interest in some of the things that used to inspire, enlighten and fill my life with joy. I haven't been to the movie theatre in four years, before that, it was ten years. Between the years I was five and twelve years old (early 60's), I used to go to the movies once a week. It shaped my early impressions of life. Later, when I was about 20, I returned to my weekly habit of movie-going. That lasted about 10 years. It seems that the biggest draw became special effects.
I had the misfortune of having a formative mind just at the time that rock and roll was born. Misfortune, because once the explosion and subsequent wave of incomprehensibly historic music waned, for me, it was as if music had died altogether. Hip hop just doesn't cut it after living through Elvis, The Twist, Beatle Mania, The British Invasion, Woodstock, Heavy Rock, etc.
I never realized how much some of the celebrities who were a part of my life meant to me until they were gone. I don't even understand now why watching an episode of the Dean Martin Roast series on YouTube practically brings me to tears even though I might have a huge grin on my face. I mean other than the fact that probably about half the guests from those shows are ghosts now. It's as if the death of each figure from my childhood takes a little of the colour of my soul away and soon I will be invisible...like them.
I wasn't ready for it, although it's perfectly logical that a point would be reached where the rate of dying celebs from any era would reach a crescendo. At my current age, many of the actors, musicians, comics, etc. that I watched, listened to, laughed at and idolized in my early life, who were just establishing themselves are now about 65-75 years old--right about life expectancy for them. I have mourned so many of the older ones already; I feel I don't have the heart to endure any more. Here is just a sample of the prominent figures who met their maker in 2008...
Suzanne Pleshette - Emily on The Bob Newhart Show.
Roy Scheider - French Connection, Jaws
Sir Arthur C. Clarke - 2001-A space Odyssey
Richard Widmark - Judgement at Nuremberg
Charleton Heston - Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes
Dick Martin - Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
Harvey Korman - Carol Burnett Show, Blazing Saddles
George Carlin - Comic
Larry Harmon - You probably know him by his "other name"--Bozo the Clown
Isaac Hayes - Wrote the theme from Shaft, the chef on South Park
Jerry Reed - When You're Hot, You're Hot, Amos Moses, Smokey and the Bandit
Paul Newman - List too long
Bettie Page - 50's pin-up model, early Playboy centrefold
Van Johnson - Actor
Rock and Roll Heaven
It doesn't help that I have lost interest in some of the things that used to inspire, enlighten and fill my life with joy. I haven't been to the movie theatre in four years, before that, it was ten years. Between the years I was five and twelve years old (early 60's), I used to go to the movies once a week. It shaped my early impressions of life. Later, when I was about 20, I returned to my weekly habit of movie-going. That lasted about 10 years. It seems that the biggest draw became special effects.
I had the misfortune of having a formative mind just at the time that rock and roll was born. Misfortune, because once the explosion and subsequent wave of incomprehensibly historic music waned, for me, it was as if music had died altogether. Hip hop just doesn't cut it after living through Elvis, The Twist, Beatle Mania, The British Invasion, Woodstock, Heavy Rock, etc.
I never realized how much some of the celebrities who were a part of my life meant to me until they were gone. I don't even understand now why watching an episode of the Dean Martin Roast series on YouTube practically brings me to tears even though I might have a huge grin on my face. I mean other than the fact that probably about half the guests from those shows are ghosts now. It's as if the death of each figure from my childhood takes a little of the colour of my soul away and soon I will be invisible...like them.
I wasn't ready for it, although it's perfectly logical that a point would be reached where the rate of dying celebs from any era would reach a crescendo. At my current age, many of the actors, musicians, comics, etc. that I watched, listened to, laughed at and idolized in my early life, who were just establishing themselves are now about 65-75 years old--right about life expectancy for them. I have mourned so many of the older ones already; I feel I don't have the heart to endure any more. Here is just a sample of the prominent figures who met their maker in 2008...
Suzanne Pleshette - Emily on The Bob Newhart Show.
Roy Scheider - French Connection, Jaws
Sir Arthur C. Clarke - 2001-A space Odyssey
Richard Widmark - Judgement at Nuremberg
Charleton Heston - Ben Hur, Planet of the Apes
Dick Martin - Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In
Harvey Korman - Carol Burnett Show, Blazing Saddles
George Carlin - Comic
Larry Harmon - You probably know him by his "other name"--Bozo the Clown
Isaac Hayes - Wrote the theme from Shaft, the chef on South Park
Jerry Reed - When You're Hot, You're Hot, Amos Moses, Smokey and the Bandit
Paul Newman - List too long
Bettie Page - 50's pin-up model, early Playboy centrefold
Van Johnson - Actor
Rock and Roll Heaven
Thursday 18 September 2008
One more comes out of hiding
I have a long history of "finding" lost celebrities. By "find", I mean long after someone essentially disappears from TV or cinema and has changed in appearance substantially, I suddenly discover the guy/gal in a TV show. Admittedly, pickings have been sparse, lately, but I found one this evening.
While watching Two and a Half Men, a very old man makes a guest appearance. His manner of speaking seems familiar. After a few minutes pass, I become almost sure I've seen the man before. I looked closely and was then sure I knew the man from somewhere, although I could not place where. Two minutes later, it struck me. He was a regular on Johnny Carson. I try to recall his name but it momentarily escapes me. I keep thinking "Barnes", but it doesn't seem quite right. Then, I realized that Barnes was one of my high school teachers who I had thought back then looked a lot like the character whose name was escaping me.
And then, the final piece fell into place. Orson Bean! my mind yelled. As soon as the program ended, I came to my PC and looked it up. I was right, but the episode turns out to be from 2005. I also discover that Orson was 77 at the time. It seems he was never really absent from show business, having had regular guest appearances on TV and movies, but was only absent to me. The last time I saw the gentleman was circa 30 years ago!
The man was a passionate, talented, story-teller with a great sense of humour. For anyone who knows him, he seems to be going strong and the world is better for it.
While watching Two and a Half Men, a very old man makes a guest appearance. His manner of speaking seems familiar. After a few minutes pass, I become almost sure I've seen the man before. I looked closely and was then sure I knew the man from somewhere, although I could not place where. Two minutes later, it struck me. He was a regular on Johnny Carson. I try to recall his name but it momentarily escapes me. I keep thinking "Barnes", but it doesn't seem quite right. Then, I realized that Barnes was one of my high school teachers who I had thought back then looked a lot like the character whose name was escaping me.
And then, the final piece fell into place. Orson Bean! my mind yelled. As soon as the program ended, I came to my PC and looked it up. I was right, but the episode turns out to be from 2005. I also discover that Orson was 77 at the time. It seems he was never really absent from show business, having had regular guest appearances on TV and movies, but was only absent to me. The last time I saw the gentleman was circa 30 years ago!
The man was a passionate, talented, story-teller with a great sense of humour. For anyone who knows him, he seems to be going strong and the world is better for it.
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