by Baby Clyde
I’m not sure if I believe in life after love (whatever that means) but I definitely believe in love at first sight. I first saw the love of my life in a dingy dive bar 1981. She stood there, pint in hand surrounded by an intimidating girl gang, dressed to the nines in black leather with gold hoop earring and Jungle Red nail varnish. I watched in awe as she slunk over to the jukebox all back combed hair and gum chewing attitude. Her name was Cherilyn Sarkisian and she changed my life forever.
I was not even 10 as I watched the video for Meatloaf’s single Dead Ringer For Love. A notorious flop in America it was a Top 5 smash hit in Britain at the tail end of 1981 in no small part because of Meat’s duet partner...
Cher's pop career had taken off in London in 1965 when she caused a sensation with her then husband Sonny Bony and I’ve Got You Babe made it all the way to #1. Whilst a huge name over here ever since she was a kind of mysterious figure to this pre teen homosexual. Always a media staple, my knowledge of her was mostly through tabloid articles about an outrageous wig or new celebrity boyfriend. She’d more or less stopped making music in an effort crack the acting world and 8 year old me wasn’t in any real hurry to watch Silkwood. This is why 1987 was such a revelation.
Cher owned 1987. She was everywhere. This is the year she proved herself to be a true showbiz icon, culminating in the biggest showbiz prize of all.
Now a teenager, I was there to witness it all and it was glorious. Let’s turn back time and look at how 1987 sealed her legendary status as singer / actress / STAR.
That Outfit
Cher’s long march to the stage of the Shrine Auditorium really began over a year before Moonstruck opened at the 58th Academy Awards in March 1986. Long before J. Lo, Bjork or Lady Gaga caused shockwaves at awards ceremonies Cher was paving the way by revealing one of the most famous outfits in showbiz history.
Having been snubbed for a Best Actress nomination despite winning at Cannes for 1985’s Mask, Cher decided to give a big FU to the snooty Academy by wearing this spectacular Bob Mackie creation and, to an entranced crowd, announce Don Ameche’s Best Supporting Actor win for Cocoon.
As you can see, I did receive my Academy booklet on how to dress like a serious actress
Nobody was talking about the winners the next day.
She was making a serious point. Cher refused to change for anyone. She was also demanding to be respected on her terms. As we will see, she soon got her wish.
The ‘Bagel Boy’
My first memories of Cher as a constant media presence are when she started dating a man 18 years younger. It doesn’t sound so shocking today but back then it was a giant scandal.
Feeling despondent at her 40th birthday party Cher’s mood soon brightened when she was introduced to 22 year-old aspiring actor Rob Camilletti. They dated for the next three years. Rob, who worked in a bagel shop when they first met, was derisively dubbed the ‘Bagel Boy’ by the press and the paparazzi followed them everywhere. He was even arrested after an altercation with a photographer once and Cher went to the jail to bail him out herself.
It was nonstop tabloid intrusion, not age, that finally drove them apart and she has subsequently called him the love of her life. They are still friends today.
The Chart Comeback
By 1987 Cher hadn’t had a hit record since her late 70’s disco smash Take Me Home. An early 80’s hard rock side project, Black Rose and an underpromoted (but brilliantly covered) 1982 album I Paralyze had both sunk without a trace and she’d then taken a 5 year break from music to successfully pursue acting.
"Cher" the album in 1987It was time for one of her many musical comebacks and no expense was spared making sure it was a huge success. With and all-star team of producers and songwriters including Michael Bolton, Diane Warren, Desmond Child and Bon Jovi on board the ‘Cher’ album took a turn towards soft rock and reinvented her as a power ballad queen. The album went platinum and the first single "I Found Someone" became her first transatlantic Top 10 hit since 1971’s Gypsys, Tramps & Thieves.
But there was some unfinished business to attend to.
The Reunion
In 1986 Cher caused a commotion by explaining to David Letterman that she hadn’t appeared on The Tonight Show with him before because she thought he was ‘an asshole’. He was reportedly quite upset by this. With an album to promote she went back a year later but this time took an old friend with her, Sonny.
After a huge pop career and subsequent TV success with The Sonny and Cher Show, acrimonious divorce and years of estrangement followed. It was a huge coup to get them back on TV and turned out to be the last time they would ever perform together due to Bono’s untimely death in a skiing accident in 1998.
Ambushed by Letterman when asked to sing I’ve Got You Babe with no rehearsal a clearly reluctant Cher knows a publicity stunt when she sees one and belts out their biggest hit to a roaring crowd. It’s all kinds of adorable.
Movie Star
It’s one thing to garner attention for outfits or boyfriends or reunions and making waves in the music world was something Cher was used to but 1987 was year that she became an honest to goodness MOVIE STAR!!!
She’d had a great start to her film career. Skipping over the two late 60’s misfires (I’ve watched them, so you don’t have to) Cher’s 80’s early forays into film had consisted of projects with noted auteurs Robert Altman, Mike Nichols and Peter Bogdanovich. A Golden Globe, an Oscar nomination and the aforementioned Cannes prize had followed but she was not yet deemed a bankable movie star. That was all about to change.
In George Miller’s summer hit The Witches of Eastwick she starred with Susan Sarandon and Michelle Pfeiffer as one of the three titular witches who are at first seduced by and then team up to destroy Jack Nicholson’s devilish character. It made $68m ($155m Adj) at the American BO and ended up the 10th biggest hit of the year.
It also gave us this eternal read………
October brought us the courtroom thriller Suspect in which she starred with Denis Quaid and Liam Neeson.
Cher played a dowdy public defender tasked with representing a deaf, mute Vietnam vet charged with murder. It’s the type of adult legal drama (With a preposterous ending) that we don’t get these days. It wasn’t a huge hit but was a nice change of pace and certainly showed her versatility.
Last and certainly not least was the beloved romantic comedy Moonstruck. In her first proper comedy role Cher is a delight as Italian American widow Loretta Castorini caught up in a passionate affair with her fiancé’s brother. Brilliantly written by an Oscar winning John Patrick Shanley and directed by the always dependable Norman Jewison Moonstruck was released over Christmas and was an immediate hit. Grossing over $80m ($185m Adj) in the US alone it ended up the 5th biggest hit of the year. Cher was named the 9th biggest box office star of 1987.
Unusually for a romantic comedy in and era of stuffy Oscar Bait, Moonstruck was pushed as an end of year awards contender which leads us to the crowning achievement of Cher’s annus mirabilis…
The Oscar
1987 has one of the all time strongest Best Actress line-ups. Any one of the nominees would have been a worthy winner in another year. Heading into the ceremony the precursors gave no real help. Cher had won the Comedy Globe beating out NYFC winner Holly Hunter for Broadcast News, but the Drama Globe had been won by outsider Sally Kirkland for the tiny indie Anna. To confuse things further LAFCA had been a tie between Hunter and Kirkland. With Glenn Close’s iconic Alex Forrest from box office titan Fatal Attraction waiting in the wings only two time champ Meryl Streep in the little seen Ironweed seemed out of the running for an actual win.
There is no correct answer as to who gave the best performance in a lineup that peerless but Cher had many things in her favour. Three hit films were hard to argue with and as a veteran of more than 20 years, who had survived in a cutthroat industry proving her metal in music, TV, theatre and now film she had built up a huge amount of good will with her peers.
This was clearly on display when the ever dreamy Paul Newman read her name out as Best Actress of 1987. All but an obviously disappointed Sally Kirkland loudly applauded as former co-star Streep leads a then rare standing ovation. Cher turns to kiss Rob and then ascends the stairs in a Bob Mackie outfit only she could wear. She told the audience….
I don’t think this means I am somebody, but I guess I’m on my way.
Amazingly she forgets to thank her director but does mention her hair and makeup team!!! I cried.
And that was more or less it for Cher’s short but incredibly sweet A List film career. It felt as if she had achieved success way beyond her childhood Movie Star dream and then moved on to other things. Those other things of course consisted of being one of the most successful entertainers of all time, a worldwide icon and The Goddess of Pop but it’s that purple patch of late 80’s ubiquity that still does it for me. I’m still moonstruck by Cher after all these years and can say with complete certainty that I will never…