Reader of the Day: Leehee

As part of Reader Appreciation Month, we're featuring mini-interviews with You, The Film Experience crowd. Today, we've got Leehee, originally from Israel -- her name means "she is for me". I love that! I contacted Leehee because she was so happy about that post on The Black Swan (1942).

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first moviegoing experience or obsession?
Leehee: The first movie that I vividly remember seeing on the big screen was "Anne of Green Gables" when I was about 6... But my first obsession was with the first VHS tape I owned The Parent Trap (1961) . My twin sister and I watched it every.single.day for about a year....and it kind of drove our mom crazy! I wanted to be Hayley Mills and have Maureen O'Hara as my mom *so* bad.

You and me both. ♪ ♫ lets get together yeahyeahyeah. The Parent Trap is the best. When did you start reading The Film Experience?

Hmmm... I don't quite remember. It must have been at least 2007. I stuck around because we have somewhat of a similar taste in actresses and movies; I LOVED the Oscar coverage; loved the snark and the in-depth analysis of both old and new movies; loved the fashion... basically, i felt like you sort of created this for me!

What's your movie diet like right about now?
I try and go to the movie theater at least once a week if not more (when there are movies to see!); I recently subscribed to netflix so I could watch movies online; and I have an unhealthy habit of buying DVD's  (I own over 600).

 

Your 3 Favorite Actresses. Go!

Maureen O'Hara; Deborah Kerr; Barbra Streisand; Charlotte Rampling; Emma Thompson (sorry I had to do 5!!!)

They make a movie of your life. Tell us about it.
The movie of my life will be called "Behind the Smile". It will be directed by Barbra Streisand and star Kate Winslet as me. :-)

♪ if i said i want ur blog/site now, would u link it against me? ♫

TwitVid Jake Gylllenhaal and Pee Wee Herman. tee hee.
Cinesnatch runs down that Streep Tease show in LA for you. It sounds fun. I especially love the idea of a one-man conversation between multiple Meryl characters. Hopefully I'll get to see it next time I'm in LA. Whenever that is...
Business Spectactor Speaking of Meryl Streep, this is how you know someone's cinema achievements (of any sort)  have totally entered the realm of the popular mythic, when they're brought up in totally non-cinema related ways. Streep as defense of aging executives! Haha
Awards Daily I keep meaning to link up to this article on astrology and Oscar. Super interesting chart if you're into signs, baby. And it's all about Aries apparently.
The House Next Door Gregg Araki's new muse Thomas Dekker.
Twitch has a piece on how the PG-13 rating killed the films it was meant to protect, the films aimed at very young teenagers.
Senses of Cinema here's an interesting piece on Leo McCarey, his 1937 Oscar win and his preference for his drama Make Way For Tomorrow over his indisputable screwball classic The Awful Truth. I haven't seen Make Way... but I've never though artists were the best judge of their own art.
Rants of a Diva has an Oscar winning dream.
Serious Film has great advice for screenwriters of romantic comedies.
Capital New York. A fine review of Certified Copy starring Juliette Binoche though I'd urge you to see the movie first before reading it. It's a must-see film but one of the most beautiful things about it is the sense of evolving surprise as the film keeps shifting. So maybe read no reviews at all until afterwards. Then you'll want to read them all.

Finally La Daily Musto shares the news that that Barbra Streisand version of Gypsy that we were all excited / worried / shocked about has been cancelled already. Just as we'd gotten used to the idea. Apparently Stephen Sondheim is to blame. So here is Babs singing one of her best songs about nostalgia for what once was or what could have been.

Take it away Babs.

I love the guy bouncing up and down in the audience as she starts (notice him to the far right?). Babs fans were very excitable from the very start!

Mama's Getting Hot: Babs for Gypsy?

Fockin' BarbraBy now, should you have a known predilection for movie musicals or Barbra Streisand as musical comedienne (we endorse both predilections, though we can do without Babs otherwise), someone has undoubtedly forwarded you something saying along the lines of "OMFG. BABS. GYPSY. SQUEEE (and/or) EWWW."

According to Playbill, she is in talks to star in a new film version about the ur stage mother "Mama Rose". Other reports have the diva, currently atop the box office charts in her Meet the Fockers role, directing and producing as well. That Babs, always multi-tasking. We heartily approve of Babs returning to musical comedy, her true yet abandoned once-in-a-century gift, and we get that she'd want to scale the musical Mt Everest of "Mama Rose". Many divas have tried their hand at the enormous role. Streisand, at 68 years of age, would definitely be the oldest filmed Mama Rose. Which isn't a big deal since you do need a BIG performer except that the musical is about a mother's tempestuous relationships with her young children who she carts around on the vaudeville circuit as child and then teen performers until the elder kicks free of Mama (and clothing) to become the famous stripper Gypsy Rose Lee.

Well, maybe she'll pull it off. She did famously sell herself as "Second Hand Rose" already.

The major Mama Roses to date (Gypsy never stays away for long):

• Patti Lupone (2008 Broadway revival, Tony Award)
• Bernadette Peters (2003 Broadway revival, Tony nomination)
• Bette Midler (1993 TV movie, Emmy nomination, Globe winner)
• Tyne Daly (1989 Broadway revival, Tony Award)
• Angela Lansbury (1975 Broadway revival, Tony Award)
• Rosalind Russell (1962 Film, Globe winner -- snubbed by Oscar)
• Ethel Merman (1959 Original Broadway musical, Tony nomination)

Which was your favorite? (I've only see Russell, Midler and Peters and, despite her divisive reviews, Bernadette Peters was my favorite. How about them eggrolls?)

(Remember when Hugh Jackman had super long hair? Hee.)

Hey you know what?

Forget Babs. Wasn't Sigourney Weaver supposed to star in a non-musical version sequel of sorts called G String Mother? That one was about Mama Rose's daughter "Gypsy Rose Lee" in her later years after retiring from stripping. Maybe that project got cancelled? It no longer has an IMDb page. Sadness. That sounded interesting.