beautiful eleanor bron

yes, everyone who's followed 'the planet' for any length of time has probably noticed my wild admiration of actress eleanor bron. it's very difficult to find pictures of the dark and gorgeous miss bron on the crazy internet, so when i find a nice one, i just have to snag it. this is a shot from some movie she made in the late 60's. forgive me for not looking up all the details right now, as its late, and i have to get up early in the morning. but wow, she's spectacular. her talent and beauty is matched by her glassy, deep, expressive voice. she is also one who can enjoy the sometimes-title of 'the fifth beatle.' she was the exotic ahme in 'help!,' and was apparently quite close to the lads in the band. so here's to you, once again, miss bron... we love you, yeah, yeah, yeah! (click to enlarge)

long live the free world

nothing new tonight lovers.

sweet dreams.

more soon,

me.

happy birthday hugh laurie

yeah, this is gonna be fast... i have to get up in the morning around 7. i didn't really have time to screen all my 'hugh laurie-footage-on-hand,' so i had to go with a shot i already had on file. yes, according to my computerized sources, the creamy dreamy mr. hugh laurie turned 50 years old today. (yeah, i hope he doesn't read this, because i would've guessed he was almost 5 years older.) but yeah, i'm not in the right frame of mind to get all poetic with my praise and all that... i mean, everyone who knows me knows hot much i dig hugh laurie. and, i want this stated for the record: i had a mad crush on him like, 19 years before 'house' hit the airwaves. this shot is from the third season of the 'blackadder' series. hugh plays the flimsy and flashy prince regent. and he's practically in drag in those episodes. yeah, i would've really 'dug deep' and come up with a far more interesting shot if i had time, but i was just caught off guard tonight. maybe i'll do one a tomorrow night to like, make it real. (?) so happy birthday hugh... i do love you. (and i was writing this a few minutes before 12, but by the time it hit the blog, it was already the 12th... hugh's birthday is the 11th. click to enlarge.)

happy late birthday johnny depp

yeah, i missed darling johnny's birthday. there's a line john malkovich has in 'liaisons,' when he's talking about madame de torvelle... he mentions her beauty, then immediately states that beauty was '...the least of her qualities.' i feel the same way about johnny depp. yes, all through the 'jumpstreet-crybaby-elm-street' 80's, i admit, i was aware of his beauty. but, as his roles got better, as his incredible range as an actor was revealed, i realized much the same thing: beauty was, and is, the least of this man's qualities. he is as talented as any actor that has ever flickered on the proverbial 'silver screen.' he seems to have shades of everyone from valentino to... well, everyone who realized the communicative power of the human face. the merest muscle movement can make the most eloquent statement. he is deliciously unafraid. freakish and handsome. he is the david bowie of modern film. okay, okay, before i start gushing too shamelessly, i should mention that johnny turned 46 years old on the 9th. the chosen shot is from the 1998 terry gilliam film 'fear and loathing in las vegas.' i've been told i'm straight-up 'crazy' because i believe the 'raoul duke' look is one of the sexiest costumes he's ever been filmed in. i love it. those glasses, that hat, the cig holder, the wilted shirts, the sneakers... the half-shaved head... he drives me crazy like that, and i don't really understand why. so umm, anyway, happy birthday johnny. do i even have to say i love you? (click to enlarge)

happy late birthday nick rhodes

yes, the great and lovely nicholas james bates was born 47 years ago yesterday. part of me can hardly believe i didn't remember it last night. i think it might have been the first celebrity birthday i committed to memory. i think about him in those glam funky 80's duran duran days, and its hard for me to get my mind around the fact that he's not still 25 years old. i've praised nick on 'the planet' before. it goes without saying that if it hadn't been for nick rhodes, there wouldn't have been duran duran. and if it hadn't been for duran duran, who knows? perhaps simon le bon would be acting in films as james bond villains. and the other three might've formed some ho-hum 80's act called, 'taylor taylor taylor,' with some one-hit-wonder single entitled 'the beat of the night,' only to be found on 80's compilation cds. so um, i wanted to find a shot of nick that was relatively rare. so i came up with this picture i know i've never seen before. we see nick, the man, looking conspicuously short standing next to his wife julianne. it looks like he's at an afterparty to me. i think that was the suit he wore to the mtv video awards, so maybe that's the 'function' he's attending. he looks cute, though... despite being caught eating something. so happy birthday, nick... you pop music genius. thanks for all the sexy glam fun and great sounds. i still love you. (click to enlarge)

titlecard

yes, it never gets old. i mean, hey... i just watched it less than 48 hours ago, and i'm ready to watch it again. don't tell me you're not in the mood to watch it! hell, you don't even have to actually 'watch' it. like, you could just pop the tape or the disc in, anchor a black t-shirt over the screen to block out the light, leave the volume on, close your eyes, and just lay down and drift away, digging on the dialogue! hey, you're almost 100% guaranteed not to have bad dreams. so um, here's the title frame from the opening sequence, when sandy's doing her '....mee-me-meeee...!' vocal exercises. hey, just know i love you the most.

p.s. ( '...mom! dad! uncle pete! come quick!! ...something's wrong with biscuit, i think he's dead...!!')

helen, honey

umm, does anyone else think this shot is as sexy as i think it is? because... woof! i mean, wow. cream puff action! this is none other that the sweet helen mirren, mid-to-late 1970's... in some ivory disco gown, her ash blonde hair done up in some kind of studio 54-esque gibson girl thing. man, i wish this shot was in color. and maybe i'm crazy, but i love the way you can see the silky female hair on her arm. these days, i am almost certain they would airbrush something like that out. (i guess there are 23 year old girls out there that are 'not leaving the house' unless they've shaved off their barely-visible forearm hair.) i love the jewelry, i love the white fur stole that looks like it would come with a '81 barbie. i love that sexy-dreamy look on her face. i love that she's wearing a 'hell of a lot' of make-up. and i love the fact that this Wild Machine is able to help me find such rare photo-pearls as this. (click to enlarge)

spand-mag!

mmm, yes... glorious full-color teen mags from the 80's! first of all, i think its pretty funny that the title of this publication is '2001.' yeah, that date doesn't seen so wild and futuristic now, does it? (mmm, hey, hey eight years old.) i can't read the date on this, but since it mentions duran duran's 'singolo per 007,' then i'm assuming it was sometime in late 1985... coninciding with that garbage bond flick 'a view to a kill' that D2 did the title song for. (and yeah, i've seen that movie recently. christopher 'bleached hair' walken and grace jones? yeah, okay. actually, grace's acting chops impressed me more than roger moore's. seriously.) okay, so what else does this mag have to offer? hey, it boasts a 'tony hadley exclusive.' i guess you read that when you've got a serious case of 80's insomnia. (hey, who am i kidding? i'd love to read a tony hadley interview from late '85. there's no way it couldn't be hilarious. like, what if he's all ego-boasting that spandau ballet were the 'true future' of pop music in the modern world? like, that would be comedy 'gold.' ) okay, what else? it confusingly promises to feature the weirdly-alike-but-not-alike 'two nicks;' namely nik kershaw and nick heyward. like, which one was which again? oh wait, i just remembered... i don't care! so dig it. and if you have some spare time, see if you can dig up spandau's 'lifeline' or 'instinction' videos. both great. ( and 'musclebound,' and 'paint me down,' and the hilarious outfits in 'to cut a long story short.' glam kilts? i don't get it.) click to enlarge.

pete smokes

wow. pete townshend, ladies and gentlemen. it's been a while since i posted a new shot in my 'men smoking' series. and tonight, the insanely talented and 'pseudo-bisexual' mr. pete townshend is the subject.

i love pete townshend.

he's got a face straight out of a byzantine tapestry, eyes bluer than chlorinated swimming water, and a vocabulary as brilliant as the milky way. we all know he was great with The Who, but his solo stuff is almost more beautiful. alone, he has afforded us such waltzing classics as 'equisitely bored,' 'keep on working,' and 'the sea refuses no river.' (all to be found on 1982's 'all the best cowboys have chinese eyes.') he is an artist's artist. it probably goes without saying that; if it wasn't for pete, we wouldn't have the who... if we didn't have the who, then we wouldn't have 'tommy.' if we didn't have 'tommy,' then god knows how long it would've taken jean-lucien and myself to discover ken russell. and if we hadn't found ken russell at the age of 5 and a half, then i wouldn't be the same girl i am now...and the words you're reading now would very likely not exist. so thank you, pete. you're always welcome here. (click to enlarge)

partytime, english style!

umm, okay... if you were asked to name two blokes who really knew how to party, english-style, it seems almost impossible that you'd come up with two names other than mr. keith moon, and mr. oliver reed. i ran accross this little gem whilst pearldiving the other night. and umm, do i really even have to comment on this? like, i think it speaks for itself. let's see... we've got a grassy english field, some silly hats and costumes, a bottle of british booze hangin' on, and of course, messers reed and moon, doing what they do best; namely, raising 'silly' hell in the name of the jolly ol' union jack! i have no idea when exactly this picture was taken, but it looks like mid-70's, judging by the way they look and stuff. probably sometime around the filming of 'tommy.' looking at a picture like this... it makes me wonder. how did this day begin, anyhow? like, at what point did one of the blokes call the other and say, KEITH: "...oy, ollie...i've got a smashing idea... let's dress up like jesters and cheap vaudevillians, grab some full-strength intoxicants, and go run around in broad daylight, dressed like freaks, and get someone to grab a camera and make sure there's photographic proof of our drunken antics!" and oliver would be like, OLLIE: (in his deep raspy voice) "...count me in." god bless them. i love those two. shooting stars, man. (click to enlarge)

lady daydream

as i've mentioned in the post below this one, i've been having fun with my dvd copy of 'barry lyndon' lately. i was getting easily frustrated with the lack of sweet picksh of marisa berenson out there, so i decided to make my own. this one is a shot of marisa, as lady lyndon, in the last 3rd of the very long movie, taking a rich soak in a tub, attended by her maids. kubrick makes a point of closing in on her vacant and almost insane expression as the narrator relates the stagnant affairs of her ill-advised marriage to ryan o'neal's character, redmond barry. the film stock used on this project is exceptional. the grain is fine enough to tickle my brain. legened reports it was only filmed with natural light... in other words, 'available light,' ...therefore certain lenses had to be invented to accomodate kubrick's dedication to the conjuring of a world before electricity. (click to enlarge)

leon ala lyndon

i threw in my dvd copy of 'barry lyndon' a couple of nights ago and got some really marvelous shots. including this one of the vengeful young lord bullingdon. here we see him, cane in hand, ire rising in his pale throat, as he strolls through the salon, in search of his much despised stepfather, played by ryan o'neal. you won't recognize the actor's name. he is leon vitali. a very talented chap in my opinion, that apparently almost never stepped in front of the camera after 1977. he did, however, become quite close to The Man Himself, mr. stanley kubrick. after some minimal research, i discovered this curious fact: on certain projects such as 'full metal jacket,' 'the shining,' and 'eyes wide shut,' mr. vitali enjoyed the somewhat-eyebrow-raising credit of 'personal assitant to the director.' hey, that sounds like a heck of a sweet gig to me. so i hope you dig the screen capture. this duel scene between bullingdon and redmond barry is one of the film's most wrenching scenes. visceral, yet astonishingly lovely. (click to enlarge)

geisha doll

actually, this should probably also be a late happy birthday wish. the incredible miss carroll baker turned 88 years old on may 31st. yeah, i can't believe it either. (she was born in 1931, so check my math and get back to me if it's wrong, because my math skills legendarily suck chrome.) anyone who's followed 'the planet' for more than a few weeks has probably learned of my undying love and devotion to my favorite hollywood blonde, miss carroll baker. she's an all-american girl, born in johnstown, pennsylvania. she attended the famous actor's studio, and worked with such greats as james dean, elizabeth taylor, karl malden, james stewart, and even roger moore. here she is, very literally 'dolled up' in traditional japanese costume. i'm not sure which movie this is from, but after doing a little research, i'm pretty sure it was from the 1961 film 'a bridge to the sun.' (like, that's the only movie of her's on imdb that has a lot of japanese names associated with it.) wow, she's gorgeous, isn't she? man... what an angel...! like i said, i've never seen the movie. it could be a real gobbling turkey for all i know. but if she spends more than three minutes dressed up like this, i'd love to get my hands on a copy of it, for capturing purposes. here's to you carroll... once again. you are one of the few rare princesses on the magic 'planetcool.' and i suppose its worth mentioning that i've never seen this picture before. (click to enlarge)

herrin is barin' it

yes, its officially friday now. and you know what that means... it means it's officially okay to celebrate some delicious all-amercian boobies! yeah, i remember this hot chick... i remember her centerfold from when i was a much younger girl. her name is kimberly herrin, and she knows how to 'rock' those slick aviator-style sunglasses and make them super-sexy for our viewing eyes! it probably goes without saying, but i was hoping to get a shot of her entire lucious sunkissed bod, but this shot was the best i could get. man, she looks great, doesn't she? with her long straight flowing blondish hair, her bite-worthy honey-colored pert-and-perfect 'all-real' breasts, and her guilt-free (because its in an old picture) fox fur coat. i did the best i could with the tricking. man, what a great-looking lady. i think its kind of funny, the way her hair's blowing back like that, because you know there was some bagel-munching young intern in control of the big blowing electric photo-shoot fan. and he was probably so used to seeing naked chicks all day that he was far more interested in his lunch. hey, miss kimberly... i'll bet i could find something for you to munch on. (...did i say that...??) (click to enlarge)

original nick

i straight-up love this shot of nick rhodes. it was one of the very first photos of nick i had on my wall as a young teenage girl. i think its fair to say that when i fell in love with nick rhodes, it was love at first sight. although, he did look so much like a girl in shots like this, then i've often questioned myself since then; ...was i really harboring repressed lesbian feelings? or did i just subconciously want the best of both worlds? like, i adored and admired the beauty of glamorous girls, but i wanted the sexual physicality of men. was it because i was subconciously afraid of most men, and felt safer with men of a gentler nature and a slighter frame? or maybe it was just because nick rhodes was so fucking cool...! he was cool then, and he's still cool now. but yeah, i remember carrying this exact photograph with me around griffin middle school... defending him to all the girls who were so quick to call him a 'fag' or a 'gaylord,' on account of his make-up and hair. (i think it should be noted that a lot of these same girls voiced their 'redneck homophobe' vote for vince neil of motley crue. mmm, who's wearing a lot of make-up...?? mmm, not too much, whoa-ho-ho!! ) anyway, silliness aside, dig this elegant and glamorous shot of nick rhodes. he IS duran duran. (click to enlarge)

baby night

i know this is gonna sound a little odd coming from someone as literate as myself. but i don't read actual books as often as i should. its not because i don't like books... i love them, but as an artist and writer, i just can't seem to find the time. i mean, anytime i have 'free time,' i seem to write my own stuff. but recently, i had to go to a big bad boring doctor's appointment, and i knew i had over an hour of time in the waiting room. so luckily for me, i had a paperback copy of ira levin's horror masterpiece 'rosemary's baby.' it's been one of my favorite movies for a long, long time. but i had never read the book. man, it was great. it really reminded me how transporting reading can be. like, there i was, damp and wilted from the northern spring rain, in the bright and clinical doctor's office waiting room, and once i cracked that book and fell into it, the time just flew by. i really had a ball. i had almost forgotten how much fun reading can be. (mmm, sounds like a corny psa to get kids to like, get off the video games and read.... mmm, like kids would listen to crazy ol' me.) so yeah, as a tribute to one of my favorite movies, and now one of my favorite books, i found this groovy shot of mia farrow and john cassavetes as rosemary and guy woodhouse. they're raising their glasses in celebration, because this night is 'baby night,' ... in other words, the night they've set aside for the conception of their first child. but, little does rosemary know, it won't be guy she'll be bompin' with tonight. it'll be the devil! hey, so dig the shot. i tricked it to look right-for-your-eyes! (click to enlarge)

happy late birthday robert powell

man, i'm tired. i had a full week. i was unable to post last night on account of a disruption in our internet service. and now, i'm typing with my right index finger bandaged due to a freak umbrella accident earlier in the day. so bear with me as far as like, typos and other carelessness due to fatigue and an injured finger. that being said, i checked my celebrity birthday source, and realized i should probably say happy 65th birthday to the english actor robert powell. apparently most people would probably recognize him from his starring role in the 'jesus of nazareth' miniseries. but i know him best from his great work in ken russell films. he played the doomed captain walker in 'tommy,' which was probably the first time i ever saw him. and then he also starred as gustav mahler in russell's 1974 fantastic biography picture 'mahler.' (one of ken's best... it manages to seamlessly stitch classic realism with moments of high camp outrageousness.) in this shot, we see powell-as-mahler, in one such fantasy sequence, sword in hand, silver swastika on his chest, atop an english hill, about to chow down hungrily on the head of a pig. in fact, it looks like he might already have his mouth full of snout. mmm, tasty isn't it, gustav? it might go down well with a big swig of milk. so umm, happy late birthday, robert. you are a very cool member of the planet.

oui, it is my new book, no?

oui, it is my new book YES! so yeah, thanks to my beloved jean-lucien sending me a sweet tasty bundle of new picksh, i was able to get my new dazzling volume of fantasy and laughs off the ground tonight. well, i just got the cover on. and i like it. let's see, as the Stars we have the gorgeous and ethereal miss georgina hale, as the sinning-and-seeking-absolution phillipe on the right, and mr. oliver reed as the trying-to-be-holy-yet-tormented-by-temptations father grandier on the left. the image is of course, from the ken russell masterpiece 'the devils.' (and wow, wow, wow.... if you can get your hands on an uncut copy of the film, then man, strap yourself in and get ready for the searing carnal ride. truly, not only is it one of the finest films ken russell has ever made, i daresay it is amongst the finest films of all the 1970's. it is as gorgeous as it is hellish and shocking.) and um, the title word, 'oui,' seems to speak for itself. it is an exotic and positive word. although i must admit i chose it for the look of the word as much as i did for the meaning. i have great hopes for this book, which was hatched on the first day of june. so okay, now for the medallions below the main picture... let's see, what do we have? from left to right, we have the late, great, tough and sexy mr. joe strummer, smoking a tough 'don't care' cig; then we have some random retro aqua lighting; then hey! let's hear it for the disco scene, because we've got a shot of the curvy and tough annette from 'saturday night fever,' lighting tony's disco cig. ('...but you'd ask me to lay down...') then we've got the lovely and legendary orchid-colored couple of lucy and dougie from 'sgt. pepper's lonely heart's club band,' doing 'you never give me your money,' ; and after them? well it's the marvelous karl malden as mitch from kazan's 'a streetcar named desire,' peeking through the drapes. then next up, in the blue circle, there's the loving sparring couple of 'empire's' princess leia and han solo, bickering in the south passage of Hoth. and last, but certainly never, ever least... we have the silver-haired and handsome, painfully sexy mr. ian holm, as tom frost in cronenberg's buggy epic 'naked lunch,' of course based (somewhat) on william s. burroughs great book. so here it is lovers, dig it... the clutch of blank pages that will soon be filled with literally thousands of separate inkstrokes. its always an odd feeling when i start a new book. like, i always find it hard to believe i'll ever get the whole thing filled up... but hey, i've got about nine year's worth of books like this, all full... so i guess it's all a matter of uncapping that pen, and starting with the first date, the first quote, and that first bit of wit that makes my darling laugh. thank you God. Seriously. (click to enlarge) (oh, and i've since realized that annette's not in fact lighting tony's cig. just wanted to correct that.)

sunday morning

... i did catch it.

i've got the fever!

okay, so... first up, it was a long, long day, with a lot of walking around, and humid, miserable grey weather... i had to get up early for my doctor's thing... but, after i got home and washed all the sweat and rain and grime off, i got the mail! yes, i got a generous 'care package' of picksh and stuff from my darling beloved jean-lucien. along with the picksh, and a fresh pair of knee socks, which i like, really needed, 'cause mine were like, soaked... was fresh cool dvd copy of 'saturday night fever!' i had never seen the whole thing before... like, i'd only seen about 17 collective minutes of it... on 'clean-language' cable. so, i popped it in, and now i feel like part of lucynell and lucien's 'disco club,' because once i started it, i didn't want to stop! and, it was at that precise moment that my computer's dvd drive decided to act up and freeze on me! i had to stop it, wait ten minutes, and start it over again where i left off. i almost said like, '...screw it, i'll watch the rest of it tommorrow,' ...but i was just so sucked into it, i didn't wanna wait that long. so, i just kept letting it calm down and then i started it back up again. it took me almost three and a half hours to finish it. but yeah, it was great. the dialogue in particular, was electric. i mean, the whole thing was great, but the writing in particular struck me. so... that explains this screen shot, which, as you may know, is the very last shot it in the movie. i mean, the dvd drive, when it was running properly, i was so afraid it would freeze up again if i stopped to snap a picture, that i waited until the very end and got the very last shot. so yeah, here it is disco lovers. and thanks jean-lucien, for always giving me a happy ending. (and beginning, and everything in between... like hey, jean-luc... i know 'how deep is your love,' ...like, you just proved it, with your flash care package of disco goods!) click to enlarge.