It was difficult to see the true and authentic side of many actors in the days when the movie studios micromanaged a star’s career. It was easy to manipulate the media and thus the audiences into believing any type of star persona the studio was anxious to develop. Garland started her career with MGM and they were responsible for crafting the Judy that they wanted audiences to see. As Dyer states, the private life of a star is the most telling about the true nature of a star. This fact was so true for Garland. Hidden away from the public were her demons of personal appearance, public and personal relationships, and her addiction to drugs and alcohol.
Never was there a more accurate depiction of Judy Garland’s life than that portrayed in the movie A Star Is Born. Garland’s successful interpretation of the character was an extension of her own life. The authenticity she projected into playing Esther Blodgett/Vicki Lester was a direct extension of her own life from Frances Gumm to Judy Garland. The audience of A Star Is Born isn’t privy to Blodgett’s entertainment history prior to her becoming an aspiring singer/dancer for a small time orchestra. However, it is known that Garland began her career as a small child. Garland was forced into a life of scrutiny before she could develop as a person and gain confidence and build some self-esteem. Both Garland and Blodgett symbolize the insecurity that wanting to become a star and maintaining stardom often bring with it. Both women are approached by men who see their potential and love them for it. Garland marries five times and Blodgett marries once. Both women marry men that are involved in the entertainment industry.
Garland’s reign as an accomplished star is authenticated by the comparison to Blodgett and her ability to become a star. Similarities prevail between Blodgett’s husband, Norman Maine and Garland. Garland fell from grace because of a history of substance abuse. She had to be institutionalized and removed from several films. Maine’s character also falls from grace as an alcoholic film star. He is not able to hold down film opportunities. Eventually he commits suicide. Therefore, he frees his wife from his fate as an unemployable, drunken embarrassment. Although classified as an accidental overdose, Garland life ended abruptly as well. It is possible that she saw herself as having surpassed her ability to continue performing. In the case of Judy Garland, life definitely imitated art and the authenticity in which she did it can be measured in A Star is Born.
1. Do you see any similarities in star image between Judy Garland and Brittany Murphy?
2. With the quantity of media in today’s society, is it harder for stars to keep their true persona separate from their star image?
3. Does today’s entertainment industry cultivate a star culture where A-List talent essentially play themselves on screen? Is this how authenticity is seen on screen today?
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
supplemental post 3 - NPH and RockHudson
I thought our comparison of Neil Patrick Harris to Rock Hudson was particularly interesting today, and although his character Barney on How I Met Your Mother is straight there are a lot of similarities between Barney and a typical homosexual man. Although Harris does not have the same manly physique as Hudson (Hudson seems to be more of the American masculine standard, standing tall, dark, and handsome), he still is a very attractive man with a good physique. He dresses very well, always wearing suits, which may also be attributed to a homosexual male’s stereotypical interest in fashionable clothing.
His womanizer attitude, as strange as it seems, can also be linked to the image of Hudson and homosexuality. Hudson, specifically in Pillow Talk, plays characters who seem to be very popular with women, but who do not actually commit to any particular woman. Harris is the same way; although he has a different woman falling for him every night, he refuses to make any sort of commitment to them. He doesn’t just refuse to commit—he is completely against any time of commitment. For both Hudson and Harris, this can be seen as a look into their actual personas because clearly neither of them would be interested in starting a relationship with women. The fact that they lack an interest in commitment alludes to the fact that they are homosexual, while the women that flock to them distract from that fact.
Another interesting element of Barney’s persona is his obsession with suits. Homosexual men are often stereotyped to have a strong interest in fashion and dressing well. In the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney becomes determined to conquer a woman who hates his suits, leaving him to decide if sleeping with this girl is worth giving up his suit collection. After thinking about it momentarily, he sings that “nothing suits me like a suit” and decides that being dressed well is more important than this girl. Barney sings, “to score a ten would be just fine, but I’d rather be dressed to the nine,” meaning that he is putting his own self image as a fashion conscious man in front of sleeping with a beautiful woman. As he sings and dances in a very theatrical manner, the spectators are reminded again that Harris is a homosexual man and his character plays along with that.
His womanizer attitude, as strange as it seems, can also be linked to the image of Hudson and homosexuality. Hudson, specifically in Pillow Talk, plays characters who seem to be very popular with women, but who do not actually commit to any particular woman. Harris is the same way; although he has a different woman falling for him every night, he refuses to make any sort of commitment to them. He doesn’t just refuse to commit—he is completely against any time of commitment. For both Hudson and Harris, this can be seen as a look into their actual personas because clearly neither of them would be interested in starting a relationship with women. The fact that they lack an interest in commitment alludes to the fact that they are homosexual, while the women that flock to them distract from that fact.
Another interesting element of Barney’s persona is his obsession with suits. Homosexual men are often stereotyped to have a strong interest in fashion and dressing well. In the 100th episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney becomes determined to conquer a woman who hates his suits, leaving him to decide if sleeping with this girl is worth giving up his suit collection. After thinking about it momentarily, he sings that “nothing suits me like a suit” and decides that being dressed well is more important than this girl. Barney sings, “to score a ten would be just fine, but I’d rather be dressed to the nine,” meaning that he is putting his own self image as a fashion conscious man in front of sleeping with a beautiful woman. As he sings and dances in a very theatrical manner, the spectators are reminded again that Harris is a homosexual man and his character plays along with that.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Core Post#5: A Star Is Born
One of the key points I have derived from this class and the readings is the importance of the authenticity of stars. The reading on Rock Hudson only further pushed this point. Rock spent most of his life projecting an image of a man that women desired and men wanted to be just like. Obviously, this is more of a heterosexual image, and clearly it wasn't authentic. This cannot be blamed on Rock, but instead the people managing his career as well as the conservative American people of the 1950's who would never allow an openly gay man to become a household name. If you think about it, the same is basically true today, it is hard to come up with many HUGE stars that are openly gay. Tom Cruise actually gets quite offended when asked about his rumored homosexuality. The film we watched last week “A Star Is Born” deal with the same issues of image we are talking about now. Judy Garland’s character is brought to the public eye by James Mason’s character. She becomes popular through her rise from a nobody to America’s sweetheart, even changing her name to Vicki Lester. Her image is only strengthened with the more movies she takes on and the public even begins to sympathize with her after her husband drunkenly makes a fool out of himself at the Oscars, where she wins the award for Best Actress. There is a role reversal in the film, with Mason bringing himself down due to alcoholism and eventually dying, quite a departure from Mason turning Lester into a star. This did nothing but remind me of Rock Hudson falling from America’s graces as Meyer talks about from his diagnosis with HIV. Garland’s character in the film is also inauthentic as in her personal life she was a very depressed and troubled soul and ended up dying from a tranquilizer addiction. It is amazing how contradictory a star image can be from the real actor/actress.
1) What actors/actresses today would you say are authentic? Not authetic?
2) What household names can you name that are gay?
3) Is there a modern day Rock Hudson?
Supplemental Post 3: The Rebooting of Spider-Man
Although I work for Sony Pictures and technically I should not be disclosing this information, it's all over Wikipedia, so what the hell? The tremendously successful Spider-man film franchise as we know it is over and is being rebooted, similar to what happened with Batman Begins. Some may be quite surprised by this, being that audiences flocked to the theater to the tune of nearly $3 billion for the saga. However, the most recent film Spider-man 3 was critically panned and there's very few people I've met who will admit to liking this film. But now director Sam Raimi, Tobey McGuire and Kirsten Dunst are out and a new cast are on the way, including Marc Webb, director of "500 Days of Summer". I must say I really respect Sony's decision to re-boot this franchise. They could just rest on their laurels and continue to churn out mediocre films and make a billion dollars per picture. However, they have decided that quality is also important to them and will lose their bankable stars along the way. Perhaps this could be the start of a new trend, with studios not solely focused on the buck, but also the quality of film. Similar to Batman Begins, where the bankable Val Kilmer and George Clooney were dropped in favor of Christian Bale, who at the time was not a star, but now definitely is. As long as success stories like Batman Begins continue to happen I think this likeable trend will linger on.
Exhibit on Fan Magazines
The David L. Wolper Center, located directly across from the cinema library in Doheny, is hosting an exhibit on fan magazines, beginning this Thursday. This exhibit is fairly relevant to all we've been discussing this semester and it is examining the relationship between stars and fan culture. Here is the link on the event for all who are interested:
http://dotsx.usc.edu/newsblog/index.php/main/comments/hollywood_fan_magazine_exhibition_opening_april_29
http://dotsx.usc.edu/newsblog/index.php/main/comments/hollywood_fan_magazine_exhibition_opening_april_29
Sunday, April 25, 2010
saMANtha Denies Spitting On Lindsanity! -- S.P. #5
“saMANtha Denies Spitting On Lindsanity” is the headline for this disturbing rumored event. What is not a rumor, is that the two lesbians have indeed split up, and ongoing feuds continue to be headlined nearly every single day on Perez Hilton’s celebrity blog. While so many stories seem either too far-fetched to be true, it is difficult to determine fact from fiction when both sides offer consistently differing sides that are equally peculiar in nature.
This particular blog covers a response from Ronson to a previous Perez blog that speculated on Ronson’s involvement with spitting on Lohan’s face at a birthday party, after Lohan tweeted about it on her twitter page. Ronson came back with, “Guess what didn’t happen tonight…” which ultimately takes a sarcastic approach towards implying that the occurrence never took place. The two clearly need help as the flow of constant feed on their actions arise to depict a very deranged and sad reality that they are forced to face on a regular basis. Still, Samantha Ronson should automatically be given more credibility since her insanity is not being questioned and disputed upon every day by friends, family, and strangers, unlike Lohan. What makes their circumstance evermore difficult is that they are forced to share their private lives via Perez Hilton’s big mouth, and I’m sure that this offers them no sense of margin to rise above their adversity in light of the scrutinizing public.
Judy Garland as Icon-Reading Response # 5
Having previously read the Dyer chapter on "Judy Garland and Gay Men" for a class on icons (examining icons from their start in religious iconography to celebrity icons to advertising icons), it was intriguing to revisit the article in this context. Because for me what has always stood out about Judy's career is the dichotomy between her image as icon and her image as star....As a star, most notably in the MGM years, Judy was the girl next door, as best illustrated by her roles in the Andy Hardy films with Mickey Rooney and in her immortal turn as Dorothy Gale. However, as an icon, Judy represents something entirely different, which Dyer's article elucidates. For modern audiences and for gay men, Judy is an icon of the dark side of Hollywood and the continual resiliency of the human spirit even in the face of being told that who/what you are and what you look like isn't good enough. Sure, Judy crumbled in the end with her untimely and tragic death, but no one ever had more comebacks than Judy Garland. Losing her contract after her antics on the set of "Summer Stock," "A Star is Born" was a triumphant return to the screen for Judy (as she had spent some time in rehab attempting to unsuccessfully kick her drug habit and repair her shattered self-image). Though this was Judy's first major comeback, she would repeat such successes with her concert career -- selling out at the Palace and Radio City. Thus, Judy came to represent both the dark side of Hollywood and the comeback -- the attempt to fight one's self-loathing and triumph over those who had set you up to fail.
If one examines the character of Esther Blodgett (or Vicki Lester), it is quite clear that she is just a darker iteration of the girl-next-door. Esther is what happens to the girl-next-door when she grows up to become the woman-next-door. Esther starts as an innocent, naive girl from the Midwest, pursuing her dreams of a successful singing career, and though she maintains her same inherently likable qualities, her life is plagued by the vagaries of Hollywood favor and "the man that got away."
Thus, it is as if Judy is merging the two sides of her career -- Judy the star and Judy the icon-- into one film. We already know Judy the star, but with this film "Judy the icon" is "born." In the first half of the film, we see the young Judy -- full of idealism, a vigorous talent, and young romance. This starts to fall apart when the studio signs her, and she is given a horrible make-over to fit what the studio deems to be beautiful. In the latter half, we see the Judy that most know her as today-- one on the constant verge of tears and collapse, torn apart by the system that built her (and we see Judy's own career reflected in Norman Maine -- in his addiction problems and how he is virtually thrown away and forgotten by Hollywood). Thus, Judy allows us to see both sides of herself in one role and thereby, illustrates just how drastically one's image can shift in the course of one's career. Many of the stars we have discussed up until this point can be read in multiple discourses, but their star images do not undergo an exceeding amount of change. Judy is a rare exception because she allowed us to truly see her vulnerability and the way she was crumbling on-screen...I think, though Dyer wonderfully probes her cultural significance, Judy is easily defined as an icon -- both for gay and straight-- as a woman who allowed us to see the vulnerability within herself and how this vulnerability unbearably manifested itself when overwrought by the Hollywood star system. Allowing us to see her weakness and how she constantly strove to overcome this weakness and self-loathing is inspiring for all, but particularly gay men (of an earlier time more over-whelmingly) because it suggests that yes, one can be weak and dislike oneself, but if you put it all out there on the stage and try to overcome that, you can become not just a star, but an icon.
Questions:
1)How would Judy fare in the modern Hollywood system? Would she crack more quickly under such constant media attention as TMZ and the tabloids? Or being more able to control her own image (and not dominated by one studio who owned her) would she be more comfortable in her own skin and thus able to work within the system more effectively?
2) As homosexuality is becoming more and more accepted within society, do you think Judy will become any less of a gay icon? If gay men no longer need the reassurance of someone who fought on through self-loathing because they are more acceptable to themselves and society, is she still as relevant to this discourse?
3)Liza Minnelli, Judy's daughter, shares many traits with her mother and is also somewhat of a gay icon. In what ways do you think her role as icon differ from that of Judy's? Additionally, both Liza and Judy had a bad habit of marrying gay men. How does this tie in to their iconicity?
If one examines the character of Esther Blodgett (or Vicki Lester), it is quite clear that she is just a darker iteration of the girl-next-door. Esther is what happens to the girl-next-door when she grows up to become the woman-next-door. Esther starts as an innocent, naive girl from the Midwest, pursuing her dreams of a successful singing career, and though she maintains her same inherently likable qualities, her life is plagued by the vagaries of Hollywood favor and "the man that got away."
Thus, it is as if Judy is merging the two sides of her career -- Judy the star and Judy the icon-- into one film. We already know Judy the star, but with this film "Judy the icon" is "born." In the first half of the film, we see the young Judy -- full of idealism, a vigorous talent, and young romance. This starts to fall apart when the studio signs her, and she is given a horrible make-over to fit what the studio deems to be beautiful. In the latter half, we see the Judy that most know her as today-- one on the constant verge of tears and collapse, torn apart by the system that built her (and we see Judy's own career reflected in Norman Maine -- in his addiction problems and how he is virtually thrown away and forgotten by Hollywood). Thus, Judy allows us to see both sides of herself in one role and thereby, illustrates just how drastically one's image can shift in the course of one's career. Many of the stars we have discussed up until this point can be read in multiple discourses, but their star images do not undergo an exceeding amount of change. Judy is a rare exception because she allowed us to truly see her vulnerability and the way she was crumbling on-screen...I think, though Dyer wonderfully probes her cultural significance, Judy is easily defined as an icon -- both for gay and straight-- as a woman who allowed us to see the vulnerability within herself and how this vulnerability unbearably manifested itself when overwrought by the Hollywood star system. Allowing us to see her weakness and how she constantly strove to overcome this weakness and self-loathing is inspiring for all, but particularly gay men (of an earlier time more over-whelmingly) because it suggests that yes, one can be weak and dislike oneself, but if you put it all out there on the stage and try to overcome that, you can become not just a star, but an icon.
Questions:
1)How would Judy fare in the modern Hollywood system? Would she crack more quickly under such constant media attention as TMZ and the tabloids? Or being more able to control her own image (and not dominated by one studio who owned her) would she be more comfortable in her own skin and thus able to work within the system more effectively?
2) As homosexuality is becoming more and more accepted within society, do you think Judy will become any less of a gay icon? If gay men no longer need the reassurance of someone who fought on through self-loathing because they are more acceptable to themselves and society, is she still as relevant to this discourse?
3)Liza Minnelli, Judy's daughter, shares many traits with her mother and is also somewhat of a gay icon. In what ways do you think her role as icon differ from that of Judy's? Additionally, both Liza and Judy had a bad habit of marrying gay men. How does this tie in to their iconicity?
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