Just 16 years ago today this unlikely trio - who clearly hadn't coordinated their wardrobe choices in advance - gathered to promote a TV movie they made together, If These Walls Could Talk, one of those much-admired-at-the-time kinds of projects that no one ever particularly wants to see again.
At the time, Demi Moore seemed poised to take over Hollywood, even if here she seems to be trying to distract us from her G.I. Jane-skinhead-imposed skullcap by a stealth display of the girls. Walls was meant to be her coming out as a Serious Hollywood Person, the Brat Pack at last behind her. 1996 did turn out to be a turning point; if not quite in the way she'd hoped - Jane garnered her a Worst Actress Razzie and didn't particularly shine at the box office. Coming hard on the heels of the disappointing Striptease and her much-derided go at Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, its failure to thrive meant that her days of opening big movies on her own were suddenly behind her. All too soon she was a voice in The Hunchback of Notre Dame II and an "older woman" guest star in Charlie's Angels, and really things haven't improved much since.
As for Miss Spacek, even then she had started down the path to JessicaTandydom that continues to this day. Never a glamour girl (this apparently is her idea of dressing up, poor thing), she'll likely continue in more or less the same vein for decades, slowly becoming ever more Distinguished and Beloved, not to mention Twinkly and Feisty. Frankly - and I know this doesn't really reflect very well on me as a person at all - she sort of bores me, and has at least since Crimes of the Heart.
And then there's Cher. I am quite sure this is her idea of daywear. In 1996, she had already been a star for 30 years, and even as we speak today she's readying a new album and her latest Final Ever Farewell Tour, the first iteration of which hit the road a decade ago. She is indomitable, eternal, undeniable in her stardom. If Her Walls Could Talk - now that's a picture I'd pay to see.
1. I'm so sorry, Demi who?
ReplyDelete2. The big surprise for me in "Crimes Of The Heart" is that, for once, Diane Keaton *didn't* bore me.
3. The Cher!
"Jessica Tandydom" indeed.
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect turn of phrase. Seriously!
Oh dear, yes - the poor Miss Moore, now forever to be known as the former Kutcher-snatcher. It must have been terrible for her that even the styleless Miss Spacek looked better in this photo. Jx
ReplyDeleteI love Sissy, her very naturalness is what's so appealing about her. She isn't a fussy glam girl and makes no bones about it. She comes as she is and by doing it now looks more like herself and more real than either of the distorted visages of Cher or Demi could even approximate. As far as her work I think she wants to work so takes the best of what's offered, not always a broad choice to an actress in her age range who isn't Meryl Streep. When given a chance to do something challenging like In the Bedroom she delivers.
ReplyDeleteDemi is fighting the aging game and though she was never a picture of dignity, the pregnant nude covers alone smacked of attention whoreitis, with the hospitalization for whippets misuse and various other tawdry escapades she is headed for a sad sort of infamy rather than any kind of fame.
Cher, although I like her and think she is a very smart woman in many ways, is one or two cosmetic procedures away from becoming completely unrecognizable as a human.
Or, at least she was then. Sh'e wisely let it all settle in a bit these days. I know the feeling.
Deleterecently watched "bernie" and was
ReplyDeletesurprised to see
that shirley maclaine
is now a dead ringer for sissy.
Just watched Miss MacLaine on the new season of Downton Abbey, she was a hoot of course, but looked way older than I'd expected.
Delete