Earth Angel

Let's think good thoughts today for a lady of unexpected grace and courage, one who has spent the better part of 40 years proving that she's more than just a pretty face (even as the material she had to work from often made that a surpassingly difficult task) - from bit parts, through Myra Breckinridge, on to posters, TV superstardom, and a surprisingly varied later career.

Farrah Fawcett may never have been the critics' darling, but she was and is a lovely woman and always an entertaining star, and now she is fighting for her life. Where there's fabulousness, there's hope.

(Image cribbed shamelessly from the extraordinary Woody1969)

Sweetheart of the Demi-Monde

From the City of Angels comes sad news: Bettie Page, 50s pinup and fetish model extraordinaire, has been hospitalized following a heart attack. America's most wholesome bondage idol is, rather astonishingly, 85.

From all accounts, she's had a hard life that has included meagre returns for the, in its own way, staggering fame that has accrued from her stag loops and girlie pictures. That's a shame, for she was one of the most remarkable-looking, photogenic women one can think of.

She's been photographed of late only a handful of times. In all that I can see, she is still startlingly lovely. Let's hope for the best for her.

Get Well, Please, Cleopatra-Maggie-Martha-Velvet-Sissy Goforth

Elizabeth Taylor, reports the British, has been Very Ill, but is Now Recovering. Let's hope that's so, and while doing so, remember how incredibly beautiful, how gallant, and how generally a good old thing she is and has been, for so very long.

It also makes me oddly happy to know that her middle name is "Rosemond."

A Speedy Recovery to Dame Shirley

Oh, dear - one of the Café's favorite Great Ladies, Dame Shirley Bassey, has had to have emergency surgery. We trust she will make a fast recovery and return to her usual fabulousness.

Dame Shirley Bonus #1: Anyone, by this point, who hasn't seen this needs to immediately.

Dame Shirley Bonus #2: The following Fun Fact: Dame Shirley is surprisingly popular in Egypt, despite the fact that - or perhaps because? - it seems that in Egyptian Arabic, "Shirley Bassey" means "take off my underpants" (!).