Is the Hollywood magic gone?

alittlenerdy said:

I'm starting to feel like celebrities are total misfits.

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JUST starting? Where have you been?

Hollywood stars have been total misfits since day one.

We just used to revere them more, they were our royalty and so we let them act like putzes in public and turned the other way.

Now there's a whole industry set up to film them be putzes in public and we all eat it up.

The difference is in the past, movie stars' lives were shielded from the public. We didn't know about their drug abuse, philandering, alcoholism, homosexuality, organized crime association, relationship problems, etc. etc. They were royalties. They were mysterious. They were STARS. They had the whole studio system to manage their public images.

Now everyone gets exposed and some have to move far, far away to keep their privacy. Those who actually live in Tinseltown are desperate for attention (not necessarily fame, just attention) so they would do anything to be in front of the paparazzi and inside the tabloids or a tell-all autobiography. With everyone vying for attention, you need to do something. The lower you are on the list, the more attention you want to get. A-listers like Harrison Ford, etc. still tries very hard to protect their privacy. The old smoke and mirror game still works for some of them.

Time has changed. People don't want "mysterious." They want to know what brand of toilet paper Brad Pitt uses or how much Botox Sharon Stone has had. You can blame it on the fans, who drive the industry, which drives the paparazzi and tabloids -- it's a whole different money machine now. It's all about exposure and being in the news.

Shadow_Ferret said:

JUST starting? Where have you been?

Hollywood stars have been total misfits since day one.

We just used to revere them more, they were our royalty and so we let them act like putzes in public and turned the other way.

Now there's a whole industry set up to film them be putzes in public and we all eat it up.

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Precisely.

Holy heavens... Marilyn looks GREAT. Whoa!

To me, what is missing is any semblance of mystique. With Marilyn, we saw the subway breeze lift her skift giving a kind-of glint of what would be considered grannie panties today. With you-know-who, we get a full crotch gash-shot as she gets out of a car.

Again, I don't know if I'm weird, but if a fully dressed woman bends over and shows a little bra or a little panty, it can be more erotic than seeing a less encumbered woman in a string bikini simply because with the former, I'm seeing something I'm not supposed to see, and I'm only seeing a little of it. That's the kind of mystique I'm talking about. It's the brief glimse of a partial something that gets the imagination involved. There is no imagination involved when the other you-know-who boffs her boyfriend in front of a camera and has it piped to the world.

This gets back to what Ray said--teasing glimpses (photos and information) rather than full disclosure (and exposure).

Jcomp said:

Holy heavens... Marilyn looks GREAT. Whoa!

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all the plastic a suga daddy can buy.

I have no idea what that pic does for the guys, but it thrills me. OMG, the gorgeous JLH is normal. Yea for her! Damn anyone who feels she should apologize for that.

What happened to Lil Kim? She used to look good now she looks freakish, just like Courtney Love did after she radically altered her face and her distinctive look. You should still be able to recognize a famous musician, actor instead of wondering, "That person sort of looks like [fill in the blank]."

As for Maestrowork's comment about the mystery behind Old Hollywood, well....
you have obviously not read the Hollywood Babylon books. Fabulous debunking of those 'glamorous' stars of yesteryear. Sometimes to the point of grossness. I don't want to see someone's corpse after they burned to death in a house fire. Or the pile of puke next to the body after a drug overdose.

That's why I hate Scarlett Johannsen now. She was labeled the Most Beautiful on Earth or whatever (no arguments here) and she subsequently had plastic surgery on her face. That is plain wrong. They need to round up these fake doctors and cast them into the Pacific ocean.
And her cheekbones are sharp now. Her head is shaped wrong. That is the irony, is that they ruin a natural perfection. But what do I know, I'm an unsigned screenwriter with no girlfriend.They have to carry me to a doctor on a stretcher nowadays anyway...

I say ask any man and they will tell you....a real woman, with curves it sexual. If an actor has to draw attention to themselves...something is wrong with their skills...they shouldn't have to go to those lengths. The public isn't stupid. A true artist wants to look average...it speaks volumes to the public. I've said it before and I'll say it again...Christian Bale is the best Actor in Hollywood right now...he is who he is...there is no need to draw attention or be fake.

Marilyn is timeless....she may have colored her hair, changed her name, and acted the sexy dumb blonde...but dammit she was good at it. I don't think some of the woman in Hollywood have that today...most of them don't. JLH...she is awesome. Anyone want to dispute that?

Most of the ones I see running around in the tabloids...seeking attention are the spoiled, unskilled actors that need to keep reminding us they are there. I truly don't care what kind of TP Brad is using...it's all @**t in the end.

I believe, in my opinion...it's the young crowd that are drawn to this kind of behavior. The average Joe just doesn't care.

coneflower2001 said:

A true artist wants to look average...it speaks volumes to the public. I've said it before and I'll say it again...Christian Bale is the best Actor in Hollywood right now...he is who he is...there is no need to draw attention or be fake.

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yeah but christian bale cant really look average, so i think you'll have to come up with a better example than that.

Bravo said:

yeah but christian bale cant really look average, so i think you'll have to come up with a better example than that.

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Philip Seymour Hoffman

Jack Black. Will Ferrel. Seth Rogen. I think comedy stars have it better. If you're a the glamorous ones like Halle Berry or Charlize Theron, then you do have an image to keep -- and by and large, I think they do.

I think right now the problem is we (as in the general public) pay too much attention to the B and C lists who are trying to vry for attention. The Britney Spears and Linsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons. Because they're the one getting on the news. The crazy Tom Cruise. The ditsy Sharon Stone.

But we forget that every generation has their own sleaze and glamor. For every Cary Grant and James Stewart there were Za Za Gabor and Jane Mansfield. So in that sense, Hollywood is the pretty much the same -- just louder and bigger, and we have the paparazzi to blame for that.


ETA: also, time has changed. Back then Hollywood was the holy grail. The epitome of glamor, fame and fortune. The world's most beautiful people were all there. Now, any Joe Blow and Jane Doe can be on TV. There's the Internet, YouTube, etc. etc. and everyone wants their 15 minutes. It really does dilute the "glory" of show biz. I put some of the blame on reality TV and the amount of crappy movies coming out every year. Movies become less "magical" and more about bigger and louder special effects and explosions. When do we actually marvel at a star's performance, as in "he's so BIGGER than LIFE" or awe-inspiring? A few came to mind in the past few years (Russell Crowe in Gladiator, for example, or Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain or Will Smith in Ali) but they're still far and between.

Speaking of Jane Mansfield... this picture is funny. What was Sophia Loren looking?

work said:

The difference is in the past, movie stars' lives were shielded from the public. We didn't know about their drug abuse, philandering, alcoholism, homosexuality, organized crime association, relationship problems, etc. etc. They were royalties. They were mysterious. They were STARS. They had the whole studio system to manage their public images.

Now everyone gets exposed and some have to move far, far away to keep their privacy. Those who actually live in Tinseltown are desperate for attention (not necessarily fame, just attention) so they would do anything to be in front of the paparazzi and inside the tabloids or a tell-all autobiography. With everyone vying for attention, you need to do something. The lower you are on the list, the more attention you want to get. A-listers like Harrison Ford, etc. still tries very hard to protect their privacy. The old smoke and mirror game still works for some of them.

Time has changed. People don't want "mysterious." They want to know what brand of toilet paper Brad Pitt uses or how much Botox Sharon Stone has had. You can blame it on the fans, who drive the industry, which drives the paparazzi and tabloids -- it's a whole different money machine now. It's all about exposure and being in the news.

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Very true, but I love the glamour of "Old Hollywood."

I think Sophia is wondering.. Why don't those things fall out??

Joycecwilliams said:

I think Sophia is wondering.. Why don't those things fall out??

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Or maybe, "Please don't let those things fall out!"

Fame really means nothing these days. I don't mean in a Zen fashion, but anybody with a camcorder, a Myspace page, and a Youtube account can build up a legion of fans; done properly, you'll have your own TV show (Tila Tequila) for no other reason. It's instantaneous. There's no build-up, no machine to create suspense over The New Name. In the legendary studio system, you built your way up through bit parts, finally getting a line in a B-picture, working that to the Small But Important Best Friend role, finally a starring part in a B-picture similar to the walk-on you had three years ago, and eventually up to having your name above the movie title on the lobby cards. You had to know the business to work it; Lord help you if you tried to fight the system, though. Each studio had their favored gossip columnist to help control the publicity but the wrong word from anybody, you got labeled Box Office Poison and eventually faded to do summer stock or worse -- television.

Bravo said:

all the plastic a suga daddy can buy.

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Why must we trample down all our celebrities so?

She had rhinoplasty. Everything else is speculation.

Here she is as a teenager. Not sure she's all the much more "enhanced" in the later picture above.

she had more than rhino. here's a before pic:



but i'm not bringing this up to trample on her, i actually am pretty ambivalent of plastic surgery (the major exception being those damn fish lips some celebs get).

i just think this idea that in the past there were all these natural, classy, and healthy beauties is silly. marilyn monroe did what it took to get to the top and that meant both getting plastic surgery and sleeping with the right people.

things really havent changed much since that time period.

Why do people look to celebrities and Hollywood for life's inspiration anyway?