RIP Debbie Reynolds- Our MGM Hero

Debbie Reynolds

April 1 1932- December 28 2016

And I thought that same sentence was hard to write yesterday for Carrie Fisher. I can tell you my heart truly broke when the news came through that her mother, the beautiful and talented Debbie Reynolds passed away only one day later.

It was no secret how close Fisher and her mother were. Last year I read "Unsinkable" by Debbie Reynolds and "Wishful Drinking" by Carrie Fisher back to back and the way those women's two worlds revolved around each other was beautiful. Not surprisingly, Carrie was a nightmare in her rebellious years during her twenties, but her mother clearly never gave up on her. In later years, the two lived next door to each other and shared a remarkable bond.

The strength of that bond was made known on the morning of Wednesday December 28. According to E!Online, Todd Fisher (Debbie's son and Carrie's brother) stated that his mother had expressed how much she missed her daughter and wanted to see her again before she suffered an alleged stroke (this has yet to be confirmed as of this time). The idea of having to live without her beloved daughter and the emotional stress of having to deal with this and funeral arrangements was too much for her to bear. The heartbreaking reality was that Reynolds simply could not live without her daughter.

For classic film fans like myself, Debbie Reynolds was our hero. She was a true lady in every sense of the word and one of the few that the Studio System did not have to work on to make sure she upheld her reputation as a good MGM girl, because she really was. She always stood by her morals and was a survivor. Although many class her finest film achievement as Kathy in 1952's  Singin' in the Rain, she earned an Oscar nomination in 1964 for The Unsinkable Molly Brown. It was from this film that her memoir, "Unsinkable" took it's name and unsinkable was the perfect way to describe Reynolds. She endured incredible trials and tribulations in her life, which included messy divorces (including her infamous one with Eddie Fisher where Elizabeth Taylor was the other woman) and financial hardships. Yet, she was always seen with a smile on her face and always resembled a ray of sunshine.

As amazing as her long career was, her professional achievements are not the ultimate reason for her being a champion among classic film fanatics. Reynolds worked tirelessly to preserve the history of old Hollywood, particularly that of MGM. She was a serious collector of movie memorabilia from the Golden Age of Hollywood and was angered by the idea that others were not seeking to look after history the way she was.

Unfortunately for Reynolds, she had to sell the items in her collection at auctions over the years. However, at these auctions she was able to make sure that the items (which included Dorothy's ruby slippers from The Wizard of Oz and one of Scarlett O'Hara's dresses from Gone With The Wind among others) went to homes where they would be taken care of.

Fans of old Hollywood, like myself, will be forever grateful for Reynold's efforts in preserving pieces of an age gone by and being such a staunch advocate for it. She really was an old Hollywood treasure herself. Losing her is losing another piece of film history. However, it does feel selfish to want Debbie to still be here when she is now back with Carrie.

Now that I have finished writing this, I just want to say that I pray I do not need to write another one of these tomorrow evening. Move along 2016, move along.

RIP Carrie Fisher: The woman away from Leia

Carrie Frances Fisher

October 21 1956- December 27 2016

That was painful to write.

2016 has been a tough year for celebrity death. We've lost the likes of Alan Rickman, David Bowie, Prince, Patty Duke, Anton Yelchin, Muhammad Ali, Gene Wilder, George Michael and a number of others. Now also Carrie Fisher.

Fisher's death has hit me the hardest. Yes I live in a household that is Star Wars obsessed, but I loved her more for who she was off-screen than on. Don't get me wrong, Princess Leia is one of my favourite female film characters of all time because of her tremendous inner strength and spirit, but Carrie Fisher the woman was far more than Darth Vader's daughter who often wore her hair in twin buns and was enslaved in a gold bikini.

I never knew Fisher personally, but it was such a joy to have her in the world. Despite her tiny height of 5'1", she was a tower of strength with a larger than life personality. She refused to make herself a victim of mental health and threw herself into inspiring others who were like herself. She made light of her less than ordinary life and upbringing as the daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher with her extraordinary sense of humour that paved the way for her to become a best selling author and playwright.

One of the things I really loved about Fisher was that she was never afraid to speak her mind in any situation and would often be the one to say what everyone else was thinking. I have seen countless memes today with inspiring and witty quotes she had said over the years. People related to her greatly because she had the courage to approach hard subjects and speak about the publicly so that those who were going through similar issues would not feel alone.

However, it wasn't just the difficult issues she spoke of that made people love her. On a much lighter note, I know I cannot be the only one who loved how natural and candid she was during interviews and public appearances. In later years, Fisher was always accompanied by her beloved dog, Gary in interviews, which is uncanny when you think about interview protocol, but completely endearing from a viewer's perspective. When The Force Awakens was close to release, of course I was excited for the film itself, but I loved the fact that it meant Carrie was once again on the publicity trail.

When I watch interviews on television with celebrities, I often wonder how much self control it takes the interviewee not to react when they are asked a dumb question or a question that is the same as the one just asked, but worded differently. Carrie Fisher didn't have that self control, and it was brilliant. She never held back from saying "You already asked me that..." and "I already told you...". I can only imagine how many other people in the spotlight envied her honesty in these situations, because there isn't many other people besides Carrie Fisher who could get away with something like that.

I witnessed this first hand now over three years ago. My husband and I attended Supanova Pop Culture Expo in Sydney in July 2013 when Fisher was a special guest. Her panel was the perfect example of being asked the same questions over and over. This was the time when there was just speculation as to whether she would be in the new Disney Star Wars films and she dodged every question about whether she was going to be in them (and there was a few) with "I hadn't heard there was going to be a new Star Wars film. Are they remaking Star Wars?"

Many of the audience looked at each other with confusion, but I was sure she had already signed on and couldn't say anything....she obviously did know as she was part of The Force Awakens in 2015!

The highlight for me personally was when members of the audience kept asking her 'What was your favourite scene in Star Wars?" and "What was your favourite part about filming Star Wars?" She kept answering with "When I killed the giant slug"

After about four times, Fisher (in exactly the same way you can hear her saying it in your head) said "I don't know what is wrong with all of you! You don't seem to believe me when I say that killing the giant slug was my favourite part!"

At exactly the right moment, my son who wasn't much older than one year old at the time, let out one loud random cry and Fisher said "See! You are all even making babies cry!"

I don't think my husband could have been more proud of his son getting her attention at that point in time.

I will always be grateful that I was able to see Carrie Fisher in person and I will always have a story to tell my now Star Wars crazy son as he gets older that he had an interaction with Princess Leia/ General Organa. Unlike many of the other celebrity deaths this year, I and so many others around the world will feel the absence of Carrie Fisher. From what I understand, she was in the middle of a great creative period of her life and it is a terrible shame that we will no longer see any more of her work. She not only entertained, but she inspired and was truly an amazing woman. She will be greatly missed.

Remembering Sharon Tate



Sharon Marie Tate-Polanski

24 January 1943- 9 August 1969

It was 44 years ago tonight that the world lost the beautiful Sharon Tate. 44 years ago that Charles Manson's followers took the lives of five innocent people who they had never met and wrote themselves into history by doing so.

It's a tragedy that these days when people hear the name Sharon Tate, they instantly think of her death rather than who she was in life. I'm not going to lie, as a fan of Hollywood history, I have done a great deal of reading on the Manson Family and "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders" by Vincent Bugliosi is my favourite non-fiction book so I have come to know more about Tate through reading about the circumstances surrounding her death. However, through my reading I have come to realise how sad it is that Tate is remembered for her death more than for her beauty or for her successful yet brief career.

For those who are not familiar with Sharon Tate, she was an American film actress born in 1943 to parents, Doris and Paul Tate. Her early life was one of constant moving around as her father was in the military. She started acting and modelling when her and her family were living abroad in Italy and when they returned home to America, Tate wanted to try her luck in Hollywood. Her natural beauty and ambition landed her many modelling jobs and several small acting roles. Her first role of note was as Janet Trego in "The Beverly Hillbillies" where she sported a short brown wig to hide her long blonde locks. Tate's biggest roles were in Dance Of The Vampires, The Wrecking Crew and Valley of the Dolls, which earned her a Golden Globe nomination. She passed away aged only 26.

During my reading, something else also struck me about Tate. Not only was she an incredibly beautiful woman on the outside, but from all accounts she had an absolutely beautiful soul. According to the book, "Restless Souls: The Sharon Tate Family's Account of Stardom, the Manson Murders and Crusade For Justice" by Alisa Statman and Brie Tate (which has proved quite controversial), Sharon was very close to her mother and father and two younger sisters, Debra and Patti. In an interview which Debra did with photographer, Alan Mercer, she quotes that Sharon was her everything, she was her world. She was a kind soul who loved animals and was a wonderful friend. Her husband, director Roman Polanski said of his late wife that she was a friend to everyone and could never turn away friendship.

Tate was about to have something else to love in her life before her life was so cruelly taken away, she was 8 months pregnant at the time of her death. Tate was the last to die that night at Cielo Drive and before she died, she pleaded with Manson family member, Susan Atkins to take her away and let her have her baby and then kill her. Tate already had the love of her mother and would have sacrificed herself for her baby, which was a boy who Polanski named Paul, after Sharon's father. From reading all I have about Tate, there is no doubt in my mind that she would have been an incredible mother.

I recently read "Inherent Vice" by Thomas Pynchon and one of the characters said something in reference to Tate which stuck with me. In one part of the novel, the character of Shasta talks of how the murder of Tate really cut to the core of those starlets in Los Angeles at the time because it showed that even if you were a good girl in Hollywood, that didn't make you immune to meeting a violent end in that town. Even though "Inherent Vice" is a work of fiction, it is something I could imagine would have been on the minds of many girls in the same world as Tate. She was one of the good girls. Not saying that she never took a step out of line, but she was well liked by everyone and madly in love with her husband. Her only other great love besides Polanski was her ex-fiancé and celebrity hairstylist, Jay Sebring, who remained a close friend of her and Polanski's and was also among the murdered at Cielo Drive that night. The death of a beautiful soul such as Tate scared those who inspired to be a good person. The horrible reality is that Tate was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

All this information I have gathered about Tate reinforces why I believe it is so sad that she is remembered by many purely for how she died. She clearly was one of those rare and amazing people who make the world a better place. The Manson Family almost became celebrities themselves when they committed their crimes and here I don't want to focus on who they are or their role at Cielo Drive here as there is plenty of material out there to find out all about them. Sharon Tate deserves to be remembered for all the beauty she had, both inside and out and not always in the same sentence as murderers.

Based on how much I know now about Sharon Tate, I hope she is an angel in Heaven nursing baby Paul and I have no doubt she happily is.

References
The Official Sharon Tate Website
The Tate Family Legacy Website
The Tate-LaBianca Homicide Research Blog
Sharon Tate IMDb.com
Statman, Alisa, Tate, Brie, 2012, Restless Souls: The Sharon Tate Family's Account of Stardom, the Manson Murders and Crusade For Justice, It Books
Bugliosi, Vincent, 1974, Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders, Bantam







RIP James Gandolfini

We are very sorry and saddened this morning to hear the passing of the wonderful actor, James Gandolfini.

The 51 year old, who is most well known for his lead role in the HBO television series, The Sopranos, died as a result of a heart attack while on holiday in Italy.

The news has struck the hearts of many people in the industry who had met and worked with Gandolfini and fans around the world. He had the reputation of being a very gentle, genuine and loving man and he will be missed by many.

Gandolfini was born in New Jersey in 1961. He made his break on Broadway before landing his breakthrough role as Virgil in True Romance. However, it was for the role of mob boss and family man, Tony Soprano that he will most be remembered in The Sopranos that he will be most remembered for. He won three Emmy awards and one Golden Globe award for the role.

Since the end of The Sopranos in 2007, he has appeared various films including In The Loop, Where The Wild Things Are, Welcome To The Rileys, Killing Them Softly, Zero Dark Thirty and The Incredible Burt Wonderstone.

Before his death, he was scheduled to take part in the new HBO series, Criminal Justice.

James Gandolfini will be missed by movie and television show fans alike. He leaves behind his wife, Debroah Lin and two children, Michael (13) and Liliana (8 months)