“Howard Hughes made bombshell a movie star - Columbus Dispatch” plus 1 more |
| Howard Hughes made bombshell a movie star - Columbus Dispatch Posted: LOS ANGELES (AP) - Jane Russell, the busty brunette who shot to fame as the star of Howard Hughes' 1941 Western The Outlaw, died yesterday of respiratory failure, her family said. She was 89. Although Russell made only a handful of films after the 1960s, she had remained active in her church, with charitable organizations and with a local singing group until her health began to decline a few weeks ago, said her daughter-in-law, Etta Waterfield. She died at her home in Santa Maria. Hughes, the eccentric billionaire, put her onto the path to stardom when he cast her in The Outlaw, a film he fought with censors for nearly a decade to get into wide release. The Hughes publicity mill ground out photos of the beauty in low-cut costumes and swimsuits, and she became famous, especially as a pinup for GIs. Hughes bought the ailing RKO studio in 1948, and he devoted special care to his No. 1 star, using his engineering skills to design Russell a special brassiere (she said she never wore it). By that time she had become a box-office draw by starring with Bob Hope in the 1948 hit comedy-Western The Paleface. Her other movies included His Kind of Woman (with Robert Mitchum), Double Dynamite (Frank Sinatra, Groucho Marx), The Las Vegas Story (Victor Mature), Macao (Mitchum again) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Marilyn Monroe). She followed that up with the 1954 musical The French Line, which has her cavorting on an ocean liner. The film was shot in 3D, and the promotional campaign for it proclaimed "J.R. in 3D. Need we say more?" In 1955, she made the sequel Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (without Monroe) and starred in the Westerns The Tall Men, with Clark Gable, and Foxfire, with Jeff Chandler. "Why did I quit movies?" she remarked in 1999. "Because I was getting too old! You couldn't go on acting in those years if you were an actress over 30." For many years, she served as the TV spokeswoman for Playtex bras. She was born Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell on June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minn., and the family later moved Los Angeles. Russell, a widow, was married three times, including to pro quarterback Bob Waterfield, whom she divorced in 1968. Survivors include the three children she adopted with him. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Movie Review: 'Gnomeo and Juliet' - Associated Content Posted: This film is currently playing in theaters. In this CG-animated feature film Gnomeo and Juliet (parody of Romeo and Juliet), the garden gnomes of two elderly neighbors, Mrs. Montague and Mr. Capulet who dislike each other, come alive when they leave. Separated by a fence, blue gnomes live in one backyard, while the red gnomes live on the other one. The two groups of gnomes are constantly competing with each other. While trying to retrieve an orchid for her garden, Juliet (Emily Blunt), a red gnome, meets Gnomeo (James McAvoy), a blue gnome, and they fall in love. They try to keep their romance secret as there is a war between the blue and red gnomes. I'm betting in order to really enjoy this film, one has to actually like these clay gnomes that frequently inhabit many gardens in the Western world. I personally don't like them myself, which perhaps didn't help to curb my lack of optimism for this film when I saw the trailer. I personally find these gnomes lifeless and kind of ugly. Imagine how creepy it seemed to me when they started moving around like they were possessed. Now, I never felt this way about Toy Story--when toys came alive they all looked very different from each other, moved and walked differently, and as a result, had their own unique personality which fit their shape, texture, and material. Majority of these gnomes have a similarity in look and like those glazed gnomes in real life, they have glassy eyes, which looked just about as lifeless. Admittedly, it was always a plus when I saw a character that wasn't a gnome. Now, don't get me wrong--I do appreciate kitschy ornaments, retro stuff in particular, such as the plastic pink flamingo, which was rather cool to see in this film. I wished I had seen more of the "other" kitschy ornaments--it may have brought in a little more character. Maybe throw in some rusty Coca-Cola memorabilia and other cool, retro geeky stuff. And, possibly dump this overused Shakespeare plot along the way, perhaps? Just a thought. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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