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Cher Butt

CherbuttOn Wednesday Cher attended the premiere of Morgan Freeman's new movie, The Magic of Belle Isle.

Cher tripped off the pirazz-o-sphere with her tight pants, showing off some toned big butt.

Wowbutt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wow. Is that butt ferreal??

I don't know what is more jaw-dropping, that gauntlet-thrown-down-to-J-Lo butt or those 70s-sized platform shoes!

The movie also stars, as Cher tweets...

'Also DEAR FRIEND Virgina Madsen Stars. Her brother was married 2 my sis G!'

No one believes me when I tell them this but Cher's sister Georganne was once married to actor Michael Madsen. See photo below.

Madsen

 

More pictures:

- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2162471/Never-old-leggings-Cher-defies-66-years-steps-skintight-pants.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

- http://www.toofab.com/2012/06/21/cher-leggings-turn-back-time-magic-of-belle-isle-photos/


Moonstruck over Mothers

CherandolympiaI finished ready The Unruly Woman by Kathleen Rowe and it has only one section of one chapter about Cher and the movie Moonstruck. But it's packed with goodies. Rowe does a study of many romantic comedies including It Happened One Night, Sylvia Scarlett, Bringing Up Baby, Ball of Fire and The Lady Eve among others. She singles out Moonstruck for many things, one being its inclusion of a mother-figure in a traditional romantic comedy.

She states,

"Comedy in mainstream narrative film usually makes its case against the father with very little attention to the mother or daughter. Comedy may deflate Oedipus and show him to be a fool, but it still places him at the heart of the story. Comedy is generally guilty of symbolic matricide. [The young woman, or bride, is seen as] a token of exchange between men [and] mothers rarely hold any power to transfer. [In] the subjugation of female by male [the girl] must sever the most important feminine identification in her life, her mother, for an exclusive attachment to a man, a stand-in for her father. Adrienne Rich [how serendipitous, I just did a profile of Rich yesterday in another blog] describes this rent between mother and daughter, ignored in our culture, as 'the essential female tragedy: we acknowledge Lear, Hamlet and Oedipus as embodiments of the human tragedy; but there is no presently enduring recognition of mother-daughter passion and rapture.'"

Moonstruck is an exception because it centers not only on Cher's character but her mothers: "Both are at turning points in their relationships with men."

"In contrast to the men, Moonstruck women have a clearer sense of who they are. Loretta is a paradigmatic woman on top, enhanced by the strong unruly off screen presence Cher brings to the part....she holds up her own autonomy as long as possible. In doing so, she follows the same course as the unruly virgins in the classical romantic comedies."

Rowe also discusses how the use of ethnicity serves the comedy, how the film uses ideas of death and life, she explicates the meaning behind character names and the symbolism of the moon.

WomenRowe also explains how the movie alludes to Puccini's La Boheme, particularly between the couples of Ronny and Loretta and Mimi and Rudolpho: the use of ordinary vs. mythic characters, the symbolic  scenes with snow, and some symbolic hand-holding moments. However, "Mimi dies...and Loretta remains a woman on top; while Mimi wastes away in isolation, Loretta will draw strength from....her mother and a community that extends beyond the couple."

Most importantly, "Loretta doesn't have to give up her mother to get her man."

This argument by Rowe enticed me to go over all the scenes between Loretta and her mother in the movie, and to realize how realistic they were to normal family relationships between mothers and daughters, the support, the nagging, the daily business of living, right down to the scenes of Loretta's mom serving breakfast in the kitchen.

Rowe ends the book by reminding us that unruly women, in Natalie Davis's words "widen behavioral options for women." She ends talking about Roseanne Barr Arnold (Just Plain Roseanne)...

"Her performance in front of the camera, marked so strongly with her presence behind the camera, is a reminder of the authorship inherent in the performances of other of other women—from Mae West to Cher—who, by making unruly spectacles of themselves, have also made a difference."

Another fan blog post for Moonstruck: http://www.triloquist.net/2012/05/my-love-of-moonstruck.html

 


Bangs are Back Baby!

Cherbangsbigger

Two days ago I decided to get bangs. I only made the decision Wednesday because Mr. Cher Scholar was also going for a haircut. I'm starting a new phase of my life and this calls for a new look...at least in terms of hair...the front side of it anyway.

Ironically, Huffington Post put up an article about bangs that very same day and until yesterday Cher's photo to the left was posted at the top of the page.

http://www.stylelist.com/2012/06/13/bangs-hairstyles-celebrity_n_1590649.html

The feature includes a lovely little photo gallery of over 100 famous ladies with bangs.

 


Cher and Posse Attend Obama Fundraiser in Los Angeles

Last week, Cher and her posse attended Cherfamilyobamaa Los Angeles LGBT fundraiser for President Obama. Before the event Cher and company took some photos at home to post on Twitter.

To the left Cher's sister Georganne, her mother Georgia, son Chaz, Cher and friend Paulette Betts.

Seriously, is that camera on a fireplace mantle? Doesn't Cher have a live-in photographer already?

You can see many more photos before and during the event posted on both Cher News and Cher World, including some with Jewelry Designer Loree Rodkin:

- http://chernews.blogspot.com/2012/06/photos-cher-and-family-before-obama.html#more

- http://chernews.blogspot.com/2012/06/cher-and-family-attended-president.html

- http://www.cherworld.com/cher-news/cher-chaz-fundraise-with-obama/

The next morning on The Stephanie Miller Show, Stephanie Miller couldn't stop talking about getting a photo with Cher (to right). CherandstephanieShe practically devoted the entire show to Cher moments, playing her songs and kidding herself about the napkin outfit she seems to be wearing. Stephanie, Producer Chris and Voice Deity Jim also discussed the chance of Cher appearing on the radio show and decided it was slim to none because as Chris said, everyone knows Cher sleeps until noon. He said he could tell by her tweet schedule. When he gets up at 4am to get ready for their morning talk show, Cher is still up winding down on her tweets.

But for real, it's a perfect show for Cher to discuss her politics. Or am I just rationalizing in an attempt to bring two of my favorite things into one product?

I suppose I am.

To read the LA Times story on the event: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/jun/06/nation/la-na-obama-gay-fundraiser-20120607

 


Oh My Divas!

DonnaSummerCherI can’t stand losing all my divas!

Especially all my divas of color. Whitney Houston, Donna Summer and honorary diva Luther Vandross should all still be with us.

I’ve been out of town for the last two weeks so I’ve been unable to post my tribute to Donna Summer. She died from cancer just as I was leaving on my trip. I drove from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, singing all my iPod’s Donna Summer at the top of my lungs all across the desert.

For many girls (and gay boys) my age, Donna Summer’s double greatest hits album On the Radio was one of the first albums we ever owned. Staring at the cover, I could never get over how uncomfortable and stiff her pose looked on top of that jukebox. 35025889

On the album, each anthemic disco track ran into the next, which was great for “an evening with Donna Summer” but tragic for stealing out songs for a mix tape.

I don’t know a single pre-teen immune to the charms of “Macarthur Park,” who didn’t re-enact it’s melodrama alone in their room with a jump rope handle for a microphone.

As older girls in college, we all identified with the unusual oddity of “Enough is Enough,” the marathon of dueting between Barbra Streisand and Donna Summer. On a kitsch level, it was a bonding moment of bitchy girl power.

Ten years connected to LA gave me a better appreciation for “Sunset People” and “Dim All the Lights” ranks right up with Rita Coolidge’s “All Alone” for sultry scene setting. I never tire of the toot toot heey beep beeps of “Bad Girls” or the duet of “Heaven Knows”...and wasn’t “On the Radio” the anthem of our ever-hopeful teenage love lives? The sentiment is so innocent it’s almost painful if it wasn’t so lovely.

I even remember, with some amount of preserved disgust, Steve Allen doing a reading of the lyrics of “Hot Stuff” on some awards show in the late 1970s. Although reading inane pop lyrics was part of his shtick, I was irritated by it seeming so condescending, square and…a bit humorless.

Cher tweeted her memories of dancing at Studio 54 in the late 1970s: "I remember 'Last Dance' ended my nights at Studio 54! By that song, I was drenched! Hair too!"

While Cher was dancing in Studio 54, I was hearing “Last Dance” inevitably as the final song of the high school dance. It was a melancholy moment every time, for if the boy crush of the season had not asked you to dance all night, this was his last chance. The song was literally calling him out. What a Cinderella moment we were all waiting for. But he never did. You loved the song but hated what it meant.

But in your bedroom fantasies, blasting the album on the record player while you were all alone after school, the boy crush did ask you to dance which made the song magical. You could play Donna Summer so loud you could hear it in every room of the house. In each room you were the diva singing on a stage to the universe.

In 1983 “She Works Hard for the Money” was an early MTV staple. It was played so often, you grew tired of seeing it. Last week, my friends and I struggled to find a full-length version of it on the youtubes.

CatsIn 1984, Donna released Cats Without Claws which had The Drifters ballad “There Goes My Baby” which didn’t do so well on the charts but I loved to belt it out in my bedroom when it came on MTV and my high school friend sang it at the high school follies show. I loved the whole album: “It’s Not the Way,” “Eyes,” “Maybe It’s Over” and the spiritual ballad “Forgive Me.” Although I didn’t identify myself as Christian, I was still deeply moved by its brave spiritual message of self honesty to “love more than I accuse.”

Later in the summer after I graduated high school, I remember loving the single “Only the Fool Survives”(1987 from the album All Systems Go) she did with Mickey Thomas from Starship.

I had my first and only chance to see Donna Summer in LA in 2005 at the Gibson Amphitheater at Universal’s City Walk. I had an unabashedly good time and reviewed the show for the webzine Ape Culture.

At the end of the day, we don’t expect our earliest MTV stars to be leaving us so soon. I am beginning to feel like the 80s-generation kids are more attached to our music stars than are older or younger generations. I don’t know if this is because we were utterly consumed with pop culture growing up, with MTV, award shows and arena concerts. Music stars pervade our memories. We so identified with Cher Donna Summer 2those upbeat, offbeat 80s images.

I read on the Cher News blog that Justin Timberlake has signed to play Neal Bogart in a movie called Spinning Gold about the Casablanca years: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1671556/justin-timberlake-spinning-gold.jhtml

Cher and Donna Summer are the two biggest disco divas to have shared time at Casablanca Records (see picture to the right). You can read about Cher and Donna Summer and the Casablanca Years in Cher Zine 3.

Cher tweeted about the death of Donna Summer: “So sad. One of the GREAT voices of our time!...She was exquisite!"


Another Zombie for the Tribe

Alison Calthorpe, 17, 4073370is seen to the left, drowning in her Cher stuff. It's all too familiar to us isn't it? Soon her Cher stuff will rise above her bedroom window and drown out the sun.

David Sanderson of The Winnipeg Free Press did a story on Alison, the newest Cher Zombie to sprout in Canada, hooked on Cher after, of all things, seeing the dread-haired diva's appearance on Dancing with the Stars.

Cher Scholar is quoted heavily in the article, talking out of her ass no doubt. I hope I didn't say anything too embarassing although I am now questioning my comments on the prices of collectibles.In my head I was thinking about what I paid for both the Dark Lady and Half Breed posters when they appeared on eBay and how cheap you could get them a few years later.

I did almost faint after getting the Sonny & Cher Theater in the Round toy for my 8th birthday, although I didn't mention that to Mr. Sanderson in the interview. He picked it right off cherscholar.com: http://www.cherscholar.com/toys.htm. No matter how scholarly you try to appear, you can't hide the crazy collector within.

Welcome, Alison, to this motley tribe of fanatics. I hope you have a sturdy inheritance through which to burn for Cher doll outfits.

 


3614 Jackson Highway - Kim Carnes Style

KimcarnesCher scholar Dishy sent me this screen grab of the backside of the 1976 Kim Carnes Sailin. Look familiar? This photo of the famed Muscle Shoals, Alabama, recording studio gives Cher's 1969 album shot of the same location some perspective...especially the blue sky, the patchy grass and those cars parked to the side.

See Cher's Rhino CD version below.

For some reason Kim's album didn't make the Wikipedia listing of important recordings there, although Bob Seger's biggies of 1976 do make the list, "Katmandu," "Night Moves" and "Mainstreet": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_Shoals_Sound_Studio

When Dishy sent me this photo, I remembered how much I loved the Kim Carnes song (with John Waite backup) from her 1983 album Cafe Racers, "Hangin On By a Thread." So heartbreakingly 80s.

3614-jackson-highway