{"id":93519,"date":"2025-02-02T22:51:26","date_gmt":"2025-02-03T06:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/?p=93519"},"modified":"2025-02-02T22:51:26","modified_gmt":"2025-02-03T06:51:26","slug":"collins-is-wallis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/blog\/2025\/02\/02\/collins-is-wallis\/","title":{"rendered":"Collins is Wallis"},"content":{"rendered":"

With the Super Bowl <\/em><\/strong>around the corner, we\u2019re looking forward to some of the ads that will run.  Billy Crystal <\/strong>and Meg Ryan <\/strong>revisit the infamous deli from When Harry Met Sally<\/em><\/strong> for Hellmann\u2019s<\/em>.  Not being a mayo aficionado, I didn\u2019t get too excited about that.  Still, there is magic seeing Crystal sitting across from a virtually unrecognizable Ryan.  Speaking of unrecognizable, the aforementioned Cher hawks Uber Eats <\/em>straddling a cannon.  She gets ahold of a time machine and tries to go back to the \u201880s \u2013 the 1680s.  Eh, at least it\u2019s a year she remembers!  When villagers remark, \u201cShe\u2019s both young and old at the same time,\u201d you realize she\u2019s in on the joke.  When they call her a witch, she corrects them.  \u201cI\u2019m an icon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking of icons, we come to my favorite story of the week.  Have you heard about Joan Collins<\/strong>\u2019 latest comeback?  Talk about going back in time.  The 91-year-old legend has signed on to make a big-screen biopic about Wallis Simpson<\/strong>!  The Bitter End<\/em><\/strong> recounts Mrs. Simpson\u2019s years after the death of the Duke.  What nobody seems to know is that Collins manifested this project 40 years ago.  Back in the October 1, 1985 issue of Life<\/em> magazine (remember Life<\/em>?), Collins was featured in a pictorial as famous women in history.  Queen Elizabeth I<\/strong>, Catherine the Great<\/strong>, Cleopatra<\/strong>, Marilyn Monroe<\/strong>, Eve <\/strong>(as in Adam <\/strong>and…) and even the Duchess of Windsor<\/em>.  She also dressed as Josephine Baker <\/strong>\u2013 which is problematic for other reasons.  She\u2019ll once again don Wallis drag.  \u201cIt\u2019s a very good script, and it\u2019s a great part for me.  I\u2019ve always been fascinated by Wallis, because I think she was unfairly treated,\u201d says Collins.  Simpson was previously portrayed on screen by Faye Dunaway <\/strong>in The Woman I Love<\/em><\/strong>, Joely Richardson <\/strong>in Wallis & Edward<\/em><\/strong>, Eve Best <\/strong>in The King\u2019s Speech<\/em><\/strong> and Lia Williams <\/strong>in The <\/em><\/strong>Crown<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pee-wee Herman <\/strong>(aka Paul Reubens<\/strong>) basically took over the airwaves in the \u201880s.  The \u201890s were mostly mired in a sticky sort of scandal.  Reubens successfully revived the character in Pee-wee\u2019s Big <\/em><\/strong>Holiday<\/em><\/strong> in 2016.  Two years after his death, a documentary has debuted at the Sundance Film Festival<\/em>.  Pee-wee as Himself<\/em><\/strong> was not only well received, but managed to make news.  At long last, Reubens came out as gay \u2013 in his own words.  \u201cI was out of the closet, and then, I went back in the closet.  I wasn\u2019t pursuing the Paul Reubens career; I was pursuing the Pee-wee Herman career\u201d.  He also says, \u201cI was secretive about my sexuality even to my friends [out of] self-hatred or self-preservation.  I was conflicted about sexuality.  But fame was way more complicated.\u201d  Sounds like a great doc.<\/p>\n

\"colorbar1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Every once in a while, people ask me about that film version of Sondheim<\/strong>\u2019s Merrily We Roll Along<\/em><\/strong>.  It\u2019s being directed by Richard Linklater<\/strong>, and he\u2019s got a long-term plan.  Given that the musical takes place over 20 years (in reverse chronological order), he wants to film it over a similar time period \u2013 except being shot in chronological order (similar to how he shot Boyhood<\/em><\/strong> over 12 years).  Linklater started shooting in 2019 with Ben Platt<\/strong>, Beanie Feldstein<\/strong>, and Blake Jenner<\/strong>.  However, shortly after filming the rooftop \u201cOur Time\u201d sequence, Jenner left the project.  He was replaced by Paul Mescal<\/strong>.  Problem is \u2013 all three actors are already significantly older than their characters were.  And, here\u2019s another rub \u2013 who in God\u2019s name is going to care about any of these people in 20 years?  I barely care about them now!  And, at least in terms of Beanie and Ben \u2013 haven\u2019t we all suffered enough?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With the Super Bowl around the corner, we\u2019re looking forward to some of the ads that will run.  Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan revisit the infamous deli from When Harry Met Sally for Hellmann\u2019s.  Not being a mayo aficionado, I didn\u2019t get too excited about that.  Still, there is magic seeing Crystal sitting across from<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93519"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93519"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93519\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":93520,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93519\/revisions\/93520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.billymasters.com\/custom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}