I'll Be Out Until Next Wednesday...

I'm faking an illness to go AWOL for a couple days. One of those days I'm heading to the Happiest (& Most Expensive) Place on Earth: Disneyland! Maybe I'll come back with some Sweepea-TV of the experience.

Have a good weekend!

Mee-Yow Thursday

Joan Crawford on Marilyn Monroe:
"Look, there's nothing wrong with my t**s,
but I don't go around throwing them in people's faces!"

For Sale: Steve McQueen's Coolmobile

The Daily Mirror writes:
Steve McQueen's Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso - bought in 1963 and raced by him for a decade - is set to sell for £600,000 at Christie's in California.

The firm's head of car sales said: "He was an essential component of 60s cool. This is a seductive car."

Disneyland? We're not Disneyland...

And that's not Mickey. It's just a cat with big ears.(Shijingshan Amusement Park is a Chinese amusement park of the government management in Beijing.)

Why I Hate McDonald's

This could be the creepiest McDonald's commercial ever. Even creepier when you realize that Willard Scott is playing Ronald McDonald.

Please to Enjoy...

From Me...to You, the reader:
Apparently someone was "amused" by my writings of my experience on Hell's Kitchen (a post I did way back in January). I usually don't respond to comments I get, but when it came to being called a flat-out liar, I felt the need.

Simply because I got the address wrong, she believes I made the whole thing up; all three posts, detailing my experiences down to the last detail of being a diner on "Hell's Kitchen". I was even able to magically predict when my episode would be on. Wow...I have to say, if I had made all this up, I'd be one helluva liar!

First of all, I appreciate her readership. I have to say that ruffling feathers has always been a talent of mine, and I think I exceeded my gift enormously by having her take the effort out of her no doubt excruciatingly busy schedule to vent about little old me. I'm so flattered that I could stir such emotion in someone, someone I don't even know and who doesn't even know me! How exhilarating.

Second of all, I didn't drive to the show (Dyno did, and he got the directions), so I apologize if I got the address wrong as well as the name of JP. She's probably correct -- it's on Sawtelle or wherever she thinks it is, and his name is whatever else she thinks it is. I have to commend her extensive knowledge of this one modest reality show.

Third, I feel sorry for her that she's so jaded about society. "Some of the lies people tell just to get attention are beyond amazing." I can only believe that she has been hurt countless times by people throughout her life who are pleased and seek praise from her. Apparently when seeking appreciation from this woman, it shall never be found.

Lastly, I can conclude that when living in L.A. -- which I have done my whole life -- you get the rare opportunity to see many celebrities (as shown in my Star Sightings) and often get the chance to be extras or subjects of television shows. I have never purported to saying that I myself am a star or a celebrity. On the contrary, I still get starstruck when I see Richard Grieco at Starbucks every morning.

But I've always thought of the Lounge as a place where I can vent my feelings, post interesting tidbits, and express what's going on in my life. Just as this woman has done, I've used my rights of free speech to blog my life, just as I will continue to do.

Thanks for your readership.

Everybody's Got a Laughing Place

From the classic Disney movie Song of the South. The use of live characters mingling with animation was revolutionary. Unfortunately not many people get to see this artistic triumph, set in the post-Civil War era.

Scenes from a Balcony: Scene 4

Today's drama should be called "Out on the Street" because it didn't take place on my balcony, but it's still indicative of my wonderful neighborhood I'm slumming in.

Dyno and I decided to take a nice evening walk down the street on Saturday after dinner. We circled around the block and were making our way down Sepulveda when we got to the crosswalk at the intersection. A woman wearing a party dress was standing next to us, and we waited for the light to change.

It was taking forever. Dyno and I looked at each other, both thinking, "Did she press the button to cross?" But neither of us could answer. Finally, Dyno pressed the button.

Just as the light changed allowing us to cross, I heard a honking noise and a man pulled up next to the curb. The woman leaned in to the passenger window and then got in the car.

As Dyno and I crossed the street I -- for a split-second -- still believed she was just waiting for her ride. But then it hit me what had happened. I looked up at Dyno to see him laughing. At the same time we started talking: "I can't believe I just saw that in my neighborhood!" "That was hilarious!" "I've never seen that in real life before!" "That was awesome!"

But there's more. I was still staring at them across the street because the john hadn't driven off yet. Just then we were passing a second woman, and this time I could recognize what she was doing there. Sure enough, the man across the street whistled, and the second woman ran across the street towards him.

Ahh...the lovely sights and sounds of my community.

5 Months and 2 Days Til Christmas

*hint hint*

Friday's This & That

Ahoy, matey! I spy news ahead! Try not to be distracted by my latest pin-up pic and read what's going on in the world today:

Rarely seen home movies from the personal collections of Hollywood legends like Alfred Hitchcock and Steve McQueen are to air as part of a one-night film festival in Hollywood. Both Hitchcock and Stevie would be fun to see behind the scenes!

In Disney World, a woman kicked, choked, and generally beat down another visitor who got to go on the "Mad Tea Party" ride ahead of her. I know how frustrating it can be to stand in line for a Disney ride, but give me a break. Both women had their kids standing there to witness the attack.

Speaking of Disney, fresh from the debacle over the The Princess and the Frog offending African-Americans, it looks like they're gonna try for the Mexican culture now. According to ContactMusic.com:

Bosses at family movie studio Disney have gone Latino for a new animated feature called South of the Border. Drew Barrymore will voice a pampered American-bred Chihuahua, who gets lost in Mexico and seeks the help of local hounds to find her way back. The movie features the vocal talents of Latino stars like Salma Hayek, Andy Garcia, George Lopez, and Spanish opera great Placido Domingo.

Oh well. Let's just surrender to the joy of bubbles.

Mee-Yow Thursday

Orson Welles was quoted as calling Audrey Hepburn
"The Patron Saint of Anorexics." Funny, as how he is widely known (pun intended) as
being overweight for most of his career.

What a grouch.

I Want One

The kitten, not the corn. Alright, I'll take the corn, too, what the hell.

Set Your Moxies for Esther Williams!

This Friday, TCM -- the greatest channel of all time -- is having a mega-plex of our favorite bathing beauty Esther Williams!

(all times are PST)

9:30 AM Thrill of a Romance - one of my favorites with Van Johnson

11:30 AM Easy to Wed - also with Van Johnson, and Lucille Ball

1:30 PM Neptune's Daughter - with Ricardo Montalban

3:15 PM Dangerous When Wet - with a cameo by Tom & Jerry!

5:00 PM On An Island With You - with *hubba hubba* Peter Lawford

Enjoy!

Tuesday's This & That

a.k.a. WTF is going on in the news?

So next season's The Apprentice will be a celebrity edition. Sorry, but I call "no way." If all the proceeds are going to charity, and the winner isn't even going to be Trump's assistant, then why not name the show something else? I mean, the whole point is to see real people being made in to Trump prodigies.

Ever wondered what a day in the life of your cat is? Well just do what this person did: attach a camera around your cat's neck. [Cute Overload]

Why is hand-washing so important? Because it just is, that's why. And if you don't know that yet, then you're a freak. [Thanks to A Job in Hell for the inspiration...so gross!]

Disney wants to expand yet again to a third theme park in Anaheim, but the city don't want none a'dat.

Speaking o' Disney...to promote the new Pixar movie Wall-E, they put up a fake company website called Buy N Large, the company that makes the title robot. Not much to it yet, but it's worth keeping an eye on.

Happy 100th Birthday, Barbara Stanwyck!

"I'm a tough old broad from Brooklyn. I intend to go on acting until I'm ninety and they won't need to paste my face with make-up."

"Eyes are the greatest tool in film. Mr. Capra taught me that. Sure, it's nice to say very good dialogue, if you can get it. But great movie acting - watch the eyes!"

"Put me in the last fifteen minutes of a picture and I don't care what happened before. I don't even care if I was in the rest of the damned thing - I'll take it in those fifteen minutes."

"My only problem is finding a way to play my fortieth fallen female in a different way from my thirty-ninth."

"It's perhaps not the future I would choose. I still think it's possible to make a success of both marriage and career, even though I didn't. But it's not a bad future. And I'm not afraid of it."

"Egotism - usually just a case of mistaken nonentity."

[imdb]

'The Blob' Celebrates its 50th Anniversary

Chester County, the city in which the Steve McQueen horror flick The Blob was filmed, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the film's shooting in Chester County. The Philadelphia Inquirer has the story:

In Chester County in the summer of 1957, Steve McQueen was insufferable. "He was an absolute horror," producer Jack Harris said yesterday, "but I loved everything he did for us." That was the summer that Harris gave the 27-year-old McQueen his first starring role, in the sci-fi classic The Blob.

For the 50th anniversary of the film's shooting in Chester County, the producer - a 1936 graduate of Central High in Philadelphia and now 88 - returned from Beverly Hills, Calif., for the first time since that horrible summer. For more than nostalgia.

In Phoenixville, the river town an hour's drive from Center City, it was the eighth annual Blobfest, a celebration of the movie and the legends. The two-day event, which ended yesterday, is produced by the Colonial Theatre, the movie house where, in the film, the Blob begins its fiendish escapade of death and destruction.

Haven't seen the film? The Blob is an alien life-form deposited in Chester County by a meteorite. It grows larger and redder as it devours all in its path. Sort of like a repo crew towing away cars whose payments are so late. What stops the unkillable glob is a bunch of folks wielding fire extinguishers, the foam from which freezes the beast so that it can be transported to colder climes.

No Academy Award. No Pulitzer. No Nobel. "Just fun," said June Breit, 56, a registered nurse from nearby Audubon who had encased herself in red iridescent fabric to resemble - you got it! - the Blob. "Can't beat fun in your backyard," Breit said. That's why she - a crowd favorite in the costume competition - was suffering in the harsh glare of noonday sun, in the blocked-off street in front of the movie house.

On Friday night, more than 1,000 folks had entered the theater. And then, screaming like the film extras who were trying to escape from the Blob as it snacked on tasty theatergoers, they stampeded onto Bridge Street.

Yesterday, The Blob - slow, our racing hearts - was shown three times. Mary Foote, 48, executive director of the private nonprofit agency that reopened the 1903 movie house in 1999, said she had started Blobfest "as a way of promoting the Colonial." A Manhattan newspaper item about Blobfest had attracted Julie Stine, 45, her husband and their infant. "I don't generally venture this far west," Stine said of the two-hour drive from their home in Hunterdon County. Looking around at the costumed folks threading through the street party, she said, "I like the quirkiness."

In an interview at a restaurant across from the Colonial before he was to speak at a panel discussion, Harris said this, the first film on which he was the producer, cost only $130,000. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that's equivalent to $962,041 today - a definition of low-budget film. It has earned - cue the applause sign - $4 million.

So what was the problem with McQueen? "At breaks in the shooting," Harris said, "he would take his little MG and go over those [tight] roads in Valley Forge . . . and scare the hell out of everybody...He acted like the cantankerous star he became 10 years later. He acted like he had already arrived." Harris had a three-film deal with McQueen but canceled the other two. With a bit of understatement about the star of Bullitt and The Thomas Crown Affair, he said, "I was never happy about that."

Mee-Yow Thursday

Rod Steiger vs. Marlon Brando
As part of his contract in On the Waterfront (1954), Brando only worked till 4:00 every day and then he would leave to go see his analyst. His mother had just died and he was having trouble dealing with it.
During the famous "Brother Charlie" in the back of the cab, Brando left the set early, leaving Steiger to deliver his lines to an empty wall. Steiger carried a grudge about this until 1997, when the two finally made peace.

Ever Heard the Wilhelm Scream?

Chances are, you have -- at least 100 times...

Maybe I do want an iPhone...

Sweepea-TV: Couchgasm?

I spotted this driving home yesterday. I've been excited about furniture before...But never THIS excited.

Tis the Season for Ratatouille

I saw Ratatouille over the weekend. And, of course, loved it. Once I got past the idea of a rat cooking my meal, I was eager to attempt making ratatouille myself. According to courant.com, the Disney/Pixar film is the perfect movie for this time of year. "Not because it's a family-pleasing movie in summer. [But] because it's eggplant season. And tomato season. And zucchini/bell pepper/onion and garlic season."

Here's the recipe they provide; it serves 8 people.

# 1/2 pound eggplant
# 1/2 pound zucchini
# 1 teaspoon salt, plus more to taste
# 6 to 7 tablespoons olive oil, divided
# 1/2 pound yellow onions, thinly sliced
# 1 to 2 green bell peppers, seeded and sliced
# 2 cloves garlic, minced
# Freshly ground pepper
# 2 large, firm ripe tomatoes
# 3 tablespoons minced flat leaf parsley

Peel the eggplant, cut off the stem and cut lengthwise into 3-by-1-by-3/8-inch slices. Trim off zucchini ends. Cut into slices about the same size as the eggplant. Place vegetable slices in a large non-aluminum bowl (glass or plastic are fine). Toss with 1 teaspoon salt; let stand 30 minutes. Drain and pat slices dry on paper towels.

Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook eggplant and zucchini slices in batches until lightly browned, about 1 minute per side, adding more olive oil as needed. Set vegetables aside.

Cook onions and bell peppers in the same skillet in 2 to 3 tablespoons oil until tender but not browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in garlic and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Peel tomatoes while the onions and pepper cook by dipping in boiling water, then in ice water to loosen the skins. Cut out tomato stems, cut tomatoes in half and squeeze out the seeds and excess juice. Slice tomato pulp into 3/8-inch strips. Lay tomato strips over the onion and peppers in the skillet. Season with salt and pepper.

Cover skillet; cook over medium-low heat until tomatoes begin to render juice, about 5 minutes. Uncover and baste tomatoes with cooking juices. Increase heat; boil until juice has almost evaporated, about 2 minutes.

Place 1/3 of the tomato/onion mixture in a heavy Dutch oven or heavy casserole. Sprinkle with 1tablespoon of parsley. Arrange half of the eggplant and zucchini on top. Top with the half of the remaining tomato mixture and parsley. Top with the remaining eggplant and zucchini slices. Add the remaining tomato mixture and parsley.

Cover and simmer over low heat for 10 minutes. Uncover, tip casserole and baste with rendered juices. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Raise heat slightly. Cook, uncovered, until juices have evaporated, about 15 minutes. Serve hot, at room temperature or cold.

Bon Apetit!

Create a Simpsons Avatar

Become a part of Springfield and celebrate the release of The Simpsons Movie by creating your own avatar that looks (sort of) like you. Just wait for the page to load up and then move your mouse to the top.

The outfits are limiting, but otherwise it's a fun time.

Disney's "Enchanted"

This looks good...

Pitt to Play Bullitt

According to internet reports, Brad Pitt will play the iconic role, immortalized by Steve McQueen, in a remake of the 60's movie.

Why anyone would want to remake this movie is beyond me. Are they going to do it shot-by-shot like in Psycho -- which is pointless? Or are they gonna mock the time period like Starsky & Hutch -- which is stupid? At any rate, it won't be the same without the King of Cool...and this car chase can't be duplicated, nor should it be.
And lastly...can't anyone think of any ORIGINAL ideas for movies?

4th of July Holiday Recap

Well it feels like it's been a whole weekend, but nope, I'm back here at work for two more blissful days. But at least I had fun on my day off.

It started Tuesday night. Dyno and I triple-dated at Firefly in Studio City. Right when Dyno and I walked in I spotted Tiffani Thiessen (not with her husband), at the bar. She was talking to two younger guys, and I heard her say, "I should take you guys there. Totally my treat; we have to go." She finally got a table and left the bar with them.

Dyno and I sat down and I heard a familiar voice behind me. It sounded like Jerry Seinfeld's mother. Sure enough, when I turned around there was Liz Sheridan, having drinks with a woman friend.

If you've never been there, the atmosphere at Firefly is awesome. It's got a lounge feel at the bar and sitting area, and then the dining room is like an open patio. The drinks and appetizers were good, but my dinner was a little dry (the roasted hen). But overall it was a good time and with the weather being so warm, it was nice to enjoy the outdoors for dinner.

Wednesday, Dyno and I hung around my apartment. We barbecued and watched some movies, basically trying to avoid the heat. He also taught me how to play gin rummy and I whooped his @ss 4 out of 5 games.

Hopefully you all had a happy and safe holiday!

Girls' Night Out!

Who doesn't love free cocktails with the girls? If you're in the L.A. area, check this out!

FREE Mini Massages
FREE Beauty Makeovers
FREE Product Samples
FREE Appetizers
FREE Cocktails!
FREE SCREENING of the movie HAIRSPRAY!

Sponsored by Health Magazine

Here's the details:
Wednesday July 18th at 6:30pm
The Arclight, Hollywood

Go to the Health Magazine microsite to register!