Christmas in L.A.

Joan Collins

20 December 2008

Joan Collins enjoys a Christmas in L.A.

Christmas always comes early to Los Angeles. In fact, the slightly tacky decorations hit the lamp-posts even before Thanksgiving. But the really good thing about this time of year in this part of the world is the abundance of new movies being released. They proliferate both in the cinemas, in private screening rooms and in the ‘screeners’, the DVDs that the various studios send to members of the Academy hoping they will vote for them at Oscar time.

I’m lucky enough to be one of the 5,000 acting members so I try to see as many of the movies as possible. Happily this year there are some excellent ones and a few great performances. Angelina Jolie in Changeling, James Brolin in W. and Javier Bardem in Che. But the performance that blew me away is Sean Penn in Milk. As the eponymous hero, the actor lost what appears to be about 30 pounds and miraculously transformed himself into the controversial gay activist who was murdered in 1978. This performance is so perfect it should be a master-class in acting, and if he doesn’t win the Oscar I shall eat one of my many hats!

Do you know who Anastasia Hille, Karel Roden, Lukas Haas, James Le Gras, Melissa Sagemiller and Dede Pfeiffer are? Neither do I, but they are all above the titles of several premium HBO and cinema channel movies that these networks just aired on a winter Sunday afternoon. Boring movies? You bet — and so are the actors. Why can’t the networks air some movies starring giants like Bette Davis, Ingrid Bergman, Cary Grant, Gary Cooper, Spencer Tracy or Katherine Hepburn? There are so many fabulous stars from past decades that people still love. And most films between 1935 and 1960 were extremely entertaining, much more so than the schlock that goes straight to video or is ‘made-for-TV filler’. Unless the younger generations are exposed to these stars and movies they will soon fade into memory and oblivion. Imagine a world that didn’t know of Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Jack Lemmon or Marilyn Monroe. I have actually met several people under 40 who’ve never even seen Gone With The Wind, Casablanca or Some Like It Hot and it’s hard to find many of these classics on DVD now in the stores.

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ann

December 16th, 2008 4:25pm Report this comment

Dear Joan,
Hollywood's golden years are alive and well. Just writing to tell you that the Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center and Theater will be opening this summer (2009) in Hepburn's beloved seaside town of Old Saybrook, Connecticut. USA The theater is right down the way from the former Hepburn home in the borough of Fenwick.
The building in which it will be housed, was built in 1910 and is already on the National Register of Historic Places. We call it "the little gem of a place with a movie star name"
Go to our website for all things Hepburn and construction updates.
www.katharinehepburntheater.org
As a member of the board of trustees I'd love to tell you more.
Contact:
ann.nyberg@gmail.com

janis anderson

December 17th, 2008 5:38am Report this comment

Sweetie,
I really like what you have to say. Keep up the good work. At the risk of being petty and pedantic, was Javier Bardem im Che?

JohnAnt

December 18th, 2008 10:07pm Report this comment

Hmm, yes indeed, why don't they show the Hollywood greats except infrequently and in small doses? And the same goes for the French and Italian and British old-time greats.
I think it's the advertisers not daring to brave what Wilde described as the rage of Caliban (in this case Mr/Ms NormalConsumer) not, for once, seeing their own faces in the glass.

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