03/11/2010 5:00 am
Culture
Liz Smith: Next Year's Oscar Host – George Clooney?!
Also from Our Gossip Girl, Adam Lambert's wOw factor! … Frank Sinatra, 'Idol'-ized … Liz Smith moderates on April 15.
George Clooney © PR Photos
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THOSE WHO tuned in to the Oscar telecast on Sunday night were mostly bored. But moments of interest popped up now and then. A few of those were supplied by George Clooney, a consummate actor with a good sense of humor.
Viewers were treated to audience reaction shots of what appeared to be a visibly annoyed Gorgeous George. He was being poked fun at by hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. At other times, when the jokes were on other celebrities, Clooney seemed equally peeved.
I wonder. It looked to me like George was suffering from jet lag. If you’re beat, nothing’s funny. (George did have a flask tucked in his tux, which he showed on TV. That should have soothed him!) Pals of the actor himself insist his grumpy face was all "an act" – just part of the joke.
Still, Clooney was reportedly "nonplussed" by the Oscar telecast in general and feels that … he could do it better! Yep, we hear that the star expressed some interest in hosting the show next year. Solo.
I’m sure this is going to be shot down instantly by Clooney’s dogged press rep Stan Rosenfield. (Stan has probably already put out a release that the flask was empty or filled with mineral water.)
But I like the idea of Mr. Clooney as host. He is Hollywood’s stalwart lead actor and good industry representative. Maybe we need to get back to one suave, amusing host who just … hosts. "And here is … and now we have … my pleasure to introduce."
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"IS ADAM of this earth? Must be from another planet in a constellation far, far away – Vulpecula – the Fox. The male fox – the vix!"
That is what a woman named Kath Hollingsworth (known online as Xena) is writing about Adam Lambert, the flamboyant "American Idol" contestant who loves to push buttons.
Remember the "American Music Awards" controversy – Adam bumping, grinding, kissing guys, groping girls? (Just last week he was performing in Australia, decked out in some sort of kinky gothic getup, complete with an enormous spiked codpiece.)
Ms. Hollingsworth and her friend June Kinoshita (Juneau is her cyber-name) became "Glamberts" after Allegra Huston’s essay "What Is It about Adam Lambert?" appeared on the wowOwow website last June.
That post created a firestorm of comment and cyber-interaction. Two of the most prolific bloggers – Hollingsworth and Kinoshita – have now compiled hundreds of their own and others’ postings and put them into book form. It is titled On the Meaning of Adam Lambert.
Adam is famously out and proudly gay, yet most of the besotted bloggers are women. There are a few guys in the mix, but something about Mr. Lambert seems to strike a hot chord in the bosoms of many a lady. He’s a mix of Elvis and Liberace. With some wannabe Madonna thrown in.
Neither Hollingsworth or Kinoshita are young screamers. They are highly lettered, professional, happily married wives and mothers, who "never saw it coming!" "It" being Mr. Lambert and his cobalt-blue eyes and impressive voice.
The book is page after page of wild and sexy musings on Adam – it gets downright Dionysian at times. And, as anybody who has ever visited a website knows, the conversations can swerve into more personal areas and revelations, even when discussing something as seemingly innocuous and (to some) as silly as a pop star who wears a lot of eyeliner.
This is proof positive that you never know what’s going to happen in this new world of websites – you start out offering an opinion, you end up with a book! Hollingsworth and Kinoshita give full credit to the wOw site for having launched their new lives as published authors! On the Meaning of Adam Lambert is available on order from Amazon.
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Liz, I wish I lived closer … I’d love to see that on April 15th. It sounds very interesting. For those of us that can not join you, I hope you’ll bring us the highlights.
George Clooney … absolutely! I’d be willing to bet he’d could keep me awake ….. er, during the awards show, that is. LOL
Adam Lambert … thanks for the heads up on that, Liz. I definitely want to read it. I was extremely irritated when he didn’t win American Idol. It’s clear he was so much better than the winner. He could hit any note, high or low. And he could sing any type song. He didn’t win because too many people don’t vote on the talent, but rather their prejudices. And I think that’s just sad.
Sorry, folks. It appears I’m living in typo-land lately. I promise to try and remember to use my spell-check from now on - and to preview before submitting. :)
Liz, this is a wonderful article on Adam Lambert, who I love so unabashedly, it’s not funny! I, along with all the other Glambertinae on the blog, owe a great deal of appreciation to you, Allegra Huston & Wowowow for allowing us to voice our opinions & insights on all things Adam, plus many other varied & interrelated subjects as well; we all never dreamed that we would be where we are on the thread at over 20,000+ comments; thank you all so much for allowing us to visit here for as long as you have.
I have had the pleasure of meeting and befriending Kath Hollingsworth and June Kinoshita at Adam Lambert’s concert in NYC at The Highland Ballroom which a good portion of the Glambertinae attended. Both Ms. Hollingsworth & Ms. Kinoshita are extremely outgoing, wonderful & intelligent women who have been an inspiration to me and all the other cohorts on the thread. Their opinions on Adam, and other issues besetting all of us middle - aged women are insightful, humorous, and touching - both of them are truly exceptional women and I am grateful to have had the chance of getting acquainted with them and to be able to call them new friends. I look forward to another 20,000 comments about the uber - talented superstar named Adam Lambert and to many more inspirationl thoughts from two remarkable women.
I’m heading for "Juneau’s" and "Xena’s" wordpress blog. I too am married only he’s considerably changed since 1983, the yr. we got married. Talk, very dark, curl hair and relatively trim. To him, I’m sexy, to me, he’s sexy only sometimes…..dressed.
When I see and hear Adam, I see someone with incredibly charm, extremely talented, unblieavably sexy and charm. He oozes charisma and if he were straight, I know he’d know how to be seductive with a woman. When I see him online or on t.v. I find his presence…..overwhelming. Toned abs and thighs and I see that shiny belt buckle and I could listen to him for hours, if I could sit that long. I’ve seen the online rehearsal of him singing "Mad, Mad World" and…"Whattaya Want for Me." For me, he psychologically fulfills a fantasy. I’ve never seen his "cobalt blue" eyes up close but I find him overwhelming on a psychological level and I have a huge crush on him, gay or not. I don’t care. I love, no…I adore the man for who he is. He is one of the most mature 27/28 year old men I’ve ever seen….on t.v. in his capacity as a singer with a theatrical background. I’ve seen him sans eye makeupand with and either way, I don’t care. He’s a man after my own ‘heart’.
Am I the only one who finds something wrong with this? Not the book itself; I could care less about the subject matter. I am talking about the fact that a group of people (wowowow) post on a subject, and a few of those people lift those postings and "write" (rather, compile) a book? I know that, legally, we lose rights to our words once deposited on a website—but if this is an indication of things to come, it is skewed, to say the least. It reeks of electronic-age plagarism.
Thanks for raising this question. To allay your concerns, Ms. Hollinsworth and I primarily used our own posts on wowowow in our book, and requested and received permission in writing from the few other wowowow members whose posts we wanted to use. We and wowOwow are both extremely respectful of intellectual property rights. As writers, we share your concern about electronic-age plagiarism.
What was wonderful about this experience is that the social community in which we unexpectedly found ourselves turned out to be an inspirational and supportive environment in which to experiment with our writing. There’s nothing like getting instant feedback from readers. We hope other writers make similar use of this web community.
Adam doesn’t court controversy. He’s just expressing himself as an artist and entertainer; it’s the media that stirs things up. He has no need to; his musicianship speaks for itself. Check out these VH1 unplugged sessions:
http://mjsbigblog.com/adam-lambert-vh1-unplugged-performances-video.htm
Dear JuneauUnderwood…respectfully, in "expressing himself as an artist and entertainer" Adam does court controversey. Many artists do. Let’s not jump on the media. The media doesn’t dress Adam, doesn’t paint his face, doesn’t put words in his mouth, doesn’t hypnotize him into kissing/fondling his bandmates onstage. Just as the media doesn’t force Madonna to continue those tired pelvis-centered gymnastics she calls dancing, or force her hand into her crotch. She does that all on her misguided own.
Adam sings just fine. He probably doesn’t need the extravagant trappings. But, he likes the glamour and he enjoys pushing buttons. The media is many things—and does enjoy stirring the pot— but it cannot, in general, hold a steady hand while applying liquid liner. Well, Mr. Wow can, but…that’s another story.
Mr. Wow,
A steady hand-do tell! Do you have some eyeliner abuse of your own in your lurid past?
I think you get Adam just fine. He does love the glamour, and he isn’t interested in being careful. That’s one of the things his fans love about him.
I have never watched someone’s rise to stardom this closely before, and it’s intoxicating. Our group of ladies couldn’t have possibly picked a more entertaining subject.
Dear Mr Wow, Adam courts controversy in the same way David Bowie or Prince or any other number of Rock ‘n Roll artists have done. He is the newest member of a long list. And like the best of them his talent rises above the controversy. You call them " extravagant trappings", his fans call them Adam being Adam. The most exciting entertainer since Elvis, Freddie Mercury …or Peter Allen
You, and any woman out there, can take a lesson form him in applying liner perfectly, but…. that’s another story.
To the topic at hand, the wOw inspired book, it’s the most fun I’ve had since I was a teenager pining over Paul McCartney. Smart, witty, outrageous, very tongue-in-cheek, campy, and as you would expect from a woman’s website caring and supportive. The authors, who had never met and were from different countries, light a creative fire in each other and the rest of us came along for the hilarious ride. Much too good to leave in cyberspace.