1995 was twenty years ago and yet to me it seems like yesterday. In the past twenty years we have undergone not only a technological revolution, but a revolution in attitudes as well. Whether it’s the general acceptance of gay marriage or unwed motherhood (hard to believe this was a huge and controversial storyline in the television show, Murphy Brown, back in the nineties) many of society’s attitudes and acceptance of social policies have evolved.

As with any evolution, however, there are bound to be negatives. Texting has taken the place of speaking as a means of communicating, the Internet has allowed for bullying while retaining anonymity, and what passes for humor today is often more vulgar than witty.

I realize that the recently released film, Trainwreck was a huge success and that I am probably among the minority of people who didn’t enjoy it; therefore, my opinions here are highly subjective (but then that’s the whole point of a blog isn’t it?) Rather than point out what I didn’t like about the film itself, I thought it would be interesting to contrast and compare the female protagonist of Trainwreck, with the female protagonist of the 2001 film, Bridget Jones’s Diary.

Let’s begin with the similarities. Both Amy (Amy Schumer) and Bridget (Renee Zellweger) work in the field of communication (of course Amy works for a men’s magazine with the offensive name S’nuff while Bridget works for a book publishing company.) They are both young, attractive blondes, although neither one conforms to the super thin body type of most film heroines (a plus for both of them.)

They are each comfortable with their sexuality and yet here is one of the major differences in how they go about enjoying that sexuality. While Bridget would like to have a boyfriend and be involved in “an adult relationship” Amy, because of daddy issues that go back to her childhood, prefers playing it loose and free, and she prefers one-night stands.

Amy smokes too much, and drinks too much, and puts down her sister for living a more conventional life. Her foul language, behavior, and general outlook make her a less than appealing character to most of the men she becomes involved with as well as to the audience. Her transformation into a more likable figure emerges in the last ten minutes of the film but by that time who cares?

Bridget Jones also drinks too much, and smokes too much, and sometimes puts her foot in her mouth. But here’s the difference (and it’s a significant difference.) Bridget is likable. She’s vulnerable. She cares about the feelings of others, often to her own detriment. We root for her.

Amy comes off as selfish and tends to treat men in the off-handed, casual way in which men are frequently depicted as treating women. Some might argue that she is stronger than Bridget because she doesn’t take B.S. from anyone and treats men as callously as many men treat women. But these are the men we generally think of as jerks aren’t they?

Bottom line is I’d much rather spend an evening in the company of Bridget than in the company of Amy. But maybe that’s just me.

Sex appeal is an extremely subjective matter.  What makes a woman
sexy?  In Japan it may be a small foot.  In India, the perfect belly.

A dazzling smile. A great pair of legs. Seductive eyes. Thick, lustrous
hair. A sultry voice.

To many American men it’s as simple as a great rack.

Tastes have changed over the years, to be sure.  In the early part of
the twentieth century, women were shorter and rounder and, in fact, the “ideal”
figure was that of an hourglass. The “flapper” ushered in a nearly
non-existent  bosom which blossomed again during the depression, a time
when appearing gaunt was possibly considered less than fashionable.

During WWII, woman may have been patriotic enough to give up their hose, but
not enough to forfeit the sensual appeal of a seamed stocking. With a ruler,
eyebrow pencil, and some ingenuity, they managed to suggest the illusion of a
seam. (After all, isn’t sex appeal often only about illusion)?

In the fifties there were a sufficient number of “blonde bombshells” to
combat the “June Cleaver” type but it was the sixties that left an indelible
mark. Model Twiggy’s “little boy” look had a major effect upon how women would
view their sexual appeal for years to come. For the first time, they did not
desire the sophisticated look of French knots and ample cleavage. Instead, they
aspired to look young and “waifish” even if it took anorexia and/or bulimia to
achieve those goals. There’s a scene on the beach in the movie, Gidget where
Gidget’s well endowed friends scoff at Gidget’s petite, boyish figure. Nowadays
it’s likely that Gidget would be laughing at her friends, viewing them as
“fat”.

I’ve compiled a list of  20 actresses who might be considered to be the
sexiest for the times in which they lived. (I say “might” because, as
mentioned, tastes are subjective).

These women stand out for having maintained their sexuality, either by
creating their own styles or by bucking the trends of the times.

I intentionally omitted beauties such as: Carole Lombard, Claudette Colbert,
Lauren Becall, Grace Kelly, Audrey Hepburn, Natalie Wood, Goldie Hawn, Demi
Moore, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Jennifer Aniston, who, while they might be
elegant, cute, or “girl-next-doorish” don’t necessarily exude sex. (Not to say
that many men wouldn’t find them sexy or that women wouldn’t want to look like
them. Audrey Hepburn is my personal favorite).

1.   1930’s – JEAN HARLOW (34-25-36) Star of Hell’s Angels;
original “Blonde Bombshell”.

2.   1940’s – RITA HAYWORTH (32-25-34) Glamorous star of “Gilda”;
Married to Orson Welles and also to Prince Aly Khan.

3.   1940’s – BETTY GRABLE (34-24-36) Known for her “great gams”;
#1 pinup girl of WW II, married to trumpet player, Harry James.

.4.  1950’s – MARILYN MONROE (37-23-36) Sexy and vulnerable; famous
(amongst other things) for the dress that flew up around her waist in “The
Seven Year Itch”.

5.   1950’s – JANE MANSFIELD (42-21-35) Very intelligent, despite
her “poor man’s Marilyn Monroe” image. Mother of actress Mariska Harigtay,
another beauty.

6.   1950’s – AVA GARDNER (36-23-37) Star of “The Barefoot
Contessa”; had an earthy femininity; steamy marriage to Frank Sinatra.

7.   1960’s – ELIZABETH TAYLOR (36-21-36) Violet eyes set off her
exquisite beauty; stormy relationship with Richard Burton; apparently not a fan
of casual dating, she was married eight times.

8.   1960’s – ANN MARGRET (35-23-35) Ended up being considered the
star of “Bye Bye Birdie” (an honor intended for veteran actress and
co-star, Janet Leigh); Swedish “sex kitten” with a wholesome appeal; acted and
had an affair with Elvis.

9.   1960’s – RAQUEL WELCH (37-22-35) Star of “One Million
Years B.C.”, which popularized the “fur bikini”.

10.  1960’s – SOPHIA LOREN (38-24-38) Smoldering Italian actress;
starred in “Two Women”; turned down Cary Grant to marry director, Carlo
Ponti, still sizzling in her seventies.

11.  1960’s – BRIDGET BARDOT (35-19-35) French, exotic, sexy. 
American men adored her. (Check out that waistline ‚¬Â¦did these women wear
corsets?)

12.  1970’s – FARRAH FAWCETT (35-24-35) Star of “Charlie’s Angels”)
How many girls came of age with “Farrah haircuts”?  How many boys came of
age with that famed

“Farrah poster?”

13.  1980’s – MADONNA (CICCONE) (34-23-33) Pop singer with a talent for
re-inventing herself often, each persona sexier than the next; popularized
“trashy lingerie”.

14.  1990’s – SHARON STONE (36-25-35) Interrogation scene from “Basic
Instinct” – enough said.

15.  1990’s – PAM ANDERSON (36-22-34) Star of “Bay Watch”; hot
relationship with rocker, Tommy Lee; epitomized the California “beach babe
look” (or at least what men living outside California fantasize them to look
like).

16.  2000’s – BEYONCE KNOWLES (34-26-40) Hip Hop star. The moves, the
body, the voice.

17.  2000’s – SCARLETT JOHANSSON (37-26-37) Starred in numerous Woody
Allen films. Voluptuous in a surprisingly old fashioned way.

18.  2000’s – HALLE BERRY (36-22-37) Starred as Catwoman in “Batman”
and the costume fit to perfection, emphasizing her great body and terrific
features.

19.  2000’s – SALMA HAYAK (36-25-37) Gorgeous Mexican born actress;
star of

“Frida”.  Recognized for having a spectacular, non-enhanced
“rack”.

20.  2000’s – ANGELINA JOLIE (36-27-36) Known for her altruism, large
family, and husband, Brad Pitt; considered to be one of the sexiest woman of
her time; her bee-stung lips (emulated unsuccessfully by many women who don’t
own mirrors) alone would qualify her for this distinction.

I apologize to anyone who might feel this posting to have been a touch
politically incorrect but then I’m often a touch politically incorrect myself.

Have a great week. Vivian

@VivianWrites

Alfred Hitchcock is probably my
all time favorite director, followed
closely by Billy Wilder.  I have enjoyed Hitchcock films my entire
life, both as a kid and later as a cinema student, when I learned more
about the man and his maverick techniques.

humor are what made him an icon. (Though he never achieved an
Oscar for a

It occurred to me recently that though I’ve just begun blogging and writing movie reviews for Coffey Talk, most of you know very little about me so I thought I’d share a little of my background with you.

I’ve worn many hats throughout my life: wife, mother, daughter, sister,
friend, tutor, teacher, production assistant.  I bartended one night
(Quit when the owner informed me that due to his ‘broken arm’ I’d be
expected to assist him in buttoning and unbuttoning his fly for the next
few weeks) I helped costume a movie, and I was a game show contestant
(three times, winning big on Name That Tune.)

When Rick succumbed to brain cancer in 2005
my world went dark and remained so for quite some time. It took me a
year before I could read a book, and almost two years before I could listen
to music again (I still can’t listen to his.)

With the encouragement of my daughter, Allie, I eventually found my way back to writing. I made my first book, Groomed for Murder available as an ebook, I began a blog called Rhodes Less Traveled,  I joined a writers’ group, and I sold my first screenplay (it aired as a Lifetime movie, Stolen from the Womb, a year ago this month.  Presently I’m hard at work revising my new novel, a psychological thriller.

I hope you’ll keep reading my blogs and reviews.  A big thank you to Lissa for providing me with this platform.

Vivian

@VivianWrites

PS  If you’d like to check out Stolen from the Womb go to

https://www.mylifetime.com/movies/stolen-from-the-womb/pictures/movie-gallery)

There have been many noteworthy Hollywood love affairs throughout
the years, but few as memorable nor as tragic as that of Clark Gable and Carole
Lombard.

Gable, “The King”, was an indisputable heartthrob in 1936,
the year he met Lombard at a Hollywood party. 
At 35, he was married to his second wife when he became smitten with the
striking Lombard, who was seven years his junior and divorced from actor
William Powell.  The chemistry between
the two was mutual and grew even stronger once Gable was divorced.

Often described as devilishly handsome (in the 1938 film, Broadway Melody, a 14 year old Judy
Garland memorably crooned the song, You
Made Me Love You to a framed photo of Gable,) he was the man every woman
wanted to be with and every man wanted to be. 
He was a man’s man.  For her part,
Lombard, blonde and leggy, starred in numerous screwball comedies and had that
unique combination of sexiness and a wicked sense of humor.  It’s been said that she swore like a sailor
and was known to play practical jokes whenever she had the opportunity.  By all accounts she was adored by film crews.

In January 1942, while returning from a tour to sell war
bonds, the TWA DC-3 in which Lombard had been flying, crashed into Mt.
Potosi, Nevada.  She and Gable had not
yet been married three years when her plane went down. 

When Clark Gable arrived on the scene, he had to be
physically restrained from climbing the snowcapped mountain in an attempt to rescue
his wife.  His efforts would have been
fruitless since all twenty-two passengers abroad, including Lombard’s mother, had
died in the crash.

Gable sat on a stool at the nearby Pioneer Saloon, in
Goodsprings, drinking whiskey and smoking cigar after cigar as he waited to
hear the fate of his wife.  On a recent
trip to Las Vegas, I visited the saloon, which was built in 1913, and is the
oldest in So. Nevada. I looked at photos on display as I walked through a “memory
room” that has been created to honor Gable and Lombard.

Friends claimed that Clark Gable was never the same after
suffering this loss and in fact, when he died of a heart attack in 1961, his
fifth wife had him buried in Los Angeles’ Forest Lawn, next to Carole Lombard,
the love of his life.

Some love affairs are based in myth and some become the
prototype to which others aspire.  Gable
and Lombard’s love affair was the latter.

Ready to take a short quiz? 
Can you correctly match up the famous relationships below?  Scroll all the way down for the answers when you’re done.

THE MEN                                                   THE WOMEN

1.      Bogart                                                a.  Woodward

2.      Reynolds                                            b.  Tandy

3.      Wayne                                                 c.  McGraw

4.      Russell                                                d. Gardner

5.      Cronyn                                                 e.
Hepburn

6.      Pitt                                                        f.
Radner

7.      Smith                                                   g.
Bacall

8.      Arnaz                                                    h.
Jolie

9.      Sinatra                                                  i.  Taylor

10.  McQueen                                               j.  Davis

11.  Tracy                                                      k. Russell

12.  Newman                                                 l.  Hawn

13.  Merrill                                                     m.Pinkett

14.  Wilder                                                     n. Field

15.  Burton                                                     o. Ball

Hope
everyone enjoys a great weekend. (I’ll be editing the second draft of my newest
thriller.)  Whatever you do, have fun and
stay safe.

1.g2.n3.k4.l5.b6.h7.m8.o9.d10.c11.e12.a13.j14.f15.i

Just hearing the opening theme on Sunday night gave me, and
millions of other viewers of Mad Men a
tremendous feeling of satisfaction.  For
7 seasons (it premiered on AMC in July 2007 and had its final episode in May
2015) we followed the trials and tribulations of Peggy, Roger, Pete, Joan,
Betty, and of course, Don Draper, played by Jon Hamm. 

The music evoked an era as did the visuals. Matthew Weiner,
the creator, admits to having been greatly influenced by Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, in terms of production
values.

Don, the fictional creative director of Sterling Cooper (the
original agency before it was transformed by partnerships, take-overs, etc.)
was the quintessential, uber advertising executive of the 1960’s – at least on
paper.  An extraordinarily handsome womanizer,
he was a genius in wooing both clients and a multitude of woman with charm and
something intangible, possibly mystique. And Don was mysterious.  In fact, the basis of his character was the
idea that for years no one knew much about the man with a secretive past and
Don liked it that way.  

Don was classy and true to himself (it is interesting to note
that while other male characters adapted to fashion trends throughout the run
of the series, Don never changed his style) and even when we hated what he was
doing, we found ourselves rooting for him. 
Besides, his relationship with his daughter, Sally, always seemed to
redeem him in our eyes.

Because of the superb writing and excellent acting, none of
the characters were portrayed as cardboard figures.  They were flawed.  We loved them one week and hated them the
next, or vice versa.  Peggy could be naïve,
but stubborn.  Joan could use her
sexiness to her advantage, but also lament being labeled as such.  Pete could be callous but also
sensitive.  Betty, Don’s first wife, was
cold at times, but the audience was usually made to see things from her
perspective. My personal favorite was Roger (John Slattery) whose delivery of
lines hit the mark, week after week.

Aside from the characters themselves, viewers enjoyed having
a mirror set up, reflecting the era of the sixties.  For those of us who lived through the Kennedy
assassination, the bee hive hairdos, the turmoil of the Civil Rights and Women’s’
movements, it was a chance to remember all of these in context.  For those too young to recall any of it, it
was a fascinating history lesson.  This
was particularly so when examining a period when people smoked like chimneys,
drank like fish, and said things that were outrageously “un-P.C.”

Mad Men was a unique series and its
storylines took us on unexpected, thrilling journeys.  I will miss it.

Thank you Matthew Weiner for a wonderful ride.

Are you raising an animal lover? If so, chances are they’ve
already asked for a puppy, kitten, Guinea pig, lizard, snake or bird of
their own. Bringing home a pet is a big decision and shouldn’t be taken lightly
– especially if you have young kids in your home. I’ve put together some tips
and advice to help ensure your decision is the right one – whatever that may
be.

Pick the Right Pet: There are lots of different pets to
choose from. In our case, my wife and I already had two small dogs prior to
having kids. Our dogs are old now, but when my toddlers began asking for other
pets we decided on fish. It gave the kids extra responsibility because they had
to help feed the fish and keep their bowl clean. This has worked quite well for
my family, but your family might be completely different. It’s important to
determine which pet is the right fit for your family, as all pets are
different; they require different sorts of attention and lead different lives.
Don’t rush into anything. Make certain your decision is thoroughly thought out
as pets are a big commitment, and your new pet will be a part of your family
for up to 20 years or more in some cases!

Get the Supplies: Once you determine which pet is right for
your family the next thing you’ll need to do is pick up all of the necessary
supplies. I suggest picking up all of the supplies before you bring your new
pet home. Bring your child with you to pick out the supplies and let them help,
so you can talk to them about the different things you’re buying and what
they’re for. Do some research prior to heading out and ask questions while at
your local pet store to ensure you get everything your new pet will need.

Involve Your Child: Involve your child in the process as
much as possible and use every opportunity to reinforce responsibility while
still allowing for excitement and anticipation. Read books, watch movies and
television shows that discuss the importance of properly taking care of a pet
and how kids can help do just that. Allow your child to help choose which type
of pet and which type of breed you’ll be bringing home, and encourage them to
do research in order to figure out what pet will be best for them and the
family. If you have multiple children I suggest you hold a family meeting where
each child can give their own input and express their excitement and concerns.

Be Responsible: Purchase your pet from a responsible breeder
or adopt one from a local shelter if possible. If you need further education or
help once your new pet comes home sign up for classes; there are now classes on
everything from safe snake handling to puppy basic obedience – you’re not
alone! Whatever you do, make sure you’re fully prepared and ready for the new
experience prior to bringing your new pet home!

Happy parenting!
Sincerely,

Daddy Nickell