Forever Girly

This is a tribute to Helen Gurley Brown, who left us at age 90. Without her, there would be no Sex & the City, whose characters weren't just cosmo girls, they were Cosmo Girls, the embodiment of the ethos of Cosmopolitan magazine and Ms Brown, its editor-and-chief.

In 1962, at age 40, she wrote the bestselling Sex & the Single Girl, helping to spearhead the sexual revolution. In '65, she was brought onboard at Cosmopolitan, turning the struggling 'zine into a phenomenal success, telling women they could have it all: "love, sex and money!" Feminists like Betty Freidan and Germaine Greer did not support Brown's material-girl approach to women's liberation. Still, it had a hot heyday throughout the '70s, especially.

Below, a very sexy sequence from the film version of Sex & the Single Girl, starring Natalie Wood and Tony Curtis when they were at their hottest. The film is loosely adopted from the book.

Don't Go Near the Water: The Sequel

Back in January, I blogged about the reopening of the Natalie Wood cold case, segueing into other matters as is my wont.

http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/01/dont-go-near-water.html

This week in July, the cold case heated up. Well, talk about a comeback! Natalie's in the news big-time even without anything new to promote.

First, I read in National Enquirer about the latest news on the investigation. Frankly, many a gossip piece in the Enquirer is later published as legitimate news from other, more reliable sources, including The New York Times. The Enquirer, of course, doesn't burden itself with fact checkers. Neither does The New York Post as a rule. Of the two tabloids, I personally find National Enquirer generally more reliable.

"Bombshell new evidence," Enquirer said of Natalie Wood's mysterious death, suggests it "could have been murder!" (Gasp!) The paper then recommends that Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken, the other two passengers on the yacht, Splendour, expect some "legal trouble brewing." Ya think?

Wouldn'tcha know, though, only a couple of days later, the gossip made its way into legit news sources.

"The mystery surrounding Natalie Wood’s death deepened this week as a report emerged that her official cause of death had been quietly changed from an 'accident' to 'undetermined,'" wrote New York's Daily News. "The change was reportedly made because the coroner's original ruling [in 1981] was too hasty and did not account for the fact that there may have been another cause behind the bruising Wood sustained." Getting the shit kicked out of her is the inference I'm getting here.

Los Angeles Times blogged: After the new investigation began, the captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, gave several television interviews expressing skepticism about the original investigation and saying he believed that Wood was a victim of foul play. Of course, Cap'n Dennis' trustworthiness leaves something to be desired (see link).

Co-author Marti Ruli, obviously licking his lips that sales for his book, Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour, may rebound, is quoted in The Sun Daily as saying, "It would have been virtually impossible to acquire that many bruises in so many areas of her body with one fall." Is this one of the reasons "a publicist for [husband] Wagner said in November that his family supported the police probe, while warning against people 'trying to profit from the 30 year anniversary of her tragic death"?

But Lana Wood, Natalie's sister said, in an interview with TMZ: "[W]hen Natalie was in the water, [Wagner] had forbidden the captain from helping her and said: 'Leave her there, teach her a lesson'." She insists that good ol' Cap'n Dennis Davern told her that. "He (Dennis) said that everyone was quite drunk and that a fight broke out and that Natalie was in the water and he and RJ did nothing to pull her out."

According to retired stockbroker Marilyn Wayne, she tried to report the star’s 'last desperate cries for help" but was ignored. 


Meanwhile, I certainly hope this doesn't all bring back a barrage of tasteless Natalie Wood jokes from the '80s. Such as: 


What did Princess Grace have that Natalie Wood could have used? A good stroke.
What’s Natalie's middle name? Drift.
You wouldn’t get drunk and jump off a boat, would you? Natalie Would.


 Look to National Enquirer for further updates. 

Ta-ta!

Your Entertainment in Tandem

Just some odds and ends from previous posts.

From my last "On My Turntables" post, the Youtube audio-only link to Jennifer Holliday's Tony Moran-produced, Wayne G/Andy Allder remix of "Magic". Get dancin'!



From "Where the Boys Were," the conclusion of the un-aired, way-gay Bette Davis sitcom pilot rewritten by Mart ("The Boys in the Band") Crowley, in parts 2 and 3 below.





Lastly, Ms Natalie Wood, who figured in both posts, "Where the Boys Were" and "Don't Go Near the Water," is represented with her fab dramatic scene at the end of West Side Story, but I could only get this on YouTube with Polish subtitles. Natalie would probably want it that way.



In any language, no matter how many times I watch this, I always cry.

Don't Go Near the Water

Like old flotsam and jetsam, sick jokes from the aftermath of Natalie Wood's 1981 drowning are resurfacing: "Why didn't Natalie Wood take a shower on the boat? Because she was going to wash up ashore." "What kind of wood doesn't float? Natalie." "What was the last thing Natalie Wood's mother said to her before she died? 'Natalie, honey, it's OK to have a few cocktails, but don't go overboard!'"

With that cold case now reheated, more than 30 years later, here come those jokes, in our faces like a gush of stagnant, salty water. Spinning out of the murky vortex off Catalina Island, here's Natalie Wood's drowning: the remix!

Dennis Davern, cap'n of the yacht, "Splendour," owned by Ms Wood and husband Robert Wagner, finally decided to make a few bucks by writing a tell-all account about the incident in 2009. It was entitled, "Goodbye Natalie, Goodbye Splendour," co-written with one Marti Rulli. Thanks for the blah-blah-blah, Cap, but looks like you may be in deep seawater yourself. In the book, the Cap'n said he believes Wood's death was a direct result of a fight with Wagner. In 2010, His Nibs said he believes the investigation of Wood's death was incompetent and suggested there was a cover-up. He added that he "regrets" misleading investigators by keeping quiet... at Robert Wagner's request.

Well, shiver me timbers! When asked if our fearless Cap'n could face charges for possibly lying to authorities during the 1981 investigation, the police lieutenant in charge of the re-opened investigation had this to say: "We'll probably end up talking to the captain sooner or later, and we'll assess what he has to say then and now."

All right, Caps, get yourself a lawyer. Now! 'Cause there's a storm brewin' on the horizon, I gotta tell you, lookin' out my crow's nest.

As a life-long non-swimmer (only one of many skills I've failed to master due to extreme but unexplainable lack of interest), I shudder with horror at the thought of death by drowning. Natalie Wood said, once, in a tv interview, that her greatest fear was of dark seawater. I can empathize, and shudder at the thought of that ever happening to me. Still, I took two separate swimming classes at the Y and flunked both!

Three-time Oscar nominee, Natalie, may have sung "I Feel Pretty" in the film version of West Side Story (ok, actually, she lip-synched to it if you wanna get technical) but, when her body was found floating in the water about a mile away from the yacht, she was wearing a long nightgown, socks and a down jacket.

Less-talented sibling, Lana Wood, took offense. "My sister... would never go to another boat or to shore dressed in a nightgown and socks!"

So many fashion faux pas when we die suddenly! Maria Montez was, no doubt, feeling pretty, too, when she drowned. In her own bathroom, yet! Maria could swim; I remember, from watching Cobra Woman, but that doesn't help in your bathtub. Foul play was expected, though the official cause of death was listed as "heart attack." Well, I mean, yeah; you drown, your heart stops, right?

So, don't go near the water! Look what happened to Isadora Duncan, just driving by it (at least in the movie version starring Vanessa Redgrave)! Isadora was no doubt feeling pretty when she grandly tossed that long, flowing scarf about her neck ... only to choke when it got caught in the open-spoked tire and rear axle of the automobile in which the dancing diva was but a blithe and carefree passenger. Don't you hate it when attempts at egomaniacal fabulousness go wrong!

Natalie may have found Splendor in the Grass but she should have stuck with terra firma, because the more firmer, the less terror! Never mind Splendour on the choppy water!

"It would be very satisfying to pin down an exact cause to Natalie Wood's death (and possibly who else was involved), but it doesn't seem like we'll be getting that luxury. Not yet, anyway," said E! On-line News last night with pronounced disappointment. "The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department confirmed to E! News that there has not been any evidence of foul play in the iconic Hollywood star's case and it is still being ruled as an accidental drowning. However, they also stress that the case 'is still being investigated and is still active.'"

Cap'n, I said get yourself a lawyer. Now!