03/02/2006
REPORT: iPod video to pack 4" screen; roll-out pending feature-length movie deals.
Carol Burnett to guest on Desperate Housewives as Bree's mean, cold, stepmother. Cherry: "She's a very tightly wound, proper lady for whom appearances mean everything. A lot of what Bree has become came from this woman."
New interactive website from GMHC and APLA aims to reduce HIV transmission among young gay and bisexual men of color: "Once inside, users can explore 15 different scenarios by following 20 characters to venues such as 'Club Vibrate' and 'Christina Street.' Wherever you turn, a precarious situation awaits—bathroom sexual encounters, alley drug deals, needle-sharing, PNP, rough sex..."
Posted 10:57 AM EST by Andy Towle in Elsewhere | Permalink
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If there's anything to be said for that incoherent mess with dreams of being rich satire - but without the focus or ability to stick to either camp or melodrama OR satire - it's that it provides more work for has-beens than Angela Lansbury did with 'Murder, She Wrote'.
(I mean DH, not the website thing.)
Posted by: Jacko | Mar 2, 2006 12:55:24 PM
"has-beens"? We trust you're not referring to Carol Burnett, and, if you are, then, you're what qualifies as incoherent. Simply because she is not some toybox-for-brains twat set to a drum beat synthesizer that you can download to your iPod, confusing it for talent? She need not be/have been everyone's proverbial cup of tea, but she has provided rich, memorable entertainment for many that deserves respect. The term "has been" has always struck me as inherently arrogant and superficial, and is mostly uttered by those who "never were."
Posted by: Leland | Mar 2, 2006 2:21:15 PM
I think you mean Bree's mother, not stepmother. We already an episode arc with Bree's stepmother, as she tried to insinuate that Bree poisoned her husband. Also, it doesn't make sense that Bree's tight woundness would come from an in-law, but from her mother.
Posted by: Hal | Mar 2, 2006 2:26:44 PM
I believe that was Bree's mother-in-law played by Shirley Knight
Posted by: Dale | Mar 2, 2006 2:36:03 PM
I agree with Leland. Carol Burnett was too much of a "been" to ever qualify as a has been. I looked at the link and it seems that she has mostly withdrawn from show business since her daughters death. Besides, I can remember laughing my ass off at her antics. Let's also remember her vocal pro-gay stance.
Posted by: Mike in the Tundra | Mar 2, 2006 3:20:55 PM
hey andy,
you gotta stop posting apple/mac rumors! you're just perpetuating the disappointment that comes with lackluster announcements like tuesday's
Posted by: joe | Mar 2, 2006 3:42:15 PM
I LOVE Carol Burnett! I can remember sitting on the couch with my mom as a kid, watching The Carol Burnett Show (saturday nights I think) and telling her that I wanted to be a dancer like those guys on her show. She never really responded but it was an early indicator for both of us.
It's too bad that in an effort to be flip or superior someone would refer to her (of all people) as a has been. Probably the same person who thinks Lindsay Lohan is actually an actress.
Posted by: HoyaBoy | Mar 2, 2006 4:18:21 PM
PS: While it's been replayed a zillion times, as most classics are, there is simply no funnier sight gag EVER—no higher camp—than the first time one sees Carol enter as Scarlett O'Hara in the fancy gown she's made from Tara's drapes only to have failed to take the curtain rods out! And, as "Eunice Higgins," though the skits were extremely broad and shrill overall, she drew upon her real life as the daughter of two alcoholics, reared by her grandmother, surviving on welfare and dreams of Broadway. There was often a moment when the woman Eunice stopped yelling and reaching for things and accomplishments she'd never have and the irreparably broken child emerged with slightly trembling lips and tears welling in her eyes, which threatened to escape if she didn't quickly wipe them away with her false, pointless bravado—pathos worthy of Chaplin in "City Lights."
Posted by: Leland | Mar 2, 2006 6:00:37 PM
I couldn't even watch it.. it totally ruined any dreams I have of baggin some UT boy at Oilcans in Austin. But then has Tom Cruise done this.. twice?? But oh yeah, he's not exactly "straight" Nevermind.
Posted by: Brian | Mar 2, 2006 6:17:11 PM
Gentlemen. Damn it.
No one loved the old Burnett show more'n I did. When it was good, it was brilliant. But that was a LONG time ago. It broke my heart to watch the several, sad attempts to return to series comedy Burnett made - it was as though she forgot what funny was. Beyond that, there've been a few lousy films (anyone see that nightmare with Liz Taylor she did for HBO in the '80's?), and a brief Broadway triumph in 'Moon Over Buffalo'. Also some time ago.
Maybe 'has-been' is harsh. Burnett has certainly deserved better than she's had the chance to play in the past thirty years. But the reality is, like Lesley Ann-Warren, there ain't no career to speak of left.
Posted by: Jacko | Mar 2, 2006 7:02:38 PM
You go Leland!!! Carol Burnett is a goddess.
Many years ago we had a costume party themed 'The Casting of Gone with the Wind'. One guest showed up EXACTLY as Carol did. I still have all the pics, many framed. Watching him attempt to walk around the house was an exercise in caution AND hilarity. Several things were broken but, fuck it, they're just things.
I, of course, was Ashley-- the cute, nice guy who gets relentlessly fucked and not in the fun way. ;-)
Posted by: The Puckster | Mar 2, 2006 8:58:22 PM
In Moon Over Broadway Carol Burnett was treated like a washed up novelty whose ideas were dated and TVish only being used as a low rent effort to pull in those drawn by name recognition even if the producers and everyone else involved in the production had no respect for her name no matter its value.
At the end of the day, when things got tough and started to fall apart, it was Carole Burnet they turned to to save the show.
Posted by: Chad Hanging | Mar 2, 2006 9:36:10 PM
Not only was Burnett smart about her comedy, she had soul in her routines. There was always something about watching her perform on her epynonomous (sp?) show that was authentic and human. Top it off, the energy between her and Julie Andrews was electric. Watching them together was like being in on a mass secret. While I understand that context makes talent shine, in her case, respect is simply due.
Posted by: resurrect | Mar 3, 2006 12:34:31 AM