Looking Presidential

Slate recently posted this short article comparing Republican candidates to B-list actors who play Presidents in movies.
This is sort of a nice switch from the usual way politics and appearance plays out. Female politicians are always being dissected for their physical appearance. Their hair, their clothes (skirts or power suits?), how old they look, and other markers that don't usually represent their skills or experience or even how good they might be at a particular job. So, finally, someone is letting female politicians take a break on the whole "but is she matronly enough?" debate and looking at men.
That said, there are much better ways to judge someone's fitness.

Slash Artists

There's a great interview up today about Marcellus Hall, a musician/illustrator.  I love people who are more than just one kind of artist. (Joy Harjo?  Ethan Hawke?  James Marsters?  Check, check and check!)  As a general art nerd, I love the idea that someone could create within multiple genres and be just as respected for all of them. 
It's acutally pretty rare that happens though.  Edgar Allen Poe is the only artist I can think of who is equally respected for his poetry and his short stories, and in both cases, they are writing, so that might not count.  In the above examples I've listed, Harjo has a band but is better known as a poet, Hawke has published novels but is better known as an actor, Marsters has a band but is better known as an actor.  (In the interview, Hall lists several other examples.)  Many writers, once they have been writing in a particular genre, find it difficult to break out into another one.  I'm hoping this is a function of the capitalist system, that wants to peg people as one thing only.  I want to see more of these "slash" artists break out of their molds and do more and interesting things. 

Glee Costumes

Several of my friends have recently gotten me into Glee.  And, having watched last night's episode, I can honestly say that my favorite thing about it was the girls' dresses for Regionals, which is just my luck, as an interview with the costume designers went up today.
It's times like these I wish I was an actor, just so I could wear awesome outfits.   

Any Human Heart Actors

Most people know that, as an English nerd, I have a certain fondness for Masterpiece Theater. For those of you lucky enough not to be obsessed Britian, right now they're showing Any Human Heart. Many of the actors in the miniseries are also from various Jane Austen adaptations, as this brief rundown explains. I found myself, being a ridiculous anglophile, wanting to add notes to it, like mentioning that Atwell also was in The Duchess and Broadbent was in some of the Harry Potter movies and The Young Victoria and Hollander was in (with Broadbent) Bridget Jones's Diary and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. See what I mean? I could play six degrees of separation if it was with British actors.

Christian Bale's Next Project

I hate to admit that I have a soft spot for Christian Bale as an actor. And I love bizarre actorly projects, the sort of thing that turns off most mainstream viewers and gets the attention of lots of award committees. So I'm loving these tongue-in-cheek suggestions about what Christian Bale should do next.

Elle's White Christmas

There's a great petition going around asking the magazine Elle to apologize for clearly making actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan look whiter than she is.  Seeing the cover, I was shocked just how white she looked.  If I wasn't familiar with her work (I saw her in Bride and Prejudice), I might have mistakenly assumed she was white.
This is not to say that Ms. Rai Bachchan is the only one this has happened to.  I notice that Beyonce always looks almost white, and while riding the subway yesterday evening I noted that the promo poster for the U.S. version of Skins has the actors and actresses, who come from a surprisingly large racial mix, look almost all white or at least light.
The other sad thing to consider is that the actors and actresses of color who do tend to "make it" are lighter.  I so rarely see someone darker on tv or in the movies.