DePalma

Maria was an international major star. Even bigger than the ones who played stereotyped characters in Hollywood like Dolores Del Rio, Lupe Velez and Sara Montiel. Sara is more known for Veracruz and Serenade. Also a stunning woman. Thanks Jay DePalma

[] The story behind this is that Maria Felix approached Cartier to design a necklace based on her baby pet crocodiles. And they had to do it fast as the baby crocs were growing pretty big. And they delivered. The crocodiles can be separated and worn as a brooch. DePalma

I think Angelina Jolie's face is a "striking" and a very effective Movie Face. Her lips are far more appealing to me than S.J. to me her lips look "swollen" Angelina's look generously "full" and very appealing. She's perhaps the only one today that I could call (Beautiful) Liv Tyler had a moment, but is gone. Nicole Kidman did an excellent job in "Portrait of a Lady" She was also handled superbly and costumed as good as the classic stars. Nicole is not a beauty, but she's a "chameleon" with the ability to changed from one role to the next very smoothly and at times she can pull the "illusion" of beauty to work in her favor, so she qualifies as a Movie Face. Movie Faces don't necessarily need be GORGEOUS, but they must be very interesting to look at and move in a very special way. That way helps them of course and the camera can seem as if to look at them or "captured" their features almost like a sort of "lover" YW Jay DePalma

Oh no! LOL Let me tell you Miss AvaG, when I think of Gorgeous, not one single actress of today comes to mind. To me "GORGEOUS" demands a face that takes your breath away and this is something I just don't find now a days. Who was gorgeous? Greta Garbo Ava Gardner Elizabeth Taylor Linda Darnell Marilyn Monroe Who was beautiful? Rita Hayworth Joan Crawford Vivien Leigh Audrey Hepburn Ava Gardner had PERFECT lips Marilyn Monroe had GORGEOUS lips Brigitte Bardot had the SEXIESTS lips Can you honesly tell me that any of today's female actresses can really stand next to these ICONS and not be totally eclipsed? I certainly can't. Jay DePalma

AND Grrrrrrrrrr! Next chat Stop "editing" bring it on to he next reply. I'm missing HALF the stuff since I hardly look back. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!! :-)

Well, I think this has been one excellent exchange. I had the feeling people would like taking part in it. I myself was pretty darn good, funny, witty, courteous, cleverly "detached" bubbly and delightfully entertaining! Of course I couldn't have don it without your help...you were actually pretty spectacular. Thank you so much! :-) DePalma

I was MAD about De Niro! Mad I tell you! LOVE that name!!!!! Those eyes! I remember everytime when he looked a the camera in "Hunter" I just held my breath as if going under water. Then he got this "soupy look about him...not because of age...not at all..is weird...can't put my finger on it. He looks to me like someone sent him to the cleaners and he never dried off. DePalma

I think Harrison Ford can still pull it off. So does Sean Connery. He is one of all time favorite actors. The Hill is just superb. Mel Gibson too can still be effective if he wants to. I fell in love with Kevin Costner in "Wolves" and still will go see whatever he dishes out. I'm CRAZY about Sam Elliott, he's still one GORGEOUS movie face. There are faces that move a certain way on screen...I call them Movie Faces. Marilyn's couldn't wrong on screen either. Jay

I see your point. My take also is that back in the early days "acting" was not thought as "manly thing to do" the men had to be macho, heroes and a ladies man to be able to make it big. Even those who gained respect for their acting ability felt embarrassed by being a "movie star" Plus with the Hollywood Code breathing down their necks they had no choice but to shape in or ship out. Jay

AND what can you tell me about Norma Shearer playing Juliet? I almost died laughing when I read an interview with Joan Crawford in which she said she was bored to tears throughout the entire film and added: "I "really" couldn't wait for those two old turkeys to died. Didn't you?" LOL Jay

Bogart was almost the same story...much like tofu I always say...I had to "acquired" a taste for him. I remember years ago after I spent an entire day playing nothing but his films, I went on eBay and spent almost $300 dollars buying his vintage photos. His collaborations with Bacall are my favorite movies of his. The Caine Mutiny and The African Queen are also in that list. Jay

I love John Wayne, it took me while mind you. But, he just blossomed on me from being just "another cowboy" into this amazingly gifted, sensitive, power house...capable of knocking ten Indians with a single punch and yet tender and loving enought to rub grease on a baby's back in Three Godfathers.

There was only a girl I ever became excited about...Liv Tyler. She reminded me in a certain way of a young Ava Gardner. In "Onegin" she was handled very beautifully...like in the old days. The excitement didn't last long thought. Jay

"Geared towards your taste, I think Charlize would have been a huge star in the thirties, y'know, if she'd have complied to the "system". Scarlett Johansson is another one that looks great in a gown and a cigarette. It's just different now." Charlize is actually one of the few I think got any "feathers" left from the old Hollywood in her cap. She a pretty girl and when she puts herself together in a glamorous fashion she does well. Johansson is another story altogether. I don't think she's even all that pretty and I can't never concentrate on her performances because of her lips...the way she keeps them parted I'm always expecting to see a little drool streaming down to her chin. Imagine if I see her with a cigarette dangling from them babies? I will be terrified she would burn a hole on her chest. But that's me. Jay

OK, I can live with that! I'm not rushing to buy you candy and flowers, but anything that keeps the classic Hollywood above today's is definitely in favor of this thread. Thank you Jay Depalma

So, lets use a 1 to 10 rating system ( 10 ) being best to see where we stand on this topic. The Silver Screen Stars= 10 Today's movie actors= 4 Jay DePalma

OMG!aaaaaaaaaaaahahahahahahahaah!!!!!Speaking for myself, I intend to botox, tucked, pulled AND uplift until my ears meet at the back of my head. Lord only knows when my time comes I will try my best to cut me a better deal and even so the next time around I will still be screaming: "NOT YET!":-)DePalma

Nostalgia does plays a role when looking back at a movie, an art movement, fashion and society in general and yes, many of these very subjects at their prime where thought of as stinkers by their generation only to be hailed as masterpieces and classics by the following one. Which brings me to my reason for posting this thread. Long are gone the days of wine and roses. I just hope I live long enough to see little martians living next door gathered around their screen watching Madonna and calling her the greatest actress that ever lived! Jay DePalma

I think there's a time and a place for everything and only the most revolutionary ones survive. Still the powerful images we see on the screen sometimes take a life of their own...an actor's performance, a hair style, a car, a home, a sweatshirt with the top cut off....you name it...this in turn grows "roots" and it becomes sort of second nature, much like an everyday household product. When you look back however, you mostly see piles of ill fated attempts and very few roses to stop and smell along the way. At least that's my take. Jay

"I'm not quite sure how you drew that conclusion." My point being that the transformation that most women and men went through in the old Hollywood had a more definite and lasting purpose since they were already selected to be made into "Stars" These people in my class haven't even set a foot in California yet. Jay

"Glamour in film was a very different truth from glamour of that era, but the lines are blurring in this era. That could also be a reason for the lack of real stars today." Glamour in films will always be a sort of wonderland for the "garden variety" movie goer. Those amazing sets and gowns and props are all selected to glitter and dazzled and uplift our spirits. Sadly tho, many people sometimes are not aware that in some films those fabulous settings are nothing more than cardboard and spit put together. Oh, but what magic they create!!!! Jay DePalma

"But glamour in film is a very different truth from glamour of that era." Glamour in film was certainly different in that era as well as in ours. "Glamour in film is spun on a soundstage with help from all aspects of production teams from the production designer to costumer to the hair dressers to the make up artists, etc." That is an integrate part of movie magic. "The majority of Americans didn't live like or dress like the characters they saw in the movies." That can also be said about the majoprity of Americans today. "Many an actor and actress came to Hollywood hoping for the big break and found themselves put through a rigorous make-over that if viewed through the prism of today would seem somewhat like torture and leave us scratching our heads that somebody felt the need to go through that much pain (electrolysis, nose and cheeks jobs, etc) to make themselves beautiful enough for the silver screen." I think this also is more common today than you seem to think. Come by some of the make-up seminars I teach. Half of the females there look like they came out of horror flick...and that's before I get to make them up. HUGE fake lips, HUGE fake..ummm..you know" Some look like they need to be taken to a good dinner instead. In all if anything the stars them looked MUCH healthier than the actors today. "Hollywood manufactured glamour will always trump real live because that's the purpose of Hollywood glamour." Hollywood manufactured glamour will also always trump because in every corner of the Earth where there's a tv or a movie theater there will always people dreaming to look just like those fabulous faces they see up there on the screen. Jay DePalma

"Actors back then played their roles larger-than-life, but now they play them too life-sized. I think the average film lover loves older movies because of the escapism all genres provided due to their more theatrical quality. Escapism is harder to come by today because of the ultra-realism directors, writers, and actors strive for." Today "Reality" seems to be the (IN) word and for me it just don't work. When I find the need to watch reality in the genre of entertainment I'm to select I watch The Discorey Channel or Nature. After all there is perfectly acceptable for me to find its subjects behaving accordingly. Jay DePalma

"I agree with you that we live in a different world now and yes, the media is over-saturated with wanna be celebrities who aren't famous for anything other than wanting to be famous." "If we didn't buy the rags, watch the shows or visit the websites that hype this stuff, the cult of celebrity as we know it would die out. But, we keep that cult alive by filling the coffers and by doing that, we tell the media that want more of it and more and more. It becomes an endless cycle." I don't think is "we" buying the rags, etc...where all the problem lays at as much as we not having anything else to choose from. Even 1939 considered by many one of the best years ever known in Hollywood there were scandals and murders and drinking and drugs and just about every evil under the sun (BUT) they had GOOD SOLID QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT TOO something we do not have. Therefore, you can only put so much garbage in a container...if it does not get emptied often the trash will spill everywhere and yes it will definitely STINK! "The glamour of the old days, especially as spun by Hollywood photogs and old film footage, makes every night at Ciro's look like New Year's Eve" So very true! I think you are being too kind. I watch the Oscar's red carpet show every year and I have to keep clicking my heels and reminding myself is not a Mardi Grass special. "We can blame Hollywood and the media all we want for the devolution of glamour but if we want to see who started that trend all we need do is look in the mirror and see ourselves." I see your point, but I feel that is got more to do with the "changing of the formula" than anything else. The end of the studio system was the BIG BANG! and we will never again re-capture the magic of a time when Hollywood had more AND brighter stars than the Heavens. Jay DePalma

"The cats out of the bag, the horse has left the stable...." I actually see it as: "The was a time in this business when they had the eyes of the whole world" "I agree with you that it's not, like say, the fantasy life that is depicted in the star system. I don't think we'll ever see that again." I'm, so glad you feel this way! It somehow makes me feel "closer" to you if that was even possible through this forum. "I could kiss ya, but I just washed my hair" "For instance.....could you imagine the ink that say a Lindsay Lohan would get if she had a "Bern-Harlow" event, now?" I couldn't even imagine, ummmm, wait....(have to be very careful about my opinions from now on) I couldn't even imagine "her" in the same breath as Harlow much less in the same sentence. "She'd be hung out to dry" Are you trying to get me into "more" trouble? Lord help me find the words I don't really want to say! lol Ok, I think I got it! I "really" think I got it!!!! If this was Salem in 1692, she will find it very hot. "Look at Frances Farmer." Frances Farmer in "my opinion" was very self destructive and I don't feel that people with such complex ed, troubled personalities should choose a career in a public arena, then again retracing that thought... if everyone did otherwise there will be hardly nothing left for us to come here for. I agree, today most actors live their private lives as if scripted by The Jerry Springer Show and also for this reason. Hollywood: You have No Real Stars Left. Jay DePalma