Donald Sutherland: The 1970s Thinking Woman's Guide to Sex Symbols đ
Can you believe a director once said, âThis part calls for a guy-next-door type. You donât look like youâve lived next door to anyoneâ?
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Hello, Lovelies, How the hell are you?
Greetings from my secret destination⌠Having traveled 21 hours for the first stretch, I found myself without reliable connectivity no matter what measures I took, so missed our Thursday Thread, in which Iâd planned to ask you all what the most significant catastrophe (accidental or not) you had ever been party toâwith a lightning round of detail questions.
But we can save that for another day. Thereâs always time for dangerous ideas.
In the meantime, we have lost one of the greats. Donald SutherlandâŚ
It hardly seems real.
Sutherland recalled during his childhood in Canada, once asking his mother if he was good-looking. âNo,â she told him, âbut your face has a lot of character.â She was spot on. Very soon thereafter he was rejected for a movie role by a producer who said, âThis part calls for a guy-next-door type. You donât look like youâve lived next door to anyone.â
Later Sutherland would enjoy the irony of having appeared in one of film historyâs steamiest sex scenes ever, according to The Times. While filming the 1973 thriller Donât Look Now, director Nicolas Roeg blocked the scene such that Sutherland and his co-star Julie Christie walked into the bedroom naked. âWe laid on the bed and the director said, âAll right Julie pull your knees up to your shoulder. Donald take your mouth and slide it down the inside of her left thigh.â It went on like this for 12 hours. Neither of us could speak afterward.â The resulting footage was the first to depict sex realistically in mainstream cinema, although Sutherlandâunlike Christieâ always denied rumors that sex had actually occurred. Dirty girl! Love her.
Sutherlandâs big Hollywood break came in the 1967 picture, The Dirty Dozen. Lee Marvin, Charles Bronson, and others in the cast were arguing over who should impersonate a German general when Robert Aldrich, the director, a man who made decisions âfaster than you can imagineâ, looked down the table and said: âYou with the big ears. You do it.â Suddenly, Sutherland had a major role in what turned out to be one of the biggest movie hits of the year.
I donât know what your favorite of his 90+ pictures wasâfrom 1900 to Klute to Ordinary People to The Hunger Gamesâbut mine will always be M*A*S*H.
Doofus of the Week!
The Current Twee Regression of Language⌠No!
Someone needs to do something toute de suite! Iâm convinced this is coming largely from social media and a fear of the slow apocalypse, but itâs horrendous.
If youâve spent any time online recently, youâd be forgiven for thinking âthereâs something in the waterâ, says Coco Khan in The Guardian. Grown adults have regressed to using âvery silly abbreviationsâ for pretty much everything. The cost of living crisis is the cozzie livs; the general election is the genny lec, and a mental breakdown is a menty b. Holidays are holibobs, working holidays are holijobs, and the wine formerly known as sauvignon blanc is savvy b â best paired with a jacky p (jacket potato) for a dinner thatâs not too spenny (expensive). There was a time when I found this all a bit cringeworthy. But now the nationâs quirky pursuit of daft nicknames makes me irritated. In a country of punmakers, this collective wordplay feels too âcringeyâ even for me, with new phrases gleefully dreamt up faster than you can say panny d (pandemic). Next, weâre going to get some even more horrifying like nashy p (national pride), which screams of Faschi v (fascist victory)âan all too frightening outcome.
Clever, pithy puns and smart portmanteaus, people. This is a mix of Sloanes and Valley Girls.
Runner-up Doofus: Scott Tobiasâs misogynistic take that Chinatown is the greatest screenplay ever written.
No, sorry mister, Otto Premingerâs Laura by Elizabeth Reinhardt and a host of others, including Jane Campion, and Emma Thompson, are far superior.
Thereâs no shortage of doofuses in the world. Iâve gone soft this week. Forgive me, itâs the jet lag.
And now for some marvelsâŚ
Excuse me for this indulgence. It looks like the summer weather is finally arriving, the first thing I do is put on Aldeia De Ogum
The Frog Club
I have a longstanding fixation when it comes to invite-only bars, speakeasies, dining clubs, and restaurants, and I adore this phrase in particular: "What made Frog Club great is what made it awful is what made it irresistibly fascinating: its exclusivity, its gleeful snobbishness, its ostentatious secrecy." There were so many ways to get banned or kicked out foreverâdown to lying about your birthday to get a reservation. It had its own complex vernacular, a semiotic text of restaurant-going. It would have been a puzzler for even the Michelin people. Some menu items seem like jokes we diners are intended to be in on, like the Dirty Kermit, a green-tomato cocktail. How many secret New York dining establishments are bringing Big Muppet Energy to the experience? Not many.
AKO Impact Storytelling Institute
Last year, the University of the Arts London launched the AKO Storytelling Institute, a new research center looking at the intersection of storytelling and social change. As the first cohort of fellowships comes to an end, theyâve published a hugely detailed analysis and set of resources about the practice of Impact Storytelling. This is absolutely one to bookmark and share if youâre working in this sector.
57 Sandwiches that define New York⌠Because I can now open my mouth wide enough for serious sandwiches!
On Talking to Strangers
When I was pregnant with the girls, and later when I was wired shut, I found that strangers would tell me absolutely anything and everything about their lives. It was interesting most of the time.
I loved this issue of Why is This Interesting. Steph Balzer writes about how thereâs a lot of research telling us that talking to strangers can massively benefit our happiness. It can also make us mentally sharper, healthier, less lonely, and more trustful and optimistic. So why donât we do it more?
Stay safe, Lovelies, and know Iâm thinking of you in between finishing this rom-com. Because itâs the scientists and the romantics who will save the world and they wonât look like anyone next door. â xoxo, gotham girl
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It was only myself and my film school BFF who would *openly* admit to thinking CHINATOWN was a steaming pile all the way around, and the arguments from purists that would ensue! We never waivered. Best screenplay has to be IN BRUGES. And while I loved Donald in M*A*S*H and ORDINARY PEOPLE, his wee role in BACKDRAFT is a delight. I don't mind the metric system of language, as long as it's done right. It's the "pandy" dammit! Hope you are having fun wherever you are, lovely. xo
I love this post with its tribute to Sutherland and here's a link to fab sandwiches in LA should you come west: https://www.latimes.com/food/newsletter/2024-06-22/bread-head-sandwiches-santa-monica-tasting-notes