"Never trust a man in a caftan."

February 20, 2013 10:43 AM

'I Was Rob Lowe's Snow White': The Untold Story of Oscar's Nightmare Opening "Once upon a time -- March 29, 1989, to be exact -- a 22-year-old aspiring actress named Eileen Bowman thought that all her dreams were about to come true. She was very wrong." (the 61st Annual Academy Awards previously on MetaFilter)
posted by MCMikeNamara (95 comments total)

That was a fun read. I read Rob Lowe's autobiography this summer and enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. He's a diva and a name-dropper and he makes it work.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 10:48 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

I just always wished that the real Rob Lowe was just like Sam Seaborn.
posted by workerant at 10:52 AM on February 20 [10 favorites]

Am I the only one who is really annoyed that there is no readily available video of this "infamous number"?

Call me internet spoiled, but is there even a point to reading the piece if I can't connect it to this moment that everyone else seems to know about?
posted by sparklemotion at 10:52 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

> When approached for comment, COO Ric Robertson said: "We're pleased to join The Hollywood Reporter in saluting the 'Snow White Incident' on its 24th anniversary. This important piece of Hollywood history should never be forgotten."

No-one who watched this will ever forget it. I was 15 the night of the broadcast, and it was just flat-out confusing in a "why is this happening?" way.
posted by The Card Cheat at 10:52 AM on February 20 [7 favorites]

I guess my brain has permanently blocked all memory of that production. I know I saw the telecast, but can't dredge-up any remembrance of those 15 minutes.

Poor girl.
posted by Thorzdad at 10:53 AM on February 20

I'm naming my band " Robert Downey Jr's Look Of Disgust."
posted by The Whelk at 10:57 AM on February 20 [15 favorites]

there is no readily available video of this "infamous number"

ok, there is a 46 second clip at the end of the article that gives you a taste (they should have linked it from the lede, imho).
posted by sparklemotion at 10:57 AM on February 20

Am I the only one who is really annoyed that there is no readily available video of this "infamous number"?


I can definitely say you are not. (I may or may not have posted this hoping somebody could point us towards the full 15 minute fiasco.)

I was 15 the night of the broadcast, and it was just flat-out confusing in a "why is this happening?" way.

I was just slightly younger and remember feeling the exact same way. Like not just that it was bad -- though it was in a way that even a 14 year old could definitely notice and not in a typical teenage "I'm over this" way but in a "how? what? why?" -- but that it just kept going and going. And going.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:58 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

The video...if you dare.
posted by Muddler at 10:58 AM on February 20 [36 favorites]

sparklemotion: "Am I the only one who is really annoyed that there is no readily available video of this "infamous number"? "


I did find this...
posted by Red Loop at 10:59 AM on February 20

ah, a better source... thanks muddler
posted by Red Loop at 10:59 AM on February 20

It occurs to me that like a NASCAR fan who only watches for the crashes I only really want to see someone screw up royally on an awards show.
posted by The Whelk at 11:00 AM on February 20

Ok. This makes me really want to watch the Oscars this weekend.

Thank's Muddler and Red Loop.
posted by sparklemotion at 11:03 AM on February 20

Holy crap, that was Klaus Nomi weird. The fuck?
posted by notsnot at 11:04 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

Amen, Whelk. Brooke Shields at the Tonys springs readily, horribly to mind.
posted by Jofus at 11:05 AM on February 20

I just always wished that the real Rob Lowe was just like Chris Traeger.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:05 AM on February 20 [28 favorites]

That was literally the most interesting thing I've read all day.
posted by kbanas at 11:06 AM on February 20 [23 favorites]

So I clicked the video link. It was indeed terrible. What I don't understand is: There are Oscar skits that are better? Aren't they always ham-handed, poorly-read-from-cue-cards and incomprehensible?
posted by DU at 11:07 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Robert Downey Jr. doesn't look that disgusted (7m40s in Muddler's link).
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:07 AM on February 20

" My dress was bought for $23,000 by someone involved with the production who was buried in it. It was a man. I'm leaving it at that."

Pray, tell.
posted by ericb at 11:08 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

I made it seven minutes in before stopping the video.
posted by mediated self at 11:08 AM on February 20

The host this year is Seth MacFarlane, a triple-threat (song, dance, cringeworthy eighties references).

I'm thinking the odds are very, very good that the show will open with Rob Lowe singing with Snow White.
posted by Sys Rq at 11:10 AM on February 20 [19 favorites]

> "Robert Downey Jr's Look Of Disgust."

That look wasn't as disgusted as the shot of Tommy Lee Jones I remember from the year they had Beavis and Butthead present an award.

*googles, fails to find proof that this actually happened*

Wait a minute, did I dream that?
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:12 AM on February 20

Forget Robert Downey Jr.'s look of disgust. This thing was already on the ropes at Sigourney Weaver's "don't touch me" side-eye.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:12 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

Holy fuck, it just goes on and on and on and on. And on.
posted by mannequito at 11:12 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Sigourney Weaver's Side-Eye is my cover band
posted by The Whelk at 11:13 AM on February 20 [10 favorites]

I remember this -- I remember changing the channel, I was so embarrassed for everyone involved. I think it was a few years before I watched the Academy Awards again.
posted by vitabellosi at 11:14 AM on February 20

Bowman still lives in San Diego with her husband. She stars in the long-running Pete 'n' Keely at the Lamb's Players Theatre on Coronado Island.

I was glad to see this - she didn't give up on show biz!

Martin Landau grabbed my hand with both of his, and he just looked at me; he was precious.

I have a feeling a lot of people in the audience that night were remembering some of their choice days from summer stock.
posted by Currer Belfry at 11:15 AM on February 20

Ok, can we talk about Lily Tomlin a little? (she shows up at 10:30 or so).

Why is there a guy crab walking down the stairs behind her? why does he throw something at her? Were the producers pissed off that she just insulted the opening? "and to think, I half a billion people just watched that"
posted by sparklemotion at 11:16 AM on February 20 [5 favorites]

I'm thinking the odds are very, very good that the show will open with Rob Lowe singing with Snow White.

MACFARLANE: "This intro is even more awkward than that bit Rob Lowe and Snow White did!"

CUT TO:
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 11:16 AM on February 20 [8 favorites]

Robert Downey Jr. doesn't look that disgusted.

But Gregory Hines is clearly in a dark place.

I'm giving up on Hollywood, he thinks. I'll finish that movie about the killer lady cyborg, and then it's cameos and light TV work from there on out.
posted by Iridic at 11:17 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Was the Portuguese voice-over part of the original production? I can't imagine that it was, but honestly, I don't even know anymore.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:17 AM on February 20 [5 favorites]

Oh, I remember this like it was yesterday. And I remember my thoughts. "Wow, this is terrible and disturbing," "How can something be this bad if it's connected to Disney?" "Oh, this cannot possibly be connected to Disney," and ultimately "What the screaming fuck, Rob Lowe?" Afterwards I felt like I'd just seen a UFO or worse, something so inexpressible I needed someone else to verify it but I couldn't find any other witnesses, and that was before DVRs. For the longest time I thought I'd just imagined it, it was that bad.
posted by kinnakeet at 11:19 AM on February 20

It's not actually that different in conception from a lot of the Big Oscar Production numbers of the period. It didn't help that Eileen Bowman was really, really struggling to find her pitch (nerves, no doubt); nobody really cared whether Rob Lowe could or couldn't sing; he was a big star and giving it the old college try, so the audience was going to be reasonably nice to him (and they were; you can hear on the video that the applause is actually quite enthusiastic and generous). It was just one of those moments when something snaps and everybody piled on and said "this is ridiculous!"--but it had been ridiculous for a long time.

This was what lead to Billy Crystal being hired to host and parodying the very idea of the "Big Oscar Number" with his one-man opening song-and-dance. And sure, he was parodying this particular routine, but he was parodying the whole, bloated OTT production that the Oscars had become for quite some time.
posted by yoink at 11:22 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

Ah, there it is...Beavis and Butthead (Presenters: Best Sound Effects Editing).
posted by The Card Cheat at 11:23 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

Robert Downey Jr. doesn't look that disgusted.

No. Wryly amused would seem more the mark.
posted by yoink at 11:24 AM on February 20

I hope there are some montages this year. I'm a sucker for a good montage.
posted by The Whelk at 11:24 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

The part at about 1:56 where she suddenly looks right in the camera and sings "Memories of my Hollywood" is like something right out of Mullholland Drive. And not the sunny part.

I've often thought Billy Crystal was overrated as an Oscar host. But now I remember how low the bar was set and it makes a lot more sense.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:24 AM on February 20 [7 favorites]

What I don't understand is: There are Oscar skits that are better? Aren't they always ham-handed, poorly-read-from-cue-cards and incomprehensible?

Yeah, they mostly all suck, but this is a whole 'nother level of suck. If there were an Emmy for suck, this would get it.
posted by bondcliff at 11:24 AM on February 20

Huh. Yeah, it's terrible. But it's no worse than any other mainstream pop culture thing that I can recall from the 80s. And yes, I'm referring specifically to whatever thing you're thinking of that you think would be a good counterexample.
posted by The World Famous at 11:24 AM on February 20 [7 favorites]

There's only one award show I watch and it's the Tony's.
posted by Pendragon at 11:28 AM on February 20

Tony's household awards show gets more petcentric every year.
posted by The Whelk at 11:31 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

The Academy's insistence on having at least one big production number, long after the things had gone out of style, was just ridiculous. If I remember right it was because the always elderly membership of the Academy liked the goddamn things even though the rest of America had long moved on. It was like the counter-culture had never happened: Here's an interpretative dance of the 5 songs nominated for best song in a film and we've made sure that it's the 5 lamest, limpest songs we could find.

If there was one great thing about the Snow White opening is that it put a fucking stake in the heart of the damn things. That, and the movie musical generation finally dying off.
posted by Ber at 11:31 AM on February 20

I only watch one award show, and it is hosted by Dwayne "the fucking Rock" Johnson.
posted by Think_Long at 11:32 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

There's only one award show I watch and it's the Tony's.

Yes, and I think this was actually trying to out-camp the Tonys. It's like they were saying, "How much more camp can this be? And the answer is none. None more camp."
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 11:33 AM on February 20 [5 favorites]

I hope there are some montages this year. I'm a sucker for a good montage.

I would actually watch 3 hours of montages while they announced the winners on a crawler along the bottom along with quotes from the winner's speeches and links to pictures of disappointed losers.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:33 AM on February 20 [12 favorites]

I think this was the year I had an Oscar-watching party in college with a couple other drama students and a couple film students. Which is seriously the best group of people to watch with. (No one reaches greater heights of cattiness. No one.)

Don't really remember the Snow White bit in its entirety. But that was the same year that they presented the list of nominees for Best Costume Design by having Paula Abdul choregraph a dance number for each one.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:34 AM on February 20

I like how the audience looked reasonably charmed for the first few minutes, like, aw, that's cute, and then it just. keeps. going.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 11:34 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

zomg the dancing stars
posted by angrycat at 11:35 AM on February 20 [2 favorites]

If there was one great thing about the Snow White opening is that it put a fucking stake in the heart of the damn things. That, and the movie musical generation finally dying off.

I'm not sure Hugh Jackman got that memo.
posted by The World Famous at 11:35 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Hugh Jackman is allowed to sing and dance as much as he damn pleases.
posted by The Whelk at 11:37 AM on February 20 [24 favorites]

The phrase "gay bar mitzvah" turns me on more than it should and I don't care who knows it.
posted by dr_dank at 11:40 AM on February 20 [5 favorites]

Here's an interpretative dance of the 5 songs nominated for best song in a film and we've made sure that it's the 5 lamest, limpest songs we could find.

I swear I read this someplace - there supposedly was an Oscar production number that was simply someone (I want to say that what I read claimed it was Sammy Davis Jr.) singing a medley of "songs that were eligible for the Best Song award but which weren't even nominated." And the audience reaction was that of shock, because he was singing things like "A Hard Day's Night" or "Help" or "Mrs. Robinson" or "New York, New York" and everyone in the audience was realizing "holy shit, that never got nominated?"
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:41 AM on February 20

" gay bar mitzah"

Well you do have to memorize a passage from Auntie Mame.
posted by The Whelk at 11:44 AM on February 20 [16 favorites]

Hugh Jackman is allowed to sing and dance as much as he damn pleases.

I'm not going to disagree with you there. But it's pretty clear that there is no stake in the heart of over-the-top, stupid opening musical numbers at the Oscars.
posted by The World Famous at 11:44 AM on February 20

Carr, hurting from back-to-back flops Can't Stop the Music and Grease 2,

Wait...they hired the guy responsible for Can't Stop the Music, the most epically horrible musical of all time (OF ALL TIME) to do this? Well, fellas, I gotta say, you got what you effing paid for.

Poor Ms. Bowman. You were doomed.
posted by emjaybee at 11:45 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

EmpressCallipygos : Steve Lawrence/Sammy Davis Jr. - Not Even Nominated Medley
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:46 AM on February 20 [25 favorites]

OHMIGODYAYMCMIKNAMARAYOURULEHARDCORE

(runs off into middle distance to watch clip)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:48 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

That, and the movie musical generation finally dying off.

Boo! Boooooooooooo, I say!

I LOVED the horrible Oscar musical numbers! I remember a salute to James Bond with a dancer strapped to a jet pack, Goldie Hawn dancing on a biplane, Liza Minnelli singing in front of a disturbing line of uncanny valley Oscar statues.... It was the highlight/ lowlight of the show! That and the weird protest speech/ streaking/ Cher outfit of the night! And Cyd Cherisse was wonderful in that number.

The Oscars have gotten dull. They were always stupid, but being boring is a criminal offense. A dorky musical number was often the watercooler moment.

I want a supercut of Oscar musical number weirdness!

Confession: I've lived in the Bay Area for 30 years, and I have never seen Beach Blanket Babylon.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 11:51 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

Her voice... that sound...
posted by Splunge at 11:54 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

oh man it's so great! It's like Springtime For Hitler in real life :D
posted by aielen at 11:57 AM on February 20 [4 favorites]

And Cyd Cherisse was wonderful in that number.

Yeah that was the biggest travesty of the whole thing. You've got Cyd Cherisse and 10 minutes to fill -- just have her dance. Even with the scary stars if you must.

The most timely part about the medley I just linked is that it's the only type of thing I think Seth McFarland might be about to pull off as host... though I'd probably still rather just watch Brian and Stewie do it.

What gets me about both of the videos I've watched here is how long they are. There's no moment of the current Academy Awards show that lasts this long except for maybe lifetime achievement awards and that's from start (introduction and montage) to finish (speech). Or am I just misremembering?
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:58 AM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Bowman beating the candy out of a Snow White pinata in the photo gallery is a brilliant topper. What a trouper.
posted by Spatch at 11:59 AM on February 20 [3 favorites]

5 songs nominated for best song in a film and we've made sure that it's the 5 lamest, limpest songs we could find.

This year's slate consists of a sleepy Ratpack pastiche, a sleepy song about glaciers, a Shirley Bassey pastiche, and two minutes of new material squeezed into Les Mis because otherwise the adaptation of one of the most popular musicals of all time wouldn't have been eligible for a songwriting award.

It's time to scrap the category and replace it with a best use of song award. Or best casting. Or best best boy.
posted by Iridic at 12:01 PM on February 20

I don't remember the Snow White thing but the "Not Even Nominated" bit that MCMikeNamara linked to burst into my brain as soon as it started. I have no conscious memory of watching the Oscars in 1979 (and I sure as hell couldn't have seen or heard of it since then) but I KNEW that bit. Even Sammy's little head-shaking bit. Weird what your brain walls off inside of your memory.
posted by Curious Artificer at 12:08 PM on February 20 [2 favorites]

I'm going to be in the minority on this point, I'm guessing, but what I find far more laughable than a bad sketch that went on too long is the pomposity and sanctimony of the Hollywoodites, who are just SHOCKED, SHOCKED I TELL YOU that someone would mess up the gloriousness of the Oscars -- the pinnacle of human magnificence, in a room full of the Greatest People on Earth. For decades I've been hearing how horrible this is, and how fantastic it is that the great artistes shunned Carr and drove him to his death by drink, and hounded this poor woman out of LA.

Yeah, it's pretty bad; but there was a lot of bad TV and bad movies in the 80s, and the 70s too -- and today. Everyone in that room had been involved in worse -- much of it with the taint of High Seriousness. As far as Oscar disasters go, is this really worse than giving the Best Picture Oscar to "Driving Miss Daisy", as they did later that evening? Or Dances With Wolves" a year later? It's an Oscar sketch; expectations are low. It's not like they spent $200 million making it, like some of the crap those tuxedoed nincompoops in the audience were involved in.

And, hey -- we're still talking about it a quarter-century later. Think anybody's going to still be talking about "Crash" in 2029?

In short: get over yourselves, Hollywood.
posted by Fnarf at 12:10 PM on February 20 [24 favorites]

In short: get over yourselves, Hollywood.

Heh. My favorite explanation about why "Gandhi" won for Best Picture: "Gandhi was what Academy members see themselves as: tan, thin, and noble."

I hope they don't vote for "Lincoln" because they think they're voting for, you know, Lincoln.
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 12:17 PM on February 20 [6 favorites]

Think anybody's going to still be talking about "Crash" in 2029?

Of course they will! It was one of Cronenberg's best films!
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:18 PM on February 20 [22 favorites]

My theory as to how Rob Lowe ended up in this:
At some point in the writing session when this number was conceived, a casting director in the next room misheard one of the producers yelling "More blow! I need more blow! For the love of christ, won't somebody get me more blow?!"
posted by Atom Eyes at 12:22 PM on February 20 [3 favorites]

Busby Berkeley. That's all I have to say about this.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 12:25 PM on February 20

Think anybody's going to still be talking about "Crash" in 2029?

Yeah ... 'Brokeback Mountain' should have won Best Picture that year.
posted by ericb at 12:26 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Think anybody's going to still be talking about "Crash" in 2029?

One thing I do remember is the interpretive dance they did for each of the Best Song nominees that year. Including "Hard Out Here For A Pimp."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:37 PM on February 20 [5 favorites]

So how does this musical sequence compare to the singing in the Star Wars Holiday Special?
posted by ZeusHumms at 12:40 PM on February 20

So how does this musical sequence compare to the singing in the Star Wars Holiday Special?

It's not even in the same league.
posted by The World Famous at 12:44 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Think anybody's going to still be talking about "Crash" in 2029?

That is just sixteen years away. People still talk about mediocre movies twenty or thirty years later. Red Dawn is almost twenty years old, for example.
posted by mikepop at 12:46 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Red Dawn is almost twenty years old, for example.

Almost 30 years old. It was released in 1984.

But is anyone talking about "Crash" now? I mean other than to occasionally offer it as an example of a terrible movie that shouldn't have won?
posted by The World Famous at 12:48 PM on February 20

Where I live, people are not talking about "Red Dawn".
posted by Fnarf at 12:49 PM on February 20

Sammy Davis could probably make any musical number cool.
posted by annsunny at 12:51 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Even as a kid, I did not get the point of the Oscars at all. It always seemed like an endless school assembly. So, yeah, this number ran really long, but what the hell was anybody complaining about? They were more entertained by watching famous people giving each other little gold trophies for hours on end?

R. Crumb did a good strip years ago about his night at the Oscars. I can't find it online, or I'd link the hell out of it.

"So how does this musical sequence compare to the singing in the Star Wars Holiday Special?"

That special's not very good at all, but its badness is really overstated by the fanboys and Bea Arthur's genuinely melancholy, Cabaret-esque Mos Eisley cantina song is kind of awesome. At least it's a fuckton better than the prequels!
posted by Ursula Hitler at 12:52 PM on February 20 [2 favorites]

Of course they will! It was one of Cronenberg's best films!

No, it was an dissappointment. He actually makes a Ballard film instead of referencing them and it... wasn't great.

Shivers will live forever however...
posted by ennui.bz at 12:58 PM on February 20

Where I live, people are not talking about "Red Dawn"


Maybe they are! It's to do something bad again years later, but to manage to make it even shittier.

"Did you hear that Shirley remarried her alcoholic ex? Now he's in jail and she's in foreclosure. She really red dawned herself."
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 1:04 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Where I live, people are not talking about "Red Dawn".

I'll be there in half an hour. Look for the '73 Torino with John Milius and John Goodman in the backseat, arguing the tenets of National Socialism. We'll switch to villainous Soviet-Cuban ground wars in Colorado when you get in. The trunk's full of cheap whiskey and Army surplus rifles. We're driving to Mexico to build a freedom fighting army.
posted by gompa at 1:25 PM on February 20 [9 favorites]

At least it's a fuckton better than the prequels!

Look, I hate the prequels too, but I didn't have to see Wookiees getting lap dances in them, so I'm going to give them that one.
posted by emjaybee at 1:54 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

This article reminded me why I have had a crush on Marlee Matlin since forever.

That said, Hollywood in general makes me sick to my core.
posted by turgid dahlia 2 at 2:22 PM on February 20

"I remember Bob Mackie said, "Why am I making a Snow White outfit?" I fainted once during a fitting because I hadn't eaten. I woke up, and Bob was going, "Honey, are you all right?" He gave me juice. My dress was bought for $23,000 by someone involved with the production who was buried in it. It was a man. I'm leaving it at that.

The show itself looked like a gay bar mitzvah. Middle America must have been like: "What is going on? There are dancing tables, there's Snow White singing with Rob Lowe, there's Merv Griffin with people with coconuts on their head!"

This was hilarious. Thanks for the fun read!
posted by zarq at 3:04 PM on February 20

Ber: we've made sure that it's the 5 lamest, limpest songs we could find.

Agreed. The biggest snub this year was Ladies of Tampa.
posted by troika at 3:17 PM on February 20

Thanks to this article I now want a swimming pool with pink water.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:20 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Thanks to this article I now want a swimming pool with pink water.

It's pretty easy:

1) Salt water instead of chlorine;
2) A hungry shark.

Just add swimmers.
posted by maxwelton at 3:34 PM on February 20

"My dress was bought for $23,000 by someone involved with the production who was buried in it. It was a man. I'm leaving it at that."
Pray, tell.

My money is on Allan Carr.
posted by unliteral at 5:43 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

My boyfriend said, "oh, really, it's not that bad," but still couldn't make it through the whole ten minutes.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 5:45 PM on February 20 [1 favorite]

Okay, I think the real question is how much Steve Silver REALLY had to do with this, and how much of that was blamed on Allan Carr. That was very much like a Beach Blanket Babylon show (and she mentions that that's what she thought she was auditioning for). I mean, like, really similar. That kind of thing plays well in campy SF when everybody knows it's camp, but it's really baffling at what is this quasi-formal, quasi-serious annual Hollywood love letter to itself.

Too bad both Carr and Silver are gone. I think there's probably more to the planning process than we (or the dupes who ended up onstage) will ever know.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:35 PM on February 20

I wonder if Lily Tomlin and Rob Lowe reminisced about this over drinks when they were working on The West Wing. Or if they couldn't bear to make eye contact and just mumbled their hellos before running for their dressing rooms.

Cyd Charisse, though. Holy wow. They should have just given HER the whole 15 minutes.
posted by MsMolly at 6:38 PM on February 20 [3 favorites]

It WAS all Steve Silver's fault. Poor Carr got a bum rap. All he did was hire the wrong guy. You hire Busby Berkeley or Quentin Tarantino, you get BB or QT. He got Steve Silver, which makes this all much less surprising.
posted by mudpuppie at 6:42 PM on February 20

I guess you can put me in the camp of, "well, it's not good, but really, this is what you've been eating your own liver over for twenty years, Hollywood?" It's a shit number brimming with excess and self-indulgence, but without any malice or idiocy beyond a certain forgivable myopia. Given the choice between ten minutes of that or Ricky Gervais patting himself on the back for making another incredibly subversive joke about mongs at the Golden Globes, I think I'd prefer the former; it looks better when muted.
posted by Errant at 2:17 AM on February 21 [2 favorites]

Yeah, there's an awful lot of pile-on for Allan Carr as a coked-up gay man in a caftan, but if you look at the bulk of his career, he had an incredible run, doing everything from working with Hugh Hefner on the early Playboy empire to planning a black-tie party for Truman Capote in an old jail to bringing La Cage aux Folles to the U.S. and turning it into a musical. But people remember him now mostly for Can't Stop the Music and this thing, in the best you-fuck-one-goat fashion.

And caftans are damned comfortable. Or, er, so I've heard.

Don't judge me. Cary Grant wore panties.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:46 PM on February 21