I hate the news.
I really truly hate the news.
Just yesterday I was talking how sad I am that wonderful Bea Arthur was stolen away from us by cancer.
I casually mentioned that I would have put up a Bea Arthur poster beside the Farrah Fawcett poster that every young boy had on their walls in those days.
Today I heard that poor Farrah is not doing so well with her battle against cancer and her son Redmond O'Neal, who's in jail pending a hearing on his latest drug charges, was sprung for a few hours over the weekend to spend time with her.
How nice, what a wonderful thing for a mother to think about at such an awful time.
Good going Red! You jerk.
Redmond the idiot apparently told a judge that his mother weighed only 39 kilos to get the judge to let him out. I have since read that he lied to get leniency and Farrah is actually 45.8 kilos which is 101 pounds right now. It's not much but it's a lot better.
Redmond and his dad Ryan O'Neal, spent three hours with Farrah.
I would like to think that Redmond did something to ease Farrah's suffering by lightening her heart of a dark cloud which he causes.
Time to think about someone else Redmond.
I hope you are thinking about your mom as much as I think about mine. Or as much as I am thinking about YOURS for that matter!
Farrah has had some interesting moments over the years but she has done some amazing things.
Charlie's Angels was the Baywatch of my generation with the 3 beauties getting our undivided attention every week.
Then there was the movie Saturn 3 with Kirk Douglas. My Rover Scout crew went to the theatre to see this in 1980. Not a very good movie I'm afraid.
However...
There was one scene where we got to see Farrah topless! I'm serious! It was done so quickly though that we stayed in the theater for the next sitting to get a better look.
It was pretty funny when the scene came on again. When it was done all of us stood up and left. You should have seen the faces of everyone else in the place! That was priceless.
In 1984 Farrah proved she is a true star in "The Burning Bed" .
It was one of the most powerful things I had ever seen and remains so to this day.
Farrah played the battered wife of Paul Le Mat who had enough of him beating her. Nobody helps her. Nobody listened to her.
After he rapes her one night, she sets the bed on fire with him in it while passed out.
I can't say for certain but up to that point in time I don't think I had ever wished death on another human being. While watching that movie I did just that. I really wanted Paul Le Mat to die.
Farrah showed us that she could be taken seriously as an actress and deserved her fame not only for her looks.
An odd coincidence. The Burning Bed was directed by Robert Greenwald who also happens to be the director of "Steal This Movie" which was released in 2000.
It didn't do very well but had the first appearance of a couple of little stars who were only several weeks old when it was filmed in Toronto.
Have a look here http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161216/fullcredits#cast at the full credits. You'll see a couple of kids listed as "Baby America" who you may recognize their names.
I got to meet and talk to Mr. Greenwald as I worked the babies and he worked the scene. :) The whole scene took a small amount of time to film.
It was a scene where the FBI kicks in the door to arrest Abbie Hoffman (Vincent D'Onofrio) while he and his wife Anita (Janeane Garofalo) are talking to Baby America (My Stars).
We don't know which baby made it to the big screen but they always use twins in case one starts fussing. They did the scene a couple of times to get it just right. At the end of the last take my guy started to cry almost right on cue as the FBI dragged Vincent away. It was perfect for the moment.
Robert said "cut". I looked over at him and he looked at me and gave me a big thumbs up. We nailed it!
Anyway, Robert has also had the pleasure of working with the lovely Farrah and he drew out the horror, pain and passion that Farrah needed to play the role in a way to make the audience feel what she felt.
When I met Mr. Greenwald I didn't realize that he directed "The Burning Bed". If I did I would have said something.
Maybe he will find this blog one day?
I hope that Farrah will stay with us much longer and perhaps find this blog in the massive web of the internet.
I would really, really like that.
The things I would tell Farrah are the things I would have told Bea Arthur if I had a chance.
I was one of the boys who looked at her and said "Wow!".
Then I discovered that she was also an amazing talent and said "WOW!".
Personally, I haven't seen enough of Farrah's talent and want to see more movies and shows with her in them.
Please stay with us Farrah.
I don't want to say goodbye to you too. Not for a long time.
Tim
Posts
1 comment:
Great post, Tim. I too remember the "Baywatch of our generation". It was good fun. I was a Jaclyn Smith boy but to each his own.
In my recent housecleaning I tossed the videotape I had of "Saturn 3". It truly was an awful movie, only saved by that one famous scene.
I had no idea your boys were movie stars!
Post a Comment