In a message dated 3/20/01 12:53:37 PM Eastern Standard Time, nydersdyner@yahoo.co.uk writes:
<< Um, well, debatable. I'm not sure, for instance, that anybody particularly expected Patrick Stewart to become a sex symbol, and frankly I consider Bela Lugosi a very good actor, but I think very few people would choose him as a sex partner even if he weren't forty years in the grave :).<<
<By the standards of the 1930's era when he first hit the public eye as "Dracula", first in the theatrical play and then the movie, he was regarded as very exotic-looking, continental and sexy, particularly in Europe. Standards of screen heart-throb have changed many times in the 70 years since.>
Hm, perhaps the wrong example to use then... perhaps, say, Trevor Cooper or Marty Feldman, both good actors but I don't think either of them have ever been considered heartthrobs (yes, alright, I'm sure somebody fancies them, but neither of them's going to be playing the Sheik of Araby anytime...)
Furthermore, actors' desirability and their acting
ability are not fixed factors: Peter Cushing started out playing young hunky heroes, but is better known for the sinister villains he played in his fifties onwards, and the actors who seem to inspire the biggest crushes are not always the ones with the best acting/imitating abilities (witness Leonardo DiCaprio).<<
<Absolutely right. Some fans go ga-ga over Brad Pitt, who looks as ugly as sin to others.>
Actually I was talking about acting talent there-- and I'm not sure even his fans will claim that he has any :).
< but the media does tend to try and steer our tastes into convenient marketing trends with respect to popular celebrities. 'Steering the crush', if you will. >
Well, yes and no. The success of Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg etc. suggest that sometimes it's the other way around.
<One result has been the disgustingly thin actress which has now become the studio norm.>
Actually, I can't think of *any* studio standard of feminine beauty that wasn't unhealthy... the Forties gave us the fuller figure, it's true, but it was one trussed up in corsets and perched on impossible shoes.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, Fiona Moore wrote:
< but the media does tend to try and steer our tastes into convenient marketing trends with respect to popular celebrities. 'Steering the crush', if you will. >
Well, yes and no. The success of Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg etc. suggest that sometimes it's the other way around.
Would this be the same Patrick Stewart who was cast as the irresistably sexy (and sexually manipulative) Sejanus in 'I, Claudius'?
Iain
----- Original Message ----- From: Iain Coleman ijc@bas.ac.uk
On Wed, 21 Mar 2001, Fiona Moore wrote:
< but the media does tend to try and steer our tastes into convenient marketing trends with respect to popular celebrities.
'Steering
the crush', if you will. >
Well, yes and no. The success of Patrick Stewart, Whoopi Goldberg etc. suggest that sometimes it's the other way around.
Would this be the same Patrick Stewart who was cast as the irresistably sexy (and sexually manipulative) Sejanus in 'I, Claudius'?
Oh, he was wonderful-- but somehow I rather doubt the Beeb were promoting "I Claudius" as a source of sexual fantasy :). By the time Stewart entered the studio-marketing system which Leah was talking about, he was in his late forties and it was in fact Jonathan Frakes whom the studio seemed to be promoting as the new heartthrob. It seemed to be as much a surprise to Paramount as to Patrick Stewart that the young guy (even after the beard) got sidelined and Stewart wound up as "Sexiest Man of the Year."
Likewise with Whoopi Goldberg-- very capable of playing sexy, but marketed for the longest time as a goofy-chick type.
ObB7... sigh. Well, whatever the charms of its actors, it wasn't marketed as a soap or a source of sexual fantasy. And, looking through the promo material I've got relating to the video releases, reruns etc... it still isn't.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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On Thu, 22 Mar 2001, Fiona Moore wrote:
----- Original Message ----- From: Iain Coleman ijc@bas.ac.uk
Would this be the same Patrick Stewart who was cast as the irresistably sexy (and sexually manipulative) Sejanus in 'I, Claudius'?
Oh, he was wonderful-- but somehow I rather doubt the Beeb were promoting "I Claudius" as a source of sexual fantasy :).
Have you _watched_ it recently? I did, having got the tapes from Santa, and it's pretty steamy stuff for its time. Sejanus, in particular, is scripted and performed as the sexiest man who ever lived -- and he knows it.
Iain
----- Original Message ----- From: Iain Coleman ijc@bas.ac.uk
Oh, he was wonderful-- but somehow I rather doubt the Beeb were
promoting "I
Claudius" as a source of sexual fantasy :).
Have you _watched_ it recently? I did, having got the tapes from Santa, and it's pretty steamy stuff for its time. Sejanus, in particular, is scripted and performed as the sexiest man who ever lived -- and he knows it.
Watched it recently? Oh, yes :). But what I was talking about wasn't the *programme* (which was very sexy, and not just Sejanus either) but the way the programme and its actors were marketed. The contemporary publicity I've seen for it markets it as kind of a Roman Forsythe Saga-- it seemingly wasn't until The Borgias that the historical drama began being marketed on sex alone (in the UK anyway, but the limited exposure I've had to the American publicity for I Claudius suggests that they marketed it purely as highbrow stuff).
So Sejanus may have been sexy as a tomcat in season, but he wasn't actually being marketed as a rival to Robert Redford.
ObB7... well, Brian Blessed was in both.
Fiona
The Posthumous Memoirs of Secretary Rontane Available for public perusal at http://nyder.r67.net
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Fiona wrote:
Hm, perhaps the wrong example to use then... perhaps, say, Trevor Cooper or Marty Feldman, both good actors but I don't think either of them have ever been considered heartthrobs (yes, alright, I'm sure somebody fancies them
That would be me, where Trevor "Cuddly" Cooper is concerned. Fell for him at the Royal Exchange Theatre years before I saw him in Star Cops. Didn't think I was the only one, actually.
She also wrote:
somehow I rather doubt the Beeb were promoting "I Claudius" as a source of sexual fantasy
Then why did they have those barebreasted dancing girls in the first few minutes?
Oh! I just heard a joke about Blake's 7 on Radio 4. Not a very good one.
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Fiona Moore -
Harriet Monkhouse -
Iain Coleman