Above, Matt Lanter looks delicious as this week's "Man Candy" in In Touch (November 19, 2012). Below, Taylor Lautner from Life & Style (November 19, 2012):
More after the jump...
Former SNL cast member Nora Dunn does her best Lorne Michaels impression (involving Madonna and Sean—Penn), then relates a hysterical Warren Beatty story.
FINAL UPDATE: Frustratingly, Charitybuzz doesn't allow its items to be viewable with all the bids and final price once they're over, but in the final minutes of the Madonna auction, "Charitybuzzfan" chimed in with a $25,000 bid. There were a few others leading up to that amount, but I believe it ended at $25,000...exactly the amount Charitybuzz predicted. I honestly thought it would end around $15,000. WOW.
UPDATED: Bidding is now up to $12,000 with $13,000 for the next bid. Well...that puts me out of the running unless someone wants to trade magazines or sexual favors on top of my $5K! :)
So...no one wants to go halfsies on that charity auction to meet (BRIEFLY!) Madonna and get a photo with her at her W.E. premiere? It would probably only cost us each about...FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. In this economy, it's a steal. (P.S. I found it interesting that the money is earmarked for Haiti. This is a new charity for Madonna as far as I can tell.)
In other Madonna/W.E. news, Arianne Phillips was nominated for Excellence in Period Film for her eye-popping costumes in the movie by the Costume Designers Guild. Be great if she received an Oscar nomination, especially since the designer of Madonna's fabulous Evita duds was scandalously overlooked. (Arianne was working for the enemy that year, dressing Courtney Love in The People vs. Larry Flynt!)
Prove it!
As of midnight last night, it was exactly six years since my first post. It's been a tough thing to keep up with a dayjob and outside activities, and just when I think I might walk away, a valuable connection or interesting opportunity or a kind word comes my way. Thank you all for reading me.
Of whom are you more jealous?
Here are my favorite 100+ posts out of nearly 11,000. Please take some time to read (or re-read!) a couple and tweet or Facebook any you like.
xoxo Matt
The pocket pool championships were intense this year
BOY CULTURE
FROM BOY TO MAN: BC B.C. (2007): The entire history of my novell and novel Boy Culture as well as the movie version; might be my ultimate post.
Jonathon Trent & Derek Magyar make an Allan Brocka sandwich
BOY ON FILM (2006): An account of the NYC launch party for Boy Culture as it played the TriBeCa Film Fest.
I was left "Reeling" by the experience
FRIENDS AND "FAMILY" (2006): The movie version of Boy Culture hits Chicago.
No one would've mistaken me for Taylor Lautner
RAPT PUPIL (2006): The final night of Outfest with Boy Culture; I was fat but on the other hand got to meet Bryan Singer.
MY ART
Construction worker (shot this week) vs. James Dean
GUYDAR (since at least January 17, 2008) & ENDS OF THE WORLD (since at least January 13, 2008): Attractive men of the world—I got your backs. Your fronts, too.
Unaltered iPhone image that still blows me away
"Your pictures suck" (2008): An art critic attacks me, but not without sustaining some hits in return.
DRAWN TOGETHER (2008): How my desire to draw related to my secret desire. One of my absolute favorite posts.
The shirtless one
LOST ANGELES (2009): My favorite photographic travelogue of L.A.
Even then, New Yorkers feared 9/11 was the beginning of the end
ART IMITATES LIFE (2006): My 9/11 and my distaste for grief tourism.
ME
Death of the party—Jeff in high school, already halfway through his life
BURNING MAN (2007): Tribute to my late high school friend and first romance.
Signed, sealed (eventually) delivered
LOST BOY FOUND (2011): There is a book in here somewhere.
Be Italian
CIAO HOUNDS: OUR TRIP TO ITALY (2011): Finally got José to Europe.
ILLINOIS DEATH TRIP (2007): Ruminations on death while revisiting a past home, and the past.
Life is short...and meaningful
PASSING BY (2008): Mourning the loss of a person I only met once.
Lots more...
As Nathaniel notes, today was the 25th anniversary of the release of Shanghai Surprise, one of Madonna's biggest disasters. In fact, I will always remember that when it came and went, Rolling Stone dubbed it Madonna's first bomb. It was the first of several heart-breaking filmic bombs for her, but really, M, did you think a movie with a character named "Gloria Tatlock" was going to be a hit?
If I were Madonna, I'd celebrate this anniversary by having sex with that boyfriend of hers...who wasn't even born when this movie hit theaters.
First Madonna, now it's HAPPY 53RD BIRTHDAY, BELINDA CARLISLE! (For those who are keeping track, other '80s idols who are hitting 53 this year—or who would've—include Prince, Simon LeBon, Kate Bush, Joan Jett and Michael Jackson, to name a few.)
Oh, and HAPPY 51ST BIRTHDAY, SEAN PENN! Madonna's truest love and a man of conviction, even when I don't agree with him. Who could ever have guessed Madonna and Sean Penn would be such acclaimed and, yes, relevant artists 25 years after their "mad marriage" was in full swing?
Maybe this crestfallen poem by the late Charles Bukowski applied to the Penns, whom he'd met several years before he wrote it, and maybe it didn't (read up on Bukowski's dislike for his buddy Penn's wife here). It's far from scathing; more disillusioned...with himself as well as with whoever "them" are.
Full poem after the jump...
Thanks to Matthew: Wow, I want pictures...now! (Sorry, non-Madonna fans...it has been a very Madonna stretch lately.)
Reminds me of her 1994 Wayne Maser Esquire shoot
So Madonna looks flawless (in the good way) on and in Interview (May 2010) thanks to inspired shots by Mert & Marcus that in turn seem inspired by Gary Heery's fantastic first-album cover shoot and Steven Meisel's 1991 Vanity Fair shoot (inset) and perhaps accidentally similar to Tom Munro's recent work with her. But despite parallels, the shots are not knock-offs, and a couple of them threaten to become instant classics.
How much do we love that she wore jewelry so reminiscent of her early '80s accessories? In fact, some of them actually are her early '80s accessories, I bet, since they're credited as the artist's own.
The interview, a long chat with Gus Van Sant, shows off Madonna's excellent taste in movies and seems to be a sort of reminder of who Madonna was and who she still is—if she weren't talking about the movie she's co-written and plans to direct (W.E., which she clarifies is not all about Wallis Simpson), it's the kind of interview she could have given 20 years ago.
Of particular interest to gay fans:
"But you know, what [Milk] triggered for me was all my early days in New York and the scene that I came up in-you know, with Andy Warhol and Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat and Kenny Scharf. It was just so alive with art and politics and this wonderful spirit. So many of those people are dead now. I think that's one of the reasons I cried. In fact, the character that Richard E. Grant plays in the film I directed, Filth and Wisdom [2008], is this blind professor who was based on my ballet teacher, Christopher Flynn. Growing up in Michigan, I didn't really know what a gay man was. He was the first man-the first human being-who made me feel good about myself and special. He was the first person who told me that I was beautiful or that I had something to offer the world, and he encouraged me to believe in my dreams, to go to New York. He was such an important person in my life. He died of AIDS, but he went blind toward the end of his life. He was such a lover of art, classical music, literature, opera. You know, I grew up in the Midwest, and it was really because of him that I was exposed to so many of those things. He brought me to my first gay club-it was this club in Detroit. I always felt like I was a freak when I was growing up and that there was something wrong with me because I couldn't fit in anywhere. But when he took me to that club, he brought me to a place where I finally felt at home. So that character in Filth and Wisdom was dedicated to him and inspired by him. I don't know why I'm bringing all this up, but I guess it's just coming from that world in Michigan and the trajectory of my life: after going to New York and being a dancer when the whole AIDS epidemic started and nobody knew what it was. And then suddenly, all these beautiful men around me, people who I loved so dearly, were dying-just one after the next. It was just such a crazy time. And watching the world freak out-the gay community was so ostracized. But it was also when I was beginning my career. . . . I don't know. Your movie really struck a chord for me and made me remember all that. It's a time I don't think many people have captured on film. It's a time that people don't talk about much. And even though there was so much death, for me, New York was so alive."
Seeing a thriving, last-century gay culture depicted on film seems to have jogged her memories of the period directly following.
This is the umpteenth time Madonna has spoken of the impact gay men have had on her life, but I feel like no matter how many times she says it, there are always those who think she's using gays for money. (Which she is, but she's using everyone for money so she's a capitalartist, not a gay-casher.)
Major missed opportunity—Van Sant speaks with her about Malawi, but doesn't bring up the persecuted couple so in danger there as we speak.
An "Erotica"-style video of the shoot by Fabien Baron ("why was he chosen?") is here. More images after the jump...
