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Andrew Benkovic: What if Former Pop Stars Had Twitter During Their Prime?

2013-05-20T15:02:32Z

The other day I was watching Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen on Bravo. The talk show is funny and generally pairs the most unlikely guests together. Recently, my personal favorites were Lil' Jon and Rachel Maddow. Anyway, on this particular day, the boy band (now man band) 98 Degrees was on. They reunited after years apart.

The group is talented. Back in the day, they were specifically known for their a cappella (they still can do it). The group is also part of the '90s music acts resurgence. Backstreet Boys are back again. To be clear, they never really left, but the group is celebrating their 20 year anniversary with a tour this summer. New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) and Boyz II Men are touring together (and with 98 Degrees) this summer. NKOTB have been touring for a few years now. Hanson has also been touring way past their "MMMBop" days and the remaining member of TLC plan a return at this year's Mixtape Festival in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

The thing that strikes me about these groups (and some of the other groups not mentioned) is that they made it without using Twitter or most social media. Frankly, it wasn't even an option. In the late '90s/2000s, a tweet was the sound a bird makes.

Today, social media is now the launching point for future pop stars, teen idols and starlets. It is also important for current stars to have an online presence. Some of them garner a huge online following before actually hitting it big. It seems like every single day at least one of the trends in the United States is pop star related. Actually on a good day it is only one trend.

As a child of the '90s (meaning I was born in the '80s and can remember the '90s), I remember the tidal wave of pop music that immersed the pop culture landscape. This occurred towards the end of that decade and filtered over to the 2000s. At the time pop singers like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera were just emerging and went on Total Request Live trying to get people to call in for their video to go number one (yes, you had to actually call-in). Backstreet Boys had already made it, with *NSYNC making a splash as well.

The groups and singers I listed are still popular (or at least one member is active) today. But, aside from this, there is a somewhat long list of boy bands, pop star and teen idols that may only accumulated modest success. In reality, any success in the cut-throat world of entertainment should be commended. Still this leads me to speculate if the limelight would have been extended for those former teen idols and boy bands if they had the option of social media during this prime time. Would things have turned out differently for these people?

To be clear many former teen idols and '90s stars have Twitter. However, in most cases their original fan bases are probably not attempting to get their former crushes follower count to a certain level. While they occasionally make a presence on Twitter, if it was during their peak, I am sure this would have been a lot more frequent.

On the flip side today's teen/20-something stars are more popular on Twitter than ever. So do today's pop stars have an easier time maintaining their levels of fame? It's a little too early to tell. Twitter has only been around for a little over seven years and it wasn't until the last few years that it surged in popularity. There are some stars that are going through (or have gone through) a transitional phase in their careers. They formed a solid fan base on the site, but whether this base continues to follow them is yet to fully be seen. Tweeters also choose to follow the star for many (and sometimes negative) reasons. Some users make multiple accounts to increase the followers of a star. Generally these accounts become inactive or are vacant. There is also the inevitable fake follower that plagues most high-profiled accounts. Regardless, it would be interesting if they deleted their account or somehow their follower count decreased drastically or went away completely. Would it change anything?

While the quest for fame and fortune has become a goal for many, if used correctly, Twitter and other social mediums can help form the connections and opportunities the person may need to reach their goals. It is interesting to see groups like 98 Degrees and Backstreet Boys use Twitter (which they didn't have) to help them out today. It is tough to tell if the pop stars of the past with fewer accomplishes would have had a longer career if Twitter was available. However, it would be interesting to see groups/individuals with more modest success regain their popularity using this platform. But, the real test is if today's popular pop stars and teen idols will be able to prolong their career in 140 characters or less. Only time, talent, and the occasional Twitter trend will tell.

WATCH: Annie And Auggie's Deadly New Mission

2013-05-20T14:09:11Z

When "Covert Affairs" returns for Season 4 on Tues., July 16 (9 p.m. ET on USA), Annie (Piper Perabo) and Auggie (Christopher Gorham) will embark on their most dangerous mission yet.

In HuffPost TV's exclusive promo above, Annie has made a shocking discovery about the security of Langley and turns to Joan (Kari Matchett) and Arthur (Peter Gallagher) with some troubling news. Does it have something to do with the mysterious project Henry Wilcox (Gregory Itzin) enlisted her for at the end of Season 3? Tune in for "Covert Affairs" Season 4 to find out on July 16.

And look out for new characters including Manolo Cardona as Teo Braga, a charismatic, enigmatic Colombian rebel leader with secrets that will impact the CIA; Hill Harper as Calder Michaels, a CIA station chief in Latin America angling for a D.C. promotion; and Michelle Ryan as Teresa Hamilton, "an operative with a shadowy past."

Are you excited to see Annie and Auggie as a couple in Season 4 of "Covert Affairs"?

Ken Fallin: Sigourney Weaver's Nose

2013-05-20T14:02:00Z

People sometimes ask me what feature on a person's face is the most important in creating a caricature.

When I'm drawing a famous face, that's pretty easy, as it would be the feature most people think of when they think of that particular celebrity. Barbra Streisand's nose, Katherine Hepburn's lack of a nose, and her very sharp cheekbones, Jay Leno's big chin, and Clark Gable's ears, just to name a few.

This past week I did a drawing of Christopher Durang's award-winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike, which plays Broadway's John Golden Theatre. Sigourney Weaver stars in this very funny comedy, playing an exaggerated characterization of herself. A caricature of herself.

Miss Weaver is a very lovely lady, tall, thin, and glamorous. I did several sketches, but they all came out bland and dull. The problem with a pretty or handsome face for caricature is that when you exaggerate the features, the distortion removes the attractiveness, and the drawing fails to look like the subject.

I suppose I'm lazy, in that I like to exaggerate what nature has already begun.

So, I experimented with the features of Miss Weaver's nose. I reduced the nose to two straight lines, and added flaring nostrils, and it seemed to work.

The eyes are two little intense dots. Simple, but hopefully they convey the character of Sigourney Weaver, and not just another pretty face.

Pictured are (counterclockwise from top left) Kristine Nielsen, David Hyde Pierce, Sigourney Weaver and Billy Magnussen.

The Female Larry David?

2013-05-20T14:00:12Z

Having appeared in such projects as the HBO series "Bored to Death" and the Noah Baumbach films "Margot at the Wedding" and "The Squid and the Whale," actress Halley Feiffer is way more famous than a lot of people. That just doesn't necessarily translate to Twitter.

"I really don't have that many Twitter followers, which I'm really sad about," Feiffer, 28, joked during a recent interview with HuffPost Entertainment. "I really want people to think I'm more famous, and that happens when you have more Twitter followers."

That could happen soon enough. Feiffer co-wrote and stars in the indie comedy "He's Way More Famous Than You," a caustic film about Feiffer's alcoholic alter ego, an actress also named Halley Feiffer. Directed by former "Ugly Betty" star Michael Urie (who also appears as "himself" in the film) and featuring cameo appearances from Jesse Eisenberg and Ben Stiller, "He's Way More Famous Than You" has received strong reviews from both The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times. Slamdance Festival programmer Josh Mandel, meanwhile, compared Feiffer's style to Larry David. It's a connection the actress has gladly embraced.

"I always wanted to be a young, female, blonde Larry David or Louis C.K. That's sort of my goal," Feiffer said. "Both of them, also, play horrible versions of themselves with their own names, which I really like."

Feiffer is off to a good start in that department. The Halley Feiffer in "He's Way More Famous Than You" is selfish, uncouth and obsessed with fame. She treats "The Squid and the Whale" -- the real-life Feiffer's breakout film -- as if it's the most important indie released in the last 50 years.

"That's something I did almost 10 years ago now, when I was a completely different person, and yet that's the thing people recognize me the most from," Feiffer said about Baumbach's film, which came out when she was a junior in college. "I guess that's what I was trying to make fun of a little bit. I don't think I was as entitled as my character, I hope, but I guess I thought it would be funny to explore a world in which I was."

For Feiffer, whose parents are Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer and author Jenny Allen, exploring that world began in a way similar to how the film's fictional script starts for the fictional Feiffer: after a breakup.

"This guy I was dating, we were writing a screenplay together and then he broke up with me and I had a terrible thought: 'Maybe I could just make this movie by myself,'" she recalled. "I was like, 'No, that's a horrible idea. You can't do that, Halley.' But then I thought it would be funny to write a movie where my doppelgänger -- my evil twin, this horrible version of myself -- doesn't realize that writing a movie is a horrible idea."

Feiffer wrote a treatment for what would become "He's Way More Famous Than You," but then tabled it after showing it to a few people who didn't really get what she was going for. It was only after a year, when her friend and fellow actor Ryan Spahn suggested that the duo write something together, that Feiffer pulled the script out of a drawer.

"Ryan was in the treatment," she said. "He was my gay best friend who I asked to be in the movie, and the joke was that he was gay and we had no chemistry but we were always making out in the movie and it was terrible." The final script, which Spahn co-wrote with Feiffer, turned the actor's role into something even more awkward: He plays Halley's brother, and the pair decide to act as love interests in the movie within the movie.

"I had never written a screenplay before so I had no faith that we could actually do it," Feiffer said of the process. "That we actually shot it and it became a movie now in theaters is hilarious to me because I never thought we'd get to page 23."

"He's Way More Famous Than You" puts Feiffer through the ringer -- even if her character doesn't know that. It's an unflattering portrayal of ego run amok, but Feiffer said it wasn't difficult to separate herself from the terrible person staring back at her on the page.

"It didn't feel like I was really digging into my deeper truth because I don't behave this way," she said. "There was one day where I did come home and felt pretty depressed and I didn't know why. We had just written that scene where my agent breaks up with me and I was having sadness about that. No scene like that had happened in real life, but the movie is loosely based on feelings and insecurities I had. Mostly, though, it was just a total blast -- especially because I got to write it with my friend. If I had been doing it by myself it might have been painful; doing it with my friend, we would just laugh and eat french fries and it was so fun."

Not everything, of course, has been as much fun. Feiffer recalled how she recently made the mistake of searching Twitter for comments on "He's Way More Famous Than You" -- "Mostly it has been positive, but we do get some mean things" -- and she has learned to shy away from reading reviews. Well, most reviews.

"I feel vulnerable, because people could watch it and think I am a horrible person. Which I am, I just don't want them to know that," Feiffer deadpanned. "So, I don't read reviews. But Ryan told me there were a couple that were totally positive, and that was OK. Then someone else told me to read one that was positive, and I was like, 'It's sort of positive?'"

Despite that, one of Feiffer's favorite "He's Way More Famous Than You" reviews lives in that nether region between good and bad.

"Someone wrote something on Twitter that I thought was really mean, but now I think it was nice: 'He's Way More Famous Than You' is the dumbest movie I've ever seen. I loved it.' Which I really love, because I totally know what he's talking about. It is, I hope, some combination of low brow and high brow. There are many jokes about blow jobs and then many jokes about Austin Pendleton. How many movies are like that?"

"He's Way More Famous Than You" is out in limited release now and available on VOD and iTunes. Feiffer will next be seen in the play "How To Make Friends and Kill Them," which she also wrote. "How To Make Friends and Kill Them" will debut at the Rattlestick Playwrights Theater in New York this fall.

10 Things We'll Always Love About 'Buffy'

2013-05-20T13:41:06Z

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" gave viewers a world rich with witty, independent women, fantastic monsters, hellish high school sagas and so much more.

It's been 10 years since Joss Whedon's TV masterpiece ended -- May 20, 2003 was the last time a new episode of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" aired -- and we still can't get enough of the show. Buffy's adventures continued on in comic books written by and executive produced by Whedon, but there's still something to say about the world crafted on the series.

In honor of the 10th anniversary of the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" series finale, here are 10 things we'll always love about the show.

What are your favorite parts, moments, characters, episodes, etc.? Tell us in the comments below.

Gwen Stefani's Surprising Honor

2013-05-20T13:26:13Z

Gwen Stefani isn't a regular mom, she's a cool mom.

The 43-year-old No Doubt singer was recently voted the coolest mom in music in a survey conducted by iHeart Radio. Stefani took the highest percentage of votes, nabbing the number one spot by winning over 30.4 percent of survey participants.

The mother of two beat out Sheryl Crow who came in second with 20.4 percent of the votes, and Beyonce, who took the number three spot with 17.4 percent. Other moms who made the list were Shakira, Christina Aguilera, Madonna, and Britney Spears.

A survey was also conducted by iHeart Radio on the May albums that listeners were most excited about. Lady Antebellum's "Golden" topped the list with 29.2 percent of the votes, beating out Rod Stewart's "Time," Darius Rucker's "True Believers," Demi Lovato's "Demi," Daft Punk's "Random Access Memories," Vampire Weekend's "Modern Vampires of the City," and Jay Sean's "Neon."

For more from the survey, head over to iHeart Radio.

Mila Kunis And Ashton Kutcher Put Their Romance On Display

2013-05-20T13:20:37Z

Looks like this romance is still going strong ...

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher were spotted holding hands in London yesterday (May 19), chatting among each other as they strolled down the street in Hampstead Heath.

Kunis and Kutcher kept it casual in sneakers and sweaters while onlookers gazed at them as they walked by.

On Saturday (May 18), the former "That '70s Show" co-stars -- who've reportedly been dating since April 2012 -- met up with Kunis' parents Mark and Elvira to see "Billy Elliott: The Musical."

Kutcher, 35, is currently living with Kunis, 29, in northwest London while she shoots her new movie "Jupiter Ascending."

See photos of the lovebirds below:

QUIZ: Guy Fieri Quote Or Thing We Just Made Up?

2013-05-20T13:18:42Z

Guy Fieri's new book, "Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives: The Funky Finds in Flavortown," is a major contribution to food-based literature. Take this quiz to find out if you can tell real Fieri quotes from the book from the ones that we just made up.

H/T: Flavorwire

'My Music Career Hangs Over Me Like A Cloud'

2013-05-20T13:13:45Z

Justin Timberlake's good year got even better after Joel and Ethan Coen's new film "Inside Llewyn Davis" premiered at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival on Sunday. Timberlake has a supporting role in the drama, playing a 1960s singer whose wife (played by Carey Mulligan) has an affair with the title character (Oscar Isaac). During one particularly buzzy scene, Timberlake sings an entire folk song with Isaac and "Girls" star Adam Driver as his backup singers.

"The combination of Timberlake's reedy voice and Driver's basso profundo is so ... magical? Yes. Yes. It's magical," wrote Vulture's Kyle Buchanan of the "Inside Llewyn Davis" moment. "Anyway, it's so magical that when they finished the whole, uninterrupted number, the audience at the Salle Debussy burst out into delighted applause."

After the film debuted, Showbiz411 writer and editor Roger Friedman spoke with Timberlake about his career, which has pinged with what seems like little effort from singer to actor to comedian. "You know my music career hangs over me like a cloud," Timberlake reportedly told Friedman during a particularly introspective moment.

Not that the cloud is necessarily of the stormy variety. Timberlake's new album, "The 20/20 Experience," sold almost 1 million copies in its first week of release. The disc -- which featured singles "Suit and Tie" and "Mirrors" -- even has its own sequel coming later this year: Timberlake officially announced the second half of "The 20/20 Experience" earlier in May. The album will arrive on Sept. 30.

As for "Inside Llewyn Davis," with the Coen brothers' pedigree and a well-received debut at Cannes, the film is on track to be one of the most talked about Oscar contenders of 2013. Check out what critics had to say following the "Inside Llewyn Davis" premiere here. "Inside Llewyn Davis" is out on Dec. 6.

[via Showbiz411]

She 'Can't Be Prouder' Of 'Buffy'

2013-05-20T13:10:22Z

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" ended 10 years ago on May 20, 2003. Yes, it's been a decade since the Slayer and the Scoobies closed the Hellmouth in Sunnydale, California.

Series star Sarah Michelle Gellar is returning to TV opposite Robin Williams with "The Crazy Ones," a new comedy on CBS this fall. At the CBS 2013 upfront red carpet last week, Gellar was surprised by how much time has passed since she last wielded a wooden stake on TV.

"Wait, wait. Hold on. Really?" she replied when The Huffington Post told her the 10th anniversary of the "Buffy" finale was upon us. "Wow. God, you just blew my mind." Williams, who accompanied Gellar on the red carpet said, "It's kind of wonderful."

"It is," Gellar said. "I'm incredibly proud of that show -- proud of everybody on it, of what we did ... You can't be prouder of that show. It still holds up in reruns and I'm blessed every day ... I've been pretty lucky."

Danny Strong, the writer of "Recount" and "Game Change," appeared as Jonathan, a former high-school geek who became one of the villains in Season 6 of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and said the show is bigger now than when it was originally on.

"It just gets bigger each year. It's really exciting how much it penetrated this public consciousness in a way. People teach courses about it and there are Joss Whedon courses in universities. People write their dissertations on it," he told The Huffington Post. "It's incredibly flattering and I'm really honored just to have been a part of it. It's very exciting."

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" lives on in comic book form with new adventures from Dark Horse Comics executive produced by series creator Joss Whedon.

Audra McDonald Reveals Herself In New Album

2013-05-20T13:08:48Z

NEW YORK — If either her husband or daughter is calling, Audra McDonald knows without looking at her phone.

That's because the five-time Tony Award winner has programed the ring tone for both to be The Carpenters' hit version of "(They Long to Be) Close to You."

"It's cute, right?" the 42-year-old actress-singer asks.

It is indeed.

For more revealing things about McDonald look no further than her new CD and televised concert. Both pull back the curtain on one of the most decorated women on Broadway.

The 12-song disc called "Go Back Home" includes classics like Stephen Sondheim's "The Glamorous Life," Richard Rodgers-Oscar Hammerstein II's "Edelweiss" and "First You Dream," from the John Kander and Fred Ebb show "Steel Pier."

It also highlights younger composers such as Zina Goldrich and Marcy Heisler ("Baltimore"), Adam Gwon ("I'll Be Here") and two songs by Michael John LaChiusa ("Virtue" and "Married Love").

The CD's title – taken from the stunning Kander and Ebb song from "The Scottsboro Boys" musical – is a hint that this is McDonald's most personal album to date.

Since her last record – "Build a Bridge" in 2006 – McDonald lost her father in a plane crash, divorced and remarried, spent four seasons on TV's "Private Practice" and won her fifth Tony Award for "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess."

All those events have influenced her choice of songs. "If you were to write a musical about my life over the past seven years, this would be the soundtrack," she says.

The song "First You Dream" makes her think of her 12-year-old daughter Zoe, "Edelweiss" of her late father and "Make Someone Happy" of her husband, fellow performer Will Swenson. The CD ends on that optimistic note. "That's what I've come to and where I am now," she says.

McDonald, who is host of "Live From Lincoln Center," has a line of concert dates until Christmas, has shot a pilot for CBS with Hope Davis and Sam Neill, and has three theater projects percolating. On Friday, her "Audra McDonald in Concert: Go Back Home" concert special airs on PBS.

The Associated Press recently sat down with the singer and longtime activist for marriage equality to find out about the new album – out Tuesday – and why she won't be listening to it.

AP: Why so long between albums?

McDonald: Life happened. And I wasn't quite ready to say anything. I was like, `I don't want to force it. I don't want to make an album simply to make an album. I need to have something to say.'

AP: Is there a story behind "Edelweiss"?

McDonald: That's the first song I ever auditioned for anything with. I was 9 years old and my dad played it on the piano for me during my audition. It was for a dinner theater troupe in Fresno, Calif. I got in, and that started me on my theater journey. That song has always had this huge influence.

AP: Has your voice changed in these seven years?

McDonald: I think I understand my voice more than I did seven years ago. I'm much more comfortable with what my voice is than I was seven years ago. I'm not so anxious to sound like someone else. And that's always been a goal of mine: be comfortable with your own voice, your own sound.

AP: You have five Tonys. Do you hope for a sixth?

McDonald: It's still not even fathomable to me that I have one, let alone five. It does not compute. In my life, it really doesn't. Last night, I was walking upstairs after having done three loads of laundry. I came upstairs and turned a corner to another pile of laundry. There's just so much laundry in my life! Someone with five Tonys shouldn't have this much laundry! So it doesn't compute. My life is still my life.

AP: Are you surprised by how fast Americans have come around to embracing the concept of gay marriage?

McDonald: It's like I describe my labor. I was in preterm labor for three months. So when people ask how long I was in labor, I say `Three months and six hours.' It was the world's longest labor, but when I actually went in to deliver, it happened like that. That's what this feels like – it's been this battle that's been going on for a long time. And then, all of a sudden, we're in the last six hours.

AP: Lots of people will hear this, but you won't be one of them, right?

McDonald: I can't. I can give notes during the mixing process and then after that I have to step away. I have people that I trust listen to it but I won't be able to listen to the album for years. I get too close to it. When they sent me the final cut, if I listened to it at that point I would say, `Throw the whole thing into the trash. Let's start over.'

___

Online:

http://www.nonesuch.com/store/audra-mcdonald

http://audramcdonald.net/

http://www.pbs.org/

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

'30 Rock' Actress Ties The Knot

2013-05-20T13:07:25Z

"30 Rock" actress Katrina Bowden is married! Us Weekly reports that the actress, who played sassy secretary Cerie on the hit NBC sitcom, tied the knot with Armor for Sleep frontman Ben Jorgensen on Sunday at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden in New York.

The bride, 24, and groom, 29, said "I do" in front of 127 guests. "I think when you meet the right person, you just know you want to be with them forever," Bowden told the publication. "I mean, I wouldn't have gotten married if I was 17 or 18, but we knew each other so long ago, and I loved him then, and then I loved him even more. It felt so right. I've never felt that way with somebody."

Jorgensen proposed to Bowden in January 2012 with a stunning platinum and diamond engagement ring worth a reported $30,000. The couple had been dating for two years but had known each other for much longer. "Ben and I first met seven years ago and we knew our connection was special," Bowden told Us Weekly in 2012, after her engagement. (Both Bowden and Jorgensen hail from Bergen County, in New Jersey).

Esquire's 2011 "Sexiest Woman Alive" added: "He was the one guy I could never stop thinking about. Then when we met again two years ago, all those feelings came rushing back and I found out he always felt the same way about me, too. We mean everything to each other and couldn't be happier!"

PHOTO: The happy couple in 2012.

Alison Winfield Burns: Death by Dior: A Book Review

2013-05-20T13:03:35Z

The key thing about this book is its shocker: Françoise Dior (niece and one-time presumptive heir of fashion industry titan Christian Dior) wants her only child, 20-year-old Christiane to commit suicide. And helps her do it.

The act doesn't come from out of the blue. There's a long build-up of unhappy choices that lead this woman to hurt her child, and her life has an historical tarnish that is especially poignant -- the patina of Nazi Germany.

During WWII, Paris was an occupied city and French couture houses collaborated with the Germans, some more willingly than others. Christian Dior designed for Nazi wives while working at the Paris fashion house of Lucien Lelong alongside Pierre Balmain. Coco Chanel is documented as having been an agent for the Third Reich.

The pro-Nazi sensibilities of Edward, Duke of Windsor and of his American paramour Wallis Simpson lent a certain perceived panache to Nazism in the early days, and many people were willing to overlook the growing atrocities.

After the war, a joint effort by couturiers, Theatre de la Mode (dressed dolls that traveled on display throughout the world) eased uneasy minds over rumours of collaboration with the Nazis during the occupation of Paris (1940 - 1944). France was eager to move forward and forget the past; Paris painlessly regained its primacy, indeed Christian Dior's New Look of 1947 - so-named for a remark by Harper's Bazaar's Carmel Snow - was the locomotive of that.

Death by Dior deals with the bitterness of Françoise at losing an inheritance from the House of Dior, her sexual affair with her daughter Christiane, and Christiane's subsequent - and consequent - suicide. Françoise ties the noose and places the chair with her own hands.

Christian Dior had an intimate relationship with his niece. He'd replaced her father very early in life, although Françoise was the illegitimate child of an Hungarian aristocrat with not a drop of Dior blood. Book author Terry Cooper writes about the need that Françoise felt to make an aristocratic marriage. Her first marriage joined her to one of the most illustrious families in France, de Caumont La Force, whose distinction dates back to the time of the Roman Catholic First Crusade -- led by the most powerful nobles of France. The couple had one daughter.

The reader sees Christiane de Caumont La Force as a slender pale-haired young teen, holding a puppy or standing with her horse, always gazing at her pet, not at the camera. A beautiful girl.

Born in 1957, just days after Christian Dior died, Christiane was named for him in a rush of last-minute sentiment, but by that time Dior had needed "medication to wake up, to have an appetite to eat, to stay awake, to have an erection, and, finally, to go to sleep; his day was one long series of injections," writes Cooper. Françoise objected to this and Christian disinherited her.

Cooper himself has a sexual past (he describes group sex) with both mother and daughter and portrays them in the most unflattering of terms. Cooper's association with Françoise began during her second marriage. In 1963, Françoise had married Colin Jordan, leader of the British neo-Nazi party. The bride wore 3 strands of pearls and a swastika pendant.

Old television reel shows Françoise toss off a casual but emphatic, "Vénérer le Führer" (translation reads "I love/venerate Hitler") and Cooper says that this remark was made at the height of her determination to "avenge the death of Dior," which she imagined was a Jewish plot.

Françoise lost interest in the world of fashion after the death of her uncle, but Cooper says that living, "Dior made many dresses for her while at the same time she had free choice in his boutique."

A young, glamorous Françoise, intent on making a fine marriage, had frequented elite Paris clubs. Years later at Maxim's in Paris, whenever Françoise came in for dinner -- escorted by Terry Cooper -- they still played for her the "Lili Marleen." A hit for Marlene Dietrich with German and Allied troops alike. (Christian Dior designed Marlene Dietrich's dresses for the Alfred Hitchcock film Stage Fright, 1950)

For all of the pathos that Death by Dior contains, it conjures bittersweet nostalgia. It's a joy for readers to think back to those first, post-war New Look Dior gowns: skirts with heaps of fabric in scarlet, jade, or champagne that really just resembled big, Cinderella dresses and the lost days of France's Belle Époque.

Women want to feel extraordinary and nobody does it better than Christian Dior. There's something about a handful of silky-smooth cloth that is very sensuous. It drives men crazy. Marilyn Monroe sang in 1953's Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, "square-cut or pear shape, diamonds are a girl's best friend." That may be so, but a girl's dress is just as vital.

John Galliano of Dior has said publicly, "Inspired by Egon Scheile, I just loved the idea of this wonderful muse escaping from the canvas and trying to evoke that illustrative line." I reached out to him through his partner Alexis Roche for this article and proposed a story idea to Vanity Fair on April 29th:

It is a bizarre and striking co-incidence that John Galliano also said "I love Hitler" during the drunken outburst that led to his firing. (It is no more than that but it adds some resonance)
While I discuss the revelations on the life of Francoise Dior as authored by Cooper, I tap the current vein of fascination surrounding Dior as a fashion house. As unsavoury as the topic of Nazism is to the palate of the reader, this is historical information. I offer insight into two recent calamities in the fashion world as a part of my article: the suicide of Lee McQueen and the public, theatrical breakdown of John Galliano.

I shall interview all relevant parties

Vanity Fair will run an interview with John Galliano covering a breadth of topics and in part two of this article, I shall explore my insights with Alexis Roche...

Christian Dior said that his fashion house personified his very being, more so than his own body.

Dior was known to circulate -- while his muses modeled and he sat, topping off bits and pieces of gown and hat for the runway, touching every detail with a wooden baton -- yes, to circulate red wine with plates of sandwiches and cake, amid the rustle of fabric, the smell of Dior parfums.

There is no death by Dior if we talk about art, there is only life by Dior. And in this book that so remorselessly brings to light long-ago misdeeds, there is something of a reminder how great art outlasts the residue of pain.

A true artist is great because of their art. Their lives are often a disaster. Artists who are genius in creation, often lack basic daily survival skills. Sometimes genius artists have severe difficulties with addiction.

Death by Dior by Terry Cooper, Dynasty Press, available 28 May, 2013

God Talks To Anne Heche

2013-05-20T12:59:01Z

What happens when you tell a pastor that God talks to you? He's very impressed, apparently.

In The Huffington Post's exclusive clip above from the second episode of NBC's "Save Me" (two-episode premiere on Thurs., May 23 at 8 p.m. ET), Beth Harper (Anne Heche) opens up to the pastor at her church about a very ... interesting talent she's developed after having a near-death run-in with a sandwich.

"Pastor Jim? I have an espresso maker I'd like to donate to the church if you can use it somehow," she says, before adding, "God talks me."

"Lucky you!" he exclaims.

Here's how NBC describes the first two episodes of "Save Me":

"The Book Of Beth" (Pilot)

"Save Me" premieres with Emmy nominee Anne Heche starring as Beth Harper, an absentee wife and mother who suffers a dramatic near-death experience and is revived only to discover that she now receives messages from God. As she warms up to her powers and begins dispensing advice that is astonishingly accurate, her husband Tom (Michael Landes) is skeptical and their teenage daughter Emily (Madison Davenport is horrified. Complicating matters even more, Tom's mistress Carly (Alexandra Breckenridge) shows up to confront Beth about the affair and quickly gets a shocking surprise. Heather Burns (as Jenna Dennings) and Joy Osmanski (as Maggie Tompkins) also star.

"Take It Back"

Beth (Anne Heche) begins a new life on the straight and narrow and wants to make amends with old friends she has offended. Her efforts to return a long-ago stolen espresso machine to next door neighbor Maggie (Joy Osmanski) are rebuffed. Meanwhile, Tom (Michael Landes) learns to adjust to his wife's newfound ability to communicate with God and they both try to re-establish some sense of normality with their old friends and their daughter Emily (Madison Davenport). Alexandra Breckenridge and Heather Burns also star.

"Save Me" premieres on Thurs., May 23 at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.

Japan's Cannes Entry Is More Complicated Than It Looks

2013-05-20T12:47:43Z

CANNES, France — Director Takashi Miike says shooting an action movie in Japan is a lot harder than it looks.

His Cannes Film Festival entry "Shield of Straw" is a robust thriller about a team of police tasked with escorting a child-killer with a billion-yen bounty on his head safely across the country.

"It was extremely difficult to shoot all the scenes in Japan," he told reporters Monday. "It was impossible to close down the highways and get so many police cars on the road" – and Japan's railway operator refused to let the filmmaker shoot on its trains. Fortunately, Taiwan uses Japanese trains on its system, and was happy to oblige.

Although touched with serious themes of loyalty and duty, at heart "Shield of Straw" is an old-fashioned action flick, bursting with car chases, gunfights and explosions to rival anything from Hollywood – including a spectacular highway pileup and minutes of mayhem on a high-speed train.

The director says he felt Japanese cinema had lost the art of making "spectacular scenes – so I gave myself a challenge."

"In Japan we've lost a lot of traditions with action (movies)," he said. "It's not audiences who don't want to see these movies. It's the professionals, the people who make the films.

The prolific 52-year-old director has a long history of shocking cinemagoers with the gory and sometimes cartoonish violence of his films, which range from horror movies to tales of gangsters and samurai.

"Shield of Straw" – starring Nanako Matsushima (best known outside Japan for "Ring") and Takao Osawa – was met with a mix of cheers and boos at its first Cannes press screening. Trade magazine Variety judged that it "feels out of place in Cannes competition, but would be right at home on local megaplex screens."

Miike – who competed at Cannes in 2011 with his 3-D picture "Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai" – admitted he was "really astonished" to be selected this time, and Osawa said he was "a little stressed" about how the film would be received at its red-carpet premiere Monday evening.

But festival director Thierry Fremaux has compared "Shield of Straw" – adapted from a novel by manga artist Kazuhiro Kiuchi – to the 1940s and `50s films of Howard Hawks – movies that achieve artistry while sticking to cinematic formula.

"I wanted to make a film in a rather classical way," Miike said.

"I don't really know what I'm heading towards now – perhaps toward a more traditional type of cinema, perhaps the opposite."

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Jill Lawless can be reached at http://Twitter.com/JillLawless