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Tag: lucille ball

  • Goldie Hawn: Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women Can’t Be Funny, Hawn Is the Exception

    Goldie Hawn: Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women Can’t Be Funny, Hawn Is the Exception

    Goldie Hawn and Michael Eisner shared the stage Thursday at the Aspen Ideas Festival on Thursday, and the former Disney CEO said the actress is the “exception to the rule” that beautiful and funny is not the norm in Hollywood.

    “From my position, the hardest artist to find is a beautiful, funny woman,” Eisner said to Goldie Hawn. “By far. They usually—boy am I going to get in trouble, I know this goes online—but usually, unbelievably beautiful women, you being an exception, are not funny.”

    Hawn was drawn in and said she agreed that she may owe her sense of humor to her being an “ugly duckling” growing up.

    “You didn’t think you were beautiful,” Eisner said. “I know women who have been told they’re beautiful, they win Miss Arkansas, they don’t ever have to get attention other than with their looks. So they don’t tell a joke. In the history of the motion-picture business, the number of beautiful, really beautiful women—a Lucille Ball—that are funny, is impossible to find.”

    Goldie Hawn, who will turn 70 in November, told Eisner she left action because Hollywood offers fewer roles to women as they get older.

    “When you get to a certain age, you have to make a decision for yourself,” Hawn said after an audience member asked about ageism in Hollywood. “If you want to get old in the industry and you want to play maybe a few parts that come along now and then—or what else in life interests you?”

    Do you think Goldie Hawn is the exception to the rule that beautiful women can’t be funny?

  • Lucille Ball Fans Demand ‘Ugly’ and ‘Deranged’ Statue Be Removed in the Legendary Star’s Hometown

    Lucille Ball fans are demanding that an “ugly” statue of the legendary comedian be removed from a park in the I Love Lucy star’s hometown.

    Granted, the life-size bronze statue in Celoron, New York, does look more like Conway Twitty, the snake from “Beetlejuice” and actor Steve Buscemi, as fans claim, than Lucille Ball.

    The mayor of Celoron, Scott Schrecengost, has sided with the disgruntled fans.

    Despite the uproar over the statue, it has remained a tourist draw for a legion of Lucille Ball fans since the statue was erected in 2009.

    The campaign to remove the statue began when a resident of Jamestown, where Lucille Ball grew up, started a Facebook page in 2012, called “We Love Lucy! Get Rid of this Statue.”

    A Yahoo! News story about the page started by the resident, who requested anonymity, saying the issue is “not about me; it’s about the statue,” reignited calls for the statue’s removal.

    The resident would like to see the statue removed and a new statue erected outside a planned Comedy Hall of Fame in Jamestown, which is home to the Lucy-Desi Museum & Center for Comedy and the annual Lucille Ball Comedy Festival.

    “Lucille Ball was one of the most talented, beautiful, funny women who ever appeared on television; a pioneer, a giant of television. My only goal is to have a sculpture of her in Jamestown which does her justice,” the resident told CNN.

    “This statue in Celoron is not fixable. I love my hometown and I Love Lucy. Let’s get a new statue that is a real tribute to her memory as the Comedy Queen of Television.”

    The resident’s sentiments about the statue were echoed by Colin Dabkowski, a Buffalo News columnist, who said “its deranged grimace and jagged teeth inspire more dread than reverence.”

    “No one here much likes the statue, and one look tells you why. It looks more like an extra from ‘The Walking Dead’ than arguably the most famous comic actress of all time,” he wrote about statue of Lucille Ball.

  • Hollywood Remembers ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High’ Actor Taylor Negron

    Hollywood is remembering Taylor Negron, 57, who died Saturday after a long battle with cancer and is known for his role as the Pizza Guy in 1982’s Fast Times at Ridgemont High.

    “I want to inform you that my cousin Taylor Negron just passed away. His mother, his brother Alex and my brother Rene and his wife Julie were all there with him,” his cousin, Chuck Negron, announced in a video. “May he rest in peace.”

    Remembered by Billy Crystal as a “brilliantly funny comedian,
    actor and wonderful painter,” Negron was a very familiar face to movie-goers. People magazine reports that he began his career when he was 19 as an intern for comedic legend Lucille Ball.

    A Glendale, California-native, he was well-known on the stand-up comedy circuit, as well as in many roles on film and television, including The Last Boy Scout with Bruce Willis, HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm with Larry David, along with appearances on Friends, ER, Wizards of Waverly Place and Seinfeld.

  • Kathy Bates Likens Melissa McCarthy to Lucille Ball

    Kathy Bates has been around the Hollywood scene for some time and has seen actresses come and go. But she sees something very different and unique about her Tammy co-star Melissa McCarthy. The well-respected actress had some very flattering things to say about McCarthy, even comparing the Bridesmaids star to comedic genius Lucille Ball.

    The Oscar-winning actress recently told Tim Lammers that her main impetus for joining the Tammy cast was McCarthy.

    “The main reason for doing it was Melissa McCarthy. I had seen her in Bridesmaids, and I wish I could be as clever, wonderful and physical in comedy as she is,” Bates said. “I wanted to get to know her — I really wanted to understand her secret. I wondered, ‘How can she stay so real yet push the envelope the way she does, physically and comedically?’”

    Bates gave McCarthy the ultimate compliment in comparing The Heat actress to Ball.

    “I can see a comparison in her and Lucille Ball in the way Melissa fearlessly goes places that a lot of actresses wouldn’t go,” Bates said. “She’s nimble, quick and fearless. ”

    The 66-year-old actress portrays Lenore, a first cousin, twice removed to Tammy (McCarthy) in the film, which was co-written and produced by McCarthy.

    Bates conceded that even though McCarthy pushed the comedic limits of everyone involved, she still could not muster the same talent it takes to enter the ranks of the Bridesmaids star.

    “It was wonderful to pretend for a while that you can be as funny as she is,” Bates said, laughing. “When we were all doing our improv scenes for the film, we were just shameless trying to be as good as Melissa because she raises the bar — but of course, we fell short.”

    The film tells the story of Tammy, a fast-food worker who is having a really bad day and the fallout from that day. Allison Janney and Susan Sarandon star as Tammy’s mother and grandmother, and Sandra Oh plays Lenore’s girlfriend.

    McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone, directs the film and stars as Tammy’s boss. The couple married in 2005 and have two daughters together.

    Image via Twitter, Kathy Bates

  • Alicia Silverstone Reminisces at ‘Clueless’ Reunion

    There was a Clueless reunion Tuesday and it was, like, totally awesome.

    Alicia Silverstone, 37, and her Clueless costars, Stacey Dash and Elisa Donovan, were reunited Tuesday, May 6, at the Nokia Theater for an L.A. Film Festival screening of the 1995 hit comedy that defined a generation and coined expressions like “as if” and “my bad.”

    Joined by creator/director Amy Heckerling, the trio took to the stage for a Q&A session as diehard fans in the audience were “going wild.”

    “I am so lucky that they were all out there at the time. I saw the ‘Cryin’ video for Aerosmith and when Alicia gave the finger, I said, ‘There’s my girl,” said Heckerling, referring to Silverstone’s appearances in Aerosmith music videos prior to Clueless. “We met and I just loved her immediately.”

    Silverstone, 37, told the devoted fans that playing Cher was “wonderful” and “so much fun.”

    “I thought I was channeling Marilyn Monroe and Lucille Ball,” said Silverstone. “And obviously that wasn’t the case. But I just felt like that! Especially when I pushed [Elton] off [of me at a house party],” she continued. “Those were the things that I found lovely.”

    Heckerling said 47-year-old Dash was perfect to play Cher’s BFF Dionne.

    “I wanted somebody that seemed like she was royalty and she can easily be government,” said the Look Who’s Talking director.

    “We had so much fun,” gushed Dash. “[Heckerling] had such a clear vision and she was able to translate it to us perfectly.”

    Heckerling told the audience each day on-set was a blast.

    “It was a fun group. I don’t like getting up and going to work, but in this case, I was so happy every day.”

    Donovan, who played meanie Amber in the film, remembered being young and carefree.

    “Just as everyone said, it was such a magical experience,” said the 43-year-old actress. “That was my first movie. So to have such an extraordinary group of people, and to have everybody be young, and have so much fun, it was amazing.”

    According to a source who attended the Q&A session, “It didn’t look like any time had passed. They all gelled so well together and looked like they could have stepped right back into those roles.”

    Needless to say, the question of a possible sequel came up during the Q&A.

    ‘I’m game to whatever [director Amy Heckerling] has in store,’ said Silverstone. ‘I think that time has passed, though. I don’t even know what Cher would be up to these days.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Jerry Lewis Makes Attempt To Clarify Comments

    Jerry Lewis had some serious backpedaling to do after his comments a few years ago, and in his attempt, did graciously tip his hat to classic comediennes Carol Burnett and Lucille Ball, according to AP.

    The offensive comment that he made went something like he thought women were funny, but not when crude. I could agree, but some who are offensive on a regular basis might find that…offensive.

    He tried to clarify by saying, “Seeing a woman project the kind of aggression that you have to project as a comic just rubs me wrong. And they’re funny — I mean you got some very, very funny people that do beautiful work,”

    Then got a little confusing as he added, ” — but I have a problem with the lady up there that’s going to give birth to a child — which is a miracle,” Lewis said.

    So, you can be crude, unless you’re pregnant. I’m not sure what he’s trying to say, however, in his praise of Burnett and Ball, he did have some beautiful words. He said of Carol Burnett, “…when you have women like Carol Burnett, that’s the greatest female entrepreneur of comedy. I just saw Carol at the Smith Center at home in Vegas, and I was stunned by how brilliant she is and how brilliantly she brings the audience right up to her.”

    Of Lucille Ball, he said she “went to the lowest level of the barrel, and she was brilliant because of it.”

    His lovely remarks were made after a ceremony to put his hand and foot prints outside Hollywood’s Chinese Theater, after which he was to attend a 50th anniversary screening of The Nutty Professor as part of the TCM Classic Film Festival. He was accompanied by his only daughter, Danielle Sara Lewis. She is the youngest of his 7 children.

    “This is an incredible time for me,” he said. “I have never, ever had an experience like this and had my daughter present. And this is the first time I’ve ever asked her to join me.”

    That crazy Jerry Lewis.

    Image Via YouTube

  • Jerry Lewis Praises Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett

    Jerry Lewis was full of praise Saturday for fellow comedians Lucille Ball and Carol Burnett while having prints of his hands and feet immortalized in the cement outside the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

    Lewis, 88, hasn’t always been a big proponent of female comedians.

    In fact, there was a time when Lewis said he didn’t like female comedians at all. But after criticism for his remarks, he changed his tune, saying Lucille Ball was “brilliant” and Carol Burnett is “the greatest female entrepreneur of comedy.”

    During the ceremony, Lewis said Ball “went to the lowest level of the barrel, and she was brilliant because of it.”

    Lewis told reporters he likes a funny female comedian like the next guy, but says he draws the line at crudeness and does not like to see a woman demean her femininity by succumbing to crudeness and aggressive humor.

    “Seeing a woman project the kind of aggression that you have to project as a comic just rubs me wrong. And they’re funny — I mean you got some very, very funny people that do beautiful work — but I have a problem with the lady up there that’s going to give birth to a child — which is a miracle,” Lewis said. “But when you have women like Carol Burnett, that’s the greatest female entrepreneur of comedy. I just saw Carol at the Smith Center at home in Vegas, and I was stunned by how brilliant she is and how brilliantly she brings the audience right up to her.”

    Lewis’s wife and daughter were on hand at the cement ceremony and the actor asked his daughter, Danielle Sara Lewis, to take a bow.

    “This is an incredible time for me,” he said. “I have never, ever had an experience like this and had my daughter present. And this is the first time I’ve ever asked her to join me.”

    Lewis was to attend a 50th anniversary screening of one of his most famous films, The Nutty Professor, following the event.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Jerry Lewis Doesn’t Find Crude Women Funny

    Jerry Lewis Doesn’t Find Crude Women Funny

    Jerry Lewis isn’t impressed by female comics who cross the line into vulgarity. He simply doesn’t find them funny. The 88-year-old comedian and actor was once criticized for expressing what many believed was his distaste for female comics altogether. He clarified his comments, however, on Saturday when he was honored following the placing of his hands and feet in cement outside of Hollywood’s Chinese Theater.

    “Seeing a woman project the kind of aggression that you have to project as a comic just rubs me wrong. And they’re funny — I mean you got some very, very funny people that do beautiful work — but I have a problem with the lady up there that’s going to give birth to a child — which is a miracle,” Lewis said. “But when you have women like Carol Burnett, that’s the greatest female entrepreneur of comedy. I just saw Carol at the Smith Center at home in Vegas, and I was stunned by how brilliant she is and how brilliantly she brings the audience right up to her.”

    Lewis said Lucille Ball “went to the lowest level of the barrel, and she was brilliant because of it.”

    Jerry Lewis’s wife and daughter accompanied him to the ceremony. It apparently was a first for his daughter. He even asked her to take a bow. Hopefully Lewis didn’t temper his comments about comediennes because his daughter was present.

    “This is an incredible time for me,” he said. “I have never, ever had an experience like this and had my daughter present. And this is the first time I’ve ever asked her to join me.”

    Danielle Sara Lewis is the youngest of Jerry Lewis’s 7 children. She is his only daughter.

    Just imagine what Lewis must be thinking about female comics like Kathy Griffin or Lisa Lampanelli. Vulgarity flows from their mouths like water from the kitchen faucet. It might be interesting to hear what the comic legend would say about their performances.

    Jerry Lewis appeared frail at the event celebrating his success as an actor and a comedian. At one point he required some help standing when his legs appeared to fail him.

    Do you agree with Jerry Lewis’s reaction to female comics? Does this generation have a potential Lucille Ball or a Carol Burnett–or have female comics all sunk to the lows Lewis detests?

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Jerry Lewis Honored, Said Women Are Funny

    Jerry Lewis was immortalized in hand and foot prints at famed TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on Saturday, and said that women are funny, but not when they are crude.

    The 88-year-old entertainer was criticized for expressing his distaste for female comedians a few years ago, but delivered clarifying comments on the matter after leaving his prints in cement outside the Chinese Theatre on Saturday.

    Lewis praised Lucille Ball, and said she “went to the lowest level of the barrel, and was brilliant because of it.”

    He also called Carol Burnett the “greatest female entrepreneur of comedy.”

    “Seeing a woman project the kind of aggression that you have to project as a comic just rubs me wrong. And they’re funny — I mean you got some very, very funny people that do beautiful work — but I have a problem with the lady up there that’s going to give birth to a child — which is a miracle,” Lewis said.

    “But when you have women like Carol Burnett, that’s the greatest female entrepreneur of comedy. I just saw Carol at the Smith Center at home in Vegas, and I was stunned by how brilliant she is and how brilliantly she brings the audience right up to her,” he said.

    Lewis entertained the crowd during the ceremonies. He took his own pictures of guests from the stage, made funny faces, led the crowd in an impromptu version of Silent Night, cracked jokes, and even bit Quentin Tarantino in the hand.

    “I just got bitten by Jerry Lewis,” said Tarantino, who introduced Lewis at the event, and spoke about the impact that Lewis had on his life.

    “I really think this man is a treasure,” said Tarantino.

    “He is one of the great actors/directors in the history of cinema,” Tarantino said.

    Lewis was joined by his wife and daughter, whom he adopted in 1992. He asked her to take a bow during the festivities, in a rare public appearance together.

    “This is an incredible time for me,” Lewis said.

    “I have never, ever had an experience like this and had my daughter present. And this is the first time I’ve ever asked her to join me.”

    The event was part of the Turner Classic Movie Classic Film Festival, and Lewis left the handprint ceremony to introduce a special screening of The Nutty Professor that evening.

    “It was wonderful to see all of you,” Lewis said, smiling and waving to the audience as he left.

    “I’ll see you all later,” said Lewis.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Lucie Arnaz Remembers Christmas With Ricky & Lucy

    The I Love Lucy show is such a familiar favorite that it runs on many different channels at all times of the year. It originally aired in 1951 through 1959 on CBS and it was one of the most watched shows on television. It can still be viewed today via reruns.

    I Love Lucy is an American television comedy sitcom that starred Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Vivian Vance, and William Frawley. Their show names were Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel.

    I Love Lucy was the most watched show in the US in four of its six seasons, and was the first to end its run at the top of the Nielsen ratings.

    A total of 193 episodes aired over over six seasons on CBS. The show is still syndicated in dozens of languages in nations around the world. The show also won 5 Emmy Awards.

    (image)

    When the show went off the air in 1959, because of its success, the producers extended I Love Lucy to 60 minutes, with a big guest star each episode. They renamed the show the The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour. Thirteen hour-long episodes aired from 1957 to 1960.

    An amazing accomplishment of this dynamic duo was the creation of Desilu Productions by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, founded in 1950.

    Imagine being a child of such a well known couple in the 50’s. Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. who grew up in Beverly Hills, California, have fond memories of their childhood, especially during Christmas.

    Arnaz says her parents, Ball and Desi Arnaz, made the most of the holiday at their Beverly Hills home in the 1950s. Arnaz and her brother, Desi Arnaz Jr., reveled in it.

    “It was the only time of the year when there wasn’t stress,” recalled Arnaz, an actress-singer who tours nationally in concert. “There was a lot of stress because of how hard they worked, and their marriage wasn’t doing well. But Christmas was always a good time.”

    Arnaz went on to describe their Beverly Hills home, “My mother loved the East Coast so she tried to bring it to Beverly Hills. We always had a flocked white tree with blue lights. At night, it made it look like wintertime in the snow,” Arnaz said.

    She fondly recalls watching her parents on the set of I Love Lucy, and hopes the “I Love Lucy Christmas Special” (8 p.m. EST Friday, CBS) will introduce the sitcom to a new generation of viewers.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons 1
    Wikimedia Commons 2

  • Lucie Arnaz Remembers Mom ‘Lucy’ During the Holidays

    Lucille Ball’s comedic genius portrayed in the timeless classic I Love Lucy still garners an audience today. In honor of the holidays, a special colorized episode is being released on CBS. Christmas was a special time enjoyed by Lucille Ball in private as well. Ball’s daughter, 62-year-old Lucie Arnaz, recently spoke about her childhood family memories surrounding the holiday season.

    “It was the only time of the year when there wasn’t stress. There was a lot of stress because of how hard they worked, and their marriage wasn’t doing well. But Christmas was always a good time,” Arnaz said.

    Arnaz went on to explain why her mother spent time decorating the Beverly Hills house in which the family resided. “My mother loved the East Coast so she tried to bring it to Beverly Hills. We always had a flocked white tree with blue lights. At night, it made it look like wintertime in the snow.”

    Arnaz even spoke about how her father (Desi Arnaz) dressed in a Santa suit. “He bent over and kissed me and said `Merry Christmas!’ I thought, `Santa sounds just like daddy,’” Arnaz said before adding that her mother’s response to the memory years later was not one of awe. “Yes, he did that. He got all liquored up and banged on the roof and got in his Santa suit with the presents and the whole thing. And then he had to open his mouth,” Lucille Ball had said.

    Lucie Arnaz is a talented singer and actress in her own right, and starred in Here’s Lucy with her mother. Arnaz recently shared news on her personal website about the release of her previous work. “I am proud to announce all six seasons of HERE’S LUCY (the series I co-starred in with my mother, Lucille Ball, and my brother, Desi Arnaz, Jr.), are now available on DVD courtesy of MPI. The wrap around commentaries on these are priceless.”

    Image Via Wikimedia Commons

  • Shirley Mitchell, From “I Love Lucy” Dies At 94

    Shirley Mitchell died yesterday at the age of 94. She was most well-known to audiences as Marion Strong, the funny friend of Lucy Ricardo’s on the hit television show, I Love Lucy. She is believed to be the last surviving member of the cast, and the television world lost another star yesterday.

    Mitchell’s sister-in-law, Nancy Olson, was the one who initially reported her death, and she passed away due to heart failure. She died at her condo in Westwood, California.

    She was born in 1919 in Toledo, Ohio, and began her career as a radio star, where she met and became friends with Lucille Ball. Lucille Ball, of course, was the star of I Love Lucy, along with Desi Arnaz, a team that continues to make people laugh to this day, through reruns of the show.

    Mitchell joined the show for the third season, which aired from 1953-1954, and appeared in only three episodes. She played the character of Marion, a character that was originally portrayed by Margie Liszt, and who set Lucy and Ricky up on their first date.

    Throughout her career, Shirley Mitchell appeared in many television shows including Three’s Company, The Odd Couple, Dallas, and several others. She was an actress that was in high-demand throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and received roles in almost every big show from the time period.

    She also appeared in a few films such as Jamboree, Big Business, and The War Of The Roses.

    Shirley Mitchell was the widow of Alan Livingston, a pop composer, and is survived by her two children, Scott and Brooke. She will be remembered as one of the comedic geniuses of television, and forever in the hearts of her family and friends, and anyone who watched the hit shows that she appeared on.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7oZYXtRU2w

    Image via Youtube