It may be yet another “comeback” for the former star of “Saturday Night Live,” but it may be his biggest, as he gets acclaim for his starring role in the Netflix comedy “Dolemite Is My Name.” Tracy Smith reports.
Category Archives: Profiles
Profiles: Franco-American Illustrator Jessie Kanelos Weiner
Her work explores gastronomy, travel, lifestyle, architecture and pop culture for selected clients including Vogue, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Tmag, Afar, Vanity Fair France, M le Magazine du Monde, LVMH, Nespresso, Free People, and Penguin Press among many others.
Jessie Kanelos Weiner is a Franco-American illustrator, author and food stylist based in Paris and New York. Born and raised in Chicago, she was a costume designer in a previous life when picking up watercolor for the first time, developing her highly detailed, whimsical and instantly recognizable style. She is the coauthor of “Paris In Stride” (Rizzoli), author of “Edible Paradise”: A Coloring Book of Seasonal Fruits and Vegetables” (Universe) and 8 cookbooks published by Editions Marabout.
She is currently working on the next book in the “In Stride” series.
1930’S Racing Cars: Amazing “Bugatti Type 59” Reunion (Classic Driver)
From a Classic Driver Magazine online article:
During this year’s Monterey Car Week, all four of Bugatti’s hallowed Type 59s were reunited for the first time since 1935. We spoke to the man who pulled off arguably the most historically significant automotive rendezvous of the decade…
In the fabled legend of Bugatti’s racing cars, there is one model that is so beautiful and so elusive that is stands at the top of every enthusiast of the great French marque’s wish list: the Type 59. Along with the input of Jean Bugatti, who had been one of the 
driving forces behind the introduction of the twin-cam engine, Ettore Bugatti created the ultimate expression of his jewel-like Grand Prix car.
Video Profiles: Beach Boys Singer Mike Love (PBS)
Singer and songwriter Mike Love is best known as one of the founding members of the Beach Boys, whose infectious harmonies and unique California sound first hit the airways nearly 60 years ago, in 1961. Through the ups and downs of a long career, Love still considers it a “precious miracle” the way fans connect with his music. He shares his Brief But Spectacular take on his life as a Beach Boy.
1960’s Cinema Icons: Remembering French “Bond Girl” Claudine Auger (1941 -2019)
From a France24.com online release:
The film’s trailer introduced Auger as: “Young. Beautiful. Trapped. Could be dangerous”.
French actress Claudine Auger, best known to international audiences playing alongside Sean Connery in the 1965 James Bond film “Thunderball”, has died aged 78, her agent said Thursday.
She played the character “Domino” in the film, the fourth in the Bond franchise, which was set in the Bahamas providing ample opportunity for swimsuit action scenes.
To read more: https://www.france24.com/en/20191219-auger-thunderball-bond-girl-dies-aged-78
Biographies: “Shatner” By MICHAEL SETH STARR (2019)
Shatner takes a comprehensive look at this singular performer, using archival sources and information culled from interviews with friends and colleagues to transport readers through William Shatner’s remarkably bumpy career: his spectacular failures and triumphs; tragedies, including the shocking death of his third wife, Nerine; and, ultimately, the resilience Shatner has shown, time and again, in the face of overwhelming odds. Author Michael Seth Starr unravels the mystery of William Shatner, stripping away the many myths associated with his personal life and his relationships with fellow actors, presenting a no-holds-barred, unvarnished look at the unique career of an inimitable performer.
In the early months of 1966, a handsome, hardworking thirty-five-year-old Canadian-born actor named William Shatner was cast as Captain Kirk in Star Trek, a troubled, low-budget science-fiction television series set to premiere that fall on NBC. Star Trek struggled for viewers and lasted only three seasons, but it found a huge, rabidly dedicated audience when it premiered in syndication following its cancellation—turning Shatner into a pop-culture icon and launching him on a career path he never could have imagined after graduating from McGill University with an economics degree twenty years earlier. As he approaches his ninetieth year, he’s still working at a furious pace as a man of boundless contradictions: by turns one of the most dissected, disliked, revered, respected, mocked, imitated, and beloved stars in the show business firmament.
To read more or order book: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781493050659/Shatner
Video Profiles: 92-Year Old Collector And Academic Herbert Lust (Sotheby’s)
Looking back on nearly a century-long life, Herbert Lust can’t help but feel lucky. He has one of the finest collections of works by artists including Alberto Giacometti, Robert Indiana and Hans Bellmer, among others. But he didn’t just collect these influential artists — he learned from them, challenged them and perhaps most importantly, he had the chance to befriend them. In this episode of A Life Less Ordinary, Lust recounts a life of eccentric curiosity, from his youth in rural Indiana to his career as an investment banker and eventually to his status as one of the leading collectors of art in New York. The close relationships he formed with artists would transform the way Lust perceived and collected art, and today offer us a rare, intimate view into the minds of 20th century icons.
Top Graphic Designers: 88-Year Old Seymour Chwast “The First Postmodernist”
Excerpts from The Revolutionary Seymour, By Steven Heller:
Seymour’s art was postmodern long before the term was coined. Yet it was resolutely modern in its rejection of the nostalgic and romantic representation, as in the acolytes of Norman Rockwell, that had been popular in mainstream advertising magazines at the time. Instead of prosaic or melodramatic tableau, Seymour emphasized clever concept. What makes the very best of his art so arresting, and so identifiable, is the tenacity of his ideas—simple, complex, rational, and even absurd ideas.
The illustrations for magazines, posters, advertisements, book jackets, record covers, product packages, and children’s books that he created after founding Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser and Edward Sorel in 1954 directly influenced two generations (statistical fact) and indirectly inspired another two (educated conjecture) of international illustrators and designers to explore an eclectic range of stylistic an conceptual methods.
To read more: http://seymourchwastarchive.com/about/seymour/
1960’s Icons: Remembering French New Wave Actress Anna Karina (1940-2019)
From a Hollywood Reporter online article:
It was during a run-in with Coco Chanel in 1958 that Hanne-Karine changed her name to Anna Karina, which the fashion designer told her sounded better. She used the moniker for her movie career, which began in earnest in 1960 with A Woman Is a Woman— just Godard’s second feature to be released —and lasted until 2008 with Victoria, a road movie she directed as well as starred in.
Anna Karina, the French New Wave starlet who rose to international acclaim in films directed by her then-husband Jean-Luc Godard, has died. She was 79.
She and Godard were married from 1961-64, and she served as his muse in such memorable works as A Woman Is a Woman (1961) — for which she received a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival — Vivre sa vie (1962), Band of Outsiders (1964), Pierrot le Fou (1965) and Alphaville (1965).
The actress’ productive career was not limited to the movies of Godard, however. She accumulated more than 50 feature credits, working with other major auteurs like Jacques Rivette, Luchino Visconti, Chris Marker, Volker Schlöndorff and Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Film Actor Profiles: “An Essay On (64-Year Old) Willem Dafoe’s Face…” (Gentleman’s Journal)
From a Gentleman’s Journal online article:
Thankfully, Willem Dafoe and Willem Dafoe’s face have used this innate recognisability to their joint advantage. To date, the actor has appeared in well over 100 films, and his prolific career can be charted through the cracks and comments — some nice, some not so nice — that those in the industry have made about his looks.
In fact, in the intervening decades, Hollywood has called many, many times — as have independent filmmakers, foreign studios, animation houses, video game developers and scores of theatres. On the big screen, Dafoe has taken roles in Platoon, Mississippi Burning, Born on the Fourth of July, The English Patient, American Psycho and Shadow of the Vampire. He flew into The Aviator for a cameo, swung into the Spider-Man trilogy as the villainous Green Goblin and dipped his toe in voiceover work with Finding Nemo. He’s taken on John Carter, John Wick and narrated films from Vox Lux to The Great Wall. He’s been Oscar-nominated several times, for playing characters as wild and disparate as hammy vampires, Floridian motel managers and Vincent van Gogh. The man is a chameleon — and has managed to become one despite having Willem Dafoe’s face.
To read entire article: https://www.thegentlemansjournal.com/article/willem-dafoe-interview-face-hollywood-cover/
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