Happy Mother's Day in Advance from Joan Crawford

Much to our shock and amazement, we found out that the Castro Theatre in San Francisco, which is one of the most famous cinemas in America, is presented a special 30th anniversary screening of "Mommie Dearest." The 1981 film starring Faye Dunaway about allegations that legendary actress Joan Crawford (1905-1977) will be shown at 7:00 p.m. A local transvestite named Peaches Christ, who is apparently popular in the communtiy, will present the film. Ticket prices are (and, we are not making this up) from $20-40.....wow, an opera in Roanoke, Va., might actually be cheaper.

Crawford won an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce" (1945) and her last screen appearance was in the horror film "Trog" (1970). Her daughter Christina Crawford wrote the 1978 memoir "Mommie Dearest" which became the basis for the film version which was badly recieved, yet it did become a camp film with a large cult following; John Waters even provides commentary on the dvd of the film though he had nothing to do with its production.

Dunaway has publicly stated that she disdains the film, and we assume she will not be in San Francisco for the screening on Saturday night (that might actually be worth the price of admission!).

Ironically, both Christina Crawford, now 71, and Dunaway, now 70, are close to the age that Joan Crawford was when she died which was 72.

SIDEBAR: We forgot to mention my fellow Turkish-American Mehmet Oz (Dr. Oz) in our last entry. Your mom might like his book "You: Being Beatiful" over his other book "You:On a Diet," which might be an even bigger mistake than buying a Syrian friend a weiner from Trolley Stop Hot Dogs in Boone, NC (a real place).

And, of course, since we have a strong center-left bias, we have to poke fun of our far-right friends. The right-wing blog "I Hate the Media" which is criticizing us liberals for making Barack Obama out to be The Mighty Thor for his killing of Osama bin Laden reported earlier in the week that the San Diego Padres were giving free admission to veterans, past and present; the team also wore camoflage. Since my stepfather the late Donald Sullivan was a WW-2 vet, we think that is very noble of the Padres. Though, the camoflage seems a wee bit over-the-top.

So, we wanted to inform the folks at "I Hate the Media" that the Padres were also the first team to play in Mexico when they faced the New York Mets for three games between Aug. 16-18, 1996. I'm they 'appreciate' us digging up that fact for them.

Happy Joan Crawford Day (In Advance)

Cult film director John Waters ("Pink Flamingos") who directed the film "Serial Mom" about a mother (played by Kathleen Turner) who turns out to be a serial killer in suburban Maryland is a huge fan of "Mommie Dearest," the 1980 film based on the memoir of Christine Crawford about the alleged abuses of her famous movie star mom Joan Crawford (1906-1977).

The movie is perhaps best known for the line: "No more wire hangers ever!"

Faye Dunaway played Crawford in the film, and she has openly ciriticized it. The IMDB says that Dunaway despises the film (image shown here) so much that she actually lists it as a topic that is taboo for reporters to bring up during interviews!

Dunaway is also known for her outstanding performances in films like "Bonnie and Clyde," "Chinatown" and "Network."

Just found out this week, that Dunaway's "Bonnie and Clyde" co-star Warren Beatty was romantically involved with Crawford. I had to pause for a moment and ask "Do they mean Joan Collins?," since the former "Dynasty" star is much closer in age to Crawford who was 29 years older than Beatty.

We traditionally quote Crawford on both of our blogs for Mother's Day Weekend, but this year, we though we'd use a quip from Dunaway:

"Years are not important my dear."

We couldn't agree more!