Classic Beauty: Barbara Stanwyck

Never a great beauty, Barbara Stanwyck made up for it in spades by having the smart, no-nonsense sexuality that was capable of driving men insane — and not just on the screen.  (Gary Cooper is reputed to have described acting with her as like acting with a tiger:  you were never quite sure what she was going to do next, but if you were lucky, you wouldn’t end up being eaten alive.)  And here she is (often, alas, a victim of the Bad Hairstyle Syndrome of the era):

And yes, back in her youth…

Wow.

One Day At The Mail

On the average day, I first check this website, read the Comments and emails, then I go to Chris Muir’s Day By Day, then to Insty, and then to the Daily Mail.  That’s pretty much it, and then I trawl through other sites more or less as they occur to me.

At the DM, I see the news, mostly Brit of course, and pick up bits and pieces that I think warrant either a post or for inclusion in the News Roundup.  As I do that, I see en passant articles about the usual motley selection of slags, hussies, whores, reality show “stars” and media personalities (some overlap), which I either ignore because I have no idea who they are, or else because I do know who they are (e.g. the Kardashian coven) and refuse to clutter my already-overstuffed brain with that shit.

My Brit Readers may know who these women are, of course, but that’s their problem.

I have to admit, though, that I am occasionally seduced into reading some of the former, simply because the women look quite attractive, and I’m as much a sucker for a pretty face as any man with the proper hormones, if you see what I mean.

So last Thursday (I think), I decided to collect a couple-three pics of each of the prettier totties featured on that day, and present them to you as a sort of collage, if you will.  It doesn’t matter if you don’t know who they are (or even care), as what passes for fame in Britain pretty much means singers, actresses or “media personalities” (again, some overlap), or else the Royal Family (who have no attractive totties in their ranks anyway).

Anyway, here are the ones I chose, in no specific order.

Tina O’Brien

Jess Impiazzi

Suzanne Shaw

And finally, Denise Van Outen (I do know who she is, simply because she’s been around for a long time, she was a guest on Top Gear, and she’s aged quite gracefully in that sort of Helen Mirren way)

If you want to know more about them, go ahead and search online — I don’t feel like doing the work for what is, after all, just eye candy.

I may do this again on occasion, unless the reaction in Comments is vitriolic and involves dodging a storm of (virtual) rotten tomatoes tossed in my direction.

Old Man Crush #305

Have I ever mentioned before just how infatuated I am with actress Laura Linney?  For one thing, she’s an excellent actress quite deserving of a star on Hollywood Boulevard:

…and then, of course, we get to the strawberry-blonde hair, fine body and OMG those exquisite dimples:

Woof.

Readers without failing memories may recall that she played Abigail Adams in the excellent HBO mini-series John Adams — and all I can say is that if the real-life Abigail was half as beautiful as Laura, it’s a miracle that ol’ John ever got to Philadelphia.

Classic Beauty: Gloria Grahame

Gloria Grahame never thought she was as beautiful as everyone else thought of her, which was a shame.  She was also more talented than studio people thought she was — her only Academy Award came from a nine-minute screen appearance in The Bad and the Beautiful  (1952).  However, when she married the son of her second husband (i.e. stepson), the resulting uproar pretty much ended her career, which was a shame.

She died at age 57, of cancer.