Elvis

As Red West tells the story, Elvis was unable to rate high in the social hierarchy of his high school, not being a brain or a jock. And it was not until the middle of his last year in school that he was able to make a real splash. It was the school’s talent contest, the school variety concert.

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Elvis shuffled timidly onto the stage. His shyness, however, was offset by his elaborately combed crowning glory - his Vaseline-walled hair - and a bright red shirt. Then it happened. Elvis put one foot up on a chair to act as a prop, and he started to plunk away at the tune “Old Shep.” Then he whipped into a fast song, then a ballad. Red West smiles. “Hell, do you know while Elvis was singing the love songs, there was one lady teacher crying.

“And there were other teachers who had tears in their eyes. When he finished his show, the kids went crazy; they applauded and applauded. They just went mad. He was an easy winner. At first Elvis just stood there, surprised as hell. He seemed to be amazed that for the first time in his life someone, other than his family, really liked him. I’ll never really know when Elvis got bitten by the bug of loving the applause of the audience, but my guess is that it happened right then in Humes High School. At last, it seemed, he had found a way to make outsiders love him.

-- “Elvis: What Happened?” by Steve Dunleavy

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Watering Day

I am going full-out on our watering day today. We are in the middle of our summer heatwave, that long, extended string of hundred-degree days, without a drop of heavenly moisture in sight. The trees badly needed a helping hand, and they are getting it this morning.

Miley

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Miley Cyrus’ transformation from a sweet-faced child star into a twerking, wild-child sensation has garnered plenty of debate, but she says it’s not really all that deep — she just grew up, y’all.


“I think people forget what it feels like to be 20,” she said in a recent interview. “People just evolve and that’s all that’s happened to me. But people think a mad scientist somehow cooked up this potion and turned me in to a different human, which it wasn’t. All I did was get a haircut and buy some clothes and everyone thinks that I am made into a robot that changes with what’s popular every 10 years.”



Cyrus has raised eyebrows as she continues to distance herself from her former life as the star of the Disney show “Hannah Montana.” Now engaged to actor Liam Hemsworth, Cyrus is concentrating on her musical career and due to release an album in the fall.

Cyrus has one of the summer’s biggest hits with “We Can’t Stop”; it’s now No. 2 on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. In the song’s video, which has reached 100 million views on YouTube, Cyrus dances suggestively amid bizarre imagery, including a skull made of french fries. Cyrus says the video was inspired by her own life and the wild parties she’s been at.

Besides, Cyrus says acting a little crazy can actually be good for the soul.

“That’s why I think some people kind of fall off and they end up going crazy because you don’t give yourself time to go crazy,” she said. “That’s what you’re supposed to do; you are 20, you are supposed to be a mess because you haven’t figured it out yet, and 10 years from now I am supposed to have it all together.”

-- ONTD

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LiLo

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Exclusive: Lindsay Lohan is getting out of rehab on Saturday, kids. It’s been 90 days, she’s fresh as a daisy, and determined to turn over a new leaf. One thing is for sure: we know she can act. Paul Schrader’s “The Canyons” screened here last night in New York and Lindsay got kudos (in absentia) from everyone. Indeed, as Schrader said, she’s grown out of the ingenue stage and into a new chapter as a tough cookie, a broad. Think Annette Bening in “The Grifters.”

And so: it does seem as though Lindsay is going to be in Ben Affleck’s next directing project. Ben is putting together “Live by Night,” based on the novel by Dennis Lehane. Lindsay is thisclose to signing on– possibly as Emma, the tough waitress with a heart of gold who gets involved with the two male leads. “Live By Night” is a crime noir period piece, and Lindsay would be perfect for it.

In the meantime, Lindsay has agreed to be followed around by Oprah’s documentary crew for the first 45 days of her return home to New York. She’s going to be living “The Truman Show.” What better way to keep her on the straight and narrow?

“The Canyons” is going to be remembered as a notorious movie, one that should become a cult classic overnight. There is graphic sex. Lindsay is naked, friends. Her breasts are her own and, as Elaine Benes once said, “spectacular.” She acts up a storm, is not campy but very controlled and quite riveting. Unfortunately most of her scenes are with real life adult porn star James Deen. His emotions run from A to Z. Deen speaks in a monotone that could hypnotize Edward Snowden’s interrogators. There’s just no way out for him. I’m not even sure he makes the minimum requirement for porn acting.

Schrader called Brett Eaton Ellis’s characters “Beautiful people doing bad things in nice rooms.” I like it! The whole movie cost $250,000 and they raised it on Kickstarter. The production was given a Malibu canyon house “and it’s the sixth main character in the film,” Schrader said last night. It’s owned by someone in the music business, he said.

“The Canyons” is rated NC-17, at the very least. You should know that going in. There are threesomes and foursomes, and I’m not talking bridge or golf. Deen has some sex with a guy which Lindsay’s Tara encourages. This is not “The Parent Trap.” But it’s Paul Schrader, and you know what? Even for $250K it looks good, the direction flows, and there’s a story.

-- ONTD

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Courtney Love

It's depressing to see a middle-age Courtney Love.

"" (Watch on YouTube)

I remember watching her on the Howard Stern show on the E channel a little more than ten years ago. She was still hot and rather wild.

I had to look up her age. She is a year older than I am, born in July of 1964. I guess you cannot expect much from a fifty-year-old, right?

Like I said, it is depressing.

Savage Heat

I am giving the elephant ears their afternoon watering, and it is all I can do to keep them standing up against this savage heat, as we are getting hit with the worst that the summer has to offer us.

A man calls out to me. He is asking if we need our back yard mowed. He can see that the front is flat down. I say, "The grass isn't growing these days!" He does not find my wit very funny. He wants to mow in this heat; he needs some money in a very bad way. I take it as another sign that this neighborhood is in trouble. He is a white guy, too.

I am glad that I am able to have the cats inside. They have no idea of the great favor I do for them in keeping them inside, and in Sammy's eyes, certainly, I am the bad guy. But I know better and it is all about love.

Daily Fun

Random Pictures

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