...or is this Dollhouse promo very Tarantino-esque?

Kate kinda reminds me of the Wendy's girl here. Except much cuter.

You know, for someone who was constantly changing her clothes because of all the make-up sex she was having in this episode, Tara is surprisingly coiffed and accessorized here. Normally, I didn't care for the hair-oh-no-they-di'n'ts and jewelry they tried on Tara, but I think she looks adorable with these pigtails and simple, dangly earrings. I don't even mind the flower necklace. I'm thankful that she gets to look dignified right before she... Sniffle! Well, you know what happens.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.

— Rebecca West, 1913

(Photo by E.O. Hoppé, 1923)

Most of the time, when I have a crush (or a "crush") on someone their looks are only a small part, or even a nonexistent part, of why I find them attractive. I love their sense of humor, their confidence, their style, their talent... Except I really don't know much about David Wenham. I saw him as Faramir in The Lord of the Rings, but I can't draw any definite conclusions about his acting talent from one project. I know he's Australian, but beyond that I couldn't tell you anything about him. Except that he's damn sexy. He even makes a shirt with a questionable floral pattern sexy.

Oh, Willow. She went through a rocky seven years, transforming from a shy, awkward outcast into a powerful witch recovering from her villainous actions triggered by the death of her beloved. I didn't love all of the phases and trials she went through over the years (Sob! Tara! Sob!), and more than once I found myself desperately yearning to like Willow again. But I was always ready to take her back whenever she redeemed herself.

Sure, there were nerdy female characters before Willow, and plenty since, but she somehow became the ideal embodiment of the archetype. "The Willow character" has become shorthand amongst my friends to describe tech-savvy, nerdy female characters who seem like someone you could know in real life and would totally have a crush on. But Willow will always be my favorite awkwardly babbling, werewolf-dating, academic insecurity-having, rebellious banana-eating, crazy birthday cake shirt-wearing, misogynist asshole-flaying, "That was nifty!"-exclaiming, Jewish, lesbian(?) witch.

I actually had a conversation at work today about famous people who died from choking on their own vomit, which I think officially qualifies my week to be described as vomit-themed.

Tommy Dorsey



Bon Scott



John Bonham



Jimi Hendrix

I feel badly for these chaps whose cause of death is listed as "vomit inhalation" because it's kind of a funny-tragic way to go. Like Sherwood Anderson dying from peritonitis after accidentally ingesting part of a toothpick, choking on your own vomit sounds like such a stupid way to die, but I can't help but snigger a little when I hear it. I also snigger at this bit from This Is Spinal Tap.

Marty: What happened to Stumpy Joe?
Derek: Well, uh, it's not a very pleasant story..but, uh,
David: He's passed on.
Derek: He died. Uh...he choked on..the ac- the official explanation
was he choked on vomit.
Nigel: It was actually, was actually someone else's vomit.
Derek: You know they can't prove whose vomit it was...they don't
have the facilities at Scotland Yard....
Nigel: You can't really dust for vomit.

I could attempt to describe all of the reasons I love Carol Burnett – her talent, her humor, for being a trail blazer for female comedians and, indeed, all female performers – but I think this quotation demonstrates the greatness of Ms. Burnett better than I ever could:

The weirdest [question] I think I ever got was from a woman in Texas...and she said, 'If you could be a member of the opposite sex for 24 hours and then be able to pop back into being yourself, who would you be and what would you do?'

I said I'd be Osama bin Laden and I would kill myself.

"You said, 'I love you,' I said, 'Wait.' I was going to say, 'Take me,' you said, 'Go away.'"

– Catherine, 'Jules et Jim'

Although [Jules et Jim] is named for the men, its animating force is Catherine, a creature both utterly timeless...and forever changing...claiming for herself the reckless male freedoms that women have been traditionally denied. Time and again, she literally dresses herself in the garb of masculinity.

On paper, the mercurial Catherine seems an implausibly grandiose conception, a woman both giddy and tragic, protofeminist and male-dominated, driven by Eros and Thanatos, love and death. But as played by Jeanne Moreau, a pop-eyed siren with the ferocity of Bette Davis and the kitty-cat wiles of Tuesday Weld, Catherine becomes one of the modern movies’ triumphant characterizations—the anima as autocrat. Whether playing with vitriol or jumping into the Seine, she elevates capriciousness to an existential principle. When Jim says he understands her, she replies, “I don’t want to be understood.” And this is absolutely true. The movie lives in the shuddering distance between Catherine’s imperious, doomed physicality and the two men’s shifting perceptions of her, perceptions that rearrange but never destroy their glowing friendship.
– John Powers, "On 'Jules and Jim'"

I admit that I find it difficult to separate Seth Green from Oz, Willow's sweet, laconic, guitar-playing, werewolf boyfriend on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But if I can still get excited about Seth's presence in a project after growing up with Austin Powers, Idle Hands, and Without a Paddle, there must be something about Seth himself that tickles my fancy.

He has made better films since I was a teenager like Party Monster and The Italian Job, which are both fun, entertaining movies. He has been working mostly in animation since departing from Buffy, which is a little disappointing just because we don't get to see that sexy, slow smile of his. Robot Chicken isn't quite my brand of humor, but I gotta love a guy who loves stop motion.

And points for Seth being into Scrabble: he played in a celebrity Scrabble tournament for the game's 60th anniversary and plugged the new Super Scrabble during the Buffy panel at Paley Fest in 2008. He also seems to be very loyal to his friends, and I think it's kinda sweet how he ran interference for Sarah Michelle Gellar at Paley Fest by joking with reporters who became critical of her not previously participating in fan events such as the festival.

Also, he's short. Short men are sexy.

I think I most admire Tilda Swinton's sense of self and the unapologetic way that she lives her life. She is five-foot-ten and wears heels. She is 48-years-old and regularly shows up places like David Letterman and the Academy Awards wearing little or no makeup. She has played male characters a couple times and doesn't mind a good genderfuck. She lives platonically with the father of her kids and has a romantic relationship with a German painter 18 years her junior. She is articulate as hell and extremely intelligent, not to mention fiercely talented.

So Alyson Hannigan recently gave birth to her first child, a little girl. And even though she and husband Alexis Denisof didn't name the baby Willow, I'm excited for them. Hannigan and Denisof are pretty darn adorable.

See? Alexis is all, "Ooh! I'm gonna touch her boobs"! Or he's about to do the safety dance. I'm not sure which.

But Alyson's face in this next picture clearly says, "Neil Patrick Harris is grabbing my ass. It's awkward."

Alyson looks like she might be copping her own feel of NPH's behind and he's not minding too much. I think that Lily and Marshall are adorable, but I love it when Aly and NPH get to work together on How I Met Your Mother. I hope that Lily and Barney get over some of their antagonism so that there can be more episodes like "The World's Best Couple."

But can a robot lady learn to love?

Oh, Neil Patrick Harris.

This picture must have been taken soon after Cate Blanchett filmed Heaven. She rocks the post-"shaved my head for a part" period just as hard as Natalie Portman, I think.

And wouldn't Cate make an adorable chapstick lesbian?

See, Amber, you claim that you're not looking down Alyson's dress, but if you're not staring at her boobs then what are you looking at?

Christian Bale
(Batman Begins, American Psycho, Little Women, A Midsummer Night's Dream)


Gabriel Byrne
(Little Women, The Usual Suspects, Smilla's Sense of Snow)


Kieran Culkin
(Igby Goes Down, The Cider House Rules, The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys)


John Cusack
(Grosse Point Blank, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Say Anything, High Fidelity)


Johnny Depp
(Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Finding Neverland, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Benny & Joon)


Robert Downey, Jr.
(A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints, The Singing Detective, Iron Man, Wonder Boys)


Morgan Freeman
(Batman Begins, Million Dollar Baby, Se7en, Unforgiven)


Cary Grant
(Charade, North by Northwest, Notorious, Father Goose)


Jake Gyllenhaal
(Proof, The Good Girl, Donnie Darko, Jarhead)


Ethan Hawke
(Gattaca, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Tape)


Samuel L. Jackson
(Pulp Fiction, Star Wars: Episode I-III, True Romance, A Time to Kill)


Gene Kelly
(Singin' in the Rain, An American in Paris, On the Town)


Kevin Kline
(Dave, A Fish Called Wanda, In & Out, The Ice Storm)


Ewan McGregor
(Trainspotting, Big Fish, Down With Love, Star Wars: Episode I-III)


Ian McKellen
(X-Men trilogy, The Lord of the Rings, Gods and Monsters)


Bill Murray
(Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Lost in Translation, Broken Flowers)


Edward Norton
(Fight Club, American History X, The Illusionist, Keeping the Faith)


Clive Owen
(Gosford Park, Closer, The Bourne Identity, Children of Men)


Jason Segel
(Freaks & Geeks, How I Met Your Mother, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Undeclared)


B.D. Wong
(Law & Order: SVU, Oz, All American Girl)

I was very surprised/a little disappointed in myself that my list of 20 favorite actresses was composed completely of white, straight, able-bodied females. The list was made only slightly diverse in that it included seven non-American women (eight if you include Natalie Portman), two of whom speak English as a second language. A couple of women of color almost made it onto the list but didn't make the cut mostly because I didn't feel like I had seen a large enough chunk of their body of work.

So I decided to adjust my criteria a bit and have another go at it, this time including only women who belong to one or more, er, non-dominant groups. (You know, "minorities" only not that word because I hate that word.) Although I may not have seen most or even much of these women's oeuvres, their work has made an impression on me and I'm always pleased to see them.

Rosario Dawson
(Death Proof, Sin City, RENT, Kids)



America Ferrera
(Ugly Betty, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, Real Women Have Curves)



Jodie Foster
(Silence of the Lambs, Nell, The Brave One, A Very Long Engagement, Taxi Driver)



Leisha Hailey
(The L Word, All Over Me)



Irma P. Hall
(Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, Collateral, The Lady Killers)



Salma Hayek
(Frida, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Fools Rush In)



Marianne Jean-Baptiste
(Secrets & Lies, Without a Trace)



Lucy Liu
(Ally McBeal, Kill Bill, Vols. 1 & 2, Charlie's Angels)



Marlee Matlin
(Picket Fences, The L Word, Law & Order: SVU)



Parminder Nagra
(Bend It Like Beckham, ER)



Sandra Oh
(Sideways, Under the Tuscan Sun, Grey's Anatomy)



Michelle Rodriguez
(Girlfight, Lost)



Grace Park
(Battlestar Galactica)



Queen Latifah
(Living Out Loud, Chicago, Set It Off)



Tracie Thoms
(Wonderfalls, Cold Case, Death Proof, RENT)



Gina Torres
(Serenity, The Matrix Reloaded, Angel, I Think I Love My Wife)



Gabrielle Union
(Cadillac Records, Bring It On, 10 Things I Hate About You)



Ethel Waters
(Pinky, The Member of the Wedding)



Vanessa L. Williams
(Ugly Betty, Eraser, Soul Food)



Michelle Yeoh
(Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Tomorrow Never Dies, Memoirs of a Geisha)