Tag Archive for: Brad Pitt

Oscar Buzz–for Brad Pitt’s Latest Film

/in /by

by Kay Kendall

Hollywood
film director Quentin Tarantino is known for his over-the-top movies,
especially in the violence department. Although I’m a fan of his talent, I don’t
enjoy his excessive use of violence so I skip some of his pictures. But the
latest one—ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD—I did rush to see this year.
Sure,
it offers Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio in lead roles—plus it’s set in La La
Land.

Those are draws, but it’s the time period that really hooks me. The film opens in August 1969. Brad and Leonardo play great buddies. We see them on film sets and at their respective pads.  Real life actress Sharon Tate (played by Margot Robbie) is a next door neighbor of Leonardo. Eventually Brad runs across the Manson family of
murderers. Violence does ensue, naturally, but there’s a neat twist at the end
that makes the viciousness more satisfying than usual.
Now,
it so happens I have more than a passing familiarity with that time frame.
My second book in the Austin Starr mystery series also takes place then.  RAINY DAY WOMEN opens during the week of the
Manson murders and Woodstock, and the era is seething with menace.
Some
friends called me up to say, “Hey, didn’t you use that stuff as a backdrop?”
Yes
indeed, I did.
In
my book, intrepid amateur sleuth Austin Starr, with her infant in tow, flies
across the continent to support a friend suspected of murdering women’s
liberation activists in Seattle and Vancouver. Then her former CIA trainer
warns that an old enemy has contracted a hit on her. Her anxious husband
demands that she give up her quest and fly back to him. How much should Austin
risk when tracking the killer puts her and her baby’s life in danger?
While
I don’t offer a gory ending to my tale—with body parts flying through the air,
a la Tarantino—I do promise you a  most
satisfying story that earns 4.5 stars on Amazon. Why not take a look? https://www.amazon.com/Rainy-Day-Women-Kay-Kendall/dp/1941071171/
PS.
I’ve got to add that Brat Pitt is past due for his own Oscar for Best Actor. If
I were a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Brat would
get my vote.
~~~~~~~
Author Kay Kendall is passionate about historical mysteries. 

She lives in Texas with her Canadian husband, three house rabbits, and spaniel Wills. Her second book Rainy Day Women won the Silver Falchion for best mystery at Killer Nashville. Visit Kay at her website http://www.austinstarr.com/  
or on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/KayKendallAuthor

Babies Having Babies

/in /by

Time magazine reports that 17 girls at Gloucester High School are expecting. The moms-to-be are just 16 years old. Some younger. Apparently they made a pact to get pregnant and raise their babies together. The sperm donors, since I scarcely can call them fathers, include a 24-year-old homeless man.

I love being a mother. I can remember the first time John, my boyfriend (eventually my husband), and I talked about having kids. We were just beginning to get serious, but I blithely announced that I wanted six children. John has admitted that his first inclination was to walk, very fast and very far away. We ended up with four kids, which was the perfect size for us.

But what was clear to me long before I had these little darlings is that once you have them, um, you have them. I could envision dumping husbands (singular or plural), but there’s no divorcing kids.

Which is why I’m always astonished at couples who have no hesitation to procreate, but are worried about making a commitment to each other. To me, marriage was easy, and quite frankly, fixable if it was a mistake. But kids? Like it or not, and certainly all parents will agree that there are moments which are not blissful (I’m a writer so I dutifully checked for a synonym for my first word choice: ghastly), having children is a no-money back, lifetime commitment. Sure there’s nothing like new baby smell, which if they could bottle it, I’d buy a case of the stuff. But there’s also nothing like wall-to-wall baby poop, which the little one has smeared “everywhere” upon awakening from his “10-minutes I’m done for the day” nap.

I’ll take Brad and Angelina (do they need last names?) at their word that their refusal to marry is based on principle. They insist they’re committed to each other and their burgeoning brood. Of course, Angie’s already been married twice and Brad’s batting 0 for 1, so it’s hard to be sure that principle is the only reason why they’re avoiding the wedding cake dessert.

But what about P. Diddy, Puff Daddy, whatever? I’ve got nothing against the man. He certainly seems to take financial responsibility for the five children he’s fathered with three different women. But as to any strolls down the aisle, it’s not going to happen soon. “I have to be ready to get married,” he insists. Ready for what? I mean you have to be ready to raise kids too, and that’s more than writing a support check every month (although that’s obviously preferable to not writing one).

The teen years are a time to study, have fun with your friends, do crazy (but safe) stunts, and simply put, grow up. Sure, having a child puts you on the fast track to adulthood – but what’s the rush? Babies having babies is wrong for the mothers and their offspring. And teens getting pregnant, as part of some bad initiation rite, is a club no girl should be joining.

Evelyn David
http://www.evelyndavid.com/

I ♥ Geeks

/in /by

Sigh. I still crush on the geeky ones. I think pocket protectors can be sexy.

My newest heartthrob is Richard Wolffe, a Newsweek columnist and commentator on Countdown with Keith Olbermann (who I could crush on a little too). Wolffe is British and has a little lisp, but he’s so damn smart, with a particularly dry English sense of humor, that I can’t help but gush and blush a little when he appears on my screen.

Or how about Chuck Todd? Political director for MSNBC. Slightly overweight, weird goatee, same haircut that he had in his high school graduation picture, but with a brain that can crunch numbers faster than NASA engineers. But here’s what makes him swoon-worthy. He has the ability to explain in words I can understand just what all those exit polls really mean (if anything at all). Plus he seems to have the patience of a saint. He has yet to reach through the screen and throttle Chris Matthews, the pundit who won’t let anyone finish a sentence. See, that’s what makes Wolffe, Olbermann, and Todd my homeboys. They know they’re smarter, even if Matthews is louder.

I’ve always liked the ones who could walk, talk, and chew gum at the same time. Forget the World Wrestling Federation. I envision caged verbal matches. Let me see my boy Richard versus Bill O’Reilly. Let me tell you who’d be wearing that gold, championship belt.

It’s why I’d choose Hugh Laurie over Brad Pitt; Han Solo over Luke Skywalker. I loved a short-lived tv show: Beauty and The Beast, and had no trouble figuring out why the heroine would opt for the sewers and the hairy monster over all the studs walking the streets above. For West Wing fans, I hearted Josh Lyman over Sam Seaborn, and always preferred Toby Ziegler, the dark, brooding, but balding speechwriter over all the pretty boys.

It’s not an either-or proposition. You can get brains and good looks (ahem, I married one of those). But to quote that great philosopher Judge Judy, beauty fades, but dumb is forever.