So now that Barbie's gotten all tatted up and Dora the Explorer has suddenly outgrown animal rescue, opting instead for adventures at the mall, I'm starting to feel nauseatingly out-of-control. As the mother of a wee female, I'm especially aware of her budding self-image. And naturally, toy manufacturers are my new nemeses. These corporations have a special talent for sexualizing inanimate objects. Peruse the aisles of Toys R Us and you will see thousands, nay millions, of pairs of Angelina Jolie eyes beckoning in the guise of newborn babies, candy-colored ponies and those bite-sized "Sex and
Robert Pattinson, the face that has launched a million Life & Style magazine covers, is pretty scruffy up close. At a crowded Friday press conference on his latest vampire angst-fest "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," he was a bit unshaven and wore the same flannel shirt I've seen in a dozen paparazzi shots. Yet that brunette meringue of a coif-- itself a work of genius -- remained flawlessly unkempt. And there's something to be said for his British brand of self-deprecation. Quite charming. Pattinson, it turns out, is a little irritated that his brooding teen vampire in the "Twilight" serie
It's something that fascinates even the the most sophisticated cineaste. "Sex" on screen, particularly when the logistics of the thing make you turn your head like the Victrola dog, plugs into something prurient in everyone. This month in a new column in Los Angeles Magazine, I share the back stories from mainstream actors who make a living faking it. It's interesting to hear the psychological gymnastics that take place between couples when one has to have "sex" with a stranger. Suspension of disbelief, indeed.
