The Terrible Catsafterme

Martin Scorsese’s 1980 film Raging Bull is a movie that just keeps getting better the more times you watch it. I think it was somewhere around the third when I realized just how much of a masterpiece it was, how the period flavors swirled around the intense action, and how every nuance of every character had been perfected. The movie of course is the story of boxer Jake LaMotta, one of the most determined, but self-destructive, men who ever entered the sport of pugilism. Cathy Moriarty played opposite Robert De Niro as his ever-suffering wife Vikki to absolute perfection. She conveyed the part of a sexy and loyal woman who gradually watches her husband turn into a jealous monster. Read the rest of this entry »

If I were ever to achieve the office of the President (which most likely isn’t going to be happening), I’m not sure if I’d rather be thought of as one of the most unknown U.S. Presidents, or one of the worst U.S. Presidents. Franklin Pierce has somehow managed to achieve both. Despite his messy haircut and the fact that he wasn’t even considered a candidate for the Presidency during the election of 1852, he was elected to the highest office in the land and remained so for one term from 1853-1857. A Northerner with Southern sympathies, our 14th President entered the Presidency a thoroughly sad and depressed man, after losing his only surviving child during a train accident weeks after he was elected President. Obviously this disturbing event was enough to take Pierce’s mind off his job running the nation. Pierce was eventually abandoned by his own party and wasn’t nominated by the Democratic Party to run in the next election. Read the rest of this entry »

The first rule of Mayfield is that you never utter the words: “been there, done that.” No sir. When you get a chance to bask in the presence of actors from Leave It to Beaver, you jump on it and you relish it. So even though I had met both Ken Osmond, who played the world’s greatest slimeball friend Eddie Haskell, and Tony Dow, who was the All-American perfect older brother Wally Cleaver, in the past, there was no way on earth that I was going to let an opportunity to meet them again slip by. So when these two television treasures made an appearance at the Hollywood Show on January 12, 2013, I made sure that I was there to greet them. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s hard to process just how small actor Verne Troyer is, until you get the chance to stand beside him. Troyer, best known for his role as Mini-Me in The Spy Who Shagged Me and Goldmember in the Austin Powers series, stands exactly 2 feet 8″ – but conceptualizing that height in your head isn’t anything like being next to him. And let’s face it, that’s the real fascination with Verne Troyer. At least it’s mine. I was never a fan of any of the Austin Powers films, so the fact that he was in it doesn’t mean much to me. Of course with the phrase “Mini-Me” entering common usage, the character that he played has become somewhat iconic. Read the rest of this entry »