Siren Centerfold: Janet Leigh

The first woman ever to show her bra on screen definitely deserves a place on our Siren Centerfold. She was also the first woman to get hacked to death in a shower and fall to the floor in a puddle of Bosco chocolate syrup on screen, but that’s beside the point.

Discovered by the actress Norma Shearer at a ski resort in Northern California, Janet Leigh secured a contract with MGM and began her film career in the late 1940s - as a brunette. She appeared in movies like 1949’s Little Women, 1953’s Houdini with then-hubby Tony Curtis (and today's Matinee Man) playing the famous magician, and 1958’s Touch of Evil with Orson Welles. It wasn’t until 1960 that she found her most memorable role as Marion Crane in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (cue the scary violins). She received a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Leigh succesfully paved the way for the sexy scream queens of today and proved that sometimes the best way to live on in movie history is to die an untimely death. Check out Janet Leigh’s killer good looks in today’s Siren Centerfold!

She married her first husband in 1942 at the age of 14! And no, she didn't live in Arkansas. The marriage was annulled the same year.

One of the "risky" bra scenes in Psycho.

Man, her waist was tiny!

Matinee Man: Tony Curtis

Bernard Schwartz turned 84 this week (June 3rd) and since 1949, the man made over 100 films. Not under the name Bernard Schwartz, though. His stage name was Tony Curtis. Of course, as a kid, I always confused old Tony Curtis movies with Ray Liotta movies, but let’s face it, kids are dumb. My cousin used to think that all moms and dads shared the same birthdays just because his parents did. See? Stupid.

Anyway, Curtis made his screen debut in Criss Cross playing a rumba dancer of all things, but two of his most famous roles were in Some Like it Hot and Sparatacus.* Despite his exhausting list of films, though, Curtis never once won an Academy Award, something he wasn’t too thrilled with. “My profession has never recognized me sufficiently for my work,” he once said. Bitter Betty, much? Hopefully he learned to be happy with the Sony Ericcson Empire Lifetime Achievement Award and his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The acting gene didn’t end with him, though. You may have heard of his two daughters: Jamie Lee and Kelly Curtis. Their mother was Janet Leigh, one of Curtis’ five wives, who he was married to for 11 years. Curtis claims that he was “very dedicated and devoted” to Leigh, “but in her eyes that goldenness started to wear off. I realized that whatever I was, I wasn't enough for Janet. That hurt me a lot and broke my heart.” He later revealed that he cheated on her throughout their marriage. Not for nothing, but we may have just pinpointed whatever it was that wasn’t enough for Janet. But anyway…

Curtis still acts but he considers painting to be his current career, a hobby he took up in the 1980s. Some of his work goes for $25,000. That’s one hell of an up-sell when you consider how little paint costs.

Despite the fact that we wouldn’t recognize Curtis if we passed him on the street today, he was a hottie in his hey day. That’s why he’s today’s Matinee Man.

Sorry, but smoking never looked so good

*If you don’t get that reference please, please rent Clueless as soon as possible. It’s so much more than you probably think it is.

Quick Quips for June 4th

"I pretty much try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face."

- Johnny Depp

Fangs on Film

It’s the genre that doesn’t die – literally. Vampire movies have been around almost as long as film has existed, and every so often their popularity hits a fever pitch. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re in one of those surges right now. With the massive craze that is the Twilight franchise (books=fun, movie=awful) and the upcoming second season return of the awesome HBO hit series True Blood (which is technically TV and not film, but it’s on HBO so work with me here), vamps have evolved from the Count Chocula-variety into something inherently sexy.

Hollywood’s original fascination with fangs came out of the coffin, if you will, in the 30s and 40s. Studios churned out Dracula movies designed to be horror/sci-fi fright-fests. There was 1931’s Dracula and 1944’s The Return of the Vampire, both starring Bela Lugosi, 1936’s Dracula’s Daughter, starring Gloria Holden, and 1943’s Son of Dracula and 1945’s House of Dracula, both starring Lon Chaney Jr.

So when exactly did vampires go from looking like this, to looking like this (or this)? When did they stop making women faint in terror and start making them swoon with lust? Perhaps it was with Brad Pitt in Interview with a Vampire. Whenever the change occurred, we’re mighty glad it did. This is one instance where we’d have to say the new stuff trumps the old. No more bad Transylvanian accent! We prefer our bloodsuckers hot, sexy and completely cape-free.

Quick Quips for June 2nd

"Mel Gibson in Hamlet? Now I've seen everything. Except Mel Gibson's Hamlet."

-Robert Mitchum

Miley is No Mills

It’s not like I exactly expect the MTV Movie Awards to be of any worth or credibility, but last night’s show was more of a joke than usual. Aside from awarding the Twilight stars the top honors despite the worst acting jobs of the year (and I’m a fan of these books, mind you), MTV gave Disney actress Miley Cyrus an award. I can’t remember what it was for because I blacked out after they called her name and woke up just before she screamed, “I’m on a boat!” which was weird because no she wasn’t. Anyway...

Disney has a history of taking one actress and squeezing every last penny out of them that they can. Think: Hilary Duff, Raven Symone, that chick who played Alex Mack and then did 10 Things I Hate About You. Right now Vanessa Hudgens is eclipsing Cyrus thanks to the High School Musical disasters, but even Selena Gomez is being prepped for her imminent takeover.

Well, Sunday afternoon, mere hours before Cyrus’ teeth led her on stage to get her award, I watched an airing of the 1960 Disney classic Pollyanna. It starred Hayley Mills, which got me thinking that really, Mills was the Miley Cyrus of her day (albeit a much less annoying day). In fact, Mills could easily be considered the first “Miley Cyrus” ever.

Mills began with Disney in 1960 when she filmed Pollyanna and she subsequently made six films after that – the most memorable of which (for me) is 1961’s The Parent Trap. Not that crap that Lindsay Lohan made a few years ago. She went on to star in In Search of the Castaways, Summer Magic, The Moon-Spinners and That Darn Cat – and all before she was 20-years-old. Sound like a familiar trend? How many High School Musicals have there been, again?

I don’t think anyone will surpass Mills as the quintessential Disney child star. Although I’m sure Cyrus probably believes she already has.


Source

Happy Birthday Ms. Monroe!

Marilyn Monroe once crooned "Happy Birthday" to President John F. Kennedy, but today it’s our turn to sing our own sultry version of the song to her. The blonde bombshell would have been 83 years old, had she not died of a tragic drug overdose in 1962 at the age of 36. Since she’s not around to celebrate her birthday, Life magazine has given us a surprise gift: a gallery of never-before-seen photos of a 24-year-old Marilyn taken back in 1950. Then, Marilyn was just another rising-star having played a small role in The Asphalt Jungle. She hadn’t yet graced All About Eve with her presence, or blown up her skirt in The Seven-Year Itch, or fallen for a man in drag in Some Like it Hot.

Seeing these pictures, it’s hard to believe that anyone with a pair of eyes could have doubted her eventual rise to fame. Now how long before Lindsay Lohan tries to recreate them?