over the rainbow

recently i watched an interview with patty duke, barbara parkins and lee grant, aka, neely, anne, and miriam, the memorable characters from 'valley of the dolls.' missing from the wonderful experience of seeing these actresses gathered together was sharon tate, aka jennifer.

these women had not seen each other in a very long time. it was a joy to hear them laughing and talking together. you knew the spirit of sharon tate was with them as they shared memories of the one movie they made together, a movie that i am sure many people take seriously, myself included.

i have enjoyed 'valley of the dolls', both the book and film, repeatedly. the book is a fun, way outdated dose of pure escapism. the film shares all those elements but maybe does a better job of helping you to feel the suffering of the characters.

personally, i like to have my hands empty, so i prefer to keep my lipstick in a pocket, but when 'anne' first meets, 'lyon burke' (now that's a name) and the contents of her purse fall to the floor, her lipstick is the one item that gets the ball rolling. watch and learn.

everyone is excellent in this beautiful, tacky, cult darling of a film.