Movies & TV

Subtitle: Alas, poor Ben, I did not know him at all! Sub-subtitle: Ben, the two of us need ... wonder who the hell you are no more! Oh, um, did I mention: SPOILER ALERT! Jonathan's design. Image: Lifetime

When I think of the play A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams, I don't think of comedy. How about you? The people who produce the Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans each year also would never call A Streetcar Named Desire funny, but they do know how to have a good time and show the renowned playwright some love. And so, when the festival ends this year on March 28, it will culminate with an outrageous tradition, the Stella Shouting Contest. Actually, it's the "Stella and Stanley Shouting Contest," but the Stanleys steal the show. The attention on Stanley may be more about love for Marlon Brando's portrayal of him than any commentary on Stella.

I may be the wrong person to post about television and movie censorship for kids. I, after all, was raised by parents who did not believe in censorship of any kind. My older brother and I spent the entire 1970s in the back seat of the family car at the drive-in movie watching one blaxploitation movie after another. Chock-full of sex, violence, and profanity, these films drew my parents in like bees to honey. If you censored out the inappropriate subject matter in these movies in accordance with one of those child-censoring services or devices, all you’d have left is the opening credits and a small portion of the closing credits … without the music … because Shaft was a bad mother shut your mouth …

We woke up to the news that Corey Haim has died.

One would think that when going to the Academy Awards, two cameras and an iPhone would be enough. Tragically, one would be wrong. Full Disclosure: I did not get a picture of Matt Damon or Meryl Streep because they had the audacity to show up after I'd taken 75 pictures of Mary Hart and Ryan Seacrest because they were all we had for hours while we baked in the sun on aluminum bleachers and then my batteries died. All of them. Moving on! Because I'm not bitter. Much.