visionaryvoid

According to a little anecdote from director Gore Verbinsky, director of the first three "Pirates of the Caribbean" films Geoffrey Rush (better known as Captain Hector Barbossa) was aware of the fact that, in the Western world, viewers habitually follow a film by looking at the screen from left to right, just like books. In the scenes he always tried to stand on the left side of each frame to keep the audience's attention on his performance. His attempts increased in intensity during the scenes he shared with Keira Knightley and the monkey. The reason? According to the director, the answer was: "I'm sharing the frame with a beautiful actress and a very nice monkey... who would ever look at me?"

If you see a guy called Mark Sinclair walking around in his early twenties, chances are you won’t look twice. He’s not an ugly dude, mind you, but he’s not catching the attention of the crowd either. Just another fellow. The sort of smile that screams “I tell corny jokes but I’m a good dude at heart”. But at some point Mark Sinclair decided he didn’t want to be Mark Sinclair anymore. He wanted, instead, to be Vin Diesel. It was his alter ego and he adopted it, at first, because he wanted to work as a bouncer and “Mark” doesn’t sound anywhere near as menacing as “Vin Diesel”. He liked being Vin Diesel. So he became the alter ego. Shaved his head bald and worked out religiously for years until he was chiseled to the bones. He continued working part-time as a bouncer as he tried to get into Hollywood. And he managed to do exactly that. In high school, Vin used to pretend to be the father of his classmates to trick the school into believing they were sick… it was only in his twenties, after his name change, that his appearance and behavior began to match that deep voice. Mark Sinclair was just another dude doing his thing. He was into theater and far from a badass. Vin Diesel was a bouncer, a bodybuilder, he was Riddick, the Fast and Furious dude, Triple X, an action hero. He continued working part-time as a bouncer as he tried to get into Hollywood. And he managed to do exactly that. In high school, Vin used to pretend to be the father of his classmates to trick the school into believing they were sick… it was only in his twenties, after his name change, that his appearance and behavior began to match that deep voice. Mark Sinclair was just another dude doing his thing. He was into theater and far from a badass. Vin Diesel was a bouncer, a bodybuilder, he was Riddick, the Fast and Furious dude, Triple X, an action hero.

Joanna Moore’s downfall showed how fame and addiction can shatter motherhood’s most basic duties. Moore was a popular television actress in the 1950s and 60s, who appeared in scads of TV series, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Maverick, Perry Mason, Gunsmoke, The Fugitive, and The Rifleman; she also appeared in a number of films, and had a notable recurring role on The Andy Griffith Show as Andy's love interest, Peggy McMillan. As Peggy (with Andy Griffith) 1 Moore married fellow actor Ryan O'Neal in 1963; they had two children, Tatum and Griffin, before separating in 1966. The dissolution of her marriage led Moore to begin abusing substances (mainly alcohol and amphetamines) heavily, which in turn led her to be incredibly neglectful of her kids, who were 2 and 3, respectively, when the divorce became final in 1967. Moore would routinely leave her children home alone, often with no food, for days at a time when on a bender; Tatum recalled at least one time when she and Griffin ate dog food out of the pantry because there was nothing else to eat. The children also were never enrolled in school, were not bathed regularly or given clean clothes, and were never taken to the doctor or dentist. In 1971, when Tatum was 7 and Griffin, 6, Moore was arrested for DUI, and the extent of the neglect was soon discovered by the authorities, who removed them from her home and awarded custody to Ryan. The irony, of course, is that Ryan himself was an addict and a terrible father, who abused his children physically and emotionally, and got both addicted to drugs (he would later get his youngest son, Redmond, whose mother was O'Neal's longtime partner Farrah Fawcett, hooked on drugs as well). Moore's substance abuse derailed her acting career, and she would be arrested for additional DUIs multiple times throughout the 1970s and 80s. By that time, she was being fully financially supported by Tatum — who may have felt some sympathy for her mother due to her own addiction problems — and Tatum would continue to support her mother until Joanna's death from lung cancer in 1997 at age 63. With Ryan, Tatum, and Griffin in 1965, before things went off the rails 2

The circumstances of his birth. Richard Pryor grew up in a brothel — his mother, Getrude, was a working girl in said establisment. And his grandmother, who primarily raised him, was the madam of the brothel. Pryor’s father, LeRoy Pryor, was a boxer and a pimp.  Richard Pryor was raised mostly by his grandmother, “a violent and scary woman” as his other was constantly drunk or high. He saw a lot of things a child should not see. And yes, he was a victim of abuse. There was drugs all around him. At fourteen, he dropped out of school and at eighteen, he ran away from the brothel he called home and joined the army — he then spent nearly the entire time in army prison. After this, Pryor went to New York to make it as a comedian. When you’re born and raised in a brothel, the child of addicts and an addict yourself, when you have your first heart attack at age 36, you could make a convincing case that your “downfall” occurred at birth and it is a miracle this man lived to be 65. Brilliant comic, tragic life. He never had a chance to be a normal, healthy and well-adjusted human being.

Joel McCrea was an actor I admired. Not only for his movies but for his attitude to his work. Like Sterling Hayden, it was only a job, a means to an end. For Sterling it was to go sailing on his boat, and for Joel to maintain his first love, ranching. Very early in his career, he had become friends with Will Rogers who advised him to put his money in land, which he did. Will personally vouched for him to the bank as Joel needed a large loan. He knew his place in the firmament of stars. He once said he got the comedies that Cary Grant turned down and the Westerns that Gary Cooper passed on. When WWll broke out he was in his mid-thirties and too old for war. Again, acknowledging his shortcomings, he realised he would not look right on the screen acting a young war hero and refused to do any war pictures. When the war ended he had just turned 40 and spent the rest of his career on Westerns, with the exception of, Shoot First, 1953, aka Rough Shoot. When the time came to retire he recognized it, and he hung up his spurs spending his last days happily on his large ranch. Towards the end of his life, he was asked if he had any regrets. “I have no regrets, except perhaps one: I should have tried harder to be a better actor.”

Jamie Lee Curtis’ impression is tainted by location. She lives in Los Angeles. Everyone around her either isfamous or is desperate to become famous. In some quiet little European town or somewhere in rural America, you’re a lot less likely to encounter the type of duck-lipped botoxed monstrosities she encounters on a daily basis… Still, the trend has made its way overseas. I, too, have seen the lip fillers. The fake bronzer. The stretched skin, buccal fat removals and the Brazilian butt-lifts — which apparently come with their own distinct odor of rotten flesh and death. And don’t get me wrong; natural beauty still very much exists. But there is a growing subset of people who spend a fortune on looking “better”. And their plastic surgery habit soon becomes an addiction that completely ruins their appearance forever. I’ve seen too many girls who start with just a simple lip filler and go overboard. An aunt of mine had a little work done on her face in his mid-sixties — by seventy, her face seemed incapable of smiling without her skin looking so tightly stretched it looks in danger of tearing. Human vanity is a tragic affliction, when our quest for beauty causes us to morph into something so needlessly hideous. And people pay tens of thousands of dollars just to be professionally deformed.

The one you see least of is the most authentic Kardashian . The one who has curves, but does not flaunt them. The one who has the same brown doe eye, but looks away from the world. The one who also has a kid, but keeps her out of the spotlight. The one who doesn’t like to be on the show, but just happens to share the same DNA and last name… Rob Kardashian. The only brother. They liked him, too. They kind of wanted him on their show before. Because he was handsome and good-looking and they enjoy surrounding themselves with good-looking people. Poor ol’ Rob got fat, so he got the boot. He was cut out of the show, the way Tiffany Trump disappeared when she gained too much weight. Maybe it was a defense mechanism, who knows? Like how a pufferfish would swell up like a balloon in order to say: “Watch out, I’m big and scary! Don’t you see, how big and scary I am? Please, let leave me alone now…” So now he’s left alone. His sisters continue chasing fame, even with the show cancelled. And Rob just wants to live his life, eat good food, raise his daughter Dream Kardashian — she’s literally called Dream! — and be left alone Like a pufferfish. Like Tiffany Trump. Like all the other ‘lesser’ siblings and children of famous clans who want to remain unbothered by the spotlight and stay out of the tabloids. Very hard, with a family like Rob’s. But I cannot say I blame the guy for trying his best.

Truman Capote was a sneaky little bastard with total recall. He was eloquent, he was witty, and he seemed harmless… at first. Traveling to Japan with the famous British photographer Cecil Beaton, Capote had his eye set on an interview with the world’s most reclusive moviestar of the era — Marlon Brando. The director of the film Brando was shooting, aware of Capote’s reputation, refused to allow the diminutive author on set. Capote, undeterred, invited himself to interview Marlon Brando by calling up the star himself. Brando was warned by literally everyone around him not to, but he figured having dinner with the writer wouldn’t harm anyone? Just dinner! Not too many drinks. No tape recorder. And he’d have a friend call him up every hour or so just so he could mumble something impossible to understand in the phone and seem important, and busy — and to have an excuse to kick out Capote should the evening prove in any way unpleasant.  Capote was tiny, 5′3″ and very slight of build. He had a high-pitched voice, spoke with a heavy Southern drawl and he was effeminate to the point of caricature. To Brando, he was entirely unthreatening, and he had a thing for society’s underdogs, anyway — a tiny little gay man was exactly the sort of fellow he’d have punched a guy on the nose for if he saw him get bullied or harrassed. Capote, however, had a tactic. An angle: "The secret art of interviewing—and it is an art—is to let the other person think he’s interviewing you. You tell him everything about yourself, and slowly you spin your web so that he tells you everything. That’s how I trapped Marlon." The writer brought no notebook, no pen, no recording device. But he did bring vodka, and share personal details about his life, past trauma, sad reflections. The type of things men bond over. Brando, felt a connection, felt he could trust Capote. And despite the fact that Brando was twice Capote’s weight and a much more physically powerful presence, the tiny interviewer could drink like a fish — alcohol barely affected him at all. Soon, Brando began to spill his guts. All of his intimate secrets, worries, trauma, his troubled relationship with his unwell and alcoholic mother… When the interview, called “The Duke in His Domain” was published in The New Yorker in 1957, it devastated Marlon Brando. He felt deeply betrayed on a personal level, exposed, his carefully designed mystique pierced and his secrets spilled. He also had to admit, to his annoyance, that Capote did have perfect recall and had remembered it all with painfully brutal accuracy. He never trusted a journalist ever again.

This is a hoax I, myself, fell for. Everyone did, at the time. See there’s this lady, Sacheen Littlefeather. She died in 2022. Her biggest claim to fame was being a Native American rights activist. In 1974, she refused an Oscar for Best Actor, on behalf of Marlon Brando She did this to “raise awareness for the plight of Native Americans”. It caused a huge uproar, and it was enormously controversial at the time. Incredibly effective activism, too. Anyway the lady died and her sisters — last name Cruz — came out and said she had been lying, misrepresenting her heritage. [1] Born Maria Louise Cruz, “Littlefeather” was the daughter of a Mexican immigrant and a white mother of French, German and Dutch heritage. Sacheen Littlefeather has ZERO association with any Native American tribes. Her whole identity was as fake as the name she adopted for herself. She was, for all intents and purposes, the Rachel Dolezal of Native American activism. And for over fifty years… most bought it. Hell, in 2022 the Oscars even came out with an “official apology”.

A blonde walks into a bank in New York City and asks for the Loan officer. She says she's going to Europe on business for two weeks and Needs to borrow $5,000. The bank officer says the bank will need some kind of security for the loan, so the blonde hands over the keys to a new Mercedes Benz SL 500. The car is parked on the street in front of the bank, she has the title and everything checks out. The bank agrees to accept the car collateral for the loan. The bank's president and its officers all enjoy a good laugh at the blonde for using a $110,000 Benz as collateral against a $5,000 loan. An employee of the bank then proceeds to drive the Benz into the bank's underground garage and parks it there. Two weeks later, the blonde returns, repays the $5,000 and the interest, which comes to $15.41. The loan officer says, Miss, we are very happy to have had your business, and this transaction has worked out very nicely, but we are a little puzzled. While you were away, we checked you out and found that you are a multimillionaire. What puzzles us is, why would you bother to borrow $5,000? The blonde replies, "Where else in New York City can I park my Car for two weeks for only $15.41 and expect it to be there when I return?"

Known as the Caterpillar Man, Prince Randian was a Guyanese man who suffered from Tetra-Amelia Syndrome. The syndrome is incredibly rare and is characterized by the absence of all four limbs. Because of this, Randian was "recruited" by American circus performer PT Barnum, and performed at many fairs across the country. Despite his disability, Randian was able to shave, roll cigarettes, and use a pencil to write legible messages. Randian wore a one-piece woolen garment that fit snugly around his body, giving him the appearance of a caterpillar, and moved around the stage by moving his hips and shoulders. He lived a long life in New Jersey and even fathered 3 children.

RFK Jr does seem uniquely obsessed with autism. First he accused Tylenol of causing autism, now he has a new target — circumcision. According to Robert F. Kennedy Junior, boys that have undergone circumcision have a higehr likelihood of developing autistic spectrum disorders. Now I could dive into quasi-science and anecdotal evidence of men who are hyperfocused on attacking the LGBT while secretly being gay, themselves. Or people who are incredibly racist against non-white people while actually having a black or asian grandparent. These things are surprisingly common. One of the most famous symptoms of autism is a singular obsession with one particular subject — be it trains, history, some obscure 1980s cartoon or what-have-you. Or, perhaps in RFK jr.’s case… autism? It is not unlikely that the man is “on the spectrum” himself. Or that he has a child or grandchild who is, and this causes his obsession. The way Elon Musk never talked about transgender people until one of his children came out the closet as transgender.

Will Smith is a tall, handsome and fabulously wealthy man known all over the world. Success breeds envy. Envy breeds contempt. A toxic combination. Here’s a man who, at the age of 51, has a better body than most men half his age will ever hope to achieve — I’m almost half his age and far pudgier — and on top of that, he’s also 6′2″ and has an estimated net worth of 350 million dollars. So some people see such a man, and, burning with envy… seek to ‘take him down a notch’. He smiles too much. Seems too happy. Too sure of himself. It irks them… Then it is revealed his wife slept with another man while married to him. An emotionally healthy and confident man would now feel sorry for Will. He would think it’s a shame this man got cheated on. An emotionally unhealthy, jealous man lacking on confidence, however? He’s elated. Now Will Smith is a ‘cuck’ and, somehow, less of a man. All the money, fame and success in the world. Healthy. Rich. Great family. But still, less of a man because another man had sex with his wife. So people make fun of him. Sad, little insecure people. Most of them men who secretly wish they were Will Smith but would never admit to it. Some of them women who wished they could be with Will Smith, but would never admit to it. People love to see a successful man or woman get dragged down — it fills people with a primal, cruel sense of glee. It’s resentment and envy, hidden under a thin veneer of ‘humor’.

Brad has been quite circumspect, keeping a respectful silence, with his public comments about Angie. In a 2017 GQ interview, Brad came the closest to revealing how he really felt, calling the relationship—“an investment in vitriolic hatred”— Even though their grueling custody fight, going on 5 years, has been quite ugly, Brad, in a December 2021 US Weekly article, hoped that they can find peace with each other one day for the sake of their family, —“Brad hopes that one day he and Angelina find a way to forgive each other and move forward for the kids sake. He hates all the bad blood”.— Brad feels that the messy and ongoing legal battle with Angie is “a huge cloud hanging over him.” —“This whole war with Angelina has really taken its toll on me.”—

Samuel L. Jackson and LaTanya Richardson Jackson. They met in 1970, when they were 21-year-old students in Atlanta (Richardson at Spellman College, Jackson at Morehouse), and married in 1980; their only child, daughter Zoe, a producer, was born in 1982. After Zoe's birth, LaTanya put her acting career on the back burner, although she has appeared in quite a few notable films, including Malcolm X, Fried Green Tomatoes, Sleepless in Seattle, and When a Man Loves a Woman (loved her as nurse Janeen in FGT, a small role in which she nonetheless stood out). She says she prioritized marriage and motherhood over her career because she wanted them to be “an intact, revolutionary black family”. She also says this was “very, very hard", but as of 2023, they've been together 53 years, married 43, and still show genuine love and warmth toward each other.

Charlie Sheen shot Kelly Preston in 1990. And by shot I mean, with a gun. They were doing doing something innocuous and a pistol fell out of his pants, hit the ground, and went off. It reportedly shoot right between her legs and hit her in the arm. It wasn’t fatal and was ruled a freak accident. That said, I think Charlie realizes he probably shouldn’t have had the gun casually sitting in his pocket like that with the safety off. He got quite lucky. But, I suppose this incident is somewhat easy to forget given the god-like drama Charlie had later on in his life.

I rather be at home” with Ryan than be “anywhere else in the world”. “She is so patient and listening. So sweetheart, thank you. To my daughters, I love you. There’s nothing else I’m looking for.” Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes have been together since 2011. They maintain an extremely private relationship. A rare public appearance. No photos of family on social media. They’ve gone out of their way to keep their marriage far from the public eye. From being an on-screen romance to becoming helicopter parents, Ryan and Eva share the commitment to go the distance.

It’s always been funny to me that when Ian Fleming wrote his first James Bond novel, he intended the character to be “dull”. Fleming: “When I wrote the first story, in 1953. I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened…” Kind of like a Forest Gump figure minus the mental issues, just wandering around wide eyed getting into strange situations and making the best of it  Then a movie was made. Sean Connery was cast. And he wasn’t, by anyone’s definition, “dull”… this Bond was suave, smooth, exciting. Fleming met with the young Scottish actor… and wasn’t impressed: “He’s not what I envisioned of James Bond looks. I’m looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stunt man.” Too tall, too handsome, too domineering of a person. And, too Scottish. Connery, undeterred, met with Fleming. And managed to charm his way into the writer’s heart. Fleming gave him a chance, and the studio their green light. The rest, as they say, is history. In fact, Ian Fleming was so pleased with the performance of Connery that in subsequent novels, the character James Bond was given a Scottish origin story. Sean Connery owned the character of James Bond so much that the actual writer of the novels on which the character was based, altered that character to be more like him. That’s quite a feat. I’ve enjoyed other character’s take on Bond, some more than others. But Connery’s vision of the King of Spies will always be my number one — and it was Fleming’s number one, too. I could think of no higher praise

One of the few Hollywood marriages that would last till ‘’death do us part.’’ Rosalind Russell married a Danish-American producer Frederick Bisson in 1941. The best man was Cary Grant. Rosalind and Cary became friends when they both appeared in the classic His Girl Friday, 1940. Other actresses such as Carole Lombard, Jean Arthur, Ginger Rogers, Irene Dunne had turned down the role. Some think it was because they were afraid of the being upstaged by Cary, whereas Rosalind jumped at the chance and held her own against him. It increased her popularity but also changed her life in another way, and for the better. better.  Frederick, a friend of Cary had crossed the Atlantic in a liner and the movie shown over and over was Rosalind’s The Women, where she made a huge impression on him. She became quite a fantasy figure for him and he was delighted when he came to learn that Cary was making a film with her. When he reached his friend he was to be the house guest of Cary and he told him of the beautiful actress he had seen on screen. Cary, on being told of the attraction, made sure they were introduced where they hit it off and were married soon after. They were to remain married for 35 years. Their 25th wedding anniversary in Las Vegas, Frank Sinatra threw a party for them. “25 years is a long time. But it’s also a very short time when you love someone,” said Rosalind. Ten years later they made it to their 35th anniversary when Frederick presented her with a little gold bracelet that had “35” encrusted in diamonds, she was so delighted that she said “I’ll never take it off.” She never did and she died just a month later, aged 69, after suffering from breast cancer A picture taken in 1976, the year of her death. Frederick passed 8 years later

A young actor who only made three movies. But one of them became a classic and much loved due in part to the chemistry of the actors. Matthew Garber, born in 1956, owed his success to a friend of the family who also was a respected actor - Roy Dotrice. Roy introduced the young boy to Walt Disney who organised a screen test. During the test Matthew showed himself to be a natural, someone with an ‘’unusual lack of inhibition’’ and with a lot of charm. During the test he experienced a toothache due to a bad tooth and simply yanked it out which enchanted Walt and the others gathered there. His first movie was with the daughter of Roy, Karen, though the star was Patrick McGoohan. The movie was, The Three Lives of Thomasina when Matthew was only 7 years old. His next made him well known all over the world. Mary Poppins, a year later and again with Karen. But, even though the movie was absolutely enormous it was another three years before he acted again. The Gnome-Mobile starring Walter Brennan and again Karen. And that was it. No more roles and he retired from acting to lead a normal life. Aged 20 he went on a trip to India which led to his death. While there he ate a piece of bad meat and developed hepatitis. Over the weeks his condition worsened and his father brought him back to London for further medical treatment. But it was too late. The disease had spread to his pancreas and he was unable to survive. He died aged only 21. Matthew and Karen meet Princess Margaret at the premiere of Mary Poppins

An established television actor, having finished their most famous television series, was offered a script that parodied an earlier 1950s movie and was meant to cash in on the popularity of similar films on the same topic. The directors really wanted him in on the project, largely due to his reputation as a serious actor. However, he thought the script was tasteless and went to pass. He changed his mind though. And that’s how a guy who was already a household name became a comedy icon. Peter Graves as Captain Clarence Oveur in “Airplane!” The part opened up entirely new opportunities for him and he remained in the public eye until his death.