Sharon Tate was going to Star alongside Steve McQueen in "Le Mans?" & News on Polanski & new Italian Blog for Sharon

I have an interesting Spanish Article translated today that says Sharon was going to be in "Le Mans" with Steve McQueen?  Here is the article:


Nuevo Fotogramas June 27, 1969:


Sharon Tate, Polanski's Baby

Wife of Polish filmmaker with whom she met while filming The Dance of the Vampires, Sharon Tate has continued her career over the years without great spectacle, but at a good pace.


Recently, she finished shooting "13", in Rome, with Vittorio Gassman. The American actress is to commence within a few weeks, another film in which she will partner up with Steve McQueen. The film is a project McQueen has wanted to do for years and will be set in the world of cars.


Shooting will take place mainly in the Le Mans circuit.

 

Launched by an American production company that she set out to make her a mixture of Kim Novak and Jean Harlow, she jokes it may be time to begin lying about her age even though she is only 25.  But she told me not to tell her husband.  "Now I say that I am 24 years old and next year I will be 23 years old."
 
Following her joke, I said of the director of "The Baby of Rose Mary,": "If you continue on like that, in 20 years or so you will be Polanski's baby."
 
Although I have heard that Steve McQueen wanted to work with Sharon on a film, I have never heard this reference to "Le Mans" which was released in 1971.  Also, nothing is mentioned about her pregnancy?  She would be filming only in a few weeks?  Not with a baby on the way?  Maybe the article meant a few months instead of weeks? 
 
According to the Internet Movie Database this is what the film is about:
 
Almost in breadth and depth of a documentary, this movie depicts an auto race during the 70s on the world's hardest endurance course: Le Mans in France. The race goes over 24 hours on 14.5 kilometers of cordoned country road. Every few hours the two drivers per car alternate - but it's still a challenge for concentration and material. In the focus is the duel between the German Stahler in Ferrari 512LM and the American Delaney in Gulf Team Porsche 917. Delaney is under extraordinary pressure, because the year before he caused a severe accident, in which his friend Lisa's husband was killed. Written by Tom Zoerner.

I wonder if Sharon was considered for the part of Lisa?  Or was she to have played Johann Ritter's wife  Anna in the film?  Hmmm....Any comments?


For more on the film go to:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Mans_(film)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067334/


New News on Roman Polanski:


Roman Polanski Hospitalized: Director Roman Polanski has been hospitalized for the second time since his Zurich arrest on decades' old rape charges, People reports.


Polanski apparently is suffering from an undisclosed medical condition and was transferred from prison to a Zurich hospital for medical examinations Friday. His hospitalization is expected to last several days.


Polanski's lawyer, Herve Temime said in a recent radio interview, "His general condition is no longer satisfactory. But the situation isn't easy for any prisoners, even less so for a man the age of Polanski. One has to be attentive."

“All I know is that he has been taken from prison for medical attention. I don’t know where he is or when he will be returned to prison,” the Daily Express quoted his French lawyer Herve Temime, as saying.


Polanski, who lives in France, was arrested Saturday upon arriving in Zurich where he was to receive an award at the Zurich Film Festival. The famed director fled the United States in 1978 after being charged with having sex with a minor. U.S. authorities have sought the 76-year-old's arrest around the world since 2005.


Polanski is best known for his film work that includes classics like Rosemary's Baby and the multiple Oscar-winning Chinatown. The director won the Academy Award for Best Director in 2002 for The Pianist, though his legal issues forbade him from attending.


Sadly, the director's life has also been marred by tragedy. In 1969, his wife, Sharon Tate, then pregnant with Polanski's child, was murdered by the Charles Manson family at a hillside home in Los Angeles. And it was in 1978 that Polanski was accused of plying then-13-year-old Samantha Geimer with quaaludes and alcohol before repeatedly forcing her to have sex. Geimer has since publicly forgiven Polanski and has tried to get the case against him dropped for almost a decade now.




Here is a report on how the Swiss and the US planned Polanski's current arrest:


http://www.charlotteobserver.com/132/story/1011132.html


There is a great new blog for Sharon written for her Italian fans.  It has a nice set up page and photos.  Be sure to check it out:


http://sharontate4ever.wordpress.com/

Unevenly Cooked: Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL?

Watching Mike Tollin’s contribution to ESPN Films’ “30 for 30” series is like being on the receiving end of a college term paper that has 2-inch margins and type large enough for grandma to read it without her glasses. Tollin is a capable storyteller and there are good ideas to be found in his documentary, but the highlights of his effort are let down by the overall sloppiness of the presentation. Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? feels rushed, overly casual and frustratingly scattered. Surprising for something that’s partially autobiographical, it’s a film with too many voices that thus lacks a unifying one. It’s a first draft in need of polishing. It is without question the least impressive of the three “30 for 30” docs released so far, and yet it’s absolutely worth watching because of its terrific subject matter. Small Potatoes lacks the stuff of memorable cinema or journalism, but it’s fascinating all the same because it unearths an important story that the sports world has managed to forget.

The United States Football League enjoyed a three-year run from 1983-1985, during which it evolved from an amateurish sideshow act to an emerging threat to the National Football League, and yet no one talks about it, ever. The USFL drafted three straight Heisman Trophy winners away from the NFL, and yet no one talks about it, ever. The league was the professional starting point for four eventual Hall of Famers – Jim Kelly, Reggie White, Steve Young and Gary Zimmerman – and yet no one talks about it, ever. It had coaches like Lee Corso, Jim Mora and Steve Spurrier, and yet no one talks about it, ever. It flew, temporarily, on wings made of wax that were crafted in part by one of the USFL team owners, Donald Trump, who was so low-profile at the time that ESPN’s Bob Ley called him “low key,” and yet no one talks about it, ever. Small Potatoes remedies these omissions. Its 51 minutes on the USFL are likely to be the first 51 minutes most sports fans have dedicated to the defunct league in 15 years or more. In that respect, Small Potatoes is something to cherish. Otherwise there’s little to praise.

Ironically, Small Potatoes’ undoing might be the filmmaker’s familiarity with the material. You see, during the USFL’s brief run Tollin headed up the production studio that had exclusive rights to USFL footage, repackaging highlights each week for ABC. Consequently his documentary is something of a homecoming, and it often feels that way, though rarely for the better. For example, Tollin narrates portions of the film with the goofy air of someone who is slightly embarrassed by his yearbook photos but is determined to show them to us anyway. For background on the USFL, Tollin borrows generously from a Howard Cosell report that he is too fortunate to remember, as it emits the feeling that the USFL is a minor treasure not worth a fresh coat of paint. And then there’s Tollin’s relationship with Trump, without which Trump probably wouldn’t have agreed to an interview, and yet this too proves to be a curse disguised as a blessing, prompting Tollin to bookend his film with an interview of his high-profile subject that appears to be no longer than 10 minutes and reveals nothing we didn’t already know (Trump is full of himself). Perhaps with the benefit of distance another filmmaker would have brought a virginal enthusiasm to the USFL that Tollin seems to have outgrown. Small Potatoes is personal, yes, but it doesn’t feel intimate. Not when Tollin is doing the talking, at least.

Then again, what’s striking about the film is the reverence that former stars like Kelly and Young prove to maintain for the league. These are men who went on to distinguished NFL careers, and yet they don’t talk about the USFL like it’s a back-alley embarrassment, nor do they laugh it off, as Tollin does, like some screwball experiment. Quite the contrary. The USFL was serious business, even while it positioned itself as an offbeat alternative to the “No Fun League.” Kelly and Young have reason to be proud of their past. The USFL was never held in the same regard as the NFL, sure, but back then the NFL wasn’t held in the same regard as Major League Baseball, which is why the NFL had reason to worry when the USFL started shelling out then-record salaries for the likes of Herschel Walker and Young. Alas, the USFL – perhaps manipulated by a self-serving Trump – became overconfident, expanding too quickly, moving games from the spring to the fall to directly compete with the NFL and then taking on the NFL in a monopoly lawsuit in which both sides came away losers.

It’s intriguing to imagine what might have happened if the USFL had played it safe and given their league time to mature. (Can you picture Mel Kiper breaking down college talent for two professional football drafts?) On the other hand, it was the USFL’s willingness to operate on the edge that gave it a fighting chance in the first place. One of the most entertaining portions of Small Potatoes is a montage of elaborate touchdown celebrations, each of them far more flamboyant than the NFL would allow today and yet somehow less obnoxiously self-congratulatory than the tiresome shimmy-shake NFL players bring out after every tackle or first down. The USFL thrived on its individuality, and somewhere along the way Tollin appears to have swallowed some of the Kool-Aid: Though he’s correct in suggesting that the USFL influenced the NFL with its implementation of instant replay as an officiating tool, Tollin goes too far when he credits the league for prompting the NFL’s adoption of the 2-point conversion, given that the post-touchdown play was used in college football dating back to the late 1950s and in the American Football League prior to its merger with the NFL. Details, details.

That twisting of history isn’t the only time Tollin gets a bit careless with his filmmaking. For example, there’s an outdoor interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons, the guy who dreamed up the concept for the “30 for 30” series, in which Simmons is so poorly lit that it seems as if the interview was done on a whim using a flip camera that Tollin had in his back pocket when he went to the company picnic. And, of course, there’s the Trump interview, which gets more attention than it warrants. Although Tollin succeeds in tracing the fall of the league back to Trump, the appeal of his film turns out to have more to do with resurrecting the USFL in our memories than sleuthing its demise. “Who killed the USFL?” is a question that’s worth asking, but for now a better question might be this: How did we manage to forget the dead so completely?


Small Potatoes: Who Killed the USFL? premieres tonight on ESPN at 8 pm ET, and will rerun frequently thereafter. The Cooler will be reviewing each film in the “30 for 30” series upon its release.

Why Sharon Tate had trouble finding roles that were worthy of her.

I ran across a vintage article that has a few actresses talking about how hard it is for women in the industry to find good movie roles.  Some of the quotes made me think of Sharon and how Ransohoff handled her career.  We all know Sharon wanted to get better film parts.  She did not want to be the next Marilyn Monroe, she wanted to be the next Catherine Deneuve/Carole Lombard.  Even MM got tired of playing sexy roles and was like Sharon in that respect.  Both wanted to be taken more seriously as an actress.

The article comes from TV Radio Mirror September 1973

Ask the Stars by Bob Lardine

Do you think actresses are discriminated against in show business?

Suzanne Pleshette said: "The last ten years have been really rough on actresses.  Even when the material was available, they had to settle for secondary parts."

Julie Newmar said: "Women definitely are being discriminated against.  And the reasons are quite obvious.  Most of the writers are men.  Most of the producers are men.  Most of the directors are men.

"I say 'most' in the above instances when in some cases the better word would be 'all.'

"It's very difficult for an actress to have a juicy part when the show business field is so dominated by males.  The only solution is to permit more women into the industry."

Stella Stevens said: "I think it's quite obvious that women aren't given the same opportunities as men in show business."

Bette Davis adds: "There's no question that women aren't getting the same breaks as men.  It's a man's world in show business as well as anywhere else."

Sharon's friend, Jacqueline Bisset is also quoted in the article:  "Unfortunately, a lot of men regard women as inferior creatures, or as nothing but sex objects.

"It's really up to the woman as to how she wants to be treated.  If you rebel against being regarded in that light, you discover that people start to look at you differently.

"Though it's true that actresses seldom get juicy parts, it's also true that when they do get them, it results in exciting movies.

"For example, I thought Jane Fonda's part in 'Klute' was magnificent, and it turned out to be an exceptional movie."

I think these quotes fit Sharon's career.  Ransohoff definitely thought of Sharon as a sex object.  He put her in a Marilyn Monroe type part in "Don't Make Waves" as the not to bright sexy Malibu.  It was only when Roman Polanski entered her life that she started to rethink things and Polanski and Steve McQueen helped her in deciding to get out of her seven year contract with him.  She was finally able to do this and who knows what great parts she could have went on to play.  Polanski and Tate talked about doing a western and, of course, "Tess" together.  I have never thought of Sharon along the lines of the Fonda part in "Klute" but, who knows?  She could have gotten it and done wonders with the role.  After all, that role was only a few years after Fonda appeared as the sexy "Barbarella."

I've always thought it was a shame she didn't get the Tuesday Weld role in "The Cincinnati Kid."  We can only imagine what roles may have come her way had she gotten that part. Steven McQueen wanted her for it but the director Norman Jewison didn't think Sharon had enough experience and, after original director Sam Peckinpah was fired from the production, Sharon was replaced by Weld.

We will, unfortunately, never know what might have become of Sharon's career, had she lived.  I have always wished she at least had been able to do one role that she was really proud of.  But, according to friend Sheila Wells, Sharon did not feel this way.  Often Wells says Sharon would say: "Oh, Sheila, the movie I just made was so awful, don't bother going to see it."

I think Polanski would have helped her to become the actress she was wanting so much to be.  I would have loved to see Sharon's career florish as time went on.  But, at least, with this insight into how hard it was for actresses to get the 'really juicy parts' we can see what forces Sharon was up against.

Rare Sharon Tate Magazine Covers and "Fearless Vampire Killers" on tonight

I found a few lovely foreign magazine covers that are not often seen on Sharon.  One of them made a mistake on her name, however, calling her "Sharon Late."

What is that old saying? "I don't care what you say about me, as long as you say something about me, and as long as you spell my name right." I guess everyone makes a typo sometimes though.

Also, Director Roman Polanski and his wife, Sharon Tate, star in the 1967 horror spoof "The Fearless Vampire Killers, or Pardon Me, But Your Teeth Are in My Neck" (3:30 a.m., Eastern, Sunday, early Monday, TCM).

If you haven't seen it stay up and watch it!  Great eerie comedy!

Here are Roman and Sharon enjoying a snow ball fight on the set:

Weekly Rant: Wait Until Dark

I don’t particularly enjoy the experience of being scared in a movie theater, and though I’m not exactly squeamish about fake blood, I experience no visceral thrill watching big screen dismemberments. Consequently, I’m not a big fan of the horror genre, whatever the term “horror genre” means these days. (Aside: For more on the “What is horror?” debate, check out the November edition of The Conversations in which Ed Howard and I discuss Trouble Every Day. I mention this now in case anyone wants to track down the 2001 Claire Denis film in advance of The Conversations piece. Heads up.) Anyway, given my lack of fondness for the horror genre, I often find myself on the outside looking in come October, when theaters show fright fests and bloggers debate various scary movies I haven’t seen and likely never will. It’s just not my cup of tea.

But this week’s rant isn’t about the emptiness of the horror genre. (To each his/her own.) Instead this is my opportunity to pay tribute to one of my favorite scary movies (not exactly horror), Wait Until Dark, while also ranting about the element of the film that makes it unfortunately preposterous. If you’ve never seen Wait Until Dark, stop reading now and go rent it (or download it, or whatever). One night this week, turn off the lights and watch the movie without interruption. I promise you’ll jump out of your skin at least once. It’s unavoidable. That said, if you have seen the movie, read on.

Wait Until Dark thrives on a (mostly) clever (but sometimes too clever) story that’s built around an Oscar-nominated performance by Audrey Hepburn as Susy, a woman recently blinded who is struggling to adapt to her darkened world. For my money, it’s Hepbern’s ideal role. I can’t think of another actor who is so effortlessly vulnerable (and that’s before factoring in the character’s blindness) and yet so full of moxie. (Audrey lost the Best Actress race to Katharine Hepbern for Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner in a packed field that included Anne Bancroft for The Graduate and Faye Dunaway for Bonnie and Clyde, in case you were curious.) But equally terrific is Alan Arkin as Harry Roat, a diabolical thug determined to find a doll filled with heroin that he’s convinced is in Susy’s apartment. Roat is unflinchingly vicious, truly one of the most terrifying villains you’ll ever come across. And that’s why Wait Until Dark is a fun to revisit, now that Arkin only lands the cantankerous yet cuddly grandfather type roles (Indian Summer, Little Miss Sunshine, Sunshine Cleaning, Get Smart, etc.). And that’s also why Wait Until Dark is sometimes absurd.

See, this is Harry Roat …


But then so is this …


And so is this …


That’s right. Harry Roat’s ingenious plan to trick the blind Susy into revealing the location of the doll requires not only that his two conmen associates pretend to be an old friend (Richard Crenna as Mike) and a police detective (Jack Weston as Carlino) but also that he play-act two parts, the grumpy Roat Sr. and the mild-mannered Roat Jr. Both of these characters are played well by Arkin, of course, but it’s utterly ridiculous to imagine Harry Roat, who has an accent as thick as the hull of a battleship, stepping into these roles. It’s a cute idea on paper, but it doesn’t pass the sniff test on the big screen.

The best way to illustrate the preposterousness of the play-acting is to imagine Harry Roat outlining his plan:

Roat: “We’re gonna get the blind lady to tell us where to find the doll.”

Carlino: “Great idea. You can rough her up and she’ll never be able to identify you because she’s blind.”

Roat: “No, I don’t want to hurt her.”

Mike: “Why? I mean, you left a dead woman in the closet. You just threatened us with a knife. You love violence.”

Roat: “Yeah, I know. But it just doesn’t seem very sporting. The blind lady couldn’t defend herself.”

Mike: “So what do you have in mind?”

Roat: “Well, you and Carlino used to con people with that old jealous-lover bit, and that gave me an idea. You’re not the only ones who can act, so I figured I’d infiltrate her apartment by going in disguise.”

Carlino: “Disguise? Why? First of all, she’s blind. Second of all, you already walked into her apartment without a disguise. How come you’re suddenly worried that people in the building will see your face?”

Roat: “Worried? Oh, I’m not worried. But I’m Method actor and I really draw a lot from props. I can’t just do the voice. I’ve got to inhabit the whole character, walk in their shoes.”

Mike: “That would explain the dark sunglasses and the leather jacket, because your personality sure matches your wardrobe. I, for one, can’t picture you playing anything else. How are you going to get past that accent? It’ll never work.”

Roat: “You doubt me?! Normally I kill people who doubt me, but not when someone challenges my acting ability; then I want to prove it on the boards. You’ll see. I’m an incredible character actor. When I’m not breaking people’s legs I like to squeeze in a little dinner theater. One summer I did Shakespeare in the Park. I showed up for auditions and immediately they wanted to cast me as Tybalt. Such lazy type-casting. That really pissed me off, so I tried out for the part of Juliet’s nurse just to spite them. Got it, too. And I was terrific.”

Carlino: “So you’re going to impersonate a woman?”

Roat: “No, no. I’ve been working on a character I call Roat Sr. He looks a bit like a grayer Mark Twain, and he’s a gruff prick. But I’m also fond of a character I’m calling Roat Jr. He’s a soft-spoken guy. The first one is more of a physical performance, and I didn’t buy all that stage makeup for nothing. The second one really stretches me emotionally. I’m torn. I think I’ll play both of them.”

Mike: “Wouldn’t it just be easier to ransack the blind lady’s apartment when she leaves to go to school or to wait until her husband comes home, jump him, blindfold him and then rough up his wife until he gives up the doll?”

Roat: “Easier, sure. But even though I make my living as a murderous thug, my first love has always been the theater.”

That's what they all say.

Did Paul Newman make a pass at Sharon Tate? And photo comparison of the week

There is a new tabloid style biography written by Darwin Porter called "Paul Newman: His Secret Life Exposed."  Some of the gossipy tidbits include having an affairs on wife, Joanne Woodward,  claims of bisexualality, among others. 

There are also a couple of pages on our lovely Sharon Tate.  Thankfully though, her image is not drug through the mud in this.  Basically, it says that 'It was Paul himself who made a pass when he met a beautiful young girl named Sharon Tate.'  However, he quickly found out that Sharon was dating his co-star from "Hemingway's Adventures of a Young Man," Richard Beymer.  Since Newman knew they were together he didn't pursue Sharon.  Sharon had told Paul how she was looking forward to being an extra in the film.

If it's true, who can blame ol' blue eyes?  I don't know of anyone who could honestly resist a little flirting with Sharon?

Here is the photo comarison of the week.  It is from a Gucci ad.  The girl on the right, model Natasha Poly, reminds me a bit of Sharon.

Photo of the Week and an Update on Polanski

Here's a nice picture of Sharon looking both warm and chic in a photo shoot.  Enjoy! :)

Roman Polanski finishing post-production on 'The Ghost' from jail

Roman Polanski appears to be trying to finish post-production on his upcoming film, “The Ghost,” from a prison cell in Zurich.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Polanski intends to deliver the finished film in time for its planned premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in February.

"The film will be finished," Henning Molfenter, head of production at Studio Babelsberg and a co-producer on "The Ghost" told The Hollywood Reporter. "We will meet all our deadlines and all of our obligations with distributors."

Polanski had already delivered a rough cut of the film, an adaptation of the Robert Harris bestseller, before his arrest in Zurich last month on a warrant stemming his flight from the United States thirty-one years ago.

Post-production has continued as the director continues to fight extradition to the United States. While Polanski's contact with the outside world is limited, it is believed he is able to communicate via telephone with editor Herve du Luze and others involved with the project.

"We are aware of the film and we look forward to seeing the finished product," said the Berlin Festival's head of press Frauke Greiner.

"The Ghost" is the story of a fictitious, former British Prime Minister, played by Pierce Brosnan, who is accused of war crimes. Ewan McGregor plays a ghostwriter who uncovers his dark secret after he is hired to complete the Prime Minister's memoirs.

Polanski himself has always been a controversial figure. His films stir up heated debate, from his first feature, "Knife in the Water," in 1963, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was also a dark, unsettling film. "Dark and unsettling" describe a lot of Polanski's films. "Repulsion," made in England in 1965, is a psychologoical horror film with dark, sexual overtones. His Hollywood films, including the Academy Award winning "Chinatown," are not noticeably lighter. He is a Holocaust survivor and the widower of actress Sharon Tate, who was brutally slaughtered by followers of Charles Manson when she was nearly nine months pregnant with Polanski's child. Polanski’s arrest has stirred up strong feelings on both sides of the Atlantic. International luminaries in the film and arts communities have lobbied for his release, while others have argued he should face justice for his crime.

If Polanski is extradited to the U.S., it will be the first time he has been on American soil since the seventies. Swiss authorities arrested Polanski on a U.S. warrant stemming from his 1977 charge of having unlawful sex with a 13 year-old girl. The director fled the U.S. in 1978, fearing the judge was going to toss out a plea bargain and sentence him to prison time, rather than probation. He has remained in France every since, refusing even to fly to L.A. to receive his best director Oscar for "The Pianist" in 2003.


Here is the link to the article: http://www.examiner.com/x-18039-Capital-District-Movies-Examiner~y2009m10d15-Roman-Polanski-finishing-postproduction-on-The-Ghost-from-jail

Hope everyone has a great weekend!