Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Thursday Thirteen #38 -- Regarding Miss Hepburn


THIRTEEN THOUGHTS ON

One of The Gal Herself's Favorite People Ever …

KATHARINE HEPBURN


I just adore her. She’s been gone for more than four years now, but her work remains as vibrant and timeless as ever. So today I celebrate her life, spirit and career with 13 thoughts about The Great Kate.

1. She has more Best Actress Oscar nominations (12) than anyone else. (Meryl Streep has 14 overall nominations, but three of hers were for Best Supporting Actress.)

2. She also holds the record for most Best Actress Oscars with 4. (If you haven’t seen Morning Glory, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Lion in Winter and On Golden Pond, get thee to Netflix right now.) In a way, she received a 5th Oscar, because Cate Blanchette won an Academy Award for portraying Hepburn in The Aviator.

3. Despite all her acclaim, she was fired once – from Travels with My Aunt in 1972. Legend has it she demanded too many script changes. I have fired people and trust me, they don’t take it well. I cannot imagine the guts it would take to face The Great Kate and tell her she was being replaced by Maggie Smith. I’d probably have chickened out and done it over the phone. From an undisclosed remote location.

4. Her career spanned more than 50 years, so naturally she made some flops. So many that, in the late 1930s, an influential theater owners group named her “Box Office Poison.” With characteristic determination, she set out to rebuild her career, heading to Broadway to star in The Philadelphia Story.

5. Among those flops are two of my all-time favorite Hepburn movies, Holiday and Bringing Up Baby.

6. She lived by her own code of personal conduct – which demanded dignity and integrity but did not preclude passionate love affairs with fascinating men. Howard Hughes and Leland Hayward both gave her expensive jewelry. She didn’t wear it often in public, but she did keep it. After her death, her diamond, emerald and ruby pieces were among the personal effects auctioned by Sotheby’s.

7. Her great love was Spencer Tracy. Their romance lasted more than 25 years, and their professional partnership included 9 films. She was with him when she died, but didn’t attend his funeral. He never divorced his wife, Louise, and Hepburn respected that Louise was his widow.

8. A good tennis player and golfer, she was proud to do her own sports in the Tracy-Hepburn classic, Pat and Mike.

9. She based her wonderful performance as Rose Sawyer in The African Queen on Eleanor Roosevelt.

10. Her Bryn Mawr accent and cadence so impressed young Anthony Hopkins (he played her son in The Lion in Winter back in 1968) that it was his inspiration for Hannibal Lector’s speech pattern in Silence of the Lambs.

11. I’m in heaven when I watch the early version of Little Women. It’s my favorite actress portraying Jo March, one of my all-time favorite heroines.

12. She never shied away from controversial material. Though it seems dated and corny today, the subject of interracial marriage addressed in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? raised eyebrows in the 1960s. Suddenly, Last Summer, with its heady mix of homosexuality, insanity, incest and cannibalism, was downright shocking in the 1950s. Without the prestige Hepburn brought to that project, the film may not have been made.

13. In closing, here she is, in her own words:

“Life is supposed to be hard. After all, it kills you.”

“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.”

“To keep your character, do not stoop to filthy acts. It makes it easier to stoop the next time.”

“I don’t care what’s said about me so long as it isn’t true.”

And my favorite …
“Love has nothing to do with what you expect to get – only what you expect to give – which is everything.”

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!
1.Works for Mom shares 13 comical quotes (I'm stealing #9 for myself)

2. Chelle Y. lists 13 unforgettable children's songs

3. Country Dawn warns us AGAINST visiting a Haunted House

4. Sandee takes a closer look at Murphy's Lesser Known Laws

5. Ellen b. uncovers 13 very funny town names

6. Malcolm gives us some deliciously quotable "Grease" trivia

7. Nicholas has another one of his inimitable book lists.

8. Susan Helene Gottfried has a TT "ripped from today's headlines"

9. Irene's imaginative TT combines the green with the Greek

10. Jenn has 13 FAMILY-FRIENDLY Halloween jokes

11. Janet gives funny and ever-so useful Halloween wisdom

12. Wylie has a great list of rewatchable movies

13. Yen takes on a subject she's an expert on

14. Buck Naked Politics fantasizes about the best publicly funded shopping spree of all time!

15. Lori offers up unbeatable ways to beat stress

16. Greatfullivin takes us traveling

17. Jenny McB takes us through her busy day (wear your track shoes if you want to keep up)

18. Yellow Rose has a movie TT, and you know how this Gal loves those!

19. Joyismygoal takes us for a hike

20. Bermudabluez makes some vacation recommendations

21. Carrie Lofty's TT is a tribute to special 5-year-old on her birthday

22. I'm in heaven! Patti gives us another movie TT to check out!

23. Maribeth gives us the derivation of some enduring superstitions

24. Ann Anguirre has a thought provoking TT

25. Xakara shares insights about a topic she's an expert on

26. Adelle has a very porcine TT

27. Claudia posted some funny, some truly NOT funny photos of unwise plastic surgery

28. Harlekwin (who created my fabulous banner) gives us 13 ways to tell if it will be a good day

29. JLynne answers any questions you may have about Halloween superstitions




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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!



He's my person

Remember last year on Grey's Anatomy? Christina didn't want Burke to tell anyone about their engagement until she had a chance to speak to Meredith first, one on one. Burke thought it was because Christina needed Meredith's approval. No, Christina insisted, it's just that Meredith is her "person." As I recall, Christina said something like, "Telling her makes it real. She's my person."

My best friend showed up unexpectedly last night. He's only in Chicago for the day for a meeting. But even though he was tired (clearly very tired) from a busy family vacation last week and a bumpy flight in from Denver, he sat up with me drinking and talking and yawning until nearly 1:00 AM. He's also going to try to get in some time next month.

This is important because he's my person. Telling him everything that's important to me -- the hurtful and confusing issue with my niece, the professional opportunity I'm considering, even my lingering ambivalence about Hillary Clinton -- makes them real and less daunting. I know he gets something out of reporting the major and minute of his life to me, too. You should have seen his face as he described how tiny the white part of his youngest daughter's French manicure was and how much she enjoyed her "day of beauty" before her first stint as flower girl.

So now the only question is, which of us is Meredith and which is Christina? Yeah, I know, it's obvious. He's more sensitive, whinier and marginally better adjusted. I'm outwardly tougher and far less socially adept. Clearly he's Meredith and I'm Christina.