Ricki Lake

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Ricki Lake at the Stand Up For Pits gala held at The Hollywood Improv, Los Angeles, California, United States - Saturday 5th November 2016

Ricki Lake
Ricki Lake

I Am Divine Review


Excellent

With an appropriate explosion of humour and colour, this documentary traces the life of a fiercely individualistic actor, digging beneath the surface to explore both his origins and his legacy. And frankly, it's about time someone documented the iconic cross-dressing performer Divine, who died at age 42 in 1988, just as his career was leaping into the mainstream. The fact is that this man completely changed music, theatre and cinema.

Born in Baltimore, Glenn Milstead played dress-up as a child and was routinely beaten up in school. He could never pass as a normal kid, so he never tried. Fortunately, at 17 he met John Waters and found a group of people who were outcasts like him. Waters renamed him Divine for his film Roman Candles, and the name stuck. Divine spent time in San Francisco developing the character while performing with the legendary Cockettes, then took the New York stage by storm and launched an international recording career., He also continued to rise in the ranks of cinema actors with performances in Waters' classics Pink Flamingoes, Female Trouble, Polyester and the award-winning Hairspray, which crossed-over into mainstream success and led to a non-drag role as Uncle Otto in the hit TV sitcom Married... With Children. He died of heart failure in his sleep the night before taping his first episode.

Filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz (whose previous film Vito documented the life of gay-rights activist Vito Russo) gives the movie a lively pace, as a wide range of colourful people talk about their experiences with Divine through the years, including his mother Frances Milstead who reunited with her son later in life. There's also extensive footage of Divine talking about himself in interviews he gave around the world throughout his career. Combined with extensive clips, backstage video and personal photographs, the film is a remarkably complex portrait of a talented artist who was excessive in everything: food, drugs and love. But he was also fiercely disciplined when it came to his work.

Continue reading: I Am Divine Review

Pictures: Stars Come Out To See Katy Perry Honored At Trevor Project Awards


Katy Perry Chris Colfer Matthew Morrison Kevin McHale Anna Kendrick Ricki Lake James Van Der Beek

Katy Perry, Trevor Project

Katy Perry was honored at the annual Trevor Project bash

For all the music awards she's won in her career, we're willing to wager that few of them will have touched Katy Perry as warmly as the gong she picked up at the annual Trevor Project bash. The multi-million selling singer was honored by the charity - which focuses on preventing suicide among the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community - for being an inspiration for so many of her fans, stepping up and speaking about the issue regularly. 

Continue reading: Pictures: Stars Come Out To See Katy Perry Honored At Trevor Project Awards

The Show Can't Go On: Anderson Cooper's Live Gets The Chop


Anderson Cooper Dr Phil Ricki Lake Katie Couric

Telepictures (the syndicated division of Warner Bros) have called time on Anderson Cooper's daytime chat show. According to LA Times, the CNN news personality's show, Anderson Live, will be no more, after its second season. 

The news broke on Friday (October 26, 2012), as Warner Bros executives began communicating the news to their associated TV stations. In a statement, Warner Bros said "We are extremely proud of Anderson and the show that he and the entire production team have produced... While we made significant changes to the format, set and produced it live in its second season, the series will not be coming back for a third season in a marketplace that has become increasingly difficult to break through. We will continue to deliver top-quality shows throughout next summer."

Anderson Live has faced significant competition from daytime pros such as Dr. Phil and new shows from the likes of Ricki Lake and Katie Couric. The show will end after its summer 2013 season. In a separate statement from Cooper himself, he said "I am very proud of the work that our terrific staff has put into launching and sustaining our show for two seasons... I am also grateful to Telepictures for giving me the opportunity, and indebted to viewers, who have responded so positively. I look forward to doing more great shows this season, and though I'm sorry we won't be continuing, I have truly enjoyed it."

Continue reading: The Show Can't Go On: Anderson Cooper's Live Gets The Chop

Ricki Lake Thursday 19th April 2012 Ricki Lake promotes her book 'Never Say Never' at Barnes & Noble.

Ricki Lake

Ricki Lake - Thursday 29th November 2007 at Cinespace Hollywood, California

Cry-Baby Review


Very Good
John Waters first went mainstream with the 1988 classic Hairspray and then defied midnight-movie fans who complained he'd gone all lame and mainstream by daring to follow it up with a full-on musical comedy. Set in late-'50s Baltimore, Cry-Baby is his delightful tribute to Elvis, juvenile delinquency, and rockabilly music. How can you resist Johnny Depp twitching and crooning like The King?

On the right side of the tracks lives the virginal Allison (Amy Locane), all blond hair and crinoline skirts. Her grandmother, Mrs. Vernon-Williams, runs a charm school and is the local dictator of good taste and deportment. Her idea of fun is to host talent shows where "square" teens sing "Mr. Sandman" in barbershop harmony.

Continue reading: Cry-Baby Review

A Dirty Shame Review


Good

Tracey Ullman is so perfectly attuned to John Waters' brand of lasciviously trashy comedy, it's a wonder that she hasn't worked before for the shamelessly silly provocateur.

In the uproarious "A Dirty Shame," the writer-director lets the caustic comedienne cut loose as Sylvia Stickles, a frigid, uptight working-class suburbanite who becomes an insatiable sex maniac after getting bonked on the noggin in a car accident.

After shocking her hitherto frustrated husband (played by singer Chris Isaak) with tongue-wiggling come-ons and liberating her trampy, triple-Z-cup stripper daughter (played with bimbonic irony by real-life A-cup Selma Blair) from the bedroom where she'd been padlocked away "for her own good," Sylvia joins other concussion-born libertines as a disciple of a self-proclaimed sexual evangelist (amusingly uncouth Johnny Knoxville). All of this helps set the stage for an absurdist battle against a band of spitefully self-righteous local prudes for the soul of their Baltimore neighborhood.

Continue reading: A Dirty Shame Review

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Ricki Lake Movies

I Am Divine Movie Review

I Am Divine Movie Review

With an appropriate explosion of humour and colour, this documentary traces the life of a...

Cry-Baby Movie Review

Cry-Baby Movie Review

John Waters first went mainstream with the 1988 classic Hairspray and then defied midnight-movie fans...

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A Dirty Shame Movie Review

A Dirty Shame Movie Review

Tracey Ullman is so perfectly attuned to John Waters' brand of lasciviously trashy comedy, it's...

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