37. On 'Blonde' and Bourdain
Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em Podcast
Marilyn Monroe's Abortion
In real life, we don't know whether or not she had an abortion. There are biographies that quote friends of hers as saying that she might have had as many as a dozen. So we really don't know. But in this movie, there is this thing where the, it's like a CGI little baby in the womb that starts talking to her.
The NC-17 Blonde has hit Netflix, and boy, are people fired up (“necrophiliac entertainment” wrote Manohla Dargis at NYT). At nearly three hours, the fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe’s life is tough to watch — unrelentingly bleak, a bit disjointed, with a camera that can be as vulturous as the vultures it critiques — but damn if that movie didn’t haunt us both, and Ana de Armas gives an incandescent performance that has both of us thinking of cutting and bleaching our hair (which Sarah promised to do if we get enough paid subscribers). We talk about the fame trap, whether the film is “anti-abortion,” and if Hollywood will ever stop feeding on Marilyn’s corpse.
The fame trap came for Anthony Bourdain, the restless wanderer and beloved chef who gets the unauthorized biography treatment later this month with Down and Out in Paradise. How did the man generally regarded as having the best job in the world end up taking his own life? Can a book sourced only by the people left behind by “the Tony train” possibly give a full account? We talk addiction, how journalism can turn ghoulish, and the very complicated figure of Asia Argento.
A kiss on the hand may be quite continental, but don’t you think it’s better to become a free or paid subscriber?
Episode Notes:
Friday Night Lights on Hulu and Bloodline on Netflix
Gratuitous photos of Kyle Chandler and Taylor Kitsch (Ed: What is this, Tiger Beat? NR: Hush! Dibs on Chandler. SH: Fine, he’s yours. Tim Riggins, let me fix you.)
Blonde official trailer
Marilyn, by Gloria Steinem
Baz Lurhmann’s ELVIS (2022) and Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018)
“‘Blonde,’ ‘Elvis’ and the challenge of telling the truth about icons,” by Sonny Bunch (Washington Post)
“What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in Blonde, Netflix’s Marilyn Monroe Biopic,” by Ellin Stein (Slate)
“Intentional or Not, Blonde Has an Anti-Abortion Message,” by Tess Garcia (Glamour)
Bobby Cannavale in The Station Agent, a really good little movie…
… and Boardwalk Empire, a great series
“The Last Painful Days of Anthony Bourdain,” by Kim Severson (New York Times)
“Author Responds to Family’s Unrest Over Controversial New Anthony Bourdain Book,” by Nardine Saad (Los Angeles Times)
Down and Out in Paradise: The Life of Anthony Bourdain, by Charles Leerhsen
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain
Kitchen Confidential Updated Edition: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, by Anthony Bourdain
“Asia Argento’s Time is Up,” by Nancy Rommelmann (Reason)
Chef Reactions will bring you joy with more than a little of that Bourdain vibe
What’s in your hotbox?
Nancy: Dr. Loretta Intense Replenishing Serum, available widely and at Heyday, and Arcana Holocene Intense Lipid Repair Balm, at Beauty Heroes for a very good price!
Sarah: The Elton John double-album “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” (Spotify)
Outro song: “Love Lies Bleeding” by Elton John
Don’t let the sun go down on you before you become a free or paid subscriber.
To commemorate the 1973 double album Yellow Brick Road, Nancy went looking for a teen pic of herself in Seventies garb but instead found one in which she appears to be dressed in someone’s shower curtain.
Sarah found a pic of herself dressed the way a 15 year old in 1990 thinks people looked in the Seventies.
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