Chapter1-Take1

Look at me, I'm Sandra Dee. Like a lot of young boomer babes, when I was a preteen the girl I most wanted to be was Sandra Dee. Living in the cold of the Canadian north I'd watch Sandra Dee and James Darren as Gidget and Moondoggie on the late late show and swoon myself to sleep. Gidget , whether it was Sandra Dee in the original, or Deborah Walley in Gidget Goes Hawaiian or even Cindy Carol in Gidget Goes to Rome (which I inexplicably sat through twice in a movie theater in Niagara Falls when I was ten) or Sally Fields in the TV show, was always the cute one but lacking in the more obvious feminine charms of her female rivals. She was the girl next door, the wholesome one. And despite her lack of breasts, her inability to cut a more alluring sexual figure, she was the one to get her man. That's so far from the way we think now but that's the way it was back then, getting your man was the end, daddy-o. Gidget's basic desire for Moondoggie to see

To Sir With Love starring Sydney Poitier: #SaturdayMatinee

“ A story as fresh as the girls in their minis ... and as cool as their teacher had to be. ” That tag line’s impossibly heavy-handed now, but Sydney Poitier was, and remains, the epitome of cool. Poitier was the first black man I fell in love with. Black boys and men were a rarity when I was growing up in Canada in the sixties. In middle school in Niagara Falls, George Bell was the only black boy on campus, period, an outsider. It was 1967 and I was 13 when I saw Sydney Poitier in the now classic To Sir with Love . Everything about the drama called out to me. The tough London kids, girls with their white lipstick and cool clothes, the boys with their wild bravado. And this calm, classy man with the velvety voice, determined not to lose his temper, determined to break through. Like Judy Geeson as Pamela, I wanted to dance with Sir. Like Lulu as Babs, I wanted to send him my love in a song. Never mind the seething racial tensions, I was consumed with the

Clint Eastwood & Meryl Streep Ooze Chemistry in The Bridges Of Madison County: Let's Go Behind the Scenes #book2movies

There's no way Clint Eastwood approved this heavily retouched promotional photo for The Bridges of Madison County. Clint looked much older in the actual film, the wrinkles folding down onto his neck. And yet still sexy. Go figure! My husband walked in while I was watching this week's Saturday Matinee, 1995's The Bridges of Madison County . It was a coolish, foggy day so I only felt faintly guilty that I actually was watching a movie in the middle of the afternoon. A movie I didn't clear ahead of time. Didn't bother asking anyone, do you mind if I—? I don't know what came over me. I figured if I was interrupted, the Amazon rental is good for 30 days, I could always go back to it later. But I also knew he was doing a little prep work for some reshoots he's doing next week, chances were pretty good I'd be able to watch the whole thing. And then he walked in, stood watching the screen for a few moments. Already hooked, I felt a little guilty abou

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