Rex Reed calls Melissa McCarthy a "hippo"

[operalover21]

Damn You got the likeness right! The main difference is the guy on the Left will always be remembered as an "Obnoxious Queen"!

 

They're both obnoxious queens.

[+ deej]

Hollywood didn't embrace Lucy? Really? She was TV's biggest female star for 20 years. Her death was treated like the death of a president. I don't understand where you're coming from on this one.

 

Tell me, how many blockbuster Hollywood movies did Lucy make?

 

She was a leggy showgirl going nowhere fast until she and her Cuban bandleader husband formed their own production company and invented the three-camera sitcom. On the TV machine.

 

TV legend? Yep. Absolutely. Hollywood star? Not even close.

[+ purplekow]

Tell me, how many blockbuster Hollywood movies did Lucy make?

 

She was a leggy showgirl going nowhere fast until she and her Cuban bandleader husband formed their own production company and invented the three-camera sitcom. On the TV machine.

 

TV legend? Yep. Absolutely. Hollywood star? Not even close.

Ms. Ball was known as the Queen of the B's before she came to television fame. She had certain notoriety, similar to many of the romantic comedy actresses of this time. While it was true that she did not make blockbuster movies, she was a working lead actress in a fairly long string of B comedies and so while not the most luminous star in the galaxy, she was definitely a Hollywood star.

[+ sam.fitzpatrick]

I didn't realize Melissa McCarthy was Jenny McCarthy's cousin. Jenny was on "Watch What Happens Live" with Andy Cohen one night last week and their relationship was discussed. (Jenny thinks Melissa is brilliant.)

[JT Brooklyn]

Googling Rex Reed Now concerns more the Tacky Comments about M.M. than "Reed Memorabilia"!

 

Well I'm sure he is of the Hollywood School of thinking that "ANY Publicity is Good Publicity" especially at 74!

[operalover21]

Tell me, how many blockbuster Hollywood movies did Lucy make?

 

She was a leggy showgirl going nowhere fast until she and her Cuban bandleader husband formed their own production company and invented the three-camera sitcom. On the TV machine.

 

TV legend? Yep. Absolutely. Hollywood star? Not even close.

 

Huh? TV legends are Hollywood stars. Perhaps you mean to say Movie stars.

 

Lucille Ball was a movie star throughout the 1940s and made a number of big films. She also continued to make big movies throughout her TV fame including top grossing films in the 1960s with Bob Hope and Henry Fonda. She even had enough clout as a "Hollywood star" to get the rights to and star in the film adaptation of Mame.

 

Lucille Ball was one of the biggest Hollywood stars for the last 40 years of her life. There is simply no denying that.

[operalover21]

Ms. Ball was known as the Queen of the B's before she came to television fame. She had certain notoriety, similar to many of the romantic comedy actresses of this time. While it was true that she did not make blockbuster movies, she was a working lead actress in a fairly long string of B comedies and so while not the most luminous star in the galaxy, she was definitely a Hollywood star.

 

 

Lucille Ball was never known as "Queen of the B's" at any point in her Hollywood career. Unless you have a quote on that you cite? That moniker has been applied to a lot of actresses from Marie Windsor to Ida Lupino. I've never heard it applied to Lucille Ball.

 

Rex Reed is only 74? Really? I would have guessed he was in his mid 80s.

[Pegasus]

I’m wondering if in any of Rex Reed's movie reviews, he ever mentioned the obesity of John Goodman or Jackie Gleason or Danny DeVito or John Belushi or Dom DeLuise or Nathan Lane or Jack Black? Did he call any of them a "Hippo"? I’m betting he didn’t.

[hornytwells]

Lucilla Ball

 

For what its worth (as wikipedia is not reliable, so I don;t know who penned the quote):

 

 

After an uncredited stint as one of the Goldwyn Girls in Roman Scandals (1933) she permanently moved to Hollywood to appear in films. She appeared in many small movie roles in the 1930s as a contract player for RKO Radio Pictures, including a two-reel comedy short with the Three Stooges (Three Little Pigskins, 1934) and a movie with the Marx Brothers (Room Service, 1938). She can also be seen as one of the featured models in the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers film Roberta (1935), briefly as the flower girl in Top Hat (1935), as well as in a brief supporting role at the beginning of Follow the Fleet (1936),[36] another Astaire-Rogers film. Ginger Rogers was a distant maternal cousin of Ball's. She and Rogers played aspiring actresses in the hit film Stage Door (1937) co-starring Katharine Hepburn. In 1936 she also landed the role she hoped would lead her to Broadway, in the Bartlett Cormack play Hey Diddle Diddle, a comedy set in a duplex apartment in Hollywood. The play premiered in Princeton, New Jersey, on January 21, 1937 with Ball playing the part of Julie Tucker, "one of three roommates coping with neurotic directors, confused executives, and grasping stars who interfere with the girls' ability to get ahead."[37] The play received good reviews, but there were problems, chiefly with its star, Conway Tearle, who was in poor health. Cormack wanted to replace him, but the producer, Anne Nichols, said the fault lay with the character and insisted that the part needed to be reshaped and rewritten. The two were unable to agree on a solution. The play was scheduled to open on Broadway at the Vanderbilt Theatre, but closed after one week in Washington, D.C. when Tearle suddenly became gravely ill.[38] Ball was signed to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in the 1940s, but she never achieved major stardom from her appearance in those films.[39]

She was known in many Hollywood circles as "Queen of the B's" – a title previously held by Fay Wray – starring in a number of B-movies, such as 1939's Five Came Back. Like many budding starlets Ball picked up radio work to earn side income as well as gain exposure. In 1937 she appeared regularly on The Phil Baker Show. When that completed its run in 1938, Ball joined the cast of The Wonder Show, starring future Wizard of Oz tin man Jack Haley. It was here that she began her fifty-year professional relationship with Gale Gordon, who served as show announcer. The Wonder Show lasted one season, with the final episode airing on April 7, 1939.[40] MGM producer Arthur Freed purchased the Broadway hit musical play DuBarry Was a Lady (1943) especially for Ann Sothern, but when Ann turned down the part the choice role was awarded to Miss Ball, who in real life was best friend to Miss Sothern.

[hornytwells]

Obviously I meant Lucille, not Lucilla!

[BewareofNick]

I'd respond to this, except that it doesn't make much sense.

 

Well, you are referencing things that don't exist. There is no Dallas reboot on TV. There is a new Dallas series on TNT but it is not a reboot. You reference a horrible movie titled Bridesmaids but there has only been a great movie of that name recently. Since your TV and movie viewing appears to occur in an alternate universe, I thought perhaps there might have been. fifth season of Enterprise there.

[Decatur Guy]

Melissa McCarthy played Sookie on "Gilmore Girls" and was a delight. Sookie's weight was rarely mentioned on the show, and Melissa's Sookie could be a tad kooky and quite obsessive about the quality of her ingredients (Sookie was a chef), but never obnoxious. The show had a pretty good run, so there's more depth to her career than may be realized.

 

http://cdn.crushable.com/files/2009/02/gilmore-girls-tippecanoe-02.jpg

[+ ArVaGuy]

Rex Reed is still alive?

 

I am shocked.

 

And he's only 74? One would assume he's at least 85.

 

I am bowled over by this new information.

[+ purplekow]

Lucille Ball was never known as "Queen of the B's" at any point in her Hollywood career. Unless you have a quote on that you cite? That moniker has been applied to a lot of actresses from Marie Windsor to Ida Lupino. I've never heard it applied to Lucille Ball.

 

Rex Reed is only 74? Really? I would have guessed he was in his mid 80s.

 

i was going to Wikipedia to find the movie title of a movie Lucille Ball made in which a date with Lucille Ball was offered as a first prize at a military academy. Lucille goes to the Academy for publicity purposes and hijinks ensue.

 

In this movie she was repeatedly mentioned as a sex symbol and Queen of the B's. i believe, at one point in the movie, she even refers to herself as Queen of the Bs.

 

While Wikipedia is the people's encyclopedia and not a definitive source, in the first paragraph and then later in the article it mentions the title Queen of the Bs. Having read that, I dispensed with the search for the movie title,as although you may have never heard of her referred to that way, clearly others have.

 

So Operalover, I suggest you never use never. It makes you seem pompous and arrogant especially when you are wrong. Of course if pompous and arrogant was your goal, I say: "Good job and Brava".

[+ honcho]

So, talking about wonderfully engaging actresses of a generous size, are there any readers of the Forum who've ever watched

Dawn French in a British Sitcom called "The Vicar of Dibley" ?

[+ Gar1eth]

In his review of her new movie, legendary gay film critic Rex Reed calls her "truck sized" and a "hippo" and says that has made a short career out of being "equal parts obese and obnoxious." He's getting quite a bit of hell on twitter and elsewhere.

 

I've only seen her once -- in one of the worst movies of 2011 -- Bridesmaids. It was awful. She was awful. It proved that women can be just as gross and disgusting as men. Does seem she is making a career out of that.

 

I can understand you not liking Bridesmaids. It wasn't everyone's type of humor. I personally liked it, but would not want to see something like this everyday- or maybe I would. In any case though I disagree with your opinion about Ms. McCarthy in that movie. Take away the bodily function humor in that character- she was still hilarious in the part. I especially liked the scene when she passed Kirstin Wiig in her car after the wedding shower having stolen all the puppies.

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

I can understand you not liking Bridesmaids. It wasn't everyone's type of humor. I personally liked it, but would not want to see something like this everyday- or maybe I would. In any case though I disagree with your opinion about Ms. McCarthy in that movie. Take away the bodily function humor in that character- she was still hilarious in the part. I especially liked the scene when she passed Kirstin Wiig in her car after the wedding shower having stolen all the puppies.

 

Gman

 

PS. I also wish I could get a boyfriend like Chris O'Dowd- wish he were gay. On the other hand I wouldn't throw Jon Hamm out of bed either.

 

Gman

[operalover21]

PS. I also wish I could get a boyfriend like Chris O'Dowd- wish he were gay. On the other hand I wouldn't throw Jon Hamm out of bed either.

 

Gman

 

I would. Not my types.

[operalover21]

I can understand you not liking Bridesmaids. It wasn't everyone's type of humor. I personally liked it, but would not want to see something like this everyday- or maybe I would. In any case though I disagree with your opinion about Ms. McCarthy in that movie. Take away the bodily function humor in that character- she was still hilarious in the part. I especially liked the scene when she passed Kirstin Wiig in her car after the wedding shower having stolen all the puppies.

 

Gman

 

I never smiled once watching that film. I just found it dull, stupid, and immature from beginning to end. I was mostly just stunned -- after watching it -- that it got so much acclaim. I was dumbfounded.

[operalover21]

i was going to Wikipedia to find the movie title of a movie Lucille Ball made in which a date with Lucille Ball was offered as a first prize at a military academy. Lucille goes to the Academy for publicity purposes and hijinks ensue.

 

In this movie she was repeatedly mentioned as a sex symbol and Queen of the B's. i believe, at one point in the movie, she even refers to herself as Queen of the Bs.

 

While Wikipedia is the people's encyclopedia and not a definitive source, in the first paragraph and then later in the article it mentions the title Queen of the Bs. Having read that, I dispensed with the search for the movie title,as although you may have never heard of her referred to that way, clearly others have.

 

So Operalover, I suggest you never use never. It makes you seem pompous and arrogant especially when you are wrong. Of course if pompous and arrogant was your goal, I say: "Good job and Brava".

 

What was that that the screenwriter said? Something about ... go ... oh, yah, that one.

 

The point is that you can find "The Queen of the B's" as a moniker referring to about a hundred different actresses. Just take your pick.

[operalover21]

I’m wondering if in any of Rex Reed's movie reviews, he ever mentioned the obesity of John Goodman or Jackie Gleason or Danny DeVito or John Belushi or Dom DeLuise or Nathan Lane or Jack Black? Did he call any of them a "Hippo"? I’m betting he didn’t.

 

Don't know. Probably not. But I'm not sure any of them were quite as obese and disgusting and as obnoxious as McCarthy is in her latest film.

[JackTwist]

Rex Reed's comments certainly didn't hurt (and possibly helped) Melissa McCarthy at theaters. "Identity Theft" was the #1 viewed movie this past weekend, hauling in $36.6 million! That's $10 million more than opening weekend for "Bridesmaids." Of course, $$$$ doesn't always equate to quality, but it does significantly raise McCarthy's future earnings as a "HUGE" comedy box-office draw. She's laughing at Mr. Reed...all the way to the bank. Good for her (and us)!

 

 

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/3651/identitythiefmelissamcc.jpg

[+ Gar1eth]

I would. Not my types.

 

So what do you like?

 

Gman

[+ purplekow]

What was that that the screenwriter said? Something about ... go ... oh, yah, that one.

 

The point is that you can find "The Queen of the B's" as a moniker referring to about a hundred different actresses. Just take your pick.

Well that is a really different statement than she was never referred to as Queen of the Bs. The original point of mentioning that title was to illustrate that Ms. Ball, while not an A list celebrity, did have have a career of note in Hollywood.

[Guest Wetnwildbear]

Ditto -- --

 

I thought that Bitter Old R.R. Queen Passed Year's Ago! He must be 100 by now!

 

Well at least with his always "Tacky Remarks" we all know he is still around!

 

Ditto - I thought he'd bitten himself accidently and died from his own venom.