Seraphic Secret

Robert J. Avrech: Emmy Award winning screenwriter. Religious Zionist. Republican. Movie fanatic. Gun owner. Helplessly and hopelessly in love with my wife since age nine.

Friday Photos: True Hollywood Confessions

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“Until I came along all the leading men were handsome, but luckily they wrote a lot of stories about the fellow next door.”
—Gary Cooper

Filippo Lippi (1457-1504)
Esther at the Palace Gate, circa 1475-1480
oil on canvas, 48.5 x 43 cm
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Canada

 

Dovima enters Maxim’s in Paris wearing a dress by Jean Patou, 1955, photo by Richard Avedon

 

William Merritt Chase (American, 1849-1916), Sunlight and Shadow, (originally titled: The Tiff)
1884, oil on canvas, Collection of Joslyn Art Museum, Gift of the Friends of Art

 

Cary Grant on the fender of his Buick Century, 1941

 

Richard Diebenkorn
“Coffee”
1959
oil on canvas
57 1/2 in. x 52 1/4 in. (146.05 cm x 132.72 cm)

 

“For a while she was quiet, then Elizabeth Taylor’s violet eyes were flickering and she said: ‘They spat on me in Rome.’ Who did? ‘Ordinary people, on the streets. They crossed over and spat. It was during le scandale, when the Vatican newspaper thoughtfully said I was morally unfit to be a mother and that my request to adopt Maria should be denied. They also announced that my natural children should be taken away from me.’ But it didn’t happen. You survived. ‘Damn right I survived,’ she said with resignation. ‘I’ve been through it all. I’m Mother Courage. I’ll be dragging my sable coat behind me into old age.‘”
—Elizabeth Taylor, Life Magazine, 1969

 

Workshop of Sandro Botticelli (1445–1510) 
The Triumph of Mordecai
between circa 1475 and circa 1480
Tempera on poplar wood
48.3 × 43.2 × 3.5 cm (1.5 × 1.4 × 0.1 ft)
National Gallery of Canada

 

Lana Turner photographed on the set of The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1946

 


Stanley Spencer
“Daphne by the Window, Northern Ireland” 1952
Daphne was Spencer’s niece who lived in Belfast
oil on canvas
684mm (width), 604mm (height), frame: 844mm (width), 761mm (height), 84mm (depth)

 

Frauke Eigen
Maju, 2008

 

“Embarkation – Prelude to Death” (1942) by Thomas Hart Benton, at the New-York Historical Society’s “WWII & NYC.” Credit All Rights Reserved, T.H. Benton

 

Joseph Cornell
b. 1903, Nyack, New York; d. 1972, Flushing, New York
Setting for a Fairy Tale
1942
Glass-paned wooden box with printed paper, cardboard, twigs, mirror, and paint
11 9/16 x 14 3/8 x 3 7/8 inches (29.4 x 36.6 x 9.9 cm)

 

Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Viotti Coupe, 1932

 

“I didn’t quit movies. They quit me.”
—Jane Powell

 

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653)
Esther before Ahasuerus
between 1628 and 1635
oil on canvas
208.3 × 273.7 cm (2.2 × 2.9 yd)
Metropolitan Museum of Art

 

Catherine Deneuve in her Morgan roadster, 1967

 

Richard Estes
Nedick’s, 1970, oil on canvas. Height: 121.9 cm (47.99 in.), Width: 167.6 cm (65.98 in.) Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza (Spain – Madrid)

 

Leonard Freed
Hassidic Boys, Brooklyn, New York, 1954

 

1939 Falaschi

 

Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Rome, 1890, Photo by Giuseppe Primoli

 

First Rolex Oyster, 1926

 

Sue Farley McQuiston, Henderson, KY., standing with a cardboard cutout of Clark Gable, 1940

 

Dressed for Purim in their Toy Story costumes, Pinchas and Ariel wish all our friends and relatives an inspirational Shabbat.

 

Ed Ruscha, The End, 2003

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Comments

  1. ” the Vatican then and now, to be avoided, and nothing at all to do with Catholicism,”

    Malachi Martin’s novels are probably a window into that closed society. I have read them all and think they are probably all true stories, even about Pope Paul I.

  2. I, like Bill, had never heard of Dovima until you posted about her and I have to agree — I don’t personally find her attractive, but I certainly can appreciate her fashion/modeling appeal.

    I love that Rolex… what a beautiful design.

    Love the Art Deco styling of the cars and the beautiful diner.

    And a lovely photo of your grand kids, but would you father have worn a Mets cap, or a Yankees ball cap?

  3. Robert – Catherine enjoyed a Morgan – what’s holding you back? 😉 (for one you will find that they aren’t as reliable as a Lexus but have 100 times the personality and fun factor)

    Wonderful quote from Taylor. We think their lives are perfect.

    I had never heard of Dovima until here. Like a lot of fashion models I don’t think she is particularly attractive but has feline characteristics.

  4. An adorable display. As for Elizabeth Taylor’s comment, the Vatican then and now, to be avoided, and nothing at all to do with Catholicism, just a display of middle class lefties, or in the case of our current Pope, Latin American Marxism.

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