Yeah, I saw this movie. So what. Yeah I think Sandra Bullock is America’s Sweetheart. So what. Yeah I love Ryan Reynolds even though he left Alanis for ScarJo. So what.
So, I’ve been MIA for a while. I blame this on a number of things including finals, moving, and being at Outfest for a week and a half. The last of which introduced me to the above gem of a YouTube video. It’s pretty much hilarious.
It is really too bad that she became an anti-communist nutjob. Because, look at that!
Ginger Roger & Fred Astaire in still from Swing Time, 1936
On that oft-quoted claim, “Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels”: I bow to no one in my admiration for Ginger Rogers, but in truth, she couldn’t do a tenth of what Astaire did, backwards or forwards. While Rogers was a good, hard-working dancer, Astaire ranks as one of the greatest dancers/choreographers who ever lived. As Nureyev once said, “He was not just the best ballroom dancer, or tap dancer, he was simply the greatest, most imaginative, dancer of our time.”
Astaire biographer John Mueller’s assessment is less pithy but more accurate: “Ginger Rogers was outstanding among Astaire’s partners not because she was superior to others as a dancer but because, as a skilled, intuitive actress, she was cagey enough to realize that acting did not stop when dancing began. The reason so many women have fantasized about dancing with Fred Astaire is that Ginger Rogers conveyed the impression that dancing with him is the most thrilling experience imaginable.”
