Start with a Smile! Learn how to smile with Elizabeth Taylor

How to smile really beautifully??

Our guest Elizabeth Taylor shows you how:

Open your eyes - and: Show lots of teeth!

~ (this picture was taken by Roddy McDowall just btw.. )~ 

It's really easy, huh?

Have a great week, folks!

Yours truly

Irene

Thank you very much, Rianna!

Rianna of FRANKLY, MY DEAR passed an award on to this blog. It's the 7x7 Link Award.

Thank you so very, very much, Rianna! You know I love your blog - and actually I would love to give you this award, too - but I guess that wouldn't be according to the now following rules:

1. Tell everyone something no one else knows about.

2. Link to one of my posts that I personall think best fits the following categories: Most Beautiful Piece, Most Helpful Piece, Most Popular Piece, Most Controversial Piece, Most Surprisingly Successful Piece, Most Underrated Piece, and Most Pride-worthy Piece.

3.Pass this award on to seven other bloggers. 


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1. Well.. let's see.. Something no one else knows about? I don't think that something like that excists.. Ok - by excluding some persons (e.g. me and my cats): In this very moment my kitchen is a mess - and I am going to wash the dishes as soon as I'll have finished this post.

2. Most Beautiful Piece:

Maybe my Farewell post for Elizabeth Taylor.. 

Most Helpful Piece:

Though I liked the series about the stars who struggled with Breast Cancer - I do no think that this blog is helpful at all - but that might be for my readers to decide. Actually I have regularly the feeling that this blog better should be closed because it's so damn boring and ridiculously dispensable.

Most Popular Piece: 

Due to mentioning (and posting one of) the pictures she did in Playboy magazine my post about Barbara Parkins  is the most popular one here. It has almost 10,500 hits so far.. Thanks to all those lovely guys with one hand in their pants..

Most Controversial Piece:

Frankly, this blog isn't as controversial as I want it to be: I am simply afraid that I could hurt someone's feelings. I dislike many actors and films that are beloved favourites of some of my friends..

Most Surprisingly Successful Piece:

That would be the second favourite of my visitors: The Disney Villainesses..  I guess more people hunting for pictures here..

Most Underrated Piece:

I have wonderful followers who tend to comment on my posts - which is awesome, because it's great to know that people actually read what I post (or at least look at the pictures..). So I was to be frank a bit disappointed when my review of a silent film with the great Anna May Wong -  PICADILLY (1927) - was kind of ignored. But I am almost over that.. So: no problem. It's after all not a that good post, I guess.

Same goes for the review of Ingrid Bergman's only film she did in Germany.. - Well.. Maybe THOSE are controversial posts here..

Most Pride-worthy Piece:

Well.. I think I have three review posts I really, really like:

THE ENFORCER (1951)

A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER (1938)

MARTY (1955)

I'd like to give this award to just five blogs. Blogs which in my opinion are just great - and should be read by many more readers - as I said before I'd love to have Rianna's blog here too - but she already has an award - so here are my five favourites:

Patti of THEY DON'T MAKE 'EM LIKE THEY USED TO - a great friend writing marvellous reviews. So many and frequently that I am feeling very, very "inferiority complexed" whenever I visit her blog.. We agree on many actors and films - not on all of course. That would be actually quite boring..

DKoren of SIDEWALK CROSSINGS - the moment I visited this blog for the first time and I saw this fabulous header I knew: that's a place to stay. Wonderfully written posts indeed. 

Perfect Number 6 of NO TIME LIKE THE PAST - a cool lady with a heart for all the cool guys and women of the 1960's - and much more.. Her picture posts are just awesome.

Whitney of WE HAVE THE STARS - I love this project of hers: To watch and review the "Oscar-films". Whitney has a wonderfully witty way to write.  I enjoy her posts very, very much.

Sarah of THE WICKER BAR - Sarah had another film blog (CINEMA SPLENDOR) before but decided to move to another (new) blog - where she would discuss also other stuff - and it's great!

Thanks again to Rianna - have a virtual hug, dear! 

Thank you all so very much for listening!

Yours

Irene

Welcome to a brandnew year!

I certainly hope that you all arrived savely in 2012  - Don't be irrated by the numbers in the Debra Paget pic - What? You didn't notice any numbers? mhm.. Me either.. 

[insert Groucho-Marx-eyebrow-wiggle

]

Where was I? Oh - yes: I hope you all arrived savely and happy. 

New Year's Day is an approved day to look into future and make plans - and tell those plans to each and every one  - no matter if they're interested or not. 

Oh - it's a wonderful tradition.. 

~ here illustrated by Zsa Zsa Gabor and Esther Williams ~

I myself looked into the cards for our beloved blog Sparkles (wait - did I hear a chuckle?? no.. must have been from another world..)

~ looking at this - I see.. I see a cold coming her way.. ~

And what did I see besides?? That's a good question indeed.. 

I saw: 

The "Start with a Smile" posts on Mondays will return

Have a little reminder - one of my guests then was Mr. Rock Hudson - doing something like a smile..

Then of course there will still be the Puppy Love Tuesdays and Completely Having Kittens Thursdays.. 

~ hope the guests then won't be as stressed as Elizabeth Taylor's friends here.. ~

I also saw some new things: 

 I will  post now and then (I don't know if I can do it weekly..) short posts about new released films in cinema I'd like to watch.

There will be definitively more European films on this blog - and for those films are now and then hard to come by (or frankly: hard to watch at all..) I will try to do kind of "photo novels" to illustrate some scenes.. I do not know if that really will work but I'll give it a try - and please be aware that I might get awfully ironic when I talk about German films..

~ German actress Ilse Werner with her a bit ironic look.. ~ 

And finally:

Themed months - I will start this month with a theme called:

ON THE RUN 

~ my cover girl will be Miss Lillian Gish ~

- and I will talk about some films dealing with Runaways and Refugees and Escapees and Escapists.. (Hence the new header..) Sometimes it'll make only sense for those who are brave enough to follow my "logic" - I will post after my own rules.. 

I hope I can also link the guests of my series to the themes somehow - we will see.. If it works out I will go on doing themed months like that.. A little challenge for myself.. (and hopefully not that challenging for you..)

Thank you all so very much for listening!

Yours 

(very well and) truly

  Irene

Completely havin kittens.. ..2011 wrap up - and a new one..

 Welcome to the last completely having kittens post of 2011..

This is part of a meme hosted by Michelle @ THE TRUE BOOK ADDICT.

Michelle re-posted some of her favourite Cat Thursday pics, which she shared with us through 2011. I'd like to share three of them with you, too before I am going to show you twelve of my favourite this year (followed by a "brand new" one on this blog..)

Here are three I borrowed from Michelle, who posted loads of great pics beside those..: 

And my favourite of them:

Okay - here are my 12 favourite pictures I posted this year on this blog:

 I was participating on this meme before I started it here - I did it on another blog of mine NOT SOPHISTICATED (I'M THE SWEET AND SIMPLE KIND)..

Frankly - I love almost every picture I posted in this series - so I had a hard time to pick just twelve of them.. But here we go - and of course we'll end with my favourite picture of them all..

We had a lot of cats showing their pals (most of them I confess are my favourite actors):

Ava Gardner

Agnes Moorehead

 Elizabeth Taylor

Marilyn Monroe

James Mason

Judy Garland

 Alain Delon

Ursula Andress

(I simply had to re-post both pictures..)

Peter Lorre

Laird Cregar

Romy Schneider

 And here is the new picture - sporting one of the few actors I dare to call by first name when talking about her (another one would be Romy Schneider..) - our cat-lady of the week is a lady who would have turned 110 years this week:

Marlene Dietrich

* Decemeber 27, 1901  Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany

† May 6, 1992 Paris, France

Thank you all for listening!

Yours

Irene

Have yourself a merry little (or great!?!) Christmas!!

 To all of you:

 A Merry Christmas!

~ Lana Turner ~

To all fans of horror films & musicals:

~ Boris Karloff & Ginger Rogers  ~

To all dog-lovers: 

~ Ava Gardner and a little pal ~

To all cat-ladies and -gentlemen 

(and my friend Kate - I'm afraid I don't know who's YOUR favourite, dear..):

~ Young Elizabeth Taylor - with an even younger friend.. ~

To Dawn: 

~ Gene Tierney - a little colour for you my noirandchickflicks - friend  ~

To Patti:

~ No sun picture - but: Bette Davis - always in the middle of attention.. ~

and to Michelle:

~ Bette Davis and a cat (!)..  Thank you for all Cat-Thursdays!! ~

To Monty:

~ Carole Lombard - with a Hungarian Christmas Wish ~

To our birthdaychildren:

 ~ It's Humphrey Bogart's birthday! Stephen Bogart and Lauren Bacall are celebrating with him.. ~

To all of you - no matter what age or species:

~ Shirley Temple and a wellbehaving little friend.. ~

And to me:

 ~ One of my favourite Christmas pictures: an actual snap shot of Marilyn Monroe at Milton Greene's house celebrating a no-publicity-Christmas with him and his family and friends.. ~

Thank you very much for listening!

And again: A Merry Christmas to you!!

Yours

Irene

And at last a really cute series of pictures - showing NOT me - but Diana Dors: