an early crush - alan bates

saw an article in the mail today by donald spoto. i've read his biographies of marilyn monroe, lotte lenya and marlene dietrich, and this is an extract from his latest work on alan bates.

o but i was in love with alan bates in my early teens. roles in 'georgy girl', 'far from the madding crowd', 'women in love' and 'the go-between' in the late sixties and early seventies won my heart. then a friend of my father, with whom he'd worked on 'jesus of nazareth', came to london and i was his host for a qpr match. as we rode in his limo towards the stadium, cenzo pointed at a house and told me that's where alan bates lived. a few days later i returned to the spot, and went into the front garden. i couldn't see into the window of the house because i have never been very tall, and i jumped up and down trying to look in. the window opened, and i was told to eff off. an exciting moment in my teenage life, recalled in the cartoon below.


spoto goes into detail regarding bates' many homosexual affairs. i don't go into detail about my few. o well ...

julie christie is back, for a while

the ny times has a review here about julie christie's latest appearance in a major film role. she plays a woman fading away with alzheimer's.

julie christie was one of my first major crushes. not in dr zhivago, actually, but in 'fahrenheit 451' and 'far from the madding crowd' (alongside alan bates, my other great crush of that era. i have been sworn at by mr bates. i took a movie producer who was a friend of my father's to qpr once, and on our way to the match he pointed out the house in which his friend alan bates lived. a few days later i went back to that house, and jumped up and down in the front garden trying to see into the house. he opened the window and told me to go forth and multiply. i drew a cartoon about it ... must dig that out and post it)

o yes, julie christie. most of all, i loved her in 'heaven can wait'. i think i caught a glimpse of her as madame rosmerta in the last harry potter, but since harry was under the invisibility cloak at the time it was not a clear shot.
anyway, i cannot wait to see her on the screen again.