The package deal

Wed, 05 Dec 2012 01:00:00 +0000

This may go down in history as the year the penis became omnipresent. A symbol of power since the Greco-Roman era, the phallus’s prowess in America’s post-fig leaf society has resided largely in its invisibility. But this year the penis suddenly became visible even when it wasn’t. Last month, from within his trousers, Jon Hamm’s bulge upstaged his campaign for Obama. In October, New York’s Mayor Bloomberg appeared turned on, in more ways than one, as he held a Hurricane Sandy press conference. And who can forget the Boner Rower whose Olympic bronze medal appeared to be crowned by a public happy ending? The recent swell in penises on the big screen has served to dismantle the symbolic power of the phallus and, in a time where reality and entertainment are blurred, it is little wonder that celebrities’ off-duty members are commanding our attention as much as Judd Apatow’s penile punch lines – and shedding their masculine mystique at the same time.

Richard Gere on Obama disappointment

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 16:30:00 +0000

Richard Gere has been in terrific movies and he’s been an A-list Hollywood leading man, but the peculiar curse of his career is that he’s rarely or never done both at the same time. I suppose that accounts for the fact that across four-plus decades and 40-odd movie roles, Gere has never been nominated for an Oscar and was often portrayed, at least in his youth, as a lightweight pretty boy – as if the character he played in Paul Schrader’s underrated “American Gigolo” in 1980 were actually him. It’s difficult, frankly, to pick a role in Gere’s long career that plausibly might have won him a statuette; both “Gigolo” and “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” were too sleazy for the Academy, and Terrence Malick’s “Days of Heaven” was way too arty. Billy Flynn in “Chicago”? I guess that’s the one.

Salon.com > Richard Gere

The package deal

Richard Gere on Obama disappointment