WHET Lady Chablis?

Where is The Doll these days? Has anyone seen her live? Is her show worth the fuss? It's been a really long time since I've heard much about her - pretty much since The Movie of The Book (what Savannah locals call Midnight In The Garden of Good and Evil) was released.

• No one?

• I think he's on this season's Drag Race.

• She was AWFUL playing herself in Midnight in the Garden.

• She was Chablis, R3. At least as I've seen her. Need to see the movie again.

• She was the ONLY good part of that awful movie. Clint Eastwood ruined that movie. He made John Berendt's character straight and foisted his talentless daughter on the audience....the most miscast daughter since Sofia Coppola in Godfather III. Then again, that should have never been a movie. Two hours wasn't enough to do it justice....it should have been a six hour miniseries.

• I enjoyed the movie and Lady Chanlis steals every scene she's in.

• Great minds, r5. That would have been great for cable. Spacey was horribly miscast.

• I loved her autobiography. [italic]That[/italic] would've made a great movie.

• i saw her at the club in savannah she performs at about 3 years ago. still working it...

• I'd love to see her sometime.

• She seems to still be doing the Southern gay bar circuit. I saw that she was headlining a club in Myrtle Beach a few months ago.

• Awful movie--amazing that it was so dull. It shouldn't have been that hard to make something atmospheric and dark. Eastwood seemed to resist the material--wonder why he wanted to direct this? Lady Chablis was by far the best thing in the movie.

• The book was HUGE. It's shocking what a misfire the movie was: it's pretty much forgotten entirely now (except on DL). When Eastwood directs badly (which is often enough), he's bloody terrible.

• [quote] Eastwood seemed to resist the material--wonder why he wanted to direct this? He had an issue with the homosexual elements, for sure. But he really fucked up the local color, too. He was the worst possible director for this. Spielberg would have been dreadful, too.

• Adding fictional characters and changing events when dealing with non-fictional stories is always risky. But Hollywood never seems to shy away from it. I can understand the need to cut for length, even to collapse several people into a composite character. The audience will forgive that. But to create an entire fictional plot for no good reason is just wrong. I thought it odd to give Berendt a female love interest (he never mentions his sexuality in the book). That said, I would never compare the Eastwood girl to Sofia Coppola. Yikes! Eastwood was at least attractive and I liked her husky voice. Sofia was a dog and, to add insult to injury, she was brought in to replace Winona Ryder

• Not only was Chablis the best thing in the picture, she was a credible screen presence and deserved roles in other films. A bit tough to cast, maybe, but still.

• Agree R16. She was pretty riveting up there. I'm trying to think of any other roles she could've played though.

• Clint Eastwood has never understood the necessity of pacing.

• [quote] I can understand the need to cut for length, even to collapse several people into a composite character. The audience will forgive that. But to create an entire fictional plot for no good reason is just wrong. Thank you, R15, you hit the nail on the head. I still think a miniseries was the way to go but I could have totally understood focusing on just three or four of the most colorful locals. And since John Berendt isn't really a character per se in the book - more of a narrator - that role had to be partly invented. And Jim Williams went through four trials. Collapsing that into one was understandable. But to hand a huge hunk of airtime be handed over to someone who wasn't even in the book? Sorry, that was an idiotic move. (I'll agree Alison Eastwood was at least somewhat proficiently human on screen, whereas Sofia Coppola looked uncomfortable and fake in every scene.)

  OP/R5/R14

• I thought it was hilarious that Chablis thought she would be nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and was shocked when she wasn't.

• [quote]Adding fictional characters and changing events when dealing with non-fictional stories is always risky. But Hollywood never seems to shy away from it. Well, neither did the book.

• The problem is that Lady Chablis was characterized in the book as an unpredictable, wild, over-the-top drag impresario, a la Ru Paul. The reality - which I discovered after I met her - was that she much more low-key and almost shy. Fans of the book would have been disappointed with the Lady Chablis they saw onscreen.

• She must be nine hundred years old by now.

• At the time the movie was being cast, there was briefly talk of getting someone else to play Chablis, to which she replied, "If they don't, there will be no movie." I loved her in the emergency-room scene.

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• Flawed though the movie may be, it's still one of my favorites. I am a big fan of its soundtrack: All Johnny Mercer songs. I think that Mr. Spacey is perfect: slick, creepy and swarmy. Miscast? Try the role of the redneck closeted boytoy played by actor-of-that-moment Jude Law. I wish someone would do a mini-series. The book is amazing and one of those I re-read every year or so.

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• Terribly disappointing movie. Spacey was good, and Chablis was a highlight - how could she not be? She was the only character with any sense of humor or fun. So, Datalounge... if we could make our own version of this story, who should write, direct, star, and co-star?

• R25 - I would keep Spacey if given a choice. If not, I'd say John Hawkes could play Jim Williams. John Berendt was actually at least a decade older (if not more like 20 years) than John Cusack, so I'd go older. I think David Straithairn could really do the role justice. A more commercial choice could be Clooney....though he could do a capable job in the role of a gay man (ahem). RPattz has the look of a waify hustler and might be able to carry it off. There's a ton of younger actors who could probably do the role of the hustler justice. Joseph Gordon Levitt is now a bit too old to do it, but physically he would have been a good choice, as well. Chablis could probably play herself again. Black don't crack, bitches! The rest of the casting really wasn't that bad. It was more the super distracting focus on Eastwood's character.

  OP

• "That would have been great for cable. Spacey was horribly miscast." DL revels in Spacey being very much like that character.

• Skinny Jude Law as the dangerous scary white trash bi gay for pay or whatever hustler? He was terribly miscast. I think Spacey does a good job of giving the character the charm and the smarmy tude he needs. I also think John Cusack is actually sexy in this movie but realize the problems with his casting, his character and the dumb romance plot line.

• John Cusack is such a mouth breather. In all his films, he's got his pie hole open even when he's not talking.

• I totally don't understand the appeal of John Cusack. He was always a douche, even before his swing to rabid right wing fuckery, and he's fugly.

• Happy Birthday to Lady Chablis tomorrow!

• Alison Eastwood had the worst Southern accent I've ever heard attempted on film.

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• The movie was a pack of made up lies. The biggest one being Jim Williams' trail and eventual death. There were 4 trials, not 1. He was convicted in the first trial and sentenced to life in prison, but it was overturned due to some shenanigans by the cops. The next 2 trial ended in mistrials. The 4th trial was moved to Augusta, Ga. and the jury came back after 1 hour and found Williams not guilty. He dropped dead 6 months after the last trial, not the day after as was shown in that crappy movie. And none of those weird characters (save Chablis) were real. All made up poppycock.