Karen Carpenter looking a bit too thin

A new hairdo just does wonders!

Who’s the tubby?

You're a piece of shit Op.

Her hair is horrendous.

OP = the fat frau from the Chrissy Metz thread

Don't be provincial, OP. All she needs is a session with our stylist, and she's finally ready for a Vogue cover.

^Anna Wintour at r6

Really sad. I really loved her voice..

The Lady Tremaine look was not a good choice for her.

I think her hair looks like that because of malnutrition, not style choice.

She says she’s newly married in the interview - what was her husband doing watching her like that? Didn’t he intervene?

Fat ass.

Reshooting this interview because they would not talk about the "weight loss"

How sad. I also think that husband was up to no good - just wanted her money.

She looked like a freaky alien.

There’s a mother who did her job right.

Karen looked like a concentration camp victim in both of those videos. She was before my time, but did people know she was anorexic during her lifetime or was that not common knowledge until after she died?

r17, if you watch the full clip of the second video, the interviewer clearly states the rumors that she has the "slimming disease" so it was definitely out there.

Knowledge of anorexia really blew up because of her death. I was in my early teens when she died, and I remember being astonished there were people purposely starving themselves to death.

[quote] Generally, a woman can’t be too thin

You're fucking nuts.

Fricking obese fraus and fags must be seething with envy. Jealous much, bitches?

Did she die from anorexia? I'm watching the 2nd clip and she totally denies have anorexia.

She did, R22.

After retiring early, my Dad took a job at a local college where an anorexic I knew from high school would barf in the sanitary napkin disposal box, so he told me to yell at her.

This was a few years before Karen died.

OP sounds like an ass. A WOMAN can't be too thin? You're shallow and uninformed.

Amateur!

[quote]You're fucking nuts.

I am not! Just look at how obese women are today. A woman should be petite and demure, not a fat, lumbering elephant waddling to its next feeding.

[quote]After retiring early, my Dad took a job at a local college where an anorexic I knew from high school would barf in the sanitary napkin disposal box, so he told me to yell at her.

Sounds like bulimia to me.

But that’s for all the extraneous info. Fascinating.

Maybe I'm missing something r28, but why wouldn't she just barf in the, you know, toilet?

Celine is the new Karen Carpenter.

Is she on the watermelon diet r30?

OMG r30.

That's what Dad wanted to know, r29.

I'm not a shrink, but my sister is, and she said it was part of a shame response.

R22 Actually it was bulimia that killed her. She was abusing ipecac in the final months of her life to induce vomiting and developed cardiac toxicity from that. Ipecac used to be available over the counter but was eventually banned because bulimics were abusing it and it was killing them.

Karen was actually at a near normal weight at her death (according to her autopsy.)

[quote] Generally, a woman can’t be too thin...

Ugh, OP. Another impressionable fool influenced by the misogynistic and pretentious fashion industry. So, they have you convinced that anything above a size 2 is fat, right? And that a basic cotton t -shirt with their label on it should cost $500.

There’s nothing glamorous or aspirational about an anorexic with a mental illness or a starving model who wears a size 0. You act like women fall into one of 2 categories: acceptably thin or Chrissy Metz. Do you think healthy women like Cindy Crawford and Bar Refaeli are fat, too?

Karen was slowly dying in that video.

Really, OP? A woman can't be too thin?

Geez -- Celine...

Celine, put down the crack pipe!

Karen and her brother had the habit of fibbing in interviews. She had been treated for anorexia several times in hospitals at that point. They also lied about Richard s quaalude problem. They had a squeaky clean image to live up to.

Karen s mother was a monster and her brother wasnt much better. Karen had the voice. RIchard had musical genius but without Karen it would have never gone any where. Karen should have taken out a restarining order on both her brother and mother and gone out on her own and she would probably still be with us today.

The husband was a noer do well who lied about being wealthy before marriage and was basically looking for a mealticket. When he and Karen split up he said he was tired of living with a bag of bones, so you know he didnt give a shit about her. Sad life for Karen.

Agnes Carpenter was a nightmare. She openly favored Richard and was very critical of Karen for no particular reason. She really fucked Karen up good.

Husband was banned from talking about Karen in divorce settlement

I prefer fat people to this. Fat is unattractive, and the 500lbs+ people are disgusting to look at, but seeing these skeletal people not only disgusts me, it scares me on a visceral level.

Was Lunden advised not to bring up Karen's illness? It's surreal seeing them discuss banal subjects when Karen was dying in front of Joan's eyes.

Well, when I say that women can never be too thin, I obviously don’t mean this. But women of today go to the opposite extreme. Combined with their lack of interest in proper foundation garments and feminine hygiene, it makes them very unappealing.

Was Tom Burris, her husband, gay? He looks like he smelled cookies to me. N

The whole Carpenter family was so weird. Richard has to be Aspergers because he's just so odd and weird in every interview.

Either he or the father molested Karen. It's just so painstakingly obvious.

Maybe she was pregnant? It's only natural to lose a few pounds during the first months.

Yes, by all accounts Karen's mother was a cold unloving and withholding woman. That said, anorexics are notoriously controlling and difficult to treat. My mother is a physiatrist and it is the one patient profile she will not take on. They are very difficult to help, never tell the truth and think they are manipulating or gaining power over others by NOT eating. It is both a mental illness and a destructive behavior compulsive behavior. Anorexics are extremely childish people, but not at all helpless.

You can see Karen's anger flash in so many of her interviews. The constant eyes rolls, sighs and the staring down of even innocuous questions. Yes she was sick and her brother was BEYOND weird, but she was playing her own game with people and lost. She died the year I was born (I think). She had some loving friendships with a few women in the industry, but it's not like they hung out and had a normal life. Anorexia controls your life unless you get past it for years. Unlike drug users and hard core alcoholics people with eating disorders don't even remain convinced that they are doing anything self destructive by starving or purging. So yes, she had treatment. Because when she no longer could reliably perform, her "loving" family finally noticed. I don't think Karen was ready to get better. She would have had to quit the industry and distance herself from the family. Anorexics are pains in the ass and very volatile to be around. They need long term in house treatment that THEY decide to enter. Not eating is the easiest thing to get away with in the world, but it gets them so much attention.

*psychiatrist

R48 Agree but that's part of why I always assumed she was molested. Same for very fat women - it can be a matter of control (with the added layer that a fat woman hopes that the weight stops the assaults).

Yes of course R50. There is obvious trauma involved. But the treatment becomes all about the behavior and the calories. Doesn't work.

Karen was arguably a bit too thin in life, and she certainly hasn't put on any weight in the last 35 years. You know, there must be a moment, about a week after death, when all those women finally achieve the figure they desire. Skeleton thin with plastic bumps. The flesh will rot away, but the bumps will still be there. Little coffins full of bones and bumps.

I think she was tremendous! What a hottie!

She looks like Leona Helmsley.

That's a shame.

Karen was the Queen of Lean.

R52 Have had that discussion w/others before, and am always reminded of this Onion piece.

Completely fake marriage. And Richard is fucking psycho.

One of her last live performances. Technical difficulties, Karen looking more gaunt than ever, and her typically awkward stage presence. As much as I love her voice, they’d never make it today.

[quote]You know, there must be a moment, about a week after death, when all those women finally achieve the figure they desire.

I don’t think so. I think they would be horrified by how thick their bones were.

She had a huge crush on Olivia Newton John. I wonder why she thought she looked good that way. She can’t even complete her thoughts she is so nutrient starved.

A photo of Karen in that yellow outfit from r57's link was used on the cover of People magazine when Karen died.

Technical difficulties? R57. She's lip synching. Their career was just about over, they hadn't had a hit in a long time and their music was terrible. Karen grew snarkier every day, obvious again in Japan. She really couldn't hide how much she HATED her life.

Karen was my all-time favorite singer. She had that instantly recognizable voice that you knew from note 1. Although mostly remembered for love songs, my favorites were the sad tunes , like Superstar and Goodbye To Love.

I think if Karen had been able to recover from anorexia and lived, the Carpenters could've had a respectable resurgence on the Adult Contemporary charts in the late 80s/early 90s. AC was a popular market at that time, and it gave new life to the careers of a number of aging Boomer acts such as Bette Midler, Rod Stewart and Natalie Cole, among others.

32???? She looked close to 50 when she died. That’s terrible.

The myth that she had recovered her weight and was doing better at the time of her death, but shucks then her heart gave out, is a myth. She did gain a lot of weight fast from being force fed in hospital but she lost it just as fast. Her last public appearance was at a Grammy 25th anniversary event, one month before her death. She may have been feeling hopeful because she was photographed with a lot of people that night and was looking forward to getting back to recording. But she wasn't cured. Her disease was still active and she was extremely thin.

With Emmylou Harris.

R65 She was 5’4” and 108 pounds at her death. The cause of death was emetine cardiotoxicity. Emetine is also known as ipecac. She had been abusing ipecac to induce vomiting and its toxic effects on the heart is what killed her. She was eating enough to maintain a relatively normal (thin but not emaciated) weight but throwing (purging) up in secret, using ipecac.

In the photo at R65, she doesn't look quite like the talking skeleton she did in the Joan Lunden interview from ‘81, but she does look way too thin. If she was 108 in R65’s photo, she must’ve weighed under 100 lbs in that Joan Lunden interview. That’s frightening.

Richard was kinda hot in that R56 . Maybe a psycho . But even with 70s styling, he was a cutie. Wonder what his issues were - or became.

The pic with Emmylou Harris is from the 70s, not from just before she died.

What was so tragic is that Karen had no idea that ipecac damages the heart muscle with repeated use. She didn't know what ipecac was really doing to her. Horrible.

People who saw Karen on tv back then, like in that Joan Lunden interview, must've wondered what the hell was going on with her. She looked very ill.

My bad. Karen's face looked human with Emmylou so it had to be earlier. Here she is at the 83 Grammy event. She looks like a terminally ill 50 year old who dresses bad. Where's the lie? Don't make her out to be such a victim. Anorexics are attention seekers committing elaborate prolonged suicide.

Hell no, one of the greatest singer's of all time won't lip synch with you. But the soulless Karen Carpenter sings not one live note in this duet. Sixty something year old ELLA does it all LIVE, sitting down, resting her microphone. Imagine dueting with a recording of the person you're singing with in front on an audience? Carpenters were so concerned with sounding a certain way and not eating that they just ignored emotion and interpretation during performance. Karen never "sang" with Ella Fitzgerald. What a loss and a disgrace for her.

[quote]Don't make her out to be such a victim. Anorexics are attention seekers committing elaborate prolonged suicide.

What is your problem? They’re committing suicide, but they’re not a “victim”? The fact that somebody’s behavior is unpleasant/annoying/messy/violent is totally irrelevant to the question of whether they’re sick or not, or how sick they are.

Karen never got over her solo album being shelved. Also her husband didn’t tell her that he had a vasectomy before they got married. Richard married his first cousin, who wasn’t a blood relation as she was adopted, but it upset and freaked Karen out.

Karen and Ella are wonderful in that clip.

I always thought she was much, much older

WTF with Celine?

If I remember correctly from the many stories about Karen's death, it wasn't so much that she was too thin at the time of her death....in addition to the toxicity issues others mentioned, she was actually gaining some weight, but because it happened relatively quickly, her heart had a negative reaction.

Weight gain or loss even in a healthy person should only be a few pounds a week. If you are very heavy you may register something between 5-10 pounds in a week if you lost significant water weight. But in terms of actual body mass, it's too much too soon, on or off.

R72 I'm not surprised. Karen, like Dusty Springfield, was fantastic but had an inferiority complex when compared to others.

And it IS Ella fucking Fitzgerald.

One of Karen's friends was interviewed on one of the Carpenters documentaries, and she was alarmed that Karen was gaining 10lbs. a week when she was being fed intravenously in the hospital. The friend knew that it was horrible for the heart to gain that much weight at once.

So eldergays, what was the consensus at the time? Watching those interviews in real time? Did the public know?

She most likely thought she still looked fat.

She looked like a concentration camp survivor, poor thing.

So her ultimate cause of death was a heart attack?

Caridac arrest due to emetine (ipecac) poisoning.

She seems so lesbian to me.

She was a vindictive bitch.

Vindictive about what? Her relationship with food?

She was very cruel to her mother.

R81

We lived about three houses down from them in Newport Beach. He was friendly w/the neighbors, she rarely left the house. People didn't know that much about anorexia at the time - but in the early '80s in So Cal - they knew a lot about drugs - so the common opinion in the neighborhood was a very bad coke habit

Did people think Richard was weird and creepy back in the day? Looking at old archive footage of him, to modern eyes he seems like someone who would've had bodies in his crawlspace and nobody would be terribly shocked by that.

[quote]She was very cruel to her mother.

No, it was the opposite. Karen's mother was an overly critical bitch to Karen.

Karen's mother used to beat her regularly.

I can imagine none of them took any responsibility for contributing to her problems. They all seem like the types who would never admit they could be at fault.

Karen was ugly and talentless.

[quote] Karen was ugly and talentless.

Kindred spirits, eh, R95? ;)

She stank of vomit because she threw up the whole time.

Dearly Departed Tours in LA: CarpenTOUR to visit the Carpenter’s family home and LA haunts, including favorite restaurants, recording studios and performing spots.

A portion of proceeds will be donated to the National Eating Disorders Association.

Many people look at my unattractive daughter and think Karen was the real mother.

Karen was also using a medicine for underactive thyroid, which was actually the first punch in damaging her heart, the ipecac delivering the final blow. The idea behind the thyroid med was to increase her metabolism, thereby causing weight loss. Unfortunately, it also increased her heart rate which, with a heart damaged by the ipecac, proved fatal. Poor woman had no idea what she was doing to herself; she just wanted to lose weight. Feeling unloved and unwanted yet controlled and manipulated by her raging dragon cunt of a mother and having no luck in finding someone to love her and take her away from the family, she felt her perceived "fatness" was why no one loved her. She had a sweet personality, far from the cunt the bitches of DL make her out to be. I believe if she was a lesbian, it was fear of the mother and her "Everything's fine. We're a nice, normal all American family!" conservative ideals, which didn't allow for behavioral issues, drug use, and homosexuality, caused Karen to not live a happy, healthy, fulfilled life.

As someone mentioned above, it was all swept under the rug during Karen's lifetime and still continues to be, even thirty-six years later. The truth will probably never be told. It makes you wonder what would be Richard's reaction if one of his children or grandchildren came out of the closet? Would old Agnes's voice whisper in his ear as she did in life, or would he actually remember what he and his mother did to Karen and allow his offspring to be happy?

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

In 1984, Richard Carpenter married his adopted cousin, Mary Rudolph. They have 5 kids and named their oldest daughter Kristi Lynn, the name Karen has picked out for her daughter.

In the late 1970s, Richard suffered from insomnia, panic attacks, depression, and became addicted to Quaaludes. Richard claims his mother gave him his first pill. Richard is now age 72.

All these years later, some interesting comments on mother Agnes Reuwer Tatum Carpenter's "Find A Grave" website:

So many make references to incest and molestation. I don't believe Karen was sexually abused, just emotionally and verbally. If there was any incest going on, it was between Agnes and Richard. Her obsession with him and making him the golden child was just creepy. The father was just feckless.

R74 Interesting that Karen was upset about her husband having a vasectomy. How could she have weighed enough to get pregnant?

"My mother is a physiatrist"

Oh, dear..

Karen looked like a freak.

Karen was delusional about getting pregnant. Of course that was impossible due to the physical condition she was in, but she just ignored it.

"... and her typically awkward stage presence."

Before Madonna, unless you were a Vegas-style performer like Lola Falana, Tina Turner or Ann-Margret, female singers never moved much onstage.

It was shows like Solid Gold that made people think, "Why not have the singers move, too?".

R95= Agnes Carpenter

Back in the 70s/ early 80s, most singers didn't have moves when they performed. Anne Murray being the notable exception as evidenced in this clip.

She looked in-bred.

Yes, Madonna invented dancing while singing!

Loved Catherine's Rita Coolidge!

[quote]If there was any incest going on, it was between Agnes and Richard. Her obsession with him and making him the golden child was just creepy.

Wasn't he a piano prodigy growing up? I though that was the reason they cherished him so much, because he was supposedly "the gifted one".

People are also forgetting that a lot of family dynamics in a pre-feminism age did tend to place more emphasis on the male offspring than the females. Females were supposed to be more subservient with no big ambitions other than to settle down and start a family after schooling.

It's clear both Carpenter kids had issues.

Both Karen and Richard looked good on the cover of their 1975 album “Horizon” (it was their best album too).

It wouldn’t have killed her to eat a sandwich.

Preview of Little Girl Blue:

Imagine being driven to induce violent nausea and retching on yourself, repeatedly. What an awful existence.

Karen Carpenter was lesbian or bi, and had a long term relationship with another pop star who is still alive and closeted. I know an ex-lover of the living pop star well and this was conveyed to me by her. As others have said, the Carpenter family were extremely uptight right wingers. Karen was tortured by her inability to be authentic. Yes, the marriages were a sham, or perhaps she was just trying to be "normal". The source of Whitney Houston's self-destruction was similar. I think both Karen Carpenter and Whitney Houston had the potential to be much better than they were. Their material, in my opinion, was mediocre and seemed to reflect the boxes they were forced into. I have no clue what's up with Celine, but someone who gives a damn needs to intervene. There are a lot of family members and hangers on who are financially dependent on her and she needs to be alive and semi-healthy if they expect to continue to exploit her.

R120

Well, the popular rumor has always been your friend is ONJ....

R115, that family dynamic of valuing male offspring more than girls continues in some families to this day.

Coworker of mine has a young son and daughter. Weekends and evenings are focused on the 8-year-old boy’s activities (little league, swimming, gymnastics, even coding classes for tots!). Never hear a single word from daddy about the girl other than “her teacher told us she acts out. I hope she doesn’t grow up to be a bitch.” Uhh, maybe she does that because the family is structured around the little lord of the manor?

Anorexia is an adult version of acting out. I’m sure when Karen emerged as the superior talent in the family, they resented her overshadowing Richard’s accomplishments. And went out of their way to ignore her contributions or take her down a few pegs. Anorexia was Karen’s way of saying “fuck you.” Dysfunctional families are like that.

R115 Yes he was. But as Karen's talents (drummer, bassist, and vocalist) emerged because she was tagging along with Richard, Agnes vindictively turned on Karen. HE was supposed to be the star, not Karen. There seemed to be jealousy both for Richard and for Agnes herself. Some do not know music was in their blood. There was an ancestor on the Carpenter side who sang in music halls and had quite a career. She apparently had a range similar to Karen's and they looked eerily similar.

The Carpenters appeared on "This is Your Life" early in their career. It's on DVD paired with the Shirley Jones episode, for all us music loving gays. Karen is wonderful during most of the show, happy, smiling, jovial,and greeting everyone with a hug. Then at the end, they bring out the parents. Karen's smile fades,her head lowers, and her whole demeanor changes to a more subdued, almost subservient in nature. Agnes carried out Karen's old pitcher's mitt and ball and made some comment about how much Karen loved to play. Karen replies, "That didn't mean I liked to play that much. I just liked throwing things at people."

R120 knows what she's talking about.

I agree with R122 . If Karen had realized that old bitch was never going to love and approve of her no matter what she did, she could have just said "Fuck off" and lived her life for herself, probably still be with us and had a long solo career. But she was trained to feel guilty for doing anything for herself. Richard even accused her of stealing the Carpenters sound for her solo album. Without her, there was no Carpenters sound! When Karen wanted to move out of the house she shared with Richard, she couldn't even face Agnes to tell her; she asked their personal assistant to do it. All Hell broke loose. Agnes screamed at both of them and the assistant was afraid of losing her job. She didn't, but the next time Karen came over, Agnes acted as if nothing happened, yet Karen was noticeably sheepish and quiet, walking behind her mother. When she and the assistant made eye contact, Karen smiled sadly and shrugged, as if to say, "Well, we tried."

The reason Karen was upset about her husband's vasectomy was she wanted children so very badly. She loved kids. As someone pointed out up thread,having a child in her physical condition was out of the question, not to mention the malnourishment of her body fouled up her menstrual cycle and it's possible she may not have even been able to conceive anyway. Karen's last public performance was actually solo. She was friends with a woman who was an elementary school teacher and Karen accompanied her to class. It was Christmastime, and Karen was dressed accordingly. She talked with the kids and they sang carols together. This was two months before her death.

I keep thinking with things the way they are today, Karen might have a partner now and they could adopt a child or two.

She looks like Frieda Clayton.

^^Claxton.

I wonder why she turned to Ipecac? She seemed successful with starvation.

Is there a better quality version of Superstar, the Todd Haynes classic?

R126 It seems like she kind of morphed from anorexia (starving herself) towards bulimia (purging) in her final months. She thought she was fooling everyone around her that she was ‘cured’ (because she was eating and maintaining a more normal weight) but she was secretly bulimic.

[quote] Yes, Madonna invented dancing while lip-synching!

I know her career tailed off, but she always could have found work as a scarecrow.

It sounds like Agnes was a horrible mother, but she's not necessarily to blame for Karen's developing this disorder. Some girls with great parents and good lives also develop this disorder. I think society is more to blame for basing women's values on their looks. I thought Karen was adorable but in those days, the blond look was popular.

All this talk about Carpenter NOT knowing that forced weight gain, rapid weight loss, thyroid stimulation and continual puking is hard on your heart is hilarious. She had been in treatment for her eating disorder and under psychiatric care for years. She knew all about her body and what she risking. Bitch wanted her disease back and to continue to say fuck you to those around her. Killed her. She wasn't planning on going then, but that's where it gets ya.

As Anne Sexton said,

But suicides have a special language.

Like carpenters they want to know which tools.

They never ask why build.

Anorexics choose the most elaborate form of suicide possible, one that gets them the most attention for the longest period of time. Once Karen starting puking for pounds her voice would have been gone in no time anyway.

She was a pretty classic case, from a classic case family.

R120 your post is pointless without names.

[R133] Nice try.

Fuck you, and your manual brackets r134

Here's the "This Is Your Life" episode R123 mentioned, for anyone curious.

I've never been able to fully enjoy the music of The Carpenters due to everything surrounding them (creepy family, Karen's illness, etc.), but I do appreciate a handful of songs.

Is she next?

Why does Barbara Bush Jr. insist on wearing dresses that accentuate her poor bony nonexistent little chest?

WW for r124 and the most DataLounge comment on this topic possible. I needed that!

OP, you blithering ASSHOLE, why do women's bodies obsess you so much? Why are you so offended by fat females if yo're a homo?

Of course I-WE know that you're tying to be funny here .. it WON'T WORK - IT Doesn't WORK. GO HOME.

No the fact that nobody finds Kia Gerber's body absolutely horrid is amazing. She keeps getting hired for modeling campaigns by the biggest designers encouraging that skeleton look of hers

[quote] As Anne Sexton said,

Live or die, but don't poison everything!

Those comments on the Find A Grave profile of the mother are hilarious! She must have been a bitch on wheels

From R144

Levenkron (the therapist) suggested to the family that Karen was in need of a more tactile, demonstrative kind of love. Karen cried uncontrollably during the meeting. She told them how sorry she was for having put them in a situation where they felt a need to defend her upbringing, and she went so far as to apologise for ruining their lives. "I think Karen really needs to hear that you love her," Levenkron told the family.

"Well, of course I love you," Richard told her unreservedly.

"Agnes?" The therapist tapped the mother's shoe with his own.

Rather than address her daughter, Agnes explained how she preferred to be called Mrs Carpenter. "Well, I'm from the north," she continued. "And we just don't do things that way."

WHAT A FUCKING CUNT!

OP, why are you so concerned about fat women but not fat men?

I must be retarded because I can't find the Findagrave comments. Can somebody help?

Karen's Find A Grave profile just has the same four queens posting on it over and over

r147 Click on the flowers being "left". It took me a while too.

[quote]OP, why are you so concerned about fat women but not fat men?

Because they’re different. A woman should be petite, demure. Feminine. A fat, lumbering hoss of a woman isn’t very feminine.

In my day, women were so beautiful and well put-together that they could sometimes lure a homosexual man over the line into a heterosexual affair! But that is not true of the women of today, who are mostly amazons.

No, women of today prefer to be fat, loud, stinky harpies taking out their massive breasts and waving them around in public breastfeeding sessions. In my day, only the poor and ethnic breastfed. But now women insist on going native with their loose breasts and blubber hanging out. And zero feminine hygiene. It’s truly disgusting.

Wow R136 - that video is a perfect summary. The mother talks past Karen to Richard - deliberately ignoring Karen. The throwing out that baseball glove. And the father is Aspergers - the monotone and car obsession. A reminder that we really are screwed by our parents. Feel lucky if you had halfway decent parents. And be grateful for birth control and abortion so that people who shouldn’t and / or don’t want to be parents are not.

This Karen lady does look thin, I hope she's okay.

She has back rolls.

She could use a ham sandwich.

Now we know why birds suddenly appear every time she was near...they were vultures.

She's fine and sends her love.

"In my day, women were so beautiful and well put-together that they could sometimes lure a homosexual man over the line into a heterosexual affair!"

In my day? You sound like a 90-year-old Republican homophobe.

Oh, OP is the poster who keeps bringing up "foundation garments." What kind of man goes on about "foundation garments"? No man anyone would ever want to fuck, that's who!

R158 probably has never worn any foundation garments and doesn’t bathe or douche or shave her legs!

I LOLed at R155

OP must be in a rest home, and suffering from dementia- poor thing.

R159: no actual man ever uses a term like "foundation garments"

She needed to be away from her Uber-creepy family.

Why was she living with her brother??

Karen didn't move out of the family home until she was in her mid-20s, even though she'd had tons of money for years by then.

She did move in with a boyfriend but Agnes had a meltdown and Karen came back home.

WHY didn't Karen tell Agnes to fuck off? Karen had more than enough money to live independently.

I've read that when Karen bought her condo in Century City - when she was around 30 years old - Agnes had a big meltdown. She didn't like Karen living so "far away" from their hometown of Downey, or something like that.

A lot of the docs make it seem like many of her issues were triggered when she was forced from behind the drums.

[quote] A lot of the docs make it seem like many of her issues were triggered when she was forced from behind

MARY!

r117

Yes

Agnes was a true god damn cunt! I hope she’s burning in hell.

Eat a cookie, Karen. Really, it's okay.

R120 Celine gets really defensive about her gaunt appearance too. She says things like "if you don't like it, don't look." People are looking and commenting because she looks ill.

Haven't those rumors been out there about Celine for years?

Celine is getting thinner by the minute. She looked 100 at the Met Gala.

If I were Karen, I’d kill myself through anorexia too to get away from her bitch of a mother.

[quote]no actual man ever uses a term like "foundation garments"

Well, what term do “actual men” use, pray tell?

Bra and panties.

"probably has never worn any foundation garments and doesn’t bathe or douche or shave her legs!"

I'm guessing you're a trans 90-year-old, what normal gay men is that concerned with what women look like? Shouldn't you be more concerned with what MEN look like?

I think the last time I heard foundation garments was when I watched The Women on TMC.

“Foundation garments” is something my great-grandmother might have said.

[quote]Bra and panties.

Those are not the only foundation garments a woman should be wearing. They are the bare minimum, and most women don’t even bother with those!

^ Trans or Transvestite?

Karen looked a lot like Skeletor.

[quote] “Foundation garments” is something my great-grandmother might have said.

MY grandmother (born in 1905) used the term and she's about the only person I've heard say it non-jokingly. My guess is OP is the same deranged queen who likes to post about his bitchy sister, whorish niece, and sainted boozehound parents.

Is OP a taxidermist?

My parents were NOT “boozehounds.”

I am very sorry that drag queens are the only ones who care about foundation garments anymore. You can make fun of me all you want, but it doesn’t change the facts.

EXCUSE ME! THIS THREAD IS *****SO***** NOT ABOUT YOU!

Please keep the focus on my rotting corpse, where it belongs!

Do you also go on about how women should wear "hats and gloves" when leaving the house, OP?

What is OP's position on douching and feminine hygiene? Good foundation garments are expensive and could be soiled if a lady's peach isn't polished.

I can't find the fnd-a-grave snark either. I have clicked on flowers etc., and hardly anything there.

There used to be stores in manhattan as recently as 1990, in which foundation garments were the only things they carried!

1990 ain't recently bitch. I was 7.

It's all relative, R191!

Olivia and Karen were not a couple.

People have posted some real interesting gossip on ONJ here over the years that's far better than this tired trope.

Foundation Garment=Girdle=Spanx

[166] She screamed at her, calling her a traitor.

Like lookin' in a mirror. And I bet she likes the prune danish too!

Karen should go to a doctor and get some Juvederm and Restylane injections.

If Karen used cocaine to stay thin, she'd be alive today.

I want to go back in time and kick Agnes in the cunt!

I thought cocaine made you bloat.

Summary, R193?

Wearing foun-dation gar-ments to your e-lo-cu-tion class-es

Celine's face looks like it's retreating from her nose.

Yikes.

Oh, I love Celine but she just did Carpool Karaoke and she looks so unwell. Her hands and head look huge because she is nothing but skin and a skull. Her eyes and teeth also appear too large and bright, the way dying people sometimes look. But she seemed strong. Karen was a lifelong mess, born into dysfunction. I'm starting to think Celine might actually be sick.

Celine might actually have cancer.

Women don’t just usually develop anorexia in their 50s.

Karen should have tried Cool-Sculpting.

Celine Dion is entering Karen Carpenter territory

Celine Dion is entering Karen Carpenter territory.

Being seated next to "maize-fed" James Corden doesn't help

Hasn’t Celine always been stick thin?

Upthread poster..I don’t think Barbara Bush daughter of pres. George w is a jr? More like Barbara Bush II

Celine makes Madonna look youthful.

Her face is so drawn.

She didn’t look overly skinny here but she was always slim. I think she started to look overly skinny after René’s 2nd cancer and eventual death.

Celine is enormously talented, batshit crazy and a sweet sincere human being. She's a far more gifted vocalist than Karen Carpenter could ever dream and let's just leave Madonna's reconstructed face and vocal ineptitude out of it. We are talking about Celine because of her quite dramatic weight loss in the last year. She's always been slender, but quite perfectly so. Lovely body. Only recently has she looked so unwell and far too thin. It's made the press and public comment many times. Celine is adamant that she is fine and happy with the way she looks. As if that denial isn't familiar and a bit of an alarm. She may not have an eating disorder or she may be ill in some other way. She has suffered a great deal in the last 5 years, but she is definitely not in hiding. Her current appearance is not her normal look, no. Nor is a healthy one.

Celine is covering her neck with a scarf as there are signs of bulimia, just as with Vera Ellen. She’ll be dead within the year. And everyone will wonder why they didn’t do anything - just like Karen.

She was the only 70s singer not to be asked to star in Grease

Karen Carpenter is the worst dressed female singer of all time.

[quote]I think her hair looks like that because of malnutrition, not style choice

Partly true, of course, but eighties hair products were far harsher than today, and the big fluffy layered styles required perming, or endless blowdrying and gelling and spraying.

Celine has kids and she'll stick around for them. She's very underweight right now but she had very little on her to lose before the gay husband's cancer and the death.

[quote]1990 ain't recently bitch.

This sums up DL in four words

Why not start a Celine's sad, final days thread?

Celine husband died 3 years ago. Why is she losing weight now? Fucking her must be painful.

A recent Celine thread

She's thinks she looks better to her 17 year younger boyfriend.

What's amazing to me is that she is quite aggressive and dominant in this video.

She probably was all kinds of nuts and very difficult to deal with.

Karen Carpenter, fat, fat, fat. Fat people are so depressing, no?

If anyone saw Celine Dion on James Cordon's show last night, you'd think Karen Carpenter is a cow compared to her!

Can someone please start a thread about that Canadian hockey stick so we can get back to ME?

Celine is loved for herself alone. Her beautiful talent is already legend. Stay strong Celine.

1990 IS recent if you are talking about something as buggy-whippish as foundation garments. Sounds like something from Victorian England, but has, in fact, been with us till (relatively) recently. And it does not refer to spanx or girdles, eclusively. It refers to bustiers and similar upper body support/control pieces as well.

Celine Dion has always been anorexic. If you look at the photos of her on google images, you could say she was merely skinny. But 2 things. First, she never allows herself to be photographed with other women. In fact, she is almost always alone in her pix. Common anorexic stunt. Other people in the photo invite size comparisons. Rene Angelil was the exception, but he was obese and so removed the possibility of comparison to normalcy.

Celine has never been this skinny, ever.

The spec/rumors about Celine were around long before her husband's cancer/death.

She was never a beauty, but Celine is looking rough these days.

It's also why Celine wears the huge shoulder pads all the time. She is literally padding her emaciated body.

Love Celine. She's outlasted everyone. But, yeah, eat something darlin.

She was always skinny. She's just getting older y'all.

Either way, it's not a good look.

To claim that Celine does not allow herself to be photographed with other women is to not know ANYTHING about Celine Dion. Professionally she is onstage with other women every night. She has stood in the middle of Destiny's Child and sang for 8 minutes straight with her hero, Jeanette Reno. She did that sappy song with Streisand. She stands next to her band members and back up singers every time she performs. Celine goes on French Language talk shows frequently and interacts and performs and is PHOTOGRAPHED will all kinds of people. She is a nutty and very sweet girl. That's part of what's happening now. She is having her adolescence. Unfortunately part of that seems to be a return to fears of being chubby, even at her chronologically advanced age. She was very sheltered from many things. Her husband, work and family are all that she's known for 51 years. She needs to eat now. She says she has chosen to lose weight to feel more powerful and feminine. At her size - that is dysmorphic language.

You would look hard to find a sweeter or more patient celebrity than Celine. She takes photos with all kinds of people at every single pre-concert meet and greet. And she has done literally thousands of concerts. Lots of heavy women and men. Screaming queens, sweaty teens and older people. She's kind to them all and not at all afraid to be photographed in selfies. She's a fucking doll. Her heart is very pure.

This drunk woman came dangerously close to Celine on stage. Watch how Celine handles it.

This is MY thread!

OMG I think I know that woman in the Celine video!!! I worked with her and she is a bipolat attention whore who loves to be in the spotlight. It really looks like her, but I think she would dress better than that.

Getting back to Karen, watch her with her closeted lover ONJ and closeted John Travolta on closeted Merv Griffin's talk show. This would have been a few months after the alarming GMA interview and it aired just weeks after they tried to tape the British interview. Not sure how many months they taped Merv in advance, but at least her hair looks a bit better. She's still skeletal, eye-rolling, and completely infatuated with Olivia.

I wonder if Olivia tried to help her, realizing she was wasting away to nothing.

Celine needs Scupltra. Doesn't she have people who can advise her about these things?

Agnes Carpenter made Joan Crawford look like June Cleaver.

FUCK CELINE.

This is Karen's thread.

I always loved Karen’s music, but she looked quite frumpy and unstylish in the early years. She looked her best in the mid-to-late 1970s, IMO.

I always thought it ironic that even though she was always known for ballads, 2 of her 3 number 1 songs were not.

Celine sings with her Quebecois inspirations, on the Plains of Abrahams. With Ginette Reno. Spectacular!

Celine has her own thread!

Enough of this thread with the widow!

I was 14 or so when she died and was shocked to learn it was due to complications from anorexia, but this was before the Internet, and unlimited access to celebrity images, video and news. I don't know that I ever saw her look as thin as she does in the videos in this thread.

I wonder if she could've gotten help that would have saved her life if her deteriorating condition was more widely known?

what was the brothers place in all this mess. were they close or was there some issue.....he seemed very domineering.

KAREN I LOVE U AND MISS U. UR VOICE IS BEST EVER

R231 I love you honey

I was a kid in the early-mid 70s and I loved The Carpenters. But believe me, inthe late 70s they very un-cool and were dropped like a hat from radio airplay and batched with cheesy bubblegum groups. In essence, they were has-beens. They were so passé, it was cringeworthy and at about this time, the mindset was to forget them. Vestiges of that sentiment remain today, which would explain why they are never nominated for the RnR hall of fame. The loss of Karen at such an early age cemented that fate. Had she lived, I'm positive they would have a revival and a RnR Hall induction.

I feel so badly about this continuing oversight.

.....oh, and of course it was truly acceptable for women to be on a diet. It was a hot fad at the time. Plus, no one believed that being too thin could kill.

I hope she's singing to the angels in Heaven and living on eclairs.

I remember reading that her husband married her for her money and was extremely mentally and emotionally abusive.

This song makes me wonder what might have happened with the direction of their music in the 80s had Karen survived and recovered.

My God that video at R242 is just too awkward to watch the whole thing. Karen is completely devoid of joy, even as she is smiling and laughing. I also thinks it's interesting she says "my husband has this big beautiful boat". Wasn't it your boat too, Karen? Let's face it, you probably paid for it.

I also think it's awkward how Karen thinks she is telling a hilarious story when it just is sad.

I figured out that this talk show appearance must have been taped in the summer of 1981 since they separated in October of 1981. Things may already have been going bad at that point, but Karen was all about the illusion of a happily married heterosexual for the press. By August when she appeared on GMA, she was haggard and probably at her lowest point weight wise due to the pressures of an unhappy marriage... and then when things were truly over was when she was in England taping the slimmers disease disaster interview.

Karen tried to be so "on" in her interviews. It's a bit strange to watch.

She seemed like a dyke.

R260: Karen was married 8/31/80, in the interview she tells Merv that she was married “a year ago yesterday” which means this interview was taped 9/1/81.

Karen was NOT diseased!

She was just pooped from too much work.

R258 all the Carpenters big hits were from 1970 to 1975. They had their only top 15 song of the 80s in 1981 "Touch Me When We're Dancing".

I hope they can save her!

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

As I told her, with fashion love, the last time I saw her, 'You could afford to lose a few."

It’s her over-plucked eyebrows that are the real sickness here.

Her boat story was boring and sounded contrived.

Travolta looked liked he wanted to be anywhere else but there.

1981

tragic smile

Her brother also looks anorexic here? Manorexic?

Another secret lesbian relationship?

[R102] Randy, in his book, Little Girl Blue, has contradicted the assertion made by Ray Coleman, the author of the 1st Carpenters' bio, that Richard's wife is indeed a BIOLOGICAL 1st cousin. It is legal in 13 states, including California. They had genetic testing when they got married to make sure their kids wouldn't be 'Kooked Up' if they had any. Karen was mortified.

Did Richard and the cuz produce any inbred Jeds?

I always assumed Richard was gay.

Richard’s not gay, just extremely uptight. Especially after he got cured off the quaaludes.

I don’t think marrying your cousin is that big a deal. The British royal family did it for centuries. Are they still married? I think getting fucked with a big dick just once would do wonders for him.

Whitebread skeletor!

Todd Haynes film implied Richard was gay.

"I'll tell them about your...private life."

"If you say one word. One fucking word... YOU LITTLE BITCH!"

r271 No clue who the other person is with Karen in that shot. Would it kill people to include captions?

Isn't it ONJ R281?

r282 I don't know. That's the point. Doesn't really look a lot like her, but I guess it *could* be. Would like to know for sure. More and more posters are doing this now all over the board and it pisses me off.

On which of their albums does she sing her rendition of "Food, Glorious Food"?

R282

Yeah, that looks like ONJ, but what are they doing on Helen Reddy's bed?

It's ONJ. Time for that cataract surgery, dear.

Maybe time for me to apologize for not being 70, dear.

r286

To be fair, that's the only picture I've seen of ONJ where she doesn't have blonde hair. (At least since she became famous) and that was that early 80s, where everyone (ONJ, Pat Benatar, Sheena Easton, etc) had those manlike haircuts.

It is odd that ONJ has never said a public word about Karen since K's death in 1983...

She has spoken about Karen in a lot of bio docs about The Carpenters, and ones about herself. She was an honorary pallbearer at her funeral.

I think that she made an honest attempt to gain some weight for her wedding in August 1980. She looked healthier then. But as marriage turned out NOT to be the answer to all her problems, her eating disorder worsened through 1981. She may have been wearing a wig in the Merv interview because the dried out lifeless look in the GMA interview is covered up somewhat with makeup and baggy clothes.

It’s too bad Chrissy Metz can’t catch the Slimmer’s Disease.

Richard and his wife had 5 natural born children (I believe) and none of them are 'kooked up' to my knowledge.

I think Karen looks fine and happy in that Merv Griffin interview. I don’t believe these awful Lesbian rumors. Why would they do that? I never understood Lesbianism anyway. What are they even accomplishing with all that flicking and grinding and rubbing? I think they’re just trying to shock people!

Karen and Olivia don’t seem like that kind.

Circa 1969 on The Dating Game:

^she's a man

@ABC7

Former Riverside teacher pleads guilty to molesting 14-year-old girl

Women with Big Faces for $400, Alex

[quote]She was the only 70s singer not to be asked to star in Grease

That didn't stop her from doing an oldies segment in her concerts and dressing up in a parody of that era . . .

I don't see what the big deal is. Wasn't Danny Thomas one?

[R294], go suck an egg. I hope you're being sarcastic. She puts off major lesbian vibes, especially when she was younger. After her friend(s) got a hold of her to girly her up, her look changed, but I don't think for a moment she was 100% straight.

I heard that John Wayne encouraged Karen to audition for the role in True Grit that ultimately went to Kim Darby. Since she didn't hit the big time until 1970 with Close To You (or even the little time until 1969 with Ticket To Ride), the timeline doesn't seem right, but I've heard this from several people. Has anyone else?

I heard that too, r301

Richard had/has a nice jaw.

[R301] I think that Randy Schmidt debunks this in his bio, Little Girl Blue. I wonder how a random rumor like this gets started? She did audition with Kenny Roger's band in like 1969, but he didn't think she was a good fit for his voice. This is confirmed in both bios (Coleman and Schmidt, I believe).

Karen Carpenter was a sick and sad and tortured soul. But she didn't suffer from lesbianism.

She looks rather mannish on The Dating Game Show.

^i think so too and a lot like her brother..her hair looks shiny and natural tho compared to later when it was like steel wool.

R306 & R307 I agree. In The Dating Game Show, she looks like her brother in a wig. Interestingly, the end of the segment confirmed her lousy taste in men--she chose the douche and rejected the nice guy.

It's hard to believe there were no other visible cases of celebrity anorexia at that time.

This is probably something that was realized more later - but Susan Dey has admitted there was a time during the Partridge Family where she had an eating disorder and was quite thin.

R308 Wish Karen chose bachelor number three. Karen gave off a driven yet very self conscious vibe. She was clearly much happier performing.

reply 289

Olivia didn't like Richard Carpenter. She said Karen was always trying to set her up with him. I've seen several talk show clips, where Olivia puts subtle digs into Richard, like Karen's shelved album, when Karen said, that it was shelved because Richard thought it was too close to the "Carpenter's sound," Olivia immediately hits back with, "What do you mean? YOU ARE the Carpenter's sound."

New book to be released shortly.

I actually performed onstage with her...choir boy for "Sing A Song".

^ What was the experience like?

It was great, we weren't paid but we each got four tickets (nearly front row) to the concert. The song before "Sing A Song", they came and got us and brought us backstage...then we were out onstage and Karen walked around and said hi to us and asked the guy next to me if he was married..which brought a big laugh. I was 11 years old.

^Nice, thank you for sharing that story!

If Karen Carpenter had lived she and her brother would have become passe. They may have retained a loyal fan base but I don't think they would have had any more hits. Their music was pure seventies MOR.

R318

Yeah, she might have become passe, but she'd still be alive....

R311 I totally agree!

You're concerned with a woman who's been dead for 35 years bachelor pick on The Dating Game? The show was just a gimmick to promote "pretty" young Karen. A beauty she was not, chubby or skeletal. She had a beautiful studio voice. She could sing very well in person, but could not replicate the Carpenter's recorded sound. They used close mic techniques among many other tricks for Karen's voice to really stand out in front of the orchestrations. Her voice had such beautiful tone but she was not a powerful singer. Also she sang with a noticeable Californian's accent. Very strange what she did with some vowels sounds. On a quality audio system some of her songs are sublime though. Not gonna lie.

R321 I know it's weird, but I think if she would have chosen more wisely in general--had better taste in men (or women)--she might be alive and well today. What she needed was a supportive, loving partner and a stable home life. The Dating Game just illustrates her habit of choosing jerks. By the way, I totally agree with what you say about her voice/sound and find that insightful.

Thanks R322. I am the dude who was born in the year Karen died. That this is her last recording won't surprise a long time fan like you. But if you expand the YouTube explanation, it's quite interesting.

The process was always that Karen would sing a test lead vocal and later it would be arranged and orchestrated by Richard and the orchestration would be recorded. Then Karen would come in to record her REAL vocal, in as many takes and pieces and overdubs as (Richard) needed. He's weird but he wasn't a monster. He created, protected AND inhibited her. Forgot to love her. That's the tragedy of her life. Who actually ever told her they loved her? It seems like no one.

For a single take recording at the height of her illness, Karen still had it. Those gorgeous low tones and light pretty head voice. She had innate sense of melody and timing, (drummer girl) and that gorgeous sweep to her voice, even if she never really belted. Something to be said for that - as much as I like the DIVAs. The praise of KC's voice STILL is not hyperbole or sentiment. She was exceptional. Her sound was so warm and round and at times haunting. It's the tone of a voice that connects with us always. Her's was gorgeous. She had great musicianship, pretty good technique and so much better taste in her singing than her brother had in its presentation.

Cheers.

* next time I won't write gorgeous 3 times in one paragraph!

She must have REALLY been desperate to get married. The guy she married was such an obvious douchebag. Just looking at a picture of him makes my flesh crawl.

She has man hands.

Cheers to you R321 R323. You've made me appreciate Karen, her music and sound, in a new way, since I now understand the specifics of the collaborative process with Richard. Their process explains a lot about the power dynamics and psychology of their relationship and art.

Had she lived I’m sure The Carpenters would have set up camp in Branson.

I think they’d have a loyal fan base of older people today. They’d still be doing occasional sold-out small concerts, probably not big tours. They’d still beloved by a certain type of fan.

She'd never last in Branson.

Sure, they have iced tea but certainly no tossed salads.

I love Karen's voice. Her best material still holds up beautifully for me There were a few nice songs later on the "Lovelines" album, a few from her solo album reworked by Richard.

I'm sure Richard was a genius, often, but too often for my tastes, he'd take a great song, Karen's great vocal, and then wrap the song in gooey Disneyesque orchestration filler. I hated that. "I Need To Be In Love," came out well in spite of such a treatment, but it could have been even stronger.

Richard was an ace arranger, and had a good ear for hits. He should have stayed at A&M and used his talent to bring up other talents, but instead retired to his room where he just remixes his old hits, over and over, for re-release.

Wait-is that guy her brother or husband?Some upthread are calling him her brother, others brother...????

Yes, I wonder why Richard never did much with other artists. He did one album in the late 80s with various people like Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield but that was it.

Their father seemed like he was on the autism spectrum so I wonder if Richard and or Karen were also. They were both extremely intelligent (Richard was a prodigy), socially awkward, very driven, and obsessed with perfection in their music and its success on the charts.

Speaking of awkward 70s stars, Daryl Dragon of Captain and Tennille is a whole other story and I know there's a thread out there.

I'm POOPED, you cunts!

She'll always will be associated with anorexia almost as much with her beautiful music. I have watched a couple of documentaries about her, and they do indicate she received "some" medical treatment for her eating disorder and related. The documentaries rendered the impression that her family did not intervene enough and/or did not show suffient alarm about her condition. Perhaps at that time period, they did not understand the disease well. Maybe they really were concerned, but were frustrated in terms of what to do to change her behavior. Documentaries can be misleading.

That said, OP's posted video, which I have seen prior, show's a dehabilitated, visably sick and malnurished person. No one tried to stop her from making this camera appearance? Karen's enablers had their own measure of delusion about this situation.

^debilitated; shows, not show's

I still can't believe she was only 32

A couple classic songs, but I find them an overblown Jimmy & Kristy McNichol. They should have quit around 1974, found different careers, different paths.

They wanted to remain vital but their thang was Youth, the gimmick of a brother/sister act. Which became macabre after they lost the good songwriters, music styles changed and they tried to stay young by dieting.

Todd Haynes was correct in portraying them as Camp.

KC’s voice was just so pretty - and I don’t mean that in a disparaging way. There were better bigger voices and more accomplished stylists but her voice still resonates with me even when the songs are on the cheesy side.

I realize some of that has to do with being a kid back then and remembering hearing her on the car radio, but whenever I happen to hear a song by her it always makes me both happy and sad at the same time.

She didn’t die from anorexia. She died from Ipecac-induced heart failure.

She’d still be alive if she’d just continued starving herself.

I was struck by how many songs they recorded that became hits for others...but they recorded them first. This Masquerade, Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again, Reason To Believe, I Just Fall In Love Again, Can't Smile Without You. Great jobs on all, but especially Tryin' To Get The Feeling which is very different from Manilow's version.

R343, nobody in the modern era ever heard any of that shit.

I find it strange that the last thing she recorded was Now in June 1981. So she recorded nothing for the next 20 months or so? I know she was in treatment for much of 1982.

Actually, I just looked it up and she recorded Now in one take in April 1982 when she took a short break from her eating disorder treatment and returned to California. That actually makes a lot more sense.

[quote] I was struck by how many songs they recorded that became hits for others

On the other hand, they were the ones that finally made a hit of Close To You after several others had recorded it.

I love Dusty, and like her version, but the Carpenters' version went to the top of the charts for a reason - they really captured something special.

Although this version from Dusty's TV show was pretty damn good.....

The Haynes film uses several instances of Harry spanking a bare bottomed doll. Was that supposed to be Karen?

Did he spank her as an adult?

The Carpenters career paralleled the group Bread. They started at the same time (I think Close To You bumped Make It With You out of the No. 1 slot in 1970), they both found success with ballads at a time when that wasn't where pop music was , they both dominated the early 70s, the Carpenters Oscar-winning song For All We Know was written by a member of Bread, both groups faded with the 70s. What made me think of this subject was the wish that Karen had recorded a duet with Bread lead singer David Gates. I think their voices would've been perfect together on a song...maybe something like "If".

"she sang with a noticeable Californian's accent" -

Can someone give an example or two?

I wish there were camera phones when she spent the night singing with Mama Cass at a restaurant.

R345: 1981 and 1982 were Karen’s worst years. In ‘81 she was trying to promote Made In America in a skeletal state while her marriage was ending. In ‘82 she was back in NY under Levenkron’s care and ended up in the hospital in the Fall. She died a few months later in early ‘83.

R348 - Sing with Bread?

For fuck’s sake she should have just eaten some.

Just give it a rest already.

She was just pooped is all...

[quote] 1981 and 1982 were Karen’s worst years. In ‘81 she was trying to promote Made In America in a skeletal state while her marriage was ending.

Made In America was easily their worst album too.

They peaked with 1975’s Horizon and it was a steady decline from there. However, the second of the two studio albums released after Karen’s death (Lovelines) was a very nice collection of unreleased tunes.

"Lovelines" was pretty good, but so were a couple of cuts on "Passage."

POOPED!

Pooped, I tell ya!

Elvis meets Karen.

"Elvis meets Karen."

He looks like he doesn't even know she's there.

[quote]He looks like he doesn't even know she's there.

He was just pooped is all.

R342 Tryin' To Get The Feeling Again is one of the most amazing vocal performances I have ever heard from Karen. The recording that exists today is the very first time she ever sang it, it's a test track. If you listen closely you can hear her turning pages. Can you imagine the natural talent it takes to sing so flawlessly on the fly like that? It brings shivers to my spine whenever I hear it. In these days of auto tune and computers......

[R357] that pic is a known photo shop, which is why Elvis is not looking at her.

Okay, here's a real photo of Elvis and Karen.

Anybody need to poop?

"Okay, here's a real photo of Elvis and Karen."

Elvis looks fine in that photo. Karen looks AWFUL. Her face is so gaunt and her color is so bad she looks like a corpse.

She was just pooped, R364.

R362 Well, HE looks great.

Not eating was never one of Elvis' problems. He was rosy with health compared to KC. He looks hopped up on the dope though.

Poor Karen. Too bad she struggled with “being pooped” back in the 70s and 80s.

Today we know more about it and can hospitalize and treat celebrities when they come down with “exhaustion”.

John thought she was Lily Tomlin.

I much prefer "Slimmers Disease" to anorexia nervosa.

Sounds way more chic!

Yes, Slimmer's Disease sounds like something you might inherit or encounter on a trip!

She was F’ing pissed at that British interviewer asking if she was down to 6 stone in weight. I’ve never seen an angrier eye roll. She was pooped!

What if Karen had broken away from Richard and pursued a Madonna like career? Fun dance tunes. Risque stage shows. Karen's SEX book with other celebs like Twiggy, Burt Reynolds and Alan Alda?

How would Agnes have reacted? The scandal of Downey??

She tried to do that with her solo disco album, R373. But Richard made sure it flopped. He did NOT want Karen to leave him.

White people are crazy, aren’t they?

R373: Karen with a whip straddling John Davidson. And fuck Agnes! The scandal hopefully would’ve sent that old bitch to her grave.

Karen rimming Joe Namath while describing her pussy as a place of wonderment!

[quote]Karen rimming Joe Namath

Ass had too many calories for Karen to eat.

Karen's solo album was pretty lackluster, with only a couple of exceptions.

To R373. Karen should have had the same career trajectory as Linda Ronstadt did in the late 70's and 80's. Acting, trying new music genres. She'd still be with us today and who knows what she would have accomplished. Such a tragic waste.

Karen looked a fright by '81.

[quote] Karen's solo album was pretty lackluster, with only a couple of exceptions.

I agree. Richard took the best tracks and put them on “Lovelines”.

I dunno. Karen could use a few more whirlybirds if you ask me.

Would love to see Karen interviewed about her SEX book...

"So Ms. Carpenter...tell us about your book called SLUT."

"SEX. My book is titled SEX."

"In my country we call it SLUT."

r380, it's surprising The Carpenters PR person let her do that interview on GMA looking near death.

Imagery of Rick James taking Karen from behind as she pantomimes going down on Jayne Kennedy.

Who would shoot her SEX book? Mapplethorpe???

Agnes would have a coronary!

Her Christmas special with Coco Montrese was enthralling.

I was born in 64, so the Carpenters and Abba were stuff the adults played while we had Marc Bolan etc. Karen did have a stunning voice though, I found this video and it looks like she is wearing a fat suit. How awful.. My first real awareness of anoexia was Lena Zavoroni.

The late lovely lena xx

Sorry but...creepy kid and creepy song. Reminds me of Courtney Hadwin.

Lena Zavaroni is one of the most tragic Hollywood tales of all time. This Scottish "little girl with the big voice" achieved some degree of stardom in England singing hoary old standards and unseemly adult songs like "Help Me Make It Through The Night" and "If They Could See Me Now", the hooker anthem from "Sweet Charity." But she never made it in the United States, despite performing with stars like Frank Sinatra and Lucille Ball and guesting on tv variety shows and performing at the White House for then President Gerald Ford. She had a tv show in England and did rather embarrassing variety show songs and comedy routines. Along the way she developed anorexia. Her career faded; she'd had an awful female manager who didn't give a damn about her, so for all her years of work she had very little to show for it. She had a disastrous marriage that barely existed. She got sicker and sicker and her financial situation was so dismal that she went "on the dole" and was at some point arrested for stealing a packet of jelly. Her mental condition continued to deteriorate; finally she went in to a hospital to get an operation on her brain, to try and get rid of the "static" in her head. The operation was said to be similar to a lobotomy. She was said to be improving and even had the notion that she would be able to make a comeback as a performer. But three weeks after the operation she contracted a chest infection and died of pneumonia. She was 35 years old. Someone summed up Lena Zavaroni's brief life succinctly with just one word: joyless.

r390, Yes she had a terrible time. There is the common thread of the pushy mum with all these women..like Karen and Judy, so bloody sad. Putting this link to Lena as an adult...she was not always a bratty child singer.

R391 Not to mention poor batshit Britney....

My life parallels KC’s. Controlling, narcissistic mom. Non involved dad. And a brother who was/is the Golden Child. Like KC- it looked great from the outside. I Developed anorexia, married controlling abusive men, etc. It took me 40 years to realize I was okay- my mother and brother were messed up. Karen didn’t live long enough to figure out she was the STAR and her mom & brother were ASSHOLES. It really screws you up when your family will back stab you to look like the SAINTS.