HALSTON: Starring Ewan McGregor arriving in May on Netflix.

The good old daysh

I don't think Ewan really resembles Halston, he doesn't have the thin, long face.

[quote] I don't think Ewan really resembles Halston, he doesn't have the thin, long face.

But he does have a thin, long dick.

Any hot male models starring in it?

Teaser

Looksh shtupedoush!

More straights playing gay. Give this man an emmy!

RYAN MURPHY = GLIB SHITSHOW

There is a good documentary about the life of Halston on some cable channel (maybe HBO).

I watched it. That was enough.

I love the Liza character. But the rest seems blah ... and Ewen just does NOT disappear into the character.

I'll see it anyway. Krysta Rodsriguez as Liza at her most fabulous and iconic, doing tons of coke and wearing fabulous black and red clothes? Rory Culkin as a slutty young(ish) Joel Schumacher? Kelly Bishop as Eleanor Lambert?? That's like catnip, even if it sucks in the end.

This looks GOOD!!! There has been nothing that I have been excited for, but this looks like it will be fun.

[quote]That's like catnip, even if it sucks in the end.

There are too many shows on these days to spend your time watching something you know you will hate in the end.

[quote] There are too many shows on these days to spend your time watching something you know you will hate in the end.

Oh fuck off, Miss Priss. No one wants your unctuous sermonizing.

Jack Davenport would have been a better physical match. He can also do a reasonably credible American accent, unlike Ewan.

This documentary on Halston is fantastic:

Marisha Berenshen hash to be included!

Lots of NY based actors in this. Could be good.

I'm so very dayum gay that I set a reminder on Netflix for this. It's going to be a nice summertime event for me in terms of some wholesome if not borderline kitschy escapism.

I'm old enough to remember the magazines with pictures of Liza and Halston coming out of Studio 54 looking like something the cat dragged in. I loved that sort of thing. My late mother was a fan of Judy's and she was from the generation where they all evolved into fans of Liza's. That whole Cocaine for the disco boogie and Quaaludes for the guilt ridden comedown era is epic. I know there's more to Halston than that, though.

Halston's lines in his designs were gorgeous. He knew just what to do and could literally drape fabric onto a (my English sucks) dummy (there's a word for that?!) and then sew it from there. No one now can do that to the best of my knowledge. I'm a Lesbian who wouldn't rule out formally investing in a vintage Halston dress or gown one day.

[quote] she was from the generation where they all evolved into fans of Liza's.

A handful maybe, most did not.

Ryan Murphy? I’m there! ❤️ Ewan? ❤️❤️

Tired: "Cuba Gooding, Jr. looks NOTHING like OJ Simpson and I'm going to complain about this on Datalounge over and over and over again!!"

Wired: "Ewan McGregor looks NOTHING like Halston and I'm going to complain about this on Datalounge over and over and over again!!"

Where’s Pat Ast in the cast?

Early March of last year I saw Ewan McGregor and another actor whose face I've seen but couldn't place being walked into Bergdorf Goodman with a team of production assistants at around 9 PM at night. Ewan had a very conservative period suit on as did the other actor and they appeared to be running lines. This must have been for this production.

[quote]at around 9 PM at night.

There's another 9pm?

HA HA, I deserved that r25 but your obviously a cunt. I am a huge Star Wars fan and my BF had to physically restrain me from trying to get an autograph. I was close enough to him to try, but he seemed engrossed in the conversation/ running lines with the other actor, so it seemed poor form to interrupt.

So that was my near brush with the lovely Ewan

[quote]Tired: "Cuba Gooding, Jr. looks NOTHING like OJ Simpson and I'm going to complain about this on Datalounge over and over and over again!!"

The main complaint was that his acting didn't overcome the lack of resemblance.

[quote] Lots of NY based actors in this. Could be good.

What does this mean? Are you implying NY Actors are somehow better than LA actors or other cities?

Zero interest. Ewan is all wrong, and the Ryan Murphy touch....I've said it before, I say it again: he makes me embarrassed to be gay.

I hope Ewan is naked in this. It’s been too long since he’s gifted us with a full frontal scene.

R26

[quote]but your obviously a cunt.

Oh, dear. I, too am a cunt!

Eyan Murphy seems to churn out shows - but are they any good?

*Ryan

All i see is Ewan McGregor acting as a caricature of a man he can't possibly relate to or understand. No depth of character or analysis, just shallow surface soapie pretending really.

[quote]he makes me embarrassed to be gay.

Oh—you don’t need Ryan Murphy to be embarrassed. I think you’re a prime candidate for transitioning.

[quote]Lots of NY based actors in this. Could be good.

Personally, I'm just happy that he's doing a project without using his usual people.

All the episodes are directed by the guy who did the Versaci thing (which I loved) so I am hopeful this will be good.

I loved "Feud," so I'm hoping this can be really good.

I care much less that Ewan McGregor look just like Halston did than that he can play the part intelligently and charismatically. Dataloungers always want biopic shows to have the person look as much like the real person as possible, but that's rarely why anyone watches them. Anthony Hopkins was terrific as Richard Nixon and looked absolutely nothing like him in real life, but he held himself in such a way and spoke so that he seemed just like the real Dick Nixon.

[quote]I care much less that Ewan McGregor look just like Halston did than that he can play the part intelligently and charismatically.

Agree completely.

[quote] Are you implying NY Actors are somehow better than LA actors or other cities?

Generally speaking, IMHO, the acting on television shows and movies filmed in NYC is significantly better than the shows filmed in LA. Just my opinion.

[quote]All the episodes are directed by the guy who did the Versaci thing (which I loved) so I am hopeful this will be good.

Daniel Minahan directed three episodes.

Ryan Murphy himself, Nelson Cragg, Matt Bomer and Gwyneth Horder-Payton directed the others.

[quote]Daniel Minahan directed three episodes.

Thanks for the info r40. According to IMDB Daniel Minahan directs all the episodes of HALSTON. I wonder if that is why none of the "usual suspects" are cast in this. Maybe he let Minahan cast it as he wanted. Thoughts? r40?

[quote]According to IMDB Daniel Minahan directs all the episodes of HALSTON. I wonder if that is why none of the "usual suspects" are cast in this. Maybe he let Minahan cast it as he wanted.

R41, It's really his project, not Ryan Murphy's.

Minahan was trying to get it made (for decades!) and then Ryan caught wind of it. I believe he was also the one who approached Ewan to do it.

Ewan hadn't even heard of Halston when Minahan came to him.

To his credit, Minahan directed more episodes than anyone of Versace and one of the ones he directed was my favorite of the series and that relationship (and his previous work) is why he got this series now.

That being said, I'm sure he would have been able to easily cast any of Murphy's favorites from his "pool" of talent but it's obvious he stuck to his guns and went out on his own.

:)

Interesting take r42 thanks

McGregor is completely miscast.

Jesus, r44 how do you know? it hasn't even dropped and your passing judgement. What is the T on Ewan btw, is he BI? Nice guy? Has anyone on here worked with him?

So true R38. Best example is Marilyn Monroe. Catherine Hicks captured the essence in Untold Story (1980) While Susan Griffiths and Suzie Kennedy resemble her the most. Trailer with Italian film starring Kennedy. She spent months learning Italian in Monroe's voice and they dubbed her with someone who sounds nothing like Marilyn, ruining the effect.

[quote]Jack Davenport would have been a better physical match. He can also do a reasonably credible American accent, unlike Ewan.

Or they could, you know, hire an actual American.

[quote]More straights playing gay. Give this man an emmy!

THR asked McGregor about whether straight actors should play gay roles.

McGregor was concerned that taking on a gay icon like Halston might result in a backlash. While he's played many queer roles throughout his career, in films like The Pillow Book and I Love You Phillip Morris, he identifies as straight; Halston, meanwhile, was always unabashedly out of the closet — back in an era when doing so could have spelled career ruin. The problem, as Billy Porter put it in a 2019 Hollywood Reporter Actor Roundtable, comes when the sexuality-blind casting works in only one direction. "If 'flamboyantly' wasn't in the description of the character, no one would see me ever for anything," Porter said. "Straight men playing gay — everyone wants to give them an award."

McGregor responds, "I hear the discussion and I respect both sides of it, I really do. I haven't walked in Billy Porter's shoes. I don't know what it's like to lose out parts when you might feel it's to do with your sexuality. So I can only respect his point of view."

Ultimately he decided that "if it had been a story about Halston's sexuality more, then maybe it's right that gay actors should play that role. But in this case — and I don't want to sound like I'm worming out of this, because it's something I did think a lot about — I suppose ultimately I felt like it was just one part of who he was."

Rumor has long has it that Ewan is bi in his private life, however he publically identifies.

Rupert Everett would have been a really interesting Halston if they'd made this 25 years ago.

Sorry--I don't think Rupert Everett could play someone from the American Midwest believably if his life depended on it.

Sadly, I don't think Ewan can, either.

Okay bitches, who would YOU have cast as Halston? Apparently he needs to be openly gay and American, so let's here some ideas.

*HEAR some ideas.

Thius should be required watching for every Datalounger because it's all about three things we love moree than anything else:

1) Liza

2) A celebrity who want by a mononym

3) CAFTANS! Halston was THE American popularizer of caftans in the late 60s and early 70s. Where would 70s Datalounge icons like Jackie O, Carole King, Sylvia Miles, etc. been without fabulous Halston caftans to accentuate their curves and use as a backdrop for fabulous chunky jewelry?

What about Lee Pace? American, openly gay, and sort of has the look.

R54 He seems to be somewhat picky on what roles he takes. I wouldn't be shocked if he didn't want the role.

Pace is from Oklahoma. Would that help with the midwestern accent? IDK if an Oklahoma accent is much like an Iowa accent.

Oh, Pace would have done this part in a heartbeat had it been offered to him, I think.

I have heard Pace lose his Oklahoma accent so I bet he could do Evansville, IN. Many Brit actors could easily do it too--it's just I've never heard Everett do any kind of voice other than usual posh Euromumble.

Still, for whatever reason Murphy chose McGregor, and McGregor is a much better actor than people usually give him credit for being (because he was in those awful Star Wars prequels, which even he admits people hate and continue to hate,, I think people de-value his abilities). His early indie work in things like Brassed Off, Trainspotting, and Velvet Goldmine is terrific.

I like McGregor a lot when he's cast right, but I've never seen him convincingly play American. That's my worry about this.

Pace is a great suggestion, actually.

You kids are throwing casting ideas around like total civilians. Casting a leading role in a highly anticipated limited series for Netflix is about getting the biggest name that can make the most sense. Ewan is an international movie star thanks to the Star Wars franchise. HIs presence will bring huge numbers. Would another actor be more approrpiate on paper for the role? OF COURSE, but economically, this is the best choice. Ewan is also undeniably charismatic. Halston had a quiet charm that wouldn't translate cinematically.

Let's wait and see what he does with it. I am sure it will be one of the most watched shows on Netflix

[quote] Rumor has long has it that Ewan is bi in his private life, however he publically identifies.

Who has he been linked with? If Ewan came out as Bisexual that would sure create a ton of buzz around the series.

Jude Law r61.

Halston used to have a guy stand outside the subway at 125th street in Harlem. He'd offer money to the hunkiest black dudes if they'd go fuck Halston, this was in the pre-AIDs era. It apparently "worked".

It's way easier for an actress to come out as bisexual--that turns on all the old men in the business and they can still get cast. Very few leading men would admit to being bi, though many of them probably are.

Ewan McGregor about to get his Emmy.

How uninteresting.

Has anyone read “At Danceteria”? It’s fiction but semi-based on real events. There’s a great story in it about Liza, Halston, Warhol, and Steve Rubell all getting coked out of their minds and attending Halston’s JCPenney fashion show. That version of Halston seemed really believable to me (he’s openly anti-Semitic in this) and I just loved the interpretation of Liza. I wanna see THAT on the screen.

There’s another sorry about “Jackie On Assistance”going to the Anvil with Jerry Torre, the Marble Faun from Grey Gardens

Was Darren Criss unavailable?

After the huge announcement he made about no longer playing gay? R68

[quote] Ewan is an international movie star thanks to the Star Wars franchise. HIs presence will bring huge numbers.

Is that why the viewership of season 3 of Fargo which he headlined fell to then series low?

Who exactly are those vast masses scrambling to watch Halston for Ewan McGregor, or watch a show about Halston fullstop? The audience for this show is pretty niche.

Ewan's Q-rating may go up once the Obi-Wan TV show premieres, but I agree that right now he's not that much bigger a get than Lee Pace would have been. I'd rather have seen Pace in the role.

I can't say whether Pace would have been better or not but in terms of the business, Ewan is a much bigger star

I think they should've pulled a "Crown" and cast different actors for the young, middle-aged, and old leading character.

R72, it's about fantasy casting for a real person with an identifiable physicality, not who's the biggest star.

"Was Darren Criss unavailable?"

As Liza?

Lee Pace is an amazing suggestion.

I wonder if Pace would have had a bigger career if he were 3-4 inches shorter. Being 6'5 makes it hard to pair him with the many short actors out there, and he could look odd in certain roles.

[quote] You kids are throwing casting ideas around like total civilians.

Oh Mary, we could never [italic]dream[/italic] of aspiring to [italic]your[/italic] expertise!!

Oh, dear.

Lee Pace has nothing to do with this project.

But I see his crazy fans of creeped in here ....

[quote] But I see his crazy fans of creeped in here ....

Oh, [italic]dear,[/italic] indeed.

R79 would be a hoot in the Cast the Trump Movie threads.

I'm actually a much bigger fan of McGregor than I am of Lee Pace (I'm the one who first suggested him). But in this instance, I think McGregor is miscast.

McGregor is often miscast. Did you see August: Osage County?

He also has a bad American accent. And, as anyone who knows anything about Halston, Halston considered himself “as American as apple pie.”

Lens Dunham would’ve made a great Pat Ast.

McGregor is nearly always miscast playing Americans. He just isn't believable.

R58 I thought Ewan was great in Doctor Sleep, he played an American in that. He was so sympathetic as the grown up Danny Torrence. The film has some pacing problems but he was excellent.

R86 Have you seen the Director's Cut? More and better Danny scenes in that.

R87 Not yet, I just bought it a few days ago and am planning on watching it tonight.

Ryan Murphy needs to fuck off.

I am super-excited for this.

r89 needs to fuck off.

I recently listened to a podcast with Murphy, Hamish Bowles and Tom Ford about this. Tom Ford was incredibly straightforward in this - sex, drugs, etc in the fashion industry. It was refreshing to hear. Anyways, he said he was initially dubious about the casting but that Ewan did an incredible job- nailed Halston exactly.

Ewan McGregor and Ryan Murphy. Say no more. I can tell you right now you’re going to see Ewan’s ass in this.

I saw Dr. Sleep and thought Ewan was okay in the part, but all I could think of while watching is how that should have been RDJ's role. He not only could have nailed the character's demons, but he looks like a grown-up Danny Lloyd.

Did Halston really speak with a midwestern accent? I find it hard to believe, I remember something like a posh mid-Atlantic drawl.

[quote] I can tell you right now you’re going to see Ewan’s ass in this.

That's hard to believe, given how hesitant Ewan is about showing it!

[quote] Did Halston really speak with a midwestern accent? I find it hard to believe, I remember something like a posh mid-Atlantic drawl.

He didn't live his entire life in New York City being a celebrity, you know. He may have adopted it later, but a posh mid-Atlantic drawl wouldn't have been accepted very readily in Evansville, Indiana.

[quote]The problem, as Billy Porter put it in a 2019 Hollywood Reporter Actor Roundtable, comes when the sexuality-blind casting works in only one direction. "If 'flamboyantly' wasn't in the description of the character, no one would see me ever for anything,"

Because he couldn't play straight to save his life.

[quote]Okay bitches, who would YOU have cast as Halston?

Bradley Cooper 😂

Ewan was good in the gay film (whose name I forget) with Jim Carey. I think he will do a good job.

R93 I thought Ewan did a great job. He let the audience see and feel that damaged child still inside Danny, he had really nice chemistry with his young co-star. I don't think RDJ has a monopoly on performing addiction. Ewan gave up drinking something like 15 years ago because it was a big problem for him and he didn't want to ruin his life or career and he went to AA. Which is basically what Danny did, so it's something Ewan has personal experience with.

He's closer to the right age too. Danny was about what? 5 years old in The Shining? RDJ would be a full ten years older, Ewan's just 4.

Is Hollywood worth watching on Netflix? I recently watched Ratched and thought it was wonderful, but I've heard very mixed reviews on here for Hollywood.

[quote]Is Hollywood worth watching on Netflix? I recently watched Ratched and thought it was wonderful, but I've heard very mixed reviews on here for Hollywood.

I loved HOLLYWOOD. Blew through it in one day. There are people who hate it because it's revisionist but I'm of the mind that it's wish fulfillment and giving happy endings to those who didn't get one.

R101 its entertaining for the most part but it gets very preachy with its message. Things happen in the plot a little too conveniently for characters and many characters are bland.

R102, Thanks. I'll give it a go.

Micheal B Jordan as Halston

Brendad Ickson as Liza Minnelli

Lens Durham as Elizabeth Taylor

Billy Porter as Bianca Jagger

Sarah Paulson as Bianca’s white horse

[quote]Okay bitches, who would YOU have cast as Halston?

Julianna Moore. Seriously.

Will it feature his Moroccan "house servant" who sported a caftan?

His townhouse with the bamboo garden was remarkable.

I'm excited for this having read the Warhol Diaries, but disappointed that there doesn't appear to be a Warhol, Bianca Jagger, Diana Ross, or Liz Taylor in the story.

Did our Faye have any strong connection to Halston?

I'd love to see her portrayed by someone in a miniseries.

R100I liked Ewan in the role, and he's the right age (same age as me). My only quibble is that he looks nothing like the son of Jack Nicholson and Shelly Duvall. Can't have everything.

The trailer looks good.

That looks good! I'm a sucker for anything that takes place in the disco era. It was before my time, but what an epic period of history that was.

Not everyone from the midwest has a strong accent or a twang, for example: David Letterman.

In many cases it's more of a manner of speaking, favored expressions and colloquialisms that gives away the provenance of a midwesterner.

R112 I yelled, "Caftans! Earrings!" at my monitor.

Okay, the trailer may have sold me.

Could someone explain the numbering system on Halston's line? For example, this Halston IV caftan.

It’s an excellent trailer.

Who plays Lorna and Joey?

In her autobiography, Lorna noted that Halston was never more than civil to her. She wasn't famous enough to merit more from him.

This show is going to be everything. It may even top Feud.

The trailer is great and Ewan gets it done.

You can analyze Halston's "real" accent here.

Didn't Halston do the gowns in the movie Rollerball? It was just a short sequence. I can't see him credited on IMDB. He definitely did the gowns in some sci-fi thing.

Wasn't it YSL who said that only in America could a designer of so little talent have such success.

It's pretty true. His gowns are mostly endless variations on grecian gowns, and very bland, but of the period.

His fashions changed everything r125. It was modern clothing for active women. YSL was just jealous.

[quote]YSL was just jealous.

Yeah and Halston never put his name on a cigarette.

The recent CNN doc on Halston was very good.

As a little kid, I begged my mother to buy a Halston dress from JCPenney, but she wasn't interested. I remember pleading with her, "But mother, it's HALSTON!"

I knew who all the big designers were when I was a kid.

R56, Halston was from Indiana, not Iowa. And no, Oklahoma people sound sort of Texan. Indiana people sound like David Letterman. No accent of which to speak.

Y'all all quit harping on Ryan Murphy and his oeuvre/talent/etc.

Ryan Murphy doesn't give us therapy, he gives us candy.

Ewan seems cool in this interview.

Tom Ford and Andre Talley are praising this series in the Times. How could they have seen it? It doesn't drop until next Friday?

For you cheap bitches who don't subscribe to the NYT:

[quote]When Ewan McGregor was but a wee lad in a sleepy town in Scotland in the ’70s, some 3,200 miles away in a Manhattan townhouse on East 63rd Street, Roy Halston Frowick was living on a diet of baked potatoes with beluga caviar, chilled Stolichnaya, rent boys and mounds of cocaine piled in Elsa Peretti silver ashtrays. (With silver straws to match.) “I’d never heard of him,” said a bearded Mr. McGregor, Zooming from his L.A. home. “I didn’t know Halston at all.”

[quote]Then the actor got cast as the man with one name who lost the rights to that name, the man who was at the center of a wild and tragic era in New York, the man who is known as America’s first celebrity fashion designer. And Mr. McGregor, now 50, became so possessed with Halston in the eponymous Ryan Murphy mini-series coming to Netflix that sometimes he thought he was Halston, that he was the one who designed Jackie Kennedy’s pillbox hat for the inauguration. “There were just little moments,” Mr. McGregor said, “where I felt like, ‘Oh, that was him.’ There was, like, a little curse, an eye roll or something where I felt that was it.”

[quote]It’s a tricky role since he has to play someone playing someone. Like Gatsby, Halston, who grew up in Indiana, created himself. He slicked back his hair, slathered on Guerlain bronzer, donned dark sunglasses, pulled on a black turtleneck and adopted a Continental locution. He would be gossiping and laughing with his assistant Tom Fallon as they walked to work when Halston was the custom milliner at Bergdorf’s early in his career. Then, as soon as they pushed through the revolving doors, the voice and mien changed. “Hahl-ston had arrived,” Mr. Fallon recalled in a documentary. No matter how famous the designer got, no matter how supercilious and sleek he seemed, he never lost that sense of being an outsider. In the show, “H,” as he is known, calls his inner circle “a bit like little ships lost at sea … a bunch of queers and freaks and girls who haven’t grown up yet.”

[quote]Matt Tyrnauer, who made a documentary about Studio 54, compared Halston to Cole Porter, also from Indiana. “Two Hoosiers who took Manhattan and defined cafe society in their respective generations,” he said. “Both pretty out there with their sexual proclivities and both emblematic of the need for gays to flee and realize their cosmopolitan dreams.”Mr. Murphy’s show explores Halston’s volatile relationships with Victor Hugo, an escort who became his longtime companion, and Peretti, his model and jewelry designer who was, futilely, in love with him.

Part 2:

[quote]The 5-foot-10 Mr. McGregor willed himself to elongate into Halston, whose massive ego and regal bearing made him seem taller than his 6 foot 2 inches — with some expert help from the costume designer and cinematographer. “I was always upset that I didn’t have his hands because he’s got beautiful, long, elegant fingers and I don’t,” he said. “When I’m doing the scenes pinning and draping, I was slightly upset that I wasn’t able to act his hands.”

[quote]Mr. McGregor is now in a galaxy far, far away making his Obi-Wan Kenobi TV series for Disney, but he is haunted by Halston. “I loved being him. It was so much fun.” Not quite as much fun as the real Halston, since Mr. McGregor was smoking green-tea cigarettes instead of Trues, snorting sugary, vitamin-like Inositol instead of Bolivian marching powder and, due to Covid restrictions, conjuring disco fever with just 48 extras in the Studio 54 scenes. “The part of me that’s a smoker thought, OK, great, I can smoke again while I play Halston,” he said, with his raffish grin. But then, “The green tea cigarettes are so horrible.”

[quote]When those who knew Halston in his heyday heard that Mr. McGregor was cast, they raised their manicured eyebrows. They could not picture the rough-and-tumble man-boy who likes to ride motorcycles and wield lightsabers as the grander-than-thou designer, whipping up tie-dye caftans, buttering up society matrons with a buffet of Ultrasuede wrap dresses, dispatching a plane from Manhattan to Montauk with his seafood lunch. But when they watched screeners, they felt as though they were actually watching Halston. “That Scottish man pulled it off,” said André Leon Talley, the author of “The Chiffon Trenches.” “The way he pivots with the cigarette dangling between his two fingers and says ‘Bah-len-ciah-aaaaa-gah,’ so it’s almost musical with the ‘B’ floating on air, it was so perfect.”

[quote]“I cried,” said Mr. Talley, who was working at Andy Warhol’s Interview in those days and was a regular at Studio 54 and Halston’s ultrachic gray lair, observing the Dionysian scene. “The story tells you the rise of the American dream and the ruin of the American dream. He was like Cary Grant, one of the greatest talents, up there with Saint Laurent. He dressed Jackie Kennedy, Lee Radziwill, Lauren Bacall. Then he flew too close to the sun, the Icarus myth. Sex and drugs and promiscuity ruined him, that Sodom and Gomorrah in the balcony and the basement of Studio 54. That Venezuelan call boy was his downfall.” He was referring to Victor Hugo, who like Halston invented himself and gave himself a new name, a play on his anatomy. “Believe me, he wasn’t reading French literature,” Mr. Talley said. “He was a grifter who clung on like a parasite, like a barnacle on a ship.” In one scene, Halston brings Hugo’s jock strap to a perfumer as an inspiration for his first perfume (with bottle designed by Peretti).

[quote] Some, like Warhol and Anjelica Huston, enjoyed the bravura of Hugo, who called himself Halston’s “art adviser” and designed Halston’s shop windows eclectically as a crime scene or a mannequin in labor. “I thought he was great fun,” said Ms. Huston, who was one of the “Halstonettes,” as the designer’s entourage of models was called. “There was a fizziness about the moment, like bubbles in the Champagne. We all played off each other. Halston put those Grace Kelly clothes on those Black girls and he struck a note that was fantastic. It was a new level of cool.”

Part 3:

[quote]Tom Ford, who said he was “a twinkie” at Studio 54 in the days when Halston hung out there with Liza Minnelli, Liz Taylor, Bianca Jagger and Warhol, was also impressed with Mr. McGregor and the show. When Mr. Ford was 18, a date took him to a gathering at Halston’s house, which inspired him. “It’s minimalist,” he said, “but it’s sensual and sexy.” Four decades later, he bought the house, and he’s now restoring it in the Halston image, reproducing the gray Paul Rudolph furniture on the bottom three floors and turning the top floor into a replica of Halston’s ripe-cherry red office in the Olympic Tower. “I really wish those walls could talk, or turn into video screens,” Mr. Ford said. “I wish I could see what happened in that house.” He said there was an old picture of Hugo peeing into a toilet in a bathroom which will now be used by his son, Jack. “I don’t think it would be appropriate to hang that picture over Jack’s toilet,” Mr. Ford said dryly.

[quote]Valerie Steele, the director and chief curator of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, said she believes Halston’s excess undermined his success in the fashion pantheon. “I think in a way we’ve been misled by the chaos of the Studio 54 scene to not think as highly of Halston as we should,” she said. “I think he was one of the great designers.” (Indeed, he will be featured in both parts of the Met’s upcoming Costume Institute exhibit on American fashion.)

[quote]There are more amazing Halston stories than the series has room for: Ali MacGraw told me about buying her wardrobe from the designer to promote “Love Story” in Paris and London. She recalled getting ready before a charity gala for the queen and realizing that she couldn’t get her black Halston slip dress to fit correctly. “No matter how I turned it, my breast was hanging out,” she recalled, saying she was “flabbergasted.” Panic mounting, the car downstairs, she wore the only other clothing she had with her, some black satin pants (which did not pass muster with the British tabloid reporters). Her then-husband, Bob Evans, was upset and called Halston. Back in New York, Ms. MacGraw was summoned to the salon. Flanked by two assistants, he languidly instructed her to put on the dress and “turn it around.” “And, of course, it was perfect,” Ms. MacGraw said. “It was mortifying. I sent him many dozen red and yellow tulips with a card that said, naturally, ‘Love means never having to say you’re sorry.’”

[quote]Ms. Huston told me about going to Halston’s house for dinner when she was visiting New York, six months after she had moved to Hollywood. She was wearing an imitation Halston dress she had bought in a shop on Sunset Boulevard. “I walked in his door and he said, ‘Oh my God!’ and sent one of his boys upstairs to get a roll of fabric which he wrapped around me for dinner,” she recalled. “I was so embarrassed.”

Part 4:

[quote]Mr. McGregor prepared for the role by having tea with Ms. Minnelli, who was Halston’s best friend, and obsessively watching “Project Runway.” He also worked with the show’s costume designer, Jeriana San Juan, to learn draping, pinning and cutting fabric. Since Halston scorned undergarments on his models, pinning was not without peril. “I got a sewing machine,’’ he said. “I did a bit of sewing and I had, what do they call it? The dummy? I had one of those. I had some fabric. I bought some books.”

[quote]Unlike his character, who strides around in long, double-faced wool red, cream and black trench coats, red pants and cashmere cardigans, the actor dresses in daily life with casual cool.“Ewan has a great sense of fashion, he’s really stylish,” said Baz Luhrmann, who directed Mr. McGregor in 2001’s “Moulin Rouge!”, a time when the actor was “at his most wild.” Asked to describe what he is wearing on Zoom, Mr. McGregor pulled off his blue sweater to check the tag on his T-shirt, showing the top of his Calvin Klein underwear over his pants. It was a funny moment, given the contempt Halston felt for the younger rival nipping at his heels. In one scene in the series, Halston calls Calvin Klein a “hack” and sneers, “There’s something so Long Island about the whole thing.” In another, he throws a glass full of scotch at the television screen when Brooke Shields comes on to purr, “You want to know what comes between me and my Calvins?” Mr. McGregor laughed at his impromptu fashion commentary. “I’m wearing Buck Mason straight-cut T-shirt in stripes,” he said. “I’m wearing some indoor-outdoor slippers from huckberry.com. That is an amazing website. These trousers I have no idea where I got these from but they are like a drawstring pant. They’ve got no pocket and they’re made of canvas.”

[quote]His two oldest kids — he has four daughters with his former wife, Eve Mavrakis, a production designer — are following in his stylish footsteps. Clara, 25, and Esther, 19, starred in a Fendi ad together in 2018. Clara is a Wilhelmina model. “They are beautiful, aren’t they?” Mr. McGregor said. “I was able to visit them on a shoot that they both did together in New York.” After so many years where they tagged along with him, he said, it was “cool” to be the visitor in their world. “I actually went out and got them some sandwiches. There was no catering.”

[quote]Mr. McGregor’s home life became press fodder a few years back when he and Ms. Mavrakis split after 22 years of marriage. The actor is now in a relationship with Mary Elizabeth Winstead, his co-star in season three of “Fargo.” His role playing both Stussy brothers earned him a Golden Globe in 2018. Clara and Esther both expressed their dismay about the split on social media. Clara also wrote an Instagram post in 2019 about going to rehab to overcome a Xanax addiction, which has turned into a movie project, with her father producing, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

[quote]He tried making himself some pants. “I looked at trousers that I owned,” he said. “I was turning them inside out and just trying to figure it out.” He made the first pocket and was really impressed with himself. But then when he put in the second pocket, he realized one was on the outside and one was on the inside. “They were cool. There was something Japanese about them. Very now, I thought.” But he used such a heavy blue wool, they were too itchy to keep.

[quote]I asked Mr. McGregor how his own experiences with addiction factored into his portrayal as Halston. “I’ve been sober a long time and I’m interested in it,” he said. “It’s part of my life in terms of sobriety and having struggled with addiction.” Was his problem with alcohol exacerbated by drugs? “It was the ’90s,” he said with a dry smile. “It was lots of things.”

Part 5:

[quote]He was feeling so “miserable” by 2001 that he gave up alcohol and, for good measure, cigarettes. He misses the cigarettes more. “At the time, I thought it was cool and made me cool and makes you feel tough and hard,” he said. “Actually, who I am isn’t that. That’s just not who I was.” He said his ex-wife helped him and other people talked to him about his behavior. “I wasn’t getting away with it like I thought I was,” he said, adding: “It’s like somebody living inside you which is hellbent on destroying you, really. That’s what it wants.”

[quote]In the show, the Liza character, played by Krysta Rodriguez, tries to get Halston to come to the Betty Ford Clinic with her, telling him gently, “The one thing you don’t know how to do is stop.” The actor had to relive all that tracing Halston’s spiral. (The show, directed by Daniel Minahan, sprang from the Steven Gaines biography, “Simply Halston.”) When Halston’s secretary, Sassy Johnson, tells him he has gone through two weeks’ worth of cocaine in a day, he screams at her to refill the Peretti dish. “GET IT, SASSY!” he shrieks.

[quote]As he loses control, the designer begins lashing out at those closest to him as he realizes he can’t oscillate between high (Bergdorf) and low (JC Penney). Eventually he is taken over by the corporate parent of Playtex, which spurred him to comment in real life, “The folks from Planet Tampon landed on Planet Halston.” (The brand has gone through many more iterations, including a stint when Harvey Weinstein and Sarah Jessica Parker were involved.)

[quote]Mr. McGregor is known for being warm, cheerful and collegial on sets. Yet he said he could understand Halston’s outbursts with the suits — “the loggerhead between art and commerce” — as the designer got pushed, and seduced by greed, into making a plethora of products that diluted his brand. “I had somebody once tell me they wanted me to shout this line that I wasn’t shouting, a producer,’’ the actor recalled. “I was, first of all, absolutely appalled that a producer was giving me a note on set and so I just calmly asked why. He said, ‘We think it could be a great trailer moment.’ I said, ‘OK.’ Then we went to the next take and I made this line so quiet that you couldn’t hear.” He snapped at the producer, “I’m not here to make your trailer moments — that’s not my job.”

Part 6:

[quote]Mr. McGregor had no problem with the bold sex scenes in “Halston.” He has always embraced onscreen intimacy with men and women, and never shied away from nudity. But he said it got boring for a long stretch when journalists only asked him about being sober and being naked, something he labeled tabloid trash, with an expletive. It reached peak cringe in 2005 when Esquire referred to his penis variously as “man-root,” “light saber,” “Scottish sausage,” and an “anaconda” — all in the same profile. “Well, it’s a shame,” he said. “There’s a lot more to my life than that. I put up with it. Now it doesn’t happen so much anymore.”

[quote]Because they filmed during the height of Covid in Manhattan, the sex scenes were preceded with a lot of hand sanitizer, mouthwash and spitting into buckets. They also had an intimacy coordinator, which Mr. McGregor felt was an especially important development for young actresses. “Imagine you’re 22 and you just got cast and you’re on set,” he said. “The leading man is always 25 years older than you, and you’re suddenly with a male director and a male leading actor. Everyone’s always embarrassed about it. It’s like, ‘Just see what happens.’ This poor 22-year-old girl — maybe she doesn’t want what happens to happen.”

[quote]With the intimacy coordinator, he said, “It’s literally like, ‘Are you happy to have your bum touched?’ ‘Are you happy for somebody to put their hand on your chest?’ ‘Are you going to kiss with tongues?’”

[quote]Last year, there was backlash to James Corden’s campy performance in another Ryan Murphy production, “The Prom,” with some condemning it as homophobic. And certainly, in less skilled hands, the portrayal of Halston — who had an intriguing blend of masculine and feminine qualities — easily could have gone off the rails. I wondered if Mr. McGregor had worried about the argument that straight actors shouldn’t play gay roles. “I haven’t walked in the shoes of somebody who’s had to hide their sexuality for fear of not getting roles, and I respect those that have,” Mr. McGregor said. “I will always have that argument with myself, and then with the director and the producers, before choosing to do something. It’s not like I don’t care. It’s not like I think it’s silly. I don’t. I do understand and I do get it. I hope people aren’t offended.”

Part 7:

[quote]Back in 1999, when he began playing Obi-Wan in the “Star Wars” prequels, Mr. McGregor readied himself to go from indie darling to big-budget star. But, as he said, “Those three films were pretty universally underwhelmingly received. People didn’t very much like them at the time. It was quite difficult to decide to do something that big and then to get involved in it and then to struggle through some of it and then for people not very much to like it. It wasn’t the experience I thought it was going to be, I suppose.”

[quote]He remembered being first shown around the props department and sets by George Lucas. “It blew my mind. I was young and had just done ‘Trainspotting,’ and I believed in myself as a grungy, gritty urban actor, and there I was deciding to do one of the biggest franchises in the world.” Walking on set with Mr. Lucas, he observed the making of a submarine for the film. “I looked at it, all excited, and said, ‘Oh my God, will we go underwater?’ And George just looked at me and laughed and went, ‘It’s not even real, you know.’”

[quote]The actor found the green-screen experience grueling and was openly dismissive about a job that mostly entailed perfecting the Jedi frown and waving a saber. “There’s not a great deal of emotional excavating to do in the scene and it can become very hard work,” he said. He was Zooming from the bedroom of his daughter Anouk, who’s 10. He walked over to the bureau and picked up an Obi-Wan doll. “That’s me,” he said wistfully. “It’s never been touched. It’s never moved. It’s never been played with. I don’t know what their experience is of having a dad who’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. I’m sure it can be pretty tedious in school and stuff. There’s no discussion about ‘Star Wars.’ I don’t think they’ve ever watched them. They’re really not interested. “I think it’s complicated for kids whose parents are famous or actors or whatever. It’s probably quite cool and quite tedious at the same time.”

[quote]Despite his “up-and-down experience” with the movies, he got in touch with Disney and said, “Look, just so you know, if you ever think to do a spinoff with my character, I’d be up for it.” Now, he sounds excited about the show he’s doing for Disney Plus. He thinks his director, Deborah Chow, who directed episodes of “The Mandalorian,” is brilliant. He’s even ready to go hang out with superfans at conventions. Still, he’ll miss the dark side on East 63rd Street. “I was sad to know that I was going to have to let him go,” Mr. McGregor said about Halston.

He kept the black trench coat.

Part 8:

[quote]Maureen Dowd: Your style icon is Steve McQueen on a Triumph.

[quote]Ewan McGregor: I’m a bit bored of that being a style icon, I’m afraid. When you do a photo shoot, they always show you a picture of Steve. I guarantee it. They always go, “We think it’s like this.” Before I look, I know it’s Steve McQueen on the back of a motorbike. It always is. God knows Steve McQueen was cool and he looked great on a bike but come on.

[quote]MO: Obi-Wan throws shade better than Halston.

[quote]EM: Nobody throws shade like Halston does.

[quote]MO: Like Halston, you have a taste for caviar.

[quote]EM:I used to. I remember when I was young, it made me feel very fancy and successful when I was in Heathrow Airport flying anywhere. They sold these tiny little tins of caviar in the airport there, and they would put it in the little Styrofoam box with ice and you were able to take it on the plane, and I would love to sit on the airplane with my little tin of caviar and eat it as I flew to my next project.

[quote]MO: In the “Who wore it better?” contest, your Halston black turtleneck beats Jennifer Lawrence’s Elizabeth Holmes black turtleneck.

[quote]EM: I think it probably does. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Sandra Bullock because in “Ocean’s 8,” she has her hair always inside her collar. Mary and I and my kids are always like, “We call it the Sandra Bullock.” In the exterior street scenes in the early ’60s as Halston, I always had my long hair inside the collar.

[quote]MO:It was your idea to drop your pants in “Velvet Goldmine.”

[quote]EM: Yes, confirmed.

[quote]MO: You have a He Shed to house the motorcycles that you rode around the world on, logging 49,000 miles, with your buddy Charley Boorman.

[quote]EM: I’ve got a beautiful shed that I’ve built in my property with my stuff in it. I moved to America in 2008 and I rented a little hangar at Santa Monica Airport and I had my bikes and cars there. Now I’ve got them here. I’ve got probably 10 to 12 motorcycles and six cars. I’ve got some old Moto Guzzis from the early ’70s, then I’ve got some ’80s bikes, and then I’ve got some modern bikes. I like VWs as well, so I’ve got old VWs.

[quote]MO: Halston’s greatest undertaking was giving Liz Taylor advice on her love life.

[quote]EM: That was part of his success, that he was such a great girlfriend to all these ladies.

[quote]MO: You went to drama school with Daniel Craig.

[quote]EM: I think he was two years or a year above me. I remember very clearly, as a young first-year drama student, seeing him in the corridors and his biker jacket and his long, blond hair. He was quite an imposing character.

[quote]MO: Your uncle was a rebel pilot in the original three “Star Wars” films.

[quote]EM: Confirmed. He played Wedge Antilles.

[quote]MO: Darth Maul is a cooler villain than Darth Vader.

[quote]EM: No, definitely not. He would like to think so.

END

Has anyone seen the screeners that went out to reviewers etc.? If so, is this worth watching? Does it get into Halston's early career (Jackie Kennedy pill box hat era) where he struggled to find his voice after women stopped wearing hats? etc?

That's the I don't wanna sell... that's HALSTON

The family does not approve. Of course, if they DID approve, it wouldn't be worth watching.

I wonder if Halston's family really knew what his life was like?

Yeah do they not like that they are showing all the debauchery he is known for?

Will it deal with the AIDS?

Halston was a cokehead spendthrift who adored BBC. What did his family expect?

Is this the official viewing thread?

I don't see why not. And then we can have Halston II, Halston II, Halston IV....

I’m Krysta’s biggest fan, but I was worried about this, but she is fabulous and playing her in a way no one has done before and in the most sympathetic manner.

lots of new york stage actors in this. Casting is very good.

Wasn’t the Versailles fashion show in the Opera House there? That did not look at all like it, like they didn’t even try.

The guy playing Victor Hugo should play Oates in a biopic, or Hall, which ever one was the dark haired one.

Does anyone know if this is a series or just one show?

..and how and why does Ewan McGregor keep getting starring roles playing Americans all the fucking time?

Is it me or does anybody else find his teeth and smile unsettling and definitely not suited for the cameras?

Seriously, I'm kind of exhausted with seeing this guy. Maybe I won't watch the fucking thing after all.

So with “the nose” sniffing his lover’s jock strap, are they implying that he’s the first one to incorporate pheromones into fragrance?

It was fine but something about Murphy's netflix shows I'm not a big fan of. They arent as good as his fx shows.

McGregor’s accent is OK but he even managed to say “Halston” wrong. It’s Hawlston, not Hahlston.

[...]

^^Are they going to mention you got redtagged you nut?

[quote] Because he couldn't play straight to save his life.

He played straight once when he played James Thunder Early in the superb 2001 concert version of "Dreamgirls" in NYC. That was the only straight part he could play, because early was basically a raving queen who for some reason happened to be straight (like James Brown).

Halshton!

Ewan is doing a much better job impersonating Halston's voice than I thought he would.

I didn't recognize Bill Pullman at first. He's an old man now!