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Cat Ladies in Pop Culture

Colleen Kane — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:20:00 GMT

When movies and TV shows star women with cats, their pets lend an extra dimension of realism. Dear Hollywood: if you are going for accuracy, give your heroine a cat, not a stripping career. Every one of my girl friends (well...almost) is more likely to own a cat than to go wild on DVD. There are surely far more cat-owning women than hookers with hearts of gold...but roles for women in TV and film do not reflect that.

I wanted to compile a list of the best cat ladies, crazy or not, found in pop culture. But my difficulty finding examples proves true the complaint above. And another thing about the archetype of the cat lady. So she's single and she has cats: Why is she a tragic figure? We often joke on Scanner about cat ladies (as in the relatively together, non-hoarding type we know and love) and we've certainly used the term to describe ourselves, but we don't really have a problem with keeping a cat or three. So why aren't cat fanciers portrayed more positively?

Witness the following feline-fancying wrecks.

Catwoman (lonely, frustrated)

Michelle Pfeiffer's portrayal of Selina Kyle/Catwoman in 1992's Batman Returns was probably the most identifiable role I'd seen in a superhero movie up until then, in particular the scene where she as Selina comes home defeated from her unfulfilling job to an apartment of cats*, all "is that all there is?" malaise. Then later in the film when she kicked ass as Catwoman, it directly appealed to my Riot Grrrl sensiblities.

* Unfortunately, images of that homecoming-to-the-cats scene are about 100% less available online than images of Michelle Pfeiffer in the Catwoman suit.

Holly Golightly (hooker with heart of gold)

Audrey Hepburn said of the scene in Breakfast at Tiffanys when she had to throw Orangey the cat, who played Cat, into a rainy alley, it was "the most distateful thing she ever had to do on film." But hey, everything turned out OK in the end. So far, we're not doing so bad with this list...right?

Witches (witches)

Witches were unfairly reviled, feared, and persecuted throughout history. Are witches, often depicted with their feline familiars, the original crazy cat ladies? Are they part of the reason behind fear of single women who live with cats?

Crazy Cat Lady Eleanor (animal hoarder, alcoholic)

The character we know as Crazy Cat Lady from The Simpsons was once Eleanor, and FYI, she holds degrees from Harvard Medical and Yale Law. Click here for the story of how she became the CCL. There but for the grace of God go I.

Big Edie & Little Edie Beale (catshit crazy)

The stars of the cult Maysles documentary Grey Gardens and the HBO drama of the same name, Big Edie and Little Edie Beale were discovered living among dozens of cats as well as raccoons, and all the stench that entailed.

Here's what the current owner of Grey Gardens, Sally Quinn, had to say about the Beales' cats' continuing legacy.

According to Quinn, true to legend, when it rains the place still smells like cat pee from 30 years of being overrun with the Beales' cats (and no litter boxes!). "About ten years ago, we got up there the first of August and it had been raining for 10 days. We walked in the house and Ben, who can't smell anything cause he's got sinus problems, said, 'Oh my god.'" Quinn explained. "He's allergic to cats and his eyes started to water. He could smell the cat pee."

Well! That was a cheerful tour. In conclusion, it appears we need to reclaim the cat lady in pop culture.

Related:

Top 10 Ways to Avoid Becoming The Crazy Cat Lady

Stuff We Absolutely Need to Validate Ourselves: Crazy Cat Lady Action Figure

25-Year-Old Virgin Takes Us One Step Closer to Crazy Cat Lady Status

The Dark Knight Starting To Inspire Copycat Crazies

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:54:00 GMT

We're surprised it's taken this long for the world's bumbling criminals to fall in love with Heath Ledger's depiction of The Joker, perhaps one of the most memorable villains in Hollywood history.

First, a tragic example of someone who took the joke a little too far, followed by a more positive note...

Army Spc. Christopher Lanum, 25, a suspect in the stabbing of a fellow soldier, Spc. Mitchell Stone, at Fort Eustis, was killed hours after the attack when he pointed a loaded shotgun at police after a chase. He had reportedly painted his face and dressed to look like The Joker, the villain from Batman comics and the movie The Dark Knight.

Lanum was apparently obsessed with the villain, according to reports filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. The records stated that Patsy Montowski, Lanum's girlfriend, indicated that Lanum:
"said everything The Joker did he did for a reason, like killing people, and that he agreed with the philosophy of doing things for a reason." [SNAFU-ed]

Perhaps the most depressing part of the tale is their quote from Lanum's mother: "All I can tell you is that Christopher served 18 months in Iraq and he never came actually home to us."

Another young man adopted the movie character as his hero, with very different results:

"Some kid dressed up as the Joker was caught stealing movie posters from a theatre's lobby and was consequently arrested for it." Holy hooligans! Phony 'Joker' arrested in Michigan [Comcast.net]

The mugshot, seen here, is almost adorable.

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50 Cent Releases Sex Tape To Attack Rap Rival

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And The Nominees Are... and Should've Been...

Watching the Watchmen Sex Scene

Brian Fairbanks — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:06:00 GMT

We're not surprised to learn Watchmen took in $55.7 million, falling short of expectations. After all, it's a graphic novel, not a famous comic book series people have been reading or hearing about for decades, such as Spiderman or The X-Men. It has no movie stars (unless you count an unrecognizable Billy Crudup), a disorienting and uninspired trailer, and terrible buzz. It probably doesn't help that the same douche who directed a dud like 300 helmed this one-- word of mouth after Friday's opening was abysmal and the movie plummeted in the charts on Saturday and Sunday.

Even the film's sex scene has been disparaged. We get the feeling direct Zack Snyder was trying for laughs here, but this is the same guy that thinks Gerard Butler is a genius thespian and that wooden, clunky dialogue is acceptable in any genre. There's also the problem of how this sequence ends, with the most cliched Freudian moment in cinema...

Forgive the quality of these pics-- they are screenshots from a bootleg of a print of the film. But you'll get the idea, especially when you see the Fleshbot video of the scene.

On some sort of darkened space ship, two characters (hey, we're trying not to have any spoilers here) strip and immediately begin having amazing sex-- climaxing to the soaring strains of Leonard Cohen's (terrible) original version of "Hallelujah." Oh, and then one of them hits a button and the ship responds by "unloading" its jets. (See below.) One of the oldest sex jokes in the movie playbook. Yawn.

You can watch the entire sex scene in all its bootlegged glory, courtesy of Fleshbot.

Related:

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Rosario Dawson Will Never Stop Having to Discuss Her Sex Scenes

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Gwyneth Paltrow Saves Joaquin Phoenix's Career With Her Boobs

Michelle Williams Strips, Seduces, Enjoys, And Freaks Out On Ewan McGregor

Sloppy Seconds: Evan Rachel Wood Isn't the Only One Tapping That

Emily Farris — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:11:00 GMT

Holy hot lesbian, Batwoman. No, really! Batman's replacement is a batchick who loves chicks. Awesome. [Broadsheet/Salon]

Not cool: dudes who rape dogs. [Plog]

Cool: the anti-theft lunch bag. [ThinkOfThe]

Today in stuff I absolutely hate to admit is true: the butterfly effect, in which your ex boyfriend gets his shit together and starts dating a girl hotter than you after you break up. [New York Observer]

Okay, I don't know if girl on boy tapping can happen, but that's not the point. This is: Are Mickey Rourke and Courtney Love the best couple ever or the worst copule ever? [Vulture]

Oh, and I totally emailed Judah Friedlander for a date when I'm back in New York at the end of the month. Stay tuned to see if he bites. [TONY]

When Re-Touchers Get a Little Magic Wand Happy We All Suffer, Especially Scanner Emily

[Image]

Sloppy Seconds: Hillary Clinton Nominated For President?

Brian Fairbanks — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:51:00 GMT

Would someone please make one of these for us and send it by mail to Scanner, New York, NY? Of course, you'll need to get us a nano, too...

Natalie Wood's longtime lover planned, at one point, to murder Warren Beatty. The world doesn't know how close it came to losing Bulworth.

The decision by America's Next Top Model to feature a transgender contestant has been met with praise from at least one group: GLAAD.

Rejoice, travelers: Gay sex is now A-OK with Panama!

Meghan McCain just wet her pants: the Hills spinoff is taking on D.C.

Christian Bale will not be charged with any hitting or not hitting of any family members.

And Hillary Clinton will be nominated at this month's Democratic National Convention. Symbolically, of course-- or so they promise us. Who wants odds that somebody's going to take this gimme and pull a coup?

Related:

Sloppy Seconds: Update On The Christian Bale Story

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What Do We Think About Britain's Missing Top Model?

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The Top 5 Hollywood Players Who Did Porn

While You Were Sleeping: The New Robin Hood Movie

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:59:00 GMT

How Do I Find My G-Spot? and other eternal questions are on i-Village today.

Are you under 13 (and somehow getting away with reading Nerve? You rule!) Then join Club Penguin, the social network site for (pre-)teenyboppers.

It doesn't have a hope in hell of being a true fact, but would it be great if Johnny Depp was cast for this role in the next Batman movie?

..the Riddler?

Headline of the day: Twinsburg police: Scuffle with nude man leads to bomb scare at gas station

The anthrax researcher who may have been harassed by the FBI after the 2001 attacks has killed himself, sources say.

Charlie Crist may be off John McCain's VP list. Too bad for Obama supporters, as a Crist gay scandal would surely have surfaced in October.

Lesbians from New York were in the first wave of out-of-state couples to be married by the Governor of Massachusetts after thenew law passed. Bonus: they have an 11 year old girl. Let's have one on all of them tonight.

Maggie Gyllenhaal wants you to make a video for her. Unfortunately for her, it's not that kind of video.

Talk about egomania and director dementia: the new Robin Hood film starring Russell Crowe as a badass/kind-of-good-guy Sheriff of Nottingham has been delayed because the leaves in the forest are the wrong color. Dudes, it doesn't have to be historically accurate-- Robin Hood wasn't real!

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We Saw The Dark Knight In A Cavernous Movie Theater, During The Dead Of Night

Guess Who Said It: Bush or Batman?

Ina Maier — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:10:00 GMT

Here's a fun game! Philly comedy group Sketch Pants took a bunch of quotes from our dear President, George W. Bush, and then a bunch of quotes from the 1960's Batman TV show. (You know, the one with all the "KAPOW!"s and "CRASH!"s, and the mildly gay undercurrent between Batman and Robin.) Then they had people guess who said what. People did pretty poorly. The only guy who came even close to winning was the curmudgeonly old guy who called Bush a "coke-addict" with a "messed-up brain."

[via Comedy Central's Indecision 2008]

Sloppy Seconds: Update On The Christian Bale Story

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:36:00 GMT

A Louisiana police officer may be charged with murder after he tasered a suspect nine times in fourteen minutes. His crime, besides a drug charge gone to warrant? Being unable to get up as a result of the tasering. (Guess the races of our two subjects.)

Michael Caine thinks there may not be a third Christopher Nolan-Batman movie since The Dark Knight will be hard to top.

Is there any male figure young men and women can trust anymore? A New Jersey basketball couch and "youth supervisor" supervised a little too closely: he's been charged with soliciting nude photos from four teenage boys.

What are the Top 10 Shows teens are excited to see? (Don't hold your breath they've even heard of Mad Men.)

Miley Cyrus made a "mistake," she admits, in letting Vanity Fair publish those photos. No, her real mistake was posing with that creepy Billy Ray guy.

We returned it, we swear! A man in Colorado will spend ten years in prison for taking out materials from his local library and not returning them. He couldn't return them, you see, because he was selling them to the highest bidder.

And the complete rundown on the Christian Bale story. Maybe it wasn't such a big deal after all, as one commenter already pointed out:

In a statement issued shortly after Bale's release, a spokesperson for the star says: "Christian Bale attended a London police station today, on a voluntary basis, in order to assist with an allegation that had been made against him to the police by his mother and sister.
"Mr. Bale, who denies the allegation, co-operated throughout, gave his account in full of the events in question and has left the station without any charge being made against him by the police. At this time, there will be no further comment by Mr. Bale."

The article goes on to say Bale has to see a judge in September. Doesn't sound like a big deal after all...

Via IMDB.

Is Batman's Crime-Fighting Simply a Cry for Help?

Nicole Pasulka — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:14:00 GMT

Topless Robot's great list of the top 10 mental illnesses Batman indisputably has suggests that if seeing your parents killed (6. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) leads you to become a melancolic (5. Depression) bat (7. Sublimation of Grief and Breavement Disorder) you're probably mentally ill.

We're not going to disagree with people who have clearly done a significant amount of research on the topic. But personally, we a little terrified to publicly speculate about Batman's mental stability or lack thereof. Mostly because of his number one mental health issue--

Anger management.

Yes. Batman is something of a rage ball. The recent accusation that Christian Bale assaulted his mother and sister just before the premier of Dark Knight, makes a frank discussion of Batman's mental health and well-being seems timely, if not necessary.

Related:

While You Were Sleeping: Autistic Children Are Brats?

We Saw The Dark Knight In A Cavernous Movie Theater, During The Dead Of Night

Who Would You Rather: Michelle Pfeiffer vs. Julie Newmar

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 20:15:00 GMT

The release of the new Batman movie got us thinking about the next one, for which Christian Bale has already expressed interest, and how we feel it needs to include a certain element that's been missing from the first two...

...a really sexy female villain.

Catwoman appeared in Batman Returns in the form of Michelle Pfeiffer, but some people compared her unfavorably to Julie Newmar, who created the role for the TV series. Irregardless of acting talent, which of the two would you rather...?

We Saw The Dark Knight In A Cavernous Movie Theater, During The Dead Of Night

Brian Fairbanks — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:50:00 GMT

We started putting down our thoughts on The Dark Knight, Christopher Nolan's follow-up to Batman Begins, sometime after arriving home at 3:23am. Here are our first impressions-- and one of the first reviews out there that won't be from a stuffy film critic...

NOTES

Heath Ledger

First thing to mention is Heath Ledger and Heath Ledger's performance. He was astonishing, even to somebody who already knew he was a talented actor. The problem with his Oscar chances-- let us just get this part out of the way because it's the most talked-about aspect of this film-- is that this movie is a comic book shoot 'em up, dark as it is... and, worse, it's out during the summer. It could be the best performance in the best movie ever made and Academy voters will have forgotten all about it if the movie premieres less than two months before the end of the year. That being said, we didn't see it as being Oscar-worthy, though certainly worth considering for the nominations.

The darkness and violence

It's plentiful this time. This is dark like Casino Royale was dark compared to the Pierce Brosnan movies. Somehow, this movie makes the 1989 Tim Burton version (Batman) appear like, well, the 1967 Casino Royale would compare to the 2006 one. Anyway, point made: this is a brutal, creepy, shocking, and totally-not-safe-for-children action thriller. The violence is overwhelming at times, especially if that sort of thing sticks to you.

Christian Bale

Jesus! Did anyone else notice him channeling Clint Eastwood throughout? When he's Batman, he sure sounds like Dirty Harry... check out a clip somewhere (there's bound to be bootleg footage on YouTube by the time you're reading this)...

Oh yeah, the movie

It rocked. At 153 minutes or so, it was way too long-- we were playing a little game throughout called "Did They Really Need This Part?" but overall, it would've only knocked off a few minutes. Ultimately, it's hard to fault a movie with so many memorable scenes (that truck! the presence of Anthony Michael Hall and Cillian Murphy! etc.!) and a plethora of bang-for-your-buck action. And it's superior to Batman Begins, so...

Well, we're going to shut up and get some sleep. See you in the late morning. The late... late morning.

Who Would You Rather: Chipmunk-Lusting Director or Discipline-Dealing Batman?

Bryan Christian — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 18:12:00 GMT

'Cause we're leaning Batman. We love John Waters and all, but, really: we'd hate for anything to ruin our friendship.

Chipmunk Titillates Waters (NYPost)

Batman is Apparently Into Spanking (PhotoBasement)

McLovin' Isn't All That Into Getting Freaky With You

Brian Fairbanks — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 14:00:00 GMT

As if the New York Times wasn't taking enough flak for its terrible reporting of the McCain sex ring, now their readers are LOL'ing at the gossip rag's reporting of a new study that seems to indicate all those Judd Aptow-Seth Rogan movies are not quite accurate depictions of teenage sex lives:

A new report in The Journal of Adolescence this month suggests that when it comes to sex, girls and dating, boys are more complex than we typically give them credit for. While hormonal urges are no doubt an important part of a teenage boy’s life, they aren’t necessarily the defining trait influencing a boy’s relationships with girls.

Salon has its own story on the story of the study, complete with snarky, Gawkeresque excerpts from the Times's comment section:

When the Times first blogged about the study, readers rushed in with snickering skepticism. Take this comment: "Based on my past experience as a teenage boy, this study just reinforces my view that teenage boys are horny liars." Or this: "Yeah right! 16-year-old boys are concerned about relationships?" Even this: "I can just about pinpoint the exact moment in my prepubescent life when the 'lies I told the ladies' turned into the 'truths' I told myself ... These punks have got one thing on their minds, and it ain't relationships." Holy protective posturing, Batman!

We remember that, yes, high school was about getting a girlfriend first and getting some poontang second (we're pretty sure we didn't think of it as poontang, either.) However, there isn't a guy, straight or gay, that passed through high school without at least having tried to put the moves on somebody, whether it's at the prom or under the bleachers with James Franco.

Feeling Better About Heath Ledger as The Joker? We Are.

Bryan Christian — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:16:00 GMT

So the new trailer for The Dark Knight came out in front of I Am Legend last week, and if you do a certain amount of searching around, you'll probably be able to find a phonecam capture of the thing. (We'd direct you to one, but Warner Bros. seems to be doing an excellent job of pulling them down as soon as they go up, so just use Google Video or something. And if that don't work, MTV's got a pretty good description.) We have to say: we feel pretty darn good about Heath Ledger playing the Joker now. On the advice of reader token after our first note on this, we had checked out The Brothers Grimm and, frankly, found him to be the best part of the movie. (OK, second best.) And now this trailer, which reassures as much about Ledger's portrayal as it does on the perhaps equally important question of whether the filmmakers were going to be able to achieve a balance between their good and bad guys. Seems like they have! Hooray!

UPDATE: Looks like it's been officially released. We caught it here (which we now realize is not a film fansite but a Dark Knight promo site -- duh) and it's pretty gd thrilling how much Ledger seems, if we can say this, to "get the joke" when playing the Joker, managing at various points to look petulant, bored, drunk, and more than sufficiently homicidal -- and all without the Catskills schtick that characterized Nicholson and Romero's portrayals. (Thanks littlebill1138!)

Thoughts on Heath as Joker in "The Dark Knight"?

Bryan Christian — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 21:55:00 GMT

Not that you can get to it right now, but over on SuperHeroHype.com they've got the first decent picture of gay cowboy and single dad Heath Ledger as The Joker from next year's The Dark Knight. "He's a cold-blooded, mass-murdering clown," touts the headline, to which we say "Der." Also, Batman is a cold-blooded, injustice-avenging rich guy, and a ham sandwich is bread with ham in the middle. Tell us something we don't know, fella.

Anyone else a little queezy over whether Dark Knight will come off? (God, we're skeptical about everything these days.) We're fans of Ledger, but it's hard to imagine him pulling off such an outsize role when his best moments have been largely interior-ish -- Brokeback, Monster's Ball, even his sly little turn in 10 Things I Hate About You. Not to mention the fact that while cribbing the title from Frank Miller's epic The Dark Knight Returns was a ballsy move, if the story pales in comparison -- or maybe even hews too closely -- it might backfire with the fanboys.

To be fair, though, we thought Batman Begins was gonna be crap until we saw it, whereupon we wanted to get right back in line again. Also: we'll totally wind up seeing Dark Knight on opening weekend anyway, so why don't we just shut the hell up?

What do you think? Full pic and comments after the jump.