John Waters (filmmaker)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Photo of John Waters by Robert Birnbaum
John Waters (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker. He has long been known as a "bad boy" among filmmakers. John Waters is also a professor for cinema and subculture at the European Graduate School. Dubbed "The Pope of Trash" by writer William Burroughs, his earlier film works included Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living, sometimes referred to as the Trash Trilogy. These films pushed hard at the boundaries of conventional propriety and movie censorship and indeed, many felt, good taste. A particularly notorious segment of Pink Flamingos featured crossdressing actor Divine eating fresh dog feces. According to Waters himself, he is often mistaken for Steve Buscemi, and once sent Christmas cards containing photos of Buscemi to his friends just to see if any of them would notice.
Waters and Divine (then known as Glen Milstead) lived near Baltimore, Maryland as boys, a short distance apart, where they met and became friends. Mainly based in Baltimore, Waters tended to work with a regular team of actors (the Dreamlanders) who starred in most of his films, including Divine, Mink Stole, Cookie Mueller, Edith Massey, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, and others. His early films were among the first picked up for distribution by New Line Cinema.
His 1981 film Polyester starred Divine opposite once-teen-idol Tab Hunter. His films have become less controversial and more mainstream, although works such as Hairspray, Cry Baby and Serial Mom still retain his trademark inventiveness. The film Hairspray was turned into a hit Broadway musical, which swept the 2003 Tony Awards.
Waters' most recent film, the NC-17 rated A Dirty Shame, is a move back towards his earlier, more controversial work.
Waters has made most of his movies in his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, and is still praised by many natives of that city as a native son.
Waters has also published collections of his writings including Shock Value (1981), Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters (1987, Revised Edition 2003), Trash Trio: Three Screenplays: Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living, Flamingos Forever (1988), Hairspray, Female Trouble, and Multiple Maniacs: Three more screenplays (2005); as well as the photo collection Director's Cut (1997) and Art: A Sex Book (2003).
John Waters filmography
- Hag in a Black Leather Jacket (8 mm) 1964 (b&w) starring Mary Vivian Pearce, Mona Montgomery; 17 minutes.
- Roman Candles (three 8 mm shown simultaneously) 1966 (color) starring Maelcum Soul, Bob Skidmore, Mona Montgomery, Divine, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary; 40 minutes
- Eat Your Makeup (16mm) 1968 (b&w) starring Maelcum Soul, David Lochary, Marina Melin, Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mona Montgomery; 45 minutes
- Mondo Trasho (16mm) 1969 (b&w) starring Mary Vivian Pearce, Divine, David Lochary, Mink Stole; released through New Line Cinema; 95 minutes. $2,000 total cost
- The Diane Linkletter Story (16mm) 1969 (b&w) starring Mary Vivian Pearce, Divine, David Lochary; 15 minutes.
- Multiple Maniacs (16mm) 1970 (b&w) starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Edith Massey; released through New Line Cinema; 90 minutes. $5,000 total cost.
- Pink Flamingos (16 & 35 mm) 1972 (color) starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Danny Mills, Edith Massey; released through New Line Cinema; 93 minutes. $10,000. A re-edited version including extra scenes was released in 1997.
- Female Trouble (16 & 35 mm) 1974 (color) starring Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Danny Mills, Edith Massey; released through New Line Cinema; 92 minutes. $25,000. A re-edited version including extra scenes was released in 1997.
- Desperate Living (16 & 35 mm) 1977 (color) starring Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe, Edith Massey, Mary Vivian Pearce, Jean Hill; released through New Line Cinema; 90 minutes. $65,000.
- Polyester (35 mm) 1981 (color) starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, Stiv Bators, David Samson, Mary Garlington, Ken King, Mink Stole, Joni-Ruth White; released through New Line Cinema. This film was released in "odorama", which meant that a "scratch and sniff" card corresponding to moments in the film (eg, Divine farting) was issued to cinema goers.
- Hairspray (35 mm) 1988 (color) starring Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Deborah Harry, Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller, Ric Ocasek, Pia Zadora; released through New Line Cinema; 90 minutes. Waters' first true 'big budget' ($2,000,000) foray into 'the mainstream'.
- Divine 1990 (color) starring Divine. Video release, 110 minutes. Two films on one video, both starring Divine and directed by Waters. The first is The Diane Linkletter Story, originally released in 1969. The second is The Neon Woman.
- Cry-Baby (35 mm) 1990 (color) starring Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, Kim McGuire, Stephen Mailer, Darren Burrows, Polly Bergen, Patricia Hearst, David Nelson, Troy Donahue, Mink Stole, Joe Dallesandro, Joey Heatherton, Willem Dafoe; released through Universal Studios; 85 minutes
- Serial Mom (35 mm) 1994 (color) starring Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Matthew Lillard, Scott Wesley Morgan, Walt MacPherson, Patricia Hearst. 93 minutes.
- Pecker (35 mm) 1999 (color) starring Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Martha Plimpton, Brendon Sexton, and Lili Taylor. New Line Cinema 86 minutes.
- Cecil B. DeMented (35mm) 2000 (color) starring Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Larry Gilliard Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jack Noseworthy, Mink Stole, Ricki Lake, and Patricia Hearst. 87 minutes.
- A Dirty Shame (35mm) 2004 (color) starring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, and Chris Isaak. Released through Fine Line Features. 89 minutes.
- John Waters' life and work was analysed in the documentary homage Divine Trash (1998) by Steve Yeager, named after the actor Divine.
John Waters "Fetiche" Actresses
Divine (Glen Milstead)
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Glen Milstead)
Harris Glenn Milstead (born October 19, 1945 in Towson, Maryland; died March 7, 1988 in Los Angeles, California) was better known by his drag persona Divine.
Bio
Glen Milstead, aka Divine.
Born to Bernard and Diana Francis Milstead, at the age of 12 the family moved to Lutherville, a suburb of Baltimore. John Waters was a childhood friend whom he met while living there.
Milstead starred in a number of films and was part of the regular cast known as the Dreamlanders. The Dreamlanders appeared in many of John Waters earlier works such as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Polyester, and Hairspray. Repeating their successful pairing in Polyester, in 1985 Divine appeared opposite Tab Hunter in their bigger hit Lust in the Dust.
He is also remembered as a major character in the documentary homage Divine Trash (1998) by Steve Yeager, covering the life and work of John Waters.
In the 1980s, Milstead's records were hits through America, Europe, and Australia. The typical progressive type of synthesizer disco music was composed, created, performed and produced by Bobby Orlando. Apart from singing, Milstead had only minor influence on how his music would sound. One could say these are progressive techno beats with energizing lyrics appealing to synth boppers.
In March 1988, Milstead died from an enlarged heart.
"Glenn was born before civil rights, gay rights, or women's rights...God doesn't want people created out of a Xerox machine...The tragedy is that Glenn was cut off right at the point of becoming who he really was, and the world will never see how that flower could have unfolded."
- –Reverend Leland Higginbotham at Divine's eulogy; Baltimore, Maryland, March, 1988
Traci Lords
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Nora Louise Kuzma (born May 7, 1968), also known as Traci Elizabeth Lords and Traci Lords, is an American actress. She first achieved notoriety for her underage appearances in pornographic films and Penthouse magazine (she was 15 years old in her first film), but is now pursuing a mainstream career.
Traci Lords
Career
Traci Elizabeth Lords was born Nora Louise Kuzma on May 7, 1968, in Steubenville, Ohio. She made her stage name by combining the first name of her high school best friend, Traci, and the last name of her favorite actor from Hawaii Five-O, Jack Lord. At twelve she fled from her abusive, alcoholic father to Lawndale, California with her mother and three sisters. Later, while attending Redondo Union High School, she had an abortion and after having a nervous breakdown, ran away from home. While living with her Mom's forty-something ex-boyfriend who posed as her stepfather, she used a friend's birth certificate and a fake driver's license indicating that she was twenty-two years of age to fake her way into the porn industry at the age of fifteen, starting with Jim South's World Modeling Agency. She quickly became one of the most popular starlets in town and is considered by many to be one of the first porn queens. She was most famous for her enthusiastic sexual performance. By the time she was 18, she'd appeared in 100 adult films. She even modeled for widely distributed adult magazines, such as Penthouse, in the same September 1984 issue that exposed Miss America 1984, Vanessa Williams. But in 1986, federal authorities discovered she was underage while making movies and they arrested her, as well as the owners of her movie agency and X-citement Video, Inc. See United States v. X-Citement Video.
The ensuing prosecution against the agencies cost the pornographic film and distribution industry millions as they were obliged by law to remove hundreds of thousands of her videotapes, films and magazines from store shelves to avoid the risk of prosecution for trafficking child pornography. Lords herself was never charged, since as a minor she was unable to give legal consent to perform sex acts on film for money. Instead, the agents and producers who accepted her fake IDs were charged and people affiliated with the films in question experienced legal troubles for years. Only one of her films, Traci, I Love You was actually produced after her eighteenth birthday, and is the only one of her films commonly and legally available in the United States. Since Lords retained the distribution rights to that film, there has been speculation within the industry that she engineered the revelation of her age, to channel people's purchasing to the one film which would actually make money for her.
In parts of Europe and other regions where the minimum legal age for involvement in pornographic films is lower, Lords' films and images in a variety of formats are still legally available. They are commonplace on the Internet, and not hard to find in the New York City area.
The controversy still sparks debate. Government prosecutors declared that Lords was a victim of a manipulative industry, while Lords has claimed that she was drugged and made to do things she did not want to do, but did it because she had a drug habit. But industry insiders, like Ron Jeremy and Ginger Lynn, as well as boyfriends say they never saw her use drugs and that she was fully aware of her actions even if, as a minor, she could not legally consent. While Lords decries the pornographic film industry, she continues to use the stage name she gave herself as a minor.
The Justice Department was forced to drop all charges when it was revealed that the fake ID which Lords had used to dupe the pornographic film industry was a US passport in the name of Traci Lords - the government had been duped, and any defendant would simply have been able to hide behind the government's error.
Lords has since moved into mainstream films and television with some success. She has played roles in a number of B-movies. Some of her more notable films include Not of this Earth (1988), John Waters' Cry Baby (1990), and Blade (1998).
Lords also appeared in continuing roles in several television series, including Married... with Children (1987), Roseanne (1988), Melrose Place (1992), and Profiler (1996), with single appearances in MacGyver (1985), Highlander (1992), Tales from the Crypt (1989), and Hercules (1995), among others.
In the 1990s, Lords began developing a career as a singer performing vocals for Manic Street Preachers on the single "Little Baby Nothing", and also appearing in the music videos of other performers and groups. In 1995 Traci made her solo debut, in collaboration with Juno Reactor, called "1000 Fires". The album was a hit with critics and the club audience. The Juno Reactor produced 1st single "Control", proved a smash, reaching a peak of #2 at the Billboard Dance Charts. The second single off the album "Fallen Angel"; earned a lot of attention because of the fact that one of its remixes ("Honeymoon Stitch Mix") was produced and remixed by Chad Smith and Dave Navarro from the "Red Hot Chilli Peppers", with a strong indie and "Alterna-chick" sound. The video; a very high-end production was directed by Stéphane Sednaoui; whom had directed for the aforementioned Red Hot Chilli Peppers (Give It Away), and Madonna (Fever) among hundreds of notable music videos. Lords music isn't a mindless dancefloor affair; she marries highly addictive beats and sonical landscapes to personal lyrics. "Father's Field" (From "1,000 Fires") may be the best example; where a very suffocating musical framework gives place to a harrowing account of a personal (and true) experience of sexual molestation as a child. After a couple of years of musical silence, Lords has returned to the music scene with a new production; a double A Side Single "Sunshine". Independently produced.
In 2003 she published a book, Traci Lords: Underneath It All.
Acting credits
Film
Television
Tributes
- A lyrically offensive punk rock band called Sloppy seconds wrote a song called "Come back, Traci", which describes being a fan of Traci's underage appearance in pornography.
Adult Videos