"But we only want to see you laughing in your purple lace..."

"This is not a thing we’re inclined to love... but it’s a flawless Prince homage in a place where no one expected to see one. It’s all about the timing. This would’ve been almost generic at, say, the Grammys this year. But on Queen Helen at the White House...."

"I will be Helen Mirren when I am 70, goddammit. #lifegoals."

"THIS WOMAN IS 70 YEARS OLD AND ROCKING LEATHER PANTS!!! This is proof that she is a goddess and we mere mortals. If she adopted this as her permanent everyday street style I would be okay. Love all of it!"/"I want to be this woman with every molecule of my being. Except with my husband. (I'm sure her husband is lovely, but I'm rather fond of mine.) I'm not sure she's ever looked better than this. Everything about this is perfect. I am printing this out (old-school!) and hanging it up everywhere for inspiration. I'm 60 and on a diet. This is EXACTLY what I want to look like in a few months. I have a goal now!"

Link.

"Beginning in 1953, when [Ayn] Rand was nearly 50, Ms. Branden wrote, the intellectual mother of principled self-interest had ardently pursued an interest in Ms. Branden’s husband, Nathaniel."

"Though 25 years apart in age, they had an affair for about 15 years. Ms. Branden knew about it because Ms. Rand had insisted from the start that both spouses — Ms. Branden and Ms. Rand’s husband, Frank O’Connor — give their consent. Ms. Branden revealed the story, she said, partly to set the record straight about Ms. Rand’s sudden banishment of the Brandens from her circle in 1968. She had denounced them in a widely circulated essay, claiming they had exploited her financially. The couple denied the accusation."

From the obituary for Barbara Brandon, the author of  "The Passion of Ayn Rand."

ADDED: Here's a clip of Brandon talking about her book on Reason TV:



I found that looking for a good clip of Helen Mirren playing Ayn Rand in the Showtime movie based on Brandon's book. Here's the trailer for that (which I watched and which caused me to say "Oh, bullshit.")

"Dame Helen Mirren was filmed on Saturday lambasting a troupe of drummers who played loudly in the street..."

"... outside her West End theatre while she was on stage. She poses for the cameras on Monday wearing a T-shirt supporting the drummers – but says she would shout at them again if they played outside the theatre while she was on stage."

Video of the original confrontation — with Mirren in costume as the Queen — here. 

In the video at the first link, we see Mirren making nice with the drummers, saying things like: "The irony is I love drumming and I love drummers."

From what I've seen over the years, drummers are the least self-aware of the street performers. They have the worst sense of how good they are, what they are contributing to the social space they occupy, how long and how repetitively one ought to go on, and whether anyone at all appreciates what they are doing.

And I'm not even talking about the drumming that goes on in a political protest, where it expresses anger, facilitates chanting, and is prolonged for the purpose of being annoying.

"Twenty Iconic Male Movie Roles In Which Helen Mirren Would Have Ruled."

Adam points to that list, and that causes Isaac Spaceman to list "five iconic male roles in which Helen Mirren would have been terrible."

Heh. Love that, Isaac. Can I call you Isaac Personal Space Bubbleman?

Helen Mirren on date rape.

CNN reports:

Dame Helen, who picked up an Academy Award last year for her portrayal of The Queen, said she was date-raped "a couple of times" when she was young but did not report the attacks because "you couldn't do that in those days."

Despite her experiences, the British-born actress said date-rape was a "tricky area" and something men and women had to work out between themselves.

She said it was rape if a couple engaged in sexual activity but the woman said "no" at the last second.

However, in comments likely to anger anti-rape campaigners, she added: "I don't think she can have that man into court under those circumstances. I guess it is one of the subtle parts of the men/women relationship that has to be negotiated and worked out between them."

That's a little ambiguous. Is she saying individuals should work things out on their own or is she attempting to opine on the way police and courts would handle such a case? If the latter, she's not a lawyer and she's talking about Britain. If the former, she's stirring up a hot old topic.

In the U.S., I think we know that we can call the police in the situation she's described: "Not with excessive violence, or being hit, but rather being locked in a room and made to have sex against my will." But, I assume, many individuals decide not to report this crime (and many other crimes that occur among friends and family).