Cher And Cher Alike

Cher's makeover creation, Sharon, is turning into a psycho-clone. She's already taken Cher's walk and her talk, and may even take Cher's Baldwin to the ball. Now that could be a real horror story!

Her name is Sharon, and she's so couturely clueless! Scuffed urban combat boots, a faded pink slip dress, a safety pin in her eyebrow. Now, suddenly, the grunge goddess has seen the error of her ways. She's all, 'Help me, Cher. I want to be just like you.' But is this really what the world needs now - another Cher? Talk about coincidence. For English, Cher's reading Frankenstein, the classic horror hair-raiser about a guy who creates a monster that goes, like, totally postal. And now Cher's creation, Sharon, is turning into a psycho-clone. She's already taken Cher's walk and her talk, and may even take Cher's Baldwin to the ball. Now that could be a real horror story!

Sir Michael Parkinson occupies a unique place in the public consciousness. For many he is the chronicler of a generation. Through his onscreen work and his intelligent, thought provking journalism, he has introduced millions of people to the major names of sport of showbiz over the past five decades. In Parky's People, Parkinson gives us an intimate insight into the lives of great celebrities from all around the world. Now an international celebrity himself, the man from a humble but colourful Yorkshire mining family who can tease out the secrets of even the most reticent star guest. Those featured include Muhammad Ali, David Attenborough, Judi Dench, David Beckham, and many, many more. Parkinson's distinguished career has involved working on highly acclaimed current affairs and film programmes. His wide interests and expertise include jazz, film, football and cricket. Witty and humourous, Parky's People makes the perfect gift.

Constellations of a Contemporary Romanticism takes its title and point of departure from Walter Benjamin’s concept of the historical constellation, which puts both “contemporary” and “romanticism” in play as period designations and critical paradigms. Featuring fascinating and diverse contributions by an international roster of distinguished scholars working in and out of romanticism—from deconstruction to new historicism, from queer theory to postcolonial studies, from visual culture to biopolitics—this volume makes good on a central tenet of Benjamin’s conception of history: These critics “grasp the constellation” into which our “own era has formed with a definite earlier one.” Each of these essays approaches romanticism as a decisive and unexpired thought experiment that makes demands on and poses questions for our own time: What is the unlived of a contemporary romanticism? What has romanticism’s singular untimeliness bequeathed to futurity? What is romanticism’s contemporary “redemption value” for painting and politics, philosophy and film?

Clueless: American Youth in the 1990s is a timely contribution to the increasingly prominent academic field of youth film studies. The book draws on the social context to the film’s release, a range of film industry perspectives including marketing, audience reception and franchising, as well as postmodern theory and feminist film theory to assert the cultural and historical significance of Amy Heckerling’s film and reaffirm its reputation as one of the defining teen films of the 1990s. Lesley Speed examines how the film channels aspects of Anita Loos’ 1925 novel Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, the 1960s television series Gidget and Jane Austen’s Emma, to present a heightened, optimistic view of contemporary American teenage life. Although seemingly apolitical, Speed makes the case for Clueless as a feminist exploration of relationships between gender, comedy and consumer culture, centring on a contemporary version of the ‘dumb blonde’ type. The film is also proved to embrace diversity in its depiction of African American characters and contributing to an increase in gay teenagers on screen. Lesley Speed concludes her analysis by tracking the rise of the Clueless franchise and cult following. Both helped to cement the film in popular consciousness, inviting fans to inhabit its fantasy world through spinoff narratives on television and in print, public viewing rituals, revivalism and vintage fashion.

This unauthorized biography of Cher is based on interviews with former husbands, family and friends. It traces her development from being a hippie in the 1960s with partner, Sonny, to becoming an Oscar-winning actress and singer during the 1980s.

Wise, wry, and witty essays on fatherhood from Chris Erskine, the beloved columnist for the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. “Charming, well written, concise, and to the point. Perfect for anyone who enjoys stories of fatherhood.” — Library Journal Life is never peaceful in Chris Erskine's house, what with the four kids, 300-pound beagle, chronically leaky roof, and long-suffering wife, Posh. And that's exactly the way he likes it, except when he doesn't. Every week in the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune (and now and then in many other papers), Erskine distills, mocks, and makes us laugh at the absurdities of suburban fatherhood. And now, he's gathered the very best of these witty and wise essays—and invited his kids (and maybe even Posh) to annotate them with updated commentary, which they promise won't be too snarky. This handsome book is the perfect gift for the father who would have everything—if he hadn't already given it all to his kids.

A riotous send-up of all those other relationship books. Where else could you read about men stricken with paralysis and indecision during fits of male PMS--Pre-Marital Syndrome? Then there are the men who receive subconcious messages from their mothers--usually on their answering machines. Illustrated.