Be Our Guest: Volume One

Sometimes here in The Underworld, I come off a bit like they used to in the ‘50s, ‘60s and ‘70s in that I treat actors’ careers as if appearing in feature films is king and television is a come down. It’s not really intentional. I guess I sometimes seem to absorb that attitude from looking into people’s career paths and seeing that it was, in most cases (and is perhaps still now!) most desirable to be a movie star versus one from TV. But I LOVE vintage television and one of the chief reasons I do is the opportunity to see the work of guest stars. It’s fun to see favorite acting personalities in unusual roles (and surely one of the benefits of being the star of a regular series was that one could meet a parade of other famous names over the course of the run.)

I’ve been occupied for several months with watching a lot of older shows on DVD. I’ve mentioned before here my lifelong obsession with the opening credits of television shows and how my favorite ones involve the faces of the guest stars along with his or her name either being displayed or spoken. (See my beloved Dack Rambo, shown here from an episode of Cannon.) I love seeing these personalities pop up on screen (and what a disappointment if the episode contains a bunch of nobodies!) Conversely, when I’m watching an old show that doesn’t immediately identify the guests, I don’t like to know who they will be in advance. I like to sit back and wait for the stars to appear, surprising me with their arrival.

Today, I’m going to share a few guest shots with you. There’s nothing amazing about any of it, really. I just thought it would be neat for people to see some of these folks in their various guises as they worked on these shows. (At right is Geoffrey Scott in the credits of Barnaby Jones, a few years before he grew a much-welcome mustache and became one of the handsome men of Dynasty.) Half the fun of vintage television, especially ones that took place in the present, is the chance to see some of the hair and clothing choices. Due to the overwhelming amount of options for this, I will likely return to this subject in the future, thus the “Volume One.”

One of the shows I’ve been seeing a fair amount of lately is the long-running (twenty seasons!) Gunsmoke. I’ve never been as fond of Gunsmoke as a lot of western fans are (to me, the color episodes are always blurry and blah looking), but over time I’ve become a tad more interested in it. One episode, from 1965, gave viewers the chance to see one actor who killed his own fledgling career through his actions and one who almost did as well, but who eventually made it after a pretty long and tumultuous journey. First is John Barrymore Jr, the son of the legendary stage and film actor of the same name. After about eight years in the business, he began going by John Drew Barrymore. What talent he had as an actor (and there was some) was eventually decimated by his personal demons and extensive drug use. By the late-60s, his career was virtually over, though he lived almost as a hermit until 2004. In 1975, his daughter Drew Barrymore was born and, though she had an awfully rough time with drugs herself, she went on to a highly successful career and what seems to be a far more grounded life in general. In 1980, he and his son unearthed the corpse of his father in order to follow his wishes of cremation. The gruesome story can be found on John Drew Barrymore’s imdb.com bio page.

In that same episode was Dennis Hopper. As a youth, Hopper appeared in now-legendary films like Rebel Without a Cause and Giant. However, after the crushing loss of his friend/idol James Dean, he began to experience a reliance on alcohol and suffer from depression. This, paired with his aspirations to do things that were, perhaps, a bit beyond his means led to a set-to with Louis B. Mayer. Then there was the major league clash with director Henry Hathaway during 1958’s From Hell to Texas. Before all was said and done, he was lucky to get any sort of work and turned to TV for income. Absent from films of any distinction for a while, it was John Wayne, a friend of his late mother-in-law Margaret Sullavan, who gave him work in The Sons of Katie Elder in 1965. Still, there would be many ups and downs in the coming decade or so. It wasn’t until 1986’s Blue Velvet that he began to emerge as a significant screen actor, allowing him to work regularly (and memorably in Speed and other movies.)

A less depressing story was that of Leonard Nimoy who, of course, parlayed his role of Mr. Spock on Star Trek into a nearly lifelong source of employment. He at first resented the famousness of the role and the typecasting it created, penning a book called “I Am Not Spock,” but many years later wrote one called “I Am Spock.” In 1966, he played an Indian in a Gunsmoke episode. Though it might have seemed light years away from the science-fiction of Trek, it was nevertheless another stoic, introspective characterization.

Later in 1966, Gunsmoke turned to color filming. One of the guests that year was a biggie. Miss Bette Davis came on board as the vengeful matriarch of a passel of bad boys (Bruce Dern being among them.) She kidnaps Miss Kitty in order to draw the object of her ire, Marshal Dillon, to her ranch where she has a special revenge in the works.

One of the most startling aspects of the episode is how unbelievably stained and disgusting Miss D’s teeth are! The camera zooms in for a close-up on a set of yellowed, weathered, nicotine-tinged choppers that are equal in their scariness to anything her character does on the screen. Co-star Dern (who’d been given a small role in her Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte two years prior) later commented on how devastating to him it was to see an actress of Davis’ stature reduced to working as a guest on a western TV series. Despite a couple of middling recent successes, Davis was about to enter a pretty rough dry spell that lasted close to a decade.

Back to Star Trek for a second, one of the original series’ best-remembered guest stars was Ricardo Montalban as the super-strong, maniacal Khan. In fact, when the second (and far, far better received) feature film was made starring the original cast, Montalban was pegged to return as the character, now an older, but no less furious man. In 1970, he guested on Gunsmoke as an Indian, just as Nimoy had. He showed off a physique that was impressive for a man of fifty (especially for that time.) Twelve years later, during Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, he still was impressively fit (now sixty-two!) to show off his chest in his character’s revealing costume, but naysayers had trouble believing that it was all really him. Unfounded and inaccurate rumors began to surface that he’d worn a prosthetic chest plate during filming! Perhaps the ever-present necklace he wore helped lend credibility to this legend. While there was some body makeup involved (as there would be for anyone ever showing their skin in a movie), it was indeed all him.A 1971 episode of Gunsmoke, one that centered on a passel of orphans at Christmastime, featured a variety of little ragamuffins who would eventually go on to much higher heights. Trapped under a blonde wig was young Erin Moran. Several years after this, she would be cast as the young sister (Joanie) of Ron Howard on the mega-hit sitcom Happy Days. Viewers watched her grow up on that long-running program. Auburn-haired Eric Scott was also soon utilized as Ben in The Waltons, a series that also ran for many years and returned periodically with movie reunions. Willie Aames would make another appearance later on Gunsmoke, along with other gigs, before making a splash as teenage Tommy on the popular show Eight is Enough. This was followed a while after with Charles in Charge (opposite Scott Baio, who had been paired with Erin Moran both on Happy Days and on the infamous debacle Joanie Loves Chachi!) The other blonde girl, a real blonde, was a heavily-utilized child actress by the name of Jodie Foster. Apart from a deliberate sabbatical from the movies in order to obtain a college degree, she has gone on to stellar heights as an actress and director, with two Best Actress Oscars on her mantle along the way!

Wizard of Oz fans would surely get a kick out of the 1973 episode featuring Miss Margaret Hamilton as a Miss Gulch-like Dodge City resident. She drags young ruffian Willie Aames into Marshal Dillon’s office, demanding that he be punished for stealing one of her pies. Later, after Hamilton has been locked in a safe by an escaped Aames, Hamilton gives the Marshal “what for” as only she condescendingly could. However, in that season’s gag reel, there’s a clip of Hamilton substituting her dialogue about reporting Dillon to the Attorney General with the unlikely and hilarious phrase, “I hope he burns your ass!”

At last we depart the dusty streets of Dodge City and trade them in for the breezy, beautiful island locations of Hawaii 5-O. Actors who came here for a job got the added benefit of spending their down time in one of the country's (if not the world's) most breathtaking locales. For a little more about the show and it's star, you can click on Jack Lord's name in the column to the right. We touched on Mr. Spock and Khan, so why not highlight Captain Kirk? Following the 1969 cancellation of Star Trek, the series' star William Shatner entered a period of career trauma in which he scrambled for work in many TV movies and on episodic television. In the decade between the series' demise and the big-screen reunion Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Shat made a lot of shit, not that some of it wasn't enjoyably terrible. Nowadays, he is celebrated for his unique approach to characterization and his sometimes insightful (when he actually stops interrupting and allows his guests to speak!) interview show, Shatner's Raw Nerve. In 1972, though, he was just trying to make a living. He frequently used his guest appearances, such as this one on Hawaii, to overact his heart out, hoping that it would reinvigorate his flagging career. Always one to struggle with his weight, he was forty-one when he did this beefy, but certainly not obese, role as a man who allows himself to be seduced in order to expose a blackmailing ring. Note to self: Never buy a swimsuit a size too small. It causes spillover.

Another 1969 episode of Hawaii 5-O gave a role to Farley Granger, a 1950s heartthrob who had only appeared in one minor movie since 1955! In this age of the "Big Three" television networks, an actor could still make a decent living through guest appearances and he did so, though sporadically. What struck me in this episode was how, despite his horned-rim glasses and uptight clothing, he still displayed a trim, healthy physique. Then again, he was only forty-four and already basically discarded Hollywood (or it him?) and gone to New York to work on the stage. In the ensuing years, he would work in quite a few foreign movies, serve an ill-advised stint on As the World Turns (his longtime partner was a producer at the time) and then retire by 1990, with one more role in 2001. He passed away just a couple of months ago at age eighty-five.

One of Farfel's (as close-friend and on-time fiancee Shelley Winters called him) other TV roles was on Ironside. Here he played the husband of Underworld favorite Lee Grant. The first scene they share is amusing in that, in the middle of a pool party at their spread, she sidles up behind him and presses herself up against his behind, grabs his torso with her claw-like hands and says, "You like?" as he closes his eyes in mild ecstacy! Oh, he liked.... though perhaps the other guest star, Richard Anderson might have been more up his alley. Anderson, later to become legendary as Oscar Goldman, the boss of The Six-Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman, was still balancing small film roles with many, many TV appearances. He would do this until his two series took off and when they ended in 1978, he continued to stay very busy on television. One thing I absolutely love about vintage TV is the chance to see the clothes and hairstyles of the actresses, even ones in the background. Look at the buxom lovely with the bikini top, headband, mass of thick hair and false eyelashes. I think it should be mandatory for women to look like this!

In this 1967 episode, Miss Lee Grant models a variety of vivid clothes, several of which are sort of "out there" in their colors and patterns, a few of which are shown here. She also tries to vary and augment her ever-present wigs by either adding some more hair to the top for an "up-'do" or attaching a little jeweled ornament to the crown. The early years of Ironside (which ran in all from 1967 to 1975) happened to hit my very favorite era for hair and makeup. Costar Barbara Anderson (shown here, even though she is not a "guest"... I'm on a fashion and hair tangent at the moment!) had the most chic, short, blonde hair and wore an endless array of simply cut, but dazzlingly flattering and colorful, little dresses and suits. As we've been on a Star Trek kick today anyway, she was a memorable guest star on one of that series' earliest episodes as the daughter of a famed Shakespearean actor who may have once been guilty of genocide.

This same episode of Ironside with Farley and Lee, has a guest appearance that is very rare indeed. See if you can recognize the "actor" shown here. (You can click to enlarge.) The man only acted on two TV shows in his life, the second being in 1991. He also appeared uncredited in one movie. He is a very known persona, however. The top photo makes it a little harder to identify him, but I think the second, in which he has a more typical expression, is more of a giveaway. Yes, portraying a piano-playing nightclub owner is none other than mega-successful musical composer and producer Quincy Jones!

To touch on clothes again for just a moment, consider this 1969 episode of Marcus Welby, M.D. Miss Anne Baxter is counseling a young pregnant runaway in the middle of a shopping plaza when a cellulitic female extra sashays by in what appears to be a long-sleeved, navy blue, turtle-necked bodysuit. When I say bodysuit, I mean that it is legless…stops right at the hip and was probably intended to have a skirt or pants over it! (Some females out there will remember ‘60s and ‘70s tops that stayed tucked in thanks to snaps in the crotch, almost like a baby’s outfit!) When I had salved my corneas and thought it was safe, the bitch came strolling back into frame for a surprise frontal assault! What made this chick think that this was appropriate shopping (or anything) attire?!

Ironside was a bit of a sociopolitical forerunner in that star Raymond Burr's on-screen personal assistant was a black ex-con played by Don Mitchell. Another show that really broke new ground for racial diversity was The Mod Squad. The fact that black actor Clarence Williams III was one of the three leads meant that occasions would frequently come about that included other non-white performers. Future Oscar-winner Louis Gossett Jr appeared as a guest three different times, always as another character. In this 1968 episode, he played a troubled war veteran and, bald even then at thirty-two, was placed in an afro toupee! It looks pretty good upon first glance, but throughout the show, one can see the line of demarcation where it meets the hair on the sides of his head.

Cannon was the private eye show that starred William Conrad as a rotund, but surprisingly resourceful, ex-cop who took on difficult cases in his retirement. It’s credits placed the guest stars in little circles (cannonballs?) and you can imagine my reaction (aforementioned at the top of this post) to seeing the love of my life and reason for living, Dack Rambo, in one of them. Dack was at the height of his humpy good looks and in a couple of instances even showed off his crazy, off-the-hook package in a couple of pairs of snug pants. Anytime, as a kid or now, that I stumbled upon Rambo in a TV show, I knew I was in for a good time.Another crime/police show I've been watching is Starsky and Hutch. The gritty-on-the-surface series had a soft underbelly, notably in the handling of stars David Soul and Paul Michael Glaser's relationship, described by many as an ongoing demonstration of platonic love. Sometimes, there would be a "very special episode" (in a time before that phrase was ever coined) like in 1976 when little Kristy McNichol showed up as a street kid whose only relative, her father, is gunned down, causing her to move in with Hutch (David Soul.) McNichol would come back on the show two other times, always as a different character. This shot of her with the stars could almost be utilized in one of my infamous posts about TV bulges, thanks to Soul's trousers, but I can use it here because there is more where that came from, stay tuned for details on that!

One two-parter, also from 1976, offered up Miss Lynda Carter as the chief female guest star. (Others in the episode included Roz Kelly and Jayne Kennedy, a name that ought to stir up memories for people of a certain age.) Carter played a Las Vegas showgirl who is in danger of being targeted by a relentless strangler. She was already enmeshed in The Adventures of Wonder Woman by this point, but appearing on Starsky and Hutch meant that she could temporarily abandon the stylish, but demure, clothes of Diana Prince and exchange them for eye-poppingly revealing, silky, low-cut dresses. You can see in Paul Michael Glaser's eyes what it is he finds most interesting about her in this shot.

Also on board for this ep is 1930s and '40s star Joan Blondell. (Her career lasted far beyond that, all the way up to the late '70s - early '80s, in fact.) Having worked with David Soul on the earlier series Here Come the Brides, she was reunited with him briefly as the night manager of a 24-hour drug store. What really struck me was the fact that she was restocking a big pile of toilet paper. Number one: The toilet paper is in a variety of pastel colors! I had somehow forgotten that this was once the norm. Number two: The toilet paper is being sold by the ROLL! I have no memory of this. (And did I really just expound on the marketing of toilet paper by writing "number one" and number two?" LOL)

Every once in a while a TV series episode will feature a small role by someone unbilled (or tacked onto the end credits) who later went on to much higher heights. Such was the case in this 1978 installment of The Love Boat. True, Shelley Long had spent one season on SCTV, but had yet to catch a break in Hollywood. In this crowded episode, Frankie Avalon played a man who brings a matchmaking computer on to The Pacific Princess in order to pair up a bunch of single cruisers and Long was one of the ladies who was given a mate. It wasn't a featured role, but gave her a fair amount of lines and face time, paving the way for more roles on shows like Family, Trapper John, M.D. and M*A*S*H until she landed her own show, Cheers, in 1982.

We've come to the end of this post on TV guest stars, but, you know, I always try my best to go out with a bang, so I will leave you with a shot from the pilot episode of the 1984 pay cable series 1st & Ten, all about rich wife Delta Burke taking on ownership of a pro football team. She wins the team when she comes home to find her husband Ben Cooper in the throes of a naked rubdown with one of the players, leading to a divorce and a hefty settlement. Cooper was a young actor in the 1950s who appeared in the camp classic Johnny Guitar with Joan Crawford! By the time of this episode, he'd been acting on screen for three and a half decades and been married for two and a half. It was a rather surprising role to see him in. The handsome player, Rick Moser, had been a real pro footballer and served as a consultant on the series. His homosexual character stayed on the series for quite a while, though when the AIDS crisis came about, with its resultant panic and fear, the character was de-gayed and eventually depicted as straight!

Sometime in the future, I'll be back with another sampling of TV guests stars from what I consider "the good ol' days." I hope you got some enjoyment out of this one.

Kiss "Off!"

Whew! We've been up to our ears in activity lately. Another one of those infernal newsletters has come due and that always intrudes a bit on my blogging. In the meantime, I have post that's a real conglomeration. In my endless search for photos to use at The Underworld, I frequently come across “keepers” that I feel will someday come in handy for a blog entry. Often, themes will develop if photos are of a similar subject or action. This was going to be a post about awkward public kisses that were captured by a camera, but there really wasn't enough material for that, so then it morphed into one about unlikely, spontaneous, same-sex kisses, but that also wasn't a prolific enough subject. Then there were some strange combination of folks and same-sex smooches... Finally, I just decided to toss all of my eggs into one basket, so here it is!

One memorably spontaneous kiss came in 2002 at that year's Oscar ceremony when Best Actor winner (for The Pianist) Adrien Brody grabbed hold of presenter (and previous year's Best Actress winner) Halle Berry and dipped her as far back as physics would allow and planted a massive smooch on her lips. The youngest-ever Best Actor Oscar-winner raised quite a few eyebrows with that move.Perhaps Brody was just building on a precedent set the previous year when winner Denzel Washington (for Training Day) laid a big kiss on presenter Julia Roberts (the previous year's Best Actress winner, natch!) At least they knew each other rather well, having costarred (not romantically) in The Pelican Brief nearly a decade prior to that. Perhaps he felt he owed her a little something extra for her stringent campaigning in his favor with quotes along the lines of, “I cannot fathom living in a world in which I have an Oscar for Best Actress while Denzel Washington doesn't have one for Best Actor.”

All this lovey-dovey at the podium reached its zenith at the 2007 MTV Movie Awards when Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby won Best Kiss. The kiss in question was a same-sex smooch between Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen, competitive race car drivers in the film. Upon receiving their award, Cohen (in what was surely a planned incident) started trying to repeat the act on Ferrell. Eventually, they proceeded with it and ended up wallowing on the floor of the stage making out!

Now that “Pandora's Box” has been opened on that front, the trend continues. Even last year at the 15th Annual Critics Choice Awards ceremony, there was a tie between Meryl Streep (for Julie & Julia) and Sandra Bullock (for The Blind Side) and after Streep gave her speech and Bullock was called second, she marked the occasion by lip-locking Streep at the podium.

All this kissy-poo at awards ceremonies is nothing new, though it used to primarily consist of just an embrace followed by a peck on the cheek or, better yet, an air kiss off to one side for the benefit of the cameras. Take this shot of young Tab Hunter in 1955 after winning the first ever Audie Award (named for Audience Awards, culled from voters at movie theaters across the country) as Most Promising New Personality. He gets a no-contact smooch from presenter Miss Rosalind Russell.

Stars frequently find themselves the target of surprise smooches either on the red carpet, backstage or during various receptions and other industry events. When looking at some of these spontaneous actions, it's easier to understand why kisses done in films and television are so carefully orchestrated and choreographed. The real thing is rarely so pretty!

Take the oddball combination of former Hollywood cocksman Kirk Douglas, now living in the aftermath of some severe strokes, and John Travolta, he of the rollercoaster career of ups and downs. In the press room following Douglas' receiving of a lifetime achievement award from The Screen Actors Guild, the thunderstruck veteran actor was grappled by Travolta and kissed squarely on the lips.

Sometimes the impromptu smack will result in the kisser completely missing the mouth of the subject, such as in this shot of actor David Keith and his then-lover Madolyn Smith. (Incidentally, though Keith has continued on as a steadily working actor, I swear it seems like the last time I saw him was when his character hanged himself in An Officer and a Gentleman back in 1982!)

Another mismatched lip lock occurred in 1981 when diva songstress Shirley Bassey attempted to celebrate something or other with a male friend (unidentified, I'm afraid! Anyone know him?) If you close your eyes too early, you can easily miss the target as Miss Bassey found out when she landed in between this guy's upper lip and the bottom of his snout.

Then there were then-partnered Kid Rock and Pamela Anderson, class personified, at the State Opera (!) in Vienna. I'll give them credit for dressing up (hey, they went further than Frances McDormand did at the recent Tony Awards telecast!), but Kid's sudden buss on Anderson's cheek was a fail. She didn't seem to see it coming and seems rather apprehensive and even a bit appalled! Then again, it's a little tough to sidle in for a peck on the cheek when you have to make it past her pneumatic chest...

Speaking of ill-fated romances, this photo may have been a sign that things weren't going to last long for Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. Captured smooching on the red carpet during arrivals for an Oscar ceremony, she's in the moment and he can't be bothered to close his eyes. In fact, he's looking above and beyond her at something more interesting in the background! Hmmph! It's the couch for you tonight, buddy.

Sometimes it's the lady who comes off as less than interested. During their doomed engagement in the early 1960s, Warren Beatty leaned in to give fiance Joan Collins a fat, wet kiss with his considerable lips and her body language and expression seem to be saying, “Forget it, kid. We're taking the next few hours off!”

Even the most devoted couples don't always master the public kiss. The late Patrick Swayze and his wife Lisa Niemi do a pretty good job of it here. Devoted lovers from virtual childhood, they had plenty of practice. Her love for him lasted from practically first sight as a young teen right up until his premature death in 2009.

Another long-term couple, one who has been together since the mid-'80s and who usually seems to take pains to avoid public display of affection, is talk show mogul Oprah Winfrey and her boyfriend Stedman Graham. This is a fairly rare shot of them smooching in public.
A once-devoted, but recently dissolved couple consisted of Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver. Shown here at a rally, the former governor of California seems unable to contort his rather tightly-drawn face into one which can offer up a kiss to his wife. (The rally was called “Remarkable Women Join Arnold.” As we've come to learn, at least one unremarkable woman also joined Arnold!)

Arnie's puss was actually, already by then, starting to resemble another nipped & tucked man, almost four decades his senior, who once planted an awkward kiss on Ms. Shriver. When legendary comic Milton Berle swooped in for the kill, Shriver didn't turn her face towards him or even her cheek. She let him make due with a kiss to the HAIR. Ha!

Berle was an old master at surprise smooches. Here, he's seen giving longtime pal George Burns a slurpy kiss while a bemused Daniel J. Travanti looks on. Berle, who made dressing up in drag part of his comedic repertoire, was nevertheless a major league ladies' man, celebrated and awed for his allegedly gargantuan penis, which he would display for pals and acquaintances at the slightest encouragement.

Even if half the free world was ga-ga over little Frankie Sinatra, Ginger Rogers nonetheless seems quite startled and taken aback by his sudden advances. It's a friendly sort of surprise, though.
Frank had his arms securely fastened about Miss Rogers, so he didn't allow for the opportunity to get a hand from her positioned in “Stop!” mode. Young Christopher Atkins wasn't quite so fortunate when he went to accost famed Italian sexpot Gina Lollobrigida with a smack on the cheek. Her face is saying “Okay, now... Down, boy!” and her head and hand are saying, “Back the hell away from me!” One assumes this was taken at some CBS function as Atkins was then playing Linda Gray's lover on Dallas while Lollo was making appearances on Falcon Crest as the half-sister to Jane Wyman!

Judy Garland was the recipient of a very zealous kiss from comedic actor Danny Kaye during a 1950s event. Here, he seems to be practically swallowing half of her face, which may help explain to why his much-gossiped-about friendship with Sir Laurence Olivier was so special and long-lived.

The decidedly odd pairing of our next match-up is one for the camp history books. Here we have Grand Ole Opry and Hee Haw personality Minnie Pearl laying a peck on the cheek of recently-dethroned comic genius, and film and Saturday morning TV star, Pee Wee Herman! The 1991 scandal involving his indecent exposure at an adult movie theater had already occurred by this point (in fact this was Pee Wee's farewell appearance for a long time), so Pearl was actually offering a very welcome show of support to him (though the event was a tribute in her honor.) It was close to two decades before Paul Reubens appeared again as his alter ego in a successful stint on Broadway. A new film starring the character is allegedly forthcoming.

In terms of controversy, few kisses created as much heat as the one that Richard Gere gave to Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. During an AIDS-awareness event in New Delhi in 2007, Gere suddenly made the exuberant decision to pull an Adrien Brody and dip Shetty, kissing her enthusiastically on her cheek. Unfortunately, Gere (certainly a world traveler) either didn't realize or didn't remember that such an act is considered highly objectionable to many people in that country and it ticked off a huge controversy. There was even a warrant issued for the arrest (of both of them!) The matter has never officially been resolved (to my knowledge), but seems to have finally simmered down at any rate.

Will Ferrell, who seems to be willing to do just about anything for a laugh or for shock value, staged a lip-lock for the benefit of the Kiss Cam at a Los Angeles Lakers game. While wearing t-shirts with the team's insignia and downing concession food, Ferrell and fellow actor John C. Reilly pressed their mouths together in mockery of those couples who are singled out during the game to have their romantic moments plastered all over the in-house monitors.

We're not exactly sure what prompted this sudden show of affection between rockers Phil Collins and Robert Plant in 1983. Collins played the drums on Plant's first solo album and appeared with him in concert, so they must have had something to celebrate. Onlookers in the series of snaps veer from amused to confused to outraged.

Sometimes a man-on-man kiss is unkowingly caught by the cameras, such as in this shot of the aforementioned John Travolta giving a special smackeroo to a male companion as they boarded John's private plane. It wasn't a goodbye kiss since they were both getting on the vessel! In fact, Kelly Preston, Travolta's wife, was already on board as well, though that could possibly be the reason for the kiss taking place outside where no one would see... no one except a fast-thinking someone in the vicinity with a camera.

Returning to the girl-on-girl front for a second, there's this exceedingly awkward snap of Zsa Zsa Gabor greeting sister Eva Gabor in the wake of one of Eva's stage appearances. Poor Eddie Albert can only stand in the middle and grin as the two Hungarians close in for a friendly peck. There's just something unflattering about the way Eva's lips are pursed that gives the otherwise innocuous shot an icky sort of feeling.

The Gabor sisters liked to keep their faces nice and taut, a condition that may have impaired Eva's ability to move her mouth easily and sometimes gave them an immobile look. But what's more immobile than an actual wax figure? Wax dummies, frequently produced by Madame Tussaud's Museum, seem to bring out the pursed lips in publicity photos. Here, we have Twilight star Robert Pattinson being snuggled up to by a couple of female fans. Or is it? No. It's his wax figure, though we would be hard pressed to tell the difference!

Likewise, were it not for the real Helen Mirren (sadly photographed at a far less flattering angle than her waxen counterpart) to the right in this photo, one might have believed, with some judicious cropping, that the couple on the left really was Mirren and director husband Taylor Hackford and not Hackford planting a buss on the cheek of his wife's doppelganger.

Sometimes the unveiling of a wax figure brings on an expression of self-love, such as with comedian George Lopez. He found his own likeness cute enough to deserve a friendly peck on the cheek. Honestly, some of these creations are stunningly realistic, this one being particularly authentic. If you took Lopez out of the picture, I'd have bought the photo of the statue as being a shot of Lopez himself!

In this next – and final – shot, your assignment is to figure out which of the three celebrities pictured is the wax dummy. Baz Luhrmann, Nicole Kidman and Karl Lagerfeld are depicted in a two-sided kissfest. The question is a “trick” one. In fact, these are all the real deal! They just look, especially the two on the right, like candidates for a display in the famous Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

I hope you got a kick out of this little melange of mouth-to-mouth. I'll be back soon with more stars and their projects!