The Last McAdams Update?
Oh Rachel!Is this some kind of payback for doubting the free market? Peter Suderman relays that Rachel McAdams appeared topless in a film before she became famous. At first, he was right - this sounds distressing and disappointing - particularly since I've heaped lots of praise on her for eschewing the Vanity Fair cover. In some ways I've built the first 3 months of my writing life up by softening my deeply reactionary politics with an all too human adoration of an untouchable and idiosyncratically chosen ideal. How much of this was a conceit is hard to say. I certainly didn't obsess to the point of doing basic research on imdb and a search for screenshots from this film.
What bothered me about the Vanity Fair shoot was the gratuitous nature of it. It was sensational and was meant to be vaguely orgiastic and lesbian in tone. If this movie has a topless shot in the vein of Swordfish- then it may be time to re-evaluate McAdams. (Though some part of me says it may be time to re-evaluate my principles. Maybe this is what has to be done to break in, maybe it's not so different from contriving endearing characteristics in your writing persona to get ahead).
Perhaps the scene will be artfully done, subtle and worthy. Or perhaps - as my aggressively Google-happy friend informs me over instant messenger, as I write this post, - it's just a totally gratuitous scene of McAdams diving into a body of water, topless and surrounded by other young, beautiful looking women. It seems right now, in this dark hour that the only news that can save this crush for me in its intensity - is to be informed that Rachel McAdams - like every human being - Googles herself - and discovered the piece that started it all - she took it so seriously that her self-image changed. She even vaguely thought of me when she fired her publicist upon arriving at the Vanity Fair shoot. She would have called the personal cell phone number I left at the bottom of that piece but thought "That seems crazy. And he has a girlfriend, I'm no home-wrecker." But now, Rachel, you have to call. It's the only way I can know I changed your life.
I won't even announce it on the blog when you do call.
Shouldn't I have learned from literature that all crushes that depend on this kind of idolizing - are dashed in this way? The woman who embodies politeness one day spits, the woman who embodies purity is discovered to have fallen prey to temptation a week before she met you. The veil is lifted - or in this case, the Gingham Patterned blouse is discarded. My tears moisten the collar.
Or maybe one shouldn't trust Canadians and I'll just have to find some other hook in my writing/blogging.
Michael Brendan Dougherty
in Rachel McAdams
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10 Comments
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Reader Comments (10)
Ditto supermodels.
Time to grow up, lose your illusions, and stop fantasizing about the unattainable, dude!
P.S. "Principles" are how one spells what you misspelt "principals"; you were using the homonym of the correct word.
This may be the occasion to note that Bollywood actresses would never disappoint you, Michael, or at least not in this way. They might not personally be paragons of virtue (who knows?), but the censor board ensures that a minimum of deocrum is maintained and the women remain fully clothed for the entire film. Maybe Rachel McAdams could go to Bombay, and your problems would be solved. Then again, the last notable Western actress to do a crossover movie in India was Elizabeth Shelley, and she returned to play a lesbian on Showtime, so there are no guarantees.
Part of the reason I agreed to sit and watch The Notebook is because Ryan Gosling was the lead and I thought he was riveting in this strange movie, The Believer - where he played a Jewish neo-Nazi. I can't say it is a great movie - but I was gripped by his performance. Also Billy Zane plays a great Brooklyn Fascist.
As for your comment about Ryan Gosling in The Believer, the movie title must refer to the audience members who could buy him as a jew. He's gotta be one of the least convincing jews since Charlton Heston.
I don't have the moral objections that you do, Michael, but I have seen My Name is Tanino, and I would say the nude scene is very tame, and not in any way salacious. She plays a young American girl in Italy. In the scene in question, she swims and sunbathes topless. Yes, her body is exposed, and it was certainly possible for her to avoid such exposure simply by not taking the role. But I can't see calling this scene "gratuitous." Topless swimming and sunbathing are very the custom in the Mediteranean. The context of her nudity was not a sexual one -- at least no more so than any sunbather is inherently "sexual" simply because they are exposed.
A woman truly as modest and dignified as you make Ms. McAdams out to be would not star in such a film. Have we seen Mel Gibson do any simulated sex scenes since he reverted to Catholicism? Or consider any movie made prior to the 1970s -- do we see any simulated sex or even partial nudity as in the Notebook or other McAdams films? No.
Don't go watch Notebook again.