On a role

Colin Farrell

So there I was with Peggy and our friend, watching "Horrible Bosses," and laughing like Donald Trump's hairdresser when the question of who played the part of Bobby Pellitt came up.

The two women in the room said, "Oh, that's Colin Farrell!"

In my wisdom, I said it couldn't be Colin Farrell, and suggested it might be Hugh O'Brian or Regis Philbin, but a quick check of the Wikipedia showed me they were right (women always are) and I was wrong (see above).

Now, I have friends who are actors and still, after all these years, I
can't seem to get it through my head that being an actor means playing different parts in different movies, stage shows and tv productions.  And I am doubly dense in this field, because I tend to see an actor forever as the first character I saw him or her portray.  As in, Craig T. Nelson will always be "Coach" to me.  I saw him later play the police chief in some Saturday night show, and I always wondered why he gave up being a football coach to be a cop, even though he started at the top of that ladder.

New actor

Old actor

And the new District Attorney on "Cedar Cove," the guy who is throwing himself so shamelessly all over Judge Olivia, plays the Maytag guy in commercials, and that doesn't register with me anyway because the other Maytag guy had the part since toploaders came out a million years ago.  Other people taking over roles, even roles that have been played as well as when Jesse White played the Maytag guy before Gordon Jump played him after playing "The Big Guy" on WKRP in Cincinnati, just confuses me even more than this sentence does.

Colin Farrell again!

In True Detective, Farrell is a tightly-wound spring of aggression and anger and a lot of meanness, whereas he played a drug-addled, supercilious, compassionless, indurate son of a boss in Horrible Bosses.  The latter was a comedy picture, and he played the part much differently!  And did a great job in each.

Peggy laughs because I am astonished that Meryl Streep can be a carefree country singer in Mr Keillor's Prairie Home Companion movie and then a BBB (big business beyotch) in Devil Wears Prada and now an aging rock star in her new moon pitcha.

Me in radio days, being given some
bad ratings news.

Actors, actresses, performers of all types: my deep respect.  I could no more pretend to be someone else than I could be someone else.  I am always pretty much the same.

Me in radio days, being given
some good ratings news.