Saturday, July 14, 2007

My Weekend Crush

One of the many brilliant things about Lili Taylor is that while she is an actor, she has never been a ham. Nor a showboat. Nor a fame chaser. Nor a glamour puss. In fact, she seems exactly the opposite. With her hushed voice and sly grin, Lili has always had an enigmatic elfin quality. She seems both organically shy yet unwaveringly direct. Throughout her eclectic career, the Sundance staple has blazed an independent trail that champions off-beat and even off-putting characters. That more than a couple of those characters have been gay (“Prêt-à-Porter,” “I Shot Andy Warhol,” “Gaudi Afternoon,“ and “Julie Johnson” to name a few) certainly doesn’t hurt either. Still the women she plays are, above all, complex. That demand for complexity could come from the fact that she owns some 800-1,000 books. Be still my heart.

But when I first heard that Lili had signed on to star in a Lifetime series, my heart sank. Oh, Lili, no! Not Television for Women! But the more I read about her show, “State of Mind,” the more I understood her decision. Plus at age 40, she probably saw that the interesting roles for women on film kept dwindling while the interesting roles for women on television kept getting stronger. The series has gotten good reviews which upgrade to glowing when talk of Lili’s portrayal of psychiatrist Dr. Ann Bellowes begins. Despite my Lifetime Movie of the Week prejudices, I’m going to try to catch the show when it premieres Sunday. (The impatient can catch it now. The premiere is streaming on Lifetimetv.com.) I think I owe Lili at least that much. After all, she gave the world 63 of the best breakup song pretty much ever. Sure, Joe lies when he cries. But Lili beguiles when she smiles. Happy weekend, all.

6 comments:

AmPowerBlog said...

That's a beautiful picture of her!

Amanda said...

I was reading about this show somewhere... I think it's an interesting concept because in television usually whenever there's a physic involved it's from the patient's perspective but now for the first time it's from the doctor's. I think it will be a nice balance of learning about their patients and their own lives outside of the office and probably how their job effects their home life. I actually have this channel so I'm watching it good or bad! haha. Thanks for the info btw about LOGO streaming their broadcast. Hurray.

JayKay said...

Does anyone have a tip how to watch Lifetime website from abroad? I remember in the L-word times there was a way to 'trick' Showtime website and be able to access it from abroad... Just wonder if the same cure might help us abroad to see the first epizode.
Thanks!
Jay

Anonymous said...

Every weekend I can't wait to see who the lucky lady will be... and I am never dissapointed! Great choices each time.

GREAT blog!

A fan from all the way out in Israel...

El N said...

See, this is exactly why I think we might be the same person. I've loved Lili ever since Joe lied to her and she wrote 63 songs about him and sang each and every one of them. Man, it's getting scary with you, Ms. Snarker, real scary.

Most def looking forward to this show..

R said...

jaykay: I think you can trick the site by coming through a proxy server that's hosted in the US, like www.proxyfoxy.com. Apologies if that doesn't work but I think it should.