Who stretched the most career out of the least talent?

Cilla Black should be mentioned for UK people. She began her rerecording (basically copying) Dionne Warwick's songs not as well as her then basically somehow managed to become a permanent fixture on British television for decades. She was constantly appearing on TV talk shows to talk about how she once knew The Beatles.

Very little appeal, but a lot of steady work.

thread closed

Cilla Black didn't copy Dionne Warwick. Cilla's recordings of a few Bacharach/David songs are NOTHING like Dionne's recordings. Warwick is cool and precise and perfectly wedded to the rhythms of the song. Black sings like Merman. Her voice is strong and clear and powerful. The two singers could not be more different.

[quote]Let's list 'em, starting with triple threat Ann-Margret -- who couldn't act, sing, or dance

Glad I don't know you, OP.

Tim Allen. He’s exactly the same, himself, in absolutely everything.

Britney Spears and Selena Gomez.

Janet Jackson is definitely up there.

Donald Trump

Chasten

Steve Martin has gone far on a very small bag of tricks.

Ice-T

The Kardashians?

David Hasselhoff comes to mind, also. He's known all over the world and for what - one tv show?

Marlon Brando. In his early career, it was all hormones. In his later career, he was coasting on his earlier career. But there was never a lot of depth to his acting.

Goop

Yes, Ann-Margret was quite awful in everything, even Bye, Bye Birdie. But she got a good publicist in the '70s and that was that.

Marie Osmond

Adam Sandler

Annoying Vin Diesel

Joan Crawford. She had great bones and an iron will that more than compensated for any other deficiencies.

There's a NEW GIRL in town

with a brand new smile

she was just passin' through

But if things work out she's gonna stay awhile....

Bomp Pomp Bah...

I'm going to say...Bonnie Franklin

Kamala Harris. She dropped out of the primary without earning a single delegate, yet will soon but the most power person in the world.

R5 I’d agree but to be fair: he never tried to do more than be himself. This could be a fun topic ! My vote : jaclyn smith (whenever i went into a kmart & was shocked her clothing line was still a thing. How? Why? Because of Charlie’s Angels?)

Gypsy Rose Lee.

Does Bonnie Franklin qualify? She never had much career. It's not like she kept getting cast in things once ODAAT ended.

[quote]Janet Jackson is definitely up there.

Not further up there than Madonna!

Zac Efron

Clint Eastwood

Humphrey Bogart

Isn’t Kim Kardashian’s only claim to fame a sex tape where she was urinated on by some guy? I’d say she wins the thread!

J-Lo. She can't sing,, only Jorja Smith surpasses her in singing worthlessness, as J-Lo doesn't actually sound like she is sucking dick. She isn't a great dancer (Janet, Ciara, Missy Elliot way surpass her for flow and ingenuity and FUN) and Beyonce is a far better dancer technically). She can't harness the acting talent that she used to have, so I have to say that that was a fluke and nothing innate. She is excellent at nothing apart from keeping her name in the tabloids, no stunt being low enough, no dusty male being beneath her; vagabonds, trann* chasers, women beaters, drunkards, druggies...anything for a come up and a never will leave the public's consciousness. All that and she doesn't even come over as if she is nice and in on any joke about her. She's got Marfan's from all the stretching of her non talent.

Mariah Carey

At least he's Hung.

Chelsea Handler

Shit, Steve Martin learned to play banjo. And not halfway. That's way more than Goop ever did.

M.

Joan Collins, because she's been mediocre longer than anyone else.

Joan was talented. EVERY gay man appreciates her Alexis.

Sarah Jessica Parker

R15- I liked her in Tommy (1975).

Compare her to all the other Oscar nominess that year though, R38.

Ladies, I have the most horses in this race!

Bette Davis and Barbara Stanwyck disagreed with you OP and R15.

R31 Aw, I hadn’t seen that before but that kid is actually kind of adorable. And he’s no worse a singer than Madonna, Britney, Cardi B, Rihanna.

I’ll never forgot my sister in law telling me about the Umbrella song and then finally hearing it. I thought she was trolling me.

“Umbrella - ella - ella!” Awful.

[quote]—FOAD

What a bizarre overreaction to criticizing a long-forgotten C list actress.

Sylvester Stallone

Well, Op is an untalented, stretched out asshole. Does that count?

Kelly Ripa

Lisa Rinna

Valerie Cherish

Utmost apologies, R43.

George Clooney--has the range of iceberg lettuce Ryan Gosling--ditto Victoria Beckham--I think she has a career Jennifer Lawrence--Oscar to acting ability ratio WAY out of proportion

I find it hilarious that there's an ancient queen who is furious at any criticism of Ann-Margret of all people.

I find it sad that you enjoy being so snide about a talented actress who is clearly much nicer than you've ever considered being, R49. Again, Davis and Stanwyck had nothing but praise for her talent, but I imagine you also consider them to be bad actresses. See R55 in this thread:

Joey Heatherton

I find it hilarious that ancient trolls are furious for being called out.

Why is everyone here so mean?

R48 Clooney had a talent for sucking up to powerful people. And for name dropping his Aunt, who did have talent.

Kathy Lee....oh Sweet Jesus I'm a Loving You Jew...Gifford

G, one does not include the period.

Bob Hope

R29 she has a huge ass, which is what really mattered.

Milton Berle

Jane Fonda isn't totally untalented and can be compelling with very, very, strong direction, but compared to her contemporaries she is mediocre as an actress. No way would she have had her career without being Henry Fonda's daughter.

Britney Spears by a mile!

R59 he had a huge dick, which is what really mattered.

Julia Roberts is famous only because of a toothy grin.

I would disagree with you, R60. Beautiful women are a dime a dozen, but is anyone more photogenic that Jane Fonda? With that perfectly structured face, she would always find work in film, regardless of who her parents might be. Being Henry Fonda's daughter might get her screen tested, but it would never get her cast.

She was and is gorgeous.

Zoey Deschanel. Don’t like her, don’t get her.

R64 I'm not saying she wouldn't have been in movies, she just wouldn't be so prestigious. She was considered to be one of the best dramatic actresses of the 70s and got TWO Oscars in one decade. No way she would have gotten those kinds of roles by just being a model-turned-actress who wasn't the daughter of an iconic actor. She would have had a career like Lauren Hutton or Britt Ekland, maybe Anjelica Huston (daughter of an iconic director, haha) at very best.

Ellen/ Elliott Page. Zip. Zero. Nada.

I disagree, R67. There are plenty of actors/actresses who failed even though their parents were Hollywood icons. Jane had to walk through that door once it was opened for her, and she walked the walk far better than most. Christina Crawford wasn't ever going to be cast in Klute.

Jane Fonda was no more important to the 1970s than Faye Dunaway. It would be easy to conclude that Dunaway had the more important career and the most important films.

And Dunaway was Florida panhandle white trash. She came from less than nothing. She has one less Oscar than Jane Fonda, but who cares?

Does least mean none? Asking for a friend.

R70, Dunaway had Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, Network, Barfly and a few camp classics. That doesn't measure up to Fonda's career.

Faye was a much better actress but much harder to deal with. Jane, like I said, is compelling with a good director (Klute, They Shoot Horses) but falls flat otherwise - she got more notoriety for her woo-woo activism and later exercise empire when socialism stopped being the trend of the moment. Out of every other BA nominee within a decade of her age in the 70s, I would also say Vanessa Redgrave, Glenda Jackson, Julie Christie, Liv Ullman, Ellen Burstyn, Maggie Smith, and Shirley MacLaine are much better overall than her.

William Shatner. Although he was actually decent in his "The Twilight Zone" episodes. Everything after that...no.

I somewhat disagree again, R73. To me Dunaway is not in the same league as the other actresses you've listed. Fonda also did a great job in Coming Home, The China Syndrome, The Morning After, All Together, Youth and several other films.

If Dunaway had only done Bonne and Clyde and then Network, her career would be more important to the 70s than any of the other actress mentioned above. Those films and her work in them are inseparable from that moment in film history.

Stallone actually wrote the Rocky script, R44. Won some Oscars? Yes, it probably hasn't aged well, and the rest has been utter shite, but just saying....

La La Land!

[quote]Black sings like Merman. Her voice is strong and clear and powerful.

And GRATING. Black and Merman are best in small doses.

Cilla is fabulous. Sung live.

^ Cilla had her own sound, for sure. I prefer Sheridan Smith, who portrayed Cilla in the ITV miniseries and did her own singing. Sheridan has more range.

Madonna owns this thread

Today, it looks like Joe Biden is that person.

I agree R1, Cilla Black, terrible singer. I think Madonna has made some talent go a long long way.

[quote]Stallone actually wrote the Rocky script, [R44]. Won some Oscars? Yes, it probably hasn't aged well, and the rest has been utter shite, but just saying....

Yeah, I agree with R77, I don’t know if Stallone belongs on this list. He wrote the Oscar nominated script for Rocky and while he isn’t a great actor he earned two Oscar nominations for playing dumb so well.

Arnold Schwarzenegger comes to mind.

Yeah, Arnie was pretty crap when he had a lot of lines, like in Kindergarten Cop. But he worked hard for his body.

Beanie Feldstein is about to own this thread.

Fonda's chronic tight jaw gave her little vocal range. I find her hard to listen to. Plus all her characters sound alike. Too inflexible to ever be a great.

Mindy Kaling and Beanie Feldstein in today's world.

Ann-Margret was a credible Blanche Dubois. She doesn't belong anywhere on this list.

I nominate the writer of some of the most insipid songs of the 1970s, the Pompatus of Love himself, Mr. Steve Miller.

Lois Chiles owns this thread.

The worst wretch on the thread:

Well, Op is an untalented, stretched out asshole. Does that count?

I find it hilarious that ancient trolls are furious for being called out.

Why is everyone here so mean?

She was and is gorgeous.

R91, I like Ann-Margret very much, but she was TERRIBLE as Blanche. It such a misguided production, but she deserves most of the blame. Blanche is a highly theatrical creature, prone to extravagant gestures, but A-M played her as an energy-free somnambulist.

Whatever you say, R95.

Tennessee Williams liked her performance very much.

[quote]Blanche is a highly theatrical creature...

Hardly. Vivien Leigh gave a highly theatrical performance. You have confused the two things.

R96, Williams had spent the previous decade in decline and was happy his work was being produced. Ann-Margret was a dreary Blanche. I'm not convinced she understood the text.

R97, wrong. I've read the play a couple of times and seen at least six productions. Blanche even says she doesn't want realism, she wants magic. That's the proper way for her to be played. Leigh was magnificent. A-M was...not.

Rebel Wilson for me. Unfunny, one note, flat. Now that she’s lost the weight, she doesn’t really have a thing to lead with!

R77 r85 I recall reading a Stallone interview in which he said that he wasn't the most talented guy, or the smartest, or the best looking, but that he knew how to "make a lot out of a little. " That was why I mentioned him in this thread.

R101 = r44

Madonna

Madonna

Madonna

Debra Messing

Demi Moore is always my answer to this question. Kept her career going (and going$ on attitude, PR stunts, “power marriages” and plastic surgery. Everything but talent.

At least Madonna was inventive in making what she had go a long way.

Janet was just plain nepotism.

Andy Cohen.

Chevy Chase

J. Lo owns this thread.

R109 Not so fast, amigo.

We'll have to wait and see if Jennifer Hudson wins a second Oscar.

For those who are calling Jane Fonda beautiful, I don't see it. Great body, wonderful packaging, but facially she looks like her father with a wig on.

[R1], what came as somewhat of a shock to me was to discover how awful Cilla's reputation in the UK was! She was despised by just about everybody who worked with her. I mean, there's just a little aspersion, then there's the Sainsbury Supersized I Hate You package.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Completely disagree with all the Ann-Margret insults.

Fair enough. R101. I kind of just with Sly would go away though. Speaking of that, I would also put Snoop on here. I guess he has some talent, but his neverending omnipresence is notable.

Mart Damon.

Yeah Ann-Margret was a real cluster fuck

If she had simply had Sandra Dee or someone's career it would've been okay. But she was really being heralded as for very mediocre work for a while in the late '70s and '80s.

Michelle Phillips

Bob Dylan,

Keanu

Paris Hilton

Ann-Margret's career blessing was that she was able to stay in the business and get experience, so that in her maturity she was much better and rather good in many outings.

Oh but we are not allowed to question Bob, R121. He is the chief cultural phenomenon of the Boomerverse, and definitely is not a plagiarist or the worst active live performer.

Ann-Margret wasn't really good in her later career, she was just taking more serious roles. The shock of her career renaissance overshadowed any discussion about whether or not her Blanche DuBois was actually any good (it wasn't).

Taylor Swift

She's been peddling the exact same "lovestruck teen" formula for 15 years. Yet every time she releases anything her legion of fans still show up in droves.

R114, do you mean Cilla, who is no more than borderline cunty in that interview, or the back-stabbing, two-faced, venomous, smiler-with-a-knife reporter, who is a cunt of Grand Canyon proportions?

Madonna. Oh and also Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, Madonna, and GRANDMADONNA.

John Travolta. To this day, he better be satisfying Quentin Tarantino's foot fetish for giving him his Pulp Fiction role. Adam Levine comes to mind too.

Travolta can dance well though, which is more than you can say for a lot of people.

There are plenty of actors who had one big Oscar-grabbing role then managed to get a couple of filler noms after it.

Jessica Lange comes to mind. Still working but never really much of an actress.

George Clooney, hands down. Why his career didn't end after that stinker, Batman and Robin, I'll never know. He was as dull as a potato and had all the oomph of a Yugo as a superhero.

He didn't even have any kind of charisma to be Bruce Wayne, let alone a believable Batman. He was awful on ER. I don't get it at all. We're supposed to swoon over this guy?

Gay men have never gotten George Clooney. He was always a frau obsession.

I'm always amazed at those people who had one hit song forty or so years ago who still manage to get a TV interview talking about it.

Joey Lawrence is still working steadily.

Bernadette Peters

Dame Judi Dench. Our Lady of the Flared Nostrils Acting School graduate.

Justin Bieber

Every time I think his career has just about ended, he gets another #1 song.

Wrong about Ann-Margret as an actress. See Carnal Knowledge. As for singers with the latest version of autotune anyone with a voice can be made to sound like Marni Nixon.

[quote]Wrong about Ann-Margret as an actress. See Carnal Knowledge.

Yeah. We've seen it. We don't think she's good.

Ellen DeGeneres did pretty well. She's made a fortune from that talk show. I never found her funny. She was lucky to be able to parlay her limited awkward shtick into a six-season sitcom and then go on to have a talk show for twenty years, especially if what we read about her is true.

Zsa Zsa Gabor owns this thread.

No one has come close to pulling off the career she did. All based on presence.

R93

Arthur Laurents has the dish.

There’s an unhinged Ann-Margret troll who seems incapable of grasping that people disagree that she is the second coming of Christ.

Nicolas Cage.

The Ann-Margret troll is R145. The very definition of TROLL.

Lisa Loeb also belongs on this list. I have a friend who CANNOT STAND her. And I absolutely understand why.

John Wayne. No range, no talent. He sat on a horse. Rightwing asshole. He ignored geiger counters going wild and gave the gift of cancer to half the cast and crew of The Conqueror., a shitty movie with his shitty performance. How very Covid/Republican of him.

[quote] Janet was just plain nepotism.

Get real, Vadgebot. If it was just nepotism keeping her career afloat, then LaToya and Tito could’ve easily done what she did and made just as much bank. They didn’t and Janet did.

R145: OP talks about her like she’s Britney fucking Spears. Could Britney have pulled off Bye Bye Birdie, Viva Las Vegas, Carnal Knowledge, Tommy, or Grumpy Old Men? And she was SO much better than that godawful Julie Andrews in that AIDS TV movie they made together in the 1990s.

Britney couldn’t even pull off that stupid Crossroads movie.

R137 I actually agree with that one. Not that she doesn’t have some talent but why is she even famous really and what has been holding up her career for so long?

Annie, Animaniacs, and Anastasia are what Bernie is best known for among people born in the 1980s or later.

Ryan Seacrest.

Was Peter Fonda a bigger nepotism case than Jane Fonda? I've only seen two of his movies (Easy Rider and The Limey). The entire time he was on screen I kept thinking "ugly ugly face". Was he considered sexy back in the day?

Bernie can belt out a tune and is very funny.

R28- I don't think Ray-J peed on her.

Ann-Margret created a character in that AIDS movie. Julie Andrews just played herself like she always does in everything.

It also explains how Hugh Grant got caught with Divine brown.

R158? What movie? What does that explain about Hugh/Divine?

R152 She was with Steve Martin when her career started to take off, starred in The Jerk with him. Plus she's good looking with a nice body.

My dad had the hots for Bernadette in the late '70s.

MADONNA

Here, R159:

Madonna, of course. Mediocre at best in all things: singing, dancing, acting. Because a star through sheer ambition and determination, which I guess in a way is an achievement.

Star through cultural appropriation.

She's a ho who is also her own pimp.

I don't believe in cultural appropriation.

When she appropriated it, it ceased to be culture.

R160 yeah I know all that, but she also had things like...when I would see reruns of The Carol Burnett Show she guest starred several times. What credits did she have in the mid-70s to merit that? Do you know what I mean! She always just seemed someone who was “famous for being famous” - before that was even really a thing like it is today.

I mean, I don't believe cultural appropriation happens. All good cultures accept each other.

The dead ones hate the live ones.

R161, was it the hair?

Courtney Love. No talent, except for glomming onto people who really do have talent and getting whatever she can out of them.

Lena Dunham. Fat, talentless pig. How did this gross creature become a celebrity?

Justine Timberlake

R152, what's name is Stephen Sondheim.

Keanu Reeves although he was perfect for Speed and John Wick, neither required heavy lifting.

Ann Margret couldn't sing or dance either. Her 'dancing' was really one of two jerky moves that seemed daring for the early '60s and that was it. She wasn't doing anything like what Cyd Charisse or Vera Ellen were doing a decade earlier.

Janet might've gotten the only other lasting Jackson family solo career because she was the only one who had any social skills. All the rest come off as very strange IRL. Janet less so.

[quote] David Hasselhoff comes to mind, also. He's known all over the world and for what - one tv show?

Four actually: [italic]The Young and the Restless, Knight Rider, Baywatch[/italic] and for some reason [italic]America's Got Talent[/italic].

Kylie Minogue. Outside the USA she is still successful and still making albums. She can’t sing a note to save her life but has had a lengthy career. Some of her songs are good but could have been sung by anybody.

R148 I saw a joint Lisa Loeb/Cyndi Lauper interview and Cyndi wasn’t having it how Lisa showed zero deference and was spouting off with her fucking granola mom bullshit.

G.

She has been so good at it that we probably should give her an Oscar.

William Fucking Shatner—Bad actor and an asshole IRL.

Charlton Heston—Used his one facial expression in all his roles. Has anyone pryed his guns from his cold, dead hands yet? Or was he buried clinging to them? NRA spokesman when he had dementia, but would anyone have noticed the difference?

Heston, yuck. Hilarious how everyone but him knew he was playing Messala's lover in Ben Hur. "Shhhh, don't tell Heston, he'll throw a fit."

R179 She was touching in her brief appearance in Holy Motors and I like the song I Can't Get You Out of My Head but beyond that she is a big zero.

I'm loving the person who thinks Viva Las Vegas is Sophie's Choice at R151.

Daniel Radcliffe.

Diabolical child actor, acted off the screen by his co-stars, yet still gets work. Why?

Speaking of him, JK Rowling

Wrote some mediocre children’s books and now a billionaire.

[quote]Isn’t Kim Kardashian’s only claim to fame a sex tape where she was urinated on by some guy? I’d say she wins the thread!

And even that sex tape was boring as shit! (I'm ashamed to admit I watched it ....). IIRC, most of the time she just lay flat on her stomach and didn't even show her tits. Most porn actors have more 'talent' than she does!

You need to ask?

Anne Fucking "I'm the Greatest" Baxter

If we're talking about traditional acting, singing and dancing talent, it's Marilyn Monroe.

BUT what she demonstrated (similarly to Harlow in some ways) was that "talent" in film meant more than elocution, fine acting (although when she got it right she was amazing) or perfect triple time steps down a staircase. Her "Marilyn" persona in its full development was an unstoppable magnet for the eyes and beyond, and after "Niagara" one seldom looked at anyone else for long on the screen with her in her scenes. She took the bimbo stereotype and made it an accessible American goddess.

R12 I think Germany was quite taken with the Hoff’s musical stylings for awhile there.

Anne Margret in BBB and VLV is stupendous. Go drown yourself OP.

She was also very good in Carnel Knowlege and that movie with Julie Andrews where her son was dying of AIDS.

Mariska Hargitay owns this thread.

Can't understand all the shade on poor Ann.

Paula Abdul

[quote] pryed his guns

Oh, dear.

R160, Peters was a name long before she hooked up with Martin. It was mostly television and Broadway...but then that is sort of where her career is now as well.

Peters has been big on Broadway since the 60s and off and on in TV since the 70s. She was never much of a factor in films.

R186 Probably because he presents hole.

Rita Ora.

Ellen.

[quote]If we're talking about traditional acting, singing and dancing talent, it's Marilyn Monroe.

Marilyn wasn't a dancer. She was in musicals and sang, she moved to the music but didn't do any real dancing. So there's no reason to expect her to have had dancing talent.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Kelly Monaco from GH

Gayle King

Jenna Hager Bush

Meghan McCain

Dr. Oz -- not his surgical career but his talk show/Bobby Bullshit schtick

Dr. Phil

Rachael Ray

Suzanne Somers

Speaking of Zac Efron, I was trying to think of a forerunner to him - but there aren't many Zac Efron types who had a 15 year (and counting) movie career.

Funny you should mention Kylie, r179. I was living in Australia in the 90s and during that decade, she was definitely not, a joke per se, but....not "cool." I wasn't there to witness her big debut as a teen in Neighbours or whatever the show was but at one point, she hooked up with Michael Hutchence (I was still in Oz) and suddenly....things changed for her. Kind of transformed like Miley Cyrus from cartoon character to a more cool performer/personality. But, yes, the talent. Never. There.

I'm mystified why anyone would buy her stuff (music).

What's a Zac Efron type? I kid who was in musicals who became a non-musical leading man?

Tina Turner

Zac Efron type = male starlet, known for body over acting chops; usually plays second leads.

[quote]R60 Jane Fonda… No way would she have had her career without being Henry Fonda's daughter.

Yeah… college educated, Ford fashion model, trained at the Actors Studio. Translation = Utter Loser.

[italic]What we’re they thinking, giving her her start?!

And will all that, she still tried to make herself whatever her current husband wanted.

*with all that

Henry Fonda had the talent, Jane was a pretty girl who had charisma, worked very hard - not a lot of deep acting talent, really.

I saw Jane Fonda on Broadway about 10 years ago in "33 Variations." She gave a star performance and commanded the stage every moment she was on it. I expected that I would discover an actress who was too old and out of shape to do 8 a week on Broadway, but who cranked out a few nice moments. That's not what I got. She proved herself to be an entirely stage-worthy leading lady.

Brava, Jane.

Britney Spears owns this fucking thread. She was a good dancer for like a year. She had a knee injury shooting the Sometimes video which was like her second or third song. So she can't sing AT ALL OR DANCE. And now, she really is a total vegetable whose "career"--whatever that is--seems to consist of getting endless sympathy from the public.

The knee injury was a cover for her breast implant surgery.

Johnny Rapid. Have you seen his hole?

R217, she had implants? LOL.. Adding boobies to add to her talentlessness.

Well, she has been getting clicks lately showing off the boobies, seems to be working.

JLo owns the thread actually

R22 Of course! Without "Charlie's Angels" we would have never heard of Jaclyn Smith.

Oprah....she's just lucky and pretends to have empathy, albeit she's a hard worker but also makes out she's done it all by herself without her team of producers and staff.

Pierce Brosnan has no range, just plays the same snooty English gent all the time...could he play a homeless drug-addicted trans man? I think not!

Michael Jackson

Rip Taylor owns this thread.

Rip Taylor was one of the funniest men ever to walk onto a stage.

Rod Taylor, on the other hand....

Sonny Bono: bad singer, bad husband, bad politician.

R228 Cher disagrees with you. And Cher is NEVER WRONG.

[R27] Clint Eastwood directed and starred in Unforgiven, arguably the greatest movie western of all time. The film won 4 academy awards including best director and best actor.

Kelly Osborne, who has made a career out of singing and being a talk show personality, though she sucks at both.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Ozzy Osbourne would randomly sing a few notes, and his band would write an entire song and lyrics, and then Osbourne took the credit for writing the songs himself. He can't play a musical instrument, he can't write songs. But he can stumble up on stage and screech for an hour. (Because Sharon needs more money for plastic surgery.)

Al Roker

Barbara Walters

Michael Strahan

Paula Abdul and JLo. But at least Paula has a pleasant personality.

Nicki Minaj. Why does she have to be a vicious cunt to everyone? One could deal with her limited gifts if she were nice. But she goes out of her way to see how despicable she can behave towards others. She can’t sing or even dance that well.

Simon Cowell

Paula had talent, just not singing.

[quote] Nicki Minaj. Why does she have to be a vicious cunt to everyone?

And she has multiple rapists in her family that she constantly defends. Nasty.

"Christina Crawford wasn't ever going to be cast in Klute."

That's a shame. Because she knew the boys. . .and the booze.

Tom Cruise owns this thread.

His talent alone does not explain his gargantuan career.

Mick Jagger

Barbara Streisand

R4 R15 Hi - i just read a book about super agent of the 70’s Sue mengers. She rept ann margret then. Invited her to a party , sat her next to Mike Nichols & he cast her in Carnal Knowledge. Anyway. Didn’t see that movie - and maybe nothing by her (besides the video from Tommy where she rubs baked beans on her tits)

Have a gander at her Blanche.

me . .

The butch one (Dorothy I think the character was called) from The Golden Girls.

Who knows why Ann-Marget and Pamela Tiffin didn't have each others careers. Having an agent like Sue Mengers helps but chance plays an even bigger role than talent.

Ann-Margret sizzles on screen. The camera loves her. An in Hollywood, that's a great talent to have.

Her first screen test wasn't a revelation, though. Even AM needed some schooling.

[quote]Her first screen test wasn't a revelation,

Oh, fer fuck's sake! Burn the woman at the stake for that, why don't you?

[Quote] Oh, fer fuck's sake! Burn the woman at the stake for that, why don't you?

If you've seen it, you'd know what I mean. It's not as simple as the camera "loving" the subject. How the performer relates to the camera is the deciding factor. Ann-Margret had to learn that.

She had learn something? OMG! She had to learn how to do something she was encountering for the first time.

Hollywood handed out thousands of screen tests over the years. With direction. Very few of the screen tests went anywhere for anyone. Very few stars went as far as Ann-Margret. She has had a very important film career.

That she had to learn something is irrelevant. That she was not a revelation is just absurd. Her career speaks for itself and that's all that matters.

Oh, hush. You're worse than the Patty Duke Troll.

Ann-Margret did a wonderful acting job in the 1983 TV movie "Who Will Love My Children?". She was nominated for an Emmy but lost out to Barbara Stanwyck for The Thorn Birds. Everyone assumed Ann would win even Barbara. Barbara even acknowledged Ann in her acceptance speech saying "Ann-Margret you were superb". Here's a clip of it at 1:54.

R248 ann might sizzles but you & your post also sizzles. Please write another sizzling sentance using sizzle.

Julia Roberts owns this thread

I think Nicholas Cage owns the thread.

Cher. Not the best singer. Not the best actress. Not the best anything in particular, but an undeniable star.

[quote]Ladies, I have the most horses in this race!

Speaking of nags . . .

[quote]Sonny Bono: bad singer, bad husband, bad politician.

And a very bad skier.

I beg to differ

R9 "One person who pops into my mind who she couldn’t stand was Jaclyn Smith. She always said she, “Had no face”. I still have no idea what that means."

I think I know what your mother meant to say: Jaclyn Smith had that kind of doll-like, flawless but bland beauty that appeals to the mainstream audience. Her facial expression varied only slightly if at all. Hence "Had no face".

^^^ Sorry, wrong thread.

[quote] sizzling sentance

Oh, DEAR

What about me?

I'm surprised at the resilience of Nicole Kidman's career. Not an awful actress -- though she has given some awful performances (The Hours, Bombshell, haven't seen her Lucy yet) -- but she's now been a leading lady for a solid three decades.

Julia Roberts and Jennifer Aniston too...

If you had asked me in 2002 if they'd still be (reasonably) relevant in 2022 I'd have said no.

Although a certainty it's been posted upthread, I'd have to say Madonna Louise Veronica Ciccone Penn Ritchie. A talent for PR, check. A talent for marketing, check. A talent for shocking, check. A talent for stealing the ideas of more artistic creators and distilling them to look like her own, check. A talent for humping the fuck out of a Jean-Paul Gaultier oversize red plush bed that would've sent any mortal to the ER for a fractured pelvis, check (that bed should've done a #metoo on her for the emotional pain and suffering she inflicted on it). Any more than that I'm not so sure.

[quote] Sonny Bono: bad singer, bad husband, bad politician.

Bad singer? Well, there have been numerous singers with not great voices. Cher wasn't that great a singer. His talent was in other areas. He was a brilliant business man. He invented Sonny and Cher, and reinvented them when their careers tanked. Cher would have never had a career in anything if it hadn't been for him.

Bad husband? Well, Cher dissed him but who cares what she said? After all, she's the one who fell head over heels in love with the druggie dimwit Gregg Allman and later had a hot affair with the slimebag to end all slimebags Gene Simmons. Cher is dumb.

Bad politician? Well, he was a Republican and for some that in itself makes one a bad politician. But in reality he was no better or no worse than a great many other politicians.

Madonna has written some great lyrics--Live to Tell, Like a Prayer, Express Yourself, Vogue, etc. Obviously, a lot of her songs have a LOT of cliches but at her very best, she has written some great lyrics.

Ryan Seacrest’s Legal Team is closing down this thread

Check out Cher live on Letterman singing 'Save Up All Your Tears'. Nothing more to say about her talent, I think.

Jessica Lange — one critically praised role and that’s it

Janet Jackson and Britney Spears.

Halle Berry

R273

Still some of the best examples

An Ann-Margret screen test was posted here last year and she was shockingly bad.

Petty LuPony, or whatever that ghastly, vulgar Sicilian fishwife is called.

Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts are not bad actresses. Neither are super but both were supremely likable in their time. Both are very good actresses despite the DL. Just because you may not like them does not put them in this category.

Patti has a great voice. You may not like her but you definitely see why she would be a star.

I noted that at R266, R278.

I’m curious at Roberts’ staying power more than thinking she’s awful.

All older woman parts go directly to Julia Roberts and Meryl Streep first. Whether she wants to play them is up to her but she is gonna get plenty of chances for that second Oscar you know she just has to have. Someone as narcissistic as Julia Roberts needs that second Oscar.

R50, Stanwyck's "praise" of Ann-Margaret was only because she was hoping since Richard Chamberlin turned her down she could get some finger-action with the no-talent firecracker.

Davis was just out of her mind by the time she mentioned her...

Whoever said J-Lo above WINS. No one has strung out a "career" longer than that phony and made so much money doing it.

Most actors don't get one Oscar, the absolute nerve to think you deserve two of them.

Jennifer Lawrence is in no way a bad actress. If you don't like her you don't like her. But she's a good actress

Well, she’s an okay actress.

Yes, there are plenty worse than her though.

Lana Turner

"Sonny Bono: bad singer, bad husband, bad politician."

Bad skier.

I love Cher and the movie Moonstruck. But Glenn Close and Holly Hunter in Broadcast News aren't even in the same acting universe with this. And I love love love Moonstruck.

[quote] Lana Turner

Probably not a good actress but there’s nobody better suited to a campy women’s picture. Which we DLers love.

Lupita stole Julia's second Oscar albeit for a lead performance. Fun fact, her pal Cate Blanchett won the lead Oscar for a role Julia turned down the same year. Woody went to her first for Blue Jasmine.

[quote] Sonny Bono: bad singer, bad husband, bad politician.

R228 but he was a good song writer, and a very good one!

I'm sorry I love that movie but that Oscar is bullshit.

The whole world expected Glenn Close to win.

Kelly Ripa and Mark Consuelos. 40 years of lousy acting between them and still ABC shells out million for this idiot blonde and her gay sidekick talk show..... Also Chasten...

Brad Pitt

Jennifer Aniston.

I’m glad Stanwyck won that surprise Emmy over Ann-Margret. That movie of hers was such manipulative baity bullshit I’m proud of them for not rising to it (for once).

Chrissy Metz is a pretty amateurish actor. She really isn’t a star despite her size, she’s a star because of it.

Chris Evert

SJP.

It does seem like a lot of the actresses we'd have considered A-List at the start of the millenium we still consider so now.

Everything consider Janet Jackson and Shitney spears remain the most persuasive answers.

Monica Lewinsky

Goop is a very good actress actually. Very skilled performances in Hard Eight, Sliding Doors, Sylvia.

Goop was amazing in Proof. Love her as an actress.

Yes, she’s perfectly adequate.

I just watched Infamous for the first time and I hated Paltrow's 3 minute role as a lounge singer. The way she kept smirking while she sang drove me insane. She was so amused with herself. Very adequate singing, worse than a real lounge singer.

The public hates her but she keeps working.

JLo.

I love Gwyneth as an actress and thinks she’s pretty damn good.

Disagree on JLo.

She's good looking, has a certain star quality, a great dancer, and can act.

She's can't sing at all. But way more appealing than Shitney or Janet.

Andie Macdowell and Ruby Keelet jointly own this thread.

[quote] Andie Macdowell

She's a good one. Surprised she hadn't been mentioned yet.

Vanna "I Press Big Letters On a Big Board" White...

For a few years all Ann-Margret had to do was breathe.

Esther Williams. "Wet she's a star!"

Fuck you all, I act, I sing, and I speak Spanish perfectly!

Paltrow is similar to Audrey Hepburn on screen but off screen she is her polar opposite.

Andie is outstanding in Maid. Really unexpected

My mom who was a dancer told me that Ruby Keeler was a good dancer, it was just the style of tap she used - that has now gone out of style - which was based on clog dancing. That's why it had that heavy-footed quality.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr

Liza

Jenny McCarthy

Francis Ford Coppola. In my opinion sort of a mediocrity. Less talented than (same age, same era ) Peter Bogdanovich. But because he made The Godfather and Godfather Part II - he was forgiven many a shitty film, while Bogdanovich was ruined by directing a couple of flops - even after he came back with good films like Mask and Saint Jack, he was never given much attention, unlike the winery owner.