You can only have lunch with ONE

All of them

Emma.

Emma doesn’t hold back, would be fun. Julie Andrews gets loose I bet though.

Julie for sure—I’ve always loved her & we have the same birthday, different years though.

[quote] Julie Andrews gets loose I bet though.

At her age, that could be a problem.

No love for Helen Mirren? I'll bet she's got some great stories.

I used to really like Emma Thompson, but she seems like a humorless scold these days, lecturing everyone from one of her many homes in the UK. She seems to take herself too seriously.

I'd add to that list Helena Bonham Carter; she seems like a complete nutter in the best way

I don't know who half these women are. Can I eat alone or bring a fried instead?

[quote]R6 No love for Helen Mirren? I'll bet she's got some great stories.

My first choice would be Vanessa Redgrave, simply because she has a scope of talent we’re unlikely to see again. But then, she might want to talk about world politics and I’d just stare at her in an uninformed way.

Mirren would be my second choice.

^^ also, the lunch with Redgrave would be expensive cuz she’d probably bully me into donating to something.

Where is the love for dear Dame Joan? I suspect she would be a great luncheon companion. Just her Dynasty stories alone must be fascinating.

Kristin Scott Thomas. She's always struck me as being glamorous yet grounded. She has a quote that has stuck with me since I read it a decade ago: her father, an Royal Navy pilot, died in a airplane crash when Kristin was 5; her mother remarried another Royal Navy pilot, who died in an airplane crash when Kristin was 11; when asked about how she processed this by an interviewer, she gave a devastatingly succinct response: "The worst that could happen happens, and then it happens again."

R10 Dame Joan Plowright is no slouch either

Vivian Vance

I picked Emma because of her atheism that I'd love to discuss with her (living as one in the Bible Belt). She said:

"I'm an atheist; I suppose you can call me a sort of libertarian anarchist. I regard religion with fear and suspicion. It's not enough to say that I don't believe in God. I actually regard the system as distressing: I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Qu'ran, and I refute them."

Mirren is capable of slumming it.

so, final answer.

Interestingly little love for Dame Dench so far.

It was a tough choice, OP, but after careful deliberation I voted for…

MAGGIE SMITH

Funny, classy but yet boisterous, and of course at her age a walking encyclopaedia on theatre and movie history.

Lead board:

Emma followed by Maggie. Julie Andrews and Angela Lansbury are tied.

Judi Dench and Joan Plowright are tied for last.

Kristin. She's gorgeous and I like the way she carries herself. Plus she looks like she could give some withering comments, it should be fun if not, interesting.

OP did a great job with the poll. There wasn't a single wasted choice, and despite all being Dames of a certain age, there's a surprisingly broad range in terms of experience and personality.

I chose Thompson because she seems the sharpest and most clever of the ten. Every one of them probably has numerous great stories to tell, but I suspect Thompson could be interesting, insightful and very funny even when not recounting her decades as an actress.

I'm going with Dame Maggie Smith. She has a sharp wit which I appreciate. I learned all that and less when I grew drowsy watching "Tea with the Dames."

Dame Helen's figure would distract me like no tomorrow. No dice! I freely admit it would be difficult to respectfully look her in the eye and not her bosoms.

My runner up would be Emma Thompson. She has as sharp a wit as Maggie but seems more fun somehow if that makes any sense.

I wouldn't want to have lunch with any of these egotistical, self-absorbed bitches. Have you ever spent any time with a star? You don't exist. Only they exist.

Thanks, but I'd rather have lunch with a Sir, though.

That should be the next poll, R22. However, I suspect Ian McKellen would be the runaway winner of that contest, while this one doesn't have such an obvious choice.

Made a "Sir" thread

Yes, but who look after their medication and colostomy bags?

Geriatrics prefer to stay at home with their nurses.

NOT Julie Andrews, I hear she can be a terror.

I like Angela Lansbury, but she's so Americanized that she doesn't really belong with the other Dames.

Dame Angela is tempting, but it's a jolly 'oliday with Mary.

Kristen Scott Thomas so I can ask her about Prince

R12 NO ONE should have lunch with that little hussy...

[quote]R26 NOT Julie Andrews, I hear she can be a terror.

You’d also have to watch her munch Carol Burnett’s pussy.

It’s a daily thing.

Helen Mirren seems like she'd be fun.

[quote] Dame Joan Plowright is no slouch either

That woman is blind. You would be useful in this apocryphal lunch by you feeding her with a spoon.

[quote] I picked Emma because of her atheism that I'd love to discuss with her (living as one in the Bible Belt).

But do you have to live there? Do you have agéd parents? Do you own a farm?

[quote] NO ONE should have lunch with that little hussy

They never spoke to each other, R30. There was an impenetrable class divide between the two wives.

The second woman this list is also going blind and succumbing to dementia.

R35 They still didn't. Vivien's spirit came to DL to bitch about her, instead of sending Joan a phantom text.

Scott Thomas was perfectly cast in this perfect small movie.

She plays the brittle adulteress.

May I eat alone?

I like Helen Mirren. She seems fun.

[quote]But do you have to live there? Do you have agéd parents? Do you own a farm?

Mother is 93. I own a home and take care of a close disabled relative who's going blind. Right now, it would be basically impossible to move.

Plus I do have maybe a dozen like-minded friends/family in the area who are staying, so I'll try to hang in there with them because I love them - might would stay even without the family constraints because of them. It's my home, born and grew up here. Who knows how I (and my handful of friends) ended up lefties because I have gay friends who are fucking Republicans -- well, I'm not sure they qualify as friends any more. (both genders - I guess for many, early brainwashing just does you in - but there's a few of us who escape the cult, both religious and political)

Oh - mother and disabled relative are two different people. Got my narcissistic mother in an assisted living or otherwise I'd be dead.

I'm in Mississippi and just looked it up - it's the most religious state:Fifty-nine percent of Mississippians are very religious and 11% nonreligious.

So hey, 11% -- at least there's a few.

BTW, least religious state: Vermont, the religiously unaffiliated are the largest group, with a whopping 37 percent unaffiliated (7 percent each for agnostic and atheist, 22 percent nothing in particular and 2 percent don't know).

Now I'll stop kvetching and get back to recluse-ing.

Emma seems like such a self-important old luvvie. Flying from the US to lecture at a climate change protest then flying back again.

Plus she's totally put-on as an eccentric.

You better hurry to dine with Vanessa and/or Maggie.

They are both very close to the brink.

I think Joan Collins would be the only one with whom anyone would actually have a good time over lunch.

The others might be great actresses, but may or may not be good for a few laughs over lunch and cocktails.

Frankly, I think lunch with most of the others would be a chore which required you to suffer through various degrees of disdain and apathy while they watched the clock to see when lunch was over.

[quote]. The others might be great actresses

They are actresses on stage. You can't expect them to perform when they're off stage.

I need to cross-examine Maggie Smith.

I need to find out about this *thing*.

Rod Taylor, half a century ago, R22.