Glam, Ma'am, Wham

On his last Olegs

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Oleg Casketini
Oleg Cassini, best remembered as the designer for first lady Jacqueline Kennedy, has died from a broken blood vessel in his brain at the age of 92. Other leading ladies to wear his designs while dodging Isaac Mizrahi and his ilk on the red carpet included Joan Fontaine, Joan Crawford and Grace Kelly, to whom he was briefly engaged. Hard to imagine from a male designer, but Cassini reputedly was as skilled at getting beautiful women out of their clothes as he was in getting them into his own designs. Other conquests included Betty Grable, Lana Turner, Ursula Andress and Gene Tierney, briefly his wife. Cassini’s designs were form-fitting and sexually charged, a contrast to sack dresses favored by many of the 1950s and ‘60s. He also claimed credit for bringing the Nehru jacket to America and designed a suit named for Johnny Carson.

Three of us were expecting Oleg’s next design to be a funeral shroud, and Jen takes over first place for the first time since April 23, 2004. Moving into a tie at 14th are Greg’s Team Matlock and Monty’s Italian Whine.

The Year of Dying Dangerously
(Props for Monty)

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Bye Bye, Birdie
(Additional honorifics to Monty)

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No Mo
(Monty, a little too into Maureen Stapleton)

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Dead Emma
(Kudos to Michelle)
Maureen Stapleton, feisty old broad in movies, on television and on Broadway for the last 40 years, has died at the age of 80. She won an Academy Award as anarchist Emma Goldman in "Reds,” after nominations for “Interiors,” “Airport,” and “Miss Lonelyhearts.” This on top of Tonys for 1951’s “The Rose Tattoo,” the role that made her a star and a drunk, and 1971’s “The Gingerbread Lady,” 6 Emmy nominations with a win for “Among the Paths to Eden,” and a 1975 Grammy nomination for spoken word for her recording of “To Kill a Mockingbird.” Other notable roles included an alien-loving retiree in Cocoon, a Barbra Streisand-neglecting mother in Nuts, Liberace’s mother in a TV-movie and Weird Al Yankovic’s Ma Kelly in a couple videos. Her acting career masked any number of psychoses – she routinely vomited before performances, was convinced that someday, someone in the audience was going to kill her and never traveled by air, rail or elevator, and spent time in a psychiatric facility.

No Whammies. No Whammies. No Whammies. Splash.

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That’s Going to Leave a Tomarken

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Luck Pressed
(From still-mourning game show fan Craig)

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Going up to the Big Board in the Sky
(More from Craig)

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No Whammies, No Whammies...Oh No, Whammy!
(Tom, and I detect a theme)

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Whammy
(Monty continuing the run)

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He Pressed His Luck
(A whiff of variety from Monty)

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Whammied
(Back to the trail from onlooker Jon)
Former game show host Peter Tomarken was killed when his small plane plummeted into Santa Monica Bay. He was 63. Best remembered as the host of the 1980s game show “Press Your Luck,” his toothy smile and fake sincerity also cheered winners and consoled losers on “Hit Man!,” an inexplicable mess of a show, “Price is Right” wannabe “Bargain Hunters,” “Wipe-Out” and “Paranoia.”