What's In, What's Hot, What's Ready To Blow Up, blah blah blah

Well, after Friday's night of partying resulting in a fishnet stocking-related incident (note: be careful about fishnets and shoe buckles when stumbling drunkenly down staircases), I spent the rest of the weekend in relative squalor and seclusion, awaiting a new roommate and an explosion of work this week. A torn ligament in 1994 has made my left ankle permenantly weak, so it balloons like a cantaloupe when I stumble (often) or wear stilletos (rarely). This provided an opportunity for me to get better acquainted with my DVR and the internet. As a result, here are my picks and predictions for what for What's In, What's Hot, What's Ready To Blow Up, blah blah blah.

1. Idlewild: Do not miss this movie. Not only is Andre Benjamin (Andre 3000) smokingly fine and the slickest fashion icon since David Beckham, he's mad talented. Idlewild is set in a speakeasy in the 1920's South with all the jazzy, sassy glam that you'd expect. Part performance piece, part melodrama, it's more Moulin Rouge than Chicago, a hip, modern spin on a retro-musical that I think will put them both to shame. I have no doubts about Andre's acting ability--he has enough charm to compensate if he can't--but let's see if Big Boi can pull off the lead role as the club's owner. Look out for Macy Gray, Terrence Howard, Ving Rhames, and Patti Labelle in supporting roles, and some blazing musical numbers that are as much heart as beat.

2. Pet Love. My dog-loving neighbor now designs leashes on the side; my bohemian friend just published a very popular ode to her ferret. The world is filled with labradoodles--half labrador, half poodle, all affection. Pet love is in, and I don't trust anyone who turns his/her nose up our furry creatures. I've started walking my dogs around the busy hospital streets around the corner, and when the dogs meet the patients, it's amazing to see how happy one creature is to meet another with the time and inclination to play a little.

3. Gale Harold. Known for his role as libertine and gay icon Brian Kinney in Queer As Folk, this divine actor is finally playing it straight in Fox's new TV Series Vanished. Do I have high hopes? Well, from the commercials, Vanished is about some disappearing senator's wife and a secret card-playing, cloak-wearing cult, but one look from Mr. Harold reduces the plot to rubble. Unfortunately, it seems that whoever's directing has decided that Gale is going to play it straight indeed--straight and square. Mainstream TV should let loose a little and allow him to show some of that rebellious sexuality that caused Camille Paglia to call him Donatello's David, all grown up. Straight or queer? I don't think it matters. (Note: is anyone casting for The Portrait of Dorian Gray? Lord Henry awaits...)

4. Kiki de Montparnasse, the store. Professional Mistresses everywhere celebrated everywhere when this Soho shop, named after Man Ray's most infamous and decadent muse, brought elegance to the dirty Valentine's Day present. I give it two months before Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan starts bragging about her addiction to KikiDM ("how could I have ever lived without one? now I'm done with men forever"), but that's beside the point. No one needs a Titanium Vibrator, but in terms receiving one as a discreetly extravagant romantic gift, you can't beat KikiDM's collection. It's for the grand gesture (or the abject apology) and there's lot's of raciness to go around. I knew I picked the right agent when she suggested we hold our book party at the elegantly racy Soho store .

5. Magicians. God no, not David Blaine, or the aptly title mindFreak Criss Angel. I'm talking old school magic once again on the silver screen, the dazzling magicians of the Victorian/Edwardian era like Harry Houdini or Henry Blackstone. Antiquated? Hollwood disagrees with you, as not one but two magician-themed movies are being released in the next few months. The Illusionist features the dueling intensities of Edward Norton (as a romantic magician) and Paul Giamatti (as a romantic policeman) and the glassy perfection of Jessica Biel. The Prestige which will be released in the fall, will be far superior, as both leads (Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale) are rival magicians, and the lady in question is Scarlett Johanssen. I base my ranking not only on the hotness of the stars, but also on the fact that The Prestige is based on a superb novel by Christopher Priest that I read a few years ago. Either way, I will be in the audience, soaking up all the vintage carnival-like magic acts, fully suspending disbelief.

6. Wolfmother: Back in my high school daze, there were always a bunch of kids hanging around in their old Chevys near the tennis courts and swimming pool, music blasting. They were long-haired shaggy skateboarders with rocker-t's and torn jeans, their girlfriends always wearing denims skirts with long leggings (something that's coming back, interestingly). A cloud of smoke enveloped their portion of the parking lot, and as I walked home from school I tried to place the scent. Tobacco? Yes, mostly, but also something else--kind of like the incense my dad used. They were the laconic rebels of the school, befuddled as I was by all the social climbing and unspoken rules, falling together in this pocket of smoke like pieces of lint in a coat pocket. Their knowing outsiderness and endless philosophizing made them superior, but they still sparked with life, and always managed lazy smiles as I walked by, head down shyly.

They would have listened to Wolfmother.

7. Dark Age of Glam: With not one but two true-life Hollywood murder movies (the quirky underground The Black Dahlia and the star-powered Hollywoodland) coming out in the next month, the new way of fashion is clearly going to be old Hollywood glam a la Ava Gardner, Gina Lollabridgida, Jean Harlow. Marilyn Monroe? Too accessible. It's scarlet (Johanssen) lips, plucked brows and peekaboo hair hair--the femme fatale of the 1950's pulp novel, or B-movie, or film noir. Witness Christina Aguilera's transformation from "dirty" (mud wrestling) to "clean" ('50's pinup) sex object for an example. From Diane Lane in Hollywoodland (a manipulative older vixen) to Hilary Swank, Scarlett Johansson and Mia Kirschner in The Black Dahlia, there's a lot to love about this revival in the classic era of Hollywood--it's sexy, curvaceous, glamorous--unapologetically bombshell. And the movies are especially enticing since they go into the underbelly of classic Hollywood, giving you that true-crime shivers as you drool over the fabulous dresses. Or vice versa.

I will probably add to this post. Maybe. Maybe not.