Originally posted by Loomis
You've met Talisa Soto? *Explodes with envy* Yep, I'm a hypocrite, especially when it comes to beautiful women.
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I think we can all relate to that in our own way (oh the things I've sat thru just to watch Dalton!). She's probably the WORST "actress" to appear in any Bond film ever but even this straight female is struck by how unbelievably stunning the woman was. On the LTK dvd, Robert Davi says that when he first saw her he thought "I'd kill for this girl."
I've been reading this thread all day and wondered if I should offer a little personal input about the OBE. My ex-husband (who's still a very good friend) is a Scottish journalist who went to Cambridge. His grandfather was awarded the OBE for special services in WWI. He was a doctor who nearly died of exhaustion taking care of soldiers returned from the war. WWI was when the OBE was created by King George V. To quote the website royal.gov.uk.
"The King recognised the necessity for a new award of honour which could be more widely awarded, in recognition of the large numbers of people in the British Isles and other parts of the Empire who were helping the war effort both as combatants and as civilians on the home front. For the first time, women were included in an order of chivalry, and it was decided that the Order should also include foreigners who had helped the British war effort.
"From 1918 onwards there were Military and Civil Divisions, as George V also intended that after the war the Order should be used to reward services to the State, defined in a much wider sense to acknowledge distinguished service to the arts and sciences, public services outside the Civil Service and work with charitable and welfare organisations of all kinds. The Order of the British Empire is the order of chivalry of the British democracy. Valuable service is the only criterion for the award, and the Order is now used to reward service in a wide range of useful activities. Citizens from other countries may also receive an honorary award, for services rendered to the United Kingdom and its people. There are more than 100,000 living members of the Order throughout the world."
Steven (my ex-) and his friends often joke about how the OBE and the knighthood have deteriorated into an award for anyone "who looks great in the tabloids." It's not quite that bad but they once had me in stitches with this entire riff they'd written about future OBE winners and future knights which they acted out. Madonna, Schwarzenegger, Bugs Bunny, Anne Robinson...
I find that these sorts of awards impress Americans far more than the British, who (in my experience) are not a people who are easily impressed by very much (bless them). As someone said, Idi Amin and Nicolai Ceaucescu got an OBE. There are a lot of other pretty dubious names on the list. I admit, I was surprised to hear that Pierce got one. I mean, Michael Caine I can understand. Peter O'Toole, of course. Albert Finney, maybe Judi Dench, Helen Mirren, Derek Jacobi, Vanessa Redgrave (tho she's got political baggage). But Pierce? I'm a fan of Pierce's but I'm sure Steve will have some great jokes for me tomorrow on the phone when I talk to him and tell him about this latest OBE. The charity stuff is fine but there are plenty of British actors who do just as much if not more.
Regarding Jim's posts re Pierce's behavior toward him.... I don't know much about Pierce as a person (just the general stuff about his first wife's bout with cancer and his many children). But the only time I was turned off by something he did or said was during that documentary "The James Bond Story" in which he laughs with obvious disdain toward the possibility that Dalton and Lazenby have fans. I was surprised by that attitude---I'd always seen him behave with such graciousness in his interviews. I've never seen Dalton or Moore speak that way about their Bond predecessors or successors. Regardless, I've never taken awards like this, or knighthood or the Nobel too seriously. Not when they go around handing them out so capriciously and inconsistently. They once meant something but that was a long time ago.
