Mark Wahlberg’s The Fighter, Frank Sinatra Bio and More Culture Picks
Each week, The Daily Beast sifts through the cultural landscape to choose three top picks. This week, the best moments of celebrity lesbians, Mark Wahlberg makes a convincing Fighter, and a new biography of Frank Sinatra.
The Year in Celesbians
It was a big year for famous gay women and the actresses who played them onscreen. Julianne Moore and Annette Bening made same-sex parenting mainstream—and even awards season friendly. Jane Lynch went from being a background character in Christopher Guest’s small mockumentaries to a breakout role on Glee, and also married her longtime partner. In other news, country music got its first lesbian star, Top Gun’s Kelly McGillis found love, and even Oprah addressed rumors about her and Gayle. The Daily Beast’s Jaimie Etkin recaps the best moments.
Mark Wahlberg’s Oscar Pitch
The Fighter, the new film starring the combustible Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg, is generating buzz in the Academy for its rough-and-tumble boxing scenes, and for Wahlberg’s portrayal of “Irish” Micky Ward, a Massachusetts boxer from inner city Boston. He talks to Marlow Stern about his performance and whether, as Marky Mark, he was the original “Siuation.”
Frank Sinatra’s Unstoppable Voice
James Kaplan’s new biography of the silky-voiced crooner is yet another heralding of the singer and actor to add to a diehard fan’s bookshelf. Allen Barra says The Voice has some great details about Sinatra’s relationship with Montgomery Clift and how Clift helped him prepare for From Here to Eternity. Kaplan is a thorough biographer—it takes 750 pages just to get to 1954, when winning the Best Supporting Oscar for From Here to Eternity saved Sinatra’s career. The biography is a satisfying compendium of scandals and affairs of our most famous entertainer—and the world’s most famous voice.