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Last week's Movie Quiz winners

Lots of unkind comments about Kathy Bates in last week's picture clue for About Schmidt (2002): "That scene will be burned into my memory for an eternity-- whew!" "The horror! The horror!!" "I admire Kathy Bates's freespiritedness, but that scene left scars." "One of the few times in my life when I didn't want a movie to have a nude scene!" "Yuck!"

There were a few kinder-hearted, or at least pragmatic commenters, too: "I thought it was refreshing to see someone naked on film who actually looked like what my wife and I are starting to see in the mirror." "For ages we've seen less than perfect bodies shown in all their glory in classic foreign films, but for all our talk of freedom, Americans are still very hungup when it comes to seeing normal folks nude on screen." "I loved the scene, whatever that says about me."

(Something I didn't know-- according to quiz winner Isaac Kaufman, "For those who just can't get enough of Kathy Bates in the nude, she originated the role of Frankie in Terrence McNally's Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune. Frankie is stark naked for the first ten minutes or so of the play.")

Of course, there was plenty of discussion of the film, too, as well as Jack Nicholson's performance (both he and Bates were nominated for Oscars). Is it a hard-edged but still warm-hearted look at age and conformity, or was it a cold, razor-sharp satire? Is the ending (which I won't reveal, even at this late date) a cathartic one for the character, or is it mocking him? Or is he mocking it? I know from experience when the film was new that these questions can inspire all kinds of enjoyable debates about not just the movie, but life in general. I don't remember any of that kind of discussion caused by Something's Gotta Give or Anger Management.

But mostly people wanted to talk about naked Kathy Bates. There's one guy, however, who has nothing to say about it (besides yours truly): her costar, who recently made the news by celebrating his 70th birthday-- looking like this:

Maybe it's time for About Schmidt 2-- rated XXX!

Another new record for quiz responses, so congratulations and a wedding toast from Schmidt himself to the following winners: Vince Tuss, Wayne Palmer, Joe Rosenberg, Peter Schilling, Sam Bauman, Robert Redwing, Song-Un Lee, Mike Ross, Isaac Kaufman, Shannon Luckert, Mark Gisleson, Maureen Dunaway, Maggie Ripsin, Sean Lynch, Michael Mattson, Dean Carlson, E. Yarber, Kevin Thomas, Rachel Johnson, Kevin Musolino, Crisy Balgard, Jack Sparks (whose #1 fave movie is The Spy Who Came in from the Cold), Nancy Louise Rutherford, Jim Moomey, Stacy Sarette, Joe Dawkins, Mike Kelly, Michael Swanlund, Donald Greene, Eric Castro, Bill Hearne, Steve Johnson, Jeanette Nolan, mick, Sarah Bergstrom, Thomas Miller, and Corey Anderson. And special kudos to Mary Mezzenga, who wins this week's Grand Prize, "In My Songs," the last recording by Gerald LaVert.

Posted by Steve Monaco at July 22, 2007 9:03 PM

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