Lana Turner Online: 'MGM Presents Lana Turner- 1948'

Source:Lana Turner Online- Hollywood Babydoll Lana Turner. 

Source:The Daily Review

"MGM presents Lana Turner  - 1948." 

From Lana Turner Online 

When  think of Hollywood Babydoll Lana Turner, ( which is exactly what she was ) I think of the Queen of the Hollywood Soap Stars. Meaning, her only real experience in soap operas, was being on Falcon Crest in the 1980s, but she lived the life of a soap opera character and star.

What would be called today a reality star. She lived on the tabloids with all her different marriages and breakups, she dated an Italian gangster putting her personal as well as her daughter Cheryl Crane's safety always at risk every time she was seen with Johnny Stompanato.

Her daughter goes on trial for murdering Johnny Stompanato in the 1950s, even though it's pretty clear she shot him in self-defense at their home. Lana's whole life looked like one gigantic publicly stunt, except that it was real-life reality TV and not what's supposed to pass a reality TV today.

It's as if her life and career was written by the best team of Hollywood script writers in the history of the world. You would have had to live her life to ever even attempt to try to believe the real-life that Lana Turner actually lived. And that it wasn't just the best written movie, soap opera, or reality TV show that was ever written.

And then before she gets Falcon Crest in 1982, she had already done at least three soap opera movies in the 1950s and 60s. The Bad and The Beautiful, from 1952 with Kirk Douglas, that looks at the lives of three up in coming Hollywood workers. An actress, writer, and director where's there's constant backstabbing and screwing over in that movie, mostly by the Kirk Douglas character. That movie looked like one of the best episodes of Melrose Place that was ever written.

Peyton Place, that was both a TV soap opera and movie soap opera. Love Has Many Faces from 1964, where she plays a woman who falls in love with multiple gigolos in the movie, perhaps her best movie. Madame X from 1966, where the plays the wife of a diplomat where her mother in-law pays her to get out of town, because she doesn't want her around her son anymore.

Lana Turner, is very interesting for another reason: she's one of the most underrated, as well as overrated actresses ever. She's not the best actress who has ever worked, but not the worst either and when she hear people talk about her you get the idea that she could be the best or worst depending who who you're talking to.

I believe Lana is one of the best soap actresses who has ever lived and a great comedic actress as well. It's a damn shame that she never worked with Alfred Hitchcock or Neil Simon, because she was a great dramatic comedy actress with great sense of drama and comedic timing.

The great soap operas tend to be funny and the great soap actors and actresses, also tend to be very funny. Melrose Place, but General Hospital are great examples of that. I believe she was limited to do dramatic comedy and soaps, but is one of the actresses to ever work in those genres and should get the respect more respect for that.

AEI: What is Pluralism?

Source:AEI- From The American Enterprise Institute 

Source:The New Democrat

From Merriam Webster:

"4a : a state of society in which members of diverse ethnic, racial, religious, or social groups maintain and develop their traditional culture or special interest within the confines of a common civilization. b : a concept, doctrine, or policy advocating this state."

The question has been asked over and over and has been debated over and over what kind of country is America and what type of government that we have. Are we a republic, are we a democracy, are we a liberal democracy, are we a pluralist society, etc when the fact is there's no wrong answer here.

Source:Slide Share- A pluralist society 

America, is a republic, but we're a certain type of republic. Egypt and China are republics, but we're certainly not Egypt or China. They have authoritarian societies and government's, we obviously don't.  Republic by itself doesn't equal democracy or freedom, it just means that the country is governed by civilians and not the military or a monarchy or some theocracy. America, is a democracy at least in the sense that we elect our political leaders and our political leaders are held accountable by the voters in free and fair elections.

The fact is America is a pluralist society and federal republic in the form of a liberal democracy. The largest most diverse melting pot in the world, the largest and oldest liberal democracy in the world where power is very decentralized unlike Egypt, China or Russia. Governmental power is decentralized through three levels of government. Federal, state, and local, but also with the people because we live in a  free society where the people have the freedom to manage their own personal affairs without having government trying to monitor their activities simply because they see them as enemies of the government or disapprove of their personal activities.

In a pluralist society like America, you don't have one dominant ethnic group. Roughly 7-10 Americans today are still of European background, but we don't have one dominant ethnic group in America unlike Britain, where roughly 8-10 Brits are ethnic English or Germany where roughly 9-10 Germans are ethnic German or go to Asia where most of Japan is ethnic Japanese. But 3-10 Americans aren't of European background. We have large African-American population, a major Asian-American population, a significant Middle Eastern population and I could go on. America is both multi-racial and multi-ethnic which is still one of the great and exceptional things about America.

My personal politics here: I'm not colorblind, anyone who actually says that they're  colorblind and can't even tell what the color of their clothes are, or is simply just blind. I'm not race or ethnic blind, back to my point about color, because anyone who has even decent vision or can see with glasses can see someone's race or ethnicity. What I am is what I could call at least pluralist and individualist. I look at and judge people as individuals, not as members of a particular racial or ethnic group. That old but still great Dr. Martin King quote, where he has a dream that one day his children would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin, I actually believe that and just wished more Americans both on the Right and Left believed that as well. Instead of looking at people as members of groups who should be judged that way.
Source:AEI

Shannen Doherty: Beverly Hills 90210

Source:Ashley Rayshon Scott - Shannen Doherty, in 1992 

Source:The Action Blog 

"This is just a little something i made for Christmas Beverly Hills 90210 style! Its nothing special, but i hope you guys enjoy and have a great holiday season! Song: all I want for Christmas is you."

From FOX Network

Source:Image Ozone - Shannen Doherty, in 1992 

There were only a handful of shows I that watched religiously ( not including sports ) growing up especially once I started high school in the 1990s. Dukes of Hazzard, in the 1980s, The Fall Guy in the 1980s, Knight Rider, A-Team, Married With Children, and then when I was in high school in the early and mid 1990s shows like the original Law & Order. And when I mean religiously, I'm talking about every week including the reruns in the summer.

There was really only one show that I watched that much during the summer when I was in high school and that the original Beverly Hills 90210 from Fox. Because it was about Generation X and what life was like growing up for a lot of us, it was a funny show like great soap operas are and all the beautiful, sexy women on it including one and particular.

I loved the Brenda Walsh character ( played by Shannen Doherty ) for multiple reasons. She was so real for both good and bad and seemed to always know what she want, except when it came to guys, she just didn't always know how to get there and how to get what she wanted. Which is typical for teenagers of any generation and perhaps Generation X in particular.

When we're growing up we think we know what we want, but a lot of times don't know how to get it and most teenagers have short attention spans and something else comes along and we're impressed by that.

I wanted to be a sportscaster when I was in high school up until my early 20s or so and realized that perhaps was no longer that important to me and didn't want to get a degree in broadcasting in order to become a sportscaster. Brenda Walsh was similar, but I think she knew what she wanted, but didn't know how to get it.

The Walsh Family, moves from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Beverly Hills, California ( just outside of Los Angeles ) and get a cultural shock right away because they comes from a mid-size community in Minneapolis to not just the second largest city and metro area in the country in Los Angeles, but to the heart of Hollywood and the entertainment industry in this country at least if not the world. Brenda, ( played by Shannen Doherty ) quickly adjusts to that new lifestyle and meets people and friends who are just as real as she is and don't fit the stereotypes that a lot of Hollywood teenagers have and they discover that they have a lot in common.

This show worked real well, because you had real people living in a fictional community ( known as Hollywood ) where most of the people there are always trying to be someone else and put on a facade. A lot of the characters on that show could've easily been from St. Louis, Milwaukee, Cleveland, or Minneapolis as far as who they were and they went through as teenagers growing up.

And that is why the Brenda character was so great because she was a real person growing up in a Hollywood community where realness can be looked down upon by people who want to always be fabulous, perfect, and be popular. People who want to be better than real people and never seem vulnerable to anyone or anything.

The other reason why I loved this show was because of Shannen Doherty. I had a crush on her, I don't think she was the prettiest girl from the entire series. Jennie Garth was more beautiful during the high school years and I believe Tiffany Thiessen was the best looking woman on the show for the entire series.

But Shannen, was the cutest girl on the show and sexiest girl as well at least during the high school years. She wasn't just a denim diva on that show, ( before that term was even invented ) but she was a Levi's denim diva who was a Goddess in those skin-tight Levi's jeans and always wore beautiful western boots with them with tight tops or blouses.

I couldn't wait to watch the show especially just to check her out especially during the first 3 seasons. This show and Shannen Doherty, certainly made high school more interesting for me and I have her to thank for that.