Even infamously - and hilariously - suing the Daily Mirror in the 50s for daring to suggest he was not as other men...
"He is the summit of sex - the pinnacle of masculine, feminine, and neuter. Everything that he, she and it can ever want.
"I spoke to sad but kindly men on this newspaper who have met every celebrity coming from America for the past 30 years. They say that this deadly, winking, sniggering, snuggling, chromium-plated, scent-impregnated, luminous, quivering, giggling, fruit-flavored, mincing, ice-covered heap of mother love has had the biggest reception and impact on London since Charlie Chaplin arrived at the same station, Waterloo, on September 12, 1921.
"This appalling man - and I use the word appalling in no other than its true sense of terrifying - has hit this country in a way that is as violent as Churchill receiving the cheers on V-E Day.
"He reeks with emetic language that can only make grown men long for a quiet corner, an aspidistra, a handkerchief, and the old heave-ho. Without doubt, he is the biggest sentimental vomit of all time. Slobbering over his mother, winking at his brother, and counting the cash at every second, this superb piece of calculating candy-floss has an answer for every situation.
"There must be something wrong with us that our teenagers longing for sex and our middle aged matrons fed up with sex alike should fall for such a sugary mountain of jingling claptrap wrapped up in such a preposterous clown".
Lee won, quipping "I cried all the way to the bank".
Expect a sluice of articles on Lee as the biopic Behind The Candelabra approaches.
That's fine by me - I think he's wonderful and find him endlessly fascinating.
Partly as he's the greatest example of how the door to the celebrity closet is rarely slammed shut, it's just open to different degrees.
Update: Behind The Candelabra is getting a cinema release in the UK from June 14th.
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It's called cognitive dissonance.
ReplyDeleteBy him or the audience?
ReplyDeleteBoth.
ReplyDelete