I was doing some shopping at the local Ollie's, a discount chain where you can find some interesting and unusual stuff. I decided to pick up a copy of The Contender, a biography of the late Marlon Brando. Brando certainly led an interesting life and crossed paths with many actors. He made two films with Jean Simmons.
The story about his declining the Academy Award has been told numerous times but the book has some interesting information from her perspective. He sent her to the ceremony with a long speech that went on for several pages. Once she got on stage, she knew that she would never be able to read Brando's speech as written and basically had to ad lib. The audience was dumbstruck initially. Unsurprisingly, John Wayne was furious and he had to physically "restrained by six security guards" from confronting her.
The book also provides some new information on her status as the winner of The Miss American Vampire contest. She had entered the contest to bring attention to the situation at Alcatraz. What being selected Miss American Vampire would have done to aid the situation is unclear. But she did win. Littlefeather declined the prize of a guest appearance on DS. Brando survived the situation. Littlefeather returned to obscurity.
There's another DS connection as well. The author, William J. Mann, has written quite a few other books, including an excellent biography of Katharine Hepburn. But he is also one of us! He wrote a pretty good DS serial, an 1872 flashback, that appeared in the fanzine Inside The Old House.

Adrian Paul is now on Cameo. If you wish to have him record a video, the cost is $120.00. If you want  him to record a business video, it's $170.00

I just saw the latest installment of Scream. It will be of interest to fans of the 2004 pilot as Marley Shelton reprises her role as Judy Hicks from the last movie. Judy is now a sheriff, a single mom with a young son. The boy is named Wes, no doubt in homage to Scream's creator, the late Wes Craven.
No spoilers on the story but it's a pretty decent slasher with a few interesting twists.
But it does address the toxicity of extreme fandom. Specifically how bent out of space hard-core fans can get when someone  does something to their fandom that they don't like. Scream singles out the "Knives Out Guy" for whatever he did to the last Star Wars movie. It could also apply to those screaming Release The Snyder Cut and the drama that followed the Justice League movie. Or, closer to home, the Tim Burton DS movie.

TLATKLS has announced her latest Christmas bundle packages of assorted Pomegranate Press releases, with a signed holiday card included with each order. She reiterates that she no longer has the rights to publish the DS music book. She adds that her inventory of DS books is "dwindling" and that she has no plans to reprint any of them.

Lara Parker's interview in Retrofan #17 is currently on sale at Barnes and Noble and other outlets.

It's a fairly long interview, conducted by Rod Labbe, who used to post here back in the day. Her time on the series is glossed over for the most part. While the story of how Lara got on the show, her characterization of Angelique is certainly well known to most, if not all, hard-core DS fans, I don't know how interested new or casual readers are going to be that interested in her writing career but that's what a lot of the interview is about. She states that she intentionally chose to downplay the horror aspect of DS in her books because she regarded it as "a mysterious, supernatural romance." As long as she doesn't go too far from the established canon, the arrangement with the Dan Curtis estate allows her to create new characters and new locations. But she would "never" do anything to damage the show's reputation.
She said that Angelique's Descent was the most successful of her books in terms of sales. But The Salem Branch, which she feels is her best work, sold the least.
The topic of the Burton movie is addressed. She and the others were eager to do the film but ultimately disappointed that they weren't used more. This may well have something to do with Jonathan's health at the time. She says that he was having difficulty standing and there's probably some truth to that. KLS seems to be holding him up at the door. Still, it would have been nice if they had a little more to do. Maybe even some dialog.
She's less than complimentary about the movie itself. Lara felt that the film spent too much time on Barnabas being a fish out of water and not enough time on other things. She cites the lack of a connecting story, instead of a "series of elaborate set pieces."
She seems to have mellowed considerably on Darren McGavin. While she does state that he was less than amiable, she seems more understanding about the pressure of being the lead actor on a show that was not doing well.
To summarize, it's a decent interview. There are some excellent articles in the issue on Mad Monster Party, The Haunting and George of the Jungle. Retrofan costs $9.95, which I guess is the norm for genre magazines these days.

Donna McKechnie has joined Cameo, following the lead of KLS. If you wish to have Donna record a personalized video for you, it will cost $50.00. A video for a business related purpose will cost $1,000.00

Any guesses as to who the next DS person on Cameo might be?

I just watched a very interesting interview with Matthew Hall, who is, of course, the son of Grayson and Sam Hall. The interview was conducted Melody Clark, who ran Grayson's fan club for many years and knew Grayson quite well. Matt is a very interesting guy who has some great stories to tell. For example, at one point, Sam, Grayson and Matt were all seeing the same therapist, Dr. Harold Kaplan. Kaplan was Nancy Barrett's husband. He also treated Phil Spector. I guess you can't win them all!
Matt also said that he has several file cabinets full of stuff about both his parents which he is in the process of digitalizing to eventually post of the internet. So there will some day be a mountain of Hall memorabilia that will seem brand new. He also mentioned that he still has Grayson's Magda wig.
The interview is posted on Melody's fan flak channel on YouTube. Probably other places as well.
Matt seemed to enjoy himself and agreed to come back for another interview at some point.