Saran Wrap
Susan Sarandon participated in this exhibition so as to protest against plastic suffocating sea creatures. The message was literally veiled thin. Some of the participants were people who either worked with or simply met Susan Sarandon i.e. Sting, Willem Dafoe, Julianne Moore, Naomi Watts, Isabella Rossellini and Bridget Moynahan. With Sting being an actor, it would have been fascinating to see him play David Bowie’s role in The Hunger (1983). The closest thing to a horror movie that he had been in was The Bride (1985). In the below photos, Susan Sarandon can be seen with Bridget Moynahan and Padma Lakshmi in NYC for the same annual event: The Endometriosis Foundation of America’s Blossom Ball.
In 2004, Susan Sarandon partnered with GLAAD to star in a public service announcement titled “Flower” as part of their “Love is love is love” campaign promoting equality and same-sex marriage. It capitalized on that cliche in old cartoons i.e. “loves me, loves me not” as each petal is pulled out. In November 2010, The Advocate (a gay publication) reported that Susan didn’t understand why GLAAD took issue with the utterance of the word tranny in an episode of Glee that paid tribute to The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975). Apparently, she had plenty of friends who call themselves trannies. In spite of this (or maybe because of it), GLAAD publicly opposed the MPAA having 3 Generations rated R in 2017. With Susan’s help, the rating was changed to PG-13.
The above cast were promoting a film by Yassir Lester. Titled The Gutter (2024), it is a bowling-themed film that could be seen as a companion piece to Susan’s other such film: The Jesus Rolls (2019). The above photo was taken in Austin, Texas. More specifically, the Deadline Studio in the Thompson Austin. This was during the SXSW Film & Television Festival. It’s amusing to see Susan as the life of the party since Paul should be the one having a ball due to his experience as a stand-up comedian and sitcom actor. With Susan being known for having a passing resemblance to Sigourney Weaver, the casting of Mr. Reiser could be seen as a reference to Aliens (1986).
About the photo on the right, I got that from a site called Imago Images. The event was a screening of The Gutter at Alamo Drafthouse. Instead of being based in San Antonio, Texas as you would expect, this cinema was an extension that was situated in New York City. I cropped the photo to leave out Isaiah Lester, D’Arcy Carden and Yassir Lester. The latter wrote The Gutter but co-directed and co-produced it. He is not Jewish, but that’s not what makes him stand out as someone who’s half-Palestinian; he stands out for being half-black.
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“69” is the giveaway to the true intention of interviewing Susan at that specific point in time. However, Susan was more likely to have a ménage à trois than a soixante-neuf. More specifically, a triad-tryst with David Bowie and Philip Sayer. Susan claimed to have participated in relationships with Bowie and Sayer. Besides the fact that both men were in The Hunger, they were both sexually attracted to men (albeit Philip later proclaimed himself to be gay). “88” would be the perfect way to describe lesbianism, and the latest reunion between the two female stars in The Hunger will transpire at the 71st Seminci Film Festival where Susan’s The Echo Chamber will share screening space with Catherine Deneuve’s Gentle Monster.
Larry and John were basketballers for the New York Knicks. We will never know if Susan Sarandon played piggy-in-the-middle with these two guys, but she did have a threeway scene in The Jesus Rolls. It wasn’t with two black guys, but two Italians: John Turturro and Bobby Cannavale. With John’s cornrows and their collective tan, you would be forgiven for thinking that Susan formed an Oreo with two black guys. There is something to be said about the male gaze when you film a sex scene with a man who is both the writer and director.
The above photo was taken many Octobers ago. In 2012, Susan attended the grand opening of Simon Hammerstein’s The Act at The Palazzo on October 27 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Act was an interactive theater experience, but with erotica going hand in hand with the macabre. As much as it would have been fascinating to see her make a cameo in Purple Rain (1984), she had another part to play in Prince’s life. He had challenged Jimmy Fallon to a game of ping-pong at her club, Spin. Supposedly, Prince had only met David Bowie once…but it would have been in Susan’s best interest to have them come together (if not for a bedtime romp).
The Evita reference would have been fitting had Susan been in the running to play Eva. Before Madonna, two of the other actresses considered were Cher and Michelle Pfeiffer - the significance being that these two along with Susan were in The Witches of Eastwick (1987). When Evita was going to be directed by Ken Russell in the `70s, Liza Minnelli had underwent an extensive screentest for the role. Liza was a friend of Susan, and it just so happens that Ken Russell’s Tommy was released in the same year as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. One of the singing actresses in Tommy, Tina Turner, was another friend of Susan.
As they say in film-making: “That’s a wrap!”
