…that for the first time in my life, I’m older than the president.

Terrific.

I remember having a crush on Timothy Hutton (pictured here being directed by Robert Redford) back in 1980 when I bawled through the movie Ordinary People. It’s a goody, you should rent it.

He was married to Debra Winger (of Urban Cowboy fame — I think I’m the only person on the planet who hated that movie) for awhile, too. He’s also a spitting image of his daddy, the late Jim Hutton, an actor my dad really liked. Anyway, he’s doing a new series for TNT entitled Leverage, premiering on 9 December. According to the press release:

Hutton plays former insurance investigator Nate Ford, a once-loyal corporate employee who recovered millions of dollars in stolen goods for his employer. After the employer denied his son’s insurance claims and allowed the boy to die, Ford realized he could no longer work for the company.

Out of work and unable to get past his grief, Ford is hired by an aeronautics executive to recover airplane designs the executive claims were stolen by a rival. He assembles four highly skilled team members: Parker (Beth Riesgraf), an expert thief; Alec Hardison (Aldis Hodge), a specialist in Internet and computer fraud; Eliot Spencer (Christian Kane), a high-octane “retrieval specialist” who can take out a gang of henchmen without breaking a sweat; and Sophie Devereaux (Gina Bellman), a grifter who could win awards for her acting skills during difficult scams.

Sounds pretty good, and Timothy still looks presentable, if not handsome for 49. Starting next month, Leverage is on Sundays at 10 p.m.

Photo credit: imdb.com

I admit it. Just when I think I’m all progressive and 21st-century, I am reminded of things I miss.

Some might even call me a…you know…one of those things pictured at the left. It’s ok; I don’t mind.

On some things, I’m just old fashioned.

I don’t know why I’m feeling all nostalgic this morning (seeing as how my aching head and sore throat are not making me happy), but it may surprise you to learn how really stuck-in-the-olden-days I am. Time has indeed moved on without me in many ways.

Some Reasons I Might Be Called “Old Fashioned”

1. I think men should still open doors for ladies, and offer to carry heavy things, and let them go first.
2. I believe children should be respectful to adults, and that there are parental decisions which should not be open to debate.
3. I’m totally comfortable with the word “gay” also meaning “happy and carefree.”
4. I think girls should leave more of their physical attributes to the imagination, and less hanging out for all to see (I know, TRO would disagree).
5. I watch White Christmas and It’s a Wonderful Life every December, and although both movies contain no hot guys, no swear words, no sexual situations, no naked people, no violence and no CGI, I still love watching them, and I still bawl like an idiot in all the same places.

But I’m really a paradox; self-contradictory. I cling to certain notions and conventions of the past while maintaining an iron grip on modernity, to wit:

1. I couldn’t see myself enjoying life as much without my computer and cell phone: two things I definitely did not have growing up, but without which I still had a perfectly happy childhood.
2. My views on the modern “Christian” church and its many cruel incarnations might be considered radical by some, especially considering my old-fashioned views on other issues. [Although….hating Pharisees is likely a very old concept.]

But I guess that’s the beauty of the thing. We can choose what we ascribe to, feel, and hold dear. I’m just glad we have the freedom to do it. Not everyone does.

And now, to the sofa, after swallowing DayQuil, which, of course, makes the world go around (DayQuil, not the sofa).

Fink out.

Yeah, I need to make this a category. For a long time, I thought, “Nah…I don’t want to be one of those red-carpet-watching weenies, and besides, who cares what people in Hollywood do, say, look like or think?”

Shyeah right.

So I found a photo of Priscilla Presley this morning. Whoa. Since I don’t watch Dancing With the Stars, I didn’t realize what she has….uh….become. I mean, I know we all age, and things like muscles and skin tend to lose their elasticity. Unfortunately, that’s the way of things. And I don’t have anything against a little nip/tuck to get it back under control. But this….

I’m not sure what to think. Her eyelids are almost non-existent, and there’s a good two inches between her brows and lashes. That just ain’t right. Her once-beautiful lips are now Joker-like and misshapen. She’s so full of Botox, it looks like her face is made of glass. Sixty-two years old and not a wrinkle anywhere. That be bizarre.

I read that she’d had a bad experience with a phony surgeon who injected her with industrial grade silicone. Ick. She’s apparently having some corrective work done, and maybe this is the start of it.

My hope is that she checked carefully the credentials of the guy who’s trying to fix her, since she obviously didn’t bother with doing it when she hired Dr. Demento to supply her with the wonder drug that disfigured her face.

Wow, have you seen Britney Spears’ new album cover? Here it is — she looks fabulous. Of course, airbrushing can do much, and her eyes look strangely different, but geez…that’s the best she’s looked in several years. The Daily Mail says it looks as if she’s channeling Farrah Fawcett from the olden days. No matter. She looks healthier in all the photos I’ve seen lately, and that’s what counts.

Finally, a piece of weird pie from awhile back.

Back in the 90s, Tim Burton did a film about the life of the “Worst Movie Director of All Time,” Edward Wood. It starred Johnny (insert angel chorus here) Depp, and was a critical — if not financial — success.

So just how weird was Ed Wood? Really weird. And his fans aren’t far behind. There’s actually a religion based on the belief that Ed Wood and Christ have a whole lot in common. I am not making this up. The biography of Wood on this site is extensive and well-researched (if a bit thin on the grammar and punctuation). It’s worth a read.

Ok, off to get ready to go out to dinner with the Thriller and some friends. Haven’t done that in a long, long while.

Finkus outus.

(PS to Meg, Sam, Trev and any other cast members reading this: good rehearsal today.)

…on another long week. But I’m still a happy rat.

I mean, I guess there has to be one day of the week that’s the first after the weekend. Otherwise, we’d have just one long, continuous, you know. Weekend. Hey, that sounds like an idea…

It bears mentioning that this is the best orchestra I’ve had in the nine years I’ve been doing musicals at my school. Not that the others weren’t good — they were — but this time, there’s no weak link anywhere. By “weak link,” I mean a pit player who does not A) practice, or B) mark any cuts before the rehearsal, even though he/she has had the cut sheet for weeks. Everybody knew the music. We ran the whole score in less than 90 minutes. That’s progress, lemmetellya.

So as much as everyone is dreading this week and next (I will apologize in advance to my wonderful friends about being horrible about returning emails for a few days), I think the music will be strong. From what I heard from cast members, Saturday’s rehearsals went well, too.

We all *might* survive this.

I had a fabulous weekend with the family. What’d you all do?

Fink out.