Peckerwood Manor

  Fred Astaire had the skills and the polish. Gene Kelly had the skills and the sex. Though he left us in 1996 at age 83, he remains the premiere Hollywood practitioner of dance as brash bravado and potent, earthy sexuality.  Some might say that Rudolph Valentino was the better dance-as-sex practitioner, but time has not been kind to his tango scenes, which now look strained, and at times, comical. It really was another time. Gene's endures because of his seemingly effortless moves and brawny masculinity, which was at once thrilling, but never crude. The old adage "women wanted him, men wanted to be him" must have been conjured up with him in mind.  Before Fosse revitalized dance for the modern age - giving it a refined and cooler-than-cool touch of sleaze - Gene was the go-to for dance and eroticism. Only Cyd Charisse was his rival, a dancer whose every move seemed to say, "Touch me if you dare." Together? They were a bonfire.  Yet no matter how many dancers an...

In news that will surely come as a complete shock to the estate of Bob Fosse, Beyonce has been accused of stealing another person's creative ideas. I know, I know, take a seat, 'cause this one's coming out of nowhere. But behold, in the picture above on the left, we have Erykah Badu, legendary singer, songwriter and everyone's favorite wacky auntie, in one of her more subdued tour outfits. To the right, we have Beyonce, mother of legendary, Grammy award-winning Blue Ivy, in a similar-ish outfit on her current tour, with at least the hat being a nod to Eryka's lewk. Which is enough to make Erykah scream, "Thief!" Though really, her reaction on Instagram was far more subdued: "Hmm. I guess I'm everybody's stylist now," she wrote. In other words, she poured the gas, tossed the lit match, then tiptoed away. Ka-boom! Oh, and on a semi-related note, Erykah was performing recently in Atlanta and noticed that John Boyega was in the audience and ...