Jezebel: crazy old ladies

Cloris Leachman Brings Her Brand Of Crazy To The View

Tracie — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:40:00 EDT

Cloris Leachman was voted off Dancing with the Stars last night, and today she performed her final dance on The View with her partner Corky. The thing that's great about the "Cloris Controversy" is that everyone else takes this DWTS shit so seriously, but Cloris so obviously does not give a fuck. She used the platform as it was supposed to be used: to resuscitate a career, and she knew that at 82, she wouldn't physically win, so she had to ham it up. On the View today, she barely went through the motions of her dance, and was more interested in wandering around the stage and telling stories about making ABC executives say dirty words. Clip above.

Rat Ladies

Sadie — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:20:00 EDT

Two elderly sisters in Los Angeles' ritzy Pacific Palisades neighborhood have taken the creepy old woman stereotype up a notch: rat-hoarding. That's right; seems when they became too old to take in larger animals, animal-lovers Marjorie and Margaret Barthel began feeding wild rats — which, experts speculate, has fueled the area's recent and mysterious rat boom. The infestation became apparent when a young couple moved in next door, and although the sisters have allowed exterminators to come through ("they hauled several large garbage bags heavy with dead rats from the bedrooms, kitchen, attic, basement and guesthouse"), their (apparently excellent) insurance policy requires that State Farm pay for the upcoming court battle. “Since 1958, we’ve had rats,” said one of the women. “I’ve lived with rats since 1958, honey…. When I got the house in [1958], that’s the day I started feeding all the animals. And I fed them as long as I lived there.” [Mental Floss]

What Was Lauren Hutton On When She "Massaged" Her Ladyparts With Her Bravo A-List Award?

Tracie — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:00:00 EDT

Lauren Hutton won a sort of lifetime achievement "Beauty Icon" award at Bravo's A-List awards, which aired last night, and her acceptance speech was, um, interesting. If not completely drug addled. Hutton began by saying, "I've been up for 46 hours. It's a long story, but a good one." We believe her! A reader who attended the awards told us that Hutton rubbed the statue she received on her crotch and simulated masturbation, but Bravo only showed her from the waist-up at that point. Clip above.

She's Got The Look: "Old" Is The New "Plus-Size"

Tracie — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 14:30:00 EDT

Today, TV Land aired a 30-minute preview of She's Got the Look, which is basically ANTM for the over 35 set. I was kinda skeptical about the show (so is the NY Times), but I changed my mind after watching this preview and seeing the absolute crazy ladies auditioning (and cast!), the bitchy looks judge Beverly Johnson gives, and the stupid shit the other two judges (one, the president of Wilhelmina, the other, that celeb stylist guy with the shades on his head) like, "I see someone that I'd love to go shopping with, but I don't know if you're what we're looking for in a model," or "You have a tiny head," and "You do have a face." Clip above.

Related: A Reality Competition Shows A Few Wrinkles [NY Times]

Barbara Walters Has Been Getting Kinda Nutty On Audition Press Tour

Tracie — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:00:00 EDT

Barbara Walters was on Larry King Live last night in support of her just-released memoir Audition (not that the book even needs much hyping; it sold an unprecedented a quarter-million copies in under a week). Perhaps it's the fatigue caused by the press tour, or maybe it's a newfound embrace of silliness now that she's spilled her guts into that memoir, but Babs is starting to act really strange. She pulled a gag last night by painting her fist to look like a face and talked to Larry in a weird voice. We're thinking that maybe this is an inside joke for the 75+ set. Clip above.

Is Elizabeth Taylor Going To Marry Her Gay Boyfriend?

Tracie — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 15:07:27 EDT

The clip above aired on Entertainment Tonight on Friday, and we're so obsessed with it that we didn't want to wait until Monday to post it. It's a red carpet interview with Elizabeth Taylor for a segment on ET called "Real or Rumor." Word is that Elizabeth is engaged to be married—for the ninth time—to this middle-aged black man who is very Andre Leon Talley-esque. (Translation: GAY.) Either old age or the decades of drug and alcohol addiction (or a combination of both) has made Elizabeth seem out of it. She doesn't really understand what the interviewer is asking her, and the interviewer doesn't really understand that, accepting Elizabeth's confusion as a denial of the gossip, thus qualifying it as "Rumor." The best part is the last three seconds. You'll want to watch it over and over.