The magazine is Cosmopolitan, from that almost unrecognizable halcyon age of women's magazines when Mademoiselle was publishing Truman Capote's short fiction and Joan Didion was working at Vogue. (That story about "modern psychiatry," grandma's common sense, and the vexations of motherhood sounds kind of familiar, though.)

Meet Tippi "Hedrin"! The best part about this page is that she is holding a lobster.

Do you hear that? Hedren loves everything about modeling. Even the scratchy-looking "removable dickey" on that sheath dress.

By 1953, Hedren had already gotten her first film role, in The Petty Girl. The Birds would come ten years later — and after her divorce from Peter Griffith, pictured. (Apparently the love of animals was lifelong.)

See what you can do with a good wardrobe of stoles?

I just learned that Tippi Hedren was apparently partly responsible for Vietnamese immigrants to California taking up the manicurist trade. Hedren met some Vietnamese refugees in the mid 1970s, and they remarked upon her nails. "I noticed that these women were very good with their hands," Hedren told the Los Angeles Times. "I thought, why couldn't they learn how to do nails?" So she organized training for that particular group of women. Their relative success motivated others, and now California nail technicians are 80% Vietnamese. The more you know!

The Model Life [ModernMechanix]
A Mix Of Luck, Polish [LATimes]

It's really tough to decide which is more awesome: The Indiana Jones who's been amputated at the waist? The "extremely articulated" Batman, whom one could misread as being "extremely articulate"? Sorta loving Dumbledore and his phoenix, but the best thing here is definitely the Ark of the Covenant business card holder. Thou shalt not gaze upon my fax number, or thy face wilt melt!

Surely you have a friend who hasn't let go of her My Little Pony love? Wouldn't she dig a diner? Or a pony with brushable hair and her own radio-controlled scooter?

Perhaps you have an evil little sister for whom this would be an appropriate present?

Severus Snape! Unfortunately, he looks like a nun with a bad (drug) habit.

Whether you know someone who loves Hitchcock or hates Barbie, this will be the right peck pick.

Twelve inch talking David Bowie from Labyrinth? Want! Love the part in the movie when he says, "Fear me. Love me. Do as I say… And I will be your slave."

So many choices here. Over on the left, there's Power Girl, who is "realistically proportioned." Here on the right there's the Barbie Wonder Woman. But down below, there's Amazon Warrior Wonder Woman, who comes without the cumbersome cape and bears a battle-ax and shield instead. Fierce!

Tons and tons of Beatles stuff says "Love, love me do."

Dude. Everything Lebowski-inspired except the white Russian. And stuff for Dexter fans, too!

Think you it odd, spending over $100 on a Yoda figure? Believe not in the force, you do. Understand not the awesomeness.

A fully-functioning R2D2 that guards your room and follows you around? Must-have.

It's unsettling that this figure allows you to take Heath Ledger's head off, no? Maybe this "fan" stuff goes too far. And the price is rather high.

Ah, yes. The Santa dreidel, "sure to confound and confuse both Jews and gentiles," makes everything better. And it's priced to move.

Entertainment Earth [Official Site]

Hitchcock derived a great deal of pleasure through humiliating his heroines, or, in his own words, "Nothing pleases me more than to knock the ladylikeness out of them." Tippi Hedren, the star of The Birds and the mother of Melanie Griffith, fared the worst of all Hitchcock's leading women. "The aging auteur tutored her, dressed her and even had her handwriting analyzed," according to USA Today. "But nothing topped a week spent being attacked by live versions of her winged co-stars during filming of The Birds, which sent her into clinical shock — except for when he demanded that Hedren be at his sexual beck and call during Marnie, which she refused."

Spellbound by Beauty offers some insight into Hitchcock's personal life, which could explain the cruelty he inflicted on his female stars. Apparently, he only had sex once. Hitchcock married Alma Reveille in 1926 and allegedly, their single sexual encounter produced their daughter, Patricia. The sexual frustration, argues the author of Spellbound, "resulted in Hitchcock's compensating need to harass many of his lovely leading ladies."

It's undeniable that Hitchcock produced some of the greatest cinema of the 20th century, and for me at least, this knowledge will probably not change my view of his films. As we've pondered before in terms of novelists, is it possible to separate a person's private behavior from their artistic output?

Alfred Hitchcock Bio Swoops In On Leading Ladies [USA Today]
Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies [Amazon]

Earlier: Well, Is There A Scientific Link Between "Genius" And "Shithead"?