A few weeks ago, I used this slice of cyberspace to gripe about the inexcusably annoying use of empty take-out coffee cups in TV and the movies. Your numerous impassioned comments about this and other pop culture pet peeves delighted me like only a good ole communal bitch-fest could.
In that same spirit of protest, I now invite you to join me as I vent about another of my bêtes noires that popped up in last night’s season finale of Grey’s Anatomy. To what am I referring? Oh yes, that’s right: The robust terminal cancer patient with the bald noggin as realistic as The Coneheads. There was Izzie, pale and weary, yet still appearing to be at her normal, healthy weight. (The same went for guest star Liza Weil, a.k.a Paris from Gilmore Girls, whose face bore none of the hallowed-out traits of someone who’s undergone months of chemo.) Izzie spent most of the episode under a head scarf, but when she took it off to undergo Derek’s brain scan, all I could think was: "Mmm, that shadow near all those electrode thingies on her skull looks suspiciously like the seam of a bald cap…because it is the seam of a bald cap!"
Now, I’m certainly not advocating that anyone starve themselves à la Christian Bale in The Machinist. And I understand that not every actor is willing to go all Natalie Portman in V for Vendetta and shave their heads for real. But come on, Shonda Rhimes and the rest of you entertainment heavy-hitters who are equally guilty of this sin! (That includes you, whoever did Cameron Diaz’s ridiculous chrome dome in this summer’s My Sister’s Keeper!) I implore you to do better. See, there are these things called lighting and makeup that work wonders. Look into it, will ya?
Okay, end rant. Anything to add, PopWatchers?
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If Michael Rossenbaum and Kevin Spacey were willing to go bald for the role of Lex Luthor, then a series regular should be willing to do it for a long term story line.
They did this on Desperate Housewives last year and it was so distracting whenever Lynette took off her scarf. You’re an actor dammit, commit!
Cameron Diaz doesn’t actually play a cancer patient in “My Sister’s Keeper.” I don’t remember if this happens in the book or not, but I imagine it’s something her character does out of solidarity for her sick daughter.
My Pet Peeve is when people have their Bluetooths lodged in their ear 24/7!http://hidensneek.com/2009/05/15/star-trek-technology/
Nat portman had a fake bald in vendetta, hah, http://datingcollegestudents.com
bete noire. The Columbia Guide to Standard American English. 1993
It seems to keep its accent mark in English, and in the plural each word gets a silent final -s, bêtes noires. Congratulations on getting that right – so few do. Not all cancer/chemo patients are gaunt and few are ‘hAllowed-out”. More like hollow cheeked, but you are RIGHT again – the fake bald bad make up is awful. Why can they make a believably horrible dismembered arm and they can’t do bald?
Missy-
You’re a moron. It’s called “given circumstance”. The people have cancer, they are bald. That’s it. The fact that EW is paying you to actually post this on the internet for all to see is a complete joke. How did the pitch meeting go?
You: So, bald caps look really fake. It’s very frustrating.
EW Brass: Yeah, that’s a good one. Interesting story idea, interesting angle. Go for it!
I was really annoyed that they had eyebrows and a full set of lashes. If you lose your hair during chemo, you lose ALL of it!
The girl who plays Cameron Diaz’s daughter in my my sister’s keeper, Sofia Vasilieva, shaved off her hair (and donated it to locks of love). She said it was the least she could do to accurately portray her character considering there are actual cancer patients out there who lose their hair “for real.” She had long beautiful blonde hair but if you saw “Medium” this season and looked closely you could tell it was a wig/extensions. I am so impressed by her maturity and commitment to her craft.
Killed me with Bucket List. I almost started laughing, sadly.
To the people suggesting that actors/actresses should ‘commit’ and shave their heads…are you morons? I mean really!!! Would you suggest someone also peirce/tatoo themselves for a job. Or maybe cut off a leg or two. Realistic or not, these people have lives once they leave the studio and have every right to not do something so extreme.
There is a difference between Micheal Rosenbaum and Felicity Huffman. Micheal played a bald character for 7 years. Felicity played a bald character for half a season. A big difference, I know I for one wouldn’t want to shave my head for 10 episodes but I can understand Micheal doing so for over 100! Stop griping about Actors not shaving their heads, be honest, would you?
I thought Heigl’s bald head looked really realistic. They did a great job. It is not as if she could cut her hair, she went straight from Grey’s Anatomy to filming her new movie.
There is a big difference between stars like Michael Rosenbaum and Katherine Heigl shaving their heads for their craft. For one, it’s a pure gender difference. It takes much longer for women to grow out their hair to the lengths they want and it’s unreasonable to ask an actor to prove their commitment to their job by shaving their hair. And, hair is often one attribute that women love about themselves. People have their own personal attachments to their hair. And, these actors might need to work very soon for another job that requires long hair. Anyone remember Britney’s extensions post-shave? They looked awful.
Sorry I missed your earlier rant about my absolute most passionate pet peeve: the obviously empty, weightless coffee cup. I think the magnificent Da Vinci’s Inquest is the only show I’ve ever seen that uses (or has used) cups with something in them.
And, yeah, having gone through the bald thing myself, I have to agree that these fake ones are annoyingly unreal. I looked like Mr. Clean’s little sister, so I do have to find it amazing that these characters – usually chemo patients – have bright, shiny, perfect looking skulls.
Love the rants, Missy!
I just want to add for those that think the stars should shave their head for the part. If you have ever went thru cancer and lost your hair its very traumatizing to some. I had cancer and lost my hair. I can’t understand why a person would do it for a part. It took over a year for my hair to grow back out. Come on people grow up! I don’t think you have a right to judge unless you yourself have been thru it. Why expect someone else to do something you yourself wouldn’t do.
I hate how actors never really eat on TV. I know they have multiple takes and probably would get sick, fat or both if they chewed a bite each take (smoking cigs is the same), but… I also know an actor can’t have a mouth full of food and properly speak/annunciate their lines. And, it’s hard for sake of continuity. In one half shot, they’re chewing and in the next split second, they’re scratching their head. Who could keep track of those motions/actions in a multi-camera shoot? But, some are better than others. The worst is Alan (Jon Cryer), from Two and a Half Men, and Tony (James Gandolfini) from the Sopranos. I hate how they merely “play” with their food. They tumble it, spin, lift it, drop and tap their fork on it, roll it, toss it with their knife, etc. It drives me up the freaking wall. It doesn’t even come close to representing real life.
p.s. There’s nothing worse than an actor that doesn’t smoke. They exhale air and look ridiculous!
Perhaps they could have done more with makeup to make Izzie and Liza’s Weil’s character more sallow looking…
But honestly, it took Christian Bale time to starve himself for the Machinist. Katherine Heigl, skinny already, could not possibly have lost that much weight in the few days between shooting this episode and the one before it. You just can’t lose it that fast, even if your went 72 hours with no food at all. I didn’t eat a thing for almost 4 days after my wisdom teeth were removed, and as a fit person to begin with, I lost a measly 3 pounds in that time frame. Not nearly long enough to look sick the way people do on chemo for long periods of time.
I forgot my second point… It’s one thing to shave your head for a role when it’s the ONLY role you are possibly going to have for a while and no other possibilities. It’s hard to commit to wearing a wig for every single job other than GA that Kathering Heigl takes for the next 2 years. Whether she leaves the show or not, she’ll still be filming other stuff during the off time.
The bald thing doesn’t bug me so much as the empty coffee cup syndrome does (I thought I was the only person who ever noticed this!). One of my biggest pop culture pet peeves is whenever some characters, usually villains, are fleeing a scene by car, and there are people shooting at them as they are leaving, NO ONE THINKS TO SHOOT THE $*#% TIRES!!!!!!! They ALWAYS try to shoot the people driving, and I swear this is one of the very few instances where I will shout at the screen like an imbecile. If I ever were to find myself in an alternate version of reality in which I owned a gun and needed to shoot at people fleeing in a car, my very first instinct, I promise to you, would be to shoot the bloody tires, and if I am capable of figuring this out, why can’t any of the people responsible for putting it on the screen find another method of enabling their characters to evade capture and thus ensure the plot continues without having the people holding the guns look like morons?
Cameron Diaz is *not* ill for the movie My Sister’s Keeper. She is the mother of an ill daughter, and shaves her own head so her daughter would not feel so bad about being bald. Before you rant, find your facts.
Mary McDonnell, in her portrayal of President Laura Roslin on Battlestar Galactica, has given one of the most realistic (and touching!) performances as a person with cancer. It’s not as simple as wearing or not wearing a bald cap, but she made the cancer reality of her character very real through her body language, tone of voice, as well as wonderfully acted facial expressions. From the moment of diagnosis to deterioration, to remission, and to the heartbreaking end Mary McDonnell did a great job in her portrayal of a woman living with cancer.
I’ve always hated it when lazy actors refuse to lose weight when the part calls for it, like Massimo in B&B who even though he was in a coma for months was just as fat when he woke up or people who get stranded on desert islands and don’t lose any weight whatsoever.
In addition to poor bald-cap-placement… anyone who has seen someone going through chemo would know they lose ALL body hair… so no long lux eye lashes, no thick dark brows. If they can’t do a bald cap properly they should stick with the scarf or a wig…
I know that Cameron Diaz isn’t the cancer patient in her new movie, but if you look closely at the picture in the article, it looks as though she is wearing a mask. Look where her face meets the bald cap, including in front of the ears. I also realize that the head does not get sun when there’s hair on it, so of course it’s lighter than the face, but at least a little color blending would have been nice to make it look more natural.
Empty coffee cups, yes! How about using dolls for babies. If you can’t shoot a scene with a real baby for a few seconds, leave it out. Or the worst one, using an obviously four or five month old child as a newborn! ARGH!
My own personal rant is when characters answer their cell phones and seem surprised at who’s on the other end. Who doesn’t look at the phone to see who’s calling BEFORE they answer???
You’re an unbelievable idiot for posting this drivel. Bald caps? Really? I defy you to shave YOUR own head just for your job. Buh bye popwatch.
I hate when 2 people order chinese food and there are 30 cartons on the table!!!!
What annoys me even more than the bald cap is that they ignore the reality that chemo patients also lose their eyebrows – at least deal with THAT, people – you can pencil them in, and they’ll grow back. People really struggle with that, as much as the hair loss!