Saturday, February 16, 2013

SAFE HAVEN ...A VALENTINE TREAT



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Carole Mallory

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Safe Haven -A Valentine Treat

Posted: 05/09/2005 4:00 am

Julian Hough radiates and Josh Duhamel, who has a dreamlike quality, light up the screen. Hough (Katie) redeems herself after her tepid performance in Rock of Ages and her hoofing as a regular on Dancing with the Stars. Maybe it is time for her to pack it in and focus on her acting which is stellar. This story is based on the novel by Nicolas Sparks who also produced it. Another good film made by its creator who would not relinquish control of his creation.Safe Haven captivates and keeps you guessing thanks to clever editing and a well-written screenplay by Leslie Boehm and Dana Stevens. Suspense builds. Intrigue is a given. Safe Haven is about a lonely widower who finds love with a mysterious woman hiding from her past. It balances the serenity of love with impending danger always coming at you. Director Lasse Hallstram has a gift to build conflict seamlessly.
Tenderness is part of this love story though the finale packs a wallop. The sleepy town of Southport in North Carolina offers a picturesque backdrop and soothes when evil rears its ugly alcoholic head. Alex is a store owner who has two small children and grieves the loss of his beloved wife to cancer. Katie is on the run from an abusive husband, a policeman, played by a sinister David Lyon, who will not stop chasing her across the Eastern seaboard until he finds her and controls her. This film is also about the smothering, deadly power of control in relationships and the grace which comes with releasing it. 
Alex' played by Josh Duhanel has two children, Josh and Lexie, who are played with great charm and sincerity by Noah Lomax and Mimie Kirkland. While Katie has found a secluded cabin in the woods, a plainspoken single neighbor, Jo, (Colbie Smulders) appears out of nowhere and offers friendship. Jo is matchmaker to Alex and Katie who is deeply wounded by her previous relationship and unwilling to respond to Alex's advances. With the required mystery, Jo plays her part and does not give away the O'Henry ending. Another theme of this film is haunting. With Jo's emphatic and stubborn support Katie realizes she must choose between a life of isolation or relinquish control of this fear, this secret, and allow herself to love another man. 
Safe Haven is a real Valentine treat for couples and for singles longing for intimacy.for it is while watching this film, one realizes how healing and soothing a relationship can be and not to be afraid to love.
 

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Sunday, February 10, 2013

DE NIRO WORE SOCKS FOR SEX

De Niro wore socks for sex

  • Last Updated: 4:36 PM, January 29, 2013
  • Posted: 12:09 AM, January 29, 2013
Carole Mallory, the actress and model who wrote “Loving Mailer” about her eight-year affair with Norman Mailer, has penned another book about her exploits with famous men — including Robert De Niro, whom she alleges wore socks in bed.
“Picasso’s Ghost” chronicles Mallory’s relationship and broken engagement to Pablo Picasso’s sonClaude, as well as affairs with Peter Sellers andRichard Gere. “I was jilted by Claude Picasso, and I spent most of my life trying to shore up my bad feelings about myself,” she tells us. “A lot of my seeking out famous men was to prove I was OK. I felt terribly wounded when he jilted me. I felt validated by celebrities.”

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Robert De Niro
Mallory, who starred in “The Stepford Wives,” met De Niro in 1975 at the Chateau Marmont, and the pair had a 14-day affair. “During lovemaking, he never stopped looking in my eyes,” she writes. She continues, “He had a butterfly tattoo that I later realized matched his flighty spirit. So did the fact he left his socks on.” She added, “The following year he married Diahnne Abbott . . . I would have appreciated a phone call.”
Of Mallory’s romance with “Pink Panther” star Sellers, she writes in the book from Amazon’s CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, “I kissed him all over his hairy body. He had hair everywhere. He even had it on his back. I liked it. He reminded me of a giant panda bear.”
But she adds of the enigmatic actor who struggled with depression, “I think maybe he was too filled with self-loathing. Alcohol temporarily masked that and freed him from his demonic thoughts about himself.”
Mallory, 71, who now teaches writing at Rosemont College and Temple University in Philly, breathlessly describes a one-night stand with Gere in the late ’70s: “His gymnastic skills were apparent. He made love his way . . . He didn’t withhold. He was Valentino in the flesh. A sex symbol not to be forgotten. Not to be lumped in with all the others, but to be remembered for his uniqueness. His thoughtfulness. His caring.”
Reps for De Niro and Gere didn’t get back to us.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

WHY I AM GRATEFUL I WAS JILTED



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Carole Mallory

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Why I Am Grateful I Was Jilted

Posted: 02/08/2013 9:43 am

I was jilted in 1975, but today I feel fine. It has taken me years to get over the damage to my self esteem. The feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. In my heart I just knew something was wrong with me and rather than be found out, I told friends that I had left him. My pride would not allow me to do his negative PR on my worthiness unless of course I could find a lawyer who would sue him. Oh, I tried, but he was from a famous wealthy family and because of a lawsuit against the French government filed by his mother, he suddenly had his own money. He was her illegitimate son. He could pay to be kept out of the press. His Wikipedia page is in French. He does not offer interviews. He is afraid of his past and that the truth about how he got his fortune would surface.
But enough about him. What did I do to believe in myself again?
After supporting him for five years by being a successful cover girl, I flew away from Paris, from him and from his bourgeois family, after he refused to answer this question, 'When are we getting married?" His mother had bought me the wedding dress the year before, When I watched Downton Abbey and one of the daughters is left at the altar, I recalled this night Claude rejected me.
I grabbed his teacup poodle and took the first flight out of Paris back to our apartment in New York. I would begin a new life. Unless, of course, he decided to set a wedding date. He played this game for about five years. Keeping my heart hanging. While I drank on. Yes, I had a drinking problem and realized in 1980 that I was an alcoholic. My drinking had started before my engagement to him, but it escalated to the point of dangerous behavior in 1980. When my therapist saw my bruises, she said, "Carole, you are an alcoholic." I was now in a relationship with a man who would beat me up and after being jilted, I felt I deserved this abuse. Who was I? A reject of men. The only solution was to attract very famous men to prove to the world and to myself that I was worthy after all.
But finding my worth in men was not the answer. I took writing classes UCLA, NYU, Columbia and began to write about my life. To try to make sense of it. Writing brought understanding. Writing brought me respect. Self respect. Peace.
Today I have published my third memoir. It is called Picasso's Ghost because that is what I felt like during this struggle to gain self worth -- a ghost. No, it wasn't Pablo Picasso who jilted me. It was his son, Claude.
Finally I am grateful for having been jilted. Claude, who had trouble finding his identity, helped me to find my own identity. One as a writer. Today I teach writing at Rosemont College and Temple University and help people of all ages to value their experiences above all else. To write about their lives. Self discovery is the path towards forgiveness and serenity.
When I now think about my times with Claude, I realize how much happier I am today and how much I have to be grateful for. And that includes a new teacup poodle. My own.

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