Photo of the day: HAPPY 68th BIRTHDAY CHER!
Photo of the day: HAPPY (yes) 68th BIRTHDAY CHER ! – If ever an icon has kept the love of six generations of fans, she has, with a hit record in every decade. No recording artist has done that. I have had the sheer delight to have met her several times and she is as beautiful inside as she is outside. Happy Birthday Cher – you DID turn back time !
Photo of the day: CHER COMES TO BROOKLYN’S BARCLAYS CENTER TONIGHT!
My personalized advertising on the Barclays Oculus
Photo of the day: CHER COMES TO BROOKLYN’S BARCLAYS CENTER TONIGHT! – Six decades of hits, six decades of fashion, six decades of fantastic shows all culminate tonight in Cher’s “Dressed To Kill” tour here in New York. Cher the eighth wonder of the world, will perform with loveable ‘fun girl’ Cyndi Lauper at Brooklyn’s new modern wonder the Oculus, at the Barclays Center. I’ll be there with Janet Novick and my international Cher fan friends and we’ll be ‘dressed to kill’!
(I’ve done my own advertising on the Barclays oculus here with my photos personally taken of Cher and Cyndi.)
Photo of the day: CHER, THE OLIVE BRANCH AND HANS
Photo of the day: CHER, THE OLIVE BRANCH AND HANS – After having written my now very much read criticism of Cher’s entrance and exit from the Letterman show, the article has caused some interesting reactions and or effects. Yes of course I got my haters and then – many agreed with me. It seems the article, via twitter, blog, Facebook, however, got to Cher’s people (!) and an olive branch was extended. My olive branch was being “on the list” with my good friend Janet Novick to attend a private catered listening party for “Closer To The Truth” at the not opened yet Club Tao on West 16th Street. They were still painting the walls as we got there.
Club Tao
West 19th Street
The club is a cross of 80’s feel seating, geisha girl murals painted on exposed brick walls, candles everywhere and quiet elegance. Hors d’oeuvre and champagne were free flowing. Drag queens were on the balcony above to dance to her music while the chosen few mingled below.
Cher’s people, fan club members and friends who had read my article “Cher Distances Herself from Her Fans” insisted that the ‘distant’ Cher is controlled by Ebar, the head of her now over-the-top security team. “Cher is still the loveable Cher we all love, it’s her (relatively) new team!” everyone said. From having now studied the photos of Cher’s arrival at Letterman it is more and more obvious.
Frenzy took over the room when Cher descended slowly down the stairs into the club. Janet and I went to see and noticed she, despite her heels, had gotten a lot taller – it was the damned good impersonator Steven Andrade who happened to love Janet.
HANS VON RITTERN and JANET NOVICK
Janet Novick and Steven Andrade as Cher
Hans – tall Cher – Janet
Steven adores Janet and called Janet ‘a celebrity in her own right’ so Steven/Cher wanted to take Janet and me to meet the real Cher, so she snuck us out of the club and into the underground garage where Cher was just about to arrive. There she was! A surreal moment: me, Janet, ‘tall Cher, the real Cher and a few of her security team, alone – in this underground garage. No I didn’t have my camera because it was all so sudden and the sight of my fancy camera might have whisked Cher away. So there we were the four of us. Hans, Janet, Cher and Cher! Cher laughed and said “You’re taller! I like your outfit, you look good!” Smiled broadly and waved at us and entered the club. What a Cher/Cher moment!! Thank you dear Steven Andrade !
Cher and Club Drag Queens
“I hope you like my album, er…CD!”
“I love you all”
Inside the surge was on to get close to the real Cher. My problem was, no “professional cameras” allowed. So while everyone was flashing away with their cell phones, I wasn’t allowed take pictures. 😦 You see, my cell phone is a lousy 3G dinosaur age phone with no flash.) There I was close to her and no pics! Watching her up close you could see she was gracious as ever, but always ‘led’ by her walled team. (I did finally sneak the few photos you see here.)
Serving fierceness
> Here is where I will amend what I have written earlier. It is not totally Cher distancing herself from her fans. She is still as warm an fuzzy as ever and has a steel trap mind, remembering people on the spot that she had not seen in years and tries to reach out to them. > It is her security detail! < They barricaded her everywhere she moved. There was a ‘Believe’ record producer “Mike” who even had a hard time getting to her. We were about 150 privately invited, pre-screened guests and ~still~ the over the top security walled her off. I watched her closely, Cher is still Cher, just as her team of fans insisted, she has just been walled away from us. But – I will still argue, Cher should be a “strong enough” woman to say “I’m going over there, etc” and do so, but since she has put herself in Ebar’s hands, there is nothing we can do and we Cher fans will have to learn to accept her at somewhat of a distance now.
Cher speaks from the heart
Ok – so I’m not “done” with Cher. It is a sad loss of old ‘accessible Cher’, maybe she will get enough complaints, maybe she will eventually stand strong and see the light and look more to her fans at events. Maybe one day when she does the wheel chair tour, the security around her will have changed, Cher will never change inside. Cher now reaches out simply in the ‘new way’, a fast and furious opinionated tweeter. It’s a different age I’ll have to catch up to.
Cher – I forgot to thank Tao?!
“Did I do OK?”
So – to be in the room with her and to see her flawless face and fabulous clothes was a thrill. My thanks to Cher’s circle, John Torello and the fan club for extending the olive branch to me, it did make me think . . . “what would I have done without Cher?!?” 🙂
Photo of the day: CHER DISTANCES HERSELF FROM HER TRUE FANS!
Photo of the day: CHER DISTANCES HERSELF FROM HER TRUE FANS! – Cher, Your old time fans, were standing outside the Letterman stage door since 11am in the center right opposite your car! We were put behind security fences, fine. Bomb sniffing dogs checked us out front and back, fine. Your choreographer Dori came out and spoke to us, some of your crew did as well. They knew many of us by name and were very warm and friendly. We waited patiently. YET – when you arrived you did not open your eyes to see your true diehard fans dressed in Cher regalia from head to toe that you should be grateful for. Instead, you let yourself be ‘led’ over to the area in the open street with NO security fence that had not been checked and the greedy ebay hustlers professing their love to you to get autographs (Clue Cher: true fans want a photo, not an Ebayable signature.) Any blind fool could see your fans were totally dissed. But when you arrived in your SUV Escalade and your very rude and nasty security entourage turned what had been a love fest into a stunning snub. I will not be buying your CD or concert ticket. After 50 years of my loyal undying devotion, the nerve has been severed. Three strikes and you’re out. I never ever thought I would say this but – I’m done.
If you can’t take the few seconds it takes to open your eyes and see the true faces of the people that have had your back since the 1960’s standing there, then what you implied is truly true “I don’t have the time.“ Cher, if this is “a woman’s world” then why don’t you be your own woman? You did the EXACT same thing last time you were at Letterman and left your fans that had stood there for as much as 7 hours in the November cold. Same upturned hand gestures, same entourage, same “I’m running late” excuse. ‘Tell the truth’ you are Cher, the most in demand/talked about music artist right now. Whoever is waiting for you, will wait an extra 60 seconds. With your huge crew – you are never ever on time?? There were fans there from Boston who took a day off, from Connecticut and lost a days pay, a fan FROM BELGIUM who flew in to see you, yes Belgium, yet you have turned into the Bette Midler of celebrities, who can’t be bothered to pose 60 seconds for photos for your true fans – or at least even smile! On top of all else, on the day of your CD release no less, you wouldn’t even bother to pose for one decent photo for the press. (The still photo you see of Cher on the internet is of her turning away from the press, a still moment giving the illusion she was cooperative. The press yelled at her: “Cher we need a clean shot!” She would not oblige.) To bite the hand that feeds your 67 year old self is dangerous. Your press and fans are seeing this ugly trend.
Cher – if “I” could turn back time, I would want the non elite, humble, good natured, open eyed, accessible Cher back, not you.
Die hard Cher fans
Cher’s New York appearances on The NBC Morning Today Show and David Letterman left her fans literally out in the cold too. For the Today show, fans camped out overnight 24 hours in advance in the cold to be in front to see her. The Today show people put the overnighters in the third section in the back so you could not see a thing. Who got front row preference? The corporate sponsors and NBC’S lottery winners, not the die-hards who have supported her since the 1960’s and 1970’s. Lady Gaga would not stand for that.
NEW YORK CITY - IN THE WIT OF AN EYE 