Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Yair Lapid : A Rough Ride Education


Yair Lapid

In his first year in office he learned how to be a finance minister. Now he's learning how to be a politician.

"Politicians must be allowed to panic. They need activity. It is their substitute for achievement." - Sir Humphrey Appleby

This week’s meeting of the ministerial committee on housing was, on the face of it, a triumph for Finance Minister Yair Lapid. But if anything, it signaled the end of Lapid as we have known him. We are unlikely to be better off for it.

True to his promise to rescue the middle class and ride roughshod over treasury mandarins if need be, young couples (so long as they served in the army, work, have children and don’t plan to spend more than 1.6 million shekels ($456,000)) will be exempt from the value-added tax when they buy a new home.

Officials were aghast and one – chief economist, Michael Sarel – resigned loudly in protest. But Lapid was determined to act. The middle class is crying out to him over the high cost of housing, and he needed a solution that would show instant results.

The housing committee approved the VAT exemption on Monday, along with a package of other home-price-cutting measures.

It’s easy to attack the plan, and no one has hesitated in doing so.

Conventional wisdom correctly says that home prices are climbing because not enough homes are being built to meet demand. The VAT exemption will do nothing to increase the housing stock, but it will almost certainly pump up demand for homes by lowering prices, enabling people who were priced out of the market to get in, and making it easier for buyers to qualify for mortgages.

It will require a complicated regulatory regime to monitor prices and crack down on the black market that will inevitably develop. It will cost the government some 3 billion shekels in lost revenues, which will have to be made up with either higher taxes or reduced spending.

The best that can be said for the idea is that because so few homes and so few people will qualify, it will have little impact on the real estate market at all. In the greater Tel Aviv area, a buyer today would have to search far and wide to find an apartment for 1.6 million shekels or less; even further afield there are relatively few, because contractors prefer to build bigger units that fetch higher prices.

But the important thing about the VAT exemption from the point of view of Lapid is that it attracted a lot more attention than any of the more serious (but unfortunately more complicated) plans to contain housing prices.

Even the tidal wave of criticism did more good for Lapid the politician than any of those other proposals did for Lapid the finance minister. He enjoyed several days of media attention, got to eloquently answer his critics on Facebook, and was able to portray himself as fighting for the little man.

“There are economists, politicians and special interests opposed to lowering VAT. That’s fine because lowering VAT isn’t aimed at economists, politicians or special interests. It’s aimed at the middle class young, who have served in the army, work hard, raise children with love and can’t get through the month,” he wrote on his Facebook page. A politician of the people engaged in combat for every man and woman reading his post, who of course works hard, loves his or her children, etc.

And so now we are witnessing the fall of Yair Lapid.

Capturing the zeitgeist

Lapid’s first 12 months as finance minister marked his rise. Here was a man who hadn’t pursued politics as a career and showed convincing empathy for Israel’s great middle class, even if he himself as a media celebrity didn’t personally share in the concerns and worries of ordinary people.

He captured the zeitgeist of the times during last year’s elections, when economic concerns for a change eclipsed the usual preoccupation with the Palestinians and security, with his demand to know “Where’s the money?”

It’s funny to think that he hadn’t wanted to take over the Finance Ministry at all – though that’s where the money is – and only accepted the post when nothing better was offered.

The fact is, he had no idea where the money was at all. He was an economic neophyte whose ideas on policy were of the level of someone taking over the Foreign Ministry on the principal that we should all stop fighting and learn to be nice to one another.

Remember that early Facebook post where he tells the treasury staff that their job is to be watching out for the middle class? As a good pundit, he even gave it a name – the now infamous (and imaginary) working mother Riki Cohen of Hadera. “I told them, ‘We sit here day after day, talking about balancing the budget. Our job is not to balance Excel spreadsheets, but to help Mrs. Cohen, because she is the one who helps us. It is because of people like Mrs. Cohen that the state exists.”

As if economic policy is so simple. Of course, it isn’t. The budget was, in fact, way out of balance as Lapid learned when he took office, so rather than coming to the aid of Mrs. Cohen, Lapid spent nights pouring over spreadsheets figuring out how much he had to raise taxes and cut spending.

To his credit, he didn’t try to wiggle out of the problem. He fended off his critics, who unfairly accused him of selling out his voters, and took steps that were anathema to a seasoned politician.

Today, far from a budget crisis, the treasury is awash in revenues. In response, Lapid cancelled some tax hikes scheduled for this year, again being slammed for flip-flopping – and again, unjustifiably.

But throughout this fiscal storm, Lapid was indeed acting on his campaign promises. He fought hard for the law drafting the ultra-Orthodox and backed the law introducing more competition into the food industry. Both pieces of legislation are flawed, but they are a step in the right direction. Lapid eschewed conventional politics and had grown into the office he held.

A creature of politics

The VAT exemption appears to be the start of Lapid’s fall. The plan is a creature of politics, not of policy. It aims more at giving the appearance of doing something rather than actually doing something. It was borne more out of panic of the type that Sir Humphrey Appleby, the caricature of a high-level government mandarin in the British television series “Yes, Minister,” observes characterizes politicians.

Lapid can only look at a Channel 2 scorecard this month, based on a poll of 503 people. He ranked 27th for performance among cabinet ministers. Coping with crises and taking the trouble to patiently steer legislation through the cabinet and Knesset doesn’t win you the affection that an easily understandable, well-timed (albeit useless) initiative does.

In retrospect, the budget crisis was oversold and probably didn’t require imposing quite as much as pain it did. That bitter experience may have taught him that politics is a better guide to running the Finance Ministry than listening to the officials who are there to advise him. If so, Lapid will not be the only loser from this lesson: we all will be.
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Saturday, 29 March 2014

Jane Russell



Jane Russell


Ernestine Jane Geraldine Russell (June 21, 1921 – February 28, 2011),[3] generally known as Jane Russell, was an American film actress, and was one of Hollywood's leading sex symbols in the 1940s and 1950s.
Russell moved from the Midwest to California, where she had her first film role in 1943 with The Outlaw. In 1947 Russell delved into music before returning to films. After starring in multiple films in the 1950s, Russell again returned to music while completing several other films in the 1960s. She starred in more than 20 films throughout her career.
Russell married three times, adopted three children, and in 1955 founded the World Adoption International Fund. She received several accolades for her achievements in films, including having her hand- and footprints immortalized in the forecourt ofGrauman's Chinese Theatre, and having a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Early life

Jane Russell with Bob Hope in 1944
Born in Bemidji, Minnesota,[4] Russell was the eldest child and only daughter of the five children of Roy William Russell (January 5, 1890 – July 18, 1937) and Geraldine Jacobi (January 2, 1891 – December 26, 1986). Her brothers are Thomas (born 1924), Kenneth (born 1925), Jamie (born 1927) and Wallace (born 1929).[5]
Her father had been a First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army, and her mother an actress with a road troupe.[6] Later the family moved to Southern California and her father worked as an office manager.[4]
Russell's mother arranged for her to take piano lessons. In addition to music, she was interested in drama and participated in stage productions at Van Nuys High School.[7] Her early ambition was to be a designer of some kind, until the death of her father at forty-six, when she decided to work as a receptionist after graduation. She also modeled for photographers and, at the urging of her mother, studied drama and acting with Max Reinhardt's Theatrical Workshop and with Russian actress Maria Ouspenskaya.[4]

Career[edit]

The Outlaw

Russell in The Outlaw
In 1940 Russell was signed to a seven-year contract by film mogul, Howard Hughes,[8] and made her motion-picture debut in The Outlaw (1943), a story about Billy the Kid that went to great lengths to showcase her voluptuous figure. Although the movie was completed in 1941, it was not released until 1943 in a limited release. It finally was released to a wide distribution in 1946. There were problems with the censorship of the production code over the way her amplecleavage was displayed. When the movie was finally passed, it had a general release in 1946. During that time she was kept busy doing publicity and became known nationally.[9] Contrary to countless incorrect reports in the media since the release of The Outlaw, Russell did not wear the specially designed underwire bra that Howard Hughes had designed and made for her to wear during filming. According to Jane's 1985 autobiography, she said the bra was so uncomfortable that she secretly discarded it and wore her own bra with the cups padded with tissue and the straps pulled up to elevate her breasts.[10][11]
With measurements of 38D-24-36 and standing 5'7" (97-61-91 cm and 1.7 meters), Russell was more statuesque than most of her contemporaries. Her favorite co-star Bob Hope once introduced her as "the two and only Jane Russell." He also joked, "Culture is the ability to describe Jane Russell without moving your hands." Howard Hughes said, "There are two good reasons why men go to see her. Those are enough." A publicity still for the movie showed her lying on a pile of straw, her blouse wide open showing ample cleavage and stretched tight across her voluptuous breasts. Her right hand was behind her head of black hair and her left hand held a revolver.[9] The image was a popular pin-up photo with servicemen during World War II. She did not appear in another movie until 1946 when she played Joan Kenwood in Young Widow for RKO.
Speaking about her sex appeal, Jane Russell said, "Sex appeal is good—but not in bad taste. Then it's ugly. I don't think a star has any business posing in a vulgar way. I've seen plenty of pin-up pictures that have sex appeal, interest,and allure, but they're not vulgar. They have a little art to them. Marilyn's calendar was artistic."[12][13]

Early musical ventures

With Dorothy Lamour, Bing Crosby, andBob Hope
In 1947, Russell attempted to launch a musical career. She sang with the Kay Kyser Orchestra on radio and recorded two singles with his band, "As Long As I Live" and "Boin-n-n-ng!" She also cut a 78 rpm album that year for Columbia Records, Let's Put Out the Lights,which included eight torch ballads and cover art that included a diaphanous gown that for once put the focus more on her legs than on her breasts. In a 2009 interview for the liner notes to another CD, Fine and Dandy, Russell denounced the Columbia album as "horrible and boring to listen to." It was reissued on CD in 2002, in a package that also included the Kyser singles and two songs she recorded for Columbia in 1949 that had gone unreleased at the time. In 1950, she recorded a single, "Kisses and Tears," with Frank Sinatra and TheModernaires for Columbia.
Jane Russell as Dorothy Shaw inGentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

Motion-picture stardom

Monroe and Russell in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
She performed in an assortment of movie roles. She played Calamity Jane opposite Bob Hope in The Paleface (1948) on loan out toParamount, and Mike "the Torch" Delroy opposite Hope in another western comedy, Son of Paleface (1952), again at Paramount. Russell played Dorothy Shaw in the hit film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) opposite Marilyn Monroe for 20th Century Fox.

1950s

She appeared in two movies opposite Robert Mitchum, His Kind of Woman (1951) andMacao (1952). Other co-stars include Frank Sinatra and Groucho Marx in the comedyDouble Dynamite (1951); Victor Mature, Vincent Price and Hoagy Carmichael in The Las Vegas Story (1952);Jeff Chandler in Foxfire (1955); and Clark Gable and Robert Ryan in The Tall Men (1955).
In Howard Hughes's RKO production The French Line (1954), the movie's penultimate moment showed Russell in a form-fitting one-piece bathing suit with strategic cutouts, performing a then-provocative musical number titled "Lookin' for Trouble." In her autobiography, Russell said that the revealing outfit was an alternative to Hughes' original suggestion of a bikini, a very racy choice for a movie costume in 1954. Russell said that she initially wore the bikini in front of her "horrified" movie crew while "feeling very naked."
In 1955, Russell and her first husband, former Los Angeles Rams quarterback Bob Waterfield, formed Russ-Field Productions. They produced Gentlemen Marry Brunettes(1955), The King and Four Queens (1956) starring Clark Gable and Eleanor Parker,Run for the Sun (1956) and The Fuzzy Pink Nightgown (1957), which was a box-office failure.[6] She also starred in Gentlemen Marry Brunettes alongside Jeanne Crain, and in The Revolt of Mamie Stover(1956).[6]
Marilyn Monroe and Russell putting signatures, hand and foot prints in cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, 1953

Return to music

On the musical front, Russell formed a gospel quartet in 1954, with three other members of a faith-sharing group called the Hollywood Christian Group. The other original members were Connie Haines,Beryl Davis, and Della Russell. Haines was a former vocalist in theHarry James and Tommy Dorsey orchestras, while Davis was aBritish emigrant who had moved to the U.S. after success entertaining American troops stationed in England during World War II. Della Russell was the wife of crooner Andy Russell. Backed by an orchestra conducted by Lyn Murray, their Coral single "Do Lord" reached number 27 on the Billboard singles chart in May 1954, selling two million copies. Della Russell, no relation to Jane, soon left the group, but Jane, Haines and Davis followed up with a trio LPfor Capitol Records, The Magic of Believing.[14] Later, another Hollywood bombshell, Rhonda Fleming, joined them for more gospel recordings. The Capitol LP was issued on CD in 2008, in a package that also included the Coral singles by the original quartet and two tracks with Fleming replacing Della Russell. A collection of some of Russell's gospel and secular recordings was issued on CD in Britain in 2005, and it includes more secular recordings, including Russell's spoken word performances of Hollywood Riding Hood and Hollywood Cinderella backed by a jazz group that featured Terry Gibbs and Tony Scott.[15]
In October 1957, she debuted in a successful solo nightclub act at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. She also fulfilled later engagements in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, South America and Europe. A self-titled solo LP was issued on MGM Records in 1959. It was reissued on CD in 2009 under the title Fine and Dandy,and the CD included some demo and soundtrack recordings as well. "I finally got to make a record the way I wanted to make it," she said of the MGM album in the liner notes to the CD reissue. In 1959, she debuted with a tour ofJanus in New England, performed in Skylark and also starred in Bells Are Ringing at the Westchester Town House in Yonkers, New York.[16][17]

Silver-screen decline

Her next movie appearance came in Fate Is the Hunter (1964), in which she was seen as herself performing for the USO in a flashback sequence. She made only four more movies after that, playing character parts in the final two. In 1995, she co-starred with Charlton Heston, Peter Graves, Mickey Rooney and Deborah Winters in the Warren Chaney docudrama, America: A Call to Greatness.[18]
In 1999, she remarked, "Why did I quit movies? Because I was getting too old! You couldn't go on acting in those years if you were an actress over 30."[19]

Other venues

In 1971, she starred in the musical drama Company, making her debut on Broadway in the role of Joanne, succeeding Elaine Stritch. Russell performed the role of Joanne for almost six months. Also in the 1970s, she started appearing in television commercials as a spokeswoman for Playtex "'Cross-Your-Heart Bras' for us full-figured gals", featuring the "18-Hour Bra," still one of International Playtex's best-known products even as of early March 2011. She wrote an autobiography in 1985, Jane Russell: My Path and My Detours. In 1989, she received the Women's International Center (WIC) Living Legacy Award.[6]
Russell's hand- and footprints are immortalized at Grauman's Chinese Theatre[20] and she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6850 Hollywood Boulevard.[21]
Russell was voted one of the 40 Most Iconic Movie Goddesses of all time in 2009 by Glamour (UK edition).[22]

Portrayals

Russell was portrayed by Renee Henderson in the 2001 CBS mini-series Blonde, based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates and portrayed leaving her imprints at Grauman's along with Marilyn Monroe in the HBO film Norma Jean & Marilyn starring Ashley Judd andMira Sorvino.

Personal life[

Russell had three husbands: Bob Waterfield, (a UCLA All American, Cleveland Rams quarterback, Los Angeles Rams quarterback, Los Angeles Rams head coach, and Pro Football Hall of Fame member (married on April 24, 1943, then divorced in July 1968)); actor Roger Barrett, (married on August 25, 1968, until his death of a heart attack on November 18, 1968); and the real-estate broker John Calvin Peoples (married January 31, 1974 until his death from heart failure[23] on April 9, 1999). Russell and Peoples lived in Sedona, Arizona for a few years, but spent the majority of their married life residing in Montecito, California.
At age 18, she became pregnant while dating her high school sweetheart, Bob Waterfield, who in 1943 became her first husband. Russell went to a back-street abortionist. "I had a botched abortion and it was terrible. Afterwards my own doctor said: 'What butcher did this to you?' I had to be taken to hospital. I was so ill I nearly died." The abortion left her infertile and for the remainder of her life she believed that abortion was wrong under any circumstances, even rape or incest.[3] She described herself as "vigorously pro-life".[24]
In February 1952, she and Waterfield adopted a baby girl, Tracy. In December 1952, they adopted a fifteen-month-old boy, Thomas, whose birth mother, Hannah McDermott had moved to London to escape poverty in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and in 1956 she and Waterfield adopted a nine-month-old boy, Robert John. In 1955 she founded World Adoption International Fund (WAIF), an organization to place children with adoptive families and which pioneered adoptions from foreign countries by Americans.[25] At the height of her career, Russell started the "Hollywood Christian Group," a weekly Bible study at her home which was attended by many of the leading names in the film industry.[9]
In the 2013 film Philomena, it is strongly implied that Russell may have adopted--or even bought-- a child from the same tainted Sean Ross Abbey in Ireland featured in this true-life movie. But this is refuted in at least one recent British report, which states that in the mid-1950s, Russell and her husband "rather informally adopted a son from a woman living in London, but originating in Londonderry, Northern Ireland. There was a major scandal and a court case, after which Russell was allowed to formalise the adoption."[26]
In 1953 she tried to convert Marilyn Monroe during the filming of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes; Monroe later said "Jane tried to convert me (to religion) and I tried to introduce her to Freud".[25] Russell appeared occasionally on the Praise The Lord program on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, a Christian television channel based in Costa Mesa, California. In 1995, she starred with Charlton Heston,Mickey Rooney and Deborah Winters in the Warren Chaney production, America: A Call to Greatness.[27] Russell was a prominent supporter of the Republican Party wand attended Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration along with other notables from Hollywood such asLou Costello, Dick Powell, June Allyson, Anita Louise and Louella Parsons. She was a recovering alcoholic who had gone into rehab at the age of 79 and described herself in a 2003 interview as "These days I am a teetotal, mean-spirited, right-wing, narrow-minded, conservative Christian bigot, but not a racist."[4][28] Russell resided in the Santa Maria Valley along the Central Coast of California. She died at her home in Santa Maria[23] of a respiratory-related illness on February 28, 2011.[25][29] She is survived by three children: Thomas Waterfield, Tracy Foundas and Robert Waterfield.[3] Her funeral was held on March 12, 2011 at Pacific Christian Church, Santa Maria.[23][30]

Filmography

References

  1. Jump up^ Gates, Anita (February 28, 2011). "Jane Russell, Star of Westerns, Dies at 89". The New York Times. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  2. Jump up^ Michael Caine (2010) The Elephant to Hollywood, Hachette UK.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star Jane Russell dies aged 89". The Mail Online (London). March 1, 2011. Retrieved March 1, 2011.
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Anita Gates (February 28, 2011). "Jane Russell, Sultry Star of 1940s and '50s, Dies at 89". New York Times. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  5. Jump up^ Yahoo biography
  6. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Duane Byrge (February 28, 2011). "'Gentlemen Prefer Blondes' Star Jane Russell DIes". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  7. Jump up^ Kevin Roderick (February 28, 2011). "Jane Russell, movie sex symbol was 89". LA Observed. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  8. Jump up^ "Biography for Jane Russell". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  9. ^ Jump up to:a b c Thornton, Michael (March 2, 2011). "The siren with the TWO greatest assets in Tinseltown: Behind the sex-goddess image of Jane Russell was a very different woman". Daily Mail Online. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  10. Jump up^ "Jane Russell". The Economist. 12 March 2011. p. 101.
  11. Jump up^ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/celebrity-obituaries/8354053/Jane-Russell.html |quote=A joke at that time was that "Culture is the ability to describe Jane Russell without moving your hands."
  12. Jump up^ "Bombshell Makeup". Retrieved 31 December 2011.
  13. Jump up^ Stover, Laren; Burdette, Nicole (2001). The Bombshell Manual of Style (Illustrations by Ruben Toledo ed.). New York: Hyperion. p. 190. ISBN 978-0-7868-6694-6. p. 13
  14. Jump up^ "Jane Russell, Connie Haines, Rhonda Fleming, Beryl Davis, Della Russell Feel The Spirit". Jasmine Records. Retrieved 2011-03-01.
  15. Jump up^ "The Magic of Believing". Sepia Records. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  16. Jump up^ Richard Natale (February 28, 2011). "Jane Russell dies at 89". Variety. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  17. Jump up^ Film in review, Volume14. National Board of Review of Motion Pictures. 1963. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  18. Jump up^ Internet Movie Database (America: A Call to Greatness)[1]
  19. Jump up^ The net-site Yahoo!quoted her as having made the remarks the day after her death.
  20. Jump up^ "Actresses Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell putting signatures, hand and foot prints in cement at Grauman's Theater, 1953(photo)". UCLA Library Archives. UCLA Library. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  21. Jump up^ Claudis Luther (March 2, 2011). "Jane Russell". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 28, 2011.
  22. Jump up^ From Marilyn to Julia, Audrey to Angelina – the most iconic beauties from the silver screen. GlamourMagazine.Co.UK, Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  23. ^ Jump up to:a b c Hollywood screen siren Jane Russell dies
  24. Jump up^ "Legendary GI pin-up Jane Russell dies at 89". Vancouver Sun. AFP. March 1, 2011.
  25. ^ Jump up to:a b c "Buxom actress Jane Russell dead at 89". Reuters.Retrieved April 6, 2011
  26. Jump up^ Von Tunzelmann, Alex. "Philomena: nun too sloppy when it comes to the facts". 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited. Retrieved 20 January 2014.
  27. Jump up^ Internet Movie Database (America: A Call to Greatness) [2]
  28. Jump up^ "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes star Jane Russell dies at 89" 1 March 2011 Guardian
  29. Jump up^ "Hollywood star Jane Russell dies at 89". BBC News. March 1, 2011.
  30. Jump up^ Rogers, John (February 28, 2011). "Jane Russell Star of '40s and '50s films dies at 89". Legacy.Com (Associated Press). Retrieved September 16, 2012.

Bibliography

  • Jane Russell (1985). Jane Russell: My Path and Detours. New York, NY: Random House. ISBN 978-0-517-67208-2.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jane Russell.
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