All The News That's Fit To Strip

Rumor has it that Christina Aguilera might shimmy onto the big screen with Burlesque, a film about a modern-day striptease dancer. According to MTV, Steve Antin, whose sister is Pussycat Dolls creator Robin Antin, wrote the script and is reportedly going to direct. Screen Gems, the studio behind the project, has confirmed the movie is in development and is aiming for a January 2010 production start.

In other news ...

Variety artist Scot Nery polishes his craft last week between striptease acts.

Tony-winning choreographer and director Jerry Mitchell unveiled his new Las Vegas spectacle Peepshow this weekend. Former Spice Girl Mel B. portrays "The Peep Diva," who serves as the evening's emcee, and guides "Bo Peep" (portrayed by Dancing with the Stars contestant Kelly Monaco on her search for love.

Rachel Shteir celebrated her birthday and the launch of Gypsy on Friday. Jo Boobs led the affair, which included performances by Dr. Lucky and Catherine D'Lish.

Video of the Week

Zip! It's Gypsy

Much has been written, imagined and sung about Gypsy Rose Lee. Most of if has focused on how Mama Rose pushed Gypsy from a child performer on the vaudeville circuit to "gotta get a gimmick" burlesque star. Now, Rachel Shteir, who wrote a fabulous history of Striptease and the foreword to Gilded Lili, undresses the Gypsy mystery with Gypsy: The Art of the Tease. Shteir's biography follows Gypsy's start, but also looks at her time as a stripper, her botched trip to Hollywood, her transformation into "The Striptease Intellectual" and how she used striptease to sell, well, everything. I can't wait to peel open the book and find out what's revealed.

A Lili By Any Other Name

Ten years ago today, as the neo-burlesque movement began to take off, Lili St. Cyr died. (As an aside, it is also the anniversary of H.L. Menken's death. The writer coined the term ecdysiast) To commemorate the occasion, here's an excerpt from Gilded Lili about Lili's death.

In the January 1999 issue of Playboy, the arbiter of sexiness released their list of the one hundred beautiful women “who made this century sizzle.” The magazine ranked Lili number sixty-nine, ahead of Gypsy Rose Lee at seventy-eight. Her idol Greta Garbo landed at number fifty-one. Not surprisingly, Marilyn Monroe scored the top spot.

At the end of that month, on January 29, 1999 at the age of 81, Lili St. Cyr died of heart failure... While newspapers across the country and around the world mourned her death and heralded the former striptease dancer, only four people attended her funeral. Obituaries in papers like the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Independent in London, Time magazine, and Variety recounted her routines, run-ins with the law, and mentioned her connection to Marilyn Monroe.

In one memorial, a reporter for The Guardian wrote, "They don’t make entertainers like Lili St. Cyr ... any more. The sincerity of Miss St. Cyr (say the name quickly) was what people came to see. Or at least, that was what her fans liked to believe. She was an artiste, a delightful character who practiced her art, well, sincerely; a charming lady who did everything in the very best taste."

Award-winning poet Dorothy Barresi composed an elegy for Lili. In "Glass Dress," a poem included in Barresi’s book Rouge Pulp, she wrote:
"Lili St. Cyr is dead.
No tassel-twirling, minimum wage girl.
No discount moon,
no languishing feminine ruses.
She teases the illimitable body,
Marilyn before Marilyn,
Jayne before Jayne."

Today in BurlyQ History

In the January 1999 issue of Playboy, the magazine released their list of the one hundred beautiful women “who made this century sizzle.” Lili St. Cyr ranked number sixty-nine, ahead of Gypsy Rose Lee at seventy-eight. Not surprisingly, Marilyn Monroe scored the top spot. At the end of that month, on January 29, 1999 at the age of 81, Lili St. Cyr died of heart failure.

Newspapers like The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Independent in London, Time magazine, and Variety included obituaries which recounted her routines, run-ins with the law, and mentioned her connection to Marilyn Monroe. (As an aside, most got her birth date wrong. She was born in 1917, not 1918.)

In one memorial, a reporter for The Guardian wrote, "They don’t make entertainers like Lili St. Cyr . . . any more. The sincerity of Miss St. Cyr (say the name quickly) was what people came to see. Or at least, that was what her fans liked to believe. She was an artiste, a delightful character who practiced her art, well, sincerely; a charming lady who did everything in the very best taste."