The Morning Midway, Tweet! Tweet! Judy, Stop Singing and Get Help! ...

Am reading a great tome, Vincente Minnelli: Hollywood's Dark Dreamer, fresh off the presses by Emanuel Levy. Highly recommended to readers of such stuff. Minnelli directed hands down the top three singing-dancing flicks out of Hollywood: -- Gigi, The Bandwagon, American in Paris.He, a "bisexual" (oh, sure) but really a homosexual, married volatile Judy Garland, then a pill-popping star star star who, once wed to a lovingly dotting Vincente, gradually self-transferred into a psycho wreck, jealous of her husband's rich attention (sexual, she dreaded) to Gene Kelly on the ill-fated bomb, The Pirate, convinced he downplayed her part, when in fact, this great director for a spell, it seems, loving Judy and wanting to be a family man (or was that another script self-directed???) did everything he could for his wife, down whose young throat Metro had stuffed pills to keep her working ...

Tweety bias? Author shades the story in Minnelli's favor as good husband, making Judy look like a big monstrous problem, and when they've about split up and the story is moving on, post Judy, then Levy briefly in passing mentions that "throughout" their marriage made in MGM-land, the husband engaged in "his homosexual liaisons discretely..." Gosh, and now you're just getting around to telling us, Mr. Author? I wonder if poor Judy did not soon feel a tad abandoned? And perhaps just as used as when she'd been medicated morning noon and night by her movie bosses? No wonder she cracked up in Hollywood home bathroom, complete with tepid throat slitting (requiring afterward only a band-aid) when MGM dumped her for standing them up on Annie Get Your Gun. The spectacular split between Minnelli and Garland cries out for a film ... I'm still reading, half way through. Made in Culver City.

Jay Leno should return from whence he came, for at 10 PM, other than his lively opening monologue, what a drag he is on all worn-out cylinders ... Letterman will have competition again, and NBC ("never believe your contract," per Jay) still has to deal with, if not dump stupidly irritating and very unfunny Conan, who never should have been inserted anywhere ...

Will Cole Bros. (John Pugh version) tour? I'm looking for 2010 evidence. See there's another one called Billy Martin's Cole's Circus with stars. My, my, tweet tweet, amazing how he gets away with it...