Favorite Pic of the Day for April 16th

Above:
Jess Vill by Tom Saint Clair
-See More Below-

Happy Birthday today April 16th

Happy 36th to Freddie Ljungberg (and his bountiful Easter basket)

Check out more of today's Birthdays HERE:

Coda:

Above: Megan Hilty

NBC's decision to move SMASH to Saturday seems like the show is pretty much dead. It's really too bad, as for the first time, in the last 5 or 6 episodes, the show finally found a direction. The contrasting Musicals, the old and the new have given the show the anchor to properly showcase it's cast. I admit Season 1 was a mess, so much so I never finished watching it. Season 2 began equally as manic, with the hiring of Jennifer Hudson as a ratings grabber mistake that did nothing but weigh the show down. With Hudson's departure however, newer cast members got to shine and with the music moved to supporting the backstage drama, the show finally hit a nice groove. NBC hasn't got much to sing about these days, so it's not a done deal the show is history, but sadly, it is the shows own messy history which has been it's biggest obstacle to overcome.

Below: Andy Mientus & Jeremy Jordan

An Instant Of His Life: Jess Vill by Tom Saint Clair

I was fortunate to be introduced to the work of French photographer Tom Saint Clair while working on the spring edition of tMf. There was a quietness, an intimacy within his images of Guillaume that resonated with me. There were no bells and whistles, just a model, beautifully captured by an artist who knows the key to great photo lays beyond the surface.

'Tom Saint Clair is not looking for fireworks, instead, the French photographer’s goal is to catch the moment, the life, the freshness of the instant with all the spontaneity it offers. Tom Saint Clair’s goal is to capture both the strength as well as the fragility within the models in his images. The Lyon, Rhône-Alpes (Southeast of France) photographer does this by spending time with each model, within their own environment, in order to catch their sensitivity and spontaneity.'
tMf

This intimacy is clearly visible in this shoot with Jess Vill. New to the world of shooting the male nude, Tom's aim is to add his own personal touch to benefit each model he works with. The shoot with Jess was done in the models own apartment in Perpignan, a small city close to the Spanish border. Tom says the purpose of the shoot was to take a an intimate peak into Jess's world and to freeze an instant of his life without the constraints connected to shooting within a studio.

'Jess enjoys life, is comfortable with his body & nudity but also knows what he wants & doesn't want to do. His main strength is to take to the end in what ever activity he has started!'

Tom Saint Clair

Tom Saint Clair on ModelMayhem

Tom Saint Clair Official Site:

Prime Minister Bare

Sometimes posts stem from odd places. The origin of this post comes from the death of The Iron Lady. The death last week of former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had me doing a bit of reading and research. Although a polarizing figure, she certainly was and interesting political figure, maybe someone better to read about than to actually have governing over you. I was going to give Meryl's portrayal another go, but as much as I love her, I found the movie pretty unwatchable. In reading about the Baroness however, another former British PM's name came up from time to time which had me pull out an old copy of The Queen.

I remember when watching The Queen, I was most interested in the hottie playing Tony Blair. Welsh stage and screen actor Michael Sheen has actually played Blair twice, both in The Queen and in The Deal (2003) It wasn't until putting this post together, that I connected Sheen also played Robbie Ross in Wilde (see below) and remember thinking how cute his little ass was when revealed by Stephen Fry in the 1997 flick.

Sheen is a unique actor able to weave between heroic leading men in movies like Underworld and more character driven roles. He has been in huge hits like The Twilight Saga (which I still cannot sit through), Frost/Nixon and television shows like 30 Rock, yet still seems like an unknown. His chameleon quality has served him well as an actor as he can take on big parts in big movies, yet then play smaller, interesting roles on tv and smaller films. I now have a list of Sheen projects I want to see.

Underworld (2009)

Dirty Filthy Love (2004)

Kenneth Williams: Fantabulosa! (2006)

Wilde (1997)