 Newspaper View
 Print
 Email
 Comment
 RSS
 Bookmark
If you would like to bookmark this article you will need to Login to your tulsaworld.com account
close
Game on: Oklahoma vs. Texas Hollywood style
Bedlam matchups cross the state line and into la-la land.
Reba McEntire heads the special team that can sing and act its way to the championship.
By MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Published: 10/16/2009 2:20 AM
Last Modified: 10/16/2009 3:47 PM
Oklahoma has produced many Hollywood stars. Texas has produced more.
But let's say that Oklahoma quality trumps Texas quantity in performers, and then let's see what happens in the Cotton Bowl on Saturday for some real bragging rights.
The following is a just-for-fun face-off between Oklahoma and Texas' finest actors. If the deck looks like we stacked it a little in favor of us north of the Red River, well, we're only doing what the Sooners hope to do to the Longhorns: exploiting the matchups.
Boomer Sooner.
STATE MUSICAL
The matchup: The
corn is as high as
an elephant’s eye in
“Oklahoma!” a nearperfect
film musical
thanks to Agnes de
Mille’s choreography
and sublime
performances by
Gloria Grahame (Ado Annie)
and Rod Steiger (Jud Fry).
All we can say about “The
Best Little Whorehouse in
Texas” is that Dolly Parton
certainly has a certain, you
know, something, but Burt
Reynolds out-boobs everyone
in that picture.
EDGE: Oklahoma!
SINGER-TURNED ACTOR
The matchup: Many have found fame
behind a microphone and searched
for more in front of a camera. Texans
can offer up Beyonce, Jessica Simpson
and Hilary Duff — none of whom
can act their way out of a recording
studio. Oklahoma has Reba McEntire,
a marvel with comic timing, and then
there’s the brilliant, beautiful Kristin
Chenoweth. Yes, we love her, and now
so do the people at the Emmy Awards.
EDGE: Oklahoma
COMIC WIT
The matchup: Oklahoma favorite son
Will Rogers, beloved by the American
public as well as the politicians he
ribbed, died in a plane crash at age
55 as one of the top film stars of the
1930s, in the early years of talkies.
Steve Martin, the Waco kid beloved
by the American public for close to 40
years, has proven his talents in several
arenas, from stand-up to movies to
playwrighting to banjo playing.
EDGE: Even.
OSCAR-WINNING ACTORS
The matchup: Oklahoma has
Jennifer Jones (born in Tulsa),
Ben Johnson (Osage County
near Foraker) and Van Heflin
(Walters). Texas claims Tommy
Lee Jones, Forest Whitaker, Joan
Crawford, Jamie Foxx and Sissy
Spacek. Everything is bigger in
Texas, especially the population,
and they win the numbers game.
Barely.
EDGE: Texas
RISING STAR 30 AND UNDER
The matchup: Tulsa boy Bill
Hader voiced the lead character
in the No. 1 animated hit “Cloudy
With a Chance of Meatballs,”
his sixth $100 million-grossing
picture in the last 30 months. He
makes movies with his “Saturday
Night Live” co-stars, Ben Stiller’s
“frat pack” and Judd Apatow’s
gang. Harlingen, Texas, native
Nick Stahl made noise as the lead
in both “Terminator 3” and the
HBO series “Carnivale,” and he
played a key role in “Sin City,” but
it’s been a quiet couple of years.
EDGE: Oklahoma
FUNNY LADY
The matchup: We could try
throwing out Healdton native
Rue McClanahan — buh-dumpbump
— as leading comedy lady
from Oklahoma, but Texas has
Carol Burnett, hailing from San
Antonio,. She is only the funniest
woman of the last 50 years this
side of Lucille Ball. Game over.
EDGE: Texas
LOVABLE RASCAL AT HOME
WITH COMEDY OR DRAMA
The matchup: You don’t find an
actor more amiable and charming
than James Garner. The Norman
boy who grew up to be Maverick,
Jim Rockford and a movie star
bleeds both crimson and cream.
You know what fellow reminds
of Garner in the present day?
Dennis Quaid, the Houston-born
star who seems like the kind of
guy with whom Garner would sit
down and have a beer.
EDGE: Even
GREAT FILMS
The matchup: Oklahoma was
the setting of one of the earliest
winners of the Academy
Award for best picture with
“Cimarron,” but the list dries up
after a handful of films, and few
were special. Texas has “Giant,”
chainsaw massacres, “JFK,” last
picture shows and “The Searchers,”
among so many others. It’s
no country for old men, but longhorn
country is home to great
movies. Dang you, Texas.
EDGE: Texas
GUY YOU DON’T MESS WITH
The matchup: Joe Don Baker was
“Walking Tall” as Sheriff Buford
Pusser, wielding that hickory
stick, but the Texas boy went soft
and pudgy years ago. Everybody
knows that Chuck Norris, born in
the little southern Oklahoma town
of Ryan, could wipe the floor with
Baker then and now at age 69.
EDGE: Oklahoma
Michael Smith 581-8479
michael.smith@tulsaworld.com
By MICHAEL SMITH World Scene Writer
Newspaper View
Print
Email
Comment
RSS
Bookmark
If you would like to bookmark this article you will need to Login to your tulsaworld.com account
close
 |
|
