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2013 ➤ Bowie’s psychodrama The Stars mocks the rockiness of godliness

Posted on 27 Feb 2013 | Leave a comment

[Video NSFW]

❚ WHAT A FRISKY, UNSETTLING VIDEO David Bowie has created for this year’s second single, The Stars (Are Out Tonight). It’s hard to tell who’s doing what to whom in this sexy Rocky Horror homage on the theme of celebrity stalking.

The souls of a happily married suburban couple are haunted by the neighbours, a tantalising pair of godlike and androgynous celebrity sirens played by supermodels Andrej Pejic and Saskia De Brauw, who have been cast from Bowie’s 70s character moulds. The story sees wifey, played by Tilda Swinton, morph into another early Bowie lookalike, which has often seemed to be her destiny. Dave himself ends up in mindless zombie mode despite his protective bemused face, the me-looking-at-me double-take, first clocked in his 2003 Vittel TV commercial.

David Bowie,The Stars (Are Out Tonight),video,Floria Sigismondi, Andrej Pejic

Even today, it’s brave that gender-bending role-play is the medium for The Stars’ saga of corruption, depicted with a cold eroticism appropriate to the zeitgeist. That we’re led astray by ambivalent naked body parts in a pseudo-Hitchcockian psychodrama is eye-popping. On top of which, this absorbing, elegant mini-movie by Floria Sigismondi makes flesh of a rocking melody and an intelligent song, delivered with classic Bowie vocals. (Here, musically, is another echo from 2003’s album Reality, which was widely under-rated.) The weirdo video for The Stars is all of a piece: it’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s creepy and it’s funny.

Also: Dave is sporting a proper set of glam teeth and NO evidence of a turkey neck at 66. So unfair.

David Bowie,The Stars (Are Out Tonight),video,Floria Sigismondi

➢ The Stars on sale at iTunes

➢ 2013, Shock and awe verdicts on Bowie’s born-again masterpiece – Shapersofthe80s rounds up verdicts on Where Are We Now?

1970 ➤ Where to draw a line between glitter and glam:
naff blokes in Bacofoil versus starmen with pretensions
— analysis by Shapersofthe80s

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➤ FHM says “Pass the sick bucket” after readers vote Andrej Pejic one of the “Sexiest Women”

Posted on 31 May 2011 | Leave a comment

Pejic wears Tina Kalivas. Photography © Stephen Ward for oystermag.com

❚ THE US EDITION OF FHM magazine has posted an apology on its website for publishing offensive remarks about the 19-year-old Australian male model Andrej Pejic. Readers had voted him number 98 on its list, “100 Sexiest Women in the World 2011”, ahead of Lady Gaga. Following publication three weeks ago, yesterday the mag finally removed his online profile after complaints about its anti-gender-bender stance on the Haus of Andrej Pejic blog.

The original FHM text published May 5 [see below] written by the mag’s evidently chauvinist editors was indeed downright insulting, considering that Pejic’s androgynous appearance (stats: 6ft 2in tall, 36-in waist, UK shoe size 10) had after all caught the fancy of FHM’s metrosexual readers in the first place.

Headed “Why we love Andrej Pejic”, the online text read: “Although his sexual identity is ambiguous, designers are hailing him as the next big thing. We think ‘thing’ is quite accurate. Tall, skinny and flat-chested . . . the blonde gender-bender has jumped the gun in hoping he might one day be signed as a Victoria’s Secret Model (Pass the sick bucket).” [Victoria’s Secret is a US retailer of chic and sexy women’s clothing.]

FHM’s apology blamed slackness in its own ranks: “Regrettably the copy accompanying Andrej’s online entry wasn’t subbed [ie, checked] prior to going live. FHM has taken steps to ensure this can never happen again.”

Dossier Journal, Andrej Pejic, censorship

In an earlier Pejic controversy, Huffington Post asked on May 16: Should this cover be censored? — 31% said Yes! Too racy for the magazine rack. 69% said No! It’s a shirtless guy. Big deal. (Dossier cover art by Collier Schorr)

FHM’s editorial debacle follows a separate anti-Pejic episode mid-month when Dossier Journal’s cover pictured the model wearing his blond hair rolled in curlers while removing his shirt. Elle.com reported: “News-stands are covering the image for being too risqué. Little do they know they’re censoring the image of a shirtless man. Katherine Krause, Dossier’s Editor-In-Chief, says that bookstores have been made aware of Pejic’s gender but will move forward with the censoring. What’s more, it’s Dossier’s financial responsibility to pay for the black poly bags with which their distribution people must cover the magazines.”

Bosnian-born Pejic told New York magazine’s Party Lines: “The question really isn’t the gender of the person on the cover, it’s whether it’s porn or it’s art. And clearly, it’s art, so art really should not be censored in a democratic society.”