More from: David Smiedt
Icons July 2021
Cathy Moriarty: The Bronx Knockout
Cathy Moriarty was perfectly cast as the doe-eyed wife whose cheekbones were no defence against Jake LaMotta’s temper. Originally published in Issue 53 of The Rake, David Smiedt writes that Raging Bull, the 1980 classic, made Moriarty an overnight success, but Hollywood has not been kind to her since.
Style July 2021
BARING HER SOUL
The former model and counterculture figure Nena von Schlebrügge turned her back on the vapidities of fame to pursue a more spiritual calling.
Style April 2021
MYTHBUSTER
Fifty years after her theatrical debut (as a drama student at Yale), Sigourney Weaver remains a torchbearer for an enlightened Hollywood
Style March 2021
FLIRTING WITH LIFE
Originally published in Issue 42 of The Rake, David Smiedt writes that before Lauren Hutton came along, gap-toothed models were about as welcome at a photoshoot as a case of chickenpox. But the all-American cover girl with a boundless lust for life made pretty much anything look cool.
Style December 2020
THE CONQUERING HEROINE: Bebe Buell
Her first four dates on moving to New York were Iggy Pop, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Todd Rundgren. It was the early 1970s: free love reigned, and the singer, muse and model Bebe Buell was queen.
Icons November 2020
Lynda Carter: The original superheroine
Lynda Carter’s classic seventies take on Wonder Woman is the only version worthy of the name. Though not for the reasons we might assume.
Icons October 2020
A history of women racers
Before there was Danica Patrick and Ashley Force Hood, there was Liane Engeman and Shirley ‘Cha Cha’ Muldowney. THE RAKE pays tribute to the women who blazed a trail in motorsport, burning off gallons of sexism and abuse as they did so…
Style September 2020
STAND UP, BE COUNTED: Lena Horne
Lena Horne spent an extraordinary seven decades as a singer, dancer, actress and activist in 20th-century America. What prejudice must she have faced — and faced down. Her epitaph will ring through the ages: ‘Nobody black or white who believes in democracy can stand aside now.’
Icons March 2020
Together Again, Kid
Originally featured in Issue 38 of The Rake, David Smiedt expertly examines how the death of the legendary Lauren Bacall in 2014 shone a new light on her marriage to Humphrey Bogart, evidence that love can conquer all, including the increasingly invasive spotlight of a celebrity couple.
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Debbie Harry: Sylph-Perpetuating Myth
At the height of her punk power, Debbie Harry was lionised as she ironised. But at all times she was in control, a woman whose image was no one’s business but her own.
Icons July 2017
Ingrid Bergman: Swede Disposition
Even in her twilight years, Ingrid Bergman did what she had always done: repelled the Hollywood forces that would judge her, reduce her, control her.
Icons April 2017
The Heart Grows Fonda
She is a libertine, a political and social activist and at the age of 79, Jane Fonda remains her gauntlet-hurling, shit-stirring, couldn’t give a damn self.
