It was not that picture that defined the era, but this one:

The product, called Royal Honey VIP, has recently gone viral for its reported effect on sexual performance.

I suppose that effect is not a myth. The product includes tadalafil (brand name Cialis). Not only is the effect real, but it appears to be intentional. The FDA previously warned against similar Kingdom Honey products that contained sildenafil (brand name Viagra).

Yeah, that should sell some honey. You might say their sales are rising.

These are prescription drugs, and the ingredients are not declared by the manufacturer.

Family drama series from France. One reviewer noted: “The complete darkness of De Grâce is in fact something rare, and it is difficult to imagine a US series going this far in pessimism.”

Something rare? I agree with his point about the USA, but is it rare in France? Isn’t pessimism really their whole thing? Our nation’s animal symbol is an eagle. Theirs is Eeyore.

Defoe’s film clip can be found here.

AKA “Monika”

In my post about Pier Angeli in “Addio, Alexandra,” I mentioned that Pier’s co-star, Collete Descombes, had done a full-frontal outdoor skinny-dipping scene in La Ragazzina.

Here it is.

The DVD for La Ragazzina is actually worth watching if 1970s Eurocrap interests you. The film is a typical “B” offering from Italy in that period: sleazy guys wearing dark sunglasses and mustaches; innocent young girls; jaded rich women; lots of close-ups of eyes; an unusual musical score; overuse of the zoom lens. But at least the plot is comprehensible and some of the dialogue, at least in translation, has a little touch of wit. The DVD images are reasonably sharp, and the colors are quite vivid for a 50-year-old film.

As for Colette, she seems to have disappeared from the film industry in 1978 at age 35, and neither IMDb nor Wikipedia seems to know what happened to her.

In addition to the two films mentioned above, she had a brief nude scene in the 1969 Carroll Baker giallo, “Orgasmo.” Those are her only three nude performances that I know of, but I would not be surprised if there are more, given the nature of European “B” movies in that era.

The actual star of La Ragazzina film is Eurocrap legend Gloria Guida – in her film debut at 18 or 19!!

Unlike Madchen Amick and Sherilyn Fenn, Sheryl Lee never broke through with an all-time classic nude scene, but damn, did she do a lot of them! Her first one was in 1992, in the Twin Peaks prequel film. That was certainly appropriate since David Lynch discovered her. For the Twin Peaks series, Lynch needed a dead woman wrapped in plastic who would also appear in some grainy, silent home movies. To save money he wanted to use a local theater actress. That path led him to Lee. Lynch liked her so much that he wrote flashback scenes for her, then created another role for her as a twin cousin of the deceased girl, and finally made her the star of the feature film. That launched Lee into a prolific film career.

Once Lee got started on nude scenes, there was no stopping her. Before the 90s had ended, she had churned out a dozen nude performances, despite missing the first two years of the decade! Interestingly, none of those scenes made much of an impression. The Scoopy era began in 1995, and we have the “Top 20 Nude Scenes of the Year” for every year in the era. Sheryl Lee did an amazing total of nine nude scenes in just the five years from 1995 to 1999, but not a single one of them ever made our top 20 in any year. (If we ever do a retro poll for 1994, she might make the list for a triple-b performance in Backbeat, but that’s no sure thing. The competition was tough in the 90s. She did not make the 1999 list for a full-frontal performance in Angel’s Dance.)

Although many of these films came from the hyphen world (straight-to-vid, made-for-cable), a few are worth watching. Links go to my reviews.

• Angel’s Dance is an offbeat comedy starring Jim Belushi as the Mr. Miyagi of hit men.
• Kiss the Sky is a film that is basically the story of my generation – idealistic student activists become suburban greedheads, and wish things had worked out another way.
• Backbeat is the story of Stu Sutcliffe – the man who wouldn’t be king (he left the Beatles to pursue painting).

Also in this series:

Part 1 covers Madchen Amick;

Part 2 covers Sherilyn Fenn

Part 4 covers Lara Flynn Boyle

Part 5 covers Joan Chen

Part 6 covers Heather Graham

Part 7 covers Anne Gaybis

Part 8 covers Moira Kelly

Incidentally, when I post these collections to the Fun House, there are film clips for all of the entries.

A commenter notified us that this is no longer a film called The Dougherty Gang (announced in 2018 and filmed in November of that year), but a 2023 release called American Outlaws.

IGN just released a trailer under the new name:

Another contender for the best girl-on-girl action in the history of mainstream films:

Jennifer Tilly and Gina Gershon in Bound (1996)

Maye Hawke in Human Capital (2020)

Especially for a woman who once dated General Custer.

(Bullshit aside, she is 52.)