Waters’ Next Film: It’s Christmas!
While much of New York is arraying itself in Halloween decoration, the Big Kahuna of holidays is already creeping out of the shadows: I saw my first Christmas display in a New York shop window this morning. The only way I can get through the coming onslaught of revolting commercialism is by reveling in nasty depictions of Yuletide. No, I don’t mean the Grinch; I mean the Christmas scene from John Waters’s movie “Female Trouble.” You know, the moment when Dawn Davenport, played by Divine (above left), doesn’t get the cha-cha heels she asked for and, in angry retailiation, pushes her mother underneath the tree and stomps on all the packages. (Cute.) I plan to get through Christmas 2007 not only with the help of Dawn Davenport, but also by fastening on the cheery news that John Waters‘ next movie will be called “Fruitcake.” It is, he says, a “terribly wonderful children’s Christmas adventure.” For the director “fruitcake” will undoubtedly have multiple maniacal meanings. Not even John Waters, however, can use that word in a holiday setting more heart-stoppingly than Truman Capote did in my favorite Yule tale of all: “A Christmas Memory,” which yielded a supreme 1966 TV-movie version. In fact, just about the greatest TV moment of all time occurs when the character Sook, played by Geraldine Page (above right), says, “It’s fruitcake weather!” Always.
