Blanche joins Sophia and Dorothy -- Rue McClanahan dies [edited title}

Cafe Society
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http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/37490180/ns/today-entertainment

*Rue McClanahan, the Emmy-winning actress who brought the sexually liberated Southern belle Blanche Devereaux to life on the hit TV series “The Golden Girls,” has died. She was 76.

Her manager Barbara Lawrence said McClanahan died Thursday at 1 a.m. of a stroke.*

Dorothy: How about some whipped cream?
Blanche: I think we still have a can. I’ll get it. It’s in my bedroom.
Dorothy [instantly]: Never mind, Blanche.

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Bon voyage, Blanche. May your heaven be filled with men who are beautiful, tireless, and gifted at the art of flattery.

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Just saw this. Rest in peace, Rue.

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So Betty White wins the tontine?

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Blanche: What if it was my eulogy.
Dorothy: What?
Blanche: What if you were giving an eulogy for me? What would you say?
Dorothy: Oh come on, Blanche.
Blanche: No, I’m serious, Dorothy. What would you say?
Dorothy: Well, I guess I’d say that you were a lovely, generous person and one of the best friends I ever had.
Blanche: Nothing about my looks?
Dorothy: I’d say that you were one of my prettiest friends.
Blanche: One of?
Dorothy: THE, Blanche! THE prettiest!
[…]
Dorothy: What would you say about me?
Blanche: Dorothy, come on.
Dorothy: I told you. You can tell me.
Blanche: Well, I would say I always felt safe having you in the house, and I would say I always enjoyed talking to you when I’d come home from one of my numerous dates, and I would say I always looked up to you like an older sister.
Dorothy [gets up, starts walking to the door]: Thank you, Blanche. Oh, and I forgot one thing. I would also say you’re fat.

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I was never a huge “Golden Girls” fan, but one episode I do remember dealt with the four of them having a friend who had to go to a nursing home to live, and who felt all alone there. The four talked about if this might happen to them, and they agreed that if there came a time that even one of them had to go into a home they would all go together. Then they have a big group hug, and Betty White’s character asks: “But…what happens when there’s only one of us left?”

That has a little ironic twist to the scene now.
Just also want to put a word in for Rue’s performance on “Maude” as the wacky “Rose-esque” neighbor. Loved her in that too.

RIP.

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My favorite Blanche scene from The Golden Girls.

I just love how she says “SHRIMP?” and then quickly runs away in shame.

RIP Rue, you were a class act.

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Who’d have thought that Betty White, the oldest girl, would be the last one left alive?

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She was a classy broad.

One of my favorite Blanche lines that I’ve quoted many times:

She was also great in the series Sordid Lives even though it was clear she was not physically well. I think those were her first sex scenes as well.

Trivia: In the 1980s she wrote a musical based on the story of Oedipus entitled- and while the play may not have been great you have to love the title-
Oedipus Schmoedipus! As Long as you Love your Mama

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Golden Girls was one of my guilty pleasures. They were all so perfect in their roles, even Bea Arthur, who I never really liked in anything else. Betty White must be shaking her head in disbelief.

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Sigh, no more perky bosoms.

R.I.P., Rue.

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Rue was apparently the cast member who got along with everybody.

I went to an event called A Sordid Affair in which Del Shores, the creator/etc. of Sordid Lives, and various cast members told stories about the series. Two of the stories were about Rue and brought the house down.

  1. When Bea Arthur was on Broadway in her one woman show a few years ago she sent Rue tickets to opening night and a special reception afterward. Rue couldn’t go so she gave them to her son Mark who used them to see the show and go back to see Bea afterward. The reception was crowded and Bea, “who liked her drink”, had already had a few, and while she’d met Mark before it had been a while so not surprisingly she didn’t recognize him and was a bit belligerent at first.

BEA: “Who are you?”
MARK: “I’m Rue’s son.”
BEA: “Ru-son, I don’t know any Rusons…”
MARK: I’m Rue’s son- I’m the son of Rue McClanahan.
BEA: Oh… Rue’s son… Mark… OH MARK! [at which time she gets up and hugs him] I just wish your mom could have made it. I love love love love love Rue McClanahan.
[she takes another sip of her drink and says]

But Betty White’s a C-U-N-T!]

  1. Rue was watching a rerun of Everybody Loves Raymond with her husband and Leslie Jordan while waiting between scenes on Sordid Lives and her husband made a comment about what he considered Patricia Heaton’s poor posture. Rue lit into him with “That’s the problem with being a woman in show business… Patricia Heaton is brimming over with talent and she’s attractive and she’s on a hit series and yet men just feel compelled to find something wrong with her!” Her husband apologized a bit, saying it wasn’t a judgment, he just didn’t think Patricia Heaton had good posture.
    Later Leslie Jordan said “Have you ever read any of Patricia Heaton’s comments on politics and all?” He pulled up on his laptop some things Heaton’s said about abortion and about Obama (Heaton’s a very conservative and pro-life Republican) and about marriage/divorce being out of control. Rue, a liberal Democrat who’d had six husbands and seven marriages, said “Well… she’s pretty danged self-righteous for a bitch who can’t even stand up straight.”
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I wonder if she was well enough to see “Rose” on SNL. She would have loved it.

RIP, Blanche.

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I loved the Golden Girls so much. That was some cool comedy right there. I won’t break out the cheesecake just yet, but when I hear Betty is gone, it is me, a cheesecake and a tear at the kitchen table.

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A morbid but, if only to me, funny story of how I learned:

My mother, who died almost 4 years ago, was named Blanche. I went onto my facebook page today and a couple of people had already written “RIP Blanche” and “I just heard Blanche died”. I let out an audible “WTF!!! One of you was at the funeral…”.

Then it occurred… oooohhhhh, okay.

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Somebody cover Betty White in bubble wrap and put her in suspended animation, quick!

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So it’s Golden Girls marathons for the rest of the year. Not that I’m complaining.

Farewell Rue.

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…

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And now it’s down to Todd Bridges, Charlotte Rae and Bill Macy as the people who have worked with Conrad Bain and lived to tell the tale.

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How could you forget Adrienne Barbeau?