Close Encounters of the Reid Kind

Oh, dear. Tara Reid is looking just a bit...


(image via jezebel)

...like the alien from Close Encounters of the Third Kind:


(image via web orange uk)

And not in a good way.

You Don't Have To Live Like A Refugee

Oh, it's all becoming so much clearer, now. Randy and Evi Quaid were not merely making a run for the Canadian border, they were arrested in Vancouver after causing some kind of street ruckus and are now seeking REFUGEE status because Heath Ledger and David Carradine died and they think they're next. Makes perfect sense to me.

According to CBC News:

U.S. actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi are seeking refugee status in Canada, telling an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing in Vancouver that they fear for their lives in the U.S.

The Quaids told the hearing Friday that eight of their close friends had been killed in recent years and they now felt endangered themselves.

Evi Quaid said friends such as actors David Carradine and Heath Ledger were "murdered" under mysterious circumstances and she's worried something will happen to her husband.

"We feel our lives are in danger," she said.

"Randy has known eight close friends murdered in odd, strange manners ... We feel that we're next."

Ledger was nominated for an Oscar for his lead role in the movie Brokeback Mountain. He died in January 2008 from an accidental overdose.

Actor Randy Quaid leaves an immigration hearing in Vancouver after saying he is seeking refugee status in Canada. (CBC)

Carradine was star of the hit 1970s television series Kung Fu and also had a movie career before he hanged himself in Thailand last year. He was 72.

The Quaids were released late Friday after posting bonds of $10,000 each.

The couple were arrested Thursday after Vancouver police were called for assistance concerning an incident near West 41st Avenue and Yew Street.

"While checking the identity of a man and a woman at that location, they learned that the two were wanted on outstanding warrants from the United States," said police in a statement issued on Friday morning.

Geez Louise! They have truly gone over the bend. Paranoid delusions of grandeur (who really cares about the Quaids very much except moi and "Dog" Chapman?), persecution complex, etc etc. I am no doctor, but I think I can safely diagnose these two as suffering from nutty nutballitis.

Sad. Yet fascinating!

Quaids Being Hunted Doggy-Style

Well, just when I thought the Quaids Crisis couldn't get any weirder, we have this latest update to ponder, which happens to involve not just Randy and Evi Quaid making a run for an international border, but also bounty hunter "Dog" Chapman thrusting himself into the situation, for no apparent reason except to delight the likes of me. Entertainment Weekly reports:

Actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi were arrested in Vancouver on Wednesday for immigration violations charges after recently skipping a court date in California. The actor, 60, and his wife, 47, are set to appear before a Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board hearing this afternoon, a spokesman for the department told CTV News.

The headline-grabbing couple originally made news back in September when they were charged with felony burglary on suspicion of illegally squatting in the guest house of a California home they owned in the 1990s. Evi was also charged with resisting arrest.

Earlier this week, a judge in Santa Barbara issued $50,000 bench warrants when the Quaids failed to show for their arraignment hearing. Celebrity bounty hunter Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman issued a public challenge to the couple on Thursday night, urging Quaid to turn himself in or he would capture them personally.

Sadly, the Quaids' arrest means we were all denied our God-given right to see the Dog kick in a Marfa motel room door and scream obscenities at a defiant Evi and Randy, all of whom would probably be armed to the teeth with taser guns, pepper spray, and insanity, on a very special episode of "Dog: The Bounty Hunter." Sigh.

Apparently the ultimatum to the Quaids was issued by Dog on "Lopez Tonight," and the video is right here for your viewing pleasure.

Quaids On The Lam--Again

(images via foxnews.com)

Randy and Evi Quaid naturally failed to show up on Monday for their court hearing related to their perfectly logical felony vandalism/squatting charges (or totally understandable "theft-by-corpse" swindle, depending on whether you are sane or not) in Santa Barbara, CA, so an arrest warrant has been issued for America's craziest sweethearts. One more won't matter much, eh?

The Daily Beast posted an epic timeline today of their continuing crime spree; here are the latest entries to catch you up on the insanity:

Sept. 19, 2010: Squatting was fun while it lasted for Randy and Evi. A Santa Barbara property owner calls the police on them in September, accusing the couple of living in their former home illegally. The Quaids had trouble parting with the place—Randy carved his initials in the mailbox and the two allegedly hung photos of themselves over the fireplace, breaking a $7,000 mirror in the process, according to TMZ. The couple is arrested on charges of felony residential burglary and the misdemeanor of entering a noncommercial building without consent. Evi, ever eager to one up her husband, receives an additional charge for resisting arrest yet again when Animal Control comes to take the Quaids’ dog, Doji. They are released after posting $50,000 bail.

Sept. 21, 2010: In an early Halloween celebration, Randy and Evi are caught in a fraudulent corpse conspiracy—or so they claim. The couple say they were targeted in the property owner’s scheme to steal their home using the forged signature of dead woman, Ronda Quaid, in 1992 in an effort to transfer ownership to a third party. Randy tells TMZ in the aftermath, "If you don’t stick up for what’s yours and defend what’s yours, then what are you?" Evi, on the other hand, is all about nature—she tells the site’s cameraman she hopes to reclaim her garden and "water the roses."

Oct. 18, 2010: Once again, the Quaids don’t seem too keen on defending what’s theirs, as they fail to show up to a court hearing for their felony burglary charge. The Santa Barbara DA’s office issues a $50,000 warrant for the arrest of each of them, FoxNews reports Tuesday.

I think Joy Division said it best: "Where will it end? Where will it end?"

Separated At Birth?

Is it just me, or is Spoon's Britt Daniel starting to resemble crazed actor/maniac/national treasure Gary Busey?

Daniel:

(photo via hindustan times via NME)

Busey:

(image via gawker)

After all, it's not so far-fetched. They are both fair-haired native sons of Texas, both creative artiste types, both favorites of Felt Up (for wildly different reasons), and are both 66 years old. So it stands to reason.

The Right Tuff?

Please read the previous post to get the full gist of my excitement/confusion over the fact that one of the newest Bravo Housewives (of Beverly Hills) is none other than Kim Richards, child star of Escape to Witch Mountain and later the be-crimped haired star of Tuff Turf, which also starred James Spader as a rebellious anti-hero, "a loner on a roll," "an outsider on the edge," a tennis-racket-wielding, ribbed-pullover-wearing rebel without a cause. Plus Robert Downey, Jr.!

Behold the AWESOME trailer:



I totally want to see this again. I remember watching it in the '80s, but the time is definitely right to revisit Tuff Turf. IMDB describes the plot thusly:

"A street rebel and his gang have trouble understanding themselves and their world."

Dude, I think we can all relate. It's timeless!

Speaking of timeless, I believe she was also in Meatballs, Part 2.

PS
I also just realized Kim Richards was McLean Stevenson's daughter Ruthie on the much-reviled series "Hello, Larry," which also starred R&B singer Ruth Brown (!); then Kim also appeared as the same character, Ruthie, in a "crossover" stunt on "Dif'rent Strokes." It kind of blows your mind, eh?

Here's what else is mind-blowing:

Kim Richards BEFORE:

(image via tv photo galleries)


Kim Richards AFTER:


(image via kerstin alm photography)

It's not age so much as it that every single feature of her face is different.

Escape to Bitch Mountain

(image via The WOW Report)

OMG. Eek! I had no idea that Kim Richards, one of Paris Hilton's aunts who is on the new show "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," is the same Kim Richards who played "Tia" in Escape to Witch Mountain! If you've seen the promo clips on Bravo, she's the one who says "I was quite famous," and now I believe her! I think the reason I had no inkling it was her is possibly due to the fact that she is ENTIRELY UNRECOGNIZABLE with all the whatnot she's done to her face.

Oh, Escape to Witch Mountain was one of your humble Felt Up blogette's all-time favorite childhood movies, right up there with The Shaggy D.A., The Bad News Bears, and Freaky Friday. (I guess this means The Shaggy D.A. is ripe to be remade as some monstrous CGI-assisted Jim Carrey vehicle, since every single one of the most beloved movies of my youth have been hideously updated, "re-imagined" and destroyed.) I must have seen it a thousand times, plus the sequel Return From Witch Mountain (with villainous Bette Davis and Christopher Lee!) and, naturally, the TV movie Beyond Witch Mountain, which was supposed to turn into a series but never did, which was OK by me, since none of the original cast were in it except for Eddie Albert. I also read the book by Alexander Key. I'm not sure why I was so obsessed with Witch Mountainry, but I was.

Kim Richards was also in the hilariously bad '80s movie Tuff Turf with James Spader, the existence of which I would have totally forgotten about if not for the musings of James St. James over on The Wow Report.

So now I have no choice but to watch "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," so I can weep for the lost youth of both Tia and myself...