Looks Really Are Everything

[Thoughts upon watching Baseketball for the first time, late one Sunday night:]

[According to my 2003 World Almanac, Ernest Borgnine (born 1917), who has a supporting role in the aforementioned movie, was born nine years after Bette Davis (1908-1989), and plays her husband in The Catered Affair, screenplay by Gore Vidal (b. 1926). In that movie, he plays Debbie Reynolds's father, who was born a mere fifteen years after he was. On "Will and Grace," Reynolds (b. 1932) plays Grace's mother, credibly 36 years older than Debra Messing (b. 1968). Somehow, everyone in these various productions are made to seem only one generation apart, yet something at this remove doesn't feel right. I guess it's just that Ernest Borgnine has played old for a really, really long time. Hollywood...what a kidder.]

[Yes, anything to avoid studying, including totally gratuitous research in a book I've had at my disposal, in various editions, since 1977.]

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