October 26, 2008

Did they or didn't they? Did the US Post Office print a stamp honouring Bette Davis, first carefully deleting a cigarette from the image? Or is it a slightly altered version of this still?
  • Option B - yeah, let's go with that.
  • Maybe it was one of those ultra-ultra lite cigarettes...
  • People still use stamps?
  • Certainly based on that picture: 100% correspondence on the face, apart from the grisly colour. What has been missed here is that they didn't remove a cigarette, but they did change her fur coat and leather glove for more PC textile equivalents - but they then made the mistake of using a pasted-in hand which looks as if it were meant to be holding a cigarette.
  • Regardless, I look forward to licking Bette Davis.
  • What a stamp!
  • More fags in Hollywood, please!
  • But srsly, Pleg is spot-on. I'm not sure why anyone would think otherwise.
  • The artist Ironically, no one has picked up on what actually was changed in the Bette Davis stamp: Ms. Davis' coat. In the original photo Bette was wearing a mink, and contrary to the old expression, in this day and age fur will not fly. Not any more so than a cigarette would. Had I depicted her in mink, there would likely have been an outcry (perhaps rightfully so) from the folks at PETA, accusing the Postal Service of endorsing fur as fashion. I therefore had an acquaintance pose in red velvet to replace the mink, and then combined the two images for the final oil painting, which led to the slight alteration in the position of Bette's hand. And yes, you are correct: the model was simply clinging to the coat's lapel, but hopefully in a way reminiscent of Ms. Davis' inimitable style. No one, that is, except PLEGMUND.
  • I want my Hollywood stars smoking their heads off, ferchrissake! Mmmm, Lauren Bacall...smokin!