Question 2, Part 1.

So, on the question meme, my brother anastras asked: "If you were to be forcably married to one person OF FAME for the rest of your life, who would you want that to be and why?"

This requires quite a bit of mulling, actually, as there are quite a few I'd consider, and even hypothetically I can't help but take this question very seriously. I think I'll have to devide this into two or three parts, If I'm going to narrow it down to a single person I'll be expected to spend the rest of my life with...

Being as marriage is far from my highest priority, and marriage to a famous person is even more unlikely, I'm going to treat this as a wildest fantasy scenario. This means I get to choose my would-be spouse not only from those actually available (and for the sake of this, let's assume everyone's "available" even if they're already hitched), but also from those who've gone before, and, if ladies are not to their taste, let's assume--being as this is a wildest dreams scenario--that I'm the One Exception. Also I'm going to assume the world is perfect enough that the wide world of women is also open to me in this quest for marital bliss.

Now... This is going to be some serious play, but also a challenge. You don't know a person unless you've actually spent real time with them. As such, I don't think any of us here can really claim to know any celebrities--and certainly not well enough to want to marry them. All we know is what the historians, journalists, and the celebrity's work have to say about him or her. All we know is the publicity. However, I'm going to do my best with what information I have access to. This calls for research, which is something I don't tend to do with celebrities, even the ones I'm really fond of. *rubs hands together*

So, out of my favourite famous people, who could I love and live with?

The candidates, part 1 (Clicky the name for visual aid):

Cary Grant
The ultimate leading man, one of my all-time favourite actors. visually, I tend to favour a slightly "prettier" sort of man, but he does have his charm. And we're not just talking looks. If his choice in parts and the excellence with which he played them are any indication, he was classy, intelligent, and had an excellent sense of wit and humour. If our friend Wikipedia is correct, he had a confusing childhood and an insane mother. I can identify with that. :-?

Grant was the first actor to start a production company that was completely and utterly his own. This indicates ambition, confidence, and a desire to stand on his own two feet. I like this in a person. Hmmm, first marriage ended with the woman accusing him of hitting her--not good. :-/ Second marriage to Barbara Hutton. She was hugely wealthy and he signed a prenup. That one ended on good terms, and they remained lifelong friends. (That's something I've never managed with my serious relationships, and the prenup thing indicates integrity; that he wasn't marrying her for the cash. Kudos, there.) ZOMG, he got into LSD in the 60's--I didn't know that! Really not big on the drug thing... "...in the early 60s he related how treatment with the hallucinogenic drug—-legal at the time—-at a prestigious California clinic had finally brought him inner peace after yoga, hypnotism, and mysticism had proved ineffective." Okay, spiritual reasons, and he didn't let it screw up his life. That's okay then... /:-? Hmmm... Marriage Four ended with more accusations of violence and frequent rages...

Enh, lots of other interesting things here, but... Even with everything I admire about him, I'd want an even-tempered spouse who I could trust not to get abusive... Unless literally I ask him to, in bed... Sorry, Mr. Grant.

Queen Elizabeth I of England
Ah, lovely Bess, glorious Gloriana. How I wish I could know for sure that you were the reason they chose my middle name... The woman who single-handedly ruled over England during it's Golden Age, and who is still one of its best-loved monarchs 400 years later. Another troubled childhood, so we could tell each other horror stories, though she'd probably beat me at it. ;-P She excelled in her education and had a flair for languages. So, she'd give good brain. Gotta have someone who can give good brain. She ruled supreme, led her country through war and peace, in a time when it was fashionable for political power to belong exclusively to men. The fact that she survived long enough to even attain the throne is pretty phenomenal, given all of the intrigue that surrounded her. I definitely admire that. She must've had knickers of steel, and I'm not talking about a chastity belt. All that said, she knew how to enjoy herself. She was big on assorted outdoor activities, and loved music and dancing, pageantry and masques, and was even a skilled musician. "She had no time for the Puritan theologians who deemed such things impious. She also loved watching plays and created the atmosphere responsible for the flourishing of the literary masterpieces of the period against the Puritan demands for the closure of all theaters and playhouses." Definitely my kind of girl! I'm really not seeing anything here that'd knock her out of the running... :-?


Oscar Wilde
I like a man with style. Plus I like the floppy hair. ;-P I appreciate his wit, and found a lot of food for thought in The Picture of Dorian Gray. Once more, here's someone who could give good brain. He was famed for his love of aestheticism, and also took a lot of critism because his love of art and the finer things supposedly made him not manly enough. There's some argument over whether he was gay or bi, but either way, he was tried for "gross indecency" due to his romantic interest in men and sentenced to two years of hard labor because of it. In spite of the fact that it was reportedly hard on him and his health, his spirit remained far from broken, it would seem. There's this great story about his release:

"Ada Leverson — the Sphinx, she was called — was a staunch friend to everyone who wrote or painted anything. She has survived best, perhaps, as having been the only person in London who would receive Wilde after his return from Reading Gaol. Max said that she deserved credit for this, but that no one ever gave any credit to poor Mr. Leverson, who consented to let Wilde stay in his house. The Sphinx, Max said, cared only about the opinion of the artistic set, but "Mr. Leverson had larger responsibilities. He was a prominent figure in the City and had much more to lose." On the morning of Wilde's return from prison, Max continued, Mrs. Leverson got up very early in order to greet Wilde, who was coming straight from his train to the home of a clergyman named Stewart Headlam. She was in an agony of apprehension — how to greet this broken figure whom she had known, and received in her house, as the most sought-after lion in London. By the time she reached Headlam's house, she was in a panic. Wilde had not yet arrived; the Sphinx stood there wishing she were more sphinxlike. Then Wilde came in. He ran to her, smiling — a schoolboy greeting a pet aunt after a dreary semester — threw his arms around her, and crowed with appreciation, "Sphinx, how marvelous of you to know the right hat to wear at seven o'clock in the morning to meet a friend who has been away! You can't have got up; you must have sat up." Ada had no worries after that."

I definitely like a person who doesn't let the shitty parts of life get him down. I really must read more about him. If I don't marry him, I think he's the sort I'd definitely want for a friend. ^_^

Charlie Chaplin
As you can see, he was a bit of a looker, when he wasn't playing the Little Tramp. Aside from being one of the most acclaimed classic film actors, he was also a director, script-writer, producer and composer, and one of the co-founders of the United Artists film studio. For his decidedly left-leaning politics he was branded as a soviet sympathizer in the McCarthy era, though by and large he was simply very liberal and unafraid to express it, both on and off the screen. (See The Great Dictator... No really, go see it. Really.) In point of fact, it was due to the unpleasant political environment in America that he left and spent his remaining years in Switzerland, only returning to America breifly in the 70's to accept an Honorary Oscar.

Chaplin is rather well-known for becoming involved with young women in their teens, largely because of his first love, the fifteen-year-old Hetty Kelly, who he met when he was nineteen, proposed to and was spurned by. He basically spent the rest of his life chasing the memory of her, especially after learning of her death in a flu epidemic. This led to two 16-year-old brides at different points in his life, and one 18-year-old one. In between all of this there were a handfull of other affairs and flings, though only one other one with a girl in her teens (19, to be exact). I can't fault him for what he was attracted to, but I do think he could've dealt with it better. On the other hand, it was a different time, back then. :-? On the affairs, being as I'm poly-inclined, I wouldn't really have a problem with that, so long as I was allowed equal freedom. However, given that he reportedly ended one of his relationships due to a girl taking equal freedoms (with another acress, actually), I suspect that I wouldn't be. So, I'm inclined to say that here's another one I admire greatly, but couldn't live with.

More progress down the list later today.