Its time to enrol some great ladies into the Bajaclub. I don't necessarily want to be stranded on a desert island with them, but I enjoy their multitude of talents, their strength of character - many created their own production companies so they could make the kind of movies they wanted to make, and their girl power that matches the high earning guys any day. And most are separated by only a degree or two from the Bajahunks.
So I give you - The BajaGals. Drew Barrymore, Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Deborah Lee Furness, Jodie Foster, Goldie Hawn, Kate Hudson, Julia Roberts, Sigrid Thornton, Catherine Zeta Jones, Shirley MacLaine,
Kate Hepburn, and Lauren Bacall.
DREW BARRYMORE
From the moment she stole every scene in ET I knew this was a girl who would continue to entertain me for a long time to come.
Since then I have enjoyed her roles in Bad Girls, Boys on the Side, The Wedding Singer, Ever After (an all time fave) and Charlies Angels which she also produced.
NICOLE KIDMAN
I wanted Nicoles HAIR the first time I saw her in an ad in Dolly magazine in the early 80's. I saw her early teen flick BMX Bandits at the drive-in and saw her excel in Bangkok Hilton. She came to Perth to film Windrider with Tom Burlinson in 1986. After Dead Calm she moved to the US and became the glamorous taller half of a Hollywood Couple. I enjoyed The Peacemaker and Practical Magic and while Moulin Rouge is a truly bizarre movie - she is gorgeous in it and showed the world she could sing. I saw Cold Mountain but didnt enjoy it - I think I prefer her in light comedy like To Die For than heavy drama. What I love most - that she came out the winner from the Hollywood Divorce.
SANDRA BULLOCK
She first came to my attention opposite Stallone in Demolition Man. She showed great comedic timing and scene stealing abilities.
Then she took the wheel in Speed and played cute but gutsy Annie and got to lie under Keanu !
As Lucy in While You Were Sleeping she revealed her leading lady quality and stole our hearts.
I loved her in The Net & A Time To Kill. Hope Floats was cute and Practical Magic was funny and sweet. She rocked in Miss Congeniality and I cant wait for the sequel.
DEBORAH LEE FURNESS
This sexy curvaceous "broad" with the husky vocal chords dominated the movie Shame.
I loved her in Ben Eltons Stark. She was great opposite John Waters in the Singapore Sling telemovies and The Real McCaw.
I have enjoyed her guest star roles in The Flying Doctors, Sea Change, Halifax, and Fire.
Fortune shined upon her when she was given the lead role in the ABC drama Correlli in 1995. The on screen chemistry with unknown co star Hugh Jackman turned into real life love.
LUCKY GIRL !!!!
JODIE FOSTER
I loved Jodie when she was a child and teen actress in films such as Bugsy Malone, Freaky Friday, Candleshoe and Foxes.
Then she grew up and I was mindblown by her role in The Accused. I am usually too scared to watch Silence of the Lambs - but she is powerful in it. I have also enjoyed her in Maverick, Contact, Anna and the King and Panic Room.
The performance I found most powerful, in a movie that left me in tears and speechless was Nell. She played Nell with such guts and rawness and vulnerability. What could have been a bizarre performance if played by anyone else was instead a role that should have earned her another Oscar.
GOLDIE HAWN
I first came to love Goldie at our family drive-in when we showed Foul Play and Private Benjamin. Private B was one of the original "Girl Power" movies and a sign that Goldie herself was a force to be reckoned with as she formed her own production company to make her kind of movies her way.
Then I watched a lot of stuff from her earlie career like Cactus Flower, Girl In My Soup, Butterflies are Free and Shampoo.
I love her in Swing Shift, Wildcats, Overboard,
Bird on a Wire with Mel, Housesitter & The First Wives Club.
Goldie is a reliable red carpet gal. Always in an outfit that everyone will talk about.
She has a giggle that is positively contagious and a figure most over 60's girls would die for.
She has a loving long tern relationship with the gorgeous Kurt Russell and a close knit family.
See below for another gift Goldie gave the world - her talented daughter Kate Hudson.
KATE HUDSON
Kate is a very new addition to my list of favourite ladies. I went to see Almost Famous solely because I knew she was Goldies daughter and I heard it had a great soundtrack. What a role. Her character was so vulnerable and believable. She was nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar and really should have won.
She then proved she could easily take over her mums genre of romantic comedy in How To Lose A Guy I Ten Days. I absolutely love this movie - it has the feel of an old Kate Hepburn Cary Grant one.
There is a bright future for this talented girl with the smile of the new millennium..
JULIA ROBERTS
From the moment she nailed Liam Neeson in Satisfaction in the late 80's Julia stood out from the crowd.
I have loved her in both drama and romantic comedy from Mystic Pizza, to Steel Magnolias. She lit up the screen in Pretty Woman and showed us her strengths in Sleeping With The Enemy and Dying Young. She played a great fairy in Hook, got serious again in The Pelican Brief. Something To Talk About was cute and My Brest Friends Wedding really played on her comedic timing. Loved it. Conspiracy Theory is one of my faves and I loved her in Notting Hill and Runaway Bride. She earned a well deserved Oscar for Erin Brockovich. She beat Catherine Zeta to the cute boy in America's Sweethearts.
SIGRID THORNTON
As Australia's most acclaimed TV, Film and Stage actress since she was a child, Sigrid has always played strong feminine characters regardless of what decade the role is set in.
My favourite Siggy roles have been Jessica in The Man From Snowy River and its sequel, Delie in All The Rivers Run and Laura in Seachange.
I have also enjoyed her in so many other roles such as The Getting of Wisdom, The Lighthorsemen, and Whipping Boy.
CATHERINE ZETA JONES
The exotic Zeta Woman as I call her first captured me in the "other" Titanic movie, then The Phantom.
She became a genuine worldwide star with The Mask of Zorro and earned herself a Hollywood Royalty husband in Micheal Douglas when he fell for her while watching Zorro !
She lost John Cusack to Julia Roberts in America's Sweethearts before stunning us all with her powerful singing and dancing role in Chicago where she deservedly stole every scene from the pale in comparison Renee Zellwegger.
On Oscars night 2002 she took to the stage to perform a nominated song from Chicago looking ravishingly 9 months pregnant and then won the Best Supporting Oscar.
Intolerable Cruelty with George Clooney is my latest fave and the sequel to Oceans Eleven also with the Clooner.
SHIRLEY MACLAINE
She still has the best legs in the business and a take no prisoners attitude. Gotta love her !
Her earliest roles in The Trouble With Harry and Artists and Models are my favourite Saturday afternoon movies. The Apartment and Irma La Douce are probably some of her best work along with Sweet Charity.
I also love her in The Turning Point and Being There. Her role of a lifetime was in Terms of Endearment and her Oscar was so well deserved.
She began to excel in cranky characters like Ouiser in Steel Magnolias - mainly because she is fine with being totally unglamorous on film while many others her age were too busy preserving themselves.
Guarding Tess and Mrs Winterbourne are my recent favourites. I also collect her books and love her frank writing style.
KATE HEPBURN
The original and best. No one can compare to this great ladys talent, spunk and determination to live her life exactly the way she wanted to and not the way society dictated.
I couldnt possibly name every movie of hers that I have ever enjoyed, suffice to say I dont think there is one I didnt like. So I will just name the highlights and recommend everyone reads any of her books. She left the world in June 2003 and I hope she is at peace somewhere with Spence.
Faves: Little Women, Stage Door, Bringing Up Baby, Philadelphia Story, African Queen, Desk Set, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and On Golden Pond.
LAUREN 'BETTY' BACALL
I actually like Laurens autobiography By Myself more than I like her acting.
That said - I do enjoy her in Key Largo, How to Marry a Millionaire, and Designing Women.
She is a stunning lady who had lead a very interesting life.
Her memorable quality would be her low husky voice, her great full bodied laugh and her ability to tell a wonderful story. A ballsy gusty lady.
A couple of honourable mentions.
Deb Mailman on the left was my favourite lead actor in the TV series The Secret Life Of Us. She has what I personally believe to be the best smile on Australian TV screens. I havent seen her in anything else yet but would love her to get her own show.
Below right - Eva Cassidy. Eva never had the chance to be famous while she was alive. She died of cancer at just 33 in 1996. At that stage she was barely known outside her own town. Thanks to the internet tho her
souful jazz, blues and standards were able to be
spread around, shared and appreciated by millions
and in 2002 she had the number one single all over
