"Speech: Platform Posture and Appearance"

(a woman with a big hat)
Mike: Wouldn’t it be loverly?

One of the famous songs from My Fair Lady, starring Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison. It’s about a snippy linguist (Harrison, natch) who takes a Cockney flower girl (Hepburn, not so natch) under his wing so as to bring her up all high society-like. This is a really great musical (they don’t make ‘em like they used to, folks—in fact, they don’t make ‘em at all anymore). It won Best Picture, Best Actor (Harrison), and a whole lot of technical awards. Hepburn was glaringly missing from the nominations. Grrr. I had the biggest crush on Rex Harrison when I was a kid, which is kind of strange, if you think about it. While all the other little girls were fawning over their New Kids on the Block t-shirts, key chains, tapes (we didn’t have CDs back in the day, kids, just bulky tapes), dolls, etc., I was in love with Rex Harrison. And I’m none the worse off for it, I assure you. This is considered a romantic movie, but you’ll notice that, not once in the whole bloody thing do Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins ever kiss. They don’t even hug. The closest they come is dancing. Not even at the end, when they make up and realize they love each other. And yet I still think this is a romantic movie, perfect for a six- (seven? Perhaps eight?) year old girl who wasn’t going to be taken in by the stark commercialism of early ‘90’s pop music. So there.