I have made a youtube video of myself lipsyncing along to one of Tracey's Characters Gretchen Pincus!! Andrew Mitchell loved it. This is the comment he left:
"that was freaking hilarious..i didn't laugh when tracey did it but when you did it, I was in fits of laughter..you must have watched that a hundred times because you got the mannerisms down perfectly...more Kate more! Post a link to this video in the Tracey Yahoo group."
The Original
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wow.
I just finished talking to my good friend Roger Reini over facebook about Tracey Ullman...Who else?? :P She always comes up in conversation. I can't help it. Anywho, He shared with me a couple emails that he had recieved from Tracey herself. As I was reading them, I had goosebumps. Even though they were not for me, I was very happy for him. One day it might happen to me, so I can share them with him! Thanks Roger! It made my evening!
I am oh-so tempted to send an email to that address...but I will restrain myself..where's the rope...
I am oh-so tempted to send an email to that address...but I will restrain myself..where's the rope...
Thursday, June 18, 2009
7 More Episodes of State of The Union!! Whoo!!
Showtime picks up Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union for a third season
LOS ANGELES, CA – (June 18, 2009) – Seven-time-Emmy®-winner Tracey Ullman will return for a third hilarious season in her critically-acclaimed sketch comedy series TRACEY ULLMAN’S STATE OF THE UNION. Seven new episodes will start production this summer and air on SHOWTIME in 2010. Ullman will once again serve as executive producer with her husband Allan McKeown, and she will also write the episodes.
TRACEY ULLMAN’S STATE OF THE UNION features a kaleidoscope of original characters and impersonations in a wide collection of irreverent and hilarious skits that range from sardonic parody and social satire to Bollywood musicals. Over the last two seasons, Ullman has tackled the country’s celebrity-obsessed, 24-hour news culture by portraying a variety of characters from celebrities such as Cameron Diaz, Renée Zellweger, Dina Lohan, Tony Sirico and David Beckham to politicians and pundits like Laura Bush, Nancy Pelosi and Arianna Huffington. Additionally, Ullman has created a new line-up of original characters that reflect a cross-section of American society from an Indian pharmacist to a homeless woman without health insurance to a soldier on temporary leave from Iraq.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
More Photos!
Thanks to my friend Di on Facebook, she has sent me some more photos from the Fashion Awards! My God..She's absolutely radiant.
Monday, June 15, 2009
New Tracey Article In Sunday Express
Who's That Girl?
Sunday June 14,2009
COMEDIENNE Tracey Ullman wears many disguises in her new smash-hit US TV show. British-born Tracey speaks to SANDRO MONETTI about how she’s become a big star in America but can’t sell her series in the UK.
She’s Britain’s most successful comedy export but Tracey Ullman risks becoming a forgotten figure back home.
For no UK channel has bought her latest smash-hit US series, State Of The Union, and the snub has wiped the smile off the comedienne’s face.
Stateside success has brought Ullman a personal fortune of £75million, making her our wealthiest comic, but it seemingly can’t buy her respect in Britain.
“We’re struggling to sell the show to the BBC,” admits Tracey, 49.
“Maybe it’s just not sexy enough for the current TV climate there now.”
The series – in which she hilariously impersonates stars like Renée Zellweger, Helen Mirren and even David Beckham, as well as a series of American stereotypes – seems perfect for the YouTube generation with its fast-paced, fun sketches but it hasn’t sufficiently impressed bosses at the BBC who gave Ullman her start in Eighties shows like Three Of A Kind.
Yet the Beeb has been badly wrong about her comedic instincts before – most notably when they screened her first US series, The Tracey Ullman Show, in 1987.
That one featured the TV debut of animation sensations The Simpsons, who appeared in short films between the sketches.
Ullman recalled: “The BBC said the only thing they didn’t like about the show was those weird little animated characters and suggested maybe they could get rid of them because they would never catch on.”
Tracey won that battle and The Simpsons spun off into their own show which, 20 series later, has become the longest-running series in US television history.
SEARCH for:
Having been there at the beginning, Tracey also gets an annual share of the show’s profits and that’s what is largely responsible for her huge wealth.
Like The Simpsons, she has been a constant fixture on US screens for the past two decades, in her own shows and specials, in TV guest roles ranging from playing Ally McBeal’s therapist to a dog trainer on The Simpsons, and also in movies including Small Time Crooks and Plenty, but she is getting the best reviews of her career for State Of The Union, a comedic look at her adopted country’s obsession with celebrities, which is now in its second series.
Tracey, who has lived in America for 25 years, recently became a US citizen and feels that fact has freed her up to be funnier. She explains: “I feel I can say a little bit more about the country now that I feel a part of it and can do so without the fear of being carted off to Guantanamo Bay.”
Although she mocks America on screen, she has a great deal of affection for the country in which her show business dreams have come true.
“It’s a very ‘can do’ society. In Britain you hear a lot of ‘that’ll never work’ but here people are willing to take risks.”
She is the only foreign comedienne to have success on US TV and, as such, Ullman is something of a standard bearer for aspirational Brits in Hollywood.
Tracey was an inspirational figure for Nigel Lythgoe, the British choreographer, TV producer and Popstars judge who in this decade became a major figure in US TV as producer of American Idol and judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
He says: “I choreographed Tracey on Three Of A Kind back in England and I believe that her success in America inspired so many of us Brits to believe we could also make a career for ourselves in that wonderful country.”
Last month Lythgoe, along with the likes of Cat Deeley, Russell Brand, Peter Kay and Sharon Osbourne, was in the audience when Tracey received the Charlie Chaplin Career Achievement Award at the British Comedy Festival in Los Angeles.
Humbled and thrilled by the honour, Ullman said: “It’s a lovely thing and a nice achievement that makes me think about all I’ve done and how far I’ve come.”
The Slough-born star enjoys triumphs now but it was a tragedy that first made her a performer.
When she was six-year-old her father, Antony, suffered a heart attack while reading her a bedtime story and died.
To cheer up her distraught mother, Dorin, Tracey would put on shows in her mother’s bedroom. She would draw the curtains, use the windowsill as a stage and Dorin would sit on the bed laughing.
At 12, Tracey enrolled at the Italia Conti stage school where she developed her singing, dancing, acting and comedic talents.
Soon after leaving she joined the Second Generation dance troupe, graduated into West End musical roles and then moved into comedy and was spotted by the BBC.
They cast her in sketch shows A Kick Up The Eighties, with Rik Mayall, and then the hugely popular Three Of A Kind, alongside Lenny Henry and David Copperfield.
She followed that with ITV sitcom Girls On Top, co-starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
Tracey also launched a successful pop career despite having a voice that Melody Maker described as “Minnie Mouse mixed with the Supremes”.
She had three top 10 hits in 1983 with Breakaway, They Don’t Know and Move Over Darling.
Her records were popular in America too and the fun videos had lots of play on MTV, which brought her to the attention of talent-spotting Hollywood producers. A
mong them was James L Brooks, who created The Tracey Ullman Show for her and saw it become an instant hit.
Ullman had moved to LA with her British husband – Auf Wiedersehen Pet producer Allan McKeown – to make the show and they are still there now, and still happy after 25 years of marriage.
Tracey says of her husband: “He’s the funny one in our house. He can’t sing, he can’t dance, he can’t act but he’s hilarious.”
The couple have two children, Mabel, 23, and Jon, 17.
She worked with Allan on a string of other acclaimed shows, including Tracey Takes On and A Class Act, which made her a beloved figure in US comedy.
Ullman has won America’s most coveted TV award, the Emmy, seven times and been inducted into the country’s Museum of Television.
Yet her greatest triumph could be her latest one. US critics reviewing State Of The Union have compared her work in it to the likes of Lenny Bruce and Robin Williams at their best.
If the show doesn’t get seen in Britain, Tracey won’t have a Susan Boyle-style meltdown over it.
She says: “I’m not some sad psychological case. I’m a pretty sensible person. I like to sit and watch documentaries on TV and knit. I’m quite happy to be me.”
The star of State Of The Union is also happy about the state of her career.
She smiles: “I’ve come a long way from my mother’s windowsill.”
Sunday June 14,2009
COMEDIENNE Tracey Ullman wears many disguises in her new smash-hit US TV show. British-born Tracey speaks to SANDRO MONETTI about how she’s become a big star in America but can’t sell her series in the UK.
She’s Britain’s most successful comedy export but Tracey Ullman risks becoming a forgotten figure back home.
For no UK channel has bought her latest smash-hit US series, State Of The Union, and the snub has wiped the smile off the comedienne’s face.
Stateside success has brought Ullman a personal fortune of £75million, making her our wealthiest comic, but it seemingly can’t buy her respect in Britain.
“We’re struggling to sell the show to the BBC,” admits Tracey, 49.
“Maybe it’s just not sexy enough for the current TV climate there now.”
The series – in which she hilariously impersonates stars like Renée Zellweger, Helen Mirren and even David Beckham, as well as a series of American stereotypes – seems perfect for the YouTube generation with its fast-paced, fun sketches but it hasn’t sufficiently impressed bosses at the BBC who gave Ullman her start in Eighties shows like Three Of A Kind.
Yet the Beeb has been badly wrong about her comedic instincts before – most notably when they screened her first US series, The Tracey Ullman Show, in 1987.
That one featured the TV debut of animation sensations The Simpsons, who appeared in short films between the sketches.
Ullman recalled: “The BBC said the only thing they didn’t like about the show was those weird little animated characters and suggested maybe they could get rid of them because they would never catch on.”
Tracey won that battle and The Simpsons spun off into their own show which, 20 series later, has become the longest-running series in US television history.
SEARCH for:
Having been there at the beginning, Tracey also gets an annual share of the show’s profits and that’s what is largely responsible for her huge wealth.
Like The Simpsons, she has been a constant fixture on US screens for the past two decades, in her own shows and specials, in TV guest roles ranging from playing Ally McBeal’s therapist to a dog trainer on The Simpsons, and also in movies including Small Time Crooks and Plenty, but she is getting the best reviews of her career for State Of The Union, a comedic look at her adopted country’s obsession with celebrities, which is now in its second series.
Tracey, who has lived in America for 25 years, recently became a US citizen and feels that fact has freed her up to be funnier. She explains: “I feel I can say a little bit more about the country now that I feel a part of it and can do so without the fear of being carted off to Guantanamo Bay.”
Although she mocks America on screen, she has a great deal of affection for the country in which her show business dreams have come true.
“It’s a very ‘can do’ society. In Britain you hear a lot of ‘that’ll never work’ but here people are willing to take risks.”
She is the only foreign comedienne to have success on US TV and, as such, Ullman is something of a standard bearer for aspirational Brits in Hollywood.
Tracey was an inspirational figure for Nigel Lythgoe, the British choreographer, TV producer and Popstars judge who in this decade became a major figure in US TV as producer of American Idol and judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
He says: “I choreographed Tracey on Three Of A Kind back in England and I believe that her success in America inspired so many of us Brits to believe we could also make a career for ourselves in that wonderful country.”
Last month Lythgoe, along with the likes of Cat Deeley, Russell Brand, Peter Kay and Sharon Osbourne, was in the audience when Tracey received the Charlie Chaplin Career Achievement Award at the British Comedy Festival in Los Angeles.
Humbled and thrilled by the honour, Ullman said: “It’s a lovely thing and a nice achievement that makes me think about all I’ve done and how far I’ve come.”
The Slough-born star enjoys triumphs now but it was a tragedy that first made her a performer.
When she was six-year-old her father, Antony, suffered a heart attack while reading her a bedtime story and died.
To cheer up her distraught mother, Dorin, Tracey would put on shows in her mother’s bedroom. She would draw the curtains, use the windowsill as a stage and Dorin would sit on the bed laughing.
At 12, Tracey enrolled at the Italia Conti stage school where she developed her singing, dancing, acting and comedic talents.
Soon after leaving she joined the Second Generation dance troupe, graduated into West End musical roles and then moved into comedy and was spotted by the BBC.
They cast her in sketch shows A Kick Up The Eighties, with Rik Mayall, and then the hugely popular Three Of A Kind, alongside Lenny Henry and David Copperfield.
She followed that with ITV sitcom Girls On Top, co-starring Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders.
Tracey also launched a successful pop career despite having a voice that Melody Maker described as “Minnie Mouse mixed with the Supremes”.
She had three top 10 hits in 1983 with Breakaway, They Don’t Know and Move Over Darling.
Her records were popular in America too and the fun videos had lots of play on MTV, which brought her to the attention of talent-spotting Hollywood producers. A
mong them was James L Brooks, who created The Tracey Ullman Show for her and saw it become an instant hit.
Ullman had moved to LA with her British husband – Auf Wiedersehen Pet producer Allan McKeown – to make the show and they are still there now, and still happy after 25 years of marriage.
Tracey says of her husband: “He’s the funny one in our house. He can’t sing, he can’t dance, he can’t act but he’s hilarious.”
The couple have two children, Mabel, 23, and Jon, 17.
She worked with Allan on a string of other acclaimed shows, including Tracey Takes On and A Class Act, which made her a beloved figure in US comedy.
Ullman has won America’s most coveted TV award, the Emmy, seven times and been inducted into the country’s Museum of Television.
Yet her greatest triumph could be her latest one. US critics reviewing State Of The Union have compared her work in it to the likes of Lenny Bruce and Robin Williams at their best.
If the show doesn’t get seen in Britain, Tracey won’t have a Susan Boyle-style meltdown over it.
She says: “I’m not some sad psychological case. I’m a pretty sensible person. I like to sit and watch documentaries on TV and knit. I’m quite happy to be me.”
The star of State Of The Union is also happy about the state of her career.
She smiles: “I’ve come a long way from my mother’s windowsill.”
Tracey attends 'A Good Smoke' Starring Meryl Streep
Yesterday, June 14th, Meryl Streep read "A Good Smoke" by Don Cummings in New York at the Public Theatre, and Tracey was in the audience. Some people tweeted about it.
Rnoodge: I attended a reading this evening starring meryl streep and debra monk. Alec baldwin, diane keaton, and tracey ullman were in the audience.
Most of you already know that Meryl and Tracey are very good friends, and they were in two movies together. "Plenty" and "Death Becomes Her". It would've been incredibly cool if I could've been there, especially if I could see Tracey. I'd be fidgiting in my seat all night. I'd be in heaven if I were in the same room with the both of them.. Gaahh!!
Rnoodge: I attended a reading this evening starring meryl streep and debra monk. Alec baldwin, diane keaton, and tracey ullman were in the audience.
Most of you already know that Meryl and Tracey are very good friends, and they were in two movies together. "Plenty" and "Death Becomes Her". It would've been incredibly cool if I could've been there, especially if I could see Tracey. I'd be fidgiting in my seat all night. I'd be in heaven if I were in the same room with the both of them.. Gaahh!!
Friday, June 12, 2009
State of the Union is OFFICIALLY Re-Commissioned!
Ullman show wins third run
Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union, produced by Allan McKeown Presents… has been commissioned for a third series by US cable channel Showtime.
Written by and starring Ullman (above, as Renée Zellweger), the sketch show was reordered by Showtime president of entertainment Robert Greenblatt.
C21Media also confirms.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Ullman's Fashion Closet... Luella's Latest Moves... Vodianova to Design...
by WWD Staff
Posted Thursday June 11, 2009
From WWD Issue 06/11/2009
CLOTHES HORSE: Tracey Ullman, who will host the 2009 CFDA Fashion Awards on Monday, clearly seems to know it always helps to play the field when faced with a tough fashion crowd. She will have two outfit changes that night, going for three generations of female American designers. In the course of the evening, which will take place at Alice Tully Hall, Ullman will don a vintage Claire McCardell dress, as well as dresses by Doo.Ri and Donna Karan, whom the comedienne recently lampooned on her Showtime series “State of the Union.” Doo-Ri Chung’s red dress is actually inspired by McCardell, whom Chung has admired since her days at Parsons The New School for Design, where she wrote her thesis on the American fashion icon. The dress will be accessorized with a belt studded with crystals from Swarovski, which is underwriting the awards.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tracey Ullman to replace War On Everything
The Chaser's War On Everything will return to the ABC on June 24 as planned after two weeks in the sin bin, the national broadcaster says.
However, it's still unclear whether the current 10-part series of the satirical television comedy program will be reduced to eight episodes.
Stars of the program apologised last week for a skit depicting dying children making deathbed wishes, which was subsequently cut from online broadcasts.
Public outrage led ABC management to pull the series for a fortnight while it conducted a review of its editorial approval processes.
A corporate affairs spokeswoman for the broadcaster was unable to confirm whether ABC management had met with the Chaser team to discuss the remaining episodes.
"They are back on air after two weeks and that was confirmed in the statement we put out last week,'' she said.
"So they will be back on Wednesday the 24th.
"I'm not quite sure of any subsequent meetings that have happened since or if there is anything else to report out of it at this stage.''
The program's slot tonight and next week will be replaced with Tracey Ullman's State Of The Union, an American satirical comedy series.
A Chaser team spokesman said an internal review was being carried out and the show would be back on air in two weeks.
Debate is raging about the show on social networking site Facebook, with more than 750 people joining a group calling on the ABC to scrap the program and another group with more than 500 members saying the show shouldn't be censored.
Some Tweeters aren't too happy about this one...
However, it's still unclear whether the current 10-part series of the satirical television comedy program will be reduced to eight episodes.
Stars of the program apologised last week for a skit depicting dying children making deathbed wishes, which was subsequently cut from online broadcasts.
Public outrage led ABC management to pull the series for a fortnight while it conducted a review of its editorial approval processes.
A corporate affairs spokeswoman for the broadcaster was unable to confirm whether ABC management had met with the Chaser team to discuss the remaining episodes.
"They are back on air after two weeks and that was confirmed in the statement we put out last week,'' she said.
"So they will be back on Wednesday the 24th.
"I'm not quite sure of any subsequent meetings that have happened since or if there is anything else to report out of it at this stage.''
The program's slot tonight and next week will be replaced with Tracey Ullman's State Of The Union, an American satirical comedy series.
A Chaser team spokesman said an internal review was being carried out and the show would be back on air in two weeks.
Debate is raging about the show on social networking site Facebook, with more than 750 people joining a group calling on the ABC to scrap the program and another group with more than 500 members saying the show shouldn't be censored.
Some Tweeters aren't too happy about this one...
Monday, June 8, 2009
Tracey Ullman to Wear Claire McCardell to CFDA
Diane Von Furstenburg has asked Tracey Ullman to be the host of the annual Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) awards on June 15. It's no wonder DVF chose her. The insanely funny Ullman is often spoofing fashion players as an obvious for of adoration for fashion. The New York Times states" She is a big collector of Claire McCardell, one of the originators of the American fashion industry, and can casually drop into a conversation references to Christian Lacroix's financial troubles, Iris Apfel's eccentric style and the insistence of fashion magazines to churn out issues about how to dress for your age."
Ullman is such a huge Claire McCardell fan and collector, that she might be wearing Claire McCardell to the awards. My esteemed colleague and fellow fellow fashion dealer, Angela of Dorthea's Closet Vintage, recently sold Ms. Ullman a gorgeous Claire McCardell dress in black with bow details.
The weird thing is, I was looking at that site on the weekend and this exact dress caught my eye and I thought "Tracey would really like this" and now, she's going to be wearing it! Maybe I could be her personal shopper...haha
Friday, June 5, 2009
10 Things You Don’t Know About Women: Tracey Ullman
The State of the Union comedian on the Hitachi Magic Wand, and nine other things you don’t know about women.
February 6, 2008, 5:35 AM
www.esquire.com
1. On being asked to write a piece like this, our thoughts immediately become lewd. Hence . . .
2. The Hitachi Magic Wand is rarely used on the shoulder muscle while gazing wistfully into the distance like the model on the box.
3. We don’t envy the woman in the Cialis ad. What’s in it for her over the next thirty-six hours? Cystitis, probably.
4. Thongs hurt, and your bum digests them.
5. Equality will be achieved when we see David Duchovny’s knob on Californication.
6. We hate the smell of Axe.
7. We really don’t find farting funny.
8. We’d rather you fart than wear Axe.
9. We know that, in the main, men are funnier than women.
10. And we can pee standing up.
February 6, 2008, 5:35 AM
www.esquire.com
1. On being asked to write a piece like this, our thoughts immediately become lewd. Hence . . .
2. The Hitachi Magic Wand is rarely used on the shoulder muscle while gazing wistfully into the distance like the model on the box.
3. We don’t envy the woman in the Cialis ad. What’s in it for her over the next thirty-six hours? Cystitis, probably.
4. Thongs hurt, and your bum digests them.
5. Equality will be achieved when we see David Duchovny’s knob on Californication.
6. We hate the smell of Axe.
7. We really don’t find farting funny.
8. We’d rather you fart than wear Axe.
9. We know that, in the main, men are funnier than women.
10. And we can pee standing up.
What The...?
http://www.uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Tracey_Ullman
(Copy+Paste into your browser)
I found some of this to be funny, but with some other things, I was afraid that Sydney Kross would sue them. "You name it, I'll sue it!"
(Copy+Paste into your browser)
Tracey 'Sybil' Ullman (AKA Osama bin Ullman) was born on December 30, 1987. She was born and raised in Afghanistan, where she would be trained as an enemy combatant. It was during this time that she would master the fine art of terrorizing the American public, including poor innocent celebrities. At some point she moved to Britain and picked up enough English to get by.
Stint in Guantanamo
In 2005, Tracey was stopped at LAX, and arrested for impersonating a black Asian Airport Security woman.
Three years went by, and Tracey went back to her roots, reading the Quaran, and growing a beard. Suddenly, she got the idea of telling the CIA that she was actually a Jew and could not possibly be a dirty Muslim terrorist. Ullman broke into a bunch of gibberish Yiddish, and they granted her release.
Scared to death of being sent back to Afghanistan, or even worse, Britain, Tracey decided to start the process of getting American citizenship. She was sworn in, and decided to go back to television, to seek revenge on the country that threw her into a concentration camp. She was after blood.
I found some of this to be funny, but with some other things, I was afraid that Sydney Kross would sue them. "You name it, I'll sue it!"
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Tracey Ullman to Host CFDA Awards
http://www.thefashionspot.com
Not only have her imitations made it clear that she is gifted when it comes to comedy, but also that she has a love and appreciation for fashion. In fact, in a recent New York Times article, it was revealed that Ullman is very well versed in fashion – both in terms of its history and the latest news and buzz.
“She is a big collector of Claire McCardell, one of the originators of the American fashion industry, and can casually drop into a conversation references to Christian Lacroix’s financial troubles, Iris Apfel’s eccentric style and the insistence of fashion magazines to churn out issues about how to dress for your age,” noted Eric Wilson, the author of the New York Times article on Ullman which ran in the paper’s style section on June 4th.
Ullman’s uncanny imitations, spot-on humor, and love and respect for the fashion industry are what led Diane Von Furstenberg (president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America) to ask her to host this year’s annual CFDA Awards.
The prestigious award ceremony will take place on June 15th. Interestingly, the comedian told Eric Wilson that she is not sure she will be poking fun at the designers up for nominations. She said that she is more interested in “exploring how those designers familiar with the fading era of New York society are adapting to the modern world of invented celebrities.
In my opinion, they couldn't have made a better choice. Tracey is perfect for this. It's going to be a great night I tell you.
Not only have her imitations made it clear that she is gifted when it comes to comedy, but also that she has a love and appreciation for fashion. In fact, in a recent New York Times article, it was revealed that Ullman is very well versed in fashion – both in terms of its history and the latest news and buzz.
“She is a big collector of Claire McCardell, one of the originators of the American fashion industry, and can casually drop into a conversation references to Christian Lacroix’s financial troubles, Iris Apfel’s eccentric style and the insistence of fashion magazines to churn out issues about how to dress for your age,” noted Eric Wilson, the author of the New York Times article on Ullman which ran in the paper’s style section on June 4th.
Ullman’s uncanny imitations, spot-on humor, and love and respect for the fashion industry are what led Diane Von Furstenberg (president of the Council of Fashion Designers of America) to ask her to host this year’s annual CFDA Awards.
The prestigious award ceremony will take place on June 15th. Interestingly, the comedian told Eric Wilson that she is not sure she will be poking fun at the designers up for nominations. She said that she is more interested in “exploring how those designers familiar with the fading era of New York society are adapting to the modern world of invented celebrities.
In my opinion, they couldn't have made a better choice. Tracey is perfect for this. It's going to be a great night I tell you.
That's more like it...
FateHere@TyddVicious Tracy is funny and she can be downright blunt about things, which makes her even more hilarious
TobsonHelsinki: Tracey Ullman is a genius - so witty, such great scripts. Awfully funny, and always with that touch of seriousness at the bottom. She rocks!
samcab: Tracey Ullman as Donna Karan http://bit.ly/Viv4M Dead on!
Tracey Ullman: Just Being Herselves
Thursday, November 8th, 2007
by Bart Bull
(published in Vogue)
To get to Tracey Ullman's closet, you need to go through the bathroom. You don't really need to go through there, but she wants you to; it makes for a more colorful tour. The color is purplish, in fact, or lilac, sort of, or actually a turbo-charged neon mauve. "The man who lived here before was a Czechoslovakian plastic surgeon," she says, delivering the next line in the cigar-chewing gurgle of an elderly Las Vegas lounge comic, complete with perfectly-timed pause for the drummer's rim shot: "And if he does this to his house, what does he do to your body?" Ullman plans to have his remarkable upholstered toilet seat enshrined in a clear Lucite case and mounted on the wall.
She has fewer shoes than Imelda Marcos but they make a far more interesting mess at the bottom of her closet. She's down there now, flinging out Tony Lama cowboy boots and alarming French wedgies with rock star photo patches sewn to the heels and then this . . . this fairly restrained bustier. "Every girl has one of these Madonna bodice-type tops, these slaggy Stevie Nicks-type things. Though they look terribly sad on someone like me, who breast-fed a nine pound infant." She sweeps an unmatched pair of her daughter Mabel's Barbie dolls off the dressing table to clear more room and discovers a complicated sweater by her idol, her all-time absolute favorite, Jean Paul Gaultier. "My friend last night said it falls into every cardigan category. He said, 'You like it because you're not wearing one cardigan, you're wearing every cardigan.' But I do love it, because you wear it and people get frightened."
When it comes to Gaultier, it's impossible for her to keep from rhapsodizing, and she readily admits it. "He's the king for me. I just think he's brilliant, I really do. He still has an element of street about him as well. I went to his shop in Paris last summer — I'd never done any shopping in Paris until last year. I told my husband, 'Go bog off — I'm going shopping in Paris.' First time I'd ever had the money, I'm in Paris, and it was a truly debilitating experience. They were so rude to me. [Smarmy French accent, wreathed in Gauloise smoke]: 'What do you want, stupid British girl?'
"They were so rude — the only people who were nice were a couple of Japanese people who had just opened a shop and were desperate to sell gear. It was horrible. At one boutique, they practically spat at me. Until I got my Platinum American Express card out and said, 'Look! Look!'" She laughs uproariously at the sheer folly of it. "They didn't give a damn.
"It wasn't good fun at all shopping there. Then again, in Beverly Hills, the people who work for the top places are all like [pursed lips, dysfunctional adenoids]: 'Millie, seventy-two, I've worked in sales a long, long time . . . Oh, this is just beau-ti-ful! The colors this season are so gwargeous!'"
"Here's a bit of Christian Lacroix," and she yanks free a finely detailed glass-beaded top. "Had a skirt that went with it — it's here somewhere. I wore this to an awards show and the zipper burst as I went onstage.
"I love clothes," she declares from deep inside the closet, where the hangers are all clumped together. "I love fashion. I used to work in shops on the King's Road when I was sixteen. I was always one who saved up weeks for a decent skirt." Her head is buried deep in the closet again. "And always somewhere I have a leather miniskirt. I just bought another one, and I know it will be the last one of my life, 'cause I know I'm getting too ridiculously old to wear leather miniskirts. I put it on and I do look a bit tragic.
"I mean, I don't even keep my clothes in a very nice state or anything. I'm like a magpie; I'll wear anything unusual or bright. But when yousee these Beverly Hills women who pay twelve thousand dollars and they're sitting at one of those functions with their big freckly armpits hanging over the edge of their bustier— I'd like to bring Christian Lacroix to a Beverly Hills function. 'Don't look now, Christian, but there's a fat tart in one of your frocks.' 'Merde! '
"The Japanese gear, I haven't really gotten into that — the black, baggy, shapeless trousers with the big sort of platform shoes. I mean, some people spend like four thousand dollars they look like a bag of spanners. So they have to keep reminding you who designed it. [Voice of a schlumpf]: 'Djya like the jacket? It's by, uh, Matsudo, ya know?'"
She's back in the closet. "This is the first piece of Gaultier I ever bought," she says, cradling a charcoal shirt in both hands. [Elaborate stage whisper] "Cost me three hundred pounds. I couldn't believe i had a Gaultier shirt. It was like a dream. Always looked a bit strange on me, though.
"Here's my Tracey Ullman Show jacket." It's a perfect example of what fashionable Hollywood cameramen can be seen wearing in supermarkets. "Can you imagine if I wore that? [Dopey TV star]: 'Hey, that's ME! It's MY SHOW!'"
Her own closets revealed, Ullman can't resist invading her husband's. "these are the suits he buys now he's got a bit of money. These over here are the ones he used to buy off the back of the lorry. All men in England have to buy stolen suits. They can't bear to pay the retail price. And these" — she laughs even as she touches them — are his trendy shirts."
Mabel's closets are next. Ullman sweeps up a blue wool coat with wooden toggle buttons down the front. "I love this, her little Paddington Bear coat — so very British. She wore it once and threw up all down the front. You can still smell the vomit on it." She acquires a thoughtful, puzzled look. "So hard to remove the smell from designer wear, you know."
by Bart Bull
(published in Vogue)
To get to Tracey Ullman's closet, you need to go through the bathroom. You don't really need to go through there, but she wants you to; it makes for a more colorful tour. The color is purplish, in fact, or lilac, sort of, or actually a turbo-charged neon mauve. "The man who lived here before was a Czechoslovakian plastic surgeon," she says, delivering the next line in the cigar-chewing gurgle of an elderly Las Vegas lounge comic, complete with perfectly-timed pause for the drummer's rim shot: "And if he does this to his house, what does he do to your body?" Ullman plans to have his remarkable upholstered toilet seat enshrined in a clear Lucite case and mounted on the wall.
She has fewer shoes than Imelda Marcos but they make a far more interesting mess at the bottom of her closet. She's down there now, flinging out Tony Lama cowboy boots and alarming French wedgies with rock star photo patches sewn to the heels and then this . . . this fairly restrained bustier. "Every girl has one of these Madonna bodice-type tops, these slaggy Stevie Nicks-type things. Though they look terribly sad on someone like me, who breast-fed a nine pound infant." She sweeps an unmatched pair of her daughter Mabel's Barbie dolls off the dressing table to clear more room and discovers a complicated sweater by her idol, her all-time absolute favorite, Jean Paul Gaultier. "My friend last night said it falls into every cardigan category. He said, 'You like it because you're not wearing one cardigan, you're wearing every cardigan.' But I do love it, because you wear it and people get frightened."
When it comes to Gaultier, it's impossible for her to keep from rhapsodizing, and she readily admits it. "He's the king for me. I just think he's brilliant, I really do. He still has an element of street about him as well. I went to his shop in Paris last summer — I'd never done any shopping in Paris until last year. I told my husband, 'Go bog off — I'm going shopping in Paris.' First time I'd ever had the money, I'm in Paris, and it was a truly debilitating experience. They were so rude to me. [Smarmy French accent, wreathed in Gauloise smoke]: 'What do you want, stupid British girl?'
"They were so rude — the only people who were nice were a couple of Japanese people who had just opened a shop and were desperate to sell gear. It was horrible. At one boutique, they practically spat at me. Until I got my Platinum American Express card out and said, 'Look! Look!'" She laughs uproariously at the sheer folly of it. "They didn't give a damn.
"It wasn't good fun at all shopping there. Then again, in Beverly Hills, the people who work for the top places are all like [pursed lips, dysfunctional adenoids]: 'Millie, seventy-two, I've worked in sales a long, long time . . . Oh, this is just beau-ti-ful! The colors this season are so gwargeous!'"
"Here's a bit of Christian Lacroix," and she yanks free a finely detailed glass-beaded top. "Had a skirt that went with it — it's here somewhere. I wore this to an awards show and the zipper burst as I went onstage.
"I love clothes," she declares from deep inside the closet, where the hangers are all clumped together. "I love fashion. I used to work in shops on the King's Road when I was sixteen. I was always one who saved up weeks for a decent skirt." Her head is buried deep in the closet again. "And always somewhere I have a leather miniskirt. I just bought another one, and I know it will be the last one of my life, 'cause I know I'm getting too ridiculously old to wear leather miniskirts. I put it on and I do look a bit tragic.
"I mean, I don't even keep my clothes in a very nice state or anything. I'm like a magpie; I'll wear anything unusual or bright. But when yousee these Beverly Hills women who pay twelve thousand dollars and they're sitting at one of those functions with their big freckly armpits hanging over the edge of their bustier— I'd like to bring Christian Lacroix to a Beverly Hills function. 'Don't look now, Christian, but there's a fat tart in one of your frocks.' 'Merde! '
"The Japanese gear, I haven't really gotten into that — the black, baggy, shapeless trousers with the big sort of platform shoes. I mean, some people spend like four thousand dollars they look like a bag of spanners. So they have to keep reminding you who designed it. [Voice of a schlumpf]: 'Djya like the jacket? It's by, uh, Matsudo, ya know?'"
She's back in the closet. "This is the first piece of Gaultier I ever bought," she says, cradling a charcoal shirt in both hands. [Elaborate stage whisper] "Cost me three hundred pounds. I couldn't believe i had a Gaultier shirt. It was like a dream. Always looked a bit strange on me, though.
"Here's my Tracey Ullman Show jacket." It's a perfect example of what fashionable Hollywood cameramen can be seen wearing in supermarkets. "Can you imagine if I wore that? [Dopey TV star]: 'Hey, that's ME! It's MY SHOW!'"
Her own closets revealed, Ullman can't resist invading her husband's. "these are the suits he buys now he's got a bit of money. These over here are the ones he used to buy off the back of the lorry. All men in England have to buy stolen suits. They can't bear to pay the retail price. And these" — she laughs even as she touches them — are his trendy shirts."
Mabel's closets are next. Ullman sweeps up a blue wool coat with wooden toggle buttons down the front. "I love this, her little Paddington Bear coat — so very British. She wore it once and threw up all down the front. You can still smell the vomit on it." She acquires a thoughtful, puzzled look. "So hard to remove the smell from designer wear, you know."
Character References by Tracey
By ERIC WILSON
Published: June 3, 2009
THE voice on Tracey Ullman’s answering machine was unmistakable.
“Hello, it’s D.V.F. You have no excuse this year, Tracey. Call me back.”
Repeating this message the other day, Ms. Ullman, the actress and comedian, put on an impersonation of Diane Von Furstenberg’s distinctive honey-dipped-frog drawl that was so pitch perfect it was hard to tell for certain that she hadn’t just hit the play button. It was uncanny, really, but this will not surprise followers of “Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union” series on Showtime.
On an episode this season, Ms. Ullman appeared in one skit as Donna Karan, designing new robes for the Supreme Court justices, and in another as Miuccia Prada, showing a collection inspired by the pastel prairie dresses worn by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (“Viva polygamy,” she says at the end of the show.)
Ms. Ullman’s proclivity for spoofing the designer community and its oddball characters is largely rooted in her admiration for fashion. She is a big collector of Claire McCardell, one of the originators of the American fashion industry, and can casually drop into a conversation references to Christian Lacroix’s financial troubles, Iris Apfel’s eccentric style and the insistence of fashion magazines to churn out issues about how to dress for your age.
“I love the idea of how to look good in your 30s and your 40s,” she said. “And when you get to your 70s, they all just give you this beautiful big hood to wear, a silk bag with a grosgrain ribbon from Jil Sander.”
Her interest in style, and her irreverent wit, led Ms. Von Furstenberg to ask her to host the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards on June 15. The crowd can be tough, as Simon Doonan of Barneys New York can attest after insulting André Leon Talley’s turban last year. But Ms. Ullman was not yet sure if she would be taking aim at designers who might be in the room. She was more tempted, she said, by exploring how those designers familiar with the fading era of New York society are adapting to the modern world of invented celebrities.
“You can imagine,” Ms. Ullman said, “Oscar de la Renta being shown a picture of Lauren Conrad, and saying, ‘Oh, if only we can get her to hold our purse!’ ”
Published: June 3, 2009
THE voice on Tracey Ullman’s answering machine was unmistakable.
“Hello, it’s D.V.F. You have no excuse this year, Tracey. Call me back.”
Repeating this message the other day, Ms. Ullman, the actress and comedian, put on an impersonation of Diane Von Furstenberg’s distinctive honey-dipped-frog drawl that was so pitch perfect it was hard to tell for certain that she hadn’t just hit the play button. It was uncanny, really, but this will not surprise followers of “Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union” series on Showtime.
On an episode this season, Ms. Ullman appeared in one skit as Donna Karan, designing new robes for the Supreme Court justices, and in another as Miuccia Prada, showing a collection inspired by the pastel prairie dresses worn by members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. (“Viva polygamy,” she says at the end of the show.)
Ms. Ullman’s proclivity for spoofing the designer community and its oddball characters is largely rooted in her admiration for fashion. She is a big collector of Claire McCardell, one of the originators of the American fashion industry, and can casually drop into a conversation references to Christian Lacroix’s financial troubles, Iris Apfel’s eccentric style and the insistence of fashion magazines to churn out issues about how to dress for your age.
“I love the idea of how to look good in your 30s and your 40s,” she said. “And when you get to your 70s, they all just give you this beautiful big hood to wear, a silk bag with a grosgrain ribbon from Jil Sander.”
Her interest in style, and her irreverent wit, led Ms. Von Furstenberg to ask her to host the Council of Fashion Designers of America awards on June 15. The crowd can be tough, as Simon Doonan of Barneys New York can attest after insulting André Leon Talley’s turban last year. But Ms. Ullman was not yet sure if she would be taking aim at designers who might be in the room. She was more tempted, she said, by exploring how those designers familiar with the fading era of New York society are adapting to the modern world of invented celebrities.
“You can imagine,” Ms. Ullman said, “Oscar de la Renta being shown a picture of Lauren Conrad, and saying, ‘Oh, if only we can get her to hold our purse!’ ”
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