Tudor revival

During my daily perusal of IMDB, I spotted this upcoming show all about the Tudors, a drama seemingly based on a very randy and young and foxy Henry VIII. I do believe that Henry VIII was quite randy, and that's putting it mildly. But I also feel pretty sure that he was a gross old lech. I believe that he was every bit as corpulent and unappealing as he was domineering and randy. But luckily Showtime has dropped the "corpulent & unappealing" part of it, casting Jonathan Rhys Meyers...

Here's one of the promotional posters...it's not my cropping that cut the ladies' heads off, that's how the photo really is. Henry is saying here, "I am not concerned with your countenances, wenches. It is solely your bodice-smooshed bosoms I require...encircling me....as I ponder critical matters of state." Y'see he's doing the thinking steeple with his fingers...that means he's not just doing an idle sultry stare, he's really got something on his mind. Something about the bosom wench at far left's body language suggests that she may not be 100% keen on being exploited for her rack...looks like she may want a shawl or somethin'...

But don't despair wenches!! The fine king is not above flaunting his own wares...

Now I wonder if this one (below )was JRM's shot with which to say "This may be a drama, folks, but that sure as hell don't mean that I've slacked off in my gym regiment!!"

It's kind of a silly picture. I won't begrudge him those nice biceps, but still, it's silly. Who is he mad at??

Well I did not bring up "The Tudors" just as an excuse to post some kinda JRM collage (dude, I find his name waaay too cumbersome to bother to type out) Rather, I wanted to kvetch about this being totally the kind of show that I could get into but airing on SHOWTIME. Drat, damn , and dang it all!! Not sure when it premieres--just sometime in '07. I'd just as soon not know, because getting Showtime is not an option for me. Even if I did pay for cable and could add channels to my line-up, I suppose it wouldn't be prudent to add a new channel purely because of one show.

I'm actually reading a book about English kings & queens. It spans from Alfred the Great (871 A.D.--899 A.D.) through present day. I'm not really up to the Tudor dynasty yet... I'm still in the Middle Ages. I think that, more than any biographical info, I am most thrilled by these kooky Old English names. Alfred had older bros named Ethelbald and Ethelbert and he married a lady named Ealhswith.