In honor of my impending death by blizzard, today's SAll-Star is a man who seems drawn to wintry roles: Mr. Michael Batman Beetlejuice Keaton.
Born Michael Douglas, Keaton decided that he was too manly to share a name with Gordon Gekko and renamed himself after Annie Hall star Diane Keaton. Because, as we all know, she represents everything that is manly in Hollywood.
After early box-office successes in the realm of comedy (Johnny Dangerously, Beetlejuice), director Tim Burton felt Keaton was capable of portraying the dark, brooding personality of Bruce Wayne as he appears in Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Keaton's obsessive performance as Batman led to two of the finest superhero films ever made (certainly the two most adventurous in art direction). Then Joel Schumacher took over the franchise and took a big, steaming shit on it. Batman & Robin was so bad that Schumacher, a man who proudly gave us turds like 8mm and The Number 23, actually apologized for making it on the DVD commentary track.
But the most important reason for Keaton's selection today: Jack Frost. After witnessing a foot of snow descend violently upon me in about 18 hours, I realized that people really can turn into snowmen. Cheers to you, Mr. Keaton. You are the SAll-Star for December 16th.
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