Bad Girls We Love: Mona Demarkov from Romeo is Bleeding

Some cinematic performances are so highly charged, so astonishingly assured, that we can still feel the reverberations years, even decades later. Lena Olin scorching the earth as Mona Demarkov in the excellent neo-noir classic Romeo is Bleeding (1993) is one such performance. Is Mona the most sexually uninhibited and ruthless femme fatale in movie history? … Continue reading Bad Girls We Love: Mona Demarkov from Romeo is Bleeding →

The Sexiest Man Alive: Ellen Barkin in Switch

That is not a mistake in the title: Ellen Barkin is the sexiest man alive. Let me explain. Recently, while digging through DVDs looking for something in particular, I stumbled on my old copy of a movie few seem to remember these days, Switch (1991). As I held the ancient snap-case DVD in my hands … Continue reading The Sexiest Man Alive: Ellen Barkin in Switch →

The Art of the Ad: Sex, Lies, and Video Games, Part II

Last year we gazed back into the golden age of arcade and video game advertising, when ad agencies went all in on sexy (and often sexist) ad campaigns. It was a very different time. Well, there were more than enough examples to warrant a sequel post, so here it is. This time, with 100% more … Continue reading The Art of the Ad: Sex, Lies, and Video Games, Part II →

Lost and Found: V.I.P.

The overwhelmingly positive response to the new documentary Pamela, A Love Story has been a pleasant reminder that people really do love Pamela Anderson. For years, decades even, she’s been reduced to a punchline in the media, thanks to everyone’s obsession in the nineties with a leaked, intimate tape featuring her and then-husband Tommy Lee. … Continue reading Lost and Found: V.I.P. →

That Pfeiffer Glamour

In the spirit of this blog, here’s a randomly selected set of Michelle Pfeiffer. As the inspiration for and patron saint of this site, Michelle can hijack any posts at the Starfire Lounge any time she wants. I’ll always allow it. This collection captures Michelle in full-on glamour mode. Fair warning: these images are absurdly … Continue reading That Pfeiffer Glamour →

Lost and Found: Dance with Death

For the second post in this series, it feels appropriate to highlight a movie from a lost genre that has been rediscovered thanks to streaming services like Tubi or Prime. Most late-eighties, early nineties director-to-video (DTV) erotic thrillers still haven’t made the transition from VHS to DVD, let alone the current standard of Blu-ray or … Continue reading Lost and Found: Dance with Death →

Bad Girls We Love: Helga from Tammy and the T-Rex

Tammy and the T-Rex (1994) is one of my favorite examples of a lost cult classic rediscovered decades later by B-movie aficionados thanks to a boutique label restoring it for a Blu-ray release. I do not remember this movie from the nineties, but that’s probably because it came and went in a flash and barely … Continue reading Bad Girls We Love: Helga from Tammy and the T-Rex →