Who was the real diva?

[Willie Oleson]

The type has been so awfully commonized that everyone can claim to be a diva (and they do), but there was a time when it referred to something specific. What was it, and who was it?

(Miss Piggy jokes prohibited).

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

A diva was once a female opera star of a certain calibre. (Callas, for example). Then, it was a demanding woman of a certain self-important ilk. Now it's a multi-gendered assessment one may even bestow upon oneself.

In the movies, from the classic era, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Loretta Young (the only woman in Hollywood who could out-Crawford Mommie Dearest, minus most of the pathologies) probably foot the bill best....Why?? There's just something about them, something self-contained.

Sure, Dietrich, Dunaway and others are contenders.

Barbara Stanwyck was too soft to qualify. Bette Davis was just The Bitch. Hepburn was too pretentiously unpretentious.

So it's about balance.

Glen Close, today, could make a good diva. Alexis Carrington might have been a diva, but Joan Collins just wants to be. Madonna wants to be, but she's always been a shameless poser... Among '80s soaps, Donna Mills and Abby Cunningham probably came the closest, Sable is next in line.


Kate O'Mara as Marlene Dietrich:

 

[J. R.'s Piece]

A diva was once a female opera star of a certain calibre. (Callas, for example). Then, it was a demanding woman of a certain self-important ilk. Now it's a multi-gendered assessment one may even bestow upon oneself.

In the movies, from the classic era, Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford and Loretta Young (the only woman in Hollywood who could out-Crawford Mommie Dearest, minus most of the pathologies) probably foot the bill best....Why?? There's just something about them, something self-contained.

Ah! Loretta Young…