Justin Bieber wearing a beautiful (but failing) checkerboard belt at the Wango Tango event in Los Angeles.

Nice pom pom.

Sharon Needles has won RuPaul’s Drag Race Season 4, and all is right with the world. The weird boy in school, Aaron Coady of the unlikely Newton, Iowa, has been crowned — and we are all better for it. Hooray for the steel mills of Pittsburgh that forged this gorgeousness into an instant legend.

Giving a star-mix of wit and spooky fun, the face of drag is forever changed, as she joins the pantheon of ladyboy greats who sashay their way through the dragalaxy!

Congratulations to Sharon, for gallantly representing triumph over bullies, wit over anger, and gore with the glitz. She is, at once, a star in our bloody hearts!

Watch the full episode below.

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I just found this picture of John F. Kennedy at age 23 in 1940.

What a mug!

for Gina on her miscellaneous birthday

It’s been raining all weekend in Los Angeles, so here’s a cheery scene from “Stormy Weather” with the Nicholas Brothers, Harold and Fayard, with Cab Calloway and his big band. They taught Michael Jackson.

Today’s Friday Face is the adorably dotty Natalie Schafer, seen here in the role of her career as the fluffy millionaire’s wife Lovey Howell (real name: Eunice Wentworth Howell) on “Gilligan’s Island.” She played the role for three years (1964-67), and for an eternity in reruns.

Natalie was born November 5, 1900 to a Jewish family in Red Bank, New Jersey, a stone’s throw from Broadway… where she made her debut in 1927′s “Trigger,” directed by none other than George Cukor. She typically played a sophisticated woman, and would continue to do so in over 80 films, beginning in 1941 with her move to Los Angeles.

She had some terribly interesting romances, including a 9-year marriage to excellent character actor Louis Calhern (above), best remembered opposite Marilyn Monroe in “The Asphalt Jungle.” All four of his marriages (Nat was his 3rd) ended in divorce.

She was engaged to character actor Charles Butterworth (above) when he was killed in a one-car accident in 1946.

Natalie had a long romance during the late 1940s and early ’50s with brilliant playwright and humorist George S. Kaufman (above), who worked with the Marx Brothers, and wrote the divine “You Can’t Take It with You” (with Moss Hart, Kitty Carlisle’s husband).

Here she is in an episode of Lucy that I love… because Lucy and Ethel are in drag, and Ricky and Fred, too. Natalie runs the charm school.

Schafer shaved 10 years off her age, and even her best friends were unaware of her real age until her death of cancer at 90, when it was revealed. She died at her 7-bedroom home on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Her ashes were scattered in the sea near San Pedro, California.

Below, one of her last public appearances at the APLA (AIDS Project Los Angeles) benefit in September of 1990. She died April 10, 1991.

By all accounts a witty and delightful woman, Natalie invested wisely in real estate, reportedly leaving the bulk of her estate to her poodle, and to co-star Dawn Wells (“Mary Ann”), who has never confirmed it.

Schafer left $2 million to the Motion Picture and Television Hospital, which named a wing for her.

For her glamour, sophistication, talent and style, Natalie Schafer is today’s Friday Face.

When you have time, here’s the 1947 film “Dishonored Lady” in which she appeared opposite the marvelous Hedy Lamarr (great scene at 48:48). She could wear a hat.

This week in New York City begins a months-long celebration of the life and wit of the great Noel Coward, actor, director, singer and songwriter.

Here’s some early rap music from Coward, singing his composition “Nina,” in what was likely his first TV appearance in 1957.

And here are a few more recordings…

Just for fun… here’s some footage of Noel Coward’s 1950s appearances in Las Vegas, with Frank, Judy, Lauren Bacall, even Zsa Zsa Gabor!

Lindsay Lohan is sober, but she doesn’t know how long it’s been, and she’s ready to host “SNL” this weekend. Lohan, 52, looks ready for the task, and has learned something about keeping up appearances by working in the L.A. County Morgue.

She looks remarkably alive.

Illustrated gif by I Have 4 Cats

Marjorie Main, unlikely movie star, was born on this day in 1890, gaining fame as an MGM company player of crusty old gals, best remembered as Ma Kettle in a series of films with Percy Kilbride.

A Hoosier from Acton, Indiana, born Mary Tomlinson, she took her stage name to avoid embarrassing her minister father — and into Vaudeville she went, making it to Broadway in 1916 where she worked with W.C. Fields, and hit it in pictures by 1937, with especially good notice in “Stella Dallas.”

She would appear in over 100 films in the next 20 years, playing salty dames, housekeepers and other no-nonsense, hard-bitten women. She stole nearly every scene in which she appeared.

She married Dr. Stanley Krebs, 25 years her senior, in 1921, and was widowed in 1934. She would often converse with her late husband, in public, asking him questions and getting answers. She developed OCD, leading to a pathological fear of germs. She would often wear white gloves and a surgical mask.

Director George Sidney claimed that Main donated most of her salary to support a school.

Marjorie was nominated for Best Supporting Actress of 1947 for her work as Ma Kettle. She lost to Celeste Holm in “Gentleman’s Agreement.” Holm is now 94.

Marjorie Main built a house in Palm Desert which is for sale here.

Biographer Keith Stern claims Main had a long-term relationship with actress Spring Byington, who also starred in dozens of Golden Era films as a lovely and concerned mom. They are listed in many sources as “longtime companions.”

Main’s last appearance was in 1974 at the L.A. premiere of “That’s Entertainment,” where she was greeted with wild cheering. She had not been seen since her retirement from films in 1957. She died of lung cancer at age 85 on April 10, 1975.

Marjorie Main is today’s Friday Face.

For those of you who sleep-in on Sundays, you missed Judge Judy being profiled on “CBS Sunday Morning.” Here’s the footage… and get a load of that house!

Don’t judge her.

ty Porgy

Today marks what would have been the 99th birthday of Loretta Young, who began her career in silent films in 1917 at the age of 3, winning an Oscar in 1947 for “Farmer’s Daughter,” and making a highly successful transition to TV with an 8-year run of “The Loretta Young Show.”

Young had a child with the then-married Clark Gable in 1935. She hid the birth and later “adopted” the child, naming her Judy Lewis.

Loretta Young was a lifelong Republican and very active in the church, earning her the nicknames “Attila the Nun” and “Saint Loretta.” She married three times, with one annulment and one divorce.

In 1993, she married 83-year-old fashion designer Jean Louis, who died four years later. (Louis designed the gown Marilyn Monroe wore to sing “Happy Birthday, Mr. President,” which sold at auction in 1999 for $1.26 million.)

In 1973, her son Christopher Lewis, then 29, was charged with child molestation and filming and distributing child porn. He plead “no contest” and faced life in prison, but got probation and a $500 fine. Another son, Peter Lewis, was in the rock group Moby Grape.

Her daughter with Gable (below) died late last year.

Loretta Young died of ovarian cancer in 2000.

You can visit her remains at Holy Cross Cemetery in Culver City. Loretta Young is today’s Friday Face.