gor[b] Paul Gorbould: Words and Pictures

Thanks a lot, Rodin

Avi, cut it out.

I think you're a great host, a good journalist and an incredibly smart man from an incredibly smart family.

But don't let people take pictures of you like this.

I know, I know. The "thinking pose" has a long tradition, and nothing says intellect like ye olde hand on chin. It shows the weight of your enormous cranium.

Auguste Rodin made it famous, and doomed it to imitation by going so far as to call his famous statue "The Thinker".

So anyone who thinks strikes this pose, right? Wrong! Thinking people shouldn't pose, it's antithetical to thinking.

More to the point, unless you are carved out of bronze, and actually standing before the gates of hell, you can't pull it off without looking smug or effete.

At any age:

This old man can't pull it off

Nor can this baby

Or this boy

Or these girls

Or this geek

Or this bikini model

Or this frog.

Celebrity doesn't help, Avi.

Stephan Marbury can't pull it off.

Neither can Jack Lord from Hawaii Five-O

or Kenneth Branagh

or Joseph Haworth

or Tiny Tim

or Jamie Foxx

or Peter Tork from The Monkees

or Eminem

or L. Ron Hubbard

or JFK

(Or Dodi Al-Fayed, in my previous post.)

So, next time someone from Communications calls up saying you need to do a photo shoot for your next show, say no to voguing. Your face is fine without your fist.