Enter your email address to subscribe to WOW's roughly once-a-month newsletter:

Is Tammy Faye the Earthquake Phantom?

After an earthquake struck Illinois on April 18, appearances of a mysterious lady making pronouncements have been reported, the phantom said to resemble Tammy Faye Bakker, who died almost a year ago.

The mysterious lady, whoever she is, has conveyed messages to witnesses, such as “The Zadokite Temple is the True Temple” and “Pray for Zimbabwe.” But some sneer at Illinoisans and call them half-baked. These do not credit as factual the appearance of any “mysterious lady,” be she Tammy Faye Bakker or otherwise.

(ShoutingGround; t/y Chris)

Remembering Tammy Faye

World of Wonder producer/director Jeremy Simmons attended Tammy Faye Messner's memorial service in Decatur, Georgia, on Saturday:

I love tammy faye. And I love her family. And I was so happy to be a part of Tammy's memorial celebration this weekend. It was the first time I had set foot in a church by choice in years. And I'm pretty certain I wasn't the only one. Among the pillars of the Christian community sat a sprinkling of punk rock kids, transgender women, and, of course, a gaggle of gays – a testament to Tammy's incredible ability to touch people from all walks of life. Nothing and no one could have brought all these people together but Tammy. For three hours we all had something in common. We talked about our memories of Tammy. We sang songs, we told stories. We cried. Then we all went to eat. Had it been earlier, we all probably would have gone shopping for shoes. It was very low-key and intimate and silly and sad and wonderful. Tammy was alive in us all for one night. I'm hoping my tear-stained hot pink memorial program will serve as a reminder of how we all were this weekend, and how Tammy lived her life: ridiculous, emotional, vulnerable, passionate, and spirited. Thank you Tammy. You and your family have had a profound impact on my life. (Image via WOW TV)

Remembering Tammy Faye

On Saturday night, close to 300 family, friends, and admiring strangers assembled at the Cathedral at Chapel Hill in Decatur, Georgia, for a memorial service for Tammy Faye Messner, who died July 20 from colon cancer. We wish we'd been there to say how we felt about her. (Clip edited by Jeremy Simmons)

More Blink Than Bling

Stephanie Simek's Tammy Faye necklace in sterling silver and real human hair is described at Cool Hunting as "an unusual and delicate piece of jewelry that, alternatively, has the calm look of sleep," and the addition of pearl tears gives the necklace "an emo feel." $30 and up, available at artez'n. (t/y Chris)

21st-Century Vox

Touched by Tammy Faye

"Honey, God loves everybody. It's human beings who mess things up," Tammy Faye Messner said to me as she placed her tiny frail hand in mine to give a squeeze as we walked out of the movie theater. It was the premiere of her second documentary, which recounted her battle with cancer. The words she spoke in her high-pitched Minnesota drawl were so simple, and yet carried so much meaning because to Tammy Faye all men were created equal, no matter what their color, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, and in her mind not only was she not to judge other people, she was to accept them the way God intended her to. Tammy Faye Messner didn't judge people because she had walked in their shoes. Throughout her life she had been persecuted and made fun of. The joke, however, was on those who could not see past the wigs and pounds of makeup to the heart of an extraordinary woman who lived her life as best she could, mistakes and all, and gave people hope, enjoyment, and enlightenment.

Continue

Tammy Forever

World of Wonder got some righteous props in the Tammy Faye post yesterday on GetReligion.org:

No obituary does her as much justice as the films The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2000) and Tammy Faye: Death Defying (2005) and the Sundance Channel series One Punk Under God (2006). In One Punk Under God, Tammy Faye’s ex-husband speaks of her with quiet wonder and compares her to the Unsinkable Molly Brown.

We're Still Watching, Tammy Faye

[Ed note: Normally, we would excerpt part of this story and link to the source for the full piece – which in this case is Salon.com – but our fearless leaders Fenton and Randy have done such a beautiful job of capturing the essence of Tammy Faye in this remembrance that we wanted to make sure we could access it long after a link would have led us to a dead page. Our apologies to Salon.]

Tammy Faye Messner was such a genius at come-into-my-living-room TV that she spent even her final moments working the camera.

By Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato

Photo: Jack Kurtz/ZUMA Press

July 25, 2007 | With Tammy Faye it was always about the eyes.

The very first thing Tammy did on the very first day of filming "The Eyes of Tammy Faye," the documentary we made about her, was show us her dead mother's glasses on her coffee table. She liked to keep them around, she said, to remind her how she saw things. And then, with the cameras rolling, she put them on.

In that moment we knew -- as did she -- that this would be the opening of our film. It was such an arresting, almost ghoulish thing to do, to put on your dead mother's glasses. Yet it reminded us that we all have different points of view because we are all looking through different lenses. And no matter how differently we see things, no matter how we may judge people accordingly, it's all temporary anyway.

In the opening of the movie "Crash," there's some mournful voice-over about how our lives are isolated by glass: car windscreens, television screens, computer screens. Rather than seeing this as a prescription for melancholy and loneliness, Tammy saw the screen as an opportunity to make a connection and determined to put herself in front of the eye of the camera.

Amazing really, because Tammy didn't have a lot to work with. She didn't have the genes of stardom. She grew up in Nowheresville, and Hollywood was definitely not calling. She was tiny. OK, so Hollywood could always forgive the vertically challenged as long as they had the eyes. But Tammy hardly had any eyes at all, just two tiny raisins bordered with some stumpy eyelashes.

Continue

The Last Laugh

There's never been a more mischievous laugh than Tammy Faye's, and as I've struggled to come up with some fitting tribute or memory to share, I keep hearing it, her one-note "Ha!" that punctuated so many moments.

I'm blessed with many memories of time spent with Tammy, everything from her first chemo treatment to sharing the stage at Frameline to splitting desserts at Appleby's, and through it all there was that unstoppable spirit and infectious laugh that we know and love her for. Even on the worst of days and through the tears, that laugh and spirit got Tammy through many hard times, and that's one of the lessons she leaves behind. It's that laugh that I'll miss more than anything, but with so many memories it'll never be very far away.

If Tammy saw me moping around today, I like to think she'd give me her trademark "Turn that frown upside down. Oops, here comes a smile." And she'd be right, because there it is.

– Chris McKim, director, Tammy Faye: Death Defying

Lord Knows

In his blog at The Huffington Post, our friend and colleague and former WOW associate, Gabriel Rotello, tells what he learned while coproducing the WOW documentary The Eyes of Tammy Faye. It's the rarely told real story of how Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's "friend" Jerry Falwell played Satan in the fall of their PTL ministry and Heritage USA theme park. It should be required reading.

Falwell was the most powerful Christian activist in the nation, significantly responsible for the election of Ronald Reagan. He also knew that Jim and Tammy were far more popular than he. Worse, the Bakkers didn't tow Falwell's harsh, demonizing party line. They preached love, not hate. They didn't condemn people, they embraced everybody, including – horrors – gays and people with AIDS. They had never endorsed Ronald Reagan or gone in for right-wing politics. Visitors had fun at their theme park. And perhaps their worst sin of all – they owned a TV satellite that gave them immense power to spread their message of love and forgiveness and inclusion.

Tammy Faye Messner, 1942-2007

While all of us were busy getting our weekend started, Tammy Faye Messner was quietly succumbing to the cancer she'd been bravely fighting – and at one time wrestled into submission – for 10 years. She died at home near Kansas City, Missouri, on Friday, and her ashes were interred on Saturday in a remote part of Kansas at the Kansas-Oklahoma border. She was 65. Larry King, who was asked by Tammy Faye's family to make the announcement on Saturday, said she had requested there be a party in Palm Springs after she died. "She wanted it to be a celebration," he said, which is typical of the vibrant not-quite-five-feet-tall dynamo who survived scandal and heartbreak as a TV evangelist to become a beloved pop-culture icon, all the while living an exemplar life according to the Lord's Prayer – especially that part about "as we forgive those who trespass against us." Of course, Tammy put it in secular terms: "If life hands you lemons, make lemonade." Last week, on her final television appearance, she told Larry King, “I want my funeral to be a real happy time. I want everybody laughing and remembering how crazy I was.”

At World of Wonder we're especially saddened by her death because, after working with her on two documentary series, The Eyes of Tammy Faye and Tammy Faye: Death Defying, we came to know and love her as the kind of person we should all aspire to be: honest, loving, forgiving, and a helluva broad. (Yes, to be more like Tammy, we'd even contemplate a sex change.) We think that by just knowing her, a little bit of what she was has rubbed off on all of us. Really, was there ever a finer, more fabulous human being? "When I was a little girl," she once said, "I used to pray, 'Dear God, please don't let my life be boring. I found that you have to be careful what you pray for."

Today, we're going to give the WOW Report over to Tammy Faye, posting (in no particular order) some of the clips we've archived over the years. Even though she wouldn't want you to cry, you're going to. And it's OK. We are.

Tammy Faye: Death Defying (Trailer)

See more at World of Wonder.

World of Wonder's 90-minute doc, taped over a six-month period in 2004, originally premiered on WE tv in July, 2005, and will be repeated on Tuesday, July 24, at 7:30 PM/6:30 C and again at 12:00 AM/11 C. The special explores Tammy Faye's battle with inoperable stage-4 cancer, following her from diagnosis through treatment to eventual remission. The show affords a very personal look at her brave fight to survive. (More)

My Friend, Tammy Faye

I was never interested in working with Brando or DeNiro or any other big star. But two months out of college in 1995, when I got the opportunity to PA on a new talk show pilot starring Tammy Faye, I jumped at the chance.

Tammy had magnetism about her wherever she went, and working with her was a surreal experience. Day one, when Tammy came to town, she was staying at the Oakwoods and I was the lucky one who got to pick her up and take her shopping. From the moment we stepped inside the Ralphs supermarket on Buena Vista and Victory in Burbank, she lit up the store. Between buying packs of bologna and cheese and cases of Diet Coke (her favorite), shoppers would do double-takes as she passed by. Some asked for her autograph, not believing Tammy Faye could be blessing their little neck of the woods. And everyone who saw her, whether they asked for her autograph or not, had a big smile. You just couldn’t miss that face… or her bright spirit.

Later that year, on my birthday, Tammy insisted on giving me a big surprise, even though she had traveled back home to Palm Springs. When the producer of the show called me into his office, he had Tammy on the speakerphone, her larger-than-life voice singing "Happy Birthday" to me. It was a moment I’ll always treasure.

I later became a producer on The Jim J and Tammy Faye Show, a series with a lotta brilliance, but not a lotta viewers, a show perhaps before its time. But Tammy was always delightful and made the most out of every day. At her best, Tammy’s comedic timing rivaled Lucille Ball's; I'm reminded particularly of her facial expression on a cooking segment when she made tofu and was forced to eat it – classic TV. The staff and audience loved her, and so did I. Tammy left the show when she was diagnosed with cancer. Although I didn’t see her very much over the next few years –Tammy moved back home – we’d reunite every time she came to town. And it was always like no time had passed.

Last week, when Tammy did her final interview from Kansas City, I had my friend and Larry King producer relay to Tammy that she was in my prayers. She cried and said it meant so much to her. And it also meant a lot to me. A true talent with a heart of gold and eyes of Maybelline, she will be missed.

– Todd Radnitz, WOW producer

Beautiful

Thanks to the bright souls at World of Wonder, I was blessed to know Tammy Faye. "Blessed" is a simple word for the powerful impact she had on all our lives. I have spent this morning re-reading letters and notes I received from Tammy and found this, "Honey, look back at my life and the whole message is 'There is NOTHING too hard for the Lord!'" Well, there was nothing too hard for Tammy. No matter what joy people found in making her the target of their humor, she wouldn't fall for it. No matter what illness was given her to battle, she'd conquer it. No matter what betrayals came her way, she forgave them. No matter what sick heart came to her for love, she gave it. When I left her in June and we gave each other a final hug, she spoke a blessing for my mom to keep her safe after my dad just passed away. I tried to return the blessing, asking Jesus to keep our Tammy safe, but He was tapping me on the shoulder saying, "It's already being done. It's time for her to go."

I'm sure she left this earth wearing her high-heeled lucite slippers, rings on all her fingers, and not a lash out of place. She was dressed in her favorite St. John knit and ready to be collected by God's car and driver. She probably laughed the whole way up the golden staircase, waving to all. We will wave now, one hand holding a Diet Coke, the other squinting through our lashes into the sunshine, where we can see Tammy, sitting next to God, having the time of her life.

– Alicia Gargaro, producer, Tammy Faye: Death Defying

Tammy Faith

The brave and inspiring Tammy Faye Messner was a guest on Larry King yesterday.

A Day with Tammy Faye

I have just returned from seeing Tammy yesterday in Charlotte. Despite the fact our girl is beyond thin, her smile is bright and her eyes bigger than the sky. She is funny as ever, beautiful, luminous, and engaging. She cannot eat very well, but she tries. We gave it a go with fancy Chinese lettuce cups and ice cream. We even went shopping with Tammy Sue and bought matching belts. We came home, climbed up on her bed, ordered cheese pizza, ate cake, and watched Sandra Dee and George Hamilton in Doctor! You've Got to be Kidding!, marveling at the costumes and production design. She got up, headed downstairs and played the piano, then went straight back upstairs. I almost couldn't keep up with her! She is determined to get better and she is not going to let the cancer stop her. It is beyond me. If only I had half her magic! In this photo, you can see her wearing the star necklace Randy and Fenton sent her.

– Alicia Gargaro, producer, Tammy Faye: Death Defying

Letter from Tammy Faye

A very sad letter from Tammy Faye regarding her health is on her website today. "I am down weight wise to 65 pounds, and look like a scarecrow," she writes, after saying the doctors have stopped treating her cancer. "I need God's miracle to swallow." Does she know she is God's miracle? (t/y Popbytes)

Prognosis: Winner

It was announced yesterday at the Women in Cable Telecommunications Foundation Benefit gala at the Grand Hyatt in Washington, DC, that the WICT has honored WE Television with a Tribute Accolade in the Documentary/Biographical category for Tammy Faye: Death Defying, the 90-minute WOW documentary that follows the extraordinary Tammy Faye Messner over six months as she battles inoperable stage-4 cancer, from diagnosis through treatment to remission. “I’m glad that WE is showing the documentary now," says Messner, "because there are so many people out there facing diseases like cancer and AIDS and if my story can help them get through it then I want to do it no matter the outcome.” (More)

(Watch a clip from Tammy Faye: Death Defying)

Tammy Soldiers On

As you probably know, Tammy Faye Messner's cancer has returned, even after the documentary Tammy Faye: Death Defying showed her bravely defeating it. In an update letter from Tammy last week, she proves her spirit, optimism, and faith are nothing if not unflagging.

Got up early Monday morning to have my first treatment of chemo. I was very nervous but hey, I’d been here before, how different could it be. Well, I was in for the surprise of my life! Roe and I and Tammy Sue sat and talked through out the 5 hour ordeal and before I knew it, it was over. All of a sudden I felt something happening in my right hand. It was stiffening up and freezing into strange positions. I never thought too much about it and got up to go home. As I stood to my feet I discovered I COULD NOT BREATH!

(Read letter)

Don't Mess With Messner

Tonight at 10 on WE, Tammy Faye: Death Defying premieres after a successful run on the festival circuit. By now you know that, since a week or so ago, Tammy's cancer has returned and is visiting other locations in her body. But we're certain she'll fight it as courageously and with the same high spirits as before. Have a hanky nearby when you watch the movie tonight. EW, above, gives it a B+.

Tammy TV

Tammy Faye Messner's son, Jay Bakker, and his wife, Amanda, in Los Angeles in April. Bakker, 29, is the cofounder of and paster at Revolution Church in Atlanta. In his most recent newsletter to his congregation, he writes: "My mom's cancer is back and has spread from her lungs and throat to her back. This is so hard to handle and has been rough on me, especially since my mom has never touched a cigarette in her life... please pray for her."

The WOW film, Tammy Faye: Death Defying, premieres on the Women's Entertainment channel on Monday, July 25, at 10PM EST.

Tammy will be on The Insider tonight, the Today show tomorrow morning, and Larry King Live on Friday.

(Photo: Chris McKim)

Saturday Night Ferver

Saturday was the Outfest screening/LA premiere of Tammy Faye: Death Defying at the Directors Guild of America on Sunset, and it went off without a hitch! Well, almost without a hitch. My good friends Abby and Veronica brought me a dozen roses to celebrate the big day [Ed note: McKim directed the film], which I made them give to Tammy, not realizing that they had wrapped the flowers in gay porn. Oops!

The screening was filled with friends, family, and a smattering of celebrity, including Charlene Tilton (!), Alexis Arquette, Loggerheads director Tim Kirkman, drag queen extraordinaire Momma, Dylan Vox aka Brad Benton, and James St James. After the screening, we dashed off to photographer Patrick McMullan's Screen Actors Guild party at the Argyle hotel for the Actors Resource Center, which we commandeered as our own post-screening party. The event had a surreal slew of old/oldish Hollywood actors (Piper Laurie, Russ Tamblyn, Mickey Rooney, Elliott Gould, James Cromwell, and Tom Bosley, who gave me dirty looks at the bar, clocking me as trash) with a healthy dose of younger talent (Rebecca DeMornay, Fran Drescher, Lisa Edelstein).

McMullan introduced Dylan and me to CSI's Marg Helgenberger by saying that Dylan's the star of Spunk'd. Not knowing that Spunk'd isn't exactly a SAG project (and being voted best supporting actor at the GAYVN awards doesn't get you a SAG card), Marg mistakenly started stumping for her husband, actor Alan Rosenberg, who's going to be running for SAG president in the future. She
was very sweet though, so Dylan didn't tell her that she won't be getting a Spunk'd screener in the mail come Academy season.

– Chris McKim

Photos, from top: Randy Barbato, Chris McKim, and Thairin Smothers with Charlene Tilton at the Outfest screening of Tammy Faye: Death Defying; Brian Heinberg and Rebecca DeMornay, Dylan Vox and Marg Helgenberger at the Argyle; Patrick McMullan makes Lisa Edelstein, James St James, and the WOW Report editor sign their photos in his so8os book, at the Argyle.

Tammy and the Bachelors

Tammy Faye: Death Defying is one of three films World of Wonder had at the Frameline fest in SF. Fenton Bailey filed this report.

Director Chris Mckim clutched the hand of producer Alicia Gargaro as they took to the stage looking like sweethearts. Extremely glamorous sweethearts. The moment Tammy Faye entered the auditorium the crowd was on its feet. Tammy wore pink for "Pink Saturday" (although almost everyday of the week Tammy manages to work some pink into her wardrobe). In a Q&A after the rapturously received film, Tammy somehow managed to charm the audience while confessing that she didn't believe in gay marriage – only because she's "an old-fashioned kind of girl." After a blast on the theater's organ, she braved the crowds outside and encountered what might be her first ever dyke march, replete with topless lesbians. Over a not-so-quiet dinner interrupted by photographers and autograph hounds, the waiter – in full Munster drag (white face, red lips, black bangs) – put his hand on Tammy's shoulder while taking her order and said, "I forget your name, honey." It was kind of sweet.

(Photo: Alicia Gargaro, Chris McKim, and Tammy Faye on stage after the screening)

Indie Place to Be

This past weekend I attended the world premiere of Tammy Faye: Death Defying at the Provincetown Film Festival. The screening was held at the Crown & Anchor, a cabaret that proved to be the perfect screening setting thanks to the adjoining bar which allowed the audience the luxury of knocking back a few beers while watching the film.

Less of a scene than some film festivals, there were no agents scurrying about or beached Weinsteins gasping for air. What the cape did have was John Waters riding his bike through town, Christine Vachon on her way to a clambake, and Series 7 director Dan Minahan and his partner sporting matching full-length fur coats. I Shot Andy Warhol director Mary Harron received the festival’s Filmmaker on the Edge award and showed a clip of her upcoming film, The Notorious Bettie Page. Sadly [Ed note: for us, that is, not you], the juiciest bits of the weekend are too scandalous & catty to report, but I can say it was a great time!

Continue

A Program Note

Tomorrow, if you're in the area, do stop into the Provincetown Film Festival and purchase tickets for the world premiere of Tammy Faye: Death Defying at 2:15 in the Crown & Anchor. We hope your eye makeup is tattooed.

Double Feature

Tickets are on sale NOW for Outfest, the 23rd Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Film Festival (July 7-18). This year features screenings of two fabulous WOW films, Tammy Faye: Death Defying and TransGeneration. For tickets, you can go online at www.outfest.org, or call 213 480-7065. Outfest is the oldest and largest continuous film festival in Los Angeles, Outfest 2005 features 232 films and videos from 28 countries in 9 different venues over 12 days. Outfest offers outdoor screenings, family programs, dozens of hot parties, provocative panels, documentaries, live performances, experimental works, celebrities and more. Heralded by the Los Angeles Times as "more than just a film festival; it's a full-on happening."

Critical Massachusetts

Peoples, the really wonderful Tammy Faye: Death Defying is screening twice at the Provincetown Film Festival – June 16 at 2:15PM and June 18 at noon. Tickets are on sale now and are available on the festival website. If you're in the area then, it's really worth seeing.

The Battle of Tammy Faye

Tammy Faye Messner judges no one lest she be judged, but she elected to be a celebrity judge last week at the "womanless beauty pageant" in the Lancaster (South Carolina) High School auditorium. Her participation in a drag contest is not so unexpected; the pageant benefited the American Cancer Society Relay for Life, and Tammy is a cancer survivor. Her battle is documented in WOW's Tammy Faye: Death Defying, airing in July on WE. Meanwhile, cross-dressers battled for her vote.

She didn't let the audience down. With her trademark black eyelashes and heavy pink lipstick, she had on as much makeup as the contestants -- and they were trying to cover five-o'clock shadows. . . . She loved the black leather mini and fishnet stockings worn by one and cheered for the contestant who advocated shopping, shopping, shopping. "You've got my vote," she said. (Herald Online)

In the end, she was touched by the men's willingness to wear a dress for charity. "You are awesome. I am so proud of you," she said, kissing the winner. "It takes a lot of guts to do what you did."

Apparently, the contestants were doing drag as a gag, not as a lifestyle. And we love "womanless beauty pageant."

The Song of Bernadette

In a fawning puff piece in the Houston Chronicle, Bernadette Peters' telephone voice is described as having a "distinctive blend of brash self-confidence, womanly warmth and baby-fresh enthusiasm, tinged with a delicious dash of mischief." But no mention of the forked tongue that delivers her words. Further down in the story, after a litany of her greatest hits, mostly on Broadway, Peters mentions how much she enjoyed playing Tammy Faye Bakker in the 1990 TV movie, Fall from Grace (costarring nobody Kevin Spacey as Jim). Actually, her comment is more about how good she was in the role.

"She [Tammy Faye] said she loved the way I portrayed her; she still comes to see me."

That's because Tammy Faye is a good and generous person; Peters was just acting. Says Fenton Bailey after reading the article: "When making The Eyes of Tammy Faye we requested an interview with her loveliness and she agreed. At first. But then she changed her mind. And she also refused to let us use her image from the film she had so loved to make. We sent letters, and even a generous fruit basket containing a rough cut of the film so that she could see for herself we meant her no harm. Now, fruit baskets are a kind of esperanto of peace, love and understanding. Bernadette's response was to have her agents who were at that time our agents, call us up and threaten us with a cease-and-desist. So we did."

(Here's a preview of Tammy Faye: Death Defying, WOW's very moving followup doc to The Eyes of Tammy Faye, airing soon.)

What's Up, Doc?

Tammy Faye: Death Defying, WOW's followup to its award-winning The Eyes of Tammy Faye, is the journal of the feisty lady's brave and successful battle with colon cancer. The documentary will air on the Women's Entertainment channel in July, but we have an early preview. Even this tiny slice requires one or two tissues. (Watch the clip)

The Tammy Show

Ms Tammy Faye Messner has been all over the news recently following her appearance on the Television Critics Association panel to discuss her new World of Wonder documentary Tammy Faye: Death Defying, which airs on the Women's Entertainment (WE) channel in July. Here are some highlights for Tammy diehards.

Messner announced she was now cancer-free and broke into tears at least six times as she talked of her faith. She gave graphic details of her surgeries and revealed that another of her Surreal Life housemates, porn star Ron Jeremy, was there for, ahem, moral support. "He called me up and checked on me all the time," said Messner, tearing up again. "And when he found out I was cancer-free, he said, 'God answered my prayers, Tammy.' And I said, 'He did answer your prayers, Ron.' " (The Globe and Mail)

The documentary, shot over a seven-month span, follows Messner as she gets the bad news that the cancer she beat eight years earlier had returned, through her treatment and eventual recovery. Her biggest fear was that her hair would fall out. Instead -- to her horror -- she lost her eyelashes. "It was kind of a freeing thing for me because I realized that my family still knew me without them," said the racoon-eyed icon. (jam.canoe.ca)

"I'm going to cry," she said. "That's what I'm famous for." That and her eyelashes, which chemotherapy caused to fall out. "It was really a surprise when all of a sudden I was going around with not one eyelash in my head," she said, "but we made it. And it was really kind of a freeing thing for me because I realized my family still knew me without them, so that was OK. They still knew me, even without my eyelashes." (azcentral.com)

Over on WE (Women's Entertainment), fallen evangelist Tammy Faye Messner is walking us through the most intimate aspects of her recent (apparently successful) cancer treatment in the documentary Tammy Faye: Death Defying. Well, most of it. "I didn't really like to have them seeing me throw up," she says. (Toronto Star)

Death Defying Acts of Promotion

From left: Alicia Gargaro, Chris McKim, Tammy Faye, Randy Barbato, Fenton Bailey

It was an all-Tammy Faye weekend when she came to town for the Television Critics Association (TCA) conference to help promote our new documentary Tammy Faye: Death Defying, which follows Tammy through her recent battle with cancer.  

TCA's a big deal so I was thrilled and terrified to be on the panel with Randy, Fenton, and Tammy to field questions from 100 television critics from around the country.  I don't really do public speaking so I dipped deep into the World of Wonder resources for a li'l help. Many thanks to James St James for bringing in a dozen blazers for me to choose from; thanks, too, to our in-house pharmacopia Sandy Piha for the Xanax (I didn't need it).

Randy and Fenton warned me that TCA can be brutal and prepared me for the worst possible grilling, but it turned into a big lovefest for Tammy, who deftly deflated the one loaded question she got.  The room fell silent when one critic asked her if she thought she was going to hell for being in bed with the smut peddlers sitting next to her (um, us? Smut peddlers? Maybe I should have left Porno Valley off my bio).  Tammy, pro that she is, said, "I'm not in bed with anyone!"

I think I was more worried about Tammy seeing footage from the doc for the first time than I was about the critics.  We spent eight months following her through all of the ups & downs of her battle with cancer, from chemo treatments to her eyelashes falling out, and I didn't know how she'd feel about seeing herself at her worst.  It was a huge relief when she was genuinely touched by the footage – even the shot of her with no eyelashes, which you can imagine was a tricky one to get.

– Chris McKim

Tammy Faye: Death Defying airs in July on WE: Women’s Entertainment Network.