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FEMALE
BODYBUILDING
The show big report: random acts of muscle in celebrity-land -
milestones of bodybuilding in popular entertainment
In celebration of FLEX's
20th anniversary, we've compiled the milestones that most heightened
bodybuilding's presence in popular entertainment during the past two
decades.
* 1984 The Terminator is a surprise hit, establishing seven-time Mr.
Olympia Arnold Schwarzenegger as a major Hollywood player.
* 1984-1985 Hollywood cashes in on the young sport of female
bodybuilding with the TV movie Getting Physical (1984) and the
big-screen documentary Pumping Iron II: The Women (1985).
* 1988 Bodybuilding reaches the peak of its TV coverage when ESPN
regularly broadcasts IFBB and NPC contests, as well as American
Muscle Magazine and workout programs starring Mr. O Lee Haney and
Ms. O Cory Everson.
* 1989 Material Girl Madonna reinvents herself as Muscle Girl. Along
with Janet Jackson's similar transformation a few years later,
Madonna is instrumental in making female sinew sexy to the general
public.
* 1989-1996 The TV series American Gladiators stars such
bodybuilding combatants as Shelley Beattie, Bob Cicherillo, Loft
Fetrick and Tonya Knight.
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* 1991 Terminator 2: Judgment
Day is released, eventually raking in over $500 million in global
box-office revenue. On the heels of 1990's Total Recall and
Kindergarten Cop, Arnold is crowned the number-one box-office
superstar in the world.
* 1993 Two years after Linda Hamilton achieved phenomenal shape for
T2, Angela Bassett does the same to portray Tina Turner in What's
Love Got to Do With It. Similar transformations include Demi Moore
for G.I. Jane (1997), Denzel Washington for The Hurricane (1999) and
Will Smith for Ali (2001).
* 1994-2001 The syndicated sword-and-sandal TV shows Hercules: The
Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and the short-lived
Conan, starring IFBB pro Ralph Moeller, feature buff bods. Their
popularity coincides with the ratings rise for the even more
muscular and ludicrous WWF (now WWE).
* 2000-2002 IFBB pro Roland Kickinger is frequently shirtless as a
star on cable's Son of the Beach.
* 2003 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines storms to the top of the
box-office charts. Arnold ponders his political future,
foreshadowing a new era of bodybuilders in the public spotlight.
Too Much of a Good Thing?
As evidenced by his shape in Bad Boys II, Will Smith kept the muscle
he earned when growing from middleweight to heavyweight for Ali.
Actors are sometimes pressured to lose the mass and cuts, lest they
be thought of more as one-dimensional athletes than versatile
thespians. Linda Hamilton has lamented that her Terminator 2
physique harmed her chances of nabbing other plum parts, and Mickey
Rourke says his agent instructed him to stop lifting heavy weights
if he wanted to make an acting comeback. Clearly, other stars--from
Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone to Vin Diesel and
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson--have benefited from their hard bodies. It
all depends on whether you'd rather be a worldwide action superstar
and make millions for being in a flop such as the 1991 gangster
comedy Oscar, as Sly did, or bask in critical accolades and win an
Oscar, as Sly didn't.
Something Completely Different
A bodybuilder, a rabbi and a priest compete in a stationary bicycle
endurance test for the soul of a baby. In one of the strangest
television moments ever staged--not involving Michael Jackson--Lou
Ferrigno pedaled on Fox's British game-show import Banzai (named
after its host, Mr. Banzai) and defeated the holy men for baby
Danny's soul. We'll say one thing for this distress signal from the
Twilight Zone: You couldn't say you'd seen it before.
Shock Jock Supporter
"Pumping Iron was the greatest movie. Arnold Schwarzenegger was
never better--the way he messed with Lou Ferrigno. Ferrigno was
Arnold's bitch. I love that Make a movie like that again; all the
body builders all pumped up like freaks and all the screwing with
people's minds. That's the best." |
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