Pee Wee Herman

PAUL REUBENS : THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES

Monday morning – and another celebrity death. But this one REALLY hurt. Paul Reubens has been around since I started writing Hollywood gossip and he was always special. His character Pee Wee Herman had a singular appeal for people our age who loved flea markets and anything vintage. We had friends in common and often attended the same events and parties -he was not only smart, but a funny and sweet person. Even with ME – a tabloid journalist! We all loved his Pee Wee movies and TV shows. I sensed that he wanted to establish himself as a character actor (like the guy he played in Blow with Johnny Depp) but his adoring fans would not let him grow out of Pee Wee Herman. I felt bad when that awkward scandal damaged his career, but always knew he was a good guy and I never wrote a negative word about him. A terrible loss…

Photo: Bodybuilder Joe Manganiello, Paul’s costar in Pee Wee’s Big Holiday (2016) had this magazine cover created as a joke

PEE WEE HERMAN TO HBO: THAT’S MY NAME, DON’T WEAR IT OUT!

Just when we thought Fran Lebowitz’s Pretend It’s A City was as good as it gets on HBO, they announced they are planning a documentary on Paul Reubens life story! The man behind the beloved Pee Wee Herman. Who didn’t love Pee Wee’s movies and Pee Wee’s Playhouse on TV from ’86 to ’90? SOME people might not know that Paul Reubens has also had a movie career under his own name. Of course we want to see what Paul was like as a kid growing up and find out how he developed the Pee Wee character. Paul is equally excited about this project, although he says “I love HBO but I’m not going to marry them!”

Photo: Instagram

PEE-WEE HERMAN WILL NEVER GET OLD!

Hollywood celebrities are NOT happy since most of the plastic surgery offices have closed down for nonessential procedures due to coronavirus. Social isolation would be the perfect time to recover from a facelift! There are some nurses making house calls with injectibles, but no liposuction or nose jobs are happening. Maybe Paul Reubens could offer some inspiration – for his last Pee-wee Herman movie, Pee-wee’s Big Holiday in 2016, Paul wanted to look younger without surgery, so he used the tape technique you can see above.

Photo Credit: BACKGRID-USA

PEE WEE’S LAST ADVENTURE MIGHT BE HIS BEST

We saw Paul Reubens at Allee Willis’s memorial service last month and he’s as cute as ever. He certainly wasn’t done up as Pee Wee, but he wears wire rimmed glasses and he’s got style. SO nice to hear that he just might be bringing his much loved character Pee Wee Herman back in a “dark – Valley of the Dolls” described update. In The Pee Wee Herman Story, Pee Wee emerges from prison, becomes a yodeling star, moves to Hollywood and ends up in rehab for alcoholism. While trying to get the new movie produced, Paul just started a series of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure personal appearances where he shows the movie and talks about it afterward for his committed fans.

Above, Paul Reubens filming Pee Wee’s Big Holiday for Netflix in 2015

HEY KANYE – WE’D RATHER LOOK AT PEE WEE HERMAN’S SWEET FACE THAN YOURS, ANY DAY!

Just when the world (according to Kanye West) is looking grim, PEE WEE IS BACK! And back in a big way in Pee Wee’s Big Holiday available on Netflix March 18. Until we saw this trailer, we didn’t realize how MUCH we missed Paul Reubens’ sweet and colorful, vintage inspired humor. What a wonderful escape! Pee Wee will have a whole new generation of fans if this movie is half as good as it looks. And if anyone deserves a second time around, it is the uber-talented Paul Reubens. He is brilliant in SO many ways! The time is right.

SOMETIMES JIM PARSONS LOOKS A LITTLE LIKE PEE WEE HERMAN

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Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons arrived back at his London hotel and looked surprised to find fans clamoring for his autograph and attention. This photo suddenly brought to mind the fact that Jim looks a little like Paul Reubens AKA Pee Wee Herman. (We’re huge fans of them both) If they ever make a movie about Pee Wee’s life, Jim would be perfect. Meanwhile, Paul Reubens has partnered with Judd Apatow to produce Pee Wee’s Big Holiday – a movie for Netflix that starts filming in March. We would LOVE to see Pee Wee go to Europe or Japan!

Photo Credit: Pacific Coast News

CAN YOU PICTURE PAUL REUBENS AS A MAFIA HIT MAN?

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Photo: Twitter
It’s about time! One of our favorite celebrities – whom we haven’t seen in awhile- just got cast on the crime drama The Blacklist. The show stars James Spader as a former bad guy familiar with many criminals, who makes a deal with the FBI to cooperate and help track down the terrorists and gangsters. Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) was cast to play a character described “a dapper, finicky, but sinister enforcer for the underworld” in a string of episodes. When he’s not playing Pee Wee, Paul happens to be a surprisingly entertaining and flexible actor. The Blacklist premiers Sept 22 on NBC. We never watched it before, but now we will.

PEE WEE HERMAN IS GRATEFUL TO HIS LOYAL FANS

Pee Wee Herman (Paul Reubens) came out of the backstage door at the Stephen Sondheim Theater on Broadway with a megaphone to thank all his fans for supporting him through good times and bad. “The Pee Wee Herman Show” opened to great reviews – the New York Times described Pee Wee as “a human exclamation point” and the show as “a bubble bath of nostalgia.” (We can picture the audience full of ageing hipsters and parents with children.) After a 20 year pause, the show has Pee Wee entering the world of computers. What could be more fun for the Christmas season?

CAN YOU IMAGINE JOHNNY DEPP STARRING AS PEE-WEE HERMAN?

Paul Reubens says he revived “Pee-wee’s Playhouse” at the Nokia theater in LA because he wants to drum up enough interest to make another Pee-wee movie. The show was an immediate hit – his fans really MISSED Pee-wee! The success of the stage production hopefully will lead to a studio investing money so Paul can direct an elaborate “Wizard of Oz” type epic adventure. He wants a big budget Pee-wee this time around. Believe it or not, Paul says he is even considering having ANOTHER actor star as Pee-wee, and he already approached Johnny Depp. Johnny’s thinking it over. We can’t imagine anyone doing it BUT Paul, but Johnny is a provocative second choice.