Joan Crawford, I love you.

"I said to myself -- I'll paint what I see -- what the flower is to me but I'll paint it big and they will be surprised into taking time to look at it -- I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers."

-Georgia O'Keefe

Last week, we watched the wonderful Lon Chaney film The Unknown in my film history class. Of course, I was drawn to Chaney's phenomenal acting, but it didn't hurt that his lady costar was Joan Crawford.

There is a scene where Lon Chaney (who plays Alonzo, the Armless Knife-Thrower) is tossing knives with is feet at Crawford in a circus act. Though he is using his feet, his knife-throwing is so precise that he manages to undress Crawford, little by little.

Of course, this is 1927, so I wasn't expecting any full body shots of Joan Crawford. Besides, I actually go to films for, you know, plot and stuff. But I couldn't help but be stunned. She was curvy, and through the 60-minute running time of the film I developed a crush on her, as did Alonzo, the Armless Knife-Thrower.

Why isn't this encouraged today? Not armless knife-throwing, but CURVES! The last time we saw curvy was in Titanic, with Winslet's nude scene. I figured that was going to be the new thing, goodbye heroin chic, hello CURVE chic! Or something along those lines. But no, today's most sought after leading ladies seem to be Angelina Jolie, or Nicole Kidman, or other skinny beauties.

I do realize that weight is in our genetics. In fact, I work with this girl who is thin as a rail, yet she eats and eats and eats. It's unbelievable, and kind of fascinating. But I know that today's popular actresses couldn't possibly ALL be that thin because of genetics.

I don't want to encourage gorging on a daily basis or anything, that's just as wrong as starving oneself. But when you have canyons between your ribs, you might want to up your calorie intake. Just a suggestion. It's not considered gross if you order something other than a salad every once in a while, for Pete's sake.

One more suggestion: Check out The Unknown. It's directed by Tod Browning, of Freaks and Dracula fame. I promise, it will be the best movie about armless knife throwing you'll ever see.