Word: bland
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Lugar, buttoned-down and a bit bland, is a capable organization man who may be the second choice of Senate Republicans. If Dole might be too assertive as majority leader, the low-key Lugar could be too deferential. Elected to the Senate in 1976, he is a relative newcomer. It seems apropos that Stevens, a 14-year veteran, is majority whip: his opinions tend to be plain and angrily expressed. "I've got a temper," he confesses, "and I know how to use it!" The New Right would pick McClure, a Senator since 1973, who shares their ultraconservatism...
...spectacular colorlessness cannot be attributed to her lack of talent alone. Director Jeannot Szwarc, with the blood of "Jaws II" already on his hands, is carrying out his own niche as a hatchetman of promising sequels. Given a cast of the most talented hams in Hollywood, he squeezes as bland a performance as possible from each one. Dunaway is left to rehash the residue of her Joan Crawfordisms from "Mommy Dearest," charging through some genuinely funny lines with the comic timing...
...election are safe. One who is not, however, is Washington's John Spellman, 57, a Republican. In that state's nonpartisan primary in September, so many Republicans crossed over to vote for Democrat Booth Gardner, 48, the little-known chief executive of Pierce County, that the bland, cautious Spellman wound up with a mere 27% of the total vote. The latest polls show Gardner, a crisp administrator with a Harvard M.B.A., running 17% ahead of Spellman. The Governor has taken to shrill attacks on his opponent, charging Gardner with being a "shill of labor" who left his county...
...flip side of the character he played in the 1980 movie Melvin and Howard. The lovable lout has turned into a dangerous brute; LeMat's subtle achievement is to s show that both are one. The rest of the cast, especially Richard Masur as Francine's bland, earnest, ultimately heroic attorney, is uniformly excellent...
...seek not just a likeness but some dominant trait that sums up the man. The result can be at war with the cartoonists' political sympathies. "I have a conflict," says Don Wright of the Miami News. "Basically, I'm rooting for Mondale, but sometimes he comes across bland and wimpish." Oliphant draws him with "sleepy eyes bringing out the boring aspects." The Los Angeles Times's Paul Conrad says, "I'd like to see him do better and don't take any relish in making him look incompetent. I'm despondent these days." Peters...