Word: ersatz
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...real success and fun of the evening was that the performance wasn't limited to the runway. In the spirit of high pretense, door-people armed with clipboards checked names off of lists and ushers led elite guests to ersatz VIP seating. Keen observers might also have noted air-kissing and shrieks of "sweetie darling!" at key moments. Those who never come closer to the fashion world than reruns of AbFab found this very amusing. All told, the audience was as much a part of the show as the models were and they made the most of it--everybody needs...
...fatherly treatment that he gets from Athos and so kindly that everybody is immediately suspicious when he replaces the real king. A small moment serves to differentiate the two brothers, and it is a moment of surprising subtlety in a movie not notable for such instances. The ersatz King, at the masked ball, sees a lady stumble. Kneeling from the platform where he is sitting, he offers to help. The court is stunned, for Louis would never have bothered to help the woman...
...through lavish tropical undergrowth. Orchids twine among ferns; palm fronds weave a dense canopy. But those palms bend a trifle too symmetrically, and there is something mechanical about the way a monarch butterfly flutters its wings. In fact, "it's all an illusion," says Linda Lewis, creator of this ersatz jungle. She is in about as specialized a business as exists: creating artificial environments, including the synthetic palms at the Mirage in Las Vegas. It is a business, however, that has taken off worldwide in the past decade or so. As more and more states and localities have legalized gambling...
...make from common hardware. And aim for the eye sockets; a shot anywhere else in the head might leave the victim alive. Such is the wisdom of Hit Man, a step-by-step guide to succeeding in the paid-killer trade. Author Rex Feral, a pen name that's ersatz Latin for "king of the wild animals," insists that this $10 murder-for-hire manual provides a public service. Sometimes, Feral explains, a hit man is the only means of obtaining "personal justice...
There's some admirable teamwork in Side Show, not just by Emily Skinner and Alice Ripley, joined at the hip as Daisy and Violet, but by composer Henry Krieger (Dreamgirls) and director-choreographer Robert Longbottom (Christmas shows for the Rockettes). The show percolates best in a couple of brisk, ersatz-vaudeville numbers (one features dancing Egyptians, swan-shaped harps and a crocodile) and in a soul-inflected showstopper, The Devil You Know. And there's at least one anthem-like ballad, Who Will Love Me As I Am? that should have Whitney Houston on the phone to her agent...