Those who caught Margaret Cho's scorchingly funny one-woman concert movie, I'm the One That I Want, will tell you it was a must-see--in that raw, take-no-prisoners film, the San Francisco-born comic brilliantly fireballs everything from sex and racism to homophobia and heterophobia to her past addiction to booze to toxic boyfriends to the self-loathing brought on when TV network executives bungled her 1994 series "All-American Girl."
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Now, Cho has unleashed another "performance" film, Notorious C.H.O., which could very well vault her to the comic heights previously inhabited by Richard Pryor and George Carlin. On top of being a crack-up, Cho is a first-class fashion fiend, so I drop by her Spanish villa in L.A. to discuss star style.
Q: Your house is beautiful, but why did you paint the walls so many different colors?
A: It's very '80s. I had my colors done by this genius, Jennifer Butler, and she told me I'm a "vibrant spring," so every room is a color in my personal palette.
Q: Were you born a fashionista?
A: Many gay men I grew up with in San Francisco helped me develop my own sense of style, especially one wonderful, opinionated artist who used to be Alec Guinness's dresser in the '60s. His whole thing was, "It doesn't matter what you're wearing, so long as you get noticed." I've also always aped Madonna's style. I've looked up to her since I was young--she's the perfect role model. When she started doing yoga, I started doing yoga. She got a British guy, I got a British guy. I go to her concerts and can do nothing but weep the whole time. She's so unapologetically herself.
Q: Who else inspires you?
A: Björk. She's my favorite style icon right now.
Q: Who do you think needs a style makeover?
A: Courtney Love is so incredibly styled-out now, I'd like to see her revert back to her original self, with the baby doll dresses and scars. I'd also love to see Madonna hit the reset button and revisit all her different looks, starting with her graffiti jeans and crucifix earrings from her "Borderline" phase.
Q: Don't you think Hollywood style is boring for the most part?
A: Hollywood style stopped being interesting when Cher quit wearing crazy crap. In the late '80s, everything sort of froze. I'm more of the outrageous Bob Mackie school. Hollywood women, apart from Björk and Madonna, dress so boringly and the guys are always dressed dully. Actors should revert to tribal customs in which the men wore brightly colored feathers.
Q: Which actor has good style?
A: Ewan McGregor, who's a male bombshell. When I was in Toronto, my friends took me to an all-nude male strip club and I got a lap dance from this guy who looked so much like Ewan McGregor. Ewan is gorgeous, just so nasty, and his sexuality is so fluid on-screen.
Q: You frequent sex clubs?
A: I think L.A. sex clubs are stylish. They've become so suburban now that, like suburban homes, they serve really good food, from home-baked chocolate chip cookies to cornbread.
Q: What "look" are you into these days?
A: I just came back from a town near Big Bear, California, where I bought a lot of "earth mama" hippie dresses and Indian hair ornaments. It's going to be so Middle-earth, all I'll need to complete the ensemble is a walking stick.
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