That was Helen Mirren?

Many years ago, I was up late watching TV. This was about 35 years ago. We just started getting the Canadian TV station on cable. Weirdly, they had cut the car chase out of the movie Bullitt, I suppose because it encouraged reckless driving. So I was surprised they left in the excess nudity when they showed a movie called Age of Consent. It starred James Mason as an artist on an island. He starts drawing and painting a local feral girl. Filmed in Australia.

My memory was that, in more than one scene, Mason starts trying to draw the girl, but he becomes frustrated. It's those clothes! They just aren't right! he whines. Just take them off!

Then he starts drawing her nude.

The girl frolics and swims naked for some reason.

I also remembered the closing credits. They had the name of the actress who played that role. They said that she was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. It seemed like an odd thing to put in the credits unless it was a crude effort to give the work artistic credibility.

I was just reading about something else on the internet, and I came across the fact that the girl was played by 22-year-old Helen Mirren.

"Holy crap," I said.

As it happened, I had started watching a documentary about Australian exploitation films. They mentioned Age of Consent as one of the pioneering films that came out after Australia's crusty old film censor died and was apparently replaced by a swinging young hipster.

But that was Helen Mirren in the movie.

And now Mirren, an alleged feminist, is playing Phil Spector's lawyer in a made-for-HBO movie, denigrating Lana Clarkson, the woman Spector murdered, for having been a "B movie actress" and claiming that Spector was the real victim.

"A troubling case. No one will ever know the truth," Mirren said. "Some say he did it; others, he didn’t. I make no judgment. I never actually met the man. My husband has.”

We know the truth. Spector confessed to it moment after committing the murder and he had a long, proven history of threatening women with guns. The only one who says Spector is innocent is David Mamet, and he hasn't offered any reason for thinking so.