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Catching up with Catwoman

Actress Julie Newmar on camp, ‘Batman,’ advice for living and ‘To Wong Foo’

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14 years ago

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Actress Julie Newmar has discovered a passion for writing. Her advice book ‘The Conscious Catwoman’ is out now. She plans future books on gardening and childhood celebrity crushes. (Photo by Alan Mercer; courtesy Julie Newmar)

‘The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth’
By Julie Newmar
Eleven Books
75 pages
$18.95
julienewmarwrites.com

 

Fall’s a busy time and things only seem to accelerate as the year winds down and the holidays loom. So I’m taking care of some regretfully unfinished 2011 business.

Last September I spent a purrrrfectly — OK, sorry, couldn’t resist — delightful hour on the phone with Julie Newmar from her Los Angeles home about two miles from Brentwood. Everybody remembers her as Catwoman on the campy ‘60s TV show “Batman,” but serious fans know she’s also a Tony-winning actress who’s had triumphs on both stage and screen (both TV and film).

Unlike some actors who only begrudgingly acknowledge or discuss roles that, for whatever reason, got etched into the pop culture collective consciousness to a disproportionate degree, Newmar is happy to talk “Batman” and even called her 2011 book “The Conscious Catwoman Explains Life on Earth.”

It’s a 75-page wonder you think you’ll be able to plow through in an hour but it’s sneaky that way — I found myself spending an hour on each page, pondering the pearls of wisdom she shares. It’s also liberally peppered with eye-popping images of Newmar throughout her career as well as a playful series of mime-inspired photos that show the 78-year-old actress’s playful side.

Newmar says she’s always been a fan of how-to books and decided she’d lived enough life to share some tips. Most are hers but others she includes are from everything from the Bible to Voltaire to Carl Jung.

“I think after the age of 50 you start wondering why you became what you did and you start thinking about your life, what worked, what’s different,” she says. “I’ve always been in love with these how to books since I was in my teens. How to look better, how to not be frightened speaking in public or whatever … I’d had the idea for awhile but it takes time to do it the right way, so I took my time with it.”

Among her insights:

  • Don’t try to be like others; you’ll not only be sorry, you’ll soon be out of fashion and the shallowness, the telltale marks of your insecurity, will show.
  • You can bury a lot of troubles digging in the dirt (Newmar is an avid gardener)
  • Life works once you get to be more in a state of gratitude than supplication or neediness.
  • The important thing is to ask the right question — never mind the answer, it will drop in your lap.
  • I hide my annoyance when people tell me, “But you can wear anything.” Anything is what I don’t wear.
  • Every professions has its scullery duty.

“I love one liners,” she says. “Something you can peel off and put on the fridge or in the car. If you’re wanting to do better in life, you sort of collect these things over time and they stay with you. I think you cull your own garden in the sense there’s this assimilation of wisdom that takes place and can be very healing … you have to learn to love yourself as your maker does.”

Newmar happily answers any question I throw at her.

She says she “never ever” has felt frustrated by being so widely known as Catwoman, a recurring role she played in 12 episodes during the series’ first two seasons in 1966 and ’67. The famous body-hugging Lurex costume — reportedly made by Newmar herself — is now on display at the Smithsonian.

“It’s the first part of your house,” she says. “I’m lucky, fortunate and totally lucky to have something in my house that people know. Then you can invite them in and share the rest. I always look at the work as beneficial.”

And what of stars who reject their trademark roles or feel limited or typecast by them?

“It’s sad,” Newmar says. “It should always be seen as an opportunity. Strong people know how to take the negative and make it work for them, like making lemonade. I always like to look at things that way.”

Newmar attributes the character’s longevity to her bevy of traits.

“She’s very bright, savvy, smart. She wears high, daunting heels. She looks good from the front and back. She’s got a cute ass. She’s fun to play with. Naughty.”

The actress didn’t grow up with cats. Her mother had a wire-haired Terrier named William Powell (named after the “Thin Man” actor) but during the time she played the part, Newmar adopted two cats from actress June Havoc and observed their behavior.

“I’d wander over and watch them eat and play and frolic around. You do your homework.”

Newmar in her Catwoman days. (Photo courtesy Julie Newmar via Harlan Boll)

And how intentional was the camp quotient at the time? Were the actors encouraged to ham it up?

“It doesn’t matter what it looks or sounds like, whether it’s camp, straight or this, that or the other,” she says. “You still have to find the truth in it. You play the truth, then the rhythm seeps in and you go with it.”

Newmar, who introduced the part, had other projects brewing at the time so she didn’t feel especially connected to the role until later. Former Miss America winner Lee Meriwether played Catwoman in a 1966 film version that starred most of the TV series cast, but then Newmar was back in the role for the show’s second season. And in a performance perhaps as indelible as Newmar’s, the late Eartha Kitt played the character in the third and final season. Newmar, who was photographed for USA Today with Meriwether and Kitt in 2004 around the time the Halle Berry movie came out, says she “loved” Kitt in the part and owned several of Kitt’s albums at the time. She says Michelle Pfeiffer had the best Catwoman costume, but says the Berry film “didn’t quite come together.” She’s “100 percent” supportive of Anne Hathaway in the latest version, “The Dark Knight Rises,” slated for a July release.

Newmar as one of nine 'Legendary Ladies of Stage & Screen' during a Smithsonian presentation of her famous catsuit in 2008. (Photo courtesy Harlan Boll)

“I think our show worked because, well, color was pretty new on TV at the time and it just seemed to sit really well within the confines of a television screen. The excesses of it, the booms and bams, it just fit so very well and you could just imagine the little kids sitting there on the floor with their eyes wide open. The color really popped. I really think that was a big part of it — they made extraordinary use of the color. I’d just done ‘My Living Doll,’ but that was in black and white. This became far more popular.”

Newmar is a bit taken aback when I ask if her hair being longer in the second season — it went from a flip to a much longer, past-the-shoulders look in the later episodes — is intentional. She says no significant thought was put into it —  just a reflection of the changing styles. The initial look, sort of vaguely Jackie inspired, was a sign of the times. Longer hair was more popular in the late ’60s. Newmar remembers doing her own makeup — “nothing terrifically trend setting,” she notes — on the show. “Nobody ever asked me that before,” she says.

Of her dozens of television guest appearances, she says her famous “Twilight Zone” episode (she played the devil in the season four episode “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville”) is especially memorable. She met creator/writer/host Rod Serling during the filming and remembers his trademark cigarette smoking and “oh, that brilliant mind — that marvelous, marvelous man. Aren’t we grateful that we have this and that they kept these films? I remember shooting in this small little theater on 44th Street under the New York Times. It was all about story on that show.”

She also remembers her “Batman” costars fondly — she calls Adam West (Batman) “darling, a doll,” and says Burt Ward (Robin) was “perfect. He wasn’t an actor at all. He was 19 at the time and they found him in a gym.”

Newmar next plans a book about celebrity crushes. She’s widely credited — anecdotally at least — with having awoken the hormones of practically a whole generation of American straight boys on “Batman.” She considers it a paradoxical wonder that her gay appeal — they wanted to have her, we wanted to be her — is perhaps equally as strong.

And, of course, we can’t let Miss Newmar go without asking her about her eponymous drag film “To Wong Foo.” She chuckles at the memory.

Foo, it seems, was the owner of a Chinese restaurant in New York that’s no longer in business. It was near Sardi’s on 44th Street. Legend has it screenwriter Douglas Beane saw an autographed photo of Newmar there and the sheer wackiness of its inscription jumped out at him.

“He probably made it up,” Newmar says with a laugh. “I don’t remember doing it. I think he just thought if he gave it an innocuous little title it wouldn’t make it out of the stack on some producer’s desk so he gave it this crazy title. And sure enough, it did make it out of the stack.”

And one more “Batman” question — of either her show or the characters in general, is there a homoerotic subtext between Batman and Robin?

“I don’t think so,” Newmar, whose brother is gay, says first, then backpedals. “Well maybe. I think anytime something is too straight, we want to throw a snowball at it. We crave some alternate. Thank God we can have both gay and straight.”

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Theater

Magic is happening for Round House’s out stage manager

Carrie Edick talks long hours, intricacies of ‘Nothing Up My Sleeve’

Published

3 days ago

on

February 14, 2026

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Carrie Edick (facing camera) with spouse Olivia Luzquinos. (Photo by Anugraha Iyer)  

‘Nothing Up My Sleeve’
Through March 15
Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway
Bethesda, Md. 20814
Tickets start at $50
Roundhousetheatre.org

Magic is happening for out stage manager Carrie Edick. 

Working on Round House Theatre’s production of “Nothing Up My Sleeve,” Edick quickly learned the ways of magicians, their tricks, and all about the code of honor among those who are privy to their secrets. 

The trick-filled, one-man show starring master illusionist Dendy and staged by celebrated director Aaron Posner, is part exciting magic act and part deeply personal journey. The new work promises “captivating storytelling, audience interaction, jaw-dropping tricks, and mind-bending surprises.”

Early in rehearsals, there was talk of signing a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for production assistants. It didn’t happen, and it wasn’t necessary, explains Edick, 26. “By not having an NDA, Dendy shows a lot of trust in us, and that makes me want to keep the secrets even more. 

“Magic is Dendy’s livelihood. He’s sharing a lot and trusting a lot; in return we do the best we can to support him and a large part of that includes keeping his secrets.” 

As a production assistant (think assistant stage manager), Edick strives to make things move as smoothly as possible. While she acknowledges perfection is impossible and theater is about storytelling, her pursuit of exactness involves countless checklists and triple checks, again and again. Six day weeks and long hours are common. Stage managers are the first to arrive and last to leave. 

This season has been a lot about learning, adds Edick. With “The Inheritance” at Round House (a 22-week long contract), she learned how to do a show in rep which meant changing from Part One to Part Two very quickly; “In Clay” at Signature Theatre introduced her to pottery; and now with “Nothing Up My Sleeve,” she’s undergoing a crash course in magic. 

She compares her career to a never-ending education: “Stage managers possess a broad skillset and that makes us that much more malleable and ready to attack the next project. With some productions it hurts my heart a little bit to let it go, but usually I’m ready for something new.”

For Edick, theater is community. (Growing up in Maryland, she was a shy kid whose parents signed her up for theater classes.) Now that community is the DMV theater scene and she considers Round House her artistic home. It’s where she works in different capacities, and it’s the venue in which she and actor/playwright Olivia Luzquinos chose to be married in 2024. 

Edick came out in middle school around the time of her bat mitzvah. It’s also around the same time she began stage managing. Throughout high school she was the resident stage manager for student productions, and also successfully participated in county and statewide stage management competitions which led to a scholarship at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) where she focused on technical theater studies.   

Edick has always been clear about what she wants. At an early age she mapped out a theater trajectory. Her first professional gig was “Tuesdays with Morrie” at Theatre J in 2021. She’s worked consistently ever since. 

Stage managing pays the bills but her resume also includes directing and intimacy choreography (a creative and technical process for creating physical and emotional intimacy on stage).  She names Pulitzer Prize winning lesbian playwright Paula Vogel among her favorite artists, and places intimacy choreographing Vogel’s “How I learned to Drive” high on the artistic bucket list. 

“To me that play is heightened art that has to do with a lot of triggering content that can be made very beautiful while being built to make you feel uncomfortable; it’s what I love about theater.” 

For now, “Nothing Up My Sleeve” keeps Edick more than busy: “For one magic trick, we have to set up 100 needles.” 

Ultimately, she says “For stage managers, the show should stay the same each night. What changes are audiences and the energy they bring.”

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Calendar

Calendar: February 13-19

LGBTQ events in the days to come

Published

4 days ago

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February 13, 2026

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Friday, February 13

Center Aging Monthly Luncheon With Yoga will be at noon at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. Email Mac at [email protected] if you require ASL interpreter assistance, have any dietary restrictions, or questions about this event.

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Happy Hour Meetup” at 7 p.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant. This is a chance to relax, make new friends, and enjoy happy hour specials at this classic retro venue. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite. 

Women in their Twenties and Thirties will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is a social discussion group for queer women in the D.C. area. For more details, visit the group on Facebook. 

Saturday, February 14

Go Gay DC will host “LGBTQ+ Community Brunch” at 11 a.m. at Freddie’s Beach Bar & Restaurant. This fun weekly event brings the DMV area LGBTQ community, including allies, together for delicious food and conversation.  Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite.

The DC Center for the LGBT Community will host a screening of “Love and Pride” at 1:30 p.m. This event is a joy-filled global streaming celebration honoring queer courage, Pride, and the power of love. It’s a bold celebration of courage and community — a fearless reminder of what we’ve overcome, how love is what makes us unstoppable, and how we have always turned fear into fierce. For more details, visit the Center’s website. 

Sunday, February 15

LGBTQ+ Community Coffee and Conversation will be at 12 p.m. at As You Are. This event is for people looking to make more friends and meaningful connections in the LGBTQ community. Attendance is free and more details are available on Eventbrite. 

Monday, February 16

Queer Book Club will be at 7:00p.m. on Zoom. This month’s read is “Faebound” by Saara El-Arifi. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website. 

“Center Aging: Monday Coffee Klatch” will be at 10 a.m. on Zoom. This is a social hour for older LGBTQ+ adults. Guests are encouraged to bring a beverage of choice. For more information, contact Adam ([email protected]).

Tuesday, February 17

Center Bi+ Roundtable will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This is an opportunity for people to gather in order to discuss issues related to bisexuality or as Bi individuals in a private setting.Visit Facebook or Meetup for more information.

Wednesday, February 18

Job Club will be at 6 p.m. on Zoom upon request. This is a weekly job support program to help job entrants and seekers, including the long-term unemployed, improve self-confidence, motivation, resilience and productivity for effective job searches and networking — allowing participants to move away from being merely “applicants” toward being “candidates.” For more information, email [email protected] or visit thedccenter.org/careers.

Thursday, February 19

The DC Center’s Fresh Produce Program will be held all day at the DC Center for the LGBT Community. To be fair with who is receiving boxes, the program is moving to a lottery system. People will be informed on Wednesday at 5 p.m. if they are picked to receive a produce box. No proof of residency or income is required. For more information, email [email protected] or call 202-682-2245. 

Virtual Yoga Class will be at 7 p.m. on Zoom. This free weekly class is a combination of yoga, breath work and meditation that allows LGBTQ+ community members to continue their healing journey with somatic and mindfulness practices. For more details, visit the DC Center’s website.  

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Movies

As Oscars approach, it’s time to embrace ‘KPop Demon Hunters’

If you’ve resisted it, now’s the time to give in

Published

5 days ago

on

February 12, 2026

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The KPop Demon Hunters get ready for action. (Image courtesy of Netflix)

If you’re one of the 500 million people who made “KPop Demon Hunters” into the most-watched original Netflix title in the streaming platform’s history, this article isn’t for you.

If, however, you’re one of the millions who skipped the party when the Maggie Kang-created animated musical fantasy debuted last summer, you might be wondering why this particular piece of pop youth culture is riding high in an awards season that seems all but certain to end with it winning an Oscar or two; and if that’s the case, by all means, keep reading.

We get it. If you’re not a young teen (or you don’t have one), it might have escaped your radar. If you don’t like KPop, or the fantasy genre just isn’t your thing, there would be no reason for that title to pique your interest – on the contrary, you would assume it’s just a movie that wasn’t made for you and leave it at that.

It’s now more than half a year later, though, and “KPop Demon Hunters” has yet to fade into pop culture memory, in spite of the “new, now, next” pace with which our social media world keeps scrolling by. It might feel like there’s been a resurgence of interest since the film’s ongoing sweep of major awards in the Best Animated Film and Best Song categories has led it close to Oscar gold, but in reality, the interest never really flagged. Millions of fans were still streaming the soundtrack album on a loop, all along.

It wasn’t just the music that they embraced, though that was definitely a big factor – after all, the film’s signature song, “Golden,” has now landed a Grammy to display alongside all of its film industry accolades. But Kang’s anime-influenced urban fantasy taps into something more substantial than the catchiness of its songs; through the filter of her experience as a South Korean immigrant growing up in Canada, she draws on the traditions and mythology of her native culture while blending them seamlessly into an infectiously contemporary and decidedly Western-flavored “girl power” adventure about an internationally popular KPop girl band – Huntrix, made up of lead singer Rumi (Arden Cho), lead dancer Mira (May Hong), and rapper/lyricist Zoey (Ji-young Yoo) – who also happen to be warriors, charged with protecting humankind from the influence of Gwi-Ma (Lee Byung-hun), king of the demon world, which is kept from infiltrating our own by the power of their music and their voices. Oh, and also by their ability to kick demon ass.

In an effort to defeat the girls at their own game, Gwi-Ma sends a demonic boy band led by handsome human-turned-demon Jinu (Ahn Hyo-seop) to steal their fans, creating a rivalry that (naturally) becomes complicated by the spark that ignites between Rumi and Jinu, and that forces Rumi to confront the half-demon heritage she has managed to keep secret – even from her bandmates – but now threatens to destroy Huntrix from within, just when their powers are needed most.

It’s a bubble-gum flavored fever-dream of an experience, for the most part, which never takes itself too seriously. Loaded with outrageous kid-friendly humor and pop culture parody, it might almost feel as if it were making fun of itself if not for the obvious sincerity it brings to its celebration of all things K-Pop, and the tangible weight it brings along for the ride through its central conflict – which is ultimately not between the human and demon worlds but between the long-held prejudices of the past and the promise of a future without them.

That’s the hook that has given “KPop Demon Hunters” such a wide-ranging and diverse collection of fans, and that makes it feel like a well-timed message to the real world of the here and now. In her struggle to come to terms with her part-demon nature – or rather, the shame and stigma she feels because of it – Rumi becomes a point of connection for any viewer who has known what it’s like to hide their full selves or risk judgment (or worse) from a world that has been taught to hate them for their differences, and maybe what it’s like to be taught to hate themselves for their differences, too.

For obvious reasons, that focus adds a strong layer of personal relevance for queer audiences; indeed, Kane has said she wanted the film to mirror a “coming out” story, drawing on parallels not just with the LGBTQ community, but with people marginalized through race, gender, trauma, neurodivergence – anything that can lead people to feel like an “other” through cultural prejudices and force them to deal with the pressure of hiding an essential part of their identity in order to blend in with the “normal” community. It plays like a direct message to all who have felt “demonized” for something that’s part of their nature, something over which they have no choice and no control, and it positions that deeply personal struggle as the key to saving the world.

Of course, “KPop Demon Hunters” doesn’t lean so hard into its pro-diversity messaging that it skimps on the action, fun, and fantasy that is always going to be the real reason for experiencing a genre film where action, fun, and fantasy are the whole point in the first place. You don’t have to feel like an “other” to enjoy the ride, or even to get the message – indeed, while it’s nice to feel “seen,” it’s arguably much more satisfying to know that the rest of the world might be learning how to “see” you, too. By the time it reaches its fittingly epic finale, Kane’s movie (which she co-directed with Chris Appelhans, and co-wrote with Appelhans, Danya Jimenez, and Hannah McMechan) has firmly made its point that, in a community threatened by hatred over perceived differences, the real enemy is our hate – NOT our differences.

Sure, there are plenty of other reasons to enjoy it. Visually, it’s an imaginative treat, building an immersive world that overlays an ancient mythic cosmology onto a recognizably contemporary setting to create a kind of whimsical “metaverse” that feels almost more real than reality (the hallmark of great mythmaking, really); yet it still allows for “Looney Toons” style cartoon slapstick, intricately choreographed dance and battle sequences that defy the laws of physics, slick satirical commentary on the juggernaut of pop music and the publicity machine that drives it, not to mention plenty of glittery K-Pop earworms that will take you back to the thrill of being a hormonal 13-year-old on a sugar high; but what makes it stand out above so many similar generic offerings is its unapologetic celebration of the idea that our strength is in our differences, and its open invitation to shed the shame and bring your differences into the light.

So, yes, you might think “KPop Demon Hunters” would be a movie that’s exactly what it sounds like it will be – and you’d be right – but it’s also much, much more. If you’ve resisted it, now’s the time to give in.

At the very least, it will give you something else to root for on Oscar night.

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