Creepy Celebrity Worship

No, not the worship of creepy celebrities, but the creepy worship of celebrities . . .

The SMA Archive is a Baltimore, Maryland-based group whose aim is the "‘resurrection’ of actresses from the Golden era of silent cinema":

"To do this we are securing a large body of quality genetic material from a variety of sources which is subjected to rigorous testing to ensure its validity. Samples range from small tissue and blood samples to full bones and several preserved organs. We intend to work closely with science organisations to perfect safe and reliable human duplication techniques. We are already in discussion with several studios interested in becoming parents to these new stars of old."

The SMA site has pictures of its archives (see Greta Garbo's hair, accompanying this post). Also included are locks of hair from such stars as Dolores Del Rio, Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks, toe nail clippings from Norma Shearer, and some kind of bone fragment from Clara Bow. Obviously, it is a hoax (perpetrated, it would seem, by playwright Gregory Whitehead), but it is such an elaborately conceived hoax, it does kind of give you a queasy feeling.

Meanwhile, Canadian performance artist Jillian McDonald has found a different way of exorcising her celebrity obsessions, editing herself into films with Billy Bob Thornton and Vincent Gallo.

On the whole, I can't decide which form of star worship is creepier . . .
(Via Metafilter.)