New Photos

A couple of new to us photos of Christa from 1974 courtesy of Grammy-winning music producer Joel Diamond, who appears in both and who wrote the theme for LET'S GO FOR BROKE.

RIP-Michael Sarrazin

By most accounts, he was the one man in Christa's life that she genuinely cared about. It may have been pure coincidence but, after her death, his career dwindled to almost nothing from what had been above the title starring roles in major Hollywood releases. Michael Sarrazin--Rest In Peace.

http://omg.yahoo.com/news/horses-star-michael-sarrazin-dies-at-70/60874

RIP Christa Helm-Feb 12th, 1977

Christa Article Back Online

Although it was down for a while, my article with author John O'Dowd on Christa is back online and can be found at: http://hollywoodstarletbarbarapayton.com/helm/index.html

The Linda Blair/Lennie Barrin Connection

Fans of my regular blog know that I am a big fan of actress/activist Linda Blair. Awhile back, I noticed an odd connection between Linda and Christa when I saw the name Lennie Barrin credited as costume designer on her film HELL NIGHT. Lennie was, of course, Christa's friend and partner in a clothing business in New York City. Lennie was also alleged to be the one who had Christa's apartment cleaned out after her murder.

Now I find that the connection with Linda Blair was much stronger in that the two of them once had a regular series of short Internet episodes on design, floral arrangement, etc. entitled LINDA 'N' LENNIE. Here's one of the episodes from YouTube!

Going For Broke in Haiti-1973

With Haiti so much in the news right now, it's interesting to note that Christa Helm's only starring vehicle was one of the first films to be shot in large part in Haiti. The horror stories from the cast and production people were many and varied but the bottom line is that it seemed like a better idea than it turned out to be. In fear of their lives to some extent, the cast and crew took advantage of a Christmas shooting break to pack up and move the remainder of the shoot to Florida. As much of the footage shot by original director Alex Stevens was not used when Ron Walsh took over at that point and the decision was made to take the film in a different direction, only glimpses of Haiti appear in the finished film.

Here are a couple clips regarding the filming, one from THE NEW YORK TIMES and the other from VARIETY, both courtesy of Ace Researcher Derek Tague.

New York Post Article

Ace Researcher Derek Tague passes along this article from THE NEW YORK POST from April of 2008 regarding both Christa's case and the 48 HOURS MYSTERY episode.