Jewels on Screen Archives

Hey all you cool cats and kittens!

Excuse me, you. Yeah, you! Over there! I see you on your couch, about to click play on yet another viral video of a crying nurse in New York. Put the phone down, now. And you, over there! Don’t you think you’ve watched enough live daily press conferences to make you want to inject disinfectant directly into your veins, as contemplated by our very own president? Just turn off the television. And you, the one Googling about antibody testing for the umpteenth time. Back away from the search engine and listen up.

You’re all victim to what I call the Covid Spiral, driving yourselves insane devouring every bit of news about COVID-19 for the sake of staying informed. But there is such a thing as being too informed about the beast I refer to as the ‘Rona. We’ve all been there, but there is a cure. That cure, my friends, comes in the form of polygamous Oklahoman tiger breeder Joe Exotic. I’m talking about “Tiger King,” of course!

What, you haven’t watched it yet? It’s been out for a month already! That’s, like, five years in global pandemic time. You think you’re above that type of programming? Well, friends, I’m here to tell you that you’re not. None of us are. Quarantine is a great equalizer that way. And nothing will pull you out of the Covid Spiral like wondering how Joe Exotic can convince multiple young straight men to marry him when he’s not even rich. (Spoiler alert: the answer is meth. The answer is always meth.)

Why am I writing about this? Because people, there are some seriously iconic jewelry looks on this show. Let’s take a look, shall we?

Joe Exotic (the Tiger King himself)

This is Joe Exotic, aka the Tiger King, wearing his everyday jewelry look. I’m pretty sure he’s one of those people who sleeps and showers in their jewelry. (A word to those people: don’t do that.) Let’s first look at the eyebrow ring, which is hanging on for dear life. This is the piece of jewelry that Joe is most known for. Nothing wrong with having a signature piece! It’s even inspired a meme or two. Here’s my favorite:

Joe Exotic Tiger King meme — Who made this Coronavirus-era meme?

But let’s not ignore his ears! It looks like we have five hoop earrings on his right ear and two on his left with a small stud in the middle. Asymmetry is in, so he’s certainly on trend.

Joe Exotic of Tiger King driving a car with a tiger in his lap — Seems safe.

What is this jewelry made out of? I’m going to guess stainless steel. Okay, moving on.

Carole Baskin

Am I the only one who doesn’t think Carole Baskin killed her husband and fed him to the tigers? I’m just not buying it! Cardi B and I will have to disagree on that. What I am buying is her Washington, D.C. lobbying look, which consists of a leopard print and pearls. See, pearls really do go with anything! Way to class it up, Carole. I don’t know if they’re real, but no matter!

John Finlay

John Finlay is the first of Joe Exotic’s husbands that we’re introduced to during the course of the show. He is really something!

He shares Joe Exotic’s affinity for an asymmetrical look and also wears multiple hoop earrings, but one of his is black! Nice mixing of metal colors, John! Check out his yellow gold (?) chain. Every time I answer a phone call at Zadok and it’s someone asking if we carry men’s chains, the above image will flash through my mind.

Doc Antle

Doc Antle is something else, what with his safari park and his harem of women attending to the big cats with no vacation days. You know someone is 100% a cult leader when they insist “they’re free to leave at any time.” Since you can’t exist as a big player in the world of big cats without some earrings, let’s take a look at Doc’s:

He goes for a classic gold hoop! He wears these in just about every scene. I think his are real gold. I’m even going to go out on a limb and say I think they’re 18k gold, because I think Doc Antle would shell out for the good stuff.

Federal Prosecutor Amanda Green

I have to commend this woman for keeping a straight face the entire time she was on camera talking about Joe Exotic. You would think she was talking about a run of the mill criminal, not a disturbed tiger breeder who is laughably inefficient when it comes to contract killing.

Amanda Green Jewels on Screen Tiger King — A sensible hoop for a serious professional.

I know because of friends and female customers who are lawyers that they have to be conservative in appearance not just with clothing, but with their jewelry. So this slim, mid-size yellow gold hoop does the trick! Classic and timeless and also perfect to wear when you’re trying to forget that you will forever have an IMDB profile tying you to this wackadoodle Netflix show. I’m gonna call it and say her earrings, like Doc Antle’s, are 18k gold.

Jeff Lowe

When ultimate creep/hot nanny lover/generally angry human Jeff Lowe first popped on screen wearing a huge watch, I immediately thought it was an older Breitling for Bentley model. I can’t get a close enough look to see, but now I’m thinking it isn’t. That may actually be a diamond bezel. There were discussions about this on some watch forums, but no one is sure.

And that’s all, folks. If I write about anyone else on “Tiger King,” my brain will explode. But I didn’t think about the damn virus once while writing this post. See? I told you it works!

You can read my other Jewels on Screen post here.

You probably remember the scene from “Titanic” in which Cal, Rose DeWitt Bukater’s abusive fiancé, presents her with the Heart of the Ocean.

Cal presents Rose with the Heart of the Ocean. Rose wonders why it looks like a sapphire when Cal says it’s a diamond. Photo: Paramount

Cal and Rose are in their first class stateroom, where he gives her the engagement gift earlier than planned in an attempt to buy her love, or at least her obedience. He tells her that the 56 ct. diamond used to belong to Louis XVI and asks her to open her heart to him (gag). As a salesperson, I appreciate him illustrating the value of the piece with that nifty detail. But just before this, Rose had almost thrown herself off the back of the RMS Titanic because she felt so trapped. Timing is everything, Cal.

To afford a blue diamond of that size, you would have to be, as James Cameron described Cal’s character in the “Titanic” screenplay, “rich beyond meaning.” Sure enough, this fictional diamond’s back story, which borrows from that of the very real Hope diamond, reveals just how coveted it is. Apparently, Louis XVI ‘s diamond was cut into a heart shape after the French Revolution. Cal picked it up just before boarding the ship. Must be nice.

This piece of jewelry drives the entire plot of the movie. It’s the reason old Rose gets in touch with the treasure hunters and tells her story. It symbolizes young Rose’s bleak future chained to Cal. It’s even planted in Jack’s pocket, which is how he ends up handcuffed to a pipe with water rising all around him, remember? But I’m unable to sit back and enjoy this movie without one pesky little intruding thought.

Blue diamonds don’t look like that. Ever.

You see, the Heart of the Ocean looks like a sapphire. Blue diamonds are simply never that saturated. Saturation refers to the relative strength or weakness of a color. This is not to be confused with tone, which refers to how light or dark a color is.

Cameron’s screenplay describes the diamond as “a malevolent blue stone glittering with an infinity of scalpel-like inner reflections.” In diamond form, that’s gonna look something like this:

Blue diamond ring with red diamond side stones — This is the blue I imagine for the Heart of the Ocean. Also, check out the red diamonds! Those are so super-mega-ultra rare that I may not see another one for the rest of my life.

Now, diamonds come in light blue and dark blue (these are tones), but even in the dark blue diamond above, you’re not getting the velvety saturation that a blue sapphire has.

Blue sapphire — The best sapphires have this deep, velvety, and above all, saturated blue. Photo: GIA

But in this GIF, you can see that the stone looks a lot like the example sapphire above.

Jack and Rose look at the Heart of the Ocean — See?

Asprey London, the royal jewelers, created the prop for the film after Paramount approached them. The blue stone is cubic zirconia, a solid choice considering that the synthetic material sparkles much like a diamond. The large culet* is also a nice touch when you think about the provenance of the stone in the movie. The color is my only issue. I have no hard feelings, though. Even with imitation and synthetic stones, getting the color exactly right is quite the task. Overall, it’s a gorgeous piece.

This movie prop of all movie props is kept in the Twentieth Century Fox archives and is not on display to the public at the time of this writing.

How much do you want to go watch “Titanic” right now? Yeah, me too.

*I’m going to let you Google “culet” for now, but eventually, this site will have a glossary.

Category: Jewels on Screen

Jewels on Screen: “Tiger King”