Drama
Doctor Who
The good Doctor’s been flitting around time, space and the BBC since 1963. Now he’s also a fixture in the US, toting his curiously British brand of sci-fi in his highly mobile TARDIS. Just how safe is this contraption?
Before Anna Delvey swindled banks, hotels and socialites out of thousands of dollars, before Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian became household names, before the internet started launching people into fame overnight, there was Angelyne.
There wasn’t a Los Angeles street you could drive down in the ‘80s without seeing one of the blonde bombshell’s billboards. She wasn’t just a woman, she was an icon.
But why was she so popular?
She couldn’t act. She couldn’t sing. She couldn’t dance. She wasn’t wealthy (at least, not at first). And even though her billboards might have you believe she was some sort of model, she didn’t do that either. In fact, she had no notable talent to speak of. She was simply famous for being famous.
Between Inventing Anna, The Dropout and now Angelyne, Hollywood seems obsessed with uncovering (and retelling) the truth behind social scandals.
It’s pretty much the same story across the board: Fake it ‘til you make it. And it seems that each of these people becomes so engrossed in their own lies that they begin to believe the lies themselves.
Angelyne was no different. Granted, she knew she didn’t have talent—she never tried to convince anyone she did. But she still lied and cheated her way into fame, manipulating the love people had for her to get what she wanted. And she was convinced that everyone loved her.
The series attempts to dig a bit deeper into the mystery of who she really is (one she’s perpetuated herself over the years). What we discover is a woman so desperate to escape her past she was willing to pretend it never happened. If it didn’t suit the story she was propagating—even when people could prove it was true—then it didn’t exist.
So, was Angelyne promiscuous? Maybe. She certainly loved to wear skimpy clothes, take bubble baths and pose suggestively. Half of her fame was due to the provocative billboards around town that highlighted her exaggerated feminine figure. But the one time she kisses someone on screen, a present-day Angelyne breaks the fourth wall and claims it never happened. And that pornographic video? “Fake,” she says. According to Angelyne, she was never sexually involved with anyone, despite all those nasty rumors.
Apparently, she never drank, smoked or did drugs either (though the people around her certainly did). “The crowd is my drug,” she states after a musical performance. But that “high” she rode was often unhealthy in and of itself, considering how low she would go to keep riding it. Angelyne gave into other unhealthy habits as well, such as not eating on Tuesdays. And even though we hear her exclaim, “Language!” when friends curse, she uses some harsh words herself, up to and including the f-word.
Angelyne was also involved in some really odd “spiritual” practices. She creates an altar and prays to Marilyn Monroe, asking her “honorary mother” to grant her and her then-boyfriend fame. They seal the pact by cutting open their hands and mixing their blood. She frequently brings up astrology. And it seems she set out on her journey to fame after having an out-of-body experience in which she climbed into a spaceship and saw her whole life play out before her eyes.
We may never know the truth behind Angelyne, the person. But the truth behind the series is that it’s likely a nonstarter for most families.
Angelyne arrives in Los Angeles to create a band and pursue her dream of becoming famous.
Angelyne wears clothing that exaggerates her feminine figure (showing an almost pornographic amount of cleavage). Billboards of her posing suggestively pop up around town. And when asked how she feels about this, she states that people can think whatever they want about her, even if they think she’s a “wh-re” or “porn star.” She also flashes her underwear during musical performances (with suggestive lyrics), and we see her from the shoulders up in a bathtub. Another billboard shows Angelyne’s boyfriend with two scantily dressed women fawning over him. Later, she catches him and another women, post-coital, in their underwear. A man and a woman make out (and later, the woman states it never happened). Angelyne turns down a proposal because she “doesn’t believe in marriage.”
When two people tell two versions of the same story, it’s unclear who is lying. Angelyne tells one person her father died when she was a baby and someone else that it was her mother who died and that her father abandoned them.
People drink and smoke at a bar. Angelyne notably refuses to do so. And when she drinks from a coffee mug containing booze, she spits it back out. Angelyne’s boyfriend snorts cocaine frequently. Later on, he checks himself into rehab. Angelyne states she doesn’t eat on Tuesdays.
A woman screams in frustration at her neighbor. Angelyne smashes her boyfriend’s guitar in anger.
Two people pray at an altar to Marilyn Monroe and then make a pact to become famous, cutting open their hands and mixing their blood. There is talk about astrology and the universe as a divine being. A man says he believed it was his “karmic responsibility” to take care of Angelyne.
We hear multiple uses of the f-word and s-word, as well as “a–,” “a–hole” and “b–ch.” In one scene, Angelyne repeats the phrase “oh my god” a dozen times in succession. God’s and Christ’s names are abused in other scenes as well, the former paired once with “d–n.”
Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.
The good Doctor’s been flitting around time, space and the BBC since 1963. Now he’s also a fixture in the US, toting his curiously British brand of sci-fi in his highly mobile TARDIS. Just how safe is this contraption?
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