The Vindication of Kathryn Merteuil

Welcome to Window Dressings: Halloween bonus episode!!!! This year, I am talking about the classic teen-softcore horror film Urban Legend. The film has an ensemble cast that includes Tara Reid, Joshua Jackson, Rebecca Gayheart, and everyone's favorite hot bad boy turned alleged sexual predator, Jared Leto. It’s in the same vein as I Know What You Did Last Summer and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, which have both been Halloween special episodes from years past. The most significant difference is that the killer matters way more in this film than it did in the I Know What You Did Franchise, and there is a redhead in this one. It's also worth noting that the writer, Silvia Horta, also wrote Ugly Betty, which I know hits for the mid-twenties to late twenty-something crowd. Mary Claire Hannan designs the costumes.

In this bonus episode of Window Dressing, Frank Calvillo (from the fabulous podcast What Ever Happened to Bette and Joan) and I discuss the late Diane Keaton. We focus on two music videos she directed for Belinda Carlisle in the late 1980s: Heaven Is a Place on Earth and I Get Weak.

In this episode of my Gothic Romance series, I talk about the 1944 film Gaslight. The film is the origin of the now common use phrase that describes a type of psychological abuse typical in coercive control. I present my film critique as an alternative to the DSM- 5's definition.

Opening Window Dressing's short Gothic Romance series is the 1939 film adaptation of Emily Brontë's 1947 novel Wuthering Heights. Merle Oberon Plays Cathy, and Lawrence Olivier plays Heathcliff. Cathy and Heathcliff were raised like siblings, but developed a love of a more affecting type than familial; it was fated. Cruelty and care color their hearts and the very atmosphere of the moors that Thrushcross Grange and Wuthering Heights are situated upon. They meet in the middle at their private castle, Penistone Crag, where their oddly equalizing and tragic romance takes shape.

As Kathryn, the Marquise de Merteuil, Sarah Michelle Gellar brings new life to the role originally inked in the 1782 source material, Dangerous Liaisons. I am desperate to talk about her character's oh so sophisticated mustard and black corset and cocaine cross necklace— a look that inspired a generation of bad girls. Join me for the first of at least two 18th-century novel-inspired episodes coming to Window Dressing

Fiona Apple's participation in and commentary on her role as an object of desire hit me like lightning when I first saw her video for Criminal. She further informed my conception of what it is to be a woman with her 1999 video for Limp. In this ending episode of my MTV Summer Series, I investigate the double-edged sword of female sexuality.

In the third episode of my MTV Summer Series, I discuss Alicia Silverstone and her role in Aerosmith’s 1993 music Video for Cryin', and their 1994 video for Crazy. She was 16 and ripe to become the exploitable sex pot of a new generation. But, she became a female icon for a generation of young women and girls instead.

As part of Window Dressing’s MTV Summer Series, famed musician and friend David Pajo and I chat about Guns N’ Roses. My audio is not great, so apologies in advance. This is a conversation NOT an interview. Special thanks to David for doing this with me.

This week’s episode is about Guns N' Roses and the woman who inspired a trilogy of music videos from the band's 1990 double album Use Your Illusion. Erin Everly was Axl’s girlfriend, muse, and eventual wife, then ex-wife. She is half forgotten, or at least conflated with the woman who played her in these videos, Stephanie Seymour. But Erin is a goddess in her own right, and her magic lit up my imagination when I first laid eyes on the rock epic mini movie that she co-created just by existing.

Shelly Johnson's episode, Played By Madchen Amick, marks my last episode in Window Dressing's Twin Peak's mini-season: Women Of The Woods. I began this series with Norma Jennings, played by Peggy Lipton. It seems apt that I end with the woman she has worked hard to support in an act of care that she did not receive from her mother.