Window Dressing

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

Ashanti gets it

Cronenberg's Crash has unexpectedly ignited a girl internet obsession with James Spader's unique ability to make my knees shape.

Given everything that is going on with Britney currently, or at least the TMZ version of it, it's time to look back at what has already been done to her. We can't let this happen again.

Addison Rae honors old Hollywood with her moon manicure during Coachella's first weekend. I break down more of her manifesting fashion choices in this short episode.

Slayyter is indeed The Worst Girl in America, and we need her.

Remy Bond is showing us the worlds that exist in the hearts of American girls, including halters adorned with pink flamingos, vintage barkcloth Hawaiian dresses, dolphin-inspired bra tops, and Haight Street-coded bell sleeves. Her hyper-high, reaching-closer-to-god wig is giving Dolly Parton with 1920s finger wave curls. Remy takes the dumb blonde imagery to the beach in her silver-screen mermaid...

Spring Breakers is essentially a teen exploitation film and has very little of the hyperrealism of his 90s cult classic, Kids.  It is quite the opposite; the Tumbler-style image montage of a film appears to be a meditation on the vacuous and the deeply problematic areas of American culture, namely drugs, young girls, white rappers, and group sex.  But the commentary on “aesthetics” as an indicatio...

Emeral Fennel’s 2026 adaptation of Wuthering Heights has become a cultural product of contention. The controversy has focused on the failures of her adaptation of Emily Brontë’s brilliant classic, but from the many, many things I have seen and read that adopt this stance, very few of them include any note to, or awareness of, any other film adaptation of the work. Including, most importantly, the...

This week, I discuss the most well-known and reviled femme fatale in film history: Phyllis Dietrichson, played by one of the most respected and beloved actresses in American film: Barbara Stanwyck. This episode was originally aired as part of my American Trash and National Treasures series. The video version is in reverence to the Double Indemnity house and in celebration of my upcoming move near...

This week I bring you a video version of last year’s MTV Summer series. 2025 marked the end of MTV as we know it, although it is not completely wiped from the airwaves.  I wanted to mark its cultural demise with a bang—more specifically, the fondled trigger of Fiona Apple’s gun.  The video vixens, like Alicia Silverstone and Erin Everly, who lit up the visuals for rock gods, are the sisters of the...

This week, I revisit my season three theme: Sirens and Gossip Rag Goddesses of The New Millennium to talk about Jessica Simpson.  An obvious pick for this subject, given her harrowing journey through public humiliation, body shaming, and more than one romance that tried to define and then destroy her.  She took all the parts of her that were dismissed as dumb, bubblegum fluff, and too basic, and t...

In my first attempt at an all-video podcast, I reprise my season-one episode on Sharon Tate.  I dive into her impact on American culture, the landscape for female crime victims, and her enduring legacy as the most beautiful woman who ever lived.  I discuss the details of her most iconic role as Jennifer North in The Valley of the Dolls and all her spectacular looks on and off screen—including her...

This week, I bring you a short bonus episode about the recently released Diddy Doc, The Reckoning: Sean Combs. It comes courtesy of executive producer Curtis “50 Cent " Jackson, and it is a once-in-a-lifetime piece of cultural commentary. I have written extensively about Diddy, in relation to Aubrey O’ Day and the MTV reality show Making the Band. Those episodes are part of the Sirens and Gos...

This week, I have a special treat, inspired by my house guest, Elliott the cat. Elliott has been with me for ten days, so in honor of his short stay, I am going to talk about The Long Goodbye starring Elliott Gould and his orange cat. The book on which it is based was first published in 1953 and was the 6th in Raymond Chandler's detective series featuring Philip Marlowe. It was adapted for the...

In this episode, I discuss Rebecca. The beloved book written by Daphne Du Maurier was adapted for the screen in 1940 by Hitchcock and features former Heathcliff actor, fresh from the moors of Wuthering Heights the year before, Lawrence Olivier. He plays Maximillion De Winter, the widowed gentleman of the manor, Manderley. His young, and I mean young, bride is the no-name narrator of the story—Play...

In this episode of Window Dressing’s Gothic Romance series, I talk about the 1945 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Grey, published in 1890. The story is as classic as a fairy tale or fable. The film features Angela Lansbury in her second film role, following her debut in the topic of the last episode in this series, Gaslight. She plays Sybil Vain in Dorian Gray—a kind of snow whit...

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...

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 Eart h 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 Thru...

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 c...

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.