Window Dressing

Daisy de la Hoya speaks to me about her time on the VH1 reality shows Rock of Love and Daisy of Love . She also shares her thoughts and feelings on life. Thank you Vanessa for taking the time to speak with me🤍

Daisy was the breakout hit of Rock of Love season two and starred in her own VH1 show Daisy of Love. In this episode, I delve into both shows and her role in culture. I will be interviewing Daisy in a follow-up episode that will be out shortly.

A new episode is coming the first week of July!

This week I wrap up my Tori Spelling discussion with the continuation of Donna and Ray’s tumultuous relationship. Ray chipped away at Donna's dignity through verbal abuse that escalated to physical abuse. But, Donna wins out in the end by standing in her Tori Spelling branded power source-her kindness.

This week I focus on the later years of 90210—specifically season 5.  The days where Donna’s storyline became the primary storyline and her hair went from long to short and her boyfriend changed from David to Griffith to Ray.  Ray Pruitt played by Jamie Walters epitomizes the unstable nice guy so many of us have encountered in our dating life and Donna plays the lost lamb we have all stood next to...

In the next couple of episodes, I delve into one of the most influential teen dramas of all time— and a personal touchstone of my childhood: Beverly Hills 90210. Specifically Tori Spelling’s character Donna Martin and Tori’s life post 90210, including her very public divorce, her reality show True Tori, and her two podcasts Misspelling and 9021omg. This week I focus on one episode of 90210 in part...

Tori Spelling Part 1 - one week delay

Jessica Fletcher Part 2 is a smorgasbord from which I cherry-pick a smattering of episodes and scenes from Murder, She Wrote to give a more holistic sense of the series. The episodes for this week are Truck Stop, Something Borrowed, Someone Blue, and The Magnum P.I. crossover episode Magnum on Ice. I recommend listening to part one before listening to part 2 for context about Angela Lansbury, her...

This episode's topic is the Murder, She Wrote episode inspired by Hugh Hefner and Playboy. I focus on the personal toll the politics of the time, and Playboy has taken on women culturally through the lens of Angela Lansbury's famed portrayal of female protagonist Jessica Fletcher. The season 2 episode of Murder, She Wrote Episode inspired by Playboy: Christopher Bundy Died on Sunday is lit...

In part two of my Heather Locklear episode I pick up mid-series in Melrose Place and end with Texas Justice the 1995 made-for-TV mini-series starring Heather Locklear as the real-life Priscilla Davis, a victim of two attempted murder plots on the part of her husband, Texas millionaire Thomas Cullen Davis. Her portrayal of Priscilla didn’t win her a lot of fanfare but it did win her a special place...

This week on Window Dressing: American Trash and National Treasures is the first of a two-part episode dedicated to the queen of TV Heather Locklear. Locklear spent the entirety of the 1980s, 1990s, and part of the 2000s on hit Television shows. Specifically Aaron Spelling TV Shows. I focus on her role as Amanda Woodward in Melrose Place and her portrayal of Priscilla Davis in the true crime mini-...

This week I discuss the most well-known and reviled Femme Fatale in film history: Phyllis Dietrichson, played by one of the most well-respected and loved actresses in American film: Barbara Stanwyck. The 1944 film noir Double Indemnity is one of the shiniest, most monied film noirs produced in its time. The film is based on James M. Cain's book of the same name. The story itself is inspired by...

It’s difficult to articulate Alabama’s, and by extension Patricia Arquette’s charm in the 1993 film True Romance . It’s somewhere close to a fairy princess that has fallen from her tower to earth and landed near a pack of Chesterfields, a cubic zirconia wedding band, and a hamburger stand in Hollywood. The only one for her is Christian Slater’s depiction of a midwesterner who drives a Cadillac, ta...

I will discuss Laura Leighton’s character on Melrose Place Sydney Andrews. Sydney is cut from the same cloth as last week’s heroine, Kitty March, played by Joan Bennett. She moons and swoons over her sister's soon-to-be ex-husband Micheal Mancini the same way Kitty melted in the arms of Johnny Prince, her pimp boyfriend played by Dan Duryea. Sydney is a love-to-hate brand of soap queen that is...

Joan Bennett stars as Katherine (Kitty) March in the 1945 Fritz Lang film Scarlet Street. Her character is a unique kind of femme fatale- she is innocent and dripping with a sexuality that she is more than willing to use to her advantage, or more specifically her pimp boyfriend Johnny's (played by Dan Duryea) advantage. In this episode, I explore the strange yet deeply relatable struggle betwe...

This week on Window Dressing: American Trash and National Treasures I untangle the web of Hitchcock's 1958 film Vertigo. I take a deeply personal look into Madeline, Judy, Carlotta, and Midge's roles in the scheme of womanhood and romance. This is the second part of my first episode about the 1988 film Heart of Midnight, two very different films that fill similar spaces emotionally.

Season two of Window Dressing: American Trash and National Treasures begins with the 1988 film Heart of Midnight . In this season I will discuss the women of American culture and cultural products that are either revered or reviled. I will put Lisa Rinna and Norma Shearer at the same level and give films like Vertigo and this episode's Heart of Midnight the same weight. As usual, every compone...

Klute and Heartbreak is my more personal take on the 1971 Jane Fonda film Klute. This is a between-seasons "one-off" episode where I try to dissect what it is about this film that I find so comforting and relevant to my life today. I approach Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda's character) and her relationship with John Klute (Donald Sutherland's character) through the lens of modern woman...

BONUS EPISODE: Window Dressing's very special Santa Anna winds Halloween episode:  I Know What You Did Last Summer  and  I Still Know What You Did Last Summer—these  1997 and 1998 classic teen slasher's mark the genre's renaissance culturally. I focus on Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt's characters, Julie and Helen as the archetypal blonde and brunette teen scream qu...

The season finale of Window Dressing: Glamour Girl Next Store: MGM to Playboy is all about Holly Madison and Playboy. She was the last star to come out of Playboy and the first one to successfully take ownership over the Playboy legacy through caring for it. She eclipsed Hugh Hefner from his own bed.  In this episode I talk about her, Brigette Marquart, Kendra Wilkinson, The Girls Next Store and H...

Cultural phenomenon and icon Pamela Anderson changed beauty standards and the conversation around female power sources in this country forever. She became the first Playmate to successfully cross over into the mainstream - only to have her new found power taken from her after the theft and release of her, and then husband Tommy lee's private home movie(s). Twenty years later she has finally to...

The character of Ginger in the 1995 film Casino is one of the best roles of all time (in my book). This week I come to the defense of the maligned character and make a case for the dripping in glamour women she is based on and all the woman Stone's portrayal has inspired.

This week I talk about Alicia Silverstone in Clueless, Cryin, and Crazy. The latter two being early 1990s Aerosmith rock opera style music videos. I attempt to describe what she did for me as a young girl and what she represents to the culture - now and then. Teen girl icon doesn't begin to cover the impact she has had. She is one of my favorite people and it is a joy for me to talk about what...

The second part of my Dyan Cannon discussion includes the film she wrote, directed, and starred in called The End of Innocence . Rebecca Schaeffer plays the younger version of Dyan's character in this film. It was her last role before her murder at the hands of a crazed fan on the doorstep of her West Hollywood home. Her death is the reason we have stalking laws in this country. I discuss her...

This is the first episode of two Dyan Cannon episodes ranging from the 1960s-1990's. Dyan is a Hollywood mainstay that ushered in a different kind of "it" girl- the comedian with an appetite for sex and a sense of humor about men. She had a wild life and the roles she played are fully embodied examples of her experience and knowledge. Her laugh alone does a lot for humanity but her b...