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Once again, it's Who's That Actress, with your host, the Aging Crone of Lost Memory! *applause*

Once again, thank you for reminding me Deborah Foreman exists and was in... everything. My fave memories of her were that she was on MacGyver. I always thought she had the sweetest face, and looked like a Genuine Real Person I Wanted To Know.

I LOVED watching snippets of this film because MALLS. Since I haven't left the house since 2018, it reminds me how they were just this huge part of the American landscape on the West Coast... just ...wandering around in them when it was hot outside, watching everyone else wander around. Like the roving herds of buffalo, now forever gone...

It's HILARIOUS that these kids were supposed to be in JUNIOR HIGH, though. I mean, what!? (Foreman was 21, and she pulls it off, but a lot of other people, including the person playing her original boyfriend REALLY didn't.)

I'm always a little weirded out about movies about the Valley, though; living in the State where it truly exists means you always squint at movie versions of it and say, "Um...what?" but the way the people talk in that scene is a variation on how I *still* talk, like, two English degrees later, and I'm from the NORTHERN end of the State. Meanwhile D - who IS from SoCal and would drive over to the Valley occasionally, still says "grody" unironically. I snicker.

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No, no, they're in high school in the movie! Wow, though, I hadn't done the math on Foreman, I knew Cage was 18 when they filmed it, but hadn't checked her birth year. No wonder he had such a googly-eyed crush on her during production.

There's a great montage at the beginning of the girls shopping and there are lots of shots of those pre-internet credit card machines, and lots of shots of totals on cash registers that are meant to convey how much they're spending... but it's, like, $33.50. When I watch it again I need to keep an eye out for gas stations for the prices, I bet that'll be a suckerpunch. There must be some good books about the history of malls and mall culture, I'll look that up tomorrow at work.

Related: If you've never listened to this episode of 99% Invisible, it's worth it: https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-accidental-room/

I still don't understand how so much Valley slang A) made it into my vocabulary all the way over here in Maine and B) stayed there, even now in my 40s?? Some of it maybe started semi-ironically and then just... never went away? And high five to D, because I *also* say grody unironically, heh.

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LOL, I saw "Jr. Prom" and somehow translated that into junior high. Whew. Also, imagine spending $33.50 on a shopping SPREE instead of a single item... *sobs*

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