Jennifer, Oh Jenny!
There was always more to her than just a MILF. Jennifer Coolidge, the sixty two year old icon of the silver screen, became one of Time magazine’s recipients of “100 most influential people” last year, which is proof of her longevity as a comic actor, but also a Hollywood legend who still gets interesting roles when others are too often written off.
From Jeanine, “Stifler’s Mom” in the ‘American Pie’ series, to Susan Thomas in ‘Promising Young Woman’, the Boston -born goddess has the ability to make audiences laugh, drool and relate- often within the same scene. Her Sherri Ann Cabot in Christopher Guest’s peerless dog owner satire Best In Show gave us some of the best lines ever. A trophy wife, sat next to her bare!y sentient, ancient husband Leslie, she pouts, ” We both have a love of …soup.Uh… We love the outdoors. And snow peas… Talking and… not talking… We could just…not talk or ..talk, forever, and still find things to not talk about”. ..
It’s like Marilyn Monroe was given self-awareness, and zingers.
She’s like Jessica Rabbit in 3D, double Ds, but armed with the quick wit of Lucille Ball. This is why gay men adore her: that intoxicating cocktail of sexy, smart and goofy, more than willing to send herself up.
She’s beyond camp, an uber-bimbo who’ll wrongfoot you and snap back, just as you underestimated her, or thought she was only an airhead. Women love her too, as there’s something touching in her presence, a sliver of vulnerability that makes her human. She’d be a hoot in your local karaoke bar. Imagine her downing tequila shots, being extra, and singing Jolene. She’d not only bring the house down, but reinvent karaoke as a genre.
How much of a gay icon is she? She’s been superb on ‘Dancing With the Stars’, widely homaged universally in drag, and was literally fought over on ‘Canada’s Drag Race’ last year, when two competing drag queens, Kitten Kaboodle and Nearah Nuff, argued about who would portray her in ‘Snatch Game’, the segment of this show when the queens parody celebs on a quiz show format. They decided two Jennifers were better than one, proving you can never have enough of a good thing. But Kaboodle crushed it, by fully inhabiting Coolidge in terms of looks and mannerisms. It didn’t hurt that she produced a vegan hot dog from her cleavage, referencing Coolidge as the denim-clad babe Paulette Bonafonte in ‘Legally Blonde 2’, and nailed her sleepy drawl.
They broke the (jelly) mould when they created Jennifer Coolidge. All hail the Massachusetts queen. “It must be jelly”, as the song goes, “cause jam don’t shake”.
Hit The North 