Elizabeth Berkley

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

  1. Aileen Quinn, Annie, 1981.     Some 8,000 kids were seen in a two year national talent hunt; 70 were auditioned.The young Berkley (theerotic delight of Showgirls 14 years later) was too tall for Little Orphan Annie. So, she escaped an itchy red wig and having Alpo rubbed on her face to encourage the damned dog to kiss her.
  2. Jensen Daggett, Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, 1988.    Or Vancouver where much of the Big Aple was filmed…  Berkley, the Showgirl(s) to come and Michelle’s younger sister, DeDdee Pfeiffer, auditioned for Rennie in what proved such a flop that Paramount hastily sold the franchise to First Line and never made another 13thuntil the 2008 re-boot. Daggett was 19 and bravely stood up to auteurRiob Hedden’s various appeals to go nude, topless or even just shirtless.
  3. Tiffani-Amber Thiessen, Saved By The Bell, TV, 1989-1993.      The producers didn’t think her right for Kelly Kapowski – so they created a whole new gal for her:Jessie Myrtle Spano. And shelasted six more weeks than Tiffani’s 70 chapters.
  4. Jennifer Aniston, Friends, TV, 1994-2004.      
  5. Courteney Cox, Scream, 1996.      She got work after showing off everything in Showgirls, 1994, but nothing as good. Although invited to audition for for TV newshen Gale Weathers (ho, ho!), Berkley was rejected due to what was called her Showgirls backlash. Mmm, sounds painful. (And it was – bit parts and direct-to-DVDs).
  6. Courtney Love, The People v Larry Flynt, 1997.The subject was the porno king behind America’s Hustler magazine – a more gynecological version of Playboy.  T0 be played by Woody Harrelson. But who should be his wife, a bisexual stripper named Althea Leasure? Patricia Arquette, Showgirls’ Elizabeth Berkley, Georgina Cates, Cameron Diaz, Rachel Griffiiths, Ashley Judd, Mira Sorvino (too busy playing Marilyn) – and Kimberly Williams-Paisley,who refused all nudity. Finally, Czech director Milos Forman chose Kurt Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love.  Well, she had once been a stripper, herself.  ‘I’m not a woman, I’m a force of nature.”
  7. Milla Jovovich, The Fifth Element, France, 1997.    “Luc Besson could not have been more supportive.”  Just not enough for the Paris producer-director to sign her. He then had  love affair with Milla, his1999  Joan of Arc. 
  8. Samantha Mathis, American Pyscho, 1999.  There was one ignoble  moment in the tangled web of filming  Bret Easton Ellis’ novel  when Oliver Stone replaced Mary Harrron as director, before he quit and Mary returned… using one only  of Stone’s line-up. And that was not Berkley as Courtney
  9. Naomi Watts, King Kong, 2005.       New Zealand director Peter Jackson’s idea….  in 1997.
  10. Sasha Alexander, Rizzoli & Isles, TV, 2010-2016.   For the latest in the tele-tradition of women cop duos – the US Cagney & Lacey, BBC’s Scott & Bailey and the tres chic French Astride et Raphaëlle – Alexander, Elizabeth Berkley, Rose McGowan, Sarah Paulson, Winona Ryder were on Warner’s Most Wanted list for  Chief Medical Examiner Dr Maura Isles teamed with  Detective Jane  for 105 cases in Boston.  Jennifer Connelly was considered for both roles.

 

 

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