Williams' script was so adventurously bold in its comedy that producer Gavin Polone immediately sensed it was something to which both teens
and adults would respond with shock, outrage and laughter. "It was just one of the funniest scripts I ever read," says Polone. "Coming from Lona Williams, who has experienced Minnesota pageants first hand, it had the perfect combination of being pointedly real and yet outrageously comical at the same time. Parts of it are affectionate and parts of it are really very, very darkly funny."

     The politically incorrect setting of a beauty pageant didn't concern the producer. "For better or worse, beauty pageants are something very much in the public consciousness. I mean, a lot of people still sit in front of their television set, rooting for their home state in the Miss America contest. It's something that seems to be really ingrained in our culture," explains Polone. "America is about winning. We like our heroes to rise to the top and beat everyone else, and that's exactly what beauty pageants are really about. Whether you love or loathe beauty pageants, the situation in Mount Rose is still hilarious."

     She is the perfect example of someone who's very religious, who's very patriotic, who's very moral . . . until something gets in her way and then she'll stop at nothing to get rid of it!"

     "This is on-the-edge, twisted comedy and I love that," says Kirstie Alley. "I couldn't stop laughing when I read the script. It's just a wild ride
through beauty land." Like most Americans, Alley was raised on Miss America television broadcasts, but they never lured her in. "I always thought it was just ridiculous," she comments. "Not so much demeaning as downright silly. I would wonder: why isn't someone like Meryl Streep Miss America? It just didn't depict American women at their best to me in any way. Every time they asked a question of the contestants, the answer had to contain either the word peace or love. There was nothing unique or brutally honest for them to say. No one could ever say, 'what I'd like is to see the world explode.' And that's pretty damn funny."

     As for Gladys Leeman, Alley sums her up as a woman who will do "anything criminal, anything immoral, anything sexual to get what she wants. She'll even bake you any kind of pie you want - strawberry, lemon, chocolate chip - as long as she gets her way."

A PERFECT REFLECTION
Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2000
From: Joe Admire

...of a particular kind of shallow obsession with a particular kind of on-the-surface physical beauty, and moreover, obsession with any kind of fame and fortune, no matter how picayune or fleeting it is. Sadly, there _are_ people in real life like Gladys and Rebecca Leeman who will do just about anything to win something like a third-rate beauty pageant because it'll give them their moment, however brief, in the sun. A very well-done film, and often very funny. (That "Soylent Green" girl still lays me out on the floor!)
-Joe- (jadmire@monumental.com)

FUNNIEST MOVIE IN AGES
Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2000
Dave,
Had the opportunity to see Drop Dead Gorgeous recently, and what can I say? This is the funniest movie I've see in ages! It's a brilliant satire on just about everything, Minnesotans, small towns, beauty pageants, manipulating children, competition, violence, you name it. This is good, clean, laugh-your-head off fun as hasn't been seen since the wonderful comedies of Bill Murray in the 80's and early 90's, Groundhog Day, Stripes, and What About Bob? As a former Lutheran, I particularly loved the Lutheran laughs, especially the Lutheran Sisterhood Gun Club. Lutheran humor might be catching up to Catholic humor soon! At the very least, let's name Minnesota "The Humor Capital of America." Garrison Keilor, Jesse Ventura, and Drop Dead Gorgeous. Need I say more? Anyone reading this? Just rent it!
My response: Great observation!