What the Hell Happened to Rachel Leigh Cook?

Usually articles in the “What the Hell Happened” series start off with a brief paragraph intended to show what a big star the subject used to be.  This career high point will then typically be contrasted with either a corresponding low point of the subject’s current status.  But the rise and fall of Rachael Leigh Cook isn’t anywhere near that dramatic.  Aside from her one hit movie, she is probably best known for having smashed eggs with a frying pan in a long-running public service announcement.  Cook’s not so much a fallen starlet as a child actor who could have been a bigger star than she was.  All the same, we’ll still ask the question…

What the hell happened?

At the age of seven, Cook made her acting debut in a public service announcement for foster care.  At 10, she began doing print modeling.  She appeared in a national ad for Target and was pictured on the box of Milk-Bone dog biscuits.

As a teenager, Cook began auditioning for movie roles.  She quickly made the transition from the pet aisle to the cineplex.

Rachael Leigh Cook - The Baby-Sitters Club - 1995
Rachael Leigh Cook – The Baby-Sitters Club – 1995

Cook made her acting debut in the big screen adaptation of Ann M. Martin’s series of novels, The Baby-Sitter’s Club.  The title tells you everything you need to know on this one.  A group of seven young girls form a babysitting club which leads to various adventures.  The plot for the movie was culled from three novels which weren’t actually written by the creator of the series.  In the movie, the girls decide to form a day camp for the kids they watch.

Critics were lukewarm on The Baby-Sitter’s Club and it tanked at the box office.  It opened the same weekend as Mortal Kombat which was the number one movie that week.  Way down the list, The Baby-Sitters Club opened in ninth place behind Apollo 13 which had been in theaters for two months by that point.  Over time, The Baby-Sitter’s Club has found an audience as fans of the books discovered the movie on home video.

A lot of the girls in The Baby-Sitters Club continued working.  But none of them went on to the heights that awaited Cook.

Rachael Leigh Cook - Tom and Huck - 1995
Rachael Leigh Cook – Tom and Huck – 1995

Later that year, Cook played Becky Thatcher in Disney’s adaptation of Mark Twain’s novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.  The movie gave Huckleberry Finn equal billing with the title Tom and Huck.  Jonathan Taylor Thomas, was still in his teen heart-throb stage when he starred as Tom Sawyer.  Brad Renfro, hot off John Grisham’s The Client, played his friend Huck.

Stephen Sommers, who cowrote and coproduced this movie, had previously written and directed an adaptation of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn for Disney two years prior.  The casts are completely different so there is no direct link beyond being from the same studio and Sommers’ involvement.

The Adventures of Huck Finn had done marginally well enough for Disney to let Sommers take another shot at Twain.  But Tom and Huck was a miss with critics and audiences.  It opened near the bottom of the top ten once again putting Cook in ninth place at the box office sandwiched between flops like Sudden Death and Dracula: Dead and Loving It.

This was bad news for Thomas and Renfro, but for a newcomer like Cook, it was a victory to be cast in two major motion pictures.  Sure, it would have been nice if one of them had been a hit.  But her previous gig was co-starring with Snoopy on a box of dog treats.

Rachael Leigh Cook - Carpool - 1996
Rachael Leigh Cook – Carpool – 1996

The following year, Cook starred in the short film, 26 Summer Street which played at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival.  She also appeared in a less-artsy comedy starring Tom Arnold and David Paymer.  In Carpool, Paymer played the kind of uptight dad who panics when his sick wife asks him to drive the kids to school.  Cook played  Paymer’s son’s dream-girl who also happens to ride in the carpool.  Tom Arnold, during the brief period in the nineties in which he was cast in lead roles, played a loveable loser who hijacks the car and takes Paymer and the kids hostage.

Carpool was directed by   Arthur Hiller.  Yes, the same guy who made The Out-of-Towners, Plaza Suite, Silver Streak and The In-Laws also directed a Tom Arnold vehicle.  By the mid-nineties, Hiller had fallen on hard times.

Critics weren’t kind to Carpool.  John Artl of The Seattle Times wrote “Watching a Tom Arnold movie is like getting trapped in a room with a barking dog for 90 minutes.”  Even Ty Burr, who gave Carpool a mixed review, called the movie “Hard to hate, but just about impossible to like.”

Unlike Cook’s previous movies, Carpool didn’t open at the bottom of the top ten.  It missed the top ten completely landing in 13th place behind Alaska which was in its second week of release.

Rachael Leigh Cook - Country Justice - 1997
Rachael Leigh Cook – Country Justice – 1997

1997 was a big year for Cook.  She started showing up in tons of TV movies.  The first of which was Country Justice (aka Family Rescue).  George C. Scott starred as a grandpa who has to take matters into his own hands when his granddaughter is raped.  Cook played the granddaughter who was raped by her mother’s boyfriend.  Former Brat Packer, Ally Sheedy, played the no good mom.

In true TV movie fashion, the boyfriend, played by Don Diamont, begins stalking Cook who is pregnant with his child.  The stress causes Cook to go into labor and she has a son.  Diamont sues for custody of the baby and wins, but Scott has had enough.  He kidnaps the baby and becomes a fugitive great grandpa.  Yes, it’s all as pulpy as it sounds.  And it’s damn near impossible to turn off once you get invested in it.

Rachael Leigh Cook - True Women - 1997
Rachael Leigh Cook – True Women – 1997

Next up was the CBS miniseries, True Women.  The series adapted the 1993 novel of the same name.  The story runs five decades covering events from the Texas Revolution through the Civil War and into the women’s suffrage movement.  The cast included Dana Delany, Annabeth Gish, Angelina Jolie, Tina Majorino, Michael York, Tony Todd, Powers Boothe, John Schneider and Charles S. Dutton.  Cook played Jolie’s character as a teen.  It was also the acting debut of Hilary and Haylie Duff who appeared in uncredited roles.

Rachael Leigh Cook - The House of Yes - 1997
Rachael Leigh Cook – The House of Yes – 1997

Cook continued playing the younger version of 20-something actresses in her lone theatrical film of the year.  The House of Yes starred Parker Posey as an unstable woman obsessed with Jackie Onassis.  Cook appears briefly as Posey’s character in flashbacks.  Tori Spelling, Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Geneviève Bujold costarred.

The movie was well-received at the Sundance film festival.  Overall, reviews were mixed to positive.  Despite decent reviews, The House of Yes never received a wide release.

Rachael Leigh Cook - The Eighteenth Angel - 1997
Rachael Leigh Cook – The Eighteenth Angel – 1997

Rounding out a busy year, Cook popped up the made-for-cable movie, The Defenders: Payback.  The movie featured E. G. Marshall reprising his role from the courtroom drama that aired in the late sixties.

She also played a model who may actually be the anti-Christ in the Omen rip-off The Eighteenth Angel.

Cook’s name appeared in a lot of credits, but unless you were the kind of person who watched a lot of made-for TV movies in the late-nineties, you may not have noticed her.  But odds are good that if you turned on a TV around that time, you probably saw Cook smashing up a kitchen with a frying pan in an anti-drugs public service announcement.

Any questions?

The spot was an update of the long running “This is your brain on drugs” PSA which had been running since 1987.  Originally, the new spot was supposed to feature a male teen wielding the frying pan.  But the director thought it would be more effective with a female spokesperson.  Cook was reportedly enthusiastic about the job because she thought it was for a good cause.

Thirty years later, this PSA is still one of the things Cook is best-known for.  Cook revisited the ad in 2017 with a new political spin.

Rachael Leigh Cook - The Outer Limits - 1998
Rachael Leigh Cook – The Outer Limits – 1998

As enduring as the egg-smashing public service announcement turned out to be, Cook was still an unknown.  Maybe her face was familiar, but most audiences couldn’t put a name to it.  The last 90’s were filled with the kind of roles young actresses take while they are paying their dues.  She appeared in an episode of the sci-fi anthology show, The Outer Limits, played an uptight hall monitor in the coming-of-age drama, All I Wanna Do and portrayed a teenage Holly Hunter in the dramedy, Living Out Loud.  Cook continued building her indie cred with little movies like The Naked Man which starred  Michael Rapaport as a violent chiropractor and The Hi-Line in which Cook plays a girl who discovers a family secret.

Rachael Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr - She's All That - 1999
Rachael Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr – She’s All That – 1999

In 1999, audiences finally learned the name of that cute, angry girl they had watched smashing eggs on their TV sets for the last couple of years.  Rachel Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr. costarred in the teen romcom She’s All That and it made them both famous.  For the last several years, most movies aimed at the high school crowd were sly horror movies with casts cobbled together from TV shows on the WB.  She’s All That was the first movie in a while to go back to the John Hughes playbook right down to an ugly-duckling metamorphosis worthy of Molly Ringwald.  Just a few months later, Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger would cater to the same audience with 10 Things I Hate About You.

Critics were dismissive of the update on Pygmalion.  But the target audience of teenage girls who wanted to believe that with the right make-over, they could date Freddie Prinze Jr. weren’t concerned about the movie’s tired cliches.  It was all new to them anyway.  They showed up in droves making She’s All That a hit at the box office.  The movie grossed over one-and-a-half times its budget in its opening weekend alone.  It held on pretty well too with six weeks in the top ten.  That was enough to make She’s All That the 38th highest grossing movie of 1999 which may not sound all that impressive, but for a low-budget teen movie released in January, it’s a win.

Rachael Leigh Cook - Dawson's Creek - 1999
Rachael Leigh Cook – Dawson’s Creek – 1999

Audiences were also getting to know Cook on the small screen.  A month after She’s All That opened, while it was still hanging out in the box office top ten, Cook appeared in several episodes of the WB drama, Dawson’s Creek.

Cook’s character on the show was an actress who played a character based on Katie Holmes’ character in a movie directed by Dawson.  Holmes’ character resents the actress portraying her after she poses nude for an art class.  Enrollment in high school art classes tripled the day after that episode aired, I bet.

Opportunities like She’s All That don’t come around very often.  Most actresses, if they are lucky enough to star in a Hollywood movie, wait their entire career for a movie that connects the way She’s All That did.  But that’s only part of the trick.  If you want to be a movie star, they key is to follow up your star-making role with another hit movie that reminds audiences what they liked about you in the first place.  Adding to the difficulty level, Cook’s big break came at a time when there were a lot of big teen movies.

In addition to She’s All That and 10 Things, 1999 also saw the release of American Pie which unleashed potential competitors like Mena Suvari and Tara Reid.  Additionally, every actress on a youth-oriented TV show like Dawson’s Creek or Felicity was trying to break into movies.  The years that followed would usher in a glut of teen movies not seen since the heyday of the Brat Pack.  Just as those young actors learned in the 80’s, teenage audiences are a fickle lot.  Each new class brings along a new batch of high school crushes.  If an actress like Cook makes the transition to adult roles too soon, she runs the risk of alienating her fan base.  Wait too long and you will be typecast as a teen dream girl.

It’s a difficult balancing act and as we’re about to see, Cook didn’t quite pull it off.

Rachel Leigh Cook and Sylvester Stallone – Get Carter – 2000

One of the problems with following up on a star-making role is that movies take a while to make.  Odds are, your next movie in theaters will be something you agreed to do before you were famous.  You can bet Cook wouldn’t have agreed to a three-episode appearance on Dawson’s Creek after She’s All That.  And she may not have signed on the dotted line for the American remake of the 1971 thriller, Get Carter either.

The original British crime drama starred Michael Caine as a London gangster who returns home to investigate the circumstances of his brother’s “accidental” death.  The American remake stuck to the plot of the original movie and retained Caine for a supporting role, but recast the lead with Sylvester Stallone.  The former Rocky had been desperately trying to reinvent himself as a dramatic actor now that his days as an action star were dwindling, but the Get Carter remake didn’t do him (or anyone else) any favors.

If Get Carter had been any good, it might have offered Cook a chance to branch out beyond teen romances.  Instead, it was panned by critics and flopped at the box office.  After a third-place opening, the remake sank like a stone grossing less than half of its bloated budget.  That was worse news for Stallone than it was for Cook, but if she was ever going to capitalize on She’s All That she needed to do it soon.

Rachel Leigh Cook – Antitrust – 2001

In 2001, Cook had several opportunities to strike while the iron was still relatively hot.  Unfortunately, none of these movies connected with audiences.  She started off a busy year with a supporting role in the tech thriller, Antitrust.  Ryan Phillippe, who by 2001 was well on his way to becoming “the other guy in I Know What You Did Last Summer“, starred as a gifted programmer who goes to work for a shady company run by a Bill-Gates-stand-in played by Tim Robbins.  Antitrust opened in an abysmal 12th place at the box office.

Josh Hartnett – Blow Dry – 2000

Next up, Cook appeared in the British comedy, Blow Dry.  The movie starred Natasha Richardson and Alan Rickman as a couple of divorcees who enter a hairdressing competition.  The movie’s marketing focused heavily on Josh Hartnett who played the couple’s son.  Bill Nigh portrayed the defending champion and Cook played his daughter and a love interest for Hartnett.  Blow Dry received a limited release in the US which didn’t amount to much.  The idea was to recreate the success of writer Simon Beaufoy’s earlier movie, The Full Monty.  But Blow Dry was a Half Monty at best.  Maybe a Quarter Monty.

Rachael Leigh Cook – Josie and the Pussycats – 2001

If Cook was looking to enhance her star power, her best chance was with the musical comedy, Josie and the Pussycats.  The movie was based on the Archie comic book about a girl group that performs pop songs while wearing cat ears.  The characters had previously appeared in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon.  Cook starred as Josie with Tara Reid and Rosario Dawson as her band-mates.  Alan Cumming and Parker Posey played villainous record label executives who try to exploit the girls.

Josie came out just as the bubblegum pop movement that started with acts like Britney Spears and NSYNC was losing steam.  The movie actually satirized the music scene of the time including an extended cameo by Total Request Live host Carson Daly playing himself, but the movie was marketed more like the American version of the Spice Girls than the clever parody it actually was.

Reviews were mixed, but the box office results were decisive.  Josie and the Pussycats bombed.  It opened in 7th place and grossed less than half of its budget.  Over the years, it has developed a small cult following on video.  But at the time, Josie was seen as evidence that Cook couldn’t carry a movie.

Rachael Leigh Cook – Texas Rangers – 2001

Cook appeared in a couple other movies that year that very few people actually saw.  The Western Texas Rangers was written by John Milius who had intended to direct it himself.  When the movie was picked up by the Weinstein Brothers, Milius was replaced as director.  The cast included then-hot young actors like James Van Der Beek, Ashton Kutcher and Dylan McDermott.  After the movie was completed, it sat on a shelf before ultimately being dumped in theaters with no support.

Rounding out 2001, Cook also appeared in the thriller Tangled which had nothing to do with Rapunzel.

Frequently, people will say of an actor, “they were never interested in being a movie star”.  I usually find this to be disingenuous.  If you don’t want to be a movie star, it’s pretty easy to avoid giving the appearance of someone trying to be a movie star.  Just don’t star in movies.  If Cook didn’t have any interest in movie stardom, she probably wouldn’t have taken leading roles in movies like She’s All That or even Josie and the Pussycats.

Having said that, Cook’s career choices are not those of a mainstream Hollywood actress.  Her interests were clearly in the indie scene.  Even after She’s All That when Cook could have (and arguably should have) been landing leading roles in rom-coms, she was making quirky comedies.  So I’m somewhat open to the argument that Cook wasn’t all that interested in being a big A-list movie star.

You may remember Cook as being a bigger star than her filmography would suggest.  That’s likely because the actress was all over the place post She’s All That.  Audiences may have missed most of Cook’s movies, but she was unavoidable on magazine covers.  In 2000, Cook appeared in music videos for New Found Glory and Daniel Powter.

Rachael Leigh Cook – 29 Palms – 2002

Post Pussycats, Cook settled in to an indie movie niche.  In 2002, she appeared as part of an ensemble cast in the Tarantino-esque crime drama, 29 Palms.  The movie followed a bag of money from one eccentric character to the next.  This is the kind of movie where none of the characters have actual names.  Cook played The Waitress, Jeremy Davies was The Drifter and Chris O’Donnell was The Sidekick, wait that’s not right.  I’m sorry, O’Donnell played The Hitman.

Rachael Leigh Cook – Scorched – 2003

By 2003, Cook seems to have embraced the art house oeuvre.  She appeared in several indies like Bookies with Nick Stakl and Lukas Haas and 11:14 with Henry Thomas and Hilary Swank.

Cook also appeared in the infamous caper comedy Scorched which starred Alicia Silverstone and Woody Harrelson as disgruntled bank employees who independently decide to rob their place of employment on the same night.  John Cleese costarred as a local millionaire who has wronged both Harrelson and Cook.

Scorched was filmed two years prior.  When it was finally released, it played in a dozen theaters for three days and grossed roughly eight thousand dollars which is probably less than they spend on craft services.  Even in the realm of little independent movies where box office isn’t everything, earning back less than 1% of your production costs is a problem.

In 2004, Cook married actor Daniel Gillies who is probably best known for The Vampire Diaries and its spin-off The Originals.  According to Cook, the couple got engaged after dating only five months and were married just a couple of months after the engagement.  We often see actresses put their careers on hold to raise a family.  But Cook and Gillies didn’t have children until 2013.  Cook told People Magazine “There was just so much more both of us wanted to do. We wanted to travel and accomplish a lot more in our professional lives.”

Rachael Leigh Cook – Nancy Drew – 2007

What Cook did in her professional life was mostly television.  She appeared in the 2005 mini-series Into the West and had a recurring role on Las Vegas.  She also did voice work for Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts video games.

In 2007, Cook returned to mainstream movies with a supporting role in an adaptation of Nancy Drew.  Emma Roberts starred as the famous girl detective.  Most of Cook’s other movies went direct-to-video.  On TV, Cook has had recurring roles on shows like Titan Maximum and Psych.  She costarred with Eric McCormack  on the cable series, Perception.

So, what the hell happened?

Today, Cook and her husband have two young children.  Both are still working actors although you are unlikely to have seen much of anything Cook has done recently unless you watch a lot of TV movies.  After the surprise success of She’s All That, Cook had a brief window in which to cement her status as a movie star.  If that was a goal, it didn’t seem like she put a lot of effort into it.  Instead, Cook spent her time making quirky (and usually poorly reviewed) independent movies.

Cook’s window of opportunity was narrow and it came at a time when there was a lot of competition for parts.  The success of youth-oriented movies in 1999 minted several potential young stars who were all fighting for the same roles.  Then the studios flooded the market with copycat movies that turned audiences off completely killing the market and the hopes of many would-be movie stars.

But Cook largely sidestepped the pitfalls of being a teen movie queen.  She went the indie route instead and it seems like it suits her just fine.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

47 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Ricardo
Ricardo
6 years ago

Before I even read a word, I was actually wondering what the hell had actually happened to this series!

jeffthewildman
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Shorter approach works for subjects like Rachael Leigh Cook, since her moment as an It Girl was so brief.
A few days ago I was contemplating a WTHH article on Skeet Ulrich after re-watching Scream for the first time in a few years.

jeffthewildman
6 years ago
Reply to  jeffthewildman

Agreed that this format works well for him and other subjects. It largely depends on how long their moment in the a-list was.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  jeffthewildman

I suppose part of the hype behind Rachael Leigh Cook was that she was seen as potentially the second coming (or heir apparent) of Winona Ryder (before of course, all of Winona Ryder’s own issues like the shop lifting incident came into play). As a matter of fact, her character’s name in “She’s All That”, Laney Boggs is a combination of Kim Boggs (Winona’s character’s name in “Edward Scissorhands”) and Lelaina “Laney” Pierce (Winona’s character’s name in “Reality Bites”).
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2017/jan/10/cult-tv-and-the-90s-movie-star-renaissance

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  jeffthewildman

I don’t know how much this exactly reflects on Rachael Leigh Cook per se, but “She’s All That” is arguably one of those youth oriented movies from back in the day that in hindsight, hasn’t aged particularly well: http://www.nickiswift.com/13781/hollywood-wont-cast-freddie-prinze-jr-anymore/ While She’s All That (1999) and I Know What You Did Last Summer (1999) were massive successes in their day, ask yourself: how many times have you gone back and watched them as an adult? That’s what we thought. Illustrious and long-lived cinematic careers are not made by ugly duckling stories and teen slasher flicks. Prinze seemed to be typecast as… Read more »

jinsinna13
jinsinna13
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I like the shorter format. It gets right to the point. (Even though we all know I can spend hours reading the comments.)
Are Corey Feldman, C. Thomas Howell, and Andrew McCarthy on your shortlist of future subjects?

admin
Admin
admin
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

I like the whole “one page in a shot” approach (I’m lazy and don’t like clicking numbers all the time; I’m half-kidding). In general though, I haven’t minded whatever format was out there when it came to the articles; it’s all just fine for me.

Matt Rouge
Matt Rouge
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Have missed this series! And I was hoping you’d get to RLC. I’ve watched both Josie and She’s All That in the past few years, and while Josie is pretty flawed, it’s still quite entertaining. I humbly disagree with Terrence that She’s All That holds up worse than its contemporaries. I think it’s a great movie of its time and I have indeed watched it as an adult. Actually, I was 28 when it came out, so I’ve only watched it as an adult. 🙂 The dad in the movie is particularly hilarious. RLC’s lack of a further career is… Read more »

Matt Rouge
Matt Rouge
6 years ago
Reply to  Matt Rouge

I don’t know what the polldaddy link is or where it came from, sorry!

jestak2
Editor
6 years ago

Ah, the long-awaited “WTHH to RLC” article. Good job, and nice to see the return of our signature series here. While she never became a big star, RLC also was never reduced to, say, advertising cat litter or anything like that, and my sense (from reading her Twitter page, etc.) is that she is both happy and grounded, unlike some others in her cohort of actresses. And of course she remains my perma-crush. 🙂

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  lebeau

Rachael Leigh Cook On Never Being Satisfied With Career https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyZElrRufGc http://geeknation.com/podcasts/the-movie-crypt-ep-63-rachael-leigh-cook/ Adam has hailed her as one of the most admirable and down to earth women working in Hollywood and he’s even called her “an angel” when her name has come up on previous episodes of The Movie Crypt, so the boys (and “Arwen”) are delighted to finally sit down with the wonderful soul that is actress Rachael Leigh Cook (SHE’S ALL THAT, PERCEPTION, JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS). Listen as they discuss Rachael’s career from child model to break-out film and television star, how Rachael has navigated her career and… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  jestak2

Why Hollywood won’t cast Rachael Leigh Cook anymore http://www.nickiswift.com/38926/hollywood-wont-cast-rachael-leigh-cook-anymore/?utm_source=zergnet.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=zergnet_1433679&utm_content=5 Back in the early 2000s, Rachael Leigh Cook was poised for greatness. First making her screen debut in a terrifying, but memorable anti-drug PSA, and starring shortly thereafter in She’s All That, a.k.a. the cutest pre-Y2K teen comedy on earth. It should have been smooth sailing to stardom from there. But instead of taking her rightful place on the A-list, Cook just kind of… disappeared. Why did she drop off the radar? Looking back at her career, it all starts to make sense. She’s still trapped in the ’90s Rachael Leigh… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

What Happened To Rachael Leigh Cook – News & Updates http://gazettereview.com/2016/03/happened-rachael-leigh-cook-news-updates/ You know her from the 1995 hit “The Baby-Sitters Club”, Rachael Leigh Cook has had a long career filled with a variety of roles, both live action and animated. She gained national attention with the infamous 1998 anti-drug PSAs “This is your Brain on Drugs” but what has Rachael Leigh Cook been up to these days? Rachael Leigh Cook’s Early Life Born on October 4th 1979 in Minneapolis Minnesota to JoAnn, a cooking instructor, and Thomas Cook, a travel agent wait no, a social worker and former stand-up comedian.… Read more »

admin
Admin
admin
6 years ago

I think Roger Ebert was wrong about “Josie and the Pussycats” and I think Rotten Tomatoes is wrong about both “Antitrust” & pasta.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  admin

I’m guessing that “Josie and the Pussycats” bombed because it wasn’t marketed properly. It was a movie that was based on a property (the Archie comic book as well as the Hanna-Barbara animated series from the 1970s) that most of its target audience was probably not that familiar with. More specifically, they marketed it directly to the people they made fun of and not to the non-mainstream music fans. In other words, it was hard to assume that it was really meant to be a tongue in cheek satire of the then music industry and consumerism. In hindsight, however, the… Read more »

admin
Admin
admin
6 years ago

I guess, once one takes those factors into consideration, Josie & her gals probably didn’t stand a chance, even if the film was marketed better. Still, what a way to give the film no chance; I’m sure many early attendees for the film were baffled.

Rock
Rock
6 years ago

First off, having recently discovered this site and started working my way through this series–I’m going through the old posts instead of alphabetically and have done twenty or so–I must say I don’t mind the format or the length. Your work on this series taps into one of the internet’s virtues: showing us all of the weird, crazy and often inexplicable crap entertainers worked their way through on the way to success, while also reminding us of all the good stuff they’ve done. This article proves the point that you learn a lot about people with these comprehensive pieces–I had… Read more »

Rock
Rock
6 years ago
Reply to  lebeau

Just missed it but appreciate the attempt and will get my lazy ass to find it on my own.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  Rock

‘Perception’ reignites Rachael Leigh Cook’s career http://www.mercurynews.com/2012/07/17/perception-reignites-rachael-leigh-cooks-career/ Rachael Leigh Cook was chatting in a hotel lobby about her supporting role as a tough-as-nails FBI agent in TNT’s new drama “Perception” when she heard that Wilson Phillips was singing in an adjacent ballroom. “Let’s go!” she said, dashing over without hesitation. The Minneapolis native’s appreciation for the 1990s pop trio is telling — and not just because “Hold On” was a mega-hit during her impressionable tween years. Like the musical group, Cook has gone from being a marquee name to a Trivial Pursuit answer. The talent is still there; the rabid… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Interview With Actress Rachael Leigh Cook, “Summer Love”
http://mydevotionalthoughts.net/2016/08/interview-with-actress-rachael-leigh-cook-summer-love.html
Sweet cherubs in the world of entertainment often grow up and regrettably rebel or perchance run with a dubious crowd. Thankfully, Rachael Leigh Cook was exempted from that experience, although she has been an actress since she was a tender youth. In light of her upcoming Hallmark film Summer Love this weekend, Rachael agreed to set aside some time and respond to some fan questions regarding her career, her upcoming premiere, and her future aspirations.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

She’s All That http://ew.com/article/1999/07/13/shes-all-2/ With her big, dark eyes and her precociously self-possessed way of making even dumb dialogue sound smart, Cook comes across like a young Winona Ryder. Good for her, because it means she’s destined for better movies than this unconvincing high school romantic comedy, in which she plays a brainy dork who blooms into a potential prom queen when the class president (Prinze) starts courting her on a bet. ”I feel just like Julia Roberts in ”Pretty Woman”–except for the whole hooker thing,” she says, summing up the movie’s somewhat snide take on the Cinderella/Pygmalion themes. That… Read more »

admin
Admin
admin
6 years ago

Yep, Rachael Leigh Cook, the angry frying pan girl (I think her rage was great and convincing), and I liked that more subdued spot too (her rage was in her tone). I really liked her in “Josie and the Pussycats” and “Antitrust” (Do we antitrust her? Is Tim Robbins Bill Gates?) and both those films the most out of anything I’ve seen her in. I’ve honestly only seen bits and pieces of “She’s All That” (yet I’ve seen “Drive Me Crazy”; go figure, but I mostly know “She’s All that” from the Sixpence None The richer song “Kiss Me” that… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  admin

Fan Rant: Career Killing Crushes https://www.moviefone.com/2010/01/09/fan-rant-career-killing-crushes/ Last night I finished watching a new straight-to-video comedy called Falling Up. It was pretty mediocre, but I watched it mainly because it had a good cast: Annette O’Toole, Mimi Rogers, Joe Pantoliano and Snoop Dogg. OK. I didn’t watch it for them, entirely, but because of Rachael Leigh Cook. I have had a movie crush on Rachael for years and this will be the fourth straight-to-video movie I have endured just for another glimpse of those amazing eyes. But the question is: why is she in all these straight-to-video movies? If my adoration… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

What ever happened to Rachael Leigh Cook? http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/movies/article/What-ever-happened-to-Rachael-Leigh-Cook-854630.php What ever happened to Rachael Leigh Cook? By AARON PECK, FILM.COM Updated 10:00 pm, Tuesday, November 30, 2010 When I was in high school I had a huge crush on Rachael Leigh Cook. I’m talking about a crush that made me watch She’s All That an unhealthy number of times. The movie was just awful, but somehow looking at Rachael (I came to know her on a first-name basis) made everything better. Rachael was one of the first girls in Hollywood to go through that transformation of losing a ponytail and glasses… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

What Happened to Rachel Leigh Cook? http://thestevieg.blogspot.com/2011/06/disappearing-acts-1-rachel-leigh-cook.html Ok, so I decided to do a kind of “Celebrity Disappearing Acts” article, and I have decided to focus on the incredibly talented Rachel Leigh Cook. Cook was a pretty big hotshot during the late 90’s, appearing in a handful of popular films, and being hyped like crazy by the media, being declared the 26th sexiest woman of 2002 by Stuff magazine. Yet, for some reason, she managed to completely drop out of the public eye around 2002-ish, despite the name she had managed to create for herself, and the talent she had… Read more »

desi arnaz
desi arnaz
6 years ago

Hi Lebeau, I like it this way, no need to click many times

Leo
Leo
6 years ago

Blockbuster Buster: Josie and the Pussycats (2001)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRqhsZYHBm4

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  Leo

If I recall, the movie was pretty much marketed to the 10-13 year-old crowd, but the humor was actually more aimed toward adults. Ultimately ff it wasn’t marketed as a “chick flick” for 10-13 year-olds, it might have done better.

admin
Admin
admin
6 years ago

I recall that it was marketed pretty poorly; I caught it on cable after it premiered and was surprised about how smart it was (it was nothing like the animated “Josie and The Pussycats”, which I also thought was good). I liked the film so much I brought Josie ears for my fiance at the time.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  Leo

JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS (2001) http://cinefilestv.blogspot.com/2017/08/josie-and-pussycats-2001.html The overwhelmingly memorable part of this film is the soundtrack. Which I am a proud owner and the thing I definitely remember the most and keeps this film more on my mind then it probably normally would. I can admit it is a guilty pleasure of mine. As I watched it twice in theaters and own the DVD. This film has the honor of having he most product placements in a single film. Which I believe was it’s initial aim. As it helps the movies plot to speak of how everything is sold and… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)
Reply to  Leo

Misunderstood upon its release, ‘Josie and the Pussycats’ was ahead of its time
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-josie-and-the-pussycats-20170925-story.html#nws=true

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Rachael Leigh Cook on ‘Summer in the Vineyard’ and ‘She’s All That’
https://www.today.com/video/rachael-leigh-cook-on-summer-in-the-vineyard-and-she-s-all-that-1021603396001
In the new Hallmark movie “Summer in the Vineyard,” Rachael Leigh Cook tells TODAY, she plays a winemaker who’s gotten together with the son of her family’s rival. She also talks about being directed by her own husband in an independent movie and the continuing appeal of her film “She’s All That” after 18 years.

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Dear Hollywood: Being Unattractive Is Not Brave http://www.pajiba.com/film_reviews/dear-hollywood-being-unattractive-is-not-brave.php You’re more likely to see someone who looks like me in a movie than a woman of color, trans woman or disabled woman since I still have all those levels of privilege, but plain or unattractive women are not given the chance to be trans-formative on screen unless it’s a cloying Ugly Ducking romance (and even then the plain Janes are still played by Rachael Leigh Cook). Patriarchy s*** on us all, but there’s something especially galling about the catch-22 situation it creates for women in Hollywood: We only want the beautiful… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

10 Blatantly Sexist Movie Moments You Probably Never Noticed http://whatculture.com/film/10-blatantly-sexist-movie-moments-you-probably-never-noticed?page=9 She€™s All That ShesAllThat A bunch of good-looking guys make a bet over a girl. So dreamy, to be subjected to a game where some dudebro will end up making money off how well he changed you. And let€™s not forget that resident dreamboat Zack Siler doesn€™t even like the objectified Laney Boggs all that much until after his sister makes her hot. You know, by chopping her split ends and taking off her glasses, which is such a game changer that even Laney€™s brother teeters over the edge into… Read more »

Matt Rouge
Matt Rouge
6 years ago

Terrence, you wrote, “as it more or less served as an example of pre-9/11 teen pop culture.” Yes, I made a similar comment before I read this. There really is a stark dividing line. I prefer the left side of that timeline, but that’s just me…

Leo
Leo
6 years ago

Why Rachael Leigh Cook Got Dropped by Hollywood
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHvhws8CEII

Ross Nolan
Ross Nolan
6 years ago

I can’t believe I missed this until now! I was born in September 1981 so I think I was exactly the right age to have a huge crush on Rachael Leigh Cook when ‘She’s all That’ came out, and I certainly still had it when ‘Josie and the Pussycats’ was in cinemas. I still think she’s awesome, but honestly I’ve noticed that her fans tend to be a pretty loyal bunch even if there aren’t many of us. ‘Josie and the Pussycats’ is a guilty pleasure of me, though honestly I don’t feel very guilty about it. I’m still confused… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

This list is basically, a “who’s who” of What the Hell Happened to… subjects: https://www.fame10.com/entertainment/popular-forgotten-actors-and-actresses-from-the-90s-where-are-they-now/ Popular Forgotten Actors And Actresses From the ’90s: Where Are They Now? The ‘90s came and went very quickly and it is hard to believe nearly two decades have past since the ’90s came to an end! Every new generation in Hollywood has their own breakout stars which means it is easy to forget a lot of the celebrities from decades past. Many actors and actresses have become icons in the entertainment industry while others have slipped under or completely off the radar. Take a… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Rachael Leigh Cook is reflecting on her experience in the industry. The 40-year-old She’s All That star opened up in a feature for Variety. She’s All That was executive produced by Harvey Weinstein. Although she does not remember his presence on the set, she recalls having one or two meetings with the former head of Miramax, who is now serving a 23-year-prison sentence for rape and sexual abuse. She said that at the meetings, she always accompanied by her female then-manager, who she believes was protecting her from Harvey. “Absolutely, with every fiber of my being I know that. He was someone who people spoke about in… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Review: ‘Love, Guaranteed’ is a Sweet Rom-Com Reminder of How Much We’ve Missed Rachael Leigh Cook Remember Rachael Leigh Cook? Cook broke out in one of the most ’90s rom-coms of the decade, She’s All That, wherein she played the supposed ugly duckling in need of a swan makeover. It was and still is one of the most patently ridiculous moments in rom-com history, but Cook herself is easily the best thing about the deeply problematic movie. There’s a touch of Winona Ryder about her in that role, a sharpness that totally sells the ludicrousness of her character. She’s not quite… Read more »

Terrence Clay (@TMC1982)

Rachael Leigh Cook once passed out while leaping off a building during filming Rachael Leigh Cook has been starring in films since she was 15 years old. From her days as a teen star to her breakout success in movies like She’s All That and Josie And The Pussycats, acclaimed indies, and TV roles on shows like Psych and Perception, the actor has amassed an enviable filmography. We sat down to speak with her via Zoom to discuss her new Netflix rom-com Love, Guaranteed, co-starring Damon Wayans Jr. Cook was even a great sport when we weathered some terrible computer connectivity during our chat, drinking tea and… Read more »

47
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x