Stayin' alive! Turning a spotlight on role of women in the disco classic

[needlefingers]

This was in today's New York Daily News.

Stayin' alive! Turning a spotlight on role of women in the disco classic

'Fever' 30 years later


Stayin' alive! Turning a spotlight on role of women in the disco classic


BY JANE RIDLEY
Thursday, August 9th 2007, 4:00 AM

"Saturday Night Fever" will forever be remembered for the iconic image of John Travolta in that preposterous white polyester suit, his chiseled features aloof and deadpan as he takes command of the dance floor.

In many ways, the classic movie - released 30 years ago this December - is Travolta. He was the first and best-known actor cast, and the other stars were hired depending on their chemistry with the leading man.

So it's hardly surprising that discussion of the film has focused primarily on his troubled but charismatic character, Tony Manero, a lowly hardware store assistant from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, whose dancing transforms him into a nightclub demigod.

Now, in an effort to shift the attention, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is hosting an anniversary screening in New York followed by a panel debate about the frequently overlooked role of women in the film.

After all, Manero's awkward interactions with pill-popping Annette, his gauche, rejected admirer, and snobby Stephanie, the only girl to turn down his advances, fuel a plot that is unexpectedly dark for a disco flick packed with catchy Bee Gees tunes.

Often cut from the TV version, the obscene language, overt racism and sexual violence - including the harrowing scene in which Annette is gang-raped by Tony's deadbeat friends - make shocking viewing.

Misogyny is rife and, in common with prejudices of the mid- to late '70s in areas where feminism had not taken root, girls are treated as jokes, easy lays or nagging fishwives who keep their men on a short leash.

"Yes, it is incredibly macho, a men and boys' film," says Shirley Rich, the casting director on "Fever" who has since retired to Westchester. "People forget the women because they are secondary to John's character, but that doesn't mean they aren't important."

She recalls how she told Donna Pescow, who plays frumpy Annette, to re-audition for the role after spending the entire weekend with her family in her native Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn.

"That was on the Friday," explains Rich. "On the Monday, she came back with the perfect Brooklyn accent."

Soap actress Karen Lynn Gorney, meanwhile, who took the part of Stephanie, drew inspiration from a group of co-stars who played nasal-voiced working-class characters in "All My Children."

Neither went on to anything like the success of Travolta, who was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar, but both received rave reviews.

"The director, John Badham, wanted to focus on the realities of life for young people in certain areas of Brooklyn," says Pescow, who is now 53 and living with her 17-year-old son in Los Angeles. "I guess that I looked like I belonged.

"My character was a composite of a lot of girls who went to discos such as 2001 Odyssey in Bay Ridge, which was actually used as a set.

"She was full of passion and lived for Saturday nights. She wanted to be with the hippest guy and the hippest crowd, even though she couldn't handle herself when she was there.

"Her goal was to get married like her older sisters and stay in the neighborhood. She had low self-esteem and was forced to fit into a world where girls were exchanged like playing cards.

"Sadly, she thought this behavior was needed to have a social life."

With such low horizons, it was a difficult role to embrace.

"I found it hard to wrap my head around the way that women took it from these guys," adds Pescow. "It was how they wanted to be free, but it came at a cost.

"These days, I like to think the current generation has much more self-respect."

In one excruciating sequence, Annette is so desperate for Tony's attention that she waits outside his dance class and waves condom packets in his face.

Disgusted, he throws them to the ground. Later, when she is raped, he blames her, saying: "Are you proud of yourself? Is that what you wanted?"

"It is not the world as you wished it was, but it was an accurate portrayal," explains the film's costume designer, Patrizia Von Brandenstein, who lives in New York. "It wasn't the task of the script to morally uplift Annette. She was true to her place and her time.

"In the light of 2007, I can think of a variety of retorts she could have given Tony."

By contrast, Stephanie, the stuck-up secretary who believes she is too good for him, belongs to a growing breed of women in the '70s who wanted more from life than husbands and babies.

She leaves Bay Ridge to seek out the bright lights of Manhattan after her married ex-lover gives her an apartment but leaves her heartbroken.

To the consternation of Gorney, the character was largely written as unsympathetic.

"She was originally a two-dimensional bitch who just manipulated men," says the 62-year-old actress and singer.

"Perhaps they [the male scriptwriters] didn't know that, in those days, that was the one of the few options for women to get ahead.

"I turned Stephanie into a real person who had complexity and insecurities."

All the women involved in the film admit they fell, ever so slightly, for Travolta's charms.

"He was nothing like his character in the film," concludes Pescow. "A real gentleman who put other people first."

As for that famous three-piece suit, Von Brandenstein reveals she made a total of five interchangeable versions.

"The pants looked as if they'd been sprayed on," she laughs. "It was a whole lot of fun for us girls."


Karen Lynn Gorney, Donna Pescow, Shirley Rich and Patrizia Von Brandenstein will appear on the panel discussion following a screening of "Saturday Night Fever" on Monday. The event, at the Academy Lighthouse Theater at 111 E. 59th St. in Manhattan, starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for non-Academy members cost $5. For more information and to reserve seats, call 1-888-778-7575.

[needlefingers]

Related Articles
Annette & Stephanie: An update

Annette & Stephanie: An update
Thursday, August 9th 2007, 4:00 AM

John Travolta starred in 1983's "Staying Alive," the much-ridiculed sequel to "Saturday Night Fever." It was directed by Sylvester Stallone and shows Tony Manero working as a Broadway dancer, still chasing the unsuitable, snooty girl who doesn't want to know him.

The other characters from "Fever" had lucky escapes and did not appear in the film, so we're left to wonder exactly what happened to Annette and Stephanie.

Here's where costume designer Patrizia Von Brandenstein and actresses Donna Pescow and Karen Lynn Gorney suspect they ended up:

Von Brandenstein:
"I'm afraid that Annette is still living in Bay Ridge, still in her class, leading the same existence but as a middle-aged woman. As for Stephanie, she found out that Manhattan is not quite what it was cracked up to be and, after gaining some hard-won self-respect, she winds up in a nice, respectable Westchester suburb."

Pescow:
"The shock of the gang-bang makes Annette realize she doesn't want to be part of the whole Saturday night scene and she goes back to her family and recuperates. She gets married to a plumber with a good heart and stays in the neighborhood, leading the same blue-collar lifestyle as her sisters. She is happy in her own way, raising her kids and doing the books for her husband's business."

Gorney:
"Stephanie works hard to gain respect and achieve her ambitions in New York before moving to the West Coast, where she becomes a super-successful talent agent like Joan Hyler. She makes it because she is incredibly driven."

[remicks]

Karen Lynn Gorney, Donna Pescow, Shirley Rich and Patrizia Von Brandenstein will appear on the panel discussion following a screening of "Saturday Night Fever" on Monday. The event, at the Academy Lighthouse Theater at 111 E. 59th St. in Manhattan, starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets for non-Academy members cost $5. For more information and to reserve seats, call 1-888-778-7575.

Wow .....that's this coming Monday night .... what an opportunity to watch SNF on a big screen ....and hear these actresses that were in it reflect on it ...for $5 bucks !! ...... wish I were in NYC!!


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[john66mustang]

wow i wished i lived in nyc as well.

[Disco Funk]

Awesome. I think Donna Pescow was the only one from the film, outside of Fran Drescher and John Travolta, who went onto more stable work afterwards. Although, the guy who play Travolta's dad was also on Quincy. Pescow was in that hilarious show during the 80s, Small Wonder.

Disco Funk

[Mixmachine]

Pescow was in that hilarious show during the 80s, Small Wonder.

Disco Funk

Yeah, I remember those shows, Pescow was recently on the Sopranos during this last season, although it took me a few minutes to id her.

[remicks]

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needlefingers ......... if you are going to this .....

.......maybe you can report about it here ?? ....... :icon_mrgreen: :icon_cool:



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[needlefingers]

needlefingers ......... if you are going to this .....

.......maybe you can report about it here ?? ....... :icon_mrgreen: :icon_cool:

I have no plans on going.

This may shock some of you, but I have little interest in listening to how people "made things". I have attended dozens and dozens of syposiums and panel discussions on theatre, music, art and film and they usually bore me. :icon_eek: :icon_eek: :icon_eek: In my opinion, the finished product is more important to me than to hear ".....and then I wrote....".


That is not to say I don't get out. On Sunday evening I will be attending a benefit performance of the Broadway show Duece. It stars Angela Lansbury in her "final farewell to Broadway" role. How about a review of that?

[remicks]

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I wonder how that thing was ......

did anybody from NYC go ????


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[Rugger57]

What was that follow-up to the blockbuster movie "Saturday Night Fever"?

Wasn't it called "Staying Awake"?

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzz....................................... ..........

[needlefingers]

Here's a picture of Karen Lynn Gorney from Monday night.



I got it from this TMZ newsbite,

"Saturday Night Fever" Starlet Is Stayin' Alive - TMZ.com

And here is the official press release for this event, from the Academy of .....,

Monday Nights with Oscar® Presents Saturday Night Fever | Academy Events Calendar | AMPAS

I'll keep an eye out for a newspaper review.

(BTW, Angela Lansbury was wonderful in a so-so play.)

[remicks]

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thanks Needlefingers :icon_cool:


my god the comments on this are rough!! :icon_rolleyes: :icon_eek:

samples:

4. Oh that last line was so cold. I always felt Stephanies role was a miscast, the rest of the casting was great but she was a plain looking boring woman and I think she looked to old for the role.
Posted at 4:22PM on Aug 14th 2007 by dawn

5. She looks great for 62! Good for her for comin' out for this event after 30 years.
I do agree with dawn, tho -- for some reason I always felt the casting was wrong. I never felt this actress was right for the part.
Posted at 4:26PM on Aug 14th 2007 by ...

6. She was the worst actress ever!! I couldn't believe that she was hired to do that film or any film. She absolutely ruined it.. not that the film was great, it was memorial in it's disco era theme.. but this goofy woman was not a graceful dancer, or into her role. It might be that John tried his best to make her look good as she did so little to help him, that he excelled what might have been awful climax of winning.. She just wasn't into it, other than to be there.. Watch it again and see her gawky-could care less only with gun pointed to the head performance, and be amazed.
Posted at 4:27PM on Aug 14th 2007 by BuzzedOFF

16. In my humble opinion, I loved the movie but Gorney couldn't dance and her acting was awful.
And she was too old and unattractive for the part.
Posted at 5:41PM on Aug 14th 2007 by Sabrina

17. his other love interst was way prettier!!! I never understood why they hired this lady either...blah!
Posted at 5:46PM on Aug 14th 2007 by mamita

18. Actually, I thought she was right for the part. It was supposed to be a girl from Brooklyn who was trying as hard as Tony was to escape. Her efforts to smooth her rough edges were amusing ("tea with lemon" being one of them) and the accent just slays me every time I hear it.
I would recommend she go to a lighter hair color, though, and ease up on the eyebrows. Then she can pass for younger than 62.
Posted at 5:47PM on Aug 14th 2007 by brenda

21. #15 You're almost right . But she slept with the director.John Badham. That's how she got the part. They were a couple for a while after that.
Yes, she was terrible. Bad body, bad accent, terrible actress and dancer. She was almost ten years older than Travolta too.
Posted at 5:49PM on Aug 14th 2007 by jane

23. It always annoyed me that she was not prettier or a better dancer or younger for that plum of a role... Maybe Travolta wanted to be the cutest, I don't know. ...... :icon_lol: :icon_lol: :icon_lol:
Posted at 5:52PM on Aug 14th 2007 by candleinthe wind


24. Her acting sucked pretty bad; however, I think this film
was a surprise blockbuster so they paid very little for their "actors". As for Traculta, for him the movie was probably B.S. (Before Scientology ). I liked John Traculta before he joined the space force.
Posted at 5:54PM on Aug 14th 2007 by Me


25. That movie reminds me of the neighborhood guys I grew up with..YUCK!Thank God I got out!
Posted at 5:55PM on Aug 14th 2007 by Tina Transplant


26. #22
Thank you for your information re Gorney sleeping with the director John Badham. Now everything makes sense! I knew something was " NOT Kosher" for a medicre- looking older woman like Gorney who couldn' t dance or act get a role in a movie about disco dancing.
In my humble opinion, this inappropriate casting of Gorney took something away from the believability of the movie itself because Travolta falling madly,head over heals in love with Gorney was not believable.
Posted at 5:56PM on Aug 14th 2007 by Sabrina



from : TMZ newsbite,

"Saturday Night Fever" Starlet Is Stayin' Alive - TMZ.com




*****
didn't say wrong per say ... just rough .....

[needlefingers]

Here's another picture.


ren Lynn Gorney, John Travolta’s romantic interest and fellow disco dancer in Saturday Night Fever, and Donna Pescow

I found it here:
» John Travolta’s SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER Leading Lady Karen Lynn Gorney at Academy Screening - Alternative Film Guide

I was looking for a blog, but can't find it.