Her
father was Peter Fonda, who made Easy Rider. Her grandfather was Henry
Fonda, who made dozens of great movies. Her aunt was Jane Fonda, who
made a lot of great movies and also dabbled in politics, made a ton of
weight-loss exercise videos, and exercised her free speech rights a time
or two. She's married to Danny Elfman, musical composer for everything
from The Simpsons to Pee Wee's Big Adventure to Good Will Hunting, and
whose nephew is married to Jenna Elfman.
Dag if you
didn't guess it right! Say hi to one of my favorite actresses, Bridget
Fonda. Bridget gave us starring roles in "It Could Happen to You" and
"Point of No Return." ICHTY was the one where she played a
down-on-her-luck waitress who accepts the tip of 50% share of a lottery
ticket from henpecked NYPD cop Nicolas Cage, who guffaws his way through
another whole movie. Her luck sure changes! PONR was the one where she was a street thug in DC, known as Scooter Libby. No, seriously, she played Maggie. And when she was arrested, a secret government entity took her away, teaching her everything from martial arts to etiquette (taught by good ole' Mrs Robinson herself, Anne Bancroft.) Trained to kill in 17 different ways, she was sent out into the world to do the bidding of this mysterious organization, and then a lot of people's luck changed, mostly for the worst. Diving down a laundry chute to avoid a rifle-launched surface-to-air missile, killing a bad guy with his own breakfast, and taking care of the real-life father of the guy who played Mike Damone in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High," Bridget was everywhere in this movie.
And then she made a few more movies and she retired in 2002, and has not made a movie since. I'd like to see that change next year. Not gonna happen, but I'd like to see it! She left the movies about the same time Peggy and I did: she because she had tendered enough money to be able to retire from making talkie movies for theaters, and we because we were tired of people eating chicken tenders while talking during a movie in a theater.
And did you know that the real-life guy upon whom the nerdy Mark "Rat" Ratner was based in that FTARH movie was a real-life computer geek named Mark Rathbone, who later wrote "Windows for Dummies" and made a fortune?
Bridget Fonda already had a fortune, I guess, so she doesn't need to make any more movies. I wish she would. Then I could get all worked up and say, "Oh boy I can't wait til that new Bridget Fonda movie comes out... on pay-per-view so we can enjoy it in peace and quiet without cell phones ringing, people conversing, people chewing chicken tenders in my ear, and all the rest of those things that drove us out of the theater in 2002!"
It could happen to me!
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