Pretty Women

LORELAI: I mean, like was she [Rachel] a Catherine Zeta-Jones kind of pretty, or a Michelle Pfiffer-y pretty or –
SOOKIE: She was an Elle MacPherson kind of pretty.

Catherine Zeta-Jones (born 1969) is a Welsh actress who found success on the stage and in the British television series The Darling Buds of May (1991-1993). She established herself in Hollywood with films such as The Mask of Zorro (1998), Entrapment (1999), and Traffic (2000), often chosen for roles where her sex appeal could be used to advantage.

Michelle Pfeiffer (born 1958) is an American actress, singer, and producer. She began her acting career in 1978 after winning two beauty pageants, and her breakout role was in the 1983 crime film Scarface. She had leading roles in films such as The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), Batman Returns (1992), The Age of Innocence (1993), Dangerous Minds (1995), and What Lies Beneath (2000). She is considered to be one of the most talented actresses in Hollywood as well as one of the most beautiful.

Elle MacPherson (born Eleanor Gow in 1964) [pictured] is an Australian supermodel, actress, television host, and businesswoman. She rose to fame during the 1980s with her girl next door image, was often chosen for swimsuit shoots, and became known as The Body because of her figure. Lorelai seems to be quite threatened to discover that Luke’s ex-girlfriend is an “Elle MacPherson kind of pretty”.

Eternal Flame

This is the second song The Bangles play at the concert. It plays while Lorelai questions Sookie about Luke’s ex-girlfriend Rachel, up to the scene where Madeline and Louise tell Rory they are ditching the concert to go with Jess and Sean.

Eternal Flame was a 1989 hit for The Bangles when it was released as a single from their 1988 album Everything. A love song, it was partly inspired by the eternal flame at Elvis Presley’s grave site. The song went to #1 in the US and other countries around the world, and was the number 32 song of 1989.

Hero Takes a Fall

This is the first song that The Bangles play at the concert, and Rory sees Paris dancing to it. Hero Takes a Fall is the first track from The Bangles 1984 album All Over the Place, and the first single released from the album.

“1000”

LORELAI: We must be getting close, we’re running out of rows.
SOOKIE: And 1000. Okay, we’re here.

In real life, the theatre the concert scenes were filmed at, The Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles, is a small intimate venue, and not 1000 rows high (in fact nothing is 1000 rows high). Sookie is just joking – we can see they are only in Row 22.

Everest

[Pan to Sookie and Lorelai climbing stairs]
SOOKIE: Did you ever see Everest?
LORELAI: No.
SOOKIE: It’s a good movie.

Everest is a 1998 45-minute IMAX documentary film about the difficulties involved with climbing Mount Everest, the highest peak in the world. Narrated by Irish actor Liam Neeson, it focuses on the 1996 Mount Everest disaster, in which a group of climbers became trapped by a blizzard near the summit. Everest received good reviews, and made $128 million during its theatrical run – the highest gross of any documentary to this date.

This is the closest that Sookie gets to making a complaint about having to buy cheap seats, as she likens their climb to their seats to struggling up Mount Everest.

Jellystone Park

RORY: You were right [about Madeline and Louise checking out two guys].
PARIS: And before it’s dark, they’ll have every picnic basket that’s in Jellystone Park.

Paris is referring to the Hanna-Barbera cartoon character Yogi Bear, who, together with his sidekick Boo-Boo Bear, spent all his time trying to steal picnic baskets from Jellystone National Park (based on the real life Yellowstone National Park). Yogi Bear made his debut in 1958 on The Huckleberry Hound Show, and got his own show, The Yogi Bear Show, in 1961. Since then he’s appeared in numerous TV shows, animated films, video games, and comic books.

Paris is likening Yogi and Boo-Boo’s obsession for stealing picnic baskets to Madeline and Louise’s persistence in going after guys.

“Let’s go make our noses bleed”

LORELAI: [to Sookie] Okay, let’s go make our noses bleed.

In North America, the seats in the top tiers of a public venue are jokingly called “the nosebleed section”, referring to the propensity for the nose to bleed at high altitudes.

“I almost named you Susanna”

LORELAI (to Rory): Oh you’re going to have a great time. The Bangles are the best! They were my favorite band in high school. I almost named you Susanna.

We find out here that not only was The Bangles Lorelai’s favourite band as a teenager, but she almost named Rory after Susanna Hoffs (born 1959), their lead singer. Susanna’s middle name is Lee, very similar to Rory’s middle name of Leigh.

Walk Like an Egyptian

LORELAI: Okay here [offers concert tickets, but pulls them back] Ah! With these tickets you are about to enter sacred space, you will be treading on hallowed ground, you will be walking like an Egyptian.

Walk Like an Egyptian is a 1986 song by The Bangles, from their album Different Light. It was written by Liam Sternberg, who was inspired to write it after seeing the stiff, stylised way passengers on a ferry were walking to keep their balance, reminding him of figures in Ancient Egyptian pictures.

Walk Like an Egyptian was the #1 song of 1986, and sold millions of copies; it helped make Different Light The Bangles’ most successful album, and is their best known song. It plays as they arrive at the Pastorella Theatre.

The Concert in New York

Lorelai asks the three Hartford girls to join them at the concert that evening. They agree immediately, and apparently don’t need to ask their parents’ permission to attend a concert in another city with a woman they only just met, or don’t consider it necessary.

It seems that Paris, Madeline, and Louise never went home to Hartford, as they wear the same clothes to the concert as they did to visit Rory.The drive to New York from Stars Hollow would be just under two hours, and just over two hours to return to Hartford from New York, making this a long night for the girls – they wouldn’t get home until past 1 am the next day. Again, this doesn’t seem to be an issue for them or their families.