Category: S3Ep6: Take the Deviled Eggs

Wang Chung and Billy Joel

SHERRY: Finding something was impossible. I would be looking for my Wang Chung or Billy Joel and I would just have to give up.

Wang Chung: English New Wave band formed in 1980 by Nick Feldman, Jack Hues and Darren Costin. The name Wang Chung means “yellow bell” in Chinese, and is the first note in the Chinese classical music scale. The band found their greatest success in the US, with five top 40 hits there, all charting between 1983 and 1987, including “Dance Hall Days” (1984) and “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” (1986).

William “Billy” Joel (born 1949) [pictured], singer, pianist, composer, and songwriter. He has led a commercially successful career as a solo artist since the 1970s, having released 12 pop and rock studio albums from 1971 to 1993 as well as one studio album of classical compositions in 2001. He is one of the best-selling music artists of all time.

Joel has released 33 self-written Top 40 hits in the US, with three of them reaching #1 (“It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me”, “Tell Her About it”, and “We Didn’t Start the Fire”). He has won 6 Grammy Awards, was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1992, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999, and the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2006. He received the Johnny Mercer Award for songwriting in 2001 and the Kennedy Center Honors for the arts in 2013. He has had a successful concert career, and continues to tour.

“She meant to run all those people down”

SHERRY: Maureen’s the instigator of this little soiree. She has her own publicity firm in New York …

MAUREEN: She meant to run all those people down, but you didn’t hear it from me.

Maureen refers to publicist, manager, and socialite Elizabeth “Lizzie” Grubman (born 1971). In 2001, after being asked by security to remove her vehicle from a fire lane, she intentionally drove her Mercedes Benz SUV into a crowd of outside an inn in the Hamptons, injuring 16 people.

Grubman was later charged with second-degree assault, driving while intoxicated, and reckless endangerment. The trial gained widespread media coverage because of the circumstances and because of Grubman’s profile and attitude. She is alleged to have said, “Fuck you, white trash”, before ploughing her car into the crowd. Later allegations were that she received special treatment from the police.

In 2002, Grubman served thirty-eight days in jail after reaching a plea bargain. She maintains that the incident was accidental.

“I wanted a ballerina”

LORELAI: So it’s a girl?

SHERRY: Yeah. Christopher would’ve been happy with either, but I really wanted a ballerina.

Apparently Sherry thinks any girl is automatically a “ballerina” – perhaps a reflection on Amy Sherman-Palladino’s upbringing by a ballet teacher. Of course, not every girl wants to be a ballerina, and plenty of boys enjoy ballet.

It’s notable that Lorelai also enrolled Rory in ballet classes when she was a little girl, so her views and Sherry’s are not that different here.

Gigi

SHERRY: Gigi, short for Georgia. The two Gs.

Another reference to the film Gigi, based on the novella by French author Colette, previously discussed. In the story, Gigi is short for Gilberte.

An ingenious fan has noted that if you change the Ls in Lorelai’s name to Gs, then it becomes an anagram of Georgia. Whether this is deliberate or a coincidence, I cannot say.

EDIT: Thanks to keen-eyed blog reader Melissa Adams-Cauble for noting that I’d gone G-crazy and changed name to game!

Sherry’s Friends

SHERRY: Well, here’s the gang.You’ve got Gail, Judy, Maureen, Linda, Susan and Alice.

Gail is played by Rain Denise Wilson, in her first role.

Judy is played by Jennifer Jostyn, who had previously been in some minor films.

Maureen is played by Cynthia Ettinger, known for her work in theatre, and who had roles in The Silence of the Lambs, Seinfeld, Touched by an Angel, The Practice, Felicity, and Providence; she later went on to have a major role in the TV series Carnivàle.

Linda is played by Kate Orsini, in her fourth role; she would later have regular roles on The Bold and the Beautiful, and General Hospital.

Susan is played by Kate Rodger, who had been in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and would later appear on The O.C.

Alice is played by Ames Ingham, in her final of five roles.

“It was so bachelor pad before”

SHERRY: Well, it’s a work-in-progress. It was so bachelor pad before: rock posters, modular furniture, magazines everywhere.

When Sherry leads Lorelai and Rory into the apartment she shares with Christopher, we can see it is the same one they lived in at Christmas 2001, even though Christopher told Emily and Richard he and Sherry were looking to buy a new place of their own. The buying a new place story was another of Christopher’s untruths, because Sherry says nothing about them hoping to buy another home, and talks of this one as a work-in-progress, as if she hopes they will continue improving the one they already have.

The odd thing is that Sherry talks about the apartment as if it was one Christopher lived in alone before he got with Sherry, calling it his “bachelor pad”. That doesn’t fit in with the story we heard from Christopher, which is that he lived in Berkeley until he met Sherry, after which he relocated to Boston to be with her – and would have presumably moved in with her, or they would have moved into a place together.

From what Sherry says, Christopher was already living in Boston by himself, and Sherry moved into his apartment (where did she live before that he didn’t move in with her, when she apparently makes more money than he does? With her parents?). Did Christopher meet Sherry in California, and then move across the country and get an apartment in hopes of being with her? Which is weird and stalkerish, and seems like way more effort than Christopher would put in? Or did he move to Boston independently, and meet Sherry there?

It seems as if Christopher cannot tell people one simple thing which is verified by someone else. It’s as if everything about him is a lie. Christopher as a character barely exists.

Lorelai Gets Roped into Sherry’s Baby Shower

SHERRY: Oh, go shopping some other time and come play with us. Please? There’s just a bunch of people in there that Rory doesn’t know, and having you here would make her so much more comfortable … I meant to extend the invitation to both of you. I just wasn’t sure if you’d . . . Well, you know, there’s lots of food, and booze for the lucky non-pregnant ones, and cake . . . it’ll be fun … I’ll block your car with my stomach.

When Lorelai goes to drop Rory off at Sherry’s baby shower, Sherry is waiting out the front for them, and immediately pressures Lorelai into attending as well, despite how uncomfortable the idea is for her. There’s some guilt tripping on how Rory would like her to be there, some bribery in the form of food and alcohol, and finally just threatening to block her car so Lorelai would have to run Sherry over in order to leave. The baby shower is more or less torture for Lorelai, and this is the beginning of it.

It’s a bit weird that before, Sherry didn’t want to have any relationship with Lorelai, and now she’s insisting that Lorelai come to her baby shower. I guess pregnancy has changed her. Lorelai, of course, doesn’t care for the idea of Sherry either shutting her out or inviting her in!

Sherry has dyed her hair blonde since we last saw her, suggesting she has now turned “bad” in Gilmore Girls logic. It’s a flattering look for her, making her more threatening to Lorelai.

Christopher and Sherry’s Home

Christopher and Sherry’s home in Boston is filmed at the Warner Bros back lot on French Street – it’s not far from where they film the town meetings.

There are green balloons out the front, because “green is the new pink”, so green for a girl baby. Although Lorelai and Rory think this is strange, I’ve heard of people using green for gender reveal parties because they are “so over” pink and blue, or to make a statement about gender neutrality, or they simply don’t know the sex of their baby (so why have a reveal party to reveal you don’t know anything???). So this trend ended up becoming mainstream. Sherry was ahead of her time!

The green balloons signal “green for envy”, because Lorelai is very jealous of Sherry.