Nancy Reagan (born Anne Robbins, 1921-2016) was an American film actress, and as wife to Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the US, First Lady from 1981 to 1989.
Nancy Reagan had a strong interest in fashion and was often compared to former First Lady, Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, previously discussed. She favoured the colour red, and wore it so often that fire-engine red became known as “Reagan red”. Her clothing choices did actually resemble Lorelai and Emily’s outfits, and I think they must have been based on Reagan’s signature style.
RORY: How was the fashion show? LORELAI: Oh, you know, I walked up and down the ramp, looked pouty and sexy, now I’m ready for rehab.
Lorelai is probably referring once again to Kate Moss, who went into rehab at London’s Priory clinic in 1998, supposedly for “exhaustion” (i.e. alcohol and drug addiction). Although quite a few other models have gone into rehab too …
This is the book Rory is reading on the couch when Lorelai gets home from the fashion show.
Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter is a 1958 memoir by French author, existentialist philosopher, and feminist, Simone de Beauvoir, previously mentioned. It’s a beautifully-written, intimate portrait of her life growing up in a privileged, sheltered, upper middle class French family, rebelling as an adolescent against their conventions, and striking out on her own with intellectual ambition and a ceaselessly questioning, philosophical mind.
Rory often reads Lorelai’s books (they both have an interest in female biography and memoir), and this feels like one Lorelai would have been drawn to. She and de Beauvoir both had the same urge to escape a wealthy, claustrophobic background (Lorelai had Rory as part of her escape, while de Beauvoir had Sartre), and Lorelai spoke of always wishing she could use the word existentialist in a sentence.
The title of the memoir is ironic, but Rory really is a very dutiful daughter to Lorelai. Later on, she too will rebel against her mother.
EMILY: Funny isn’t it? LORELAI: What’s funny? EMILY: How nicely you seem to be fitting into the world that you ran away from. Well, goodnight Lorelai. Congratulations.
Emily is given a glimpse into the type of life Lorelai might have had, if she hadn’t had Rory at such a young age. She was a popular teenager, and is capable of making herself popular in the world of Hartford society as a grown woman. Emily’s efforts to make Lorelai and Rory fit in with her own world are often surprisingly successful, which makes it harder for her to comprehend why they don’t really want that life for themselves.
This is the song which plays while Lorelai and Emily do their turn on the catwalk.
Girls Just Want to Have Fun was written and first recorded by Robert Hazard in 1979, but is best known for the version performed by Cyndi Lauper, released as the lead single from her 1983 debut album, She’s So Unusual. It became her breakthrough hit, signature song, and a feminist anthem, reaching #2 on the charts, and promoted by a quirky, Grammy-winning music video.
The song describes a girl or young woman telling her parents that she needs to have some fun in her life in order to express herself. It’s something that Lorelai would have wanted to say to Emily and Richard when she was growing up, so the song must have resonated with her. Lorelai later says she chose all the music for the fashion show, and the chances are very high that this song is in her personal music collection.
(Note that Cyndi Lauper wears a red dress on the record cover and in the music video, just like Lorelai and Emily!).
Even though Lorelai only asked her mother to join her as revenge for nagging her to get more involved at Chilton (and perhaps even as a callback to the imaginary mother-daughter talent show at Chilton Emily teased Lorelai with in Paris is Burning), Emily actually ends up having a good time (and dare I say it, so does Lorelai? Notice how she begins smiling and having fun once she sees Luke enjoying her performance).
Lorelai and Rory so seldom allow Emily to join them in social activities, but when they do, she often enjoys being part of the fun. There’s a playful side to Emily that is rarely given the chance to come out, and that Lorelai and Rory could have really helped with if they had bothered.
AVA: Oh, he’s adorable. And he [Luke] looks strong, is he strong? LORELAI: Oh I don’t know. I don’t think he’s gonna be in a sideshow anytime soon, but he can get the lid off a pickle jar.
The Strongman, a man performing amazing feats of strength, was a circus sideshow attraction in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Yep, another circus reference! These days, Strongman events have become athletic competitions.
Ava’s later comment about hoping Luke is unattached is a sign that she is a single mother, like Lorelai. It seems as if Lorelai might have more in common with some of the Chilton moms than she thought. However, Ava’s interest in Luke has doomed her chances of becoming Lorelai’s friend, which is a shame as they seemed like they could have got on well together, and been allies in the Chilton world. Romantic and sexual attraction pretty much ruins everything in Gilmore Girls.
LORELAI: I want Luke to look at it. MAN: Hey, I put this thing together. LORELAI: Yes, and I loved your work in Pisa. Now get out of the way, please.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa, a freestanding bell tower of the cathedral in the Italian city of Pisa. It began leaning during its construction in the 12th century, due to unstable foundations, and is famous worldwide. Numerous efforts have been made to restore it to its vertical position: most failed, several have made it worse. It has been straightened slightly and stabilised since the 1990s, but it’s such a tourist attraction as a tilting tower that nobody really wants it corrected.
IVY: She’s [Paris] funny? RORY: Oh yeah. Hilarious. I mean, the times that we have spent laughing together. I tell ya, she’s a regular Gary Mule Deer.
Gary Mule Deer (born Gary Miller, 1939), American comedian and country music singer. In a career spanning over six decades, he has performed major concert stages in the US, including Carnegie Hall and Grand Ole Opry, and made more than 350 television appearances, including on Hee Haw, previously discussed. He entertains regularly at casinos, including in Las Vegas, and for many years has toured in concert as a special guest to Johnny Mathis.
RORY: You know, Paris, while yes, a little intense, is also very smart. FRANCIE: So I drop a box of matches on the floor, she can tell me how many there are?
Francie refers to the 1988 drama film Rain Man, directed by Barry Levinson and starring Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. It’s about a selfish, unscrupulous dealer named Charlie who discovers he has a brother Raymond who is an autistic savant. Charlie removes Raymond from the institution where he has lived most of his life, and they travel across country together.
In one scene of the film, a waitress accidentally spills a packet of toothpicks on the floor, and Raymond instantly calculates that there are 246 toothpicks.
The character of Raymond was partially based on Kim Peek, a real life savant, and partly on Bill Sackter, a man with intellectual disabilities who was a friend of one of the screenwriters. In real life, neither of them were able to perform this feat, although some savants can.
Rain Man was a critical and commercial success, becoming the #1 film of 1988, and won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Hoffman), and Best Original Screenplay at the Academy Awards. As of this moment, it was the last drama that both topped the box office and won the Oscar for Best Picture.
The Annotated Gilmore Girls 