Freddie Prinze Jr and Colin Powell

PARIS: Or hey, hook up Freddie Prinze Jr. with Colin Powell …

Frederick “Freddie” Prinze Jr (born 1976), actor, television and film producer, and screenwriter. He has starred in films such as I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), She’s All That (1999), and Scooby-Doo (2002). He had a role in sitcom Friends in 2002, and later had his own sitcom called Freddie (2005-06). He is the son of comedian and actor Freddie Prinze, and is married to actress Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Colin Powell (1937-2021) [pictured], politician, statesman, diplomat, and army officer who served as the 65^th US Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African-American Secretary of State. A popular figure, Powell was sometimes considered as a potential candidate for the presidency. In later life, he turned against the Republican Party, and supported Hillary Clinton‘s and President Biden’s presidential campaigns, disavowing himself from the party completely after the attacks on the Capitol in 2021.

Mini-Me

TAYLOR: This is gonna be a very exciting day. I’m really gonna go all out for this. I even think you’ll be impressed.

LORELAI: Really, even me?

TAYLOR: Yes-sir-ee, Mini-Me, I did not put the word madness in the title for nothing.

Taylor references comedy spy film Austin Powers in Goldmember, a sequel to Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, previously mentioned. Goldmember had just come out in July 2002, so would be very fresh in their minds (presumably Taylor saw it that summer, which reveals a slightly unexpected side to Taylor).

In the film, spy Austin Powers’ nemesis is Dr Evil, who has a clone of himself at 1/8^th size, who he names Mini-Me, played by Verne Troyer. Dr Evil declares Mini-Me his favourite son. Oddly, Taylor seems to be designating himself as Dr Evil??? And Lorelai as his … clone? What? Does Taylor understand how references work? Maybe it’s just as an example of madness at work?

The plot of the film involves more than one example of surprise paternity, which is interesting, given that there is a popular fan theory that Taylor is secretly Kirk’s biological father. He does employ him at Doose’s Market, the video store (which he also seems to own), and has him photograph key events around town. This might explain Kirk’s multiple jobs – they are all, or mostly, given to him by Taylor, who owns a large proportion of Stars Hollow.

Judy and Vincente

SOOKIE: How can you like ruffles?

JACKSON: Because I’m very, very gay.

SOOKIE: Jackson!

JACKSON: Judy, Vincente has to go to work now.

Jackson is referring to actress and singer Judy Garland, previously discussed and frequently mentioned, and her husband Vincente Minnelli, born Lester Minnelli (1903-1986). A director of theatre and film, he directed famous films such as Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), An American in Paris (1951), and Gigi (1958). He was married to Judy Garland from 1945 to 1951, and they are the parents of actress and singer Liza Minnelli.

Despite Vincente being married to three other women during his life, and having affairs with women, for years there was speculation that he was gay or bisexual. His biographer, Emanuel Levy, claims that Vincente Minnelli was openly gay in New York, according to stories from people such as Dorothy Parker. However, if so, he seems to have gone back in the closet when he went to Hollywood.

One of the subplots of this episode is Sookie suddenly deciding that her house is too “feminine” for a man to live in now that she is married – even though Jackson was already living with her before their wedding, and has said again and again that he likes the house the way it is. Also, Sookie’s house is warm, cosy, and practical, rather than fussy and frilly.

The same thing happened during the wedding planning, when Sookie unilaterally decided that pink wedding decorations were some sort of hostile message to Jackson that his opinions weren’t important. (We only see a bit of the wedding decorations, but there seems to be some pink, among many other colours, so I’m not sure if she changed her mind or not).

Sookie and Jackson were a very cute couple for most of their courtship, but, as happened many other times in Gilmore Girls, they became almost instantly annoying once they got married. This is the first of several tiresome marital issues (or non-issues?) that they have.

Note that once again, a man liking curtains is linked to him being considered “unmanly” – Luke refused to get curtains for the diner because they were too feminine, but when Lorelai went to his apartment, she is amused to discover he had picked out floral curtains for himself. Oddly enough, the diner already has checked curtains …?

Woodward, Bernstein, Harry Thomason

PARIS: [sleep talking in background] Woodward . . . Bernstein . . . Harry Thomason.
LORELAI: Is that Paris?

RORY: Yeah, she talks in her sleep . . . long in-depth arguments.

Paris references Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, previously mentioned, the journalists who broke the story of Richard Nixon and Watergate.

Harry Thomason (born 1940) [pictured], film and television director and producer, best known for the sitcom Designing Women (1986-1993). Thomason and his wife, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, are close friends with former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary, the former Secretary of State, playing a major role in President Clinton’s election campaign. He produced a glowing biographical film called The Man From Hope, the centrepiece of the 1992 Democratic National Convention. Thomason served as co-chairman of the 1992 Presidential Inauguration Committee.

It is not completely clear whether Paris is arguing with Woodward, Bernstein, and Thomason in her dreams, or if she is quoting them in support of her dream arguments. I think the second?

“I’ll alert the media”

LORELAI: Oh, hey, we need Q-Tips.

LUKE: I’ll alert the media.

LORELAI: See, that’s better with the accent.

LUKE: The reference is enough, you’ll learn that one day.

A reference to the film Arthur, previously mentioned.

In the film, Arthur, played by Dudley Moore, says, “I’m going to take a bath”. His English butler Hobson, played by John Gielgud, replies drily, “I’ll alert the media”. Dream-Luke is saying that he considers himself little more than Lorelai’s sarcastic butler. As this is Lorelai’s dream, it suggests that’s what she wants from Luke!

Dream-Luke’s comment that it’s not necessary to do an accent, the reference is enough, is a meta-comment by the writer (Amy Sherman-Palladino). Gilmore Girls referenced many, many films, but very rarely does anyone do the accent to match, or even attempt to reproduce how the line is said in the film (such as by shouting “Here’s Johnny” in a terrifying manner) . The writer is saying that a simple reference is enough for the intelligent viewer.

Lorelai’s Dream

Season 3 begins with one of the most teasing, and notorious cold opens in the show. Lorelai is shown being woken up by a barrage of alarm clocks, wandering downstairs in a pretty pink nightgown, to find that Luke is making her breakfast, and trying to force her to drink decaf coffee.

At first the viewer might think that Lorelai and Luke somehow got together during the offscreen summer break, or that at least their friendship has got back on track and blossomed to the point that Luke is now cooking her breakfast in her kitchen, and offering to pick up household supplies for her.

But then Luke starts talking to Lorelai’s belly, because she’s pregnant! And she and Luke are having twins, no less. We know she can’t possibly be that far into a pregnancy after only a few weeks, and sure enough, not long afterwards she wakes up in the middle of the night with a start.

Lorelai immediately phones Rory to discuss her dream, and Rory gives the most obvious explanation: Lorelai wants to be with Luke and have his babies. But as Rory goes on to say, the dream is linked to Lorelai being upset about Sherry being pregnant with Christopher’s child, and Lorelai being lonely for Luke’s company (and missing his food!). The dream puts all these things together, and suggests a way to resolve all this tension – have Luke’s babies!

The (joke?) names Luke and Lorelai have for their unborn twins in the dream is darkly amusing. First, they were Sid and Nancy, a reference to the year-ago episode when Luke and Lorelai got into another terrible fight. Lorelai’s subconscious may be saying, “You got into a bad fight with Luke before and you worked it out, so you can do it again this time”.

Even darker, Lorelai says in the dream that the twins are named after child murderers Leopold and Loeb. Could this be an unconscious wish for Sherry’s baby to not exist, as if Lorelai’s pregnancy could cancel it out? Leopold and Loeb were the names of the Rottweilers owned by the parents of Lorelai’s repellant date chosen by her mother, Chase Bradford from Hartford. Just as Sid and Nancy link the twins to Luke, Leopold and Loeb seem to link them with Christopher, as if Lorelai’s unconscious has made her pregnant to both men at once.

At any rate, dreaming of being pregnant with twins suggests a conflict between Lorelai’s conscious and unconscious, and that she has two separate but related sources of stress in her life: the failure of her relationship with Christopher to get off the ground because of Sherry’s pregnancy, and the failure of her friendship with Luke. The twins may symbolise that on an unconscious level Lorelai is attracted to both Christopher and Luke, and at this point, deep down wants both of them.

And one final thing: dreaming about being pregnant is also due to the stress of not having Rory there, her “baby”. The dream overcompensates by giving her two babies to replace Rory. Lorelai is missing Rory even more than she misses either Christopher or Luke.

People and Works Referenced More Than Once in Gilmore Girls (Up to Season Two)

Women

Christiane Amanpour

Pamela Anderson

Jane Austen

Simone de Beauvoir

Bjork

Anita Bryant

Mariah Carey

Cher

Colette

Joan Crawford

Emily Dickinson

Celine Dion

Enya

Ella Fitzgerald

Zsa Zsa Gabor

Judy Garland

P.J. Harvey

Lillian Hellman

Barbara Hutton

Carole King

Ricki Lake

Jennifer Lopez

Courtney Love

Madonna

Carmen Miranda

Marilyn Monroe

Nico

Yoko Ono

Dorothy Parker

Sam Phillips

Sylvia Plath

Emily Post

Dawn Powell

Britney Spears

Meryl Streep

Martha Stewart

Barbra Streisand

Elizabeth Taylor

The Virgin Mary

Barbara Walters

Eudora Welty

Virginia Woolf

Men

Abbot and Costello

Woody Allen

Kevin Bacon

Beck

Matthew Broderick

Mel Brooks

Charles Bukowski

Chang and Eng Bunker

George Clooney

Elvis Costello

Kevin Costner

James Dean

Charles Dickens

Fyodor Dostoevsky

William Faulkner

Sigmund Freud

William Randolph Hearst

King Henry VIII

William Holden

Hubert Humphrey

Michael Jackson

Henry James

Jesus Christ

Pope John-Paul II

James Joyce

Ted Kaczynski

John F. Kennedy

Stephen King

John Lennon

Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb

Baz Luhrman

David Lynch

Barry Manilow

Charles Manson

Arthur Miller

Benito Mussolini

Paul Newman

Richard Nixon

Charlie Parker

Sean Penn

Regis Philbin

Grant Lee Phillips

Brad Pitt

Iggy Pop

Elvis Presley

Prince

Paul Revere

J.D. Salinger

William Shakespeare

Frank Sinatra

Steven Spielberg

Sylvester Stallone

Hunter S. Thompson

John Travolta

Mark Twain

Tom Waits

Books

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee

Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Alborn

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

The Mourning Bride by William Congreve

Howl and Other Poems by Allen Ginsberg

Hansel and Gretel by The Brothers Grimm

Rapunzel by The Brothers Grimm

The Iliad by Homer

The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent by Washington Irving

Nancy Drew series by Carolyn Keene

On the Road by Jack Kerouac

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Mencken Chrestomathy by H.L. Mencken

The Crucible by Arthur MIller

Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell

Remembrance of Things Past by Marcel Proust

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Hamlet by William Shakespeare

Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette by Judith Thurman

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

The Last Empire by Gore Vidal

Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams

A Streetcar Named Desire by Tenneessee Williams

The Bible

The Compact Oxford English Dictionary

Comics

Peanuts

Superman

Periodicals

Cosmopolitan

InStyle

Jane

The New York Times

The New Yorker

The Wall Street Journal

The Washington Post

Films

Babe

Bambi

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble

Cinderella

David and Lisa

The Deer Hunter

Dr Dolittle

Fatal Attraction

Footloose

Frankenstein

Fried Green Tomatoes

Funny Girl

Ghostbusters

Glitter

The Godfather series

Grease

Heathers

The Horse Whisperer

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Little Rascals

Mary Poppins

The Matrix

Midnight Express

The Miracle Worker

Monty Python and The Holy Grail

Oklahoma!

The Outsiders

Rebel Without a Cause

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Rosemary’s Baby

Say It Isn’t So

The Shining

Sixteen Candles

Sleeping Beauty

Stalag 17

Star Wars

A Streetcar Named Desire

Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story

West Side Story

The Wizard of Oz

The Yearling

Bands

98°

Ash

B-52s

The Bangles

The Beatles

The Bee Gees

Belle and Sebastian

Black Sabbath

Blondie

The Cure

Duran Duran

Foo Fighters

The Go-Go’s

Grandaddy

Grant Lee Buffalo

Metallica

Motley Crue

NSYNC

Pixies

Rolling Stones

The Sex Pistols

The Spice Girls

Steely Dan

Van Halen

The Velvet Underground

Wilco

XTC

Albums

Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) – XTC

Songs

What a Wonderful World – Louis Armstrong; Joey Ramone

I Can’t Get Started – Ella Fitzgerald

Someone to Watch Over Me – Rickie Lee Jones; Marty and Elayne

Where You Lead – Carole King

It’s a Small World After All – Richard and Robert Sherman

We Are Family – Sister Sledge

Teach Me Tonight – Dinah Washington

My Little Corner of the World – Yo La Tengo

Television

All in the Family

The Andy Griffith Show

BattleBots

The Brady Bunch

Charlie’s Angels

The Facts of Life

Get Smart

Happy Days

I Love Lucy

Jeopardy

Joanie Loves Chachi

Lassie

Looney Tunes

The Mary Tyler Moore Show

Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom

The Odd Couple

The Oprah Winfrey Show

The Powerpuff Girls

Saved By the Bell

Star Trek

This Old House

The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson

The Twilight Zone

Twin Peaks

Wheel of Fortune

Wonder Woman

Films Referenced in Season Two

Films

AI Artificial Intelligence

Alamo Bay

All About Eve

Andy Hardy series

The Animal

Annie

Annie Hall

Arctic Flight

Arthur

Autumn Leaves

Autumn in New York

Babe

Babe: Pig in the City

Bambi

Barbarella

Basic Instinct

The Barefoot Contessa

A Beautiful Mind

Beetlejuice

Ben-Hur

Blow

Body Double

The Born Losers

Break Up

The Breakfast Club

Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo

Brigadoon

Bringing Up Baby

Bull Durham

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

Bye Bye Birdie

Cabin Boy

Cahill US Marshal

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Casino

Cats & Dogs

Chinatown

Cinderella

Cobra

Cocktail

Cocoon

Coming Home

Contact

Cool as Ice

Cool Hand Luke

The Cowboys

Coyote Ugly

Crimes and Misdemeanours

Cujo

Dances With Wolves

Dave

David and Lisa

Desperately Seeking Susan

Dirty Dancing

Dr Dolittle

Dr Dolittle 2

Dr Zhivago

Driving Miss Daisy

Dumbo

Endless Love

Eraserhead

Ernest series

Escape to Alcatraz

Fair Game

Fame

Fatal Attraction

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

Field of Dreams

Fletch

Footloose

Forbidden Planet

Frankenstein (1931)

Fried Green Tomatoes

From Here to Eternity

Funny Girl

Ghostbusters

Girl, Interrupted

Glitter

The Godfather

The Godfather Part II

The Godfather Part III

Good Will Hunting

Goodfellas

The Graduate

Grease

The Great White Hope

Gypsy

Hairspray

Harold and Maude

Harvey

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

High Fidelity

Hook

The Horse Whisperer

Hudson Hawk

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939)

In a Lonely Place

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

It’s a Wonderful Life

Jack Frost

The Jerk

Joe Dirt

The Joy Luck Club

Julia

King Kong

Killer Shark

Legally Blonde

Little Shop of Horrors

The Long Hot Summer

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring

The Mambo Kings

The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit

Mary Poppins

The Matrix

Midnight Express

The Mighty Ducks

The Miracle Worker

Moment by Moment

The Money Pit

Monster High

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python’s Life of Brian

Mrs Parker and The Vicious CIrcle

My Fair Lady

Mystic Pizza

Nanook of the North

The Negotiator

Not Without My Daughter

Oklahoma!

On a Clear Day You Can See Forever

On the Town

The Outsiders

The Postman

Pretty Woman

The Princess Bride

Purple Rain

Rain Man

Rambo series

Rear Window

Rebel Without a Cause

Risky Business

The River Wild

Rocky

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Romeo Must Die

Romeo + Juliet

Rosemary’s Baby

Rush Hour

Sabrina

Saturday Night Fever

Say It Isn’t So

Secrets and Lies

Seven Beauties

Seven Samurai

The Shawshank Redemption

The Shining

Shoah

Showgirls

Sid and Nancy

Silent Movie

Silkwood

Sleepless in Seattle

Society

Someone Like You

Sophie’s Choice

Snow Dogs

Stalag 17

A Star is Born

Star Wars

The Sting

Sudden Danger

Sunset Boulevard

Suspense

Sweet November

Swordfish

Terms of Endearment

Thelma and Louise

Them

The Thin Man

This is Spinal Tap

The Thomas Crown Affair

Three Days of the Condor

Tin Cup

To Sleep With Anger

The Toy

The Untouchables

Urban Cowboy

Valentine

Vertigo

Wag the Dog

West Side Story

Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?

Where Are Your Children?

The Wizard of Oz

The Yearling

Young Frankenstein

Television Movies

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble

The Loneliest Runner

Tears and Laughter: The Joan and Melissa Rivers Story

Actors

Jennifer Aniston

John Barrymore

Richard Burton

Lon Chaney Jr

Angie Dickinson

Corey Haim

Mickey Hargitay

Jennifer Lopez

Ginger Rogers

Elizabeth Taylor

Spencer Tracy

Mae West

Directors

The Coen Brothers

Federico Fellini

You’re Just in Love

The song Miss Patty and Babette together at the wedding, while Morey plays piano. It’s a popular 1950 song by Irving Berlin, first performed by Ethel Merman and Russell Nype in the Broadway musical Call Me Madam; Merman later reprised her role for the 1953 film version, featuring the song as a duet with Donald O’Connor [pictured]. The song has been recorded several times, most successfully by Perry Como and the Fontana Sisters, who reached #5 in the charts for 1950.

The lyrics of the song give the message, You’re not sick, you’re just in love – a callback to Rory crying that she must be “sick” to have cut school to see Jess in New York. Now Lorelai has done something even more questionable, and the song is telling the Gilmore girls (and Jess?) that they’re not sick in the head, they are simply in love.

Writing Letters to Jodie Foster

LUKE: You know what people told me when I said you were coming here to live with me? They told me I was crazy, they told me I was insane, they told me to start writing letters to Jodie Foster.

Luke references John Hinckley Jr. (born 1955), a college drop-out from a wealthy family who attempted to assassinate president Ronald Reagan. Hinckley was reportedly seeking fame in a misguided effort to impress actress Jodie Foster (born Alicia Foster in 1962), with whom he had been obsessed since the 1976 film Taxi Driver, where Foster plays a sexually-trafficked twelve-year-old child – in the film, the disturbed protagonist plots to assassinate a presidential candidate (it’s based on a true story).

When Jodie Foster began attending Yale University, Hinckley moved to New Haven in order to stalk her, sending her dozens of letters and poems, and leaving messages on her answering machine. Believing that assassinating the president would somehow make him Foster’s equal, Hinckley fired a revolver six times at Ronald Reagan on March 30 1981, as he left the Hilton Hotel in Washington DC. Although Hinckley did not hit Reagan, he was wounded when a bullet ricocheted and hit him in the chest. He also wounded a police officer and a Secret Service agent, and critically injured a press secretary, who died from his wounds in 2014.

John Hinckley Jr. was found not guilty by reason of insanity in 1982, and transferred to psychiatric care. He was released from hospital in 2016 into his mother’s care under numerous restrictions. As of June 2022, Hinckley will be living freely in the community. He has a YouTube channel, where he self-publishes his own songs; they are also available on Spotify and other streaming sites.