Tag: People

Iran-Contra

LORELAI: I kept information from you … Information that would have come out eventually. Like the Iran-Contra scandal.
RORY: So you’re Oliver North.
LORELAI: No, I’m Fawn Hall.
RORY: Mom.
LORELAI: Well, she was much prettier.

The Iran-Contra affair was a political scandal in the United States which took place during the second term of the Reagan Administration. Senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. They planned to fund the Contras in Nicaragua  through the arms sale, while at the same time negotiating the release of several US hostages held in Lebanon.

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North [pictured] devised the scheme to fund the Contras, and was convicted in the Iran-Contra scandal in the late 1980s; however all charges against him were dismissed in 1991. Fawn Hall was North’s secretary who testified against him in court and was given immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.

Dalai Lama

LUKE: The counter is a sacred space. My sacred space. You don’t do yoga on the Dalai Lama’s mat and you don’t come behind my counter, period.

The Dalai Lama is the title of the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people; part of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism, and a symbol of Tibetan nationalism. The title was created in the 16th century, and literally means something like “great guru”.

The current Dalai Lama is the 14th, named Tenzin Gyatso (born Lhamo Thundup in 1935). Living in exile from his country in India, the Dalai Lama has become not just a Tibetan or Buddhist figurehead, but a global spiritual leader.

Jean-Paul Sartre

LORELAI: He [Jim Carrey] is funny but I didn’t mean funny, funny. I’m being philosophical.
SOOKIE: Oh. Very serious face. Jean-Paul Sartre.

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French philosopher, writer, and critic. Highly influential, he was a leading figure in 20th century Marxism, existentialism, and phenomenology, and was famous as the lover of fellow philosopher Simone de Beauvoir. His best known work is Being and Nothingness (1943). He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1964, but declined to accept it.

 

Jim Carrey

LORELAI: Life is a funny funny thing, huh?
SOOKIE: Yeah I love that Jim Carrey.

Jim Carrey (born James Carrey in 1962) is a Canadian-American actor and comedian famous for his energetic slapstick performances. His first leading role was in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994), and he continued taking lead roles in film comedies through the 1990s. He was praised for his performances in slightly more serious roles in The Truman Show (1998) and Man on the Moon (1999).

M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan (born Manoj Shyamalan in 1970) is an Indian-born American film director, known for making movies with supernatural plots and surprise endings. He often sets his films in and around Philadelphia, which is where he grew up.

It’s interesting that Lane likes the idea of hanging out with Shyamalan, because he is an Asian-American who has become successful in a popular genre and media – much as Lane wants to become successful in rock music.

Henry the Eighth

MAX (looking at Lorelai’s table at the bake sale): Very Henry the Eighth.

Henry VIII (1491-1547) was King of England from 1509 until his death. He is known for his lavish feasts with every delicacy imaginable, as a demonstration of his wealth and power. It may have been Sookie’s swan carved out of watermelon that made Max think of Henry VIII – a centrepiece of the banquets was food made to look like something completely different, such as a peacock made from marzipan.

Pat Benatar

DRELLA: Hey what do you think about Pat Benatar?
LORELAI: Great idea, can she play the harp?

Pat Benatar (born Patricia Andrzejewski in 1953) is an American rock singer, songwriter, and actress. She is best known for her 1980s hits, Hit Me With Your Best Shot, Love is a Battlefield, and We Belong.

Lorelai is adding Pat Benatar to the list of music Drella is banned from playing.

Joan of Arc

LORELAI: Sookie, I need coffee to go.
SOOKIE: [holding her head in her hands] There’s fresh over there.
LORELAI: Ooh, good. [picks up an empty pot] Fresh in my first lifetime as Joan of Arc.

Joan of Arc (c1412-1431) is a Catholic saint who is a patron of France, and considered a heroine in her home country for her role in the Hundred Years War, where she led the French army to victory. Since the Middle Ages, women have seen her as an inspiring example of a brave and active woman.

It is somehow typical of Lorelai that even in a joke, she imagines her first lifetime as a national heroine and proto-feminist icon.

Artie Shaw

DRELLA: I am the Artie Shaw of harpists.

Artie Shaw (1910-2004) was an American musician who grew up in Connecticut, widely regarded as one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of all time. He led one of the most popular big bands through the 1930s and ’40s, and is best known for his 1938 recording of Cole Porter’s Begin the Beguine.

A serious artist, Shaw was a perfectionist who was known for forming bands, working to make them successful, and then quickly disbanding them. In 1954 he stopped playing the clarinet, explaining that he had taken the instrument as far as it could go. After World War II, Shaw gradually withdrew from the world of music to pursue a writing career.

This comment may explain why we never see Drella again after this episode – like Artie Shaw, she simply felt she had achieved the pinnacle of success as a harpist and stopped playing. Of course, given her constant rudeness to staff and customers, it is quite believable that Lorelai sacked her. Artie Shaw was apparently a very difficult person as well.

The actor portraying Drella, Alex Borstein, was originally cast as Sookie on Gilmore Girls, playing her in the original, unaired pilot. Borstein was unable to continue in the role as she was still contracted to the sketch comedy show MADtv. Although busy voicing Lois Griffin on Family Guy, Borstein managed to appear as various characters on Gilmore Girls from time to time.