Emmy Rossum transforms into the mysterious billboard bombshell in Angelyne teaser
The Shameless actress stars as the "glow-in-the-dark queen of the universe" in the new Peacock series
Aux News Emmy Rossum
The higher the hair, the closer to the billboards. Emmy Rossum has that motto down pat in the fresh teaser for Angelyne, a limited series about the elusive pop culture diva whose billboards sparked intrigue all throughout Los Angeles in the 1980s.
Covering many reaches of 1980s L.A. culture and more, the show is described as being about “fame, identity, survival, billboards, Corvettes, lingerie, men, women, women teasing men, men obsessed with women, West Hollywood, crystals, UFOs, and most importantly of all, the self-proclaimed Rorschach test in pink, glow-in-the-dark queen of the universe, Angelyne.”
In the teaser, we get to see the bubblegum pink Corvette that the blonde icon was known to jet around L.A. in, and there’s also a fun nod to the real life Angelyne’s singing career as we get to hear her punk rock single, “Kiss Me L.A.” The song’s inclusion in the teaser highlights the many sides of Angelyne’s enigmatic life and image—all of which we can expect to see in the series.
Starring as Angelyne is Emmy Rossum (Shameless), who will also be on as an executive producer. The rest of the cast includes Martin Freeman (Fargo), Alex Karpovsky (Girls), Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass), Charlie Rowe (Rocketman), Lukas Gage (Euphoria), Michael Angarano (This Is Us), Molly Ephraim (The Front Runner), Philip Ettinger (First Reformed), Antjuan Tobias (Scandal), Tonatiuh (Vida) and David Krumholtz (The Deuce).
Coming on as showrunner is Allison Miller (Spartacus), and she joins Rossum, Lucy Tcherniak (The End of the F***ing World), Sam Esmail (Mr. Robot) and Chad Hamilton (Mr. Robot) as executive producers.
Tcherniak and Matt Spicer (Ingrid Goes West) will be directing the miniseries. Back in 2020, The Hollywood Reporter (which is also listed as an executive producer) reported that Angelyne had signed on as an executive producer of the series.
Angelyne will be unveiled on Peacock with five pink-wrapped episodes on May 19.
91 Comments
Considering Angelyne is the apotheosis of “famous for being famous,” the person who bought a billboard to simply advertise for themselves as an entity…I’m not sure having her on as executive producer bodes well for the truthiness or incisiveness of this series.
I’m against fame as a concept, and don’t at all like people who seek fame for its’ own sake.
But they’re profiting off of her life story; she probably just has the EP credit as part of her payment contract. I’m fine with an older lady securing her retirement on her terms.Politicians get far better retirements for doing far less good than she has.
I hate the recent trend of giving subjects creative control over movies and shows about them. I guess Bohemian Rhapsody making nearly a billion despite being terrible, largely because of May and Taylor’s control, means we won’t see the end of it anytime soon.
Sort of a different scenario because controlling the song catalogue is a pretty big bargaining chip. You can do an unauthorized biography of a nobody pretty easy if your audience isn’t expecting to hear specific music they’ve licensed. So unsure how much leverage she had in content even if she is a producer.
not my favourite person, but sharon osbourne has stated that the ozzy/sharon biopic is not going to be pg-13 pretty. i respect that.
I’m of the opinion that no famous person should ever be involved in a fictionalized account of their life.
I, for one, would like to see a Hearst-approved version of Citizen Kane.
It could have been worse. Supposedly May and Taylor had intended for Freddie’s death to come halfway through the film, only for Queen to then go from strength to strength.
Had the same reaction when I read that Angelyne would be an EP, but I’m less concerned about truthfulness than whether it will be an interesting and entertaining series. Usually “official” biopics are rout, dull hagiographies.
I mean, does it really make a difference when it comes to entertainment? You can either have the subject’s involvement and have a bunch of false stuff to make it entertaining with their blessing (Angelyne, Bohemian Rhapsody,…), or you can keep them out of it to have a bunch of false stuff to make it entertaining, that also pisses them off (House of Gucci, The Crown,…). Honest films “based on true events” seem pretty rare.
Truthiness isn’t a word, Stephen.
I get why people might feel this way from a storytelling standpoint, but it feels wildly unethical to me to make money from someone’s life story like this without giving them some degree of profit sharing (like a production credit). Particularly someone like Angelyne, who is clearly not rich. And without her involvement, the story can only really be a rehashing of what has already been written in other media anyway.
She didn’t pay for the billboards nor were they her idea
I owned that exact model corvette…although it was black with white leather (“Oyster” according to Chevy). Just got rid of it about 3 years ago. Car was a piece of shit, but it was a fun piece of shit (and mine didn’t have the California engine…but was still slower than most Tercels off the line).
Anyway, looks like a potentially interesting show.
Her?
Nope, her:
For a second I thought that was Matt LeBlanc and Will Ferrell to the left and right of her and I thought, how curious!Guess it’s not, but that’s probably for the best.
As a New Yorker my whole life (48 now) I never heard of Angelyne or even remember photos of her as a kid. Could be old age or she just never really made it to the POC in NYC (and I loved good looking blonde women as a kid).But reading this breakdown of the show I keep singing “Two of hearts” in my head now.
I’m your age and a POC, and I only remember Angelyne from the opening credits of Moonlighting. I wasn’t even living in the U.S. then! BUT, that’s pretty much all I knew of her.
See that makes sense and if that is her, thats the only time I ever saw her as well. Didn’t know much about her at all.
I don’t think anyone did. I am a few older, but from the East Coast and only really knew her from Moonlighting’s credits. Most people from LA only know the billboards.
k that makes sense. I was wondering why I don’t seem to recall her outside of the other user reminding me of her in the moonlighting credits.
I’m from LA and I saw her driving around a couple of times in Hollywood in the 80s. But yeah, my first thought was, does anyone outside of LA know or even care about this? I’m from LA and I don’t even care.
I”m your age but a white kid from a small town in Indiana and I definitely remember her name and not knowing why she was famous.
It’s strange and I remember most sex symbols from back then but outside of the moonlighting reference the other user mentioned I’m really drawing a blank on her. The name does seem like something I have some memory of but again can’t picture a face. (I did look her up just now to see what she really looks like).
As a non American ,of roughly the same age , literally never heard of her till this article.
It’s an LA thing. She’s a town mascot. I knew her from weird billboard appearances in movies and shows, but once I moved to LA from DC a long time ago I’d always see her Pink Corvette tearing around WeHo. Saw her just the other day. And if you do ever see her you should pay the absurd amount to get your photo taken with her. It’s worth it.
Thanks, I was wondering if it was more a LA/westcoast thing.
I’m a 46 year old white dude from the midwest and I was reading this article asking myself whether it was based on a real person or just a generic, eighties “LA” story. I didn’t watch Moonlighting either, so I genuinely have no idea who it is.
Her billboards (and for some of us sometimes, he lady herself!) could be seen all over LA back in the day. But she didn’t spend the money to get famous much outside of southern California as far as I know.But an Angelyne billboard was in the Rockford Files credits, so that’s nationwide, technically.
Wait really? Shit I haven’t watched that show since I was in my teens. Now I have to go back and watch the credits to jog my memory, thanks!
I didn’t know those billboards went back that far. I remember an early Arsenio show where he put up a shot of one of her billboards and was all “who is this stank ho?”
Kind of at the outer edge of “being famous for being famous”, the “fame” in this case being a billboard (there used to be just one) in a place where a lot of people, including a lot of rich and famous people, couldn’t help but see it—in NYC terms, imagine a sort of living Barbie doll being on a billboard in Times Square, for decades. The only time I’ve seen her in anything but “who is Angelyne?” pieces is a cameo in Earth Girls Are Easy.
I’m 42 and live in the South. I only know her from her cameo watching Earth Girls Are Easy as a kid.
I only really know her as a weird cameo in Earth Girls Are Easy.
I’m from a third tier city in the northeast and I knew about her in 1987 but ONLY because her viral marketing schtick worked. That is, I bought a T-Shirt with the billboard image on it at a record store because it was just a random T-Shirt image. I had no idea what it was and didn’t know until years later.
I grew up in the middle of the country, I watched Moonlighting, but I don’t remember the billboard in the show. The first time I heard of her was when Volcano came out in 1997, that movie was set in L.A., with a lot of landmarks being destroyed by lava, and her billboards were prominently displayed, she might have even had a cameo in it, I’m not sure. Around that time, Entertainment Weekly had an article explaining who she was, so I actually knew who the article was talking about.
You needed to have lived in LA, dude. She was fucking everywhere.
She had a short scene in “Earth Girls are Easy”. I was aware of here but wondered why she was famous.
I only know her from her cameo in ‘Earth Girls are Easy’
She is uniquely LA in a way it’s hard to explain. I hung out and worked around some of the places she showed up around and she is famous in a way that kinda defines LA – no real substance and a lot of filler to make it look marginally good on the outside. Most of the locals accepted her in a goofball way and she is mostly harmless. She had just enough recognition to get into places and it was fun to take a pic with her once in a while.I remember one of my friends pointing out that you can tell those that were regulars to Melrose by the amount of pics of them and Angelyne on their fridge doors. Some characterized her like Elvira but Cass put on the costume and the act as an act….you never saw Angelyne as anything but her character/herself.She is unique in a place full of uniques.
at 46 and kind of watched a lot of tv…. she kind of was a periphery figure, i remember vaguely seeing her a a generic hot actress type but never actually saw her in anything, still not quite sure what she did other than look like a “golden age hollywood idea of movie star”.seemed like she showed up in a lot of billboards.
I remember seeing her on a billboard somewhere in Manhattan.
She still looks more like actual Emily Rossum than the results of Lily James’ transformation into Pamela Anderson. Not by much mind you. Looks like we have a competition brewing.
Who is Emily Rossum?
Nuthin’ wrong with that.
We are truly living in the golden age of prosthetic boob TV shows.
We are truly living in the golden age of prosthetic boob TV shows If this goes on, pretty soon we’ll get people protesting: actual big-breasted actresses aren’t being hired to play big breasted women! When, oh when will they feel truly seen?
I had the same thought. If you’re gonna play Angelyne or Pam Anderson, get the damn surgery!
God no.
Are you saying actors shouldn’t prepare for their roles and commit to a part? Bah.
Lea Thompson’s prosthetic boobs walked so that Emmy Rossum’s prosthetic boobs could run.
How about we don’t tell women what to do with their bodies, OK? Also, filming movies, and even series, wraps up eventually, surgical scars stick around.
If you say so.
If you say so.
“Maybe you *all* are ho-mo-sexuals”BOOOOO HISSSSS
I realised upon rewatching The Simpsons on Disney+ that the context of that gif differs slightly when used online compared to in the episode.In Wolfcastle’s stand-up set, he uses “That’s The Joke” to tell they audience he’s finished and that they should laugh, whereas as a reaction gif people use it to highlight when a joke has gone over someone’s head.I don’t have a point to all this.
The point is that classic Simpsons is great.
Also, on further inspection, these appear to be loafers.
Way to go, nudnik!
You say this with the conviction of someone who actually thinks the commenter was serious. Also, you’re replying to the wrong commenter.
Even as a 20 something at the time, I kept thinking , “She famous because she has a billboard”? Then Kim Kardashian came along and blew her out of the water..
I might be interested in this if it is actually about how did she make money but if it is another tongue-in-cheek satirical “everything is fiction” story then I’m kind of done with that thing.
I have a hard time imagining a less interesting idea for a series.
It blows my mind how people constantly talk about the amount of producers in TV with no knowledge of how the producing structure works. If you are a critic, it would help to be a little aware of these things. Writers are credited as producers according to rank— the main thing everyone needs to know is writers are credited as producers in TV. This should get ppl to STFU about how many producers things have. Then there’s the non writing producers, like in this case Esmail, Chad, etc. They are the production company making the show. But there’s also the studio which makes the show, which I’m not sure but is prolly UCP. Then there’s the streamer, which in this case is Peacock, and although both Peacock and UCP are universal they aren’t the same entity. The thing you must have in TV is to have a cool director direct the pilot. But they will also stay on as producers the entire time (getting a fee on every episode so this it’s a great gig to direct a pilot of a hit show). And then, on top of all this, if you get someone’s life story in this way, you gotta give them EP credit and like 30k min per episode
Good points, but when you see an excessive number of EPs in a TV credit, then, yeah, that’s a lot of superfluous layers for those endless non-writing EPs, pods, directors and other assorted hangers-on, who often have little to no creative contribution to a series.The biggest scam the DGA ever pulled was getting that EP credit for pilot directors. It’s such a fucking racket. Yes, a pilot direct does often set a visual template for the series, but still only with the approval and oversight of the showrunner. And that doesn’t mean they should be allowed to drain the budget for a show that lasts five seasons because they worked on it for two months.
Why should people who don’t do any production work be credited as producers? I know it’s a long-standing tradition in Hollywood, but it doesn’t make any actual sense. If you’re a writer on the show, but you’re not doing production work, then having you be credited as a producer is silly.
Because “producer” is a big catch-all term, and its reall esy to hand out. It’s particularly handy for writers because writers have very particular pay structure due to WGA contracts, and it’s inconvenient/inadvisable to be raising the floor of their pay by giving them actual raises. So they give the more senior writers producing credits and roles as well in order to give writers more money without actually paying them through the WGA rules. I imagine the same applies to actors and directors, or just about anyone, really. It’s all just ways of fudging budgets.
Didn’t the first trailer for this come out two years ago?
This is not what I expected Tatooine to be like between Episodes III and IV.
Lord bless David Krumholtz.
Cripes, this isn’t out yet? It feels like I watched a full trailer for this pre-pandemic.
“that the blonde icon was known to jet around L.A. in”….?Uh, she’s still out there to this day, still jetting….
Is Angelyne the woman who sung “I’m a blonde” (Yeah yeah, yeah) in Earth Girls are Easy?
That would be Julie Brown. The white Julie brown.
Thanks.
No, but she was in the movie
Is Angelyne the woman who sung “I’m a blonde” (Yeah yeah, yeah) in Earth Girls are Easy?
no. she doesn’t have any skills.
She isn’t really mysterious, more dull and obvious than anything else.
I remember the Angelyne billboard phenomenon, and I also know a number of drag queens have used her look as inspiration for their own.Money quote from Jaymes Mansfield about meeting her: “She smelled like cat piss, and I don’t think she has cats.”
8 eps about someone famous for being famous? Say whut? I’d guess this series is stuffed with padding.
Emmy Rossum seems like the wrong choice for some reason.
The fact the picture above makes it appear Angeline is making eye contact with someone makes me feel she doesn’t understand the character at all.
Was she well known for not making eye contact? I know next to nothing about her other than she bought billboards to advertise herself
Sigh… it only took me a day but I finally got it
They r both Russian Jews…Seems like a good fit to me
Do the folks at Egotastic still call her “Emmy Awesome”?
Background…
How about we let actual big breasted women play buxom women on screen instead of putting smaller chested women in what are essentially fat suits?