Feeling nostalgic? John Hughes has been in the news this week. First there was a profile of the writer/director in the Los Angeles Times (he helped write Drillbit Taylor, but under a pseudonym, shh!) and a NPR piece about Long Duk Dong. Now, Meg Cabot, author of The Princess Diaries, has posted a YouTube clip (to promote her new book) in which she reenacts a key scene from Pretty in Pink using dolls.
Clip above; the comments are for arguing over your fave John Hughes film (A toss-up between Weird Science and Sixteen Candles, although next week I'll change my mind to The Breakfast Club or European Vacation.)
John Hughes' Imprint Remains [LA Times]
Long Duk Dong: Last of the Hollywood Stereotypes? [NPR]
What's With the John Hughes Nostalgia? [GalleyCat]
Pretty In Pink [YouTube]
Earlier: Sixteen Candles Or Pretty In Pink: Which Is Better?













Comments
When I was 15, I was all about Blaine. But now, I'd take Steph in a fucking heartbeat.
And I had a Duckie in high school. Andie made the right decision, there.
Ok so The Princess Diaries are actually hilarious books. I read them when I was 14.
I was pissed when Disney made them all well, Disney.
Pretty in Pink. Stef for the win. I like them dickish.
Breakfast Club all the way! Hah! I was a "weirdo". And Emilio...sigh, so sincere.
Yeah, I tend to pick the assholes, so Steph it is....When it comes to Sixteen Candles though, the choice would be way different. Definitely would pick Jake Ryan in a heartbeat. Mmmmm
Ditto. I thought Stef was soo hot with his pointedly pointed looks and hair swishing. I tend to go for bitchy guys.
That video makes me so happy. I'm torn between The Breakfast Club (points for drugs and literature), Pretty in Pink (points for hilarious subcultures), and Ferris Bueller's Day Off (points for ingenious gadgetry and excuse-making). Oh, John Hughes.
Sixteen Candles all the way!
"I can't believe I just gave my panties to a dork..."
I didn't even see Pretty in Pink 'til much, much later in life. Embarrassing, I know. So by then I was just meh about it.
Oh I'm a P.I.P.er for sure. Blaine is just so... sincere. And dreamy. Not Jake Ryan hot, but maybe I like a little girlyness in my men.
But oh snap! I just wiki'd John Hughes and it looks like he's made a few other terrific faves:
- Home Alone
- Uncle Buck
- The Great Outdoors
- Maid in Manhattan (JUST KIDDING!)
God, I miss classic Hughes.
Why with the crappy new stuff John, why?
"thanks for loanin' me the donger, he's real bitchin"
i remember seeing sixteen candles in the theatre (I feel old now)...i had the biggest crush on molly ringwald...sigh
I actually had a dream about Jake Ryan last night! Sigh... Also, Ferris Bueller's day off has that awesome parade scene! I have always loved movies that feature random strangers coming together to perform synchronized dance numbers.
Sixteen Candles without a doubt. I had a mad crush on a guy in college who looked like Jake Ryan, and I still day-dream about him from time-to-time...almost 20 yrs later.
That clip just made the world a benevolent place again.
A few years ago I walked past James Spader on the street, and my knees went weak. What is it about the assholes like Steff that makes them so appealing?
There is no debate. It is Sixteen Candles, and it will always be Sixteen Candles. Jake Ryan has ruined me for any other man.
ok, big news is I like Meg Cabot now. I feel like I've worn myself out on Breakfast Club, so maybe Ferris Bueller. or Sixteen Candles. ugh.
I was a bridesmaid last summer for the first of my friends to get married, and the entire time we were down in Long Beach for the wedding my BF and I kept spontaneously turning to each other and quoting "Married?" "Mawied!" from that scene in Sixteen Candles. Still cracks me up.
Breakfast Club FTW. My favorite by far. Although I'd take Stef or Jake Ryan over the any of them.
Meg Cabot writes the only non-Bridget Jones "chick lit" that I can stomach. I bought Queen of Babble for beach reading last summer and was so pleasantly surprised.
That video...sweet!
Hands down my fav John Hughes film is Teen Witch.
@Ptarmigan: I am so pathetic, because I am laughing at my own comment.
Steff is smoking hot. Hell, he still is, even on Boston Legal.
Also, Pretty in Pink FTW. Or Some Kind of Wonderful.
At lunch I was telling my coworker about me and my sister's unhealthy obsession with Weird Science when we were kids. We would watch that and Ghostbusters on a continuous loop.
Steff owns my heart, but in recent viewings of Ferris Bueller Cameron makes me tingle inside and out. Who needs Ferris, Cameron, take me away!
Jake Ryan? Boring, gag. @OhhYeah: And that is just depressing.
Pretty In Pink. Definitely. I LOVED that movie. I still do.
Sixteen Candles, mos def. For my 16th, I asked my dad for Jake Ryan. I got an Integra instead. Not that I'm complaining, but...
I liked PiP but.... that dress... ACK! Everything that was wrong with fashion in the 80s is represented in that dress.
I like some of Meg Cabot's books...esp her "Size 12 is not fat!" series right now.
Anyways, Meg also gives beauty tips about your neck:
+ Watch video
funny but true! "I don't want to inject poison in my neck..." or have her obituary say she died of plastic surgery. What to do instead?
@TrixieBelden: I loved Weird Science! When Aliens came out every time they showed Bill Paxton all I could think about was CHET. Big stupid hateful mean Chet. My favorite part was when the random motorcycle dudes ride into the house for the big confrontation to make the poor nerdy dudes look tough. And that woman when she is walking through the mess saying "you have a lovely home."
I am on a second go round of these flicks now at age 40. My 15 yr old thinks the Breakfast Club is bitchin. She loves it. I told her one day we will do a PIP, Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club marathon (now I will have to remember to add Weird Science).
I'm on team Sixteen Candles (obvi, see avatar) but I do love Pretty in Pink too. I would love a James Spader doll. In all seriousness, I would love to just move to 1980s John Hughes movie-world. I hope that is where I go when I die.
Some Kind of Wonderful. I wanted to be Watts. Seriously, John Hughes saved me from late-eighties mall hair because I was so enamored of Watts I cut and died my hair like hers. Although, I would have preferred Jake Ryan to have Eric Stoltz's role - cuz that would have made the fantasizing more consistent.
@littlemissvan: Me too. Which is why I love the Blues Brothers so much.
Back to the topic at hand - Ferris Bueller gets an honorable mention, but I was annoyed at how much they messed with Chicago geography. I vote for the Breakfast Club. I got into some trouble with school (and the law) as a teen at my rich kid's high school. John "Go fix me a turkey pot pie!" Bender is my favorite, though I was closer to Brian "I'm in the Math club" Johnson
@lolacat: I also wanted to be Watts; it was refreshing to have a female character that played drums, fixed cars, and still made herself vulnerable. I always preferred Duncan (Elias Koteas), the skinhead with the heart of gold from detention to Eric Stoltz.
Nothing really to add, just Meg Cabot rocks. : )
@adamcurryshair: I loved Duncan. I don't think that it was much of a coincidence that all the guys I dated up to my thirties looked more like Duncan than Jake Ryan. Combat boots, tattoos, shaved head. While Jake captured my heart in sixth grade (it's hard to fight that), Duncan was a lot more the type I ended up dating.
That movie saved me from so much 80's embarrassment it wasn't funny. Before I saw it, I was trying very hard to look like Jon Bon Jovi (I have no recollection why but I had a perm and duster, so...).
From memory: "I'm not going to hurt them. I'm not even going to touch them. I'm just going to make them cry a little. By looking at them."
Thanks Meg. You made me smile and smile.
I wish PiP had more Duckie and Steph.
I never liked Molly Ringwald. Whatever teen movie she was in, she would come off like a stuck-up bitch. It was fine for TBC, but not for PiP, or Sixteen Candles. And it was funny how her onscreen relationship with Dennis Hopper in The Pickup Artist mirrored her onscreen relationship with Harry Dean Stanton in PiP.
@lolacat: Did anyone else think it was funny that all the guys in high school detention look like men in their twenties and thirties doing time in the prison yard?
I love Meg Cabot, as well as that movie (aside from my severe contempt for Blaine and his wimpiness)
meg cabot is one of my favorite authors. and 16 candles is my favorite
Meg Cabot reads Jezebel.
Aaaand, I wrote her fanmail when I was 14 (I'm 21 now), and she wrote me back. I was thrilled. To. Pieces. It was clear she wrote back herself, not an assistant or anything.
Hi Meg! HI!!!! Aww. God, I love the Mediator series so much.
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