Jesus loves winners: 20 fascinating facts about cult comedy ‘Drop Dead Gorgeous,’ a problematic fave
Drop Dead Gorgeous, a 1999 mockumentary directed by Michael Patrick Jann, was initially a certified flop—both with critics and at the box office.
A violent, darkly comical look at small-town beauty pageants, the film stars Kirsten Dunst as Amber, a girl who yearns to win the local pageant and use the scholarship money to leave her humble hometown behind.
But things quickly turn deadly as her fellow contestants start dropping like flies.Oh, and along the way, a murderer’s row of scene-stealing actresses turn up, each as sidesplittingly hilarious as the last, including Allison Janney, Kirstie Alley, Denise Richards, Brittany Murphy, Ellen Barkin, and even Amy Adams.Drop Dead Gorgeous didn’t hit at first, but thanks in part to its iconic ensemble, the movie has since developed a devoted cult following—even if a few of its story elements are problematic by todays’ standards. As we approach the film’s 25th anniversary, here are 20 facts about the strange, hilarious and off-kilter comedy.Even though has a modest production budget of $15 million, it was considered a box-office bomb, only grossing $10.5 million in total during its theatrical run.Reviews were not kind to the film at the time, and though some critics have praised it in retrospect, the film still sits at a poor 47% approval rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.After working as a writing assistant on The Simpsons, Lona Williams wrote her first feature screenplay—initially titled Dairy Queens—based on her own experiences participating in beauty pageants while growing up in Minnesota.Williams used scholarship money from pageants to go to the University of Minnesota.Janney told Buzzfeed, “My funniest moment about Drop Dead Gorgeous was being in an airport and sitting next to some kids who were going over their favorite Loretta lines… and I said, ‘Um, hi, I played Loretta in the movie.’ And they literally started screaming.