Who is Julie Brown? We should call her a comedian since she does so much: acting, writing, directing, producing, songwriting, and singing. And she’s 67 today (born 31 August 1958).
I knew her songs “The Homecoming Queen’s Got a Gun” and “‘Cause I’m a Blonde” long before I saw her in any movies. Dr Demento featured her work, which is probably why I heard it early.
And then Earth Girls Are Easy came out. Brown was already well established as an actor. From 1980, she had small parts in films and TV shows. This included two episodes of Newhart where she played Buffy Denver. If you want to know what the character was like just think about pretty much any other role she has played.
Earth Girls Are Easy was produced specifically for her. She co-wrote the script with frequent collaborator Charlie Coffey and then-husband Terrence E McNally. And the film features two musical numbers, “I Like ‘Em Big and Stupid” and “‘Cause I’m a Blonde.” But Geena Davis was unquestionably the star of the film.
Julie Brown has gone on to have an excellent career. She’s too idiosyncratic to be a huge star. But she has done a lot of great work that psychotronic fans will like.
Speaking of which, you should definitely check out Attack of the 5 ft 2 in Women. She co-wrote (again with Coffey) and co-directed (with Richard Wenk). If you like Julie Brown, you will like it.
Official Portrait of Julie Brown via Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 3.0.
We saw Earth Girls recently, which I loved when it came out. It’s bad, but the bad’s all on Julien Temple, a real idiot of a director. The script’s very funny. I love the line “I’ll miss you least of all,” which is pure Brown.
Tom Daley, a seasoned and sensible TV pro, directed the “Homecoming Queen” video, and did a fine job. “In her good ear” will always kill me.
What’s great about Brown is she grew up in L.A., but she mocked the whole “airhead princess” ideal that was presented on MTV and such as the Epitome of Cool. Nah. Julie Brown showed us genuine cool. The person with wit & smarts who made that stuff into a joke. Like, totally, ya know?
When I was writing this, I learned that she was in an episode of Quantum Leap. So I found it and watched it. Despite her doing her usual character, she provided emotional depth. She’s brilliant!