Wendy Brandes Jewelry Blog

Never Is the Next New Thing

Naughty, Stylish Audrey Horne

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Who killed Laura Palmer?
In 1990, I was totally obsessed with David Lynch’s show Twin Peaks. Set in the eerie fictional town of Twin Peaks, Wash., it starred Kyle MacLachlan, who might be more familiar to you youngsters as Trey on Sex and the City and Orson on Desperate Housewives. He played Dale Cooper, an FBI special agent with a yen for homemade cherry pie, who was investigating the murder of local Queen Bee teen Laura Palmer. In addition to a naked dead girl wrapped in plastic, the town featured pleasures and oddities such as “damn fine coffee” (when there wasn’t a mysterious fish in the coffee pot), a lady with a pet log, a dancing dwarf and a pre-X-Files David Duchovny as a transvestite DEA agent.

Special agent Cooper ponders Laura Palmer’s killer and cherry pie. Not necessarily in that order.

The character who has really stuck with me all these years is naughty high-school girl Audrey Horne, glamorously played by red-lipsticked Sherilyn Fenn in tight sweaters, plaid skirts and saddle shoes. She was a style icon, there’s no doubt about it.

Audrey ponders Laura Palmer’s killer and Dale Cooper. Not necessarily in that order.
Photo from The Cultural Blindspot

Audrey was the daughter of the richest guy in town, and just a wee bit off-kilter in a dreamy kind of way. I can’t find the clip of her tying a cherry stem into a knot with her tongue, but I did find a clip of her strange and provocative dance in the diner. This short scene is oh-so-very David Lynch. The girl watching Audrey with a dubious expression is a young Lara Flynn Boyle, who played good girl Donna Martin.

I can’t really pull off Audrey’s sexy schoolgirl look, but I’m committed to the red lipstick.

While Twin Peaks deteriorated in the second season, the first season is so worth watching. It was truly groundbreaking, and shows like Lost wouldn’t exist without it. One scene you really want to see is Audrey’s dad Benjamin eating Brie and baguettes brought from Paris by his brother. The two of them moaning and groaning through mouthfuls of food actually made people call in and complain. Apparently, America wasn’t ready for cheese sex.

UPDATED MAY 2, 2011, TO ADD: Sherilyn Fenn blogs occasionally here, which is how I found out she shaved her head.

Click for her post on why she shaved.

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Comments

  2. Oooh..Twin Peaks, very nostalgic. You look great with red lips, I, on the other hand would without fail look like a giant goldfish if I put red lips on. Tips, Wendy, tips…!

  3. Am I the only one who was thrilled when Fenn finally reappeared on the small screen in Gilmore Girls? I wish she got more props for her Twin Peaks style… I think it remains very influential and extraordinarily sexy.

  4. Yay for red lipstick and old TV series! 🙂
    I like Sherilyn Fenn on Gilmore Girls. I think it’s a ‘fresh’ role for her, for a change. Also loved her part in Rude Awakening (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165057/), playing a sarcastic alcoholic actress. 🙂
    Don’t you remember her in Two Moon Junction?

  5. i love red lipstick, too. about twin peaks: i had a single LP of the theme song ‘falling’ – but have never ever seen an episode. i had a friend with older sisters and she made me believe that twin peak was just ‘IT’, so i bought the record… i wonder where it is, i can still remeber the melody…
    see a video on you tube

  6. @Fenke, I loved the music from the show, especially the songs by Julee Cruise. You can get her Floating Into the Night album with Falling on it on iTunes.

  8. Dulcinea, I don’t know you but I love you! I’ve been obsessively listening to the Man of La Mancha Broadway soundtrack, particularly the song Dulcinea, for weeks!