By Erin Free
MAPS TO THE STARS “I made the writer, Bruce Wagner, the godfather of my daughter just so I could get in this movie,” Carrie Fisher told Time Out of her supporting role in the engagingly (and appropriately) bizarre Maps To The Stars, a meeting of the minds between the aforementioned Bruce Wagner (Wild Palms) and David Cronenberg (The Fly, Eastern Promises). In this vicious, unfettered, and absolutely brutal satire on Hollywood, Fisher is ironically the only movie star to appear as herself, dropping in to get the film’s innocent young heroine (Mia Wasikowska) a job as a PA with Julianne Moore’s deranged, horribly faded movie star. It’s amusingly fitting that Carrie Fisher serves here as the gateway to Hollywood excess and weirdness.
THE BIG BANG THEORY In Season 7 of the hugely successful pop culture-loving sitcom, Jim Parsons’ Star Wars obsessed Sheldon enjoys a night on the town with actor, James Earl Jones, who, of course, provided the sonorous tones for the film’s big bad, Darth Vader. Their goofy exploits climax with the pair playing a little knock-and-run with Carrie Fisher, who answers her door armed with a baseball bat, and yells, “It’s not funny anymore, James!” To which he replies, “Then why am I laughing?” It’s a cute moment, but also important for the fact that it prompted the first ever actual physical meeting of Fisher and Jones, who had never visited a Star Wars set, doing all his work in the sound booth. “As they were approaching each other, Carrie yelled out, ‘Dad!’,” the show’s producer, Steven Molaro, has recounted.
SEX AND THE CITY In the HBO essential, Carrie Fisher makes an entrance to die for. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Fisher simmers when she catches her personal assistant (played by, no less, than Vince Vaughn!) in bed with the series’ leading lady, Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker). “I told you! No prostitutes while you’re house sitting!” When Carrie tries to smooth things over (“I’m Carrie, you’re Carrie, I’m a writer too”), it all continues to go further awry. It’s a short but sweet scene, amusing principally for the fact that Fisher is the most mature, responsible person in the scene (“I have a daughter,” she sighs. “I can’t do this”), and also for the fact that it unites two of the most iconic female stars/characters in screen history.
LISA PICARD IS FAMOUS Barely released and even less seen, this loose, funny mockumentary from actor/director, Griffin Dunne (who most famously starred for Martin Scorsese in 1985’s After Hours, and has helmed the likes of Practical Magic and Addicted To Love), follows two wannabe actors (played by the film’s writers, Laura Kirk and Nat De Wolf) struggling to make their way in Hollywood. Fisher drops in for a few brief moments (as do Charlie Sheen, Sandra Bullock, and Mira Sorvino, who also produces) as a staged interview subject, offering some telling words of wisdom about the nature of stardom. “This hilarious fake documentary deserves a place beside the comedies of Christopher Guest in the hall of fame of semi-deadpan spoofs,” wrote Stephen Holden in The New York Times.
IT’S LIKE, YOU KNOW… Had you forgotten about this sitcom, which ran for two seasons in the early 2000s? Yep, so had we. A cameo-filled satire about a New York writer (Chris Eigeman) who moves to LA in order to write a book about how much he hates the city, the show featured Dirty Dancing star, Jennifer Grey, playing herself as a regular character, and (in a stretch) can even be seen as a forbear to shows like Californication, Extras, and Entourage. In the episode knowingly entitled, “Arthur 2: On The Rocks”, Carrie Fisher appears as herself, and spends most of her screen time avoiding phone calls from David Bowie.
