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WEDNESDAY, 12 APRIL, 2000, PHILADELPHIA |
Debbie makes me laaaaugh. She reminded me of a little game we used to play in New Orleans. The Dominique Dunne “What’s happening!!!” game.Oh, c’mon, y’all remember Dominique Dunne, yes? The older sister from “Poltergeist” who had so much mystery and intrigue surrounding her very brief appearances in that film? Like why is a 16 year old girl seen inexplicably eating pickles and ice cream in an early scene? Then, about the Holiday Inn where the destroyed family ends up for the end credits, she muses pleasantly to herself, “Oh yah, I remember that place.” “Dana” is never explained in the script, but she is fleshed out by these small details.  Then, shortly after “Poltergeist” she was strangled by her white trash boyfriend in a dispute of some sort. I don’t really know the story, nor care all that much about the details, frankly. The important thing here is that she got one scene in her career which immortalised her.Towards the end of the film, the family is running about the house, coffins popping up all over the place. They toss themselves into the station wagon and begin to drive away. Just in time, and right before the house implodes, Dominique comes back from her boyfriend’s house in his hot-rod sports car, leaps out and baring her hickey proudly like a purple heart stands in the street, looking at the mayhem of the house, screaming…  HAPPENING !?!?!?! That is what Dominique Dunne is remembered for. That is all. And Debbie and I keep her memory alive by playing the Dominique Dunne game. Example: You’re at a restaurant and you order the filet mignon. The waiter informs you they are out of the filet. You stand up abruptly, push back your chair, grab your face in absolute horror and scream at the top of your lungs: Of course it helps if you have a hickey like I do. This game was spawned by a SNL idea Debz and I had one hungover morning when we watched “Poltergeist” and realised that one scene is the soul portfolio of short-lived Dominique’s life. I had it all sketched out in my mind. “Dominique Dunne” played by Gilda Radner (another dead woman), gets on the bus. She attempts to give the driver a dollar. The bus driver says kindly, “I’m sorry ma’am, exact change only.” “Dominique” faces the people on the bus, grabs her head, and starts screaming maniacally: “Dominique” gets to work. Her coworker quietly, kindly informs her she has a hickey on her neck. “Dominique” runs to a mirror, sees the hickey, then grabs the co-worker by the shoulders and screams in her face: (yah, you guessed it…) The skit goes on like that for a while: Dominique Dunne spilling a little salad dressing on her blouse; Dominique Dunne missing a taxi; Dominique Dunne losing her house keys, etc. Anyway, at the Half Moon bar in N’awlins on Sunday, I pointed out that Debbie’s drink was almost empty (you gotta plan ahead down there, y’know). She looked at her pint of gin, saw there was just a splash at the bottom, put the glass down on the bar, threw back her head and howled: (oh yah, baby…) DOMINIQUE DUNNE, REQUISCAT IN PACE  |
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