Tag: Valerie Bertinelli

Valerie Bertinelli’s *Two Mothers for Zachary* is a hair-raising tale of institutionalized homophobia.

Every TV movie titan’s filmography is a testament to her pluck and perseverance, and few were pluckier than the great Valerie Bertinelli. By the mid-1990s, in accordance with the bloodhound rule — so named for Thelma Ritter’s “What a story! Everything but the bloodhounds snappin’ at her rear end” scene in All About Eve — she had boldly confronted gambling addiction (The Seduction of Gina); misogyny within the Catholic Church (Shattered Vows); and a Battle of the Network Stars monkey bar challenge, among other social ills. In Two Mothers for Zachary, she tackled two of her biggest challenges yet: fighting institutionalized homophobia and sharing the screen with Vanessa Redgrave (Second Serve), whose unfashionable orange bowl cut was perhaps a misguided tribute to Bertinelli’s original TV mom, Bonnie Franklin.

The Seduction of Gina: Valerie Bertinelli Gambles

By Cranky Lesbian

On December 19, 2023

In TV Movies

Valerie Bertinelli accessorizes in *The Seduction of Gina*.

From California Split to Croupier and Uncut Gems, women are often afterthoughts in movies about gambling. Jeanne Moreau’s compulsive gambler in Bay of Angels (1963) is a notable exception, a deadbeat mom whose desperation is evident in her haunted eyes and peroxide-blonde hair. “The first time I walked into a casino, I felt like I was in church,” she recalls in that film, a romanticization not quite echoed by Valerie Bertinelli’s Gina Breslin* in The Seduction of Gina (1984).

Gina’s gambling is less about spiritual communion than emotional immaturity and marital ennui: “I feel like I’m single, except I can’t date,” she moans to best friend Mary (Dinah Manoff) as they loll around the college campus where she studies art. It’s a problem of her own making — husband David (Fredric Lehne), a young physician, warned against tagging along for his intern year, worried she’d be lonely and isolated. She insisted on cohabitating anyway but struggles during his overnight shifts, resorting first to restless late-night baking and then baccarat to keep busy.

Valerie Bertinelli is a Tempted Nun in Shattered Vows

By Cranky Lesbian

On January 28, 2022

In TV Movies

Valerie Bertinelli and David Morse in *Shattered Vows*.

Valerie Bertinelli’s Shattered Vows, a 1984 TV movie about a young nun romantically drawn to a priest, feels four hours long — like one-half of The Thorn Birds. Shockingly, it runs only 90 minutes, much of it devoted to Bertinelli’s Mary Milligan and David Morse’s Father Tim looking disturbed and conflicted.

“When I was 16 years old, I had a calling to serve God I thought would last the rest of my life,” Mary tells us in voice-over; other times it’s mentioned she knew her calling by 14. When her family tearfully deposits her with Sister Agnes (Caroline McWilliams), who is also Mary’s aunt, her mother says “She’s in your hands now.” Agnes corrects her: “She’s in God’s hands.” It isn’t long before she’d rather be in Father Tim’s.

Look what the homosexuals have done to me!

Tag: Valerie Bertinelli

Valerie Bertinelli Fights Homophobia in Two Mothers for Zachary

The Seduction of Gina: Valerie Bertinelli Gambles

Valerie Bertinelli is a Tempted Nun in Shattered Vows