Let's be Perfect (1985)

I'm the audience member thinking, "Who cast Jamie Lee Curtis as a sexy female lead? She looks like a gym teacher. The butch lesbian kind.*

You mean this one, OP? I love it.

To be fair r1, her character did work in a gym.

At the time she said she starved herself for that role.

She did do an amazing tuck job for that role - -

I'm a tubby Jan Wenner.

Quite big tits.

I'm John Travolta's "friend," gay porn star Paul Barresi, doing a cameo in the locker room scene in my jock strap.

i'm all the guys in the movie in the background as extras or with small speaking roles (marilu henner's male stripper boyfriend), real life at the time chippendale dan peterson, paul barresi and others who are WAY WAY HOTTER then the so called male sex symbol star of the movie travolta...

So considerate of the DL preview box to crop out Paul Baressi's balding pate.

I'm the ridiculous notion that there was something to "uncover" and/or "expose" in the world of-- gasp!-- AEROBICS.

I'm Laraine Newman. The movie should have been about me.

I'm Jann Wenner's cameo!

Jann Wenner gave me my METOO moment.

I'm John Travolta's boner flopping around in his loose shorty shorts.

I'm Carly Simon trying to be an actress and throwing a glass of wine in John Travolta's face.

I'm the movie's theme song video, featuring:

- Hot Tony from the Solid Gold dancers

- Jermaine Jackson's big cock bulging out of his white tights (1:00 mark)

- Jamie Lee's orgasmic screeches, pelvic thrusts, and camel toe

- John Travolta pretending to be interested in Jamie Lee while all the hot gay men in short shorts parade in front of him

I'm the snug-bordering-on-constrictive belts worn over leotards because... Well, I don't know.

[quote]r17 I'm the movie's theme song video

I like that Jamie Lee screams, "Here we go!" and no one budges.

Did Jamie go full on "method" for this role or what???!!!

This thread is a GAS, but you're all too mean to my favourite scream queen! There wasn't any camel toe R17, and no one needs to tuck a slightly enlarged clit. OP it wasn't a "little boy's body" either, as she has breasts, and a typical woman's bottom (AKA a "womanly" ass on DL). AND, It was a [italic] Health Club [/italic] R3, not a Gym.

I'm the Sports Erection on Santa Monica Blvd in WeHo.

I'm the headbands. Headbands for everyone!

I'm the whirly bird. I was cut from the movie but was included on the aerobics episode of The Golden Girls.

I'd like to think that the final casting decision for the female lead came down to Jamie Lee and Hilary 'Yvonne' Shepard

I'm Yvonne and I work at a Women Only health club, the antidote to the 80s pick-up scene at other gyms. My club is for women who are SERIOUS about getting in shape, not looking for Mr. Good Body.

Whoo!

I’m Whitney’s vocals on Shock Me

The ultimate workout song

I'm Rolling Stone trying to be more than a rock music magazine.

I'm the discarded penis and balls of Jamie Lee's penectomy lying in a trashcan! The only reason she did this movie was so she could show off that smoooooth vagina! You'll never see a camel toe here!!!

R17 yuck, is it possible for Jermaine to not look like a greasy mess? I assumed it was Jheri Curl juice but it’s all over his arms too

I'm the nit wit in every thread about Jamie Lee Curtis, making hermaphrodite jokes based on a false rumor.

That term is outdated, no?

I'm the cocaine fueled aerobics classes, filled only with skinny hardbodies. Even Marlilu Henner was too fat to be allowed in the aerobics scenes.

Jamie Lee Curtis stopped making horror movies for this shit?

Bitch!

I'm the guy in the black bikini briefs just combing his hair while the other guys pose for the Rolling Stone photos.

This was the kind of body we all wanted back then. Thin and sleek, with a small butt. Huge breasts were matronly and made you look fat. Short hair wasn’t considered dykey, necessarily.

Now you need big tits, a giant ass and long sausage curls to be considered.

[quote]R37 Short hair wasn’t considered dykey, necessarily.

I associate short hair on women as being chic as more of a 90s than an 80s thing: Demi Moore in GHOST, cropped Linda Evangelista going mainstream, etc.

Jamie Lee having short hair in the 80s didn’t make her generation run out and cut theirs...

R38 Madonna had short cropped hair in 86-87, the True Blue years

R2's picture looks like John Taylor from Duran Duran.

Short hair on JL Curtis was an odd choice. Usually with someone horsey like that, you try to soften things up (emphasize the feminine, etc.)

Exactly, r41!

I mean - -

r38

Your association doesn't change facts.

Pat Benatar did have short hair, you're right.

All women had one length of hair in each decade!

It was weird when Curtis dragged her boycut into the TV movie where she played Dorothy Stratten - who actually had long, flowing, Playboy Bunny hair.

Mike Brady stars with her ... in the same haircut.

Wait, Robert Reed played the role Eric Roberts played in the Fosse directed movie?

Stratten, and her hair:

I'm Christopher Guest's deep loathing of this film.

"So what’s so terrible about getting yourself up cute in a strapless Betty Boop dress for your biggest opening night and smiling for the paparazzi? Tell him, 'Look, hon, I can play the Movie Star role like this,' and snap your fingers.

He’ll say you’re just a different person, that’s all, and he doesn’t know that person."

[quote]r48 Wait, Robert Reed played the role Eric Roberts played in the Fosse directed movie?

Mr. Brady plays "David Palmer" ... who I think was a standin character for the real life Peter Bogdanovich.

Bruce Weitz plays Paul Snider.

There is a smokin hot guy who played an extra in some of the aerobics scenes. He was a bit actor in the eighties, known for his perfect body. Travolta had to have been hittin' that!

R52 was he the one with the thick dark brown hair, with dark eyebrows and handsome mug? that's the only extra in the background i remember who was hot,, other then the dark haired blue eyed stunner that was real life chippendale dan peterson, who was seen at the home party of marilu henner's character...i think he had a few lines though not sure but if so he wasn't a extra in the background..

speaking of dorothy stratten, on what planet could and would and should jamie lee curtis have played this beautiful blonde feminine woman named dorothy stratten?

I am in awe that you all have such detailed memories of a movie that came out the year I was born.

r53 yes, he had brown hair and blue eyes and his abs were perfect in a way that was insane. I think he also did exercise videos in the 80s that were very homoerotic.

R52 Well, we know Travolta was hittin' Paul Baressi from the locker room scene.

R55 then you are remembering and describing chippendale dan peterson! he was THEE cover boy for chippendale products (calendar, coffee mugs, etc) back in the day... he also was on the episode of "the facts of life" entitled "i'm dancing as fast as i can" when the girls take mrs. garrett to a male strip club and peterson plays the club maitre'd who takes them to their table in his shirtless, black suspenders and black spray painted on spandex pants! utterly dreamy he was in the early to mid 80's in his prime....

AND YES, back then he DID he star in very erotic/homoerotic/ sexualized videos on SHOWTIME back in the day, the episodes were entitled simply "the 20 minute workout" .. usually it starred only women in barely there aerobic workout wear doing exercises to music and it was highly sexualized movements.. peterson was the SOLE guy (if i remember correctly) who did some of these episode wearing only a black cotton/polyester 1 piece singlet very very high cut up his legs that cradled his crotch and like a tank top on his upper body! he too would do exercises that were blatantly sexualized and erotic....AWESOME STUFF AND AWESOME J.O. material...

you can actually find some of these episodes on youtube, not sure though if you can find the episodes of peterson on them though on youtube?

r57 The guy I'm talking about is right next to Travolta's right shoulder in this screen shot.

Oops, r57 let me try again.

So, the guy right behind Travolta.

[quote]r53 speaking of dorothy stratten, on what planet could and would and should jamie lee curtis have played this beautiful blonde feminine woman named dorothy stratten?

It was a TV movie, and I think it was made in a rush to cash in on the publicity the pre-production of the upcoming STAR 80 was generating. So, the standards weren't that high. Curtis may have looked nothing like Stratten, but she had a good body she wasn't shy about exposing. And she came cheap, because she was desperate for exposure. (Plus, truthfully, only Playboy subscribers, and maybe only half of those, really knew what this woman had actually looked like.)

Stratten really was divine looking, for her type. If you had a fantasy of bedding any straight man you wanted, and could pick out one body for 24 hours with which to accomplish this, Dorothy Stratten's would be just about your best bet.

All hysterical slander aside, "Perfect" is a well-made perfectly entertaining movie.

Is that why it bombed?

[quote] If you had a fantasy of bedding any straight man you wanted

What do you mean "IF"? It's EVERY gay man's dream!

R59... i originally thought that was who you were talking about. the handsome dark brown hair guy in the pale blue tank top in that aerobics scene with travolta.. this is NOT chippendale dan peterson, but a extra and i'm not sure who he is... but you have good taste, he is quite sexy and handsome..

I'm every fad from 1985 that could possibly be crammed into this movie:

Boy George

Off-the-shoulder, jersey knit, belted, pastel colored minidresses with high heels.

Headbands.

Ice Cream Maker party.

Wham! Rap

Threesome relationships.

Straight men joining health clubs to pick up on women.

Men with big, stiff...hair.

I'm the Final Net sprayed on everyone's hair.

I'm John Travolta's career in its JOKE phase, before his 90s comeback.

Christian Letelier? He was another Chippendale.

remember back in the day when to be a chippendale you HAD to be drop dead turning the had gorgeous and ALL of them were... nowadays? sure the bloom , the fad, the newness of it all has left years if not decades ago, but a decent body and a decent face and your "in"..

[Quote] a decent body and a decent face and your "in"..

I'm Jamie Lee's micropenis, safely tucked away...

I'm word processors and floppy disks, tools of the modern magazine writer's trade.

[quote]I'm John Travolta's boner flopping around in his loose shorty shorts.

That was thanks to a clever costumer. The scene wasn't working -- the sexual innuendo wasn't coming across.

So Travolta was taken back to wardrobe and something with weight was sewn into his shorts, to flop around so the camera could catch it.

[quote]I'm John Travolta's boner flopping around in his loose shorty shorts.

That was thanks to a clever costumer. The scene wasn't working -- the sexual innuendo wasn't coming across.

So Travolta was taken back to wardrobe and something with weight was sewn into his shorts, to flop around so the camera could catch it.

^ Is there a source on that? I really want to believe it's true!

I'm all the garters holding in Jamie's size 8" penis.

I'm a house in the L.A. 'burbs where four swingin' single, twentysomething roommates are all living together.

I'm Jermaine Jackson's huge dick bulge, clearly visible inside his tight white lycra jumpsuit several times in the video for the movie's theme song:

I'm Jann Wenner, ogling boys on the side like John, but I am the owner of Rolling Stone and higher on the food chain than John was at the time...guess who gets lucky?

I'm Carly Simon's agent, canceling any future plans for her to have a film career following her cameo in this film.

I didn't catch this thread the first time around. This is why I love DL - nowhere would there be a "Let's be Perfect" thread. And multiple people are familiar with its campy goodness.

Wonder if Carly's and Wenner's BFF JBKO got a private screening?

Carly said shooting that scene was a pain in the ass because Wenner kept fucking up.

So they would have to get Travolta to hair and makeup, clean him up, dry him off, get him in new clothes, while everyone sat on the set waiting for yet one more take.

Carly said shooting that scene was a pain in the ass because Wenner kept fucking up.

So they would have to get Travolta to hair and makeup, clean him up, dry him off, get him in new clothes, while everyone sat on the set waiting for yet one more take.

I'm watching Perfect because of this thread. It's gloriously campy. The premise is, of course, ridiculous - but it's not really "bad" in a technical sense. It's well put together. The fitness and aerobics scenes are social distancing nightmares.

I liked it. I thought that it was one of Travolta’s better eighties films. And I have always loved Jamie Lee. My favorite performance in this, however, was Laraine Newman’s sad sack. This should have been a breakthrough film performance for her and established her as a dependable character actress.

I thoroughly enjoyed it. Honestly, not even in a so-bad-it's-good way. Just escapist fluff. It's so overtly sexual. The long sequence with the male dancer in just a jock. The photoshoot in the men's locker room and the incredibly hot daddy in just his jock along with four other men. All the gyrating, tight spandex, and bulges in the fitness scenes. It also made me long for the 80s and 90s - as it shows social lives without phones or computers.

It’s bad reputation, like Batman and Robin, is a stealth way of saying “It’s too gay.”

True, but even with all the "gay" bulging guys and male ass and jockstraps, there's really no gay subtext between characters.

Has anyone mentioned the Lauren Hutton cameo?

I’m Marilu’s hunky stripper boyfriend. I’m one of the hottest guys on the 80’s and you’ll never see me again.

Who is the hairy guy in the locker room photoshoot?

R92 That's Paul Barresi, former gay porn star and former lover of Ms. Travolta.

I was always surprised that Rolling Stone would agree to let them portray it as a magazine that would alter an article and then falsely put a reporter's name on it

R94, Jan Wenner probably used that as leverage to get that big of a role. "Sure, you can portray Rolling Stone like that, as long as I have a good role."

Others have said he's awful. I thought he was serviceable in the role.

The word about Jamie's hair is that it's super fine with very little body, so she chopped it all off so that she wouldn't have to be in endless curling/teasing/hairspray sessions and/or wigs. Especially in sweaty aerobic scenes. Other women with fine hair have done the same-Glenn Close, Charlize Theron, Michelle Williams (although all of them are fine with wigs).

I'm the vertical blinds letting in strips of afternoon sunlight as John Travolta sits depressed in his apartment, not answering the ringing phone.

I’m the Caesar Salad which is the only food Jamie Lee allowed herself to eat everyday while getting physically prepared for this role about a health club fitness trainer. I represent the hypocrisy inherent in health fads which are really about sexual attractiveness.

Is this like the 80s version of a Peloton class?

I’m “wanna fuck?” Jaime Lee’s typed unambiguous proposition for John

I’m the coke and quite frankly, I’m shocked I haven’t been mentioned yet.