Courteney Cox looked awful in the Dancing in the Dark video

She’s the epitome of pretty and bland. No personality. Girl next door Jennifer Aniston was the breakout female from Friends and not beautiful Courtney because the former can do silly and fun and sexy, the latter can’t.

Did she fuck Bruce ?

Probably R2.

A young Bruce always reminds me of a young Paul Carrigan (or vice-versa).

Bruce was so hot

She looked fine.

Courtney looks dykey here.

Springsteen was hot as blazes in those days. Isn't that when he was married to that first wife, the one who cleaned him up and made him sexay?

"Bruce sure is gorgeous in that video!" (Courtenay who? What?)

Courteney didn't come into her own until she was approaching 30, gorgeous bone structure.

Thanks for sharing that video, OP. Bruce was amazing!

Someone I know always says she looks fat in this video, but I'm like, fat? Where?

I believe this is the only thing trapped in celluloid where she has a boy haircut. I guess with the video's director being none other than Jonathan Demme, she was able to get the showbiz hookup? Not long after this, she was starring in the film version of He Man, Masters of the Universe.

Seeing Bruce do the "Carlton" dance at the end is priceless.

I love this video.

He's hot. But does he have very weird proportions? Like huge head on small body. Or large torso on slim legs?

Poor Courteney. Overshadowed even on her own hate thread!

Only her ass looks fat. She should've lost 10 pounds.

As sexy as a surfboard.

She was too good of a shrew on Friends. She didn’t have the kind of talent to fake that, you know she was born that way.

R12 - It was Brian De Palma not Jonathan Demme.

IDK - even in high school, she was quite pretty. I think it's the haircut in the Springsteen video that isn't flattering.

I always thought she looked rather lesbionic in that video. Tres butch.

Wow he was gorgeous. Terrible dancer. Cox was pretty..I see why he was fucking her and gave her a career.

Pity Springsteen never had that terrible underbite fixed. I guess he was scared it would affect his singing long term.

I was about 12 & really believed she was just a girl pulled from the audience. I lived in WI at the time.

I was about 11 and I truly believed she was a boy pulled from the audience.

isn't bruce a jersey midget?

Yes, Bruce is very short. He's compact and muscular and smells great.

The music video was shot to feature much more of Courtney and another actress playing her best friend. The video followed the girls as they get ready to go to the big Bruce concert, traveling to the show, making their way to the stage, etc. But that storyline was totally edited out, obviously. It still was huge for Courtney's career.

Courtney is very pretty and sexy and her "Monica" was my favorite character on friends. I'm not really a fan, though.

She's very charming when chatting about her experience making the video

More very young Courteney.

She’s bland. Nothing sexy about her. She also has been rumored to have been a racist.

Her career technically didn't really take off for another decade, except for Family Ties.

Did it give her career a boost? Sure. But she didn’t become famous until Friends.

Alicia Silverstone also had a career start because of a music video.

As a young gay boy at the time, she seemed like such a tomboy and not feminine at all, enough that there were hopes for me that Bruce might really like guys and it fueled a crush and quite a few wanks. That video was the peak of his beauty, virility and sexiness.

[quote]Her career technically didn't really take off for another decade, except for Family Ties.

Even then she still couldn't act. She couldn't even get as many laughs as two children and two guys with an IQ of 100 between the two of them.

I love that there's two shots in the beginning of his crotch.

But Bruce looked really hot, and I am not a fan. It might be the only time I thought he looked hot.

Per Wikipedia, this might explain a bit.

Her parents divorced in 1974 and her mother then married businessman Hunter Copeland (uncle to music promoter and business manager Ian Copeland and The Police drummer Stewart Copeland).[6

I remember there was tons of praise for this video heaped on Springsteen precisely because he featured an ordinary looking girl next door type, instead of a dolled-up, ratted-haired video vixen.

It's hard to underestimate the massive, throbbing boner almost all critics and rock journalists had for anything Springsteen did back then. He literally could do no wrong in their eyes, and so the attention she got for appearing in this vid with him was way out of proportion.

She looks nothing short of enchanting in her bit at the end of the video. What is wrong with you people??

She's very cute and girl next door. There were a few seasons into Friends where she was at her peak and was just stunning.

And she dated and almost married Ian Copeland - her step cousin. So she is also step-related to the drummer of the Police (Stewart Copeland) and the founder of IRS Records (Miles Copeland).

I wonder when she was dating him in the 80's and if it had any influence on using her in the video. She definitely had music connections in the 80's - that's for sure.

They make it seem like she was just some model and lucked out in getting picked for this video. I don't think that's the case. I think it was a favor to get her noticed - but I've no evidence.

No, she doesn't really look enchanting, she looks phony and fake and a terrible actress ("who, me? oh gosh," etc.). EVERYONE laughed at this video when it came out and how bad it was and especially her. (I don't remember any of the praise that R39 is talking about.) OP's question is totally valid.

But everyone agreed that Bruce looked hot.

She's so annoying in this video! It almost made me hate this song when it came out

Ungrateful bitch. I let her on my show and this is how she repays me? If only I had made a few phone calls to Deirdre‘s husband’s business associates when I had the chance.

What did Bruce's bush look like?

Probably not as dry and droopy as mine.

How on earth did Brian De Palma get this gig?

That's right, it was De Palma, not Demme!

[quote]Alicia Silverstone also had a career start because of a music video.

I was partial to her in her screen debut The Crush, which came before the Aerosmith videos.

She only had half a camera on her.

[quote]What did Bruce's bush look like?

Feast your eyes...

R31, a racist? Where'd u hear that?

Bruce is still fuckable but he was even sexier back then.

[quote]r42 No, she doesn't really look enchanting

I guess you don’t know what a beautiful girl looks like.

This is what a beautiful girl looks like.

You're COMPLETELY FULL OF SHIT, R42.

Bruce looked great in the video. But it was actually the second video for "Dancing in the Dark." Bruce recorded a first video that was so embarrassingly bad that it never saw the light of day. The video used to be online, but now you can't find it anywhere. Here's an article about it.

She looked better in the video and Family Ties than the bloodless cryptkeeper loaded with filler and botox she resembles now.

It did see the light of day. You just said it was online.

I think she's very pretty and I love her hair as well. When I first saw this video before, I actually thought it's not scripted and Bruce just randomly plucked her out just because her looks stood out.

[quote] It did see the light of day. You just said it was online.

Well, OK, it surfaced briefly online, decades after the fact, and then was promptly taken down. But it was never seen back when Bruce was at his most popular. Geez.

Damn, that man knew how to strut about in form fitting jeans!

Alfonzo Ribiero did it best and Courteney probably stole it from some Black girl in Alabama.

R29 - it a wonderful interview!

Agreed, r63!

Meant to write it's. "What's Bruce Springsteen like? What's Michael J. Fox like? What's Jennifer Aniston like?" You need an ego to cope with that.

Bruce's first wife, Julianne Phillips was in this 38 Special video and on the show Sisters. Bruce left her for his current wife Patti. Terrible quality video. I guess the boys in 38 Special requested the old Vaseline lens.

What made him cheat on the fetching Julianne with the homely, man-stealing redhead?

The redhead was actually talented?

You can only live with a bump-on-a-log fashion model for so long.

I don't care if the redhead was the next coming of Mozart. The fact that she would steal another woman's husband makes her not the kind to take home to momma.

Is Courteney rich from her Friends royalties?

^They're all dirty rotten filthy stinking. And I'm sure she still gets Cougar Town money too. I think that show went over 100 episodes.

I think she looks adorable here. R42-put the crack pipe down. This video was HUGELY popular and everyone thought she was great. My aunt went on a few dates with Bruce around this time but he was too boring for her(bitch liked to party!). I like to remind her of that when she bitches about her awful job at the post office.

I agree Bruce was at his hottest there. I like it better muted, because that song was overplayed way past my saturation point in the 80s,

Demme directed the video for "Streets of Philadelphia".

Bruce's dancing is dorky. Short lil feller.

5'8"

I think Bruce would have looked silly if the girl he pulled out of the audience was a professional dancer. It would have been too Hollywood.

Seems like her meat tunnel has served her well.

Bruce's dance looks like a little like the Carlton

Well, in addition to being paid 1 million dollars per episode for years...

Don't laugh, she paved the way for me on NBC!

^^ sorry... was in response to:

[quote] r70 Is Courteney rich from her Friends royalties?

Courtney Cox doesn't;t show up until about halfway through the video. Playing the role of a front row Springsteen fan who happens to catch his eye, her presence gives him a point of focus. It’s the idea of a magical spark of a random connection between two people. One performing for thousands, the other wearing a shirt with his body emblazoned on it. What sells it is Cox’s face as she watches him. The perfect picture of awe, disbelieving that this icon could even notice her.

In this way, Cox’s presence on stage humanizes Springsteen, bringing him back to reality. The shots de Palma uses here are more distant from Springsteen, focusing on him and Cox casually dancing together, sharing a fun moment. It doesn’t feel as romantic as it does friendly, a gesture of warmth and connecting the icon to the fan.

R82 In my head I read that in Christian Bales voice from American Psycho during one of his impromptu music reviews while slaughtering someone.

For those who may need to reference it to recall the correct intonations.

R78, meet R13.

The "dancing" in "Dancing In The Dark" was hilarious. So bad. Neither Bruce nor Courtney Cox were dancers, so it stands to reason why they looked so awkward.

R86, maybe that's why it was called dancing in the dark -- because that dancing was never supposed to see the light of day.

Alfonso Ribeiro has said that part of the inspiration for the Carlton dance was the way Bruce dances in this video.

Bruce doesn’t dance like Carlton, Carlton dances like Bruce.

I still love this song and listen to it all the time. Bruce was gigantic in those days . Thats why hes worth 500 million now. I found him smoking hot in an attainable way. He wasnt so beautiful youd be afraid to approach him,yet he was incredibly sexy .

I like his transformation from the skinny, unkempt boho look he sported in the '70s to the buff, clean-cut, tight jeans-wearing stud he became in the '80s.

And that butt...

Shakin' it...

I’ve touched that (jeans covered) ass a couple times at concerts around twelve years ago. It was like a coconut. Not bad for a fifty something.

My mom said that he didn’t like people/let people touch him back in the eighties during concerts, but he definitely mellowed in age because people were touching him all over (not in the crotch area, thankfully) in the ten or so concerts I’ve been to. That was about a decade ago, maybe he stopped doing that.

I used to think Bruce Springsteen was this gorgeous, amazing man, but looks are deceiving. He was really a screws up guy, although not in the way rock stars usually are (boozing, druggin, whoring). He had mental issues. And he really has behaved like a dick at time. Not liking the fast that his ex-girlfriend Lynn Goldsmith, an accomplished photographer, was in the audience, he dragged her onstage and had his security people throw her out. Before his divorce ( I don't even know if they were legally separated at that point) from Julianne Phillips he very publicly carried on with Patti Scialfa, kissing and snuggling in public. He was shacking up with her and they were photographed on a balcony together; she was clad in what looked like a flimsy nightgown, he was clad only in boxer shorts. He later somewhat sheepishly apologized for how it was "found out" about his relationship with Scialfa. In his biography he barely mentions Phillips; it's like she meant nothing to him and he just wants to erase her from his life. He treated her really shitty. I hope she got a nice fat divorce settlement. She deserved it for being so publicly humiliated.

I think he wrote about Phillips on his album Tunnel of Love.

I guess Phillips was fodder for some of his songs. But his relationship with her had no significance for him. My guess is that he was hot for her, they started dating and he decided to marry her because hey, that's what rock stars do, right? Marry models. But she stuck out like a sore thumb in his rock star world. He was always surrounded by musicians, always touring and performing; she didn't fit in. So he left her for someone who did: Patti Scialfa. Who cares if she had a face like a horse? She was an accomplished musician, well acquainted with the musician's way of life, a redhead (Bruce likes redheads) and a Jersey girl. Even before he knew her he seemed to be singing about her; in "Thunder Road" he sings "You ain't a beauty, but hey, you're alright." Now THAT was a prophetic line.

I'll never forget that photograph that was published where Bruce, Julianne Phillips and Patty Scialfa were in the audience at some show. It was from the time when Bruce and Julianne were married, and Patty was a background singer in his band. From what I recall, the three of them were standing, with Julianne in the middle of the other two. Julianne had her head down, looking at the floor, and Bruce and Patty were basically eye-fucking each other in public right behind her back while she wasn't looking, and the camera really captured it. I don't remember where the pic was published (maybe the Enquirer?) but it was a very public humiliation for poor Julianne.

Patty, the horse-faced homewrecker, eventually got a taste of her own medicine, when Bruce was named as the "other man" in a divorce case, and it was revealed he'd been carrying on with some married Jersey hussy from the gym. I'm sure it wasn't the first time.

[quote]R96 I'm sure it wasn't the first time.

And it won’t be the last.

r15, his huge head is like an Easter Island statue balanced on that little body.

[quote]Patty, the horse-faced homewrecker, eventually got a taste of her own medicine, when Bruce was named as the "other man" in a divorce case, and it was revealed he'd been carrying on with some married Jersey hussy from the gym. I'm sure it wasn't the first time.

Patti had an affair with a horse trainer.

What the hell is wrong with you guys? Short hair on women was all the rage in the 1980's and I think Courtney looked adorable,

She looked gorgeous in that unflattering t shirt and those mom jeans. Courtney should have been cast as Nancy in Nighthmare on Elm street that same year. I think the short hair hurt her.

Looks like a teen boy.

For all you clutching at your pearls over this, a little something to help put it in perspective. Imagine, if you will, it was Cortney Love instead?

He had a nice ass.

And he might just live forever?

[quote] Courtney should have been cast as Nancy in Nighthmare on Elm street that same year

Bitch, no. Heather Langenkamp IS Nancy. Court could NEVAH.

Courtney is Streep next to Langenkamp though.

Heather acted her ass off in ANOES. Her acting in the first movie is leaps and bounds better than Courteney’s tepid performance in Scream.

I dislike Bruce's cum face when he sings sometimes.

R108 Wait, wasn’t she supposed to be tepid in Scream? Wasn’t that her character? Are you telling me that was her skill level and not her character development? I’m so confused?

Gail was supposed to be a bitch, not tepid, and Court couldn’t even do that right.

[quote]I dislike Bruce’s cum face when he sings

I think it’s more along the lines of a constipation face.

Speaking of scream queens, Bruce’s sister Pamela played horror villain icon Angela in the campy (no pun intended) sequels to the 80s horror classic Sleepaway Camp.

R113 Stealing the jobs of trans actresses everywhere.

This video is Brian Di Palma making up for a few things.

I liked when Howard Stern used to call her Courteney Cock Arquette.

I was a young teen when that album came out and I got so sick of hearing it especially the title track ‘Born in the USA’

Looks like Monica/R54 found the DL.

Hey, hey, Monica!

You SUCKED on Friends!

Courtney is too thin with too much plastic surgery and that stick straight hair doesn't work for everyone

Monica was an absolute CUNT in the wedding episodes. No man would have put up with her shit in real life. There are two instances I remenber when Chandler should have kicked her in the cunt bone. One was where she found out she couldn't afford her dream wedding and she bullied Chandler into giving her his life savings. When he balked he said something like "I don't see why I should spend all my money on a party" and she says something like "if you keep calling it a party you're not gonna be invited."

Another one was when they were house shopping and they fantasized about what their dream life would be like and Chandler says something like " . . . kids and a little cat running through the cat door with a bell on her neck." After a few lines of dialogue she says " when you said cat, you meant dog, right?" I remember thinking, really bitch, you can't give even that one thing?

Hated her.

"Hated her."

It was a sitcom. In sitcoms, characters behave badly but their significant others still adore them. Think Edith Bunker putting up with Archie's shit. Think Alice putting up with Ralph Kramden's crap. Think Sam Malone putting up with the insanity that was Diane Chambers. It's the way of sitcoms. It's supposed to be funny.

Think Ann Romano's children and neighbors not committing justifiable homicide.

[quote]It's supposed to be funny.

But it wasn't.

She was the real beauty in the initial seasons of Friends - not the other two.

Courteney Cox's face is too thin and angular to bounce back from the years of toxins she has been loading it up with. She's a good example of how botox doesn't completely disintegrate and you are left with jowly jaw and a Madame Puppet vibe.

R120 You know Courtney isn’t the person to hate about that and the dumbass friends writers are, right?

Cox was iconic as Gale Weathers. What a retard you are.

About the supposed Carleton dance--that's how people danced in the 80s, maybe just white people though? Seeing it takes me back to frat parties.

Bruce's first wife was from a rich suburb of Portland and as a fan then and an Oregonian, I was conflicted. It was disappointing that the working-class hero was marrying a model he met at the gym and obviously had nothing in common with, but it was cool that she was from Oregon.

Cox's connection to the Copelands - mentioned upthread - were her entry ticket to Hollywood and getting a role in this video, which launched her. They were a big deal in the LA music world in the late 70s to mid 80s. The Police were the biggest band in the world at the time.

[quote] It was disappointing that the working-class hero was marrying a model he met at the gym

He didn't mean Julianne at the gym-he saw her in the 38 Special video and had to meet her. His publicist got a hold of her and set up the meeting.

Bruce met the married Jersey housewife/nurse (who is a Republican) at a gym. This was back in 2008/2009ish. Bruce also had an affair with a 9/11 widow.

Hey, Dancing in the Dark was not the only video Cox was in...Counting Crows > Long December. She's more angular here, for those who care - prob about 8 yrs after DITD. Both Cox and Aniston dated Adam Duritz. How'd that work out for him (as Cox and Aniston are counting their money, not Crows)? God, I loved this band tho, back in the day...

I’d ignore her and pinch his buttocks!

I thought she looked cheesy even back then. Hated the haircut.

R124 I never got Friends, I guess. It never seemed funny and none of them were attractive to me.

I thought Cox was underrated in Friends. In the beginning Monica was the sane character, the mother hen with all the madness around her. It was later that the writers felt she needed more layers that they made her a neurotic. I think the big change happened after she became romantically interested in Chandler where she was too controlling but since Matthew Perry in real life was such a mess ironically he needed someone to control him. In way Monica was too good for Chandler but their proposal scene is genuinely touching.

Of all of the "Friends," Courtney seems the most laid back and fun. She pals around with people like David Spade so she's probably reasonably down to earth and funny.

R124 Friends is only watchable from season 3 through about the 7th season.

R117 Amen. After loving and obsessing over the Born To Run album (I still know every word to every song), Born in the USA made me want to shoot Bruce in the face. The title track is an assault on the ears, and Dancing In The Dark is a piece of shit song too. And they played both songs literally every 5 minutes on the radio. Fuck you for that, Bruce. This song was my favorite, after Jungleland.

Wasn’t the single Born in the USA originally written for a movie, something about Joan Jett and Michael J Fox, but he saw what potential it had and held it back for himself?

you jersey fucks, tawlk amongst yourselves.

Born in the USA, Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814 and Thriller are the only three albums in history to have 7 top 10 Hot 100 singles.

Friends jumped the shark and was running on dollar signs once the cast earned a million per episode and every show was another example of celebrity stunt-casting.

I will never believe Terry was a girl.

Never.

[quote] Because we’re gonna start with the obvious here. This is a song I could copy and paste every single lyric from and leave my queering at that, but that would be too easy. My cherished friends and tour mates Steph and Monica got me into Springsteen after putting up with years of me saying it “just wasn’t my thing.” Eventually some of Bruce’s bops became ear worms, which lead to genuine interest in his discography and his past. And, what do you know, the second my friends told me that Springsteen had gay songs, I knew I had hit the point of no return. And what’s great about these songs is that they’re not queerbaiting. They’re not subtext. They’re not “I Kissed a Girl.” They’re literally just: queer.

[quote] “Backstreets” in particular was the song Steph and Monica pointed out to me as notoriously The Gayest, and it wasn’t hard for me to get it:

[quote] [italic]Laying here in the dark, you’re like an angel on my chest / Just another tramp of hearts crying tears of faithlessness / Remember all the movies, Terry, we’d go see / Trying to learn to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be / And after all this time, to find we’re just like all the rest / Stranded in the park and forced to confess to hiding on the backstreets[/italic]

[quote] I admit when I tried to associate the title “Backstreets” with queer culture, I felt myself resisting. I think I’m sometimes extra cautious about anything that echoes any sense of having to hide away because you’re gay, but that’s easy for me to say: I’m out. This song reminds me of my privilege of being out to the majority of people in my life, and how much better I have it than queer people did at the time this song was written (1975).

[quote] Furthermore, Terry is an ambiguous name. Some assume Terry is a woman because of romantic lines such as “an angel on my chest” and “with a love so hard and filled with defeat”, but others assert that Terry is a man because of the undertones of male friendship. But, get this: it’s both! Terry is a man, and the song is romantic. Did I just rock your world? “But the last line is about being forever friends!” you cry. Let me ask you something: have you ever had a friend with whom you shared a spark, but they were unavailable for one reason or another, and you realized your friendship was more important than anything else? That’s what “Backstreets” is about.

[quote]but their proposal scene is genuinely touching.

And that scene showed how limited they were as actors, R135.

DITD came out in my senior year in HS. They played it ALLLL summer long. Every middle class big-haired suburban girl wore Bruce's Born in the USA album cover ass on their baseball T-shirt. (This gayling preferred Loverboy's Get Lucky Album ass!)

I think Courtney was cute and I liked her in Cougertown more than Friends.

I met Courtney Cox once. She was funny and sweet as sugar.

[quote] I was about 12 & really believed she was just a girl pulled from the audience. I lived in WI at the time.

I was about 10 & really believed she was an FTM pull from the audience. I was living in an SF dumpster at the time.

Him pulling s girl out of the audience to dance with...I don't think he did that at his concerts. He DID allow girls to run on stage and pounce on him. And kiss him. He complained about it once, saying a girl, "couldn't have been more than 15, braces on her teeth", jumped him and "she had her tongue so far down my throat I almost choked." Gag.

Don't know if this tweet is true or not, but if it is, it's hilarious.

The ass in the red leather pants on the Loverboy album cover belonged to an adolescent girl, the daughter of the photographer. The girl died young. You can read all about it via google search.

I hate modern movies that have no opening credits. If watching a DVD I jump to the end credits after the first scene to look at the cast then go back and watch the movie. Can help if the movie is bad but you are waiting for someone to appear.

^ wrong thread. Sorry.

Wow holy underbite in R144's pic. I never realized how bad it is until somebody mentioned it upthread, but he literally looks like a bulldog in that pic.

Lol R150, I remember she had those clip on micro bangs. Terrible.

She and David Arquette seemed like such a mismatch. He’s kookie and crazy and she seems the complete opposite. Plus, at seven years his senior, she totally robbed it. I guess he has a big one?

I was sad when they split up. He's wild and out there, but she seemed to enjoy him. They seemed like one of those "that's just craziest enough to work" couples. And it did, for awhile. They were cute in the Scream movies.

It takes a red headed woman to get a dirty job done r67

I knew she and David Arquette would eventually break up when I heard they had "A Deal's a Deal" engraved on the inside of their wedding rings

Is there some irony that because of their extreme egomania, the cast at this late stage of their lives find themselves friend-less? After all where is Cox’s Busy to her (white) Michelle?

She still has her Coco.

[151] I didn't know that about Loverboy Album. Thanks.

She doesn't look awful, as far as I can see.

I remember an episode of Cougar Town when she was trying to give sympathy to her son about feeling awkward or unpopular or something along those lines - he is looking through some pictures and pulls one out exclaiming "You danced on stage with Bruce Springsteen."

She looks okay but her hair is a travesty

Who is this Carlton you speak of?

Vanessa Carlton, who in her video pulls a young Matt LeBlanc on stage to dance with her in A Thousand Miles?

No it’s Carl Carlton who pulled a young Jodie Foster on stage in his live performance of Everlasting Love in LA, the video’s out there but you can find if if you look.

Nooooo it's the "Carlton dance" from Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It's infamous.

R169=turd in the punch bowl.

I can't get over her hair.