Supergirl: The Movie Paper Dolls

So I'm thinking to myself, "What can I share that'll simultaneously please the girls, the geeks and the gay guys?" Supergirl paper dolls! Yes, these stylish (circa mid-'80s) figures were marketed as a tie-in with the ill-fated big screen adaptation in 1984, which starred Helen Slater (Supergirl/Linda Lee), Faye Dunaway (Selena), Marc McClure (Jimmy Olsen), Maureen Teefy (Lucy Lane), and Hart Bochner (Ethan). Brenda Vaccaro had a memorable role as Selena's sidekick too, but I guess they figured it'd take too much paper to outfit her.

Now, in my humble opinion, it's Faye Dunaway that makes the movie watchable. The problem with Supergirl has nothing to do with Helen Slater herself, it's the way her character was written -- Linda/Supergirl is a bland character who spends a whole lot of screen time doing very little. Dunaway's Selena, on the other hand, is so wildly over-the-top doing absolutely nothing that she's downright lovable. Of course, anything Dunaway did at this point was hard to differentiate from "Mommie Dearest."

Funny thing about Dunaway though, she wasn't the first choice for the role. Nope, the producers were banking on landing Dolly Parton. They were so confident that Dolly would take the role that they even cited her as the star in the early press materials. Parton ultimately passed, claiming she could never play a witch (which seems sorta weird considering she'd already played the prostitute who owned "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas"). Dolly instead went on to star in "Rhinestone," which was even more of a disaster than "Supergirl." Go figure.