WATN: The Cast of Clueless

Sunday December 20th 2009 saw the tragic death of Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy, aged just 32, from an apparent heart attack.

As well as starring is such great movies as Sin City, 8 Mile, Drop Dead Gorgeous and Girl, Interrupted, she also made an impression in the 1995 teen classic Clueless (left).

Clueless was based on the even more classic 1815 novel Emma by Jane Austen, but transferring the set from Georgian England to a high school in Beverly Hills, California.

It still retained elements from Austen’s great study of human behaviour, hypocrisy and correct social conduct but its modern slant made it a huge hit, spawning a TV show and a series of books.

Sadly we now know what happened to Brittany Murphy, who played Tai Frasier, the “tragically unhip” new girl at school, but what about the rest of the cast of Clueless? Where Are They Now.

“Cher Horowitz” (Alicia Silverstone)
The heroine of the movie, Cher is attractive, popular and very rich indeed, but of course, she’s as thick as a whale omelette. Based on Austen’s original main character Emma Woodhouse, Cher is good natured and uses her influence to help people.

Despite the critical success she received for Clueless, Alicia Silverstone undid all that good work by being in one of the crappiest films of all time as Batgirl in Joel Schumacher’s shitefest Batman And Robin. She actually got a Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actress. Ouch.

As a result she never got back the success and fame she netted for Clueless. Through the 2000s she appears in various movies including Kenneth Branagh’s version of Love’s Labour’s Lost and even made a cameo in Ben Stiller’s Tropic Thunder.

In 2010 she’s appearing on stage in LA before moving to Broadway. In her personal life she’s married to rock musician Christopher Jarecki (who?), has become an outspoken vegetarian eco warrior and in 2009 published a vegan nutrition book called The Kind Diet.

Maybe she’s not so clueless anymore…

Here’s what Alicia Silverstone looks like now.

“Mel Horowitz” (Dan Hedaya)
Cher’s dad is a big hitter lawyer in Beverly Hills, where he lives with his daughter and her stepbrother Josh. He applies his hard line lawyer skills to his protectiveness when it comes to his only daughter.

Dan Hedaya is one of those character actors who seem to have been in everything. You won’t know the name but you’ll certainly know the face.

He tends to be cast playing scheming, sleazy roles; the same year as Clueless he appeared as a cop opposite Kevin Spacey in the iconic Usual Suspects and after that he popped up opposite Sylvester Stallone in Daylight, Anthony Hopkins in Nixon, Mel Gibson in Ransom, Sigourney Weaver in Alien Resurrection, Samuel L Jackson and Christian Bale in Shaft to name a few. Not bad.

Here’s what Dan Hedaya looks like now.

“Josh Lucas” (Paul Rudd)
Josh is the son of Mel Horowitz’s ex-wife from a previous relationship, and Cher’s older former step-brother. Despite always teasing Cher he frequently shows that he actually does care for his little inherited sister.

Well, wouldn’t you know it, but Paul Rudd is actually doing very well for himself, being one of the most sought after comedy actors in Hollywood.

Clueless however really was Rudd’s breakout performance and led to straight turns in Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet and The Cider House Rules.

However, when he got involved with the so-called Frat Pack that things took off, starring with Will Ferrell and Steve Carell in the legendary Anchorman and The 40 Year Old Virgin.

He also appeared in Night At The Museum, Knocked Up and Forgetting Sarah Marshall and had the lead in Role Models opposite that bloke from American Pie. Yes, we’ll have a slice of that thank you very much.

Here’s what Paul Rudd looks like now.

“Dionne Davenport” (Stacey Dash)
Dionne is Cher’s best friend in Clueless and is equally rich and beautiful. In the movie Dionne goes out with Murray who is played by Donald Faison – and we know exactly where he is now: Scrubs, anyone?

Stacey Dash started out as a child actress on Sesame Street and then later on in The Cosby Show and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Her first major movie role was as Richard Pryor’s daughter in Moving and by the time she was cast as a teenager in Clueless she was already 30!

Stacey was the only cast member to reprise her role for the TV version of Clueless, playing opposite Rachel Blanchard as Cher (who bizarrely wound up in a couple of series of Peep Show).

After the TV show ended in 1999, she appeared in indie movies and as seems to be always the case with WATN, TV shows such as CSI.

If anyone reading this fancies her, then you might like to know she made an erotic thriller called Illegal in Blue and in 2006 as the age of 40 she posed nude in Playboy.

Stacey also featured in a music video for “All Falls Down” by everyone’s favourite RnB pillock Kanye West. Still acting she can be found on various shows across various channels. Good hunting!

Here’s what Stacey Dash looks like now.

“Christian Stovitz” (Justin Walker)
Christian is Cher’s love interest and although she’s got her heart set to lose her virginity with the guy, he ignores her advances instead preferring to go shopping with her. Hmm. That should tell you something, dear…

Another casualty from the Where Are They Now archive. We don’t really know where he is. After Clueless the only thing Justin seems to have done is appeared in lotes of documentaries about Clueless.

Oh, but he did appear in a 1998 Pizza Hut advert and has apparently kept up his love of dreadful food; he is currently the owner of “Tacone Flavor Grill”, based in Rancho Mirage, California.

“Amber Mariens” (Elisa Donovan)
Amber is also popular but is seen as the nemesis of Cher, who dubs her a “Monet”: “from far away it’s okay, but up close it’s a big old mess.” Nice.

Like most of the cast, Clueless was Donovan’s breakthrough role, having most notably appeared in TV sitcom Blossom. After Clueless she appeared in TV shows Beverly Hills 90210 and Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

Still acting, Donovan also went public on her battles with anorexia, contributing a story to the book Chicken Soup for The Teenage Soul about her struggle with the illness.

She also revealed how she turned her life around when her anorexia caused her to have a heart attack, which is pretty ironic given where this piece started.

RIP Brittney Murphy.

Here is Elisa Donovan’s official website.