from Salon.com.
Camille Paglia's column.
salon.com | May 17, 2000

"As we careen forward on the pop front, here's a diverting message from George M. Hook: Could I make a nominee to your pop culture pantheon? Anne Francis. I recently purchased the "Twilight Zone" episode where Anne portrays a haunted woman in a spooky department store. It turns out that she is a mannequin come to life! Talk about insights into the modern female persona.

Anne was, of course, the one and only "Honey West" [a 1965-66 ABC detective drama] -- which they should be remaking instead of "Charlie's Angels." She was sexy, she was witty and she took bubble baths with her pet ocelot, Bruce. And she kicked butt. I believe Anne was also one of the first female independent filmmakers: She directed a documentary about rodeo life.

Who would I want next to me in my foxhole? Not Gloria Steinem, but Anne "Honey West" Francis! In its original half-hour incarnation on CBS (1959-62), Rod Serling's "The Twilight Zone" had a staggering effect on me as an adolescent. Serling (who hailed from the same upstate New York towns as I do) has always been vastly more important to me than any "serious" novelist since World War II. He was, in my view, the supreme American Surrealist. The program you mention, "The After Hours," was written by Serling and aired June 10, 1960. It remains my absolute favorite of all "Twilight Zone" episodes -- so eerie that it still gives me the chills. And yes, Anne Francis was terrific -- here and in the science-fiction classic "Forbidden Planet" (1956).

Finally, I was bemused and pleased to read in the May 22 Time magazine that Septime Webre, the new artistic director of the Washington Ballet, premiered a work at the Kennedy Center this season called "Fluctuating Hemlines," which, according to reviewer Terry Teachout, was "inspired by Camille Paglia's iconoclastic 'Sexual Personae.'" The article is illustrated by a sprightly production photo.

This is my last column before summer hiatus, when I must focus on my book projects. The column will resume when school begins in September, but I'll definitely be on call for Salon if major news breaks over the summer."