“You’re not very pretty, and you’re not very bright. I’m so glad we had that talk!”
In 2004’s A Cinderella Story, Fiona is the evil stepmother to Samantha (Hilary Duff) who is deliciously played by Jennifer Coolidge—one of the finest character actors of our time. If you’ve never seen the classic comedy, which is now 20 years old, you’re seriously missing out. The plot—a modern adaptation of the classic Cinderella fairytale—follows Samantha as she accidentally starts a text-messaging and e-mail relationship with Austin Ames (Chad Michael Murray), one of the hottest and most popular boys in school. Cue her Cinderella moment, as she must then try to break free from her evil stepmother—who forces her to work as a janitor and dishwasher at her diner—in the hopes of making herself look cooler.
Photo: Courtesy of Everett Collection
Two decades later, however, it isn’t the plot or script that has me revisiting the beloved childhood film. (It was hardly an Oscar contender.) You may come for Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray—the queen and king of stealing hearts in the early 2000s—but you’ll end up staying for Coolidge, whose narcissistic (yet extremely fabulous) Fiona made the movie into an instant campy cult-classic.
When we first meet Fiona, she’s out lounging by the pool in a chic white lace dress, barking at Sam to bring her some Norwegian salmon for lunch. “I need my Omega-3s,” she says. “It costs a fortune to fly that stuff in from Norwegia.” Fiona may be wicked, but her wardrobe is nice. Later in the film, we see her bossing around Sam at the diner in a metallic pink dress and a sparkly pink coat with a white marabou trim. “I just got a $150 manicure,” she boasts.