Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 11, 1993 TAG: 9302100140
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANA E. LUNDIN LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
THEY LOVE TO HATE BRENDA OF `90210'
A word to West Beverly Hills High senior Brenda Walsh: Don't look now, but someone mailed off your application to an out-of-town college for an opening next semester.You might find yourself matriculating with Andrea Zuckerman at Yale University - New Haven, 06520.
Or studying finance back in your home state at the University of Minnesota - Minneapolis, 55455.
Perhaps you may even get a beautician's discount on designer water after graduating from the International School of Cosmetology - Hawthorne, 90250 - or anywhere as long as it's several ZIPs away from "Beverly Hills, 90210." Seems the hefty price of non-resident tuition would be much cheaper than keeping on Shannen Doherty, seen by many as an increasingly abrasive actress who breathes life into Brenda Walsh, the increasingly petulant female half of the Walsh twins.
The 21-year-old star of Fox's "90210" is becoming so disliked by her public she has spawned an anti-fan club complete with newsletters, T-shirts and "I Hate Brenda" bumper stickers.
Magazines weighed in with their opinion: Glamour named Doherty "Prima Donna of the Year" for 1992 and and Sassy's checked in with "Shannen Doherty, pathetic loser!"
Next up is a 12-inch record with six songs by Rump called "Hating Brenda," due out this spring. How far the trendy have fallen.
On her reputation, Doherty was quoted in People saying: "I'm not saying I don't have my moments of bitchiness because everybody has them. But it's never for no reason."
And in a prepared statement, `90210' Executive Producer Aaron Spelling said: "We are very surprised at this negative attack on Brenda. It certainly isn't the response we're getting from the fans of the show. From what we have heard, the campaign appears to be in very poor taste and is obviously designed to attract media attention."
This from the fans:
"We're obsessive fans of `90210,' " said Kerin Morataya, a creator of Rump and the I Hate Brenda anti-fan club. "We love everyone else on the show except her. We hate her. She pretends to be so moralistic. In reality, she's not."
Morataya, 22, views the newsletter as a swig of minty mouthwash, an antidote to the awful taste Brenda leaves in her mouth: "She's destroying the lives of all these innocent people, and I just can't take it!"
But Darby, 24 and another Rump and fan-club creator, said the club is less about the character than the actress hersel: "It's all about Shannen Doherty and that's it," she said. "I think it's more the way she treats people."
Vowing they won't be stopped until she is off the show, Morataya and Darby (yes, that's her only name) created thousands of "I Hate Brenda" fliers last November, plastered them all over the UCLA campus and faxed them to every number in their possession.
A movement was born.
One night, the pair began rapping a song on Darby's answering machine: "I'm Brenda, I'm Brenda, I'm Brenda. I hate Kelly, I hate Dylan, I hate Donna, I hate David, I hate myself, I hate you!"
They are now in the process of signing on with Sub Pop Records, the Seattle independent label that discovered Nirvana and Soundgarden. "It's a marketing coup," said Sub Pop co-owner Bruce Pavitt. "We know how to cash in on backlashes."
"There definitely is a major backlash," said Randi Reisfeld, editor of the teen magazines 16 and Superstar. "That's real, that's true."
In a recent poll, Superstar readers preferred Jennie Garth (who plays Kelly Taylor) 2-to-1 over Doherty, Reisfeld said. "She was the star of the show," Reisfeld said of Doherty. "Jennie was a snippy, nasty kind of princess. That entire thing has reversed."
While the show has never been ranked high in household ratings, often appearing in the bottom half of the weekly Nielsens, it has been a strong top 10 among the 12- to 24-year-olds, said media analyst Dave Davis. Advertisers buy commercial time according to demographics.
In the coming April issue of Sixteen, Reisfeld predicts Brenda will be shipped off to college, which is something she thinks the audience and her readers eagerly for. "The kids are really starting to hate her," she said. "What's happened is her real-life nastiness has seeped into the character. It's not just the stuff in the tabloids, it's the whininess and the attitude."
Doherty was called Tantrum-a-Day Shannen in the early days of the show, according to Reisfeld, who has written several books on "90210." "Apparently, she's a real horror," she said.
That's among the printable names Doherty has been called in a list that includes "barracuda" from Emmy producer Walter Miller, who was incensed when the actress skipped on her obligation to present an award at last year's telecast.
And Glamour magazine say Doherty earned her prima donna title by throwing a fit when only eight bottles of Evian arrived on the set of a TV movie after she specifically requested 10 to wash her hair.
More information on the I Hate Brenda newsletter can be obtained by calling (213) 960-7674.