Saturdays with the Stars: Crowning America's Sweethearts

For as long as there have been movies, there have been actresses, and for nearly that long, there's been a specific trope of actress.  While screen performers thankfully come in all shapes & sizes, one of the most popular & consistent paths to stardom has been the girl-next-door, the sweet, pretty girl who falls in love with the cute, all-American boy and they live happily ever after.  Frequently, if you become famous enough you will sport a title bestowed upon the press for being the biggest name in the game of rom-com's and light action-adventures that usually come with this persona: America's Sweetheart.

The title was originally given to Mary Pickford, a Silent Era film star who was one of the biggest names in movies in the 1910's, but Pickford eventually gave it up, and in nearly every decade since, a woman has become synonymous with the title.  Even when rom-com's started to fall out of favor, as you'll find, we still saw women being called America's Sweetheart.  The term is fascinating, because while it seems relatively innocuous, it comes with a bit of baggage.  It almost always involves a white woman, rarely more than 35, starring in vanilla films & fitting the norms about what society at the time expected from women.

The title also only lasts for a short time.  Inevitably, the women who inhabit it become all-too-human.  They try more dramatic roles or divorce their husbands or (gasp) get older.  I wanted to take a look at the women who have held this title, examining what it was like for them in their heyday, but also take a peek at what happened when they were bestowed the title of America's biggest star (and how they coped with losing that title).  Since she was the original, we'll start our series with Pickford in January (don't worry, we won't skip our final Saturday's with Kris Kristofferson), and then by the end of 2024 we will be into the 1990's & beyond, our first edition of Saturdays with the Stars where we will make it into the 21st Century.  I hope you're as pumped as I am to start Season 6 of Saturdays with the Stars: "Crowning America's Sweethearts."