Christopher Guest: Best in Show

It took me awhile to appreciate Christopher Guest.  As a kid, I found him annoying.  Not that he wasn't talented, but my older brothers loved Spinal Tap, and I didn't get the appeal, and was angry every time they chose it on our trips to Blockbuster.  But, as I got older, and especially after seeing Best In Show, my love and respect for Guest and his talents grew.

Best In Show (2000)

'I used to be able to name every nut that there was. And it used to drive my mother crazy, because she used to say, "Harlan Pepper, if you don't stop naming nuts," and the joke was that we lived in Pine Nut, and I think that's what put it in my mind at that point. So she would hear me in the other room, and she'd just start yelling. I'd say, "Peanut. Hazelnut. Cashew nut. Macadamia nut." That was the one that would send her into going crazy. She'd say, "Would you stop naming nuts!" And Hubert used to be able to make the sound, he couldn't talk, but he'd go "rrrawr rrawr" and that sounded like Macadamia nut. Pine nut, which is a nut, but it's also the name of a town. Pistachio nut. Red pistachio nut. Natural, all natural white pistachio nut.'

Harlan Pepper

Guest not only directed and wrote (along with Eugene Levy) Beset In Show, his character, hog lovin Harlan Pepper was brilliantly hilarious.  When I recently re-watched the movie, way to late into the night on Thursday, I again feel in love with Guest, and Harlen.  This time, I started to wonder about Guest's earlier roles.  I knew he had a short stint on Saturday Night Live, and although the cast for his season looks amazing, (Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Julia Louis-Dreyfus) it's hard to find much of the 1984 season on-line 

This Is Spinal Tap (1984)

Saturday Night Live (1984)

Girlfriends (1978)

I decided to look and see if Guest had any on screen nudity, and didn't really expect to find any.  But....there is one scene I found from the 1978 film Girlfriends.  The independent and low budget film featured Thirtysomething's Melanie Mayron as a photographer, looking at a life alone after her roommate marries and movies out. 

The film, directed by Claudia Weill, is described as one of the most influential films about female friendship and is said to be one of Lena Dunham's inspirations for her TV show Girls. Dunham brought director Weill in to also direct an episode of her HOB series.  Guest plays Eric, a boyfriend of Susan's (Mayron) who struggles with her independence.  Guest has one nude scene, showing his cute bubble butt in a love scene with Mayron.