single white female

Single White Female
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For the song of the same name by Chely Wright, see Single White Female (song).
Single White Female

Directed by Barbet Schroeder
Produced by Barbet Schroeder
Written by John Lutz (novel)
Don Roos (screenplay)
Starring Bridget Fonda
Jennifer Jason Leigh
Steven Weber
Peter Friedman
Music by Howard Shore
Cinematography Luciano Tovoli
Editing by Lee Percy
Distributed by Columbia Pictures
Release date(s) August 14, 1992 (USA)
Running time 107 min.
Country United States
Language English
Gross revenue Domestic: $48,017,402
IMDb profile
Single White Female is a 1992 thriller based on John Lutz's novel SWF Seeks Same. The movie stars Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Jason Leigh & Steven Weber and is directed by Barbet Schroeder, who also directed Reversal of Fortune.


[edit] Plot
Alison "Allie" Jones (Bridget Fonda) is a software designer living in New York City. While her professional star is on the rise -- she has created a computer software package that will revolutionize the fashion world -- her personal life is a mess. Allie banishes her fiancé Sam Rawson from her rent-controlled apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side, after discovering that he slept with his ex-wife. Allie finds platonic comfort in her neighbor Graham Knox, an aspiring actor with a sensitive shoulder to lean on. Realizing that the only way to hold on to her apartment is to find a roommate, Allie places an ad and interviews a succession of unsuitable candidates before settling on the shy Hedra "Hedy" Carlson (Jennifer Jason Leigh), the ideal roomie in Allie's eyes.

Hedy quickly fills the void left in Allie's life by Sam's departure. Allie is only too happy to allow Hedy to cook and clean for her. Their friendship deepens when Hedy brings home an adorable and -- unknown to Allie -- very expensive puppy. Allie later discovers the receipt and confronts Hedy, but Allie can't bring herself to part with the puppy. Unknown to Allie, Hedy erases Sam's phone messages when he calls to plead for a reconciliation. Before long, she's even begun dressing the same way Allie does. Allie passes off this strange behavior as that of an insecure but well-intentioned woman.

When Allie reconciles with Sam about a month after Hedy moved into the apartment, Allie and Sam toy with the idea of Sam moving into the apartment with Allie. Hedy goes over the edge, knowing that this means that she would have to move out of the apartment. One afternoon, while Allie and Sam are out of the apartment, the puppy, which Allie has grown to love, plunges mysteriously to its death from a window. And before long, Hedy's closet contains the exact same clothes as Allie's, and Hedy has even had her hair cut and dyed to match Allie's look, resulting in a startling resemblance between Allie and Hedy, with height being virtually the only difference.

More than a little unnerved, a suspicious Allie talks to Graham. Graham advises Allie to get Hedy to move out of the apartment. Allie begins to investigate Hedy's background. Allie goes into Hedra's room and looks through her possessions, and discovers that Hedy is not who she claims to be -- Hedy's real name is Ellen Besch. Years ago, when Ellen was 9-years-old, Ellen's twin sister Judy drowned at a family picnic. An absolutely devastated Ellen hasn't been the same since Judy's death. The bond between siblings can be strong, but it can be especially strong with twins. For years, Ellen's parents tried to explain to her that Judy's death was not her fault, but Ellen never forgave herself for living while Judy died.

Ellen, who had undergone futile counseling, had been looking for a female companion so Ellen could have a friend to replace Judy. That's why Ellen tries to look exactly like whatever roommate she had at the moment...so it would be like Ellen still had a twin sister. Before moving in with Allie, Ellen had lived with a woman in Tampa. That didn't work out, so Ellen killed the woman and went to New York, later moving in with Allie. Now, as Ellen becomes progressively more dangerous, Allie must find a way to free herself from Ellen before Allie ends up like the woman in Tampa.


[edit] Production
Although the film popularised the phrase "Single White Female", it is most commonly used in personal ads, and not those for a roommate. In fact, using race as a factor in a rental ad is a violation of Fair Housing Act of 1968 in the United States.

Bridget Fonda was given the choice to take the part of either Allie or Hedy. In the end she chose to play Allie as she felt that role would be more challenging. It was the first time for each actress to receive $1 million for a role.

In the scene where Hedy seduces Allie's boyfriend, Fonda actually filled in for Leigh for one shot where she climbs into the bed, as Leigh was still having her makeup applied. Fonda's character uses an Outbound Laptop, an early Macintosh clone. The apartment building where the exterior and stairwell shots were filmed is the famous Ansonia Hotel in New York's Upper West Side.

Single White Female was #56 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments. The film was followed by an unrelated direct to video sequel, Single White Female 2: The Psycho released in 2005, starring Kristen Miller.


[edit] External links
When it comes to mobilizing women to support Hillary Clinton for president, Lorraine Hariton is solid gold.

The Silicon Valley executive has networks - from a women's leadership forum to an informal theater group - and knows how to use them. With Hariton's prompting, her friends - and their friends and their friends - are turning out for the Democratic front-runner's local fundraisers and rallies. They're even making a trip to Washington, D.C., for Clinton's women's summit.

"These women are evangelizing for Hillary," she said. "They're holding house parties, going to Iowa, doing fundraising. It ignited them."

Women have long been targeted by presidential candidates. Remember soccer moms from the 1996 election? But never before has there been a female candidate as formidable as Hillary Clinton, nor one whose sex alone is giving her an intriguing boost among women who see the historic appeal of electing the first female president.

Clinton's top Democratic rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, are not about to concede that just because she is a woman, she is more sympathetic to women's issues. And the leading Republicans, too, understand the math.

With women making up a majority of voters - 54 percent in 2004 - both Democratic and Republican candidates, along with their spouses, are making special efforts to woo women this election season. They're reaching out with intimate meetings, specialized Web


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offerings, fundraisers and high-profile supporters on the stump, including Oprah Winfrey and eBay CEO Meg Whitman.
The only problem? No single "women's issue" is galvanizing female voters in this election; instead, women in general are citing the gender-neutral issues of the Iraq war and health care as their biggest concerns.

Wide agendas

That hasn't stopped the candidates - especially the Democrats - from outlining their women's agendas with specific issues like equal pay and child care. The top Republicans are appealing to women through the broader issues of health care, education and - depending on the candidate - family values and homeland security. All the candidates make clear their position on the perennial hot-button women's issue - abortion.

Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, has taken to the campaign trail - including to downtown San Jose to meet with mommy bloggers - suggesting that her husband has a better record on issues important to women than Clinton does.

Obama's campaign has released a 20-minute video highlighting Obama's wife, Michelle, explaining how her husband spent his entire life surrounded by strong women, including a single mother (not to mention nabbing the golden endorsement of Winfrey, a cultural guru for many women).

Clinton stresses her record on women's issues, from going to Beijing in 1995 to declare that "women's rights are human rights," to being an advocate as a U.S. senator for children's rights as well as strengthening equal pay and making family planning services more accessible.

Along with Hariton's efforts in Silicon Valley, the Clinton campaign across the country is sending "tens of thousands of hillgrams" to supporters, and forming new networks among women in nursing, the law, civic life, business and book clubs, said Ann Lewis, who oversees Clinton's women's outreach campaign.

"We were convinced that these networks were a very powerful force," Lewis said.

Republicans are reaching out to women as well, with broader appeals.

At a National Federation of Republican Women conference in Palm Springs this summer, Rudy Giuliani was the only GOP candidate to appear. (The notable absences of other GOP candidates irked many of the women in attendance.) Giuliani spoke about his ability to lead in times of crisis, as he did as mayor of New York after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

That approach to "security moms" appeals to California Assemblywoman Sharon Runner, who chairs Giuliani's women's coalition in California and has helped sign up more than 1,000 women to the cause. And while she doesn't share Giuliani's pro-choice stance on abortion, she says his leadership abilities trump his abortion position.

Spokeswomen help

Ebay CEO Meg Whitman leads Republican Mitt Romney's "Women for Mitt" and has been traveling the country talking about Romney's pledge to strengthen not only the American economy and military, but also American families by supporting lower taxes and affordable health care and opposing abortion.

Women have voted in greater numbers than men since 1964, and in greater proportion to men since 1980, said political scientist Diane Bystrom from Iowa State University. For decades, political strategists have been breaking down the women's vote by demographic. Married white women as a bloc, for instance, were considered swing voters who could shift their allegiance back and forth between Republicans and Democrats. Since 1996, though, they've been more in the Democratic camp. In 2004, a majority of every female demographic group voted for Democrat John Kerry over George Bush.

Referring to female voters as a bloc is not something Lisa Stone, founder of BlogHer in Redwood City, appreciates.

"Is there any other group with such incredible diversity of age, race, income, education level that has ever been referred to as a bloc? That is ludicrous," Stone said. "It turns out women care about more than how to cook a chicken well in five minutes."

What she sees on the women's blogs is that while women will write about fashion, food, family and health, "they will also talk about what's happening to the monks in Myanmar, they will talk about Iraq, complain bitterly about the treatment of veterans and they will promise their allegiance to anyone who can fix health care."

But how men and women perceive the issues is often different, said Bystrom from Iowa State. When woman talk about crime, she said, they often are concerned about personal safety. Men, however, tend to be more concerned with such issues as the right to bear arms, she said.

Glennia Campbell, a Palo Alto mother who founded MOMocrats and supports Edwards, perceives the issues in a generational context.

"A lot of people similar to me," she said, "educated, have children, are looking at our voting decision and the impact it's going to have on our children."