The Lonely Lady (1983)

Following her role in Butterfly (1982), Pia Zadora also starred in director Peter Sasdy's trashy The Lonely Lady (1983). It was an adaptation of a Harold Robbins novel by Ellen Shepard, about "the story of a woman's struggle for fame in Hollywood." The main title character was described in the trailer as "determined to take nothing less than everything Hollywood has to offer," and would go on to suffer tremendous abuse from men as she aspired to be successful in Hollywood.

It was the winner of six Razzie Awards (from eleven nominations), including Worst Picture and Worst Director. Zadora won another "Worst Actress" Razzie Award - her multiple Razzie Awards gave her the additional recognition years later as "Worst New Star of the Decade" of the 80s.

• in the opening scene set in her high school, young and aspiring 18 year-old Jerilee Randall (Pia Zadora), a Southern California 'Valley Girl' screenwriter from Valley HS, was honored for her writing accomplishments; she was awarded with an award-trophy presented by film director Mr. Guy Jackson (Anthony Holland) to "The Year's Most Promising English Major" for Creative Writing; during Jerilee's acceptance speech (that was cut short), she stated why her stories were so successful: "I always try to make at least one of my characters honest and open and worried about some important issue. The kind of thing that bothers us all but we don't usually talk about it because we're afraid that if we talk about it..."

Jerilee Randall (Pia Zadora)

Jerilee - Prize-Winner of HS Creative Writing Award

Joe Heron (Ray Liotta) Joking About Jerilee's Trophy Award: "Looks like a penis"

• Jerilee attended a celebratory school-sanctioned BBQ, where teenaged, misogynistic bad boy Joe Heron (Ray Liotta in his feature film debut) joked that her high-school creative writing trophy looked like a penis; Jerilee accepted a last-minute invitation to visit the Beverly Hills home of Walter Thornton, Jr. (Kerry Shale), and accepted - knowing that he was the son of prominent, Oscar-winning Hollywood screenwriter Walter Thornton, Sr. (Lloyd Bochner)
• on the drive, Joe made out with his date Marion/Mary (Glory Annen) in the back seat, and then grabbed Jerilee's left breast through her clothing; Joe noted: "Valley girls are anxious to please," as he pushed Mary's face down toward his lap to perform fellatio
• at the Thornton home, Joe was swimming in the pool with his topless date Mary, when he impulsively decided to sexually assault Jerilee - he grabbed her from behind, threw her in the pool, chased after her and threatened: "I'll teach you to be more friendly now!"; he ripped open her top to expose her breasts, slapped her across the face, and yelled: "I'm gonna show you something special. I'm gonna give you something special! Come here!"; he reached for the phallic-shaped garden hose and violated her with it (off-screen); Jerilee's screams alerted Walter Jr.'s' father who happened to arrive home and came to her rescue; she was badly bruised and shaken from the incident
• soon after, Jerilee met the older Walter when he returned her trophy that was left behind at his house; enamoured with him and with their shared passion for writing, she decided to marry him, although Jerilee's widowed mother Veronica Randall (Bibi Besch) disapproved ("He is too old for you!"); after wedding him, Walter was often impotent in bed

After Marrying Him - Jerilee with Husband - Hollywood Screenwriter Walter Thornton, Sr. (Lloyd Bochner)

• Jerilee found herself faced with his male-dominated, sexist colleagues that had negative attitudes toward female writers such as herself; at a film opening, one of Thornton's friends George Fox (Olivier Pierre) (who was married and often cheated on his wife) expressed his sexist attitudes toward Jerilee - and hinted she should capitalize on her beauty rather than her brains: "Women can't write dialogue...Hey, honey, with a figure like yours, you don't have to think"; she proved him wrong by publishing her first best-selling book
• during another failed attempt at lovemaking in bed, Walter continued to have erection difficulties; Jerilee mounted him and tried to coax him: "Gently, gently"; Jerilee asked: "Walter, how do you start a screenplay?"; he answered unseriously: "Page one, scene one, and you take it from there"; she pulled his chest hair to shock him and claimed: "I'm serious! Do you think I can do it, Walter?"
• however, over time, her marriage failed to her older, incompatible husband who often downplayed or deliberately avoided giving her respect and credit for her talent and success as a writer, and her aspirations to be a screenwriter
• at a restaurant, Walter also became jealous of her interest in sleazy Kicks nightclub owner Vincent Dacosta (Joseph Cali), an avowed LA hustler and aspiring movie producer; she had enough as Walter's trophy wife when on the lawn of their mansion, he angrily taunted and scorned her while cruelly referring to the earlier garden hose rape-attempt incident and also his inability to perform; he sarcastically asked if she enjoyed making him jealous, or preferred rape: "Why didn't you go off with Dacosta? He would've enjoyed it! (He picked up the garden hose) Or is this more your kick?"
• after leaving her husband Walter and moving out into her own rental apartment, Jerilee experienced a series of more degrading, and exploitative sexual encounters as she attempted to make a mark in Hollywood with her screenplays; at a party, she again met up with handsome rising actor George Ballantine (Jared Martin) who admitted he was promiscuous: ("You only live once, Jerilee. Not a whole lot happens after that, kid"); during a torrid affair with her, although he was married to Margaret (Mary D'Antin), they had sex in her bed, and then he joined her during a shower; she lowered herself to provide him with oral sex; he provided her with sexual pleasure unlike with her impotent ex-husband Walter (Jerilee: "I'm happy for the first time in a long time")

Jerilee In the Shower with Handsome Actor George Ballantine (Jared Martin)

• after becoming pregnant by Ballantine, he took no responsibility for her and she was forced to get an abortion; she then became closer to Vincent Dacosta who promised to help produce her screenplay with his business financier/partner Nick Rossi (Cyrus Elias) from NY, although it might take six months to a year; he sweetly buttered her up: "They can't believe a dumb blonde could write a movie," and offered her a job as a club hostess in the meantime;
• when Dacosta turned domineering toward her and jealous of her association with Guy Jackson: ("When you write for anyone, you write for me, not for Jackson or anyone else. Me!"), she told him off: "If I write for anyone, Vinny, I write for me!"; but then, she ended up apologizing and forgiving him, and spent a decadent night of wild love-making with him (including champagne, lying naked on a pool table, and having sex in a hot-tub)
• things went from bad to worse when she was pimped by Dacosta to go to an LA hotel room with another business partner - obese Italian producer Gino Paoluzzi (Gianni Rizzo) and his Italian lesbian starlet Carla Maria Peroni (Carla Romanelli); Jerilee was propositioned by Carla ("Your script is beautiful, everything is beautiful. I know it will be very good"), who kissed her and stripped off her dress while Gino watched; Jerilee was disgusted about being used - but didn't resist
• upon her return to cocaine-addicted Dacosta in his club office, Jerilee found him snorting coke and betraying her with two naked female assistants, Annette (Daphna Kastner) and blonde Carol (Cindy Leadbetter); her unread script was thrown in her face amidst mocking laughter
• following the debilitating attack, Jerilee reacted by showering fully dressed; she also madly typed on the keys of her typewriter while surrounded by the swirling faces of those who had wronged her while crying out: "Damn you!"; she suffered a nervous breakdown, with paranoia, delusions, and acute depression, described as drug-induced by a doctor ("Tranquilizers, cocaine, amphetamines, alcohol"); she was institutionalized and kept for a few days at the Lakeview Terrace Sanitarium; her ineffectual mother admitted: "She's always been difficult"
• while recovering, Jerilee was encouraged by her supportive friend Guy Jackson to not give up and continue typing and working as the best therapy; Jerilee was proud of her new, semi-autobiographical script: ("This is me. It's my story. It's my child. It's a part of me"); Guy proposed that she show her script titled The Hold Outs to wealthy and influential film producer Tom Castel (Mickey Knox), while Guy would direct the film; the script contained a scathing expose of all her experiences in Hollywood; she also reluctantly agreed to having George Ballantine star in her movie (he was the one who had impregnated her and then ignored her earlier); Guy persuasively argued for Ballantine: "Kiddo, in this business, there's only one creed. Make the movie. Make the movie. Nothing more, nothing less. What goes on backstage, so what? Who cares? It's the movie that matters. Now, that's just as true for you as for anyone else. Maybe more so because you're a woman. So, if you can't get it together, don't even try. Because you'll just become another bum, and you won't be able to cut it in this town"
• but again, Jerilee was manipulatively taken advantage of at producer Castel's home and forced to become friendly with Castel's bisexual wife Joanne (Kendal Kaldwell) in an outdoor hot-tub
• finally by film's end, the year's awards ceremony was held, and Jerilee arrived by herself, walking down the red carpet as someone in the crowd snidely remarked: "She can't be anybody if she doesn't have an escort"; many of Jerilee's former colleagues were in the audience: Ballantine, Thornton, and Castel
• during the award presentation for Best Original Screenplay announced by the MC (Edward Mannix), Jerilee received the trophy-statue award for her screenplay for The Hold Outs; during her acceptance speech (a book-end to the film's opening), she thanked her collaborators (director Guy Jackson, producer Tom Castel and his wife Joanne, and leading man George Ballantine), but then brutally denounced the price she had to pay on her rise to fame: "It's a wonderful compensation for having caught so many unhappy glimpses of myself while working toward it. Tradition has it that I should thank all those who had a part in helping to make the film. And it would be remiss of me to ignore their various contributions....Not all of them gave as much as they took. But that's no surprise, because in this business, the price of success is very high, especially for a woman. I don't suppose I'm the only one who's had to f--k her way to the top. Many of my so-called friends, agents, producers, actors, offered to help my career along the way, but always for a price. And I did nothing to stop them. And Walter dear, I never did learn the meaning of self-respect. I'm sorry."
• after admitting she hadn't learned the meaning of self-respect to her ex-husband Walter Thornton, she refused the award, left the statue on the podium and stiffly stomped off by herself and departed from the auditorium and into outer darkness, amidst boos from the audience as the film ended
• a commentator noted: "The movie industry witnessed a bizarre version of the truth behind the scenes..."
• the film's title song played on the soundtrack: "Lonely Lady" sung by Ellis Hall Jr.