Deborah YaffeFeb 9, 2023The Cher ManifestoWhen Karl Marx wrote about the decadence of capitalism, he may have been imagining something like our current moment, in which a slew of...
Deborah YaffeNov 10, 2022Baby DionneLast year, Alicia Silverstone got on TikTok and promptly started turning out Clueless-themed videos featuring her ten-year-old son. Now...
Deborah YaffeOct 13, 2022The pendulum swingsThe smashing success of Netflix’s Bridgerton has ushered in a new era of multiracial casting in Regency costume dramas. This is good...
Deborah YaffeDec 20, 2021Austen womenJane Austen isn’t just for girls, of course, but the Austenesque tidbits that the internet has tossed my way lately happen to focus on...
Deborah YaffeNov 22, 2021Talking about "talking"In the social world of Jane Austen’s Regency, young people navigated a complex set of unwritten rules for managing friendship and...
Deborah YaffeSep 2, 2021Forever CherFor an actor, it must be frustrating to realize that you will be remembered almost solely for a role you played at the age of eighteen....
Deborah YaffeJun 21, 2021As if, again“Seven years I suppose are enough to change every pore of one’s skin, & every feeling of one’s mind,” Jane Austen wrote to her sister,...
Deborah YaffeMay 24, 2021Reboot, bootedBack in late 2019, when corona was just a neighborhood in Queens, the news broke that Hollywood was considering a television reboot of...
Deborah YaffeAug 26, 2020New and/or improvedBy now, we would all be happy to consign 2020 to the trash bin of history. Let’s reboot! Remake! Recycle and replace! Alas, another four...
Deborah YaffeMay 6, 2020On and offFor those of us who love our Jane Austen adaptations, the coronavirus quarantine has been the best of times and the worst of times. The...
Deborah YaffeMar 11, 2020Immortal, belovedTwenty-five years ago this summer, we Janeites flocked to movie theaters to see a brand-new modernization of Emma, set among affluent...
Deborah YaffeNov 14, 2019Hands off!Why do people keep trying to mess with Clueless? Amy Heckerling’s 1995 movie, which updated the story of Emma to high school in Beverly...