Tag Archives: sweet valley high

Casting The “Sweet Valley High” Movie

Amelia McDonell-ParryNovember 22, 2011 //
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When I heard that Diablo Cody had signed on to write the big-screen version of my beloved Sweet Valley High series, I died a little inside. In a good way. You see, I’m such a hardcore SVH fan that I collect the series and read them on the regular. I am still not over the butchering that occurred when SVH became a TV show, starring a bunch of losers who had no business tainting Francine Pascal’s vision. However, Diablo Cody I trust. Mostly. I’m thrilled to learn that the film will be taking place in the ’80s, which means it will, hopefully, be inspired aesthetically by the original book covers, recognizable by their soft-focus-colored pencil drawings. However, I’m concerned that Diablo might need help casting the film. I’ll never forgive her if Lila Fowler is played by, shudder, Megan Fox, or Bruce Patman’s brawny bad boy is ruined by faux badass Shia LeBeouf. Diablo, I hope you are reading.

Diablo Cody Says “Sweet Valley High” Movie Will Be “Wonderfully Nostalgic”

Amelia McDonell-ParryNovember 21, 2011 //
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“I want it to be wonderfully nostalgic. I want it to be to the ’80s what ‘American Graffiti’ was to the [early] ’60s. I want it to be looking back on a really cool time and enjoying yourself and I want it to be glamorous and colorful and bubblegum and a feast for the senses. That’s my plan.”

– Diablo Cody talks about her upcoming film adaptation of the Sweet Valley High teen book series. I am basically losing my mind over this. I still read SVH on the beach during the summer and am still pissed about that ’90s TV series hack job. Bring on the lariat necklaces! The blue-green eyes the color of the Pacific! The perfect size 6 figures! Bring me the Wakefield twins as they were meant to be! [Indiewire]

Sweet Valley Style Stealer: Are You An Elizabeth Or A Jessica?

Amelia McDonell-ParryMarch 29, 2011 //

Today is an exciting day. Sitting on my nightstand, the just released book, Sweet Valley Confidential, about the Wakefield twins 10 years after they’ve left high school. As a hardcore SVH fan — I collect the books and still read them on the beach during the summer — I cannot wait to dive in and find out what that bookworm Liz Wakefield is up to now that she lives in New York, and whether Jessica Wakefield’s bad girl antics have finally landed her in some real hot water. And, oh, I am dying to read how their style has evolved since the years when they wore matching lavaliere necklaces. After the jump, what I imagine naughty Jessica and good girl Liz would wear now! Keep reading »

The “Sweet Valley High” Girls In 2010

Annika HarrisNovember 10, 2010 //

Twins Brittany (right) and Cynthia (left) Daniel played Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, respectively, on the television show “Sweet Valley High,” which ran from 1994 to 1997. Jessica and Elizabeth were the quintessential California good girls and Brittany and Cynthia definitely played the parts well. These days, the twins have their own uniquely defined styles. Cynthia is more glam, while Brittany, who is dating director Keenen Ivory Wayans, is punkier. Check out her cropped cut, ear project, and tattoos. [L.A., 11/9/10] Keep reading »

First Look: Sweet Valley Confidential!

Amelia McDonell-ParryOctober 20, 2010 //

You guys. I’m kind of losing my mind this morning. Behold, on the left, the cover of the upcoming book Sweet Valley Confidential, which takes places 10 years after high school. According to the website for the book, which comes out in holy-crap-why-so-far-away March 29, 2011, twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield are now estranged. Over-achieving Elizabeth is living in New York City, while vapid (but decidedly more fun) sister Jessica is stuck in Sweet Valley. What did Jessica do to Liz that was so bad that the good-hearted twin actually wants revenge?! Dying to know! But more shocking to me is the fact that, apparently, author Francine Pascal (right) is a real, live human being who has been writing the books for all this time — since 1983! My whole life, I just assumed it was a pen name, like V.C. Andrews! [People] Keep reading »

Quotable: Diablo Cody Will Try Not To Ruin “Sweet Valley High”

Jessica WakemanMarch 23, 2010 //

“It’s not, like, Atlas Shrugged where people are like, ‘You must have a tremendous amount of respect for this material, you better not f**k this up.’ And yet, people have been surprisingly vocal about the fact that they don’t want me to ruin Sweet Valley High. It’s like bubblegum, come on.”

— Our girl Diablo Cody on adapting Sweet Valley High for the big screen [NYmag.com]

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Diablo Cody To Pen A “Sweet Valley High” Screenplay

Kate Torgovnick/Kate-Book.comSeptember 23, 2009 //

OK people, fess up. You’ve read a Sweet Valley High book. Some of you may have breezed through all 152 tomes, while others of you may have stopped in for classics like Elizabeth’s Super-Selling Lemonade or Jessica Quits the Squad. Sure, the series about a pair of blond, Californian twins was no Nancy Drew, but I still adored these books growing up. I always identified with Elizabeth, the older (by four minutes) twin who wrote for the Sweet Valley High newspaper and dreamed of being a journalist, though I definitely had streaks of Jessica, the flighty, boy-crazy twin, too. So I am very excited to tell you that Sweet Valley High is heading for the big screen and … (wait for it) … Diablo Cody will be writing the script as well as producing. We hope this means that the tone of the movie will be midway between the saccharine flavor of the original books and the possessed man-eating of “Jennifer’s Body.” Keep reading »

Real Chick Lit: Love & Life Lessons From Young Adult Novels

Robin HershkowitzJune 5, 2008 //

During my junior high/early high school years, I consumed young adult series like my life depended on it. Maybe in a way, it did. I read obsessively about my favorite characters and their packed weekend social schedules of dances, pool parties, tropical vacations, exciting dates, beach parties….trouble was that I was spending my weekend nights reading about these events. The conundrum is that the girls reading these books were the bookish, indoor type — not the ones out and living this life.

My books were my only clues to how to meet and talk to boys. In my endless pawing over my glossy-covered series, my impressionable mind sensed some distinct themes. Keep reading »

Elizabeth & Jessica Wakefield Go On A Diet

Amelia McDonell-ParryMarch 27, 2008 //

I basically lived for reading Sweet Valley High when I was in elementary school — as I previously wrote, SVH #3 Playing With Fire was the first time I read the word “breast” in print in a somewhat sexual way. I remember vividly thinking that SVH was the way high school would be like, in a wonderful dream world, and in order to be a part of that dream, I would need to be “a perfect size six” just like Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield. Make that a “perfect size four.” The books are getting a major makeover — when Random House re-releases the series, they are giving the books new covers (featuring soap star Levin Rambin as the twins) AND updating some of the content so they’re not so ’80s. Oh and they’re trimming a size off Liz and Jess, because everyone knows that four is the new six and six is fat. That was sarcasm, by the way. [Feministing] Keep reading »

Sweet Valley High: The First Time We Read A Book That Made Us Feel Funny Down There

Amelia McDonell-ParryJanuary 3, 2008 //

Whoa. We totally just found our favorite new blog (besides The Frisky, of course!) — a San Francisco writer named Casey is rereading and recapping the entire Sweet Valley High series. On the off chance a few of you readers weren’t fans of the series, it was the book series for tweens growing up in the ’80s and provided loads of thinly veiled sexual innuendo that overwhelmed our sense of what life would be like once we got our period. The series followed identical twins (twins were a big thing in the ’80s) Elizabeth and Jessica Wakefield around their totally perfect town in California. Both of the twins were blond, with green-blue eyes and size-six figures, which permanently imprinted in our brains that a six was the size to be if we were going to be popular in high school. Keep reading »