Patsy, Edina are Absolutely Fabulous, sweetie
March 5, 1996
Web Posted at: 12:15 a.m. EST
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- If you haven't seen Edina squeezed into a frightfully tight Lacroix outfit or Patsy on her fifth bottle of Stoli since her breakfast of 10 cigarettes, then you just haven't lived, sweetie.
These absolutely flawed women are what make the British TV sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous" fabulous, lewd, and very, very funny.
The comedy comes from the fashionably brainy mind of Jennifer Saunders, who also plays Edina, who thinks that motherhood is fragrance by Chanel. Her tall and slim sidekick is Joanna Lumley, who plays the overly coifed, deadpan, boozy fashion editor who hasn't eaten solid food since the 1970s.
The point of Edina and Patsy's lives is to shop, have a cocktail-riddled lunch, and then nap, and, of course, to always look absolutely fabulous.
So why have these two 40-ish, chain-smoking, trend-crazed, substance abusers gotten such rave reviews and a die-hard cult following in America?
Lumley says it's because of all of the rule-breaking Patsy and Edina do. "Most people would much rather eat, drink, and be merry. We're not allowed to smoke, not allowed to swear, we have to have good thoughts about people and we all know that you wrestle with your real life. So it was just a relief for people to see characters on TV doing it the other way," she says.
Lumley and Saunders, who, by the way, are quite normal looking in real life, taped a segment for the American Comedy Awards and are promoting the third issue of ABFAB videos from their posh suite in the Bel Air Hotel.
As the two Brits cruised around Hollywood, they admitted that although the houses are beautiful, they're actually looking for celebrity facelifts.
"Always, always spot them," Saunders says, "but what's different over here is that people will tell you exactly what they've had done. In England, they're still slightly ashamed and try to pretend that they've had a haircut."
Saunders also admits and that she and Lumley have been piling up in their hotel room watching lots of American TV and are shocked at what they've seen. Saunders was surprised to see a collagen lip procedure done live on the Sally Jesse Raphael talk show.
"The lips swelled up. She looked like she'd been hit with a baseball bat and the whole audience applauded, saying 'she looks beautiful!' to each other. They got her a lipstick to make her feel better; they didn't show her a mirror," Saunders says.
"She didn't put the lipstick on herself; she couldn't feel her mouth," Lumley adds.
But they really shouldn't talk. Patsy and Edina woke up on a New York City garbage barge once, smelling of refuse with their make-up smeared. No doubt they told each other on the way home in the cab, "You look absolutely fabulous, sweetie."
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