Prepare for the revival of Tammy Faye
OK, I did some homework for TIFF, just weeks away.
And maybe you should, too. Prepping for the premiere in Toronto of “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” — the much-anticipated biopic about the busted Bible thumpers, starring Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain — I found a classic “Nightline” interview that lurks on YouTube. Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker — by then the king and queen of ’80s televangelism — pleading their case to Ted Koppel. B-I-NG-O. May 27, 1987: the date in history. Sex, avarice and delusion: just some of the items on the agenda.
All a reminder of just what a sensation this entire saga was during the Reagan era — Koppel is on the record saying that it is the interview that got the most reaction, out of an estimated 6,000 interviews he did during his three decades on the marquee ABC show — and why, now, the movie has so many awards season prognosticators totally loopy. Certainly, the powers at the Toronto International Film Festival think so, considering that they have announced Chastain as an honouree at the TIFF Tribute Awards Gala.
A measurable stick for that all-important thing called buzz, that same award went to the likes of Joaquin Phoenix and Anthony Hopkins in recent years, both of whom — tah dah! — tumbled to Oscar wins just months later.
And though the new movie, directed by Michael Showalter, has chosen to lean toward the campy-ironic — just going by the trailer — the early word that I am hearing is that Chastain really is that good. Run that mascara, honey.
OK, so … that interview. Landing on the same day that rival televangelist Jerry Falwell had publicly levelled charges of everything including homosexuality, an affair with a church secretary, grand larceny and good old-fashioned fraud against the Bakers — known as the PTL Club through their TV empire, a.k.a. Praise the Lord (no, really) — the full-hour one-on-two was done remotely. And got going with Koppel calling it the “national soap opera” in his ever comforting dulcet tones.
And then it devolved from there. Attempting to give cosy married vibes (#CoupleGoals, as the kids say?), the Bakkers gave such moments as the intense way Jim looked at Tammy Faye every time she spoke (blinking, blinking, don’t screw this up, please don’t screw this up, it read to me, almost like he was ventriloquizing his thoughts to her) and also the way Jim simply shrugged off his living-large lifestyle: “I did not handle my chequebook, I did not handle my finances. I have repented and made a mistake,” said the man who would eventually be convicted of ripping off his supporters to the tune of $158 million and then sent to prison.
The most iconic moment of this interview, though? How Tammy Faye, dressed in Valentine red, responded when Koppel pressed her on her spending. “I don’t shop for cars,” she said, “and I don’t shop for mink coats. I do a lot of my shopping at places like TJ Maxx and outlet stores. It is kind of a hobby to calm my nerves.”
Wait … what??
One of the things that makes this an iconic moment of television all these decades later is just seeing how much of a pro Koppel was in those days. And I second here now what one commentator wrote on YouTube: “God, Ted Koppel had so much integrity and respect during this interview. He knew he was talking to loons and still treated them with the utmost respect and never slipped into gotcha bulls---.” The proverbial master class, in other words.
Amazingly, because America loves nothing more than a comeback story — and this is where “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” will land, I suspect — the lady in this equation not only survived the scandal and became a bona fide gay icon, but also pop culture gold, as demonstrated by her frequent pop-ups on “The Larry King Show” and her turn as the subject of a revered documentary, narrated by RuPaul (a doc that this Fox Searchlight feature is based on).
In 2007, when she died of colon cancer — many years after she had divorced Bakker and remarried — a columnist in Slate aptly summed it up: “Tammy Faye’s religious background made her an unlikely object for this kind of adulation, but in many ways, she had the classic profile of a gay icon.
Like many others, she became celebrated for her perseverance. She fell from grace … but Tammy Faye talked openly about her pain on TV and stood by her man after his conviction, singing at a press conference.”
Plus, of course, there was her unique style: runny mascara, gaudy jewelry. Garishness plus a certainly vulnerability. It was simple math! Not to mention that gay people dug the fact that she had long refused to denounce homosexuals and that she had urged sympathy for those with AIDS. In her final interview, she said, “When we lost everything, it was the gay people that came to my rescue and I will always love them for that.”
And here we go again: the latest revival of the Tammy Faye Story, coming soon to Toronto. And theatres everywhere.
There’s a lot of money in the God business. The Bakers taught us that much. Almost as much as there is in the Oscar biz.