The Secret's Revealed! Executive Producer Allison Miller Reveals Everything You Need to Know About Angelyne

Long before Paris Hilton or the Kardashians, there was a mysterious blonde bombshell Angelyne, who wanted to be famous for who she was not for something she did. Many credit her with the invention of being famous for being famous. Today, there’s social media to achieve that goal, but Angelyne became an influencer before Twitter and Instagram existed by becoming the Billboard Queen.

“Angelyne is an homage to the Real Angelyne who became a cultural icon in Los Angeles,” said showrunner/executive producer Allison Miller. “This isn’t the true story of Angelyne. It’s not a straightforward biopic. It’s a story inspired by everything Angelyne represents and so it’s a magical story, a hopeful story, a story about becoming the person you were meant to be and believing in your own inner strength to manifest your dreams. It’s a story about Los Angeles and everything the city means to people who move here and to people who dream about moving here."

Here is everything we know so far about Angelyne’s magical mystery tour:

When will Angelyne premiere?

Angelyne begins streaming exclusively on Peacock on Thursday, May 19.

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What is Angelyne about?

Loosely based on the article that Gary Baum wrote for The Hollywood Reporter in 2017, Angelyne finally reveals the mystery behind the blonde bombshell who became famous as Los Angeles’  Billboard Queen. Her story is one of fame, identity, survival, Corvettes, lingerie, men, women, West Hollywood, crystals, UFOs and most importantly, the self-proclaimed Rorschach test in hot pink known as Angelyne.

“As a society broadening our understanding of identity, this story plays with large questions,” said star/executive producer Emmy Rossum. “Are we defined by the historical facts of our life? Or can we define ourselves? To self-actualize, to embrace whoever we are on the inside and live whatever truth feels most accurate. When everyone’s experience of reality and truth is personal, can there ever be one true story?

“I've spent the better part of four years thinking, living and breathing this project. I love Angelyne. She’s as if Marilyn Monroe got into an easy bake oven with an ‘80s punk Barbie doll, and a dose of new age spirituality. She's a trailblazer, a hustler, a visionary, the original influencer, a living-breathing piece of art. Here is a little taste of the show. I hope you fall in love with her magic.”

Who's in the Angelyne cast?

Emmy Rossum as Angelyne
Alex Karpovsky as Jeff Glasner
Lukas Gage as Max Allen
Hamish Linklater as Rick Krauss
Charlie Rowe as Freddy Messina
Michael Angarano as Danny
Tonatiuh as Andre Casiano
Martin Freeman as Maurice Wallach

Is there a trailer for Angelyne?

Since she was a girl, Angelyne believed that fame was her destiny, and she made it happen. Watch the trailer as Angelyne morphs into Los Angeles’ Billboard Queen.

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Who is Angelyne?

Angelyne, 71, was able to keep her true identity a secret until 2017, when it was revealed by Gary Baum in the Hollywood Reporter. It turns out that the secretive pop culture icon was born in Poland on October 2, 1950, as Renee Goldberg to Holocaust survivors, who were incarcerated in the Skarżysko-Kamienna concentration camps. Shortly thereafter her parents moved to Los Angeles and settled in the Fairfax District, where she was raised. Following the death of her mother, her father remarried—another survivor—and they moved to the San Fernando Valley.

It was when Angelyne met wealthy adhesive-free-tape entrepreneur Hugo Maisnik that they dreamed up the idea of putting her image on billboards all around Los Angeles. Her first billboard was released in February 1984, and at one point, she had 200 billboards up concurrently.

That said, the main trademark of her celebrity persona is a pink Corvette, which she drove all around town, but she did appear in several movies, including Earth Girls Are Easy, Dangerous Love and Homer and Eddie. From the information in the limited series, Angelyne made the bulk of her income from merchandising her image.

How old is Angelyne the Billboard Queen?

Renee Goldberg (Angelyne) was born October 2, 1950, making her 71 years old.

What was it about the project that spoke to you that made you want to spend your time on it?

Allison Miller: Being from L.A., what I love about Angelyne is she’s such a quintessential L.A. celebrity, right? You have to come here to see her. She created this whole idea that it’s good luck to see her, and everyone believes it. People will text me today like, “Oh, did Angelyne buy a Jeep? I just saw a pink Jeep.” I was like, “She doesn’t own the color.” But she created the idea that you would paint a car pink, and it’s almost like a logo. She’s a businesswoman and she’s created this incredible industry that survived 60 years.

Was The Hollywood Reporter story your only reference? Or were you able to find people who could talk to you about her?

Allison Miller: We talked to a lot of people in her life, in her past, people who just know her, people who are actively trying to make documentaries about her. And that’s one of the things, the kind of talking-head structure the series gave us, which is the ability to have those people try to contradict her, to have her contradict them. To kind of give us this idea how hard it is to decide on what’s true and what really happened when we all experience such different things. And who has the right to say what’s true for someone else?

How did you decide on the tone because there is some seriousness to the limited series but there’s also a lot of humor with it?

Allison Miller: She’s unconventional. She’s an unconventional woman and we just felt like she deserved an unconventional way to tell a story. I grew up on movies like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich, and when I read the article and thought about her, I just saw this great opportunity to tell something in a way I’ve always wanted to tell it, which is spectacularly. And we were really empowered by the studio and the network to run with that, and that was really exciting.

How would you describe her? Things that she says, everything is all about her. But is there more to it? Is this a story of reinvention? Of you can be who want to be?

Allison Miller: I mean, yes, you should be able to be whoever you want to be in my opinion. I think that the show lands very firmly on no one should have the right to tell your story and no one can get it right. No one can say who she is because she’s saying it herself, and she should have the last word on that. And that’s why we give her the last word in the series.

What do you think people will take away from it?

Allison Miller: I hope that we can say something about taking your power and finding your own voice, and not letting other people take your own voice from you. I think these days there’s a lot of noise, and sometimes it’s better to know who you are and stay true to that.

Do you think she actually launched the whole concept of being famous for being famous?

Allison Miller: I can’t think of one before her to be honest, who so actively pursued advertising herself.

It was surprising to learn that she supported herself through merchandizing T-shirts and that kind of stuff

Allison Miller: Yes, and public appearances, and licensing her image for things. Think about how she’s managed to bake herself into L.A. culture, right? She becomes almost a shorthand when you’re watching a TV show, especially in the ‘90s. She was in The Simpsons and Futurama. There would be an Angelyne billboard in the background so viewers could tell that it was set in Los Angeles. She made that happen for herself. It’s funny, I think more people will see her and recognize her in a way that they didn’t even know they knew who she was.

How to watch or stream Angelyne

Angelyne will stream exclusively on Peacock beginning Thursday, May 19.

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