This past weekend, Bill Murray proved to the world that one can never be too big a star to pick up a pretty young thing in a foreign country and spend a wild night chugging vodka and doing household chores at a roaring college party. "Lost in Translation" comparisons aside (we get it: life imitates art - very funny), it warmed our hearts to see a celebrity like Bill drinking alcohol straight from a coffee mug and offering to help with the dishes at a St. Andrews house party on Saturday. But Bill had plenty of inspiration, as Hollywood and housework have always enjoyed a rather cozy relationship. This week, the Daily looks at the serving stars who paved the way for Bill's domesticity.
10.) Juanita in "Billy Madison" (1995): What separates a good maid from a great maid is versatility. Anyone can cook and clean - the best maids can do it all. And believe us, boys and girls, the aged Juanita could do it all. She whipped up delicious meals to entertain Billy's wealthy hotel baron buddies and oversaw a domestic operation more complex than the White House, but what puts her over the top are her intangibles. Not only could she hit the high notes in the film's magnificent and wholly appropriate musical number, but she really cared about her employers, acting as Billy's shoulder to cry on in his times of trouble, his Snack Pack when he was feeling blue, and offering to take her shirt off just to bring a smile to his face. ("Remember, the offer's on the table.")
9.) C-3PO in "Star Wars" (1977): This droid isn't a maid in the conventional sense, and though he is pretty useless around the kitchen, C-3PO, or "3PO" to his friends, makes up for his shortcomings with an exhaustive knowledge of protocol. Fluent in over 6 million forms of communication, including the binary language of moisture vaporators, here's a maid that could entertain any guest and keep you from committing an embarrassing faux pas.8.) The furniture from "Beauty and the Beast" (1991): We'd be Mrs. Potts and Co.'s guests any time, if only because they have to be the most loyal servants we've ever seen. Not many maids can put on elaborate musical numbers while cooking dinner, let alone if their boss has turned into a hulking, temperamental monster and they've been transformed into household goods, which must make the whole thing very hard to choreograph.
7.) Alfred from the Batman series: For Alfred's sake, let's hope Bruce has mercy and hires a private contractor to clean up the guano in the Bat Cave. Alfred already cooks and cleans at Wayne Manor, on top of taking care of the countless bat-gadgets and providing tactical support. If Alfred ever leaves, Batman will be as useful to Gotham as Aquaman would be protecting oil reserves in Saudi Arabia.
6.) Mr. Belvedere from "Mr. Belvedere": What's funnier than a snooty, fat, mustached British butler living in the Pittsburgh suburbs with a kooky American family? Nothing. Okay, well, probably a few things, like babies dressed as animals and heavy things falling on people. But Mr. B deserves our thanks for spreading his class and morality Stateside and writing such fantastic, quippy diary entries at the end of each episode.
5.) Magda from "Sex and the City": Because hiring an old Eastern European lady with a clich?© accent is the height of cool - right? But, as always, the "Sex and the City" ladies live cinematically spicy lives, especially when Magda the Maid happens upon Miranda's final frontier: her "goody drawer." When Miranda discovers that her vibrator has been replaced by a statuette of the Virgin Mary, Magda proves her muster as the scary reincarnation of your old-fashioned Catholic grandmother.
4.) Rosie from "The Jetsons": This is perhaps the most empathetic, caring and overall loving maid you could possibly ask for. She rolls around the Jetson's humble abode, cooking and cleaning, worrying about Judy and Elroy and making sure everything is in tip-top condition for the family's arrival. Funny thing is, she is a metal, soulless robot.
3.) Mrs. Doubtfire from "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993): You know you must have made a mistake if your ex-husband dons an elaborate octogenarian get-up just to spend a little quality time with his kids. That's one heck of a daddy right there. Put aside the fact that the entire experience of seeing Euphegenia stand up to pee probably sent Chris to a shrink years later, this "deadbeat dad" sure made things right with the kids and with his won-back-from-Pierce-Brosnan wife.
2.) The Nurse in "Romeo and Juliet": Juliet's nurse brings the job to a more ... intimate level, working in a time when the title literally meant the verb. Offering most of the sexual innuendo of the play, her role involves acting as the middleman between Romeo and Juliet, having to explain to the "star-crossed lover" that, "No, really, she's totally into you; you should marry her or something."
1.) Alice from "The Brady Bunch": Alice is the standard by which all other TV maids measure themselves. She made three meals a day for six precocious kids while Mrs. Brady sat around flipping out the ends of her hair. Dealing with Jan's middle child issues and Cindy's speech impediment didn't even hinder Alice from catching herself a man who also happened to provide the Bradys with quality meat. Alice, we salute you.
- by the Arts Department
