It's tempting to feel sorry for Elizabeth Berkley, a child-star of one of America's best-loved shows (Saved By The Bell) thrust into the film spotlight for Showgirls, one of cinema's most famous flops. It's even more tempting to feel that empathy when you take into account that director Paul Verhoeven has recently admitted that he instructed his star to act in the way over-the-top manner that she does. It's also worth noting that, 20 years on, some are reevaluating Showgirls as a camp, kitsch classic, and of course it needs that Berkley performance to be so. But then you remember just how god-damn bad she is in it, and all mitigating circumstances go out of the window as you surrender to your instincts: "She's awful, she's annoying, I hate her." Showgirls killed her career, so there's nothing to even counter-balance her performance with, nothing to suggest that she might actually be able to act. (Though again, this isn't necessarily her fault). It's easy to stick the knife in to Berkley, and it has been done numerous times in the last two decades. But when something is that prevalent, it of course has basis. What's one more nail in a coffin chock-full of them?
