TMFW 11 - The Girl(s) in the Video(s)

 

Tom Petty's "Free Fallin''" video came out when I was 12 years old, and the skateboarding girl in the video made quite an, um, impression on me.  (She was right there with DJ Tanner and Clarissa Darling.)  But we all must grow up.  I had not given any recent thought to my onetime crush until last month, when, indoctrinating my children with peak-years Tom Petty, we watched the videos for "Free Fallin'" and for "Don't Come Around Here No More."

 

Because I am the kind of person who writes True Music Facts each week, I wondered what became of the women in both videos.  In example number 5,824 of "Why the Internet is the Best Invention Ever," Google served up my answer instantly.  Marc Tyler Nobleman, who blogs at Noblemania, started a series this summer where he finds, and interviews, "The Girl in the Video" for many MTV classics.  He asks about the filming of the videos, the semi-celebrity status afterwards, and what they are doing now.  

 

The series is great, and includes both the "Free Fallin'" woman (Devon Jenkin, who is now a "fitness specialist" in Colorado) and Alice from "Don't Come Around Here No More." (Louise "Wish" Foley, who now does IT stuff).  You can find the whole list at the link above; while some of the interviews are better than others - Wish Foley's is really charming and full of cool rock-n-roll stories, for example - each of them is a fun read.

 

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Bonus Fact:  (You probably knew this one, but...) Two Tom Petty videos from the '90s feature A-List celebrities: "Mary Jane's Last Dance," with Kim Basinger, and "Into the Great Wide Open," with Johnny Depp.  ("Mary Jane's Last Dance" is my favorite Tom Petty song, and one of my all-time favorites.)