When Pom Poms Were Lethal

The only surviving copy on DVD!

Shanna, whose mom went meshuggah

Step into the SJG time machine, and travel back to the early 90s.  Everybody seated?  Good. Refreshments will be served before the TV movie begins.  Keep your crunching and slurping to a minimum, please,or you'll be ejected, spit into space and never heard from again.  Harsh?  Maybe.  But time travel's a bitch.  Now then.  The movie we're about to see is called "Willing To Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story."  What's that?  Did someone in my time machine just say, "Who cares?" How dare you.  You should care, and I'm about to tell you why.  I associate produced this movie!  I'm in it, too. I play a reporter in a mob trying to get the attention of Wanda Holloway (Leslie Ann Warren).  Wanda Who?  What's wrong with you people?  Don't you read People?  Wanda Holloway was arrested in 1991, put on trial, convicted and served time in jail for hiring a hitman to kill Verna Heath, a former neighbor whose daughter, Amber, competed with Wanda's daughter Shanna in junior high for spots on the cheerleading squads. (First hint that Wanda wasn't Jewish.)  The wacky crime inspired two TV movies, the one I worked on for ABC, and the Holly Hunter one on HBO.  I got to hang out with the young co-stars and the cheerleaders pretending to be Texas cheerleaders.  I got to schlep to San Pedro, which doubled as small town Texas.  I got to watch fights break out between competing camera crews. (HBO was filming their movie at the same time.)  I got to watch fights break out between executive producers.  I got to work on the script.   I got to watch the first A.D. walk into a screen door and be rushed to the hospital.  Who said TV wasn't glamorous?

What prompted me to drag you back in time with me?  It's a fair question. Shanna, then 14, now 34, a grown up mother of two, is finally talking about that sad phase when her mother went completely meshuggah.  She's telling People (exclusively!), "I kept thinking, 'Why are you doing this to us? 'I hate you!' I felt like I had a flashing neon sign on my forehead that said, 'Pom-Pom Mom's Daughter.' I felt very alone." Well, looks like she survived the ordeal, which makes me happy.  Doesn't sound like "Willing To Kill" scarred her for life, and for that, I take complete credit.  Everybody out of the time machine.  Thanks for clapping when my name hit the screen.  Make sure you throw your trash in the recyling bin.  And thanks for flying SJG Air. 

Shanna of "Pom Pom" fame