STYLE TRANSFORMATION: DIANE LANE 1979 – 2008

I love DIANE LANE. I think she always looks sensational.

She went from being an adorable child actor to a glamorous teenage knockout working for the likes of FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA. DIANE was as gorgeous as anyone that came out of her era. But there was a big difference. Unlike many of those women, she had the goods. IN SPADES.

DIANE possesses powerful charisma and distracting sensuality. But she also has remarkable skill as an actor. It’s criminal that it took the Academy decades to acknowledge her – and then it was for useless dreck like Unfaithful.

(She clearly was fantastic. But that picture should be cut up and burned.)

This, to me, is completely illustrative of why I adore this woman. In 1983 (when she was 18), she tested for Walter Hill’s STREETS OF FIRE. They were impressed but told her she wasn’t right. She was too young for the role and she couldn’t sing.

They ended up having to dub her. But she got the part anyway.

I ended up seeing it on television when I was around the same age as DIANE was when she was cast. STREETS OF FIRE is one of the first DVDs that I ever purchased.

You can’t even say that it’s a time capsule from the mid 80s. There are a ton of different genres evident in the piece and it resembles nothing from that particular period – and not much from the future or the past either. But the cinematography, the direction, the musical numbers, the choreography, the action sequences and most particularly the performances (by RICK MORANIS, WILLEM DAFOE, AMY MADIGAN and hotter than a pistol MICHAEL PARE) are exceptional.

At the centre of this awesome good time is DIANE as rock goddess ELLEN AIM. When I saw this, all I wanted was to be her.

I still do…

DIANE’S opening scene – where she performs before a huge crowd in her home town – is below on YouTube.

To see DIANE’S IN STYLE photo gallery, please go here