The Brat Pack

Unexpected bonus on TV last night with the ever excellent Breakfast Club showing, the film where five students are put in Saturday detention and are told to write an essay telling who they think we are are deciding they are a brain, an athlete, a basket case, a princess and a criminal which i admit isn't selling it very well but it is an amazingly great film.
'Don't you forget about me' by Simple Minds will forever be linked with the film which is in turn forever linked with me by way of being released in 1985 which is the year that i left school and watched it with a bunch of friends who i never really saw again after that day.
What the film is most famous for is starring the Brat Pack actors, a group of eight who starred in either The Breakfast Club or St. Elmo’s Fire but never really hit such heady heights again.
Andrew McCarthy (Kevin - St. Elmo's Fire) turned up in Mannequin, Weekend at Bernie's, Pretty in Pink as well as St. Elmo's Fire and moved into TV work before directing while my favourite Judd Nelson (Alec St Elmo's Fire and the Criminal in Breakfast Club) has been on TV but not in much that i have seen.
Emilio Estevez (Alec St. in Elmos Fire and the athlete in Breakfast Club) made a few films such as The Mighty Ducks but become more famous for being Charlie Sheen's brother and being married briefly to singer Paula Abdul has now semi-retired from acting and directs.
Rob Lowe (Billy St. Elmo's Fire) is currently starring as a policeman in the British TV show Wild Bill but his career took a massive knock back when he filmed himself having sex with a 16-year-old girl, and the tape became public and it never really got back on track.
Demi Moore (Jules St. Elmo's Fire) famously married Bruce Willis and is the most successful of the Brat Pack actors, starring in some big name films while Molly Ringwald (the princess in Breakfast Club) got married, gave it all up and moved to France and Ally Sheedy (Leslie in St. Elmo's Fire and
the basket vase in Breakfast Club) struggled with bulimia and became addicted to sleeping pills.
Anthony Michael Hall (The brain in Breakfast Club) struggled with alcohol and was on many front pages for drunken brawling and although with the exception of Demi Moore, none really went on to bigger and better things.
The geek, the popular girl, the waster, the sports star and the cooky one who spent a Saturday in detention remains one of my favourite films ever, mainly because as a 16 year old girl at the time, all were all real life characters that we all come across during our time at school and had befriended, hated, avoided or in some way had crossed paths with.