8. Alex Fisher (Jada Pinkett Smith), The Women
The lesbian best friend of three straight women, there was a lot of stuff Alex Fisher didn’t understand โ everlasting pregnancy, for example โ but that didn’t stop her from playing the hero for all her straight pals in The Women. After finding out that Mary’s (Meg Ryan) husband is cheating on her, Alex tracks down the mistress and immediately makes it known that the woman is “fine!” She locks it up in time to threaten the mistress (Eva Mendes), and then threaten her friends when she finds out they still haven’t told Mary: “What do you mean she doesn’t know? Put her in the vault! She’s not in the vault? You need to drag her ass into the vault!” She patches her friends together when they fall apart, encourages Mary to work things out with the man that she loves and even saves the day by delivering a baby at the end of the film โ even though she’s clearly confused about why the world needs more boys. 7. Velma Dinkley, Scooby-Doo
The most misleading tune of our collective youth is the Scooby-Doo theme song: Scooby-Dooby-Doo, where are you? We need some help from you now. Scooby and Shaggy are tripped out on who-knows-what in the haunted castle; Fred and Daphne are up to you-know-what in the Mystery Machine. The person you need help from is Velma. In fact, if it weren’t for Velma’s super skills, the entire team would have been killed by a curmudgeonly old real estate agent dressed as a monster in the very first episode. We’d like to think she was such a great sidekick because of her intellect, level-head, perseverance and sense of greater good. And while all those things are true, the other thing that made Velma such a good team member is the fact that she was single. If Velma Dinkley had stumbled across a girlfriend on one her misadventures, she’d have bounced on the Mystery, Inc. crew faster than you can say, “Zoinks!” 6. Original Cindy (Valarie Rae Miller), Dark Angel
If you’re a genetically-enhanced super-soldier, the thing you really need to make it through the day is a lesbian roommate whose motto is “no big dealio!” Original Cindy is one of the grounding forces in Max Guevara’s (Jessica Alba) life. She not only provides emotional support and fashion tips about sequined tanks, Original Cindy also helps Max keep her cover as a courier for Jam Pony Express. Original Cindy almost always talks about Original Cindy in the third person, and when things really get tough, she’s happy to cover Max’s trail: “By the way, some of those black-helicopter storm-trooper folks stopped by, asking about a transgenic teenage killing machine. I said you were out.” |
