Viva

Viva

Viva, also known as Viva Superstar and originally known on her birth certificate as Janet Susan Mary Hoffman, was one of the more famous members of the Andy Warhol entourage. A talented painter and novelist, Viva was less accomplished as an actress, though her screen appearances had the saving grace of humor. In recounting her explicit sex scene in Warhol's F**k (aka Blue Movie, 1968), one recalls not the penetration but the foreplay, wherein Viva blithely chatters away on a variety of social and political topics. Her most famous "mainstream" appearances include her semi-autobiographical turn as Greenwich Village reveller Gretchen McAlbertson in Midnight Cowboy (1969), and her portrayal of Jennifer, Woody Allen's nymphomaniac blind date (who, after prattling on about sexual liberation, reacts to Woody Allen's advances by screaming "What kind of a girl do you take me for???") in Play It Again, Sam (1972). Outlasting the fifteen minutes of fame proscribed by her mentor Andy Warhol, Viva was recently seen as Mrs. Cooper in Mel Gibson's Man Without a Face (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide