Jane Wiedlin: The Second Most Famous Go-Go

Jane Wiedlin will forever be known as "the second most famous Go-Go." Whether she likes it or not, that is just how it's going to be. Odds are, if you can name two members of the Go-Go's, they are Belinda Carlisle and Jane Wiedlin.

Now you might think, since Jane Wiedlin is less famous than Belinda Carlisle, that she was somehow a less important member of the Go-Go's. But you would be wrong. Unlike Belinda, Jane could actually, you know, write songs and, um, play an instrument. Compared to Jane, Belinda didn't actually ... do anything. But life, as they say, is unfair, and for reasons both clear and mysterious, Belinda became the focal point of the band in the eyes of the public. As Jane once put it, "Belinda was like ... a superstar, and we were like ... cable TV stars."

Jane's career, by most metrics, should be considered rather zany and memorable. But in this case, it has been badly out-zanied by the career of her band mate, which happens to be the zaniest career of all time. Nevertheless, some tidbits worth mentioning:

1) Jane played Joan of Arc in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. I have watched the film several times, without knowing this. Not once did it occur to me that the woman playing Joan of Arc would have been anyone other than some relatively unknown character actress. In truth, I was watching a Go-Go.



2) Jane played the "singing telegram" in Clue: The Movie.



3) Jane has created a comic book called Lady Robotika, concerning "the adventures of a woman being abducted by aliens and turned into a cyborg superheroine." Oh, one of those.

4) Jane is an ordained minister who officiates under the title "Reverend Sister Go-Go" through the Universal Life Church, "a mail-order religious organization that offers anyone semi-immediate ordination as a ULC minister, free of charge."

5) Jane is also an animal rights activist and an enthusiastic bondage fetishist; the two usually go hand in hand.

Who knows? In an alternate universe, I could very well be doing an '80s blog series titled "Adventures With Jane Wiedlin." But that is not the particular wormhole our time-traveling telephone booth has found itself gliding through. No, for our purposes, Jane Wiedlin is Belinda's pixie-haired little buddy. Every great heroine needs a great sidekick, and Belinda has her Jane.