Traffic Exchange

Feb 14, 2011

Mean girls on TV

 Borrowed from a best-selling book, the term "mean girl" entered the realm of pop culture when the award-winning writer scripted the 2004 movie, starring a true-life Hollywood bad girl. Whether they're called mean girls, bad girls, vixens, queen bees or worse, they usually steal the show in TV land.
Sue Sylvester
Jane Lynch plays the twisted high school coach of a cereal-nicknamed team, but film fans may know the actress from another scandalous role.

Wilhelmina Slater

Vanessa Williams plays a conniving magazine editor, and her award-nominated role probably landed her residence on a suburban street. But she's played a high-powered businesswoman on the big screen, too.

Abby Cunningham Ewing

Donna Mills took her role as a shady bookkeeper to another level, but the glamour makers owe her lifetime residuals.

Blair Waldorf

Leighton Meester put the flesh-and-bone, along with a signature style, on point when she took on the role of the book-created queen bee. What's her connection to Gwyneth Paltrow?

Amanda Woodward

Heather Locklear's coldhearted advertising executive made the micro-mini the new business attire. Before landing in West Hollywood, she cut her teeth in Colorado.

Toni Childs

Jill Marie Jones' portrayal of a money-hungry real estate agent took a real-life turn when she squared off with show executives. Guess she couldn't rally the troops like the "Friends" cast. What's her connection to Christmas?

Katherine Pierce

Nina Dobrev gets to play it both ways: She's the bad-girl vampire who has two brothers lusting after her for more than a century and she's her own good-girl enemy.

Alexis Carrington Colby

Joan Collins' stylish and vindictive ex-wife of an oil baron made her costume designer a household name, not to mention as famous as she was infamous.

Esther Anderson

LaWanda Page's portrayal of the Bible-waving menace gave new meaning to the term "suffering the in-law.

Edie Britt

Nicollette Sheridan plays a divorcee with a roving eye on Wisteria Lane. But she became a household name along with a premier mistress of mean.

Rhonda Volmer

Daveigh Chase plays the manipulative teenage runaway from an arranged marriage on a polygamist compound with so much saccharin sweetness that the venality will strangle.

Valerie Malone

Tiffani-Amber Thiessen played a bad girl to the hilt, totally destroying her sweet cheerleader casting. But she's come full circle, now that she's an agent's wife.

Nellie Oleson

Alison Arngrim played a spoiled-rich small-town queen bee from girlhood to adulthood without missing a beat.