Hot Slut Of The Day!

The bloody armadillo cake made by Aunt Fern (as played to perfect by the late great Ann Wedgeworth) from Steel Magnolias!

Strolling up to the VIP check-in at the gates of heaven yesterday was Malcolm Young and Cher Horowitz’s favorite designer Azzedine Alaïa, and joining those two legends was underrated diamond of an actress Ann Wedgeworth. Heaven is now a much more talented and glamorous place, because Ann Wedgeworth died on Thursday after a long illness at a nursing home in the New York City area. She was 83. Before I mention many of the gifts that Ann gave to us (including today’s HSOTD), let me pay tribute to her magnificent over-the-shoulder glamour pose skills:

Elizabeth Ann Wedgeworth was a rose of Texas who moved to NYC after college and acted in many Broadway shows. In 1978, she was a Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her performance in Neil Simon’s Chapter Two. Beyond theater, Ann was in a million movies and TV shows like Scarecrow, Handle with Care, Thieves, Sweet Dreams (where she played Patsy Cline’s mom), Bang the Drum Slowly, Love and a .45 , The Whole Wide World, Filthy Rich and Roseanne (where she played Dan’s mom).

Depending on how old you are and how educated you are in the subject of important contributions to art, you may know Ann best from Another World, where she played Lahoma Vane Lucas from 1967-1970 (Fun fact: Sometime Dlisted contributor Lahoma got his pen name from that character). Or you may know her best as Merleen from Evening Shade. Or as gorgeous and horny cougar Lana from Three’s Company. When The Ropers left before season 4 for their own spin-off show, glamorous bombshell divorcee Lana was brought in. When Lana wasn’t slathering our eyeballs with elegance, she was trying to get on Jack Tripper’s dick. Wikipedia says that John Ritter was the smartest man in the world, because he didn’t think it made sense that Jack would turn down a stunningly beautiful goddess like Lana. Ann eventually quit Three’s Company after 9 episodes because she didn’t like how her role got smaller and smaller.

If you ever want to know if someone is worth talking to at a party, ask them, “What did you think when Three’s Company added Lana?” If they say either “Who?” or “I didn’t like that,” banish them from your presence immediately!

And that bring us to Ann in Steel Magnolias. Ann played the southern blossom Aunt Fern who babysat Julia Roberts’ kid when she was on her deathbed and was also responsible for creating the iconic bloody armadillo cake (at the 1:00 mark below).

Ann is survived by her husband Ernie Martin their daughter Dianna Martin and her daughter with Rip Torn, Danae Torn.

Rest in peace, Ann. If any of us had the skills to make an armadillo cake, we’d make one and eat a slice in your honor.

Pics: TriStar/Pinterest, ABC/Three’s Company