All-American Girl: The Mary Kay Letourneau Story (2000) (TV)

Director:

Lloyd Kramer

Writer:

Julie Hébert (writer)

Release Date:

18 January 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

She was the teacher. He was her student. What they learned wasn't part of the curriculum.

Plot:

A teacher is arrested and jailed for raping her 13-year-old student, and twice gives birth to his child

Plot Keywords:

Statutory Rape | Judge | Trial | Arrest | Sex With Minor

Cast

Penelope Ann Miller	...	Mary Kay Letourneau
Omar Anguiano	...	Vili Fualaau
Mercedes Ruehl	...	Jane Newhall
Rena Owen	...	Soona Fualaau
Greg Spottiswood	...	Steve Letourneau
Christopher Bondy	...	John Schmitz (as Chris Bondy)
Janet-Laine Green	...	Mrs. Schmitz
Gary Hudson	...	Charles Dunphy
Robert Clark	...	Steven, Jr.
Lori Hallier	...	Jan Griffin
Julie Khaner	...	Det. Coughlin
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Philip Akin	...	Det. Albany
Chloe Brown	...	Girl Student
Nadia Capone	...	Susan Trenton
Michael Caruana	...	Marina Cop #1
Natasha Debellis	...	Gypsy Girl
Bobby Del Rio	...	Favia Fualaau
Kyra Harper	...	Barbara Henries
Cody Jones	...	Joe Schmitz
Rikki Klieman	...	TV Reporter
Karen Robinson	...	Karen
Sandi Ross	...	Mrs. Higgins
Tara Shelley	...	Mary Kay's Daughter
Mung-Ling Tsui	...	Judge Lau

Also Known As:

Mary Kay Letourneau: All American Girl (USA) (new title)

Runtime:

USA:120 min (including commercials) | Brazil:93 min | Argentina:96 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Grosso-Jacobson Productions

Trivia:

Soona Fualaau the mother of Vili Fualaau requested that the producers cast New Zealand actress 'Rena Owens' to play her, after seeing her performance in Once Were Warriors (1994).

Made for T.V. (Tabloid vicariousness) failure.

An actor asks, "What's my motivation?," to understand his or her character. After viewing this this "docudrama," this vague and haphazard farce, a viewer wonders what anyone's motivation was.

This inept offspring of daytime T.V. (the Oprah show) missed by a mile a great opportunity to explore weighty issues.

Its characters were all shallow and superficial, its story line far less socially redeeming than a "Simpsons" episode. It gratuitously portrayed investigating police as unprofessional and incompetent. It failed to offer why the court might treat the main character, a female child molester, so differently than it would have a male perp.

Why did this unrepentant woman begin "grooming" her second grade student, beginning an affair with him when he returned to her sixth grade class? Why did the boy's mother testify in her behalf? The simple answer is overwhelming narcissism, plus generational rationalization and greed. The movie gave no hint of that.

Why wasn't the viewer informed that the victim's mother sold interview rights to print and television tabloids, parading her adolescent son on "The Today Show"? That Mary Kay's lawyer cashed in, she herself appealing a "Son of Sam" statute so she could benefit from her crime by selling her story to the highest bidder?

Why wasn't it explained that LeTourneau's father was a former right wing Republican congressman, the 1972 American Independent Presidential candidate, the John Birch Society President? In 1983 John Schmitz's political career ended when he was found to have had children by his own community college student, exposed only when that mistress sexually mutilated their infant son? Yet Letourneau's dad had removed his many kids from "too liberal" Catholic schools, fighting to keep all schoolchildren from receiving any sex education?

A month after her conditional release, again pregnant with the now 14-year-old's second daughter, Mary Kay received 7 1/2 years in prison for numerous probation violations. A prophetic editorial regarding the sad affair then appeared in the Seattle Times: "At the end of two wretched hours, LeTourneau was led off to jail, and this salacious melange of made-for-TV seaminess was over, until casting begins."

Sure enough, 18 months later, filming of this travesty was underway.