Cult Actors: Lisa London

Promotional still from H.O.T.S. (1979)

I've always had a thing for H.O.T.S. (1979). It played constantly on USA Up All Night during my childhood, and it almost seemed like a kid's movie. Seriously, if you cut the boobs out of H.O.T.S., you've got a very short, but very entertaining viewing experience for the entire family.

The plot goes like this: some sincere-yet-awkward college chicks get unfairly rejected from the snotty, establishment sorority on campus. So, they decide to start their own. Some nose jobs and chest exercises later, they re-emerge as the busty, libertine H.O.T.S.—dead-set on "stealing every man on campus away from PI sorority." H.O.T.S. was basically the template for Revenge of the Nerds (1984), except the nerds in this one are all Playboy Playmates with giant racks. Gotta love the 1970's. And there was even a refreshingly feminist bent to the script—courtesy of screenwriters Joan Buchanan and Cheri Caffaro—that didn't, thankfully, interfere with the good, old-fashioned T&A.

The H.O.T.S. girls during their climactic booby-jump

My favorite H.O.T.S. girl was always Lisa London, who played "O'Hara"—the improbably named, but acronym-ically necessary "O" component of the H.O.T.S. brand. I don't know why I always connected with O'Hara. There were four main H.O.T.S. girls—the earnest hard worker Honey, the sincere romantic Teri, the deceptively sexy but still-book-smart Sam, and then there was O'Hara—who just wanted to be slutty and have fun. Yeah, not sure why I dug her so much.

I was happy to find out Lisa London is still going strong. After H.O.T.S., she had memorable roles in The Happy Hooker Goes to Washington (1980), Sudden Impact (1983), and Dragnet (1987)—and then settled down to appear in roughly a movie or two, every other year, until now. Including the de rigueur "Law and Order" appearance.

We love you, O'Hara!