It looks like “fetch” really is not going to happen, and Lacey Chabert, who memorably portrayed Gretchen Wieners in the teen classic Mean Girls, should stop trying to make it happen — according to her daughter, who naturally had no idea what the term referenced.
The Hallmark actress, who is parent to 8-year-old daughter Julia along with husband David Nehdar, told the Today show’s Hoda Kotb, “When she was younger, she was like, ‘What’s fetch, why does everyone say that to you?’”
“She asked me a couple years ago, ‘Mom, do other people watch those movies that you make?’ And I was like, ‘Yes, baby, they’re not just for you,’” she said, wrapping up the amusing anecdote.
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Of course, fans of the 2004 Tina Fey hit will remember Gretchen’s unsupported efforts to make a slang word popular. In one scene of the film — which hilariously traces the social dynamics of a group of frenemies in high school — Gretchen calls Cady Herron’s (Lindsay Lohan) crush on a Mathlete “so fetch,” to which Regina George (Rachel McAdams) bitingly replies, “Gretchen, stop trying to make ‘fetch’ happen. It’s not going to happen.”
An enduring favorite, the satirical coming-of-age comedy (from director Mark Waters based on a script by Fey) has launched a bevy of endlessly quotable, referential and mimetic turns of phrase. Starring Jonathan Bennett, Tim Meadows, Amanda Seyfried, Ana Gasteyer, Amy Poehler, Lizzy Caplan and Fey, the bubbly pink yet darkly satisfying movie excoriates the impossibilities of teen girlhood and the chaos that ensues when an outsider is enlisted to spy on the most popular group in school.
Earlier this year, the film was remade as a musical, based on the original 2018 Broadway adaptation. That film, also produced by Fey and Lorne Michaels, saw Angourie Rice as Cady, Renée Rapp as Regina (reprising the role she portrayed onstage) and Auli’i Cravalho as Janis.
In addition to Mean Girls, Chabert appeared in Lost in Space opposite Gary Oldman and Matt LeBlanc, Not Another Teen Movie and a slew of Hallmark projects, including the recently released His & Hers.