A new limited series on Peacock profiles Angelyne, a Los Angeles cultural icon who helped usher in the era of famous-for-being-famous influencer culture.
Emmy Rossum stars as the enigmatic blonde bombshell, along with Martin Freeman and Alex Karpovsky. The series is based on a 2017 Hollywood Reporter article by Gary Baum titled "The Mystery of L.A. Billboard Diva Angelyne’s Real Identity Is Finally Solved."
Angelyne rose to fame in the 1980s with her eye-popping billboards featuring a photo of herself along with her name Angelyne in bold, pink letters, placed around the city.
Get top local stories in Southern California delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC LA's News Headlines newsletter.
She's known for cruising around LA in some iteration of a pink Corvette, selling merch out of the trunk of her car (she now has her own online store) and posing for photos ($20 each).
"I love Angelyne," star and Angelyne executive producer Rossum said. "She’s as if Marilyn Monroe got into an Easy-Bake Oven with a 80s punk Barbie Doll, and a dose of new age spirituality. She's a trailblazer, a hustler, a visionary, the original influencer, a living-breathing piece of art."
Before Rossum transformed into LA's billboard queen she did a lot of research, met with coaches to perfect Angelyne's patterns, dialect and movement and met the real-life Angelyne at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the actress told E! News.
Showrunner and executive producer Allison Miller said in a previously released statement that the five episodes aren't the true story of Angelyne. It’s not a straight forward biopic.
"It’s a story inspired by everything Angelyne represents and so it’s a magical story, a hopeful story, a story about becoming the person you were meant to be and believing in your own inner strength to manifest your dreams. It’s a story about Los Angeles and everything the city means to people who move here and to people who dream about moving here," Miller said.
Want to know who Angelyne really is? You can always buy a ride for $500 -- you, the pink Corvette and Angelyne herself.
The limited series "Angelyne" is streaming now on Peacock.
NBCUniversal Local and Peacock are both part of the NBCUniversal family.