Biography
Viva, also known as Viva Superstar and originally known on her birth certificate as Janet Susan Mary Hoffman, was one of the more famous members of the
Andy Warhol entourage. A talented painter and novelist, Viva was less accomplished as an actress, though her screen appearances had the saving grace of humor. In recounting her explicit sex scene in Warhol's F**k (aka
Blue Movie, 1968), one recalls not the penetration but the foreplay, wherein Viva blithely chatters away on a variety of social and political topics. Her most famous "mainstream" appearances include her semi-autobiographical turn as Greenwich Village reveller Gretchen McAlbertson in
Midnight Cowboy (1969), and her portrayal of Jennifer,
Woody Allen's nymphomaniac blind date (who, after prattling on about sexual liberation, reacts to
Woody Allen's advances by screaming "
What kind of a girl do you take me for???") in Play It Again, Sam (1972). Outlasting the fifteen minutes of fame proscribed by her mentor
Andy Warhol, Viva was recently seen as Mrs. Cooper in
Mel Gibson's
Man Without a Face (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide