Well before breathing life into ambitious anchorwoman Veronica Corningstone in Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's premiere 1970s gender politics parody, Applegate starred in two other sardonic-meets-silly spoofs on classic genre films.
In 1996, the actor portrayed Sharona — the grief-stricken, halter-top wearing girlfriend of Jack Black's Billy Glenn Norris — in Tim Burton's "Mars Attacks!" A film that's at once absurd and hilariously astute in its commentary on the era, the quirky director's celebrated spin on the cheesy alien invasion movies of the 1950s was critically lauded at the time of its release, and would eventually become one of Burton's many cult classics. Shortly thereafter, Applegate was cast in another cinematic spoof with director Jim Abrahams' wink at films like "The Godfather" and "Goodfellas," 1998's "Mafia!"
The film never shied away from leaving into its Francis Ford Coppola-inspired affect, and Applegate's peter-pan collar-bedecked character, Diane Steen, was an overtly obviously play on Diane Keaton's Kay Adams. Despite the film's clever premise, it never received much critical acclaim — possibly because it debuted alongside the smash hit, "There's Something About Mary." In his review of "Mafia!," Roger Ebert mentioned the superiority of the Farrelly brothers' film twice, despite the two films' disparate purports and vibes. He did manage to get a laugh out of one of Applegate's lines, though: "I'm always gonna just be that Protestant chick who never killed anyone?" she asks at one point, referencing Keaton's character.
