Revisiting 'Showgirls', 30 Years Later

By Linda Holmes,

Aisha Harris, Barrie Hardymon, Chris Klimek, Mike Katzif, Jessica Reedy

Published September 25, 2025 at 10:26 AM EDT

Elizabeth Berkley in Showgirls. — Elizabeth Berkley in *Showgirls*.

Showgirls stars Elizabeth Berkley as a Vegas dancer trying to move up from a seedy club to a glamorous hotel show. Paul Verhoeven's NC-17 movie was a notorious flop, but it is now considered a camp classic and a window into a moment of moral panic. Showgirls turns 30 this year, so today we're revisiting our conversation about the film.

Follow Pop Culture Happy Hour on Letterboxd at letterboxd.com/nprpopculture

Tags

NPR Podcasts

Linda Holmes

Linda Holmes is a pop culture correspondent for NPR and the host of Pop Culture Happy Hour. She began her professional life as an attorney. In time, however, her affection for writing, popular culture, and the online universe eclipsed her legal ambitions. She shoved her law degree in the back of the closet, gave its living room space to DVD sets of The Wire, and never looked back.

See stories by Linda Holmes

Aisha Harris

Aisha Harris is a host of Pop Culture Happy Hour.

See stories by Aisha Harris

Barrie Hardymon

Barrie Hardymon is the Senior Editor at NPR's Weekend Edition, and the lead editor for books. You can hear her on the radio talking everything from Middlemarch to middle grade novels, and she's also a frequent panelist on NPR's podcasts It's Been A Minute and Pop Culture Happy Hour. She went to Juilliard to study viola, ended up a cashier at the Strand, and finally got a degree from Johns Hopkins' Writing Seminars which qualified her solely for work in public radio. She lives and reads in Washington, DC.

Chris Klimek

See stories by Chris Klimek

Mike Katzif

Jessica Reedy

See stories by Jessica Reedy