Lifetime Movies: The Ultimate Guilty Pleasure

In honor of today's nasty weather, I'm posting a list inspired by my favorite rainy day activity: watching Lifetime movie marathons. Come on, you can't beat the overacting, the melodrama, the closing courtroom scenes, or the attempts by '90s TV stars to fight typecasting by playing the "bad guys." Here are some of my favorites (most of which are, of course, based on a true story):

No One Would Tell
starring: Fred Savage (The Wonder Years' Kevin Arnold), Candace Cameron Bure (Full House's DJ Tanner)

A shy teenager (Bure) becomes involved in, and eventually can't get out of, an abusive relationship with a popular and attractive athlete (Savage).





She Cried No
starring: Candace Cameron Bure (DJ Tanner), Mark Paul-Gosselaar (Saved by the Bell's Zack Morris), Jenna von Oy (Blossom's Six LeMeure)

When a college freshman (Bure) attends a party thrown by her brother's fraternity, she is date-raped by a fraternity member (Gosselaar).





Dying to Belong
starring: Hilary Swank (ever heard of her?), Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris), and Jenna von Oy (Six LeMeure), Sarah Chalke (Scrub's Dr. Elliot Reid)

After a college freshman's friend is killed during a night of sorority hazing, she (Swank) sets out to expose the dark underside of Greek life.





Death of a Cheerleader
starring: Kellie Martin, Tori Spelling (both Lifetime movie veterans)

Angela DelVecchio (Martin) wants to be popular so much that when popular cheerleader Stacey Lockwood (Spelling) rejects her friendship, she reacts by killing her.




She's Too Young
starring: Alexis Dziena, Marcia Gay Harden, Megan Park, Miriam McDonald

A mother (Harden) is shocked to find out that her 14-year-old daughter (Dziena) has contracted syphilis, and even more shocked to find out that a syphilis epidemic has overtaken the high school.




Also, I found a pretty interesting database that has links to articles about the "real stories" on which these Lifetime movies have been based. Be sure to check out the stories behind Death of a Cheerleader (under A Friendship to Die For) and No One Would Tell.