Who Is The Real Angelyne? Meet The Real-Life Billboard Queen Of Hollywood (As Portrayed By Emmy Rossum)
She's a fascinating part of Hollywood history.
Getty As we get closer to the launch of NBC's new streaming service, Peacock, we're finding out more and more about the shows in their lineup, including Angelyne starring Emmy Rossum.
In the show, the former Shameless star plays the mysterious Angelyne, a mystery woman who suddenly showed up on billboards all over Hollywood —and it's all based on a true story.
So who is the real Angelyne?
Here's what you need to know about this fascinating woman — and her eccentric Hollywood story — before the show premieres soon.
The Angelyne trailer just dropped, showing Rossum in the role for the first time.
In the promo, which was released this week, Rossum stars as Angelyne, presenting the idea of advertising herself by putting up photos of herself all over Los Angeles. She says she wants to be a "bright pink light" to inspire others but really, it's easy to see that Angelyne may have actually ended up being the very first influencer ... long before Instagram even existed.
She first started showing up on billboards in the '80s.
Photos of Angelyne first began to appear all over Hollywood in the late '80s, and they offered up zero information about who this woman was or what she was doing. They featured risqué photos of the woman, with just her name printed on the billboard — that's it. Obviously, this was confusing and intriguing to people at the same time, and it certainly seemed like her plan to become famous for being on billboards was working.
She had a short career in movies and even politics.
After Angelyne made her presence known, she pursued a career in the entertainment industry. She released two albums and even went on to star in movies like Earth Girls are Easy and The Disaster Artist. She even had a quick stint in politics when she ran for governor of California in 2003, but ultimately, she wasn't elected. We've seen less of her over the last few years but then, in 2017, that all changed when we finally found out her true identity.
But who is the real Angelyne? She was finally identified in 2017.
Through an investigation launched by a genealogist and The Hollywood Reporter in 2017 using public records and yearbook photos, it was discovered that Angelyne was actually Renee Goldberg, who is now 69 years old. Goldberg is the daughter of two Polish Holocaust survivors who moved to Israel after she was born, then moved onto LA. The investigation also uncovered that Goldberg had been married and then divorced by 1969, long before her billboard campaign began.
She continues to post her old photos on Instagram.
Angelyne is a frequent user of Instagram, often posting her old modeling and billboard photos, along with sharing any press that might come out about her along the way. She also has her own online store, where she sells her music and merch — along with the opportunity to meet up with her and her trademark pink Corvette in LA for a cool $500.
Where is Angelyne now? Rossum and Angelyne are working together on the series.
Angelyne is now an executive producer on the show based on her life so hopefully, that means it will pretty accurately represent what was going on behind the scenes, giving us a real inside look behind this mysterious lady for the very first time. It definitely looks like Rossum and Angelyne had fun together, and although a premiere date for the show hasn't been announced yet, our fingers are crossed that it's coming soon. Peacock launches July 15, so fingers crossed it'll debut this summer.
Nicole Pomarico is an entertainment and lifestyle writer whose work has appeared in Cosmo, Us Weekly, Refinery29, and more.