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Review

This wonderfully original, surprisingly sympathetic and oftentimes-hilarious documentary is narrated by none other than RuPaul. Young Tammy had it all: she was a Southern beauty, she had a handsome adoring husband, and they together produced two wonderful children, a theme park and a highly rated television show that generated enough money to keep her in blush and eyelashes well into the next millennium.

Yet, it all fell apart (but not the makeup, thank God!) – husband number one (Jim) in jail, number two in jail, daughter a runaway, son wallowing in booze and drug and the religious cash cow empire destroyed.

This Citizen Kane for the Right Wing religious sect is one hell (can we use that?) of a documentary as Bailey and Barbato capture the many facets of a surprisingly complex, misunderstood personality. We watch as Tammy recounts her youth and love affair with the dashing Jim Bakker as well as how they teamed up to create the most watched and contributed to religious show in the history of television. She also tells of how greed, bad advice from Christians and that evil Pat Robertson conspired to destroy it all. But Tammy’s a survivor – for scandal, bankruptcy, countless fashion fax pas, criminal proceedings and divorce couldn’t break her will to live.

This human chronicle – featuring strange hand puppets that introduce each segment – is beyond fascinating, almost beyond believability. But how gay is it? What about her recent TV show co-hosted by a campy, openly gay man? How about the makeup? How about Jim’s lonely nights in prison?