Rizzo got done dirty — and Stockard Channing knows it
Stockard Channing has finally been confronted with that Grease caricature — and thank goodness somebody asked because, yes, we have been thinking the same thing for decades.
While promoting Practical Magic 2, the 82-year-old icon was shown the animated Rizzo drawing that appears in the opening credits of the 1978 classic. Her immediate reaction? “That’s even worse than I remember.”
Correct, Miss Stockard.
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From Rizzo to Practical Magic
Stockard Channing has spent nearly five decades stealing scenes — from Grease to the Owens family’s magical return.
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Stockard Channing Calls the Grease Cartoon Her “Nightmare Vision”
For anybody who somehow forgot it, the opening credits of Grease introduce the main characters through animated caricatures. Most are playful. Then Rizzo appears and suddenly the artist seems to have developed a personal grievance.
Channing agreed with fans who have long felt that the drawing did her absolutely no favors. After looking at it again, she zeroed in on the exaggerated face and called the image her “nightmare vision of self.”
Even better: Channing revealed that she has barely revisited Grease at all. She said she has only watched the movie twice — once at its original premiere at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre and once again roughly 20 years later. When it comes on television now, she leaves it alone.
Not because she is ashamed of the movie. Quite the opposite. She says she is proud of it. She just does not particularly enjoy watching herself in it — and apparently that cartoon is not exactly helping the cause.
And Then Stockard Channing Reunited With Dianne Wiest
As if the Rizzo discussion were not enough nostalgia for one press cycle, Channing is also back beside Dianne Wiest as the wonderfully eccentric Owens aunts.
The pair first played Frances “Franny” Owens and Bridget “Jet” Owens in 1998’s Practical Magic, helping raise Sally and Gillian Owens — Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman — in that glorious witchy house we all still want to move into.
Now, 28 years later, Channing and Wiest are returning for Practical Magic 2. The reunion brought the original quartet back together with Bullock and Kidman, alongside a new generation that includes Joey King, Maisie Williams, Lee Pace, Xolo Maridueña and Solly McLeod.
And Channing has described returning to that female-led world as almost effortless. Speaking about working with Wiest and the women of the film again, she remembered the original set for its ease — a feeling she says returned when they stepped back into the Owens universe.
Honestly, between finally dragging that horrid Rizzo cartoon and putting Aunt Franny back beside Aunt Jet, Stockard Channing is having exactly the kind of 2026 press run we want from her.
Watch Stockard Channing Talk Grease and Reunite With Dianne Wiest for Practical Magic 2
The interview catches Channing revisiting the infamous Rizzo caricature while promoting her return as Aunt Franny in Practical Magic 2.
Sources: Entertainment Tonight; People; Practical Magic 2 / Warner Bros. Pictures; The Independent.
