Plot
Erin Brockovich is an unemployed single mother, desperate to find a job, but is having no luck. This losing streak even extends to a failed lawsuit against a doctor in a car accident she was in. With no alternative, she successfully browbeats her lawyer to give her a job in compensation for the loss. While no one takes her seriously, with her trashy clothes and earthy manners, that soon changes when she begins to investigate a suspicious real estate case involving the Pacific Gas & Electric Company. What she discovers is that the company is trying quietly to buy land that was contaminated by hexavalent chromium, a deadly toxic waste that the company is improperly and illegally dumping and, in turn, poisoning the residents in the area. As she digs deeper, Erin finds herself leading point in a series of events that would involve her lawfirm in one of the biggest class action lawsuits in American history against a multi-billion dollar corporation.
Keywords: 1990s, accountability, apology, arbitration, at-will-employee, at-will-termination, attorney, baby, babysitter, bad-luck
She brought a small town to its feet and a huge corporation to its knees.
Theresa Dallavale: Okay, look, I think we got off on the wrong foot here...::Erin Brockovich: That's all you got, lady. Two wrong feet in fucking ugly shoes.
Erin Brockovich: Bite my ass, Krispy Kreme!
Erin Brockovich: For the first time in my life, I got people respecting me. Please, don't ask me to give it up.
[last lines]::Erin Brockovich: Ya know why everyone thinks that all lawyers are back stabbing, blood sucking scum bags? cause they are! and I can not believe you expect me to go out, leave my kids with strangers and get people to trust you with *their* lives while all the while your screwing me! You know, Ed, it's not about the number! It's about the way my work is valued in this firm... [She looks at the two million dollar bonus check]::Ed Masry: Like I was saying, I thought that the number you proposed was inappropriate, so I increased it. [Turns to walk away and turns around to her] Do they teach beauty queens to apologize? Because you suck at it!::Erin Brockovich: [Long pause, as Erin looks at the check] Uh, Ed... uh... thank you...
Erin Brockovich: [Erin tries to use her cell phone but has no reception] Oh, you fucking piece of CRAP with no signal!
Ed Masry: What makes you think you can just walk in there and take whatever you want?::Erin Brockovich: They're called boobs, Ed.
Kurt Potter: Wha... how did you do this?::Erin Brockovich: Well, um, seeing as how I have no brains or legal expertise, and Ed here was losing all faith in the system, am I right?::Ed Masry: Oh, yeah, completely. No faith, no faith...::Erin Brockovich: I just went out there and performed sexual favors. Six hundred and thirty-four blow jobs in five days... I'm really quite tired.
Ed Masry: In a law firm you may want to re-think your wardrobe a little.::Erin Brockovich: Well as long as I have one ass instead of two I'll wear what I like if that's all right with you. You might want to re-think those ties.
Erin Brockovich: Are you going to be something else that I have to survive? Because... to tell you the truth... I'm not up to it.
Erin Brockovich: NOT PERSONAL! That is my WORK, my SWEAT, and MY TIME AWAY FROM MY KIDS! IF THAT IS NOT PERSONAL, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS!
Ashley Jensen (born 10 August 1969) is a Scottish actress who is best known for her roles in the television series Extras for which she was nominated for an Emmy, and ABC's Ugly Betty. From September 2009 to May 2010, she also co-starred in the CBS sitcom Accidentally on Purpose as Olivia.
Jensen trained at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh and was a member of the National Youth Theatre.
Her first big television role was as eccentric secretary Rosie McConnichy in the final series of BBC comedy May to December, as a replacement for the character of secretary Hilary. In 1994 she played Heather in Roughnecks, a BBC television series based around the workers on a North Sea Oil platform. In 1996 she played Clare Donnelly, the daughter of Glasgow criminal Jo-Jo Donnelly (played by Billy Connolly) in the BBC drama Down Among the Big Boys. She then appeared as Fiona Morris in EastEnders. Jensen also had a small role in a Dangerfield episode called "Contact," in which she played the mother of a young girl with meningitis.
Matthew Richard "Matt" Lucas (born 5 March 1974) is an English comedian, screenwriter, singer, and actor best known for his acclaimed work with David Walliams in the television show Little Britain; as well as for his portrayals of the scorekeeping baby George Dawes in the comedy panel game Shooting Stars, Tweedledee and Tweedledum in Alice in Wonderland, and the roguish innkeeper Thénardier in the musical Les Misérables.
In May 2007, he was placed seventh in the list of the UK's 100 most influential gay men and women, by British newspaper The Independent.
Lucas was born in Paddington, London, the son of Diana (née Williams) and John Stanley Lucas (1944–1996), who ran a chauffeuring business. Lucas was raised in an observant Jewish family, with some of his British-born mother's family having fled Nazi Germany. His family were members of Edgware and District Reform Synagogue. Lucas grew up in Stanmore, Middlesex; he has an older brother, Howard. He has had alopecia since his childhood, which in interviews he has inconsistently attributed to various events, including a delayed reaction to a car accident at the age of four. He lost all of his hair when he was six years old. Lucas' father died of a heart attack aged 52, in Brent, Greater London.
Christina McKinney is a fictional character in the American comedy-drama series Ugly Betty. She is played by Ashley Jensen. Christina is based on Bertha Muñoz de González, only she isn't plus-sized, but both have a great ear for gossip.
Despite the character leaving the show in the third season, Christina returns for the episode "London Calling" in the fourth season.
Christina emigrated to the United States from Scotland, UK and is one of ten children; she is a seamstress who works at MODE magazine and calls her office "The Closet" because of the leftover fashion designs she has in her space, which she uses to whip up new outfits from time to time. Christina would later find out her workspace also served as a passageway to a secret hideaway for Bradford Meade and the late Fey Sommers.
Her knowledge of what goes on at her workplace inside and out comes in handy as she becomes fast friends and forms an alliance with new fellow co-worker Betty Suarez. And like Betty, she too has dreams, in which she aspires to be the next fashion designer.
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt (born 23 February 1983) is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), The Young Victoria (2009), and The Adjustment Bureau (2011). She has been nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award. She won a Golden Globe Award for her work in the BBC television drama Gideon's Daughter (2007).
Emily Blunt was born 23 February 1983 in Roehampton, London, England. She is the second of four children born to Joanna, an English teacher and former actress, and barrister Oliver Simon Peter Blunt, QC, one of the highest-profile barristers in the United Kingdom, earning an estimated £1million annually. Her siblings are Felicity, Sebastian, and Suzanna. Her grandfather was Major-General Peter Blunt and one of her paternal uncles is Crispin Blunt, Conservative Member of Parliament for Reigate.
Blunt attended Ibstock Place School and, at the age of 16, went to Hurtwood House, a private sixth-form college known for its performing arts programme.[citation needed] There, she was discovered by an agent.[citation needed] Blunt made her professional debut in Bliss, a musical written by Paul Sellar, at the 2000 Edinburgh Fringe while she was still an A-level student.[citation needed] She went on to perform at the National Theatre and at Chichester Festival Theatre.[citation needed]
Graham William Walker, known by his stage name Graham Norton, (born 4 April 1963) is an Irish actor, comedian, television presenter and columnist. He is the host of comedy chat programme The Graham Norton Show on BBC One in the UK and BBC America in the US. Hot Press has described him as "the 21st century's answer to Terry Wogan", with both men sharing an Irish background and the common link of being a BBC Radio 2 presenter and the BBC television commentator of the Eurovision Song Contest. Norton has won the BAFTA TV Award for Best Entertainment Performance on five occassions.
Norton was born in Clondalkin, a suburb of Dublin, but grew up in Bandon, County Cork, Ireland to a Protestant family. He was educated at Bandon Grammar School, in County Cork and then University College Cork but did not complete his studies.
In 1992 his stand-up comedy drag act in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe as a tea-towel clad Mother Teresa of Calcutta made the press when Scottish Television's religious affairs department mistakenly thought he represented the real Mother Teresa.