Dear Prudence

"Dear Prudence" is a song by the English rock group the Beatles from their 1968 album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney. Written in India, it was inspired by Prudence Farrow, a sister of actress Mia Farrow, who became obsessive about meditating while practising with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The song has been covered by many artists, including Siouxsie and the Banshees, whose rendition became a top five hit for the band.

Background

The subject of the song is Prudence Farrow, a sister of actress Mia Farrow, who was present when the Beatles went to India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Farrow became so serious about her meditation that she "turned into a near recluse" and "rarely came out" of the cottage she was living in. John Lennon was asked to "contact her and make sure she came out more often to socialize". As a result, Lennon wrote the song "Dear Prudence". In the song Lennon asks Farrow to "open up your eyes" and "see the sunny skies" reminding her that she is "part of everything". The song was said to be "a simple plea to a friend to 'snap out of it'". Lennon said later that "She'd been locked in for three weeks and was trying to reach God quicker than anyone else."

Dear Prudence (advice column)

Dear Prudence is an advice column appearing several times weekly in the online magazine Slate and syndicated to over 200 newspapers.

History

Herbert Stein

The column was initiated on 20 December 1997. "Prudence" was a pseudonym, and the author's true identity was not revealed at the time. Slate's archive currently indicates that the author of those first columns was Herbert Stein. Stein ceased writing the column after three months and the column went on hiatus.

Margo Howard

In mid-March 1998, the column returned, with the explanation that "Prudence" had not come back from her "needlework"— per the explanation offered in Stein's last column—but rather had convinced her daughter and namesake to continue her work. While similarly anonymous at first, the new author of the column was eventually revealed to be Margo Howard, the daughter of Esther Lederer, aka Ann Landers.

Howard maintained the column for nearly eight years. Her last Dear Prudence column appeared in Slate on 2 February 2006. Howard then had a Creators Syndicate advice column called "Dear Margo", whose run ended on Friday, 10 May 2013.

Dear Prudence (film)

Dear Prudence is a Hallmark Channel original made-for-TV movie starring Jane Seymour. The movie premiered August 23, 2008, and was to be a pilot that would become a part of the Hallmark Channel Mystery Wheel. A sequel Perfectly Prudence aired on January 8, 2011.

Plot summary

Prudence Macintyre (Jane Seymour) is the host of the fictitious hit "do-it-yourself" television show Dear Prudence giving our 'Pru Pointers' to her viewers. The film opens with Pru recording a point on how to water plants whilst away, by filling a bucket of water, tying one end of some cotton twine around a brick and the other end is pushed into the plant pot. When the brick is left in the bucket, the water will work its way up the cotton into the plant pot. As she yawns through the segment, she is interrupted by her boss who insists that she take the company jet and fly to his lodge in Wyoming for the week to rest.

Arriving at the airport, Pru is met by Ruth (Tantoo Cardinal) who shows her around the location and to sacred ground. The lodge is built on the last remnant of Indian land preserved by the Andrews family. Whilst Ruth is discussing plans to commemorate Bart Andrews' death to celebrate all his previous work, Bart's son Jean Phillipe Andrews arrives with his land trust lawyer Doug Craig.