What now-famous actress does Gloria look like?

Gloria Boutelle
Originally uploaded by Brite light photos.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Some people loved their SWCS high school yearbook pictures - other people hated them.

Put me in the 'hated-them' category.

I don't know which category Gloria fits into, but when I was looking at the yearbook today, I got stuck on her picture and saw more than a passing resemblance to an actress who has been all over the big screen for years now.

No fair scrolling down, I'll get to it.

Some years ago in one of my classes (called Literary Journalism, an obvious oxymoron my English Dept. colleagues say) I had a young student who bore a passing resemblance to Cybill Shepherd (a young Cybill Shepherd, not the middle-aged woman who does such a fine job imitating uber-bitch Martha Stewart in made-for-TV movies).

In that particular class, I frequently write pieces along with the students, hoping to demonstrate my compentence (or lack thereof) to show that it can be fun, not just work.

But I touched off a riot in the classroom when I wrote that one of the women in the class "bears more than a passing resemblance to Cybill Shepherd," without naming who it was. I also refused to give up the name, even after being plied with copious amounts of alcohol by very persuasive coeds after class. There's some parts of teaching I will miss when I retire.

Last year - 15 years after writing that piece - I ran into that former student in an airport, and damned if she doesn't still have a passing resemblance to Ms. Shepherd. (Remember Shepherd in Moonlighting with Bruce Willis? Well...that's who my former student still looks like - Shepherd, not Willis...)

Anyway, it might be because I saw Mystic Pizza the other night (and either Ocean's 11 or 12) that when I saw Gloria's photo in the year book, the resemblance came into focus.

Get it yet?

It's not the hairdo, which was very chic in 1966. No, I think it's the lips and nose (Sorry Gloria, is this too embarrassing?)

So who is it?

Julia Roberts, of course!

In this photo, Gloria Boutelle bears more than a passing resemblance to actress Julia Roberts. Keep looking at it for a second (and please forget that Julie Roberts was ever married to Lyle Lovett... Banish that image.). The resemblance is there.

So after this, I think I should keep thumbing through the yearbook to look for resemblances to other famous faces. Who knows who lurks within the pages of that red-covered book?

Hoo-boy! Any nominees?