Did Rula Lenska actually say ‘Friends are visiting from Europe’ in one of her American commercials? Or was that line made up for The Pee-Wee Herman Show?
I remember that commercial and wondering who the hell is Rula lenska! I think it was for a international coffee ad
All I can say, and it’s of no value at all, is, “Who the hell is/was Rula Lenska?”
I mean, I saw at least one commercial she was in, but I have no idea what her line was. Yours sounds plausible, but I have no idea about its validity. And it would be so easy to parody or lampoon her.
If it matters, I have the same reaction to Rupaul. Must be a local thing for L.A. or NYC or Chicago or some other place like that. There are quite a few local “personalities” in the Nashville area who become “celebrities” for the sake of commercials but they are small-scale and remain local. Usually they are the owners of the entity being advertised, or a paid spokestype. Some even hawk multiple products or places of business.
But for somebody to achieve national “stardom” for nothing in particular is reserved for a very few and Rula Lenska is at the top of the list for me. I am almost sorry I had to think about her this long.
I felt it necessary to see this and am relieved that her lack of renown in the USA was not just my own ignorance of her.
Those commercials were a bit of a laughingstock at the time because of the implication that Rula Lenska was a household name. I must have been one of the few Americans at the time who knew who she was, just because my local PBS station ran Rock Follies–which, BTW, is one of the coolest TV series ever made.
Oh she was famous? I thought she was like Peter Lemonjello-- a legend in her own mind.
I thought she hawked Zenith or Sony TVs–something about the improved color or some such. I clearly remember her saying, “I’m Rula Lenska” and 9 year old me asking, “Who is Rula Lenska?”. I never did get an answer. 
From the link:
I’ve noticed, Johnny L.A., that quite often threads you start make me want to go start a spinoff or follow-up thread because of something in your thread spurring a line of thought.
Before doing that, though, I’m curious if there would be any real interest in such a thing as – Who are some “celebrities” who have done nothing more than be alive to justify that “celebrity”?
If a list in this thread of such types could help indicate interest in the topic, then maybe another thread would be worthwhile to pursue. I’m just afraid that a new topic on such a narrow sphere of interest might be a waste of time and space. At least here it’s just a wasted post, perhaps.
I think such a thread might get more posts than this one will. I’m just curious if Rula Lenska actually said the line. ‘Jambi’ used it in The Pee-Wee Herman Show, but it was just one of those quick throw-away things. If the thread morphs into a ‘famous for being famous thread’, that’s fine by me.
Rula Lenska Showreel indicates that she may have some right to her “fame.” I haven’t made it all the way through to see if her ad(s) shows up.
Reading the thread title, I almost immediately recognized the name - but then, I’m a fan of ‘Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy.’
She voiced the Lintilla clones in two episodes of the secondary phase radio dramas, and then returned for the quintessential phase as ‘The Bird.’
I still get chills when I hear her start the wrap-up of the second-to-last installment. “Closure will be final, and irrevocable, and I am your guide. And in the last-ever episode of the Hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, what happens is inevitably what must happen. Let me guide you. All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds - even if it does not have much time left.”
The words as written could be matter-of-fact or even friendly, but Rula does well at making them creepy and vaguely threatening.
Just checking YouTube I could not find any of her adverts that contained that line.
I personally have no memory of her ever saying that in a commercial, and wish to offer the bold assertion that she never said it in an ad. I mean think about it: why would she say “friends are visiting from Europe”? She’s from Europe. I don’t ever talk about my friends visiting from America. I’m in America, ffs.
I think it was just Jambi pointing out how snooty the commercials seemed with an extra line.
I sort of remember the commercial though not the actual, precise wording.
However, because the sponsor wanted to present her as a presumed star, it was also presumed that she was an American star (which worked as posted upthread), therefore living in the U.S. with friends visiting.
No, sorry.
Watch this Alberto VO5 commercial. See the subtitles? Notice how she says the hairspray is “from America”? Notice that the ad is a US ad (the sweepstakes prize at the end is in dollars)?
The same subtitles are in her other ads.
Also, she never did ads for a coffee company, at least not in the US. Just the Alberto VO5 ads.
I stand by my conclusion.
Besides, the fact that’s not the original ad the OP is taking about, I never said it was a coffee company. I also said the sponsor expected people to believe she was a well-known star and the contents of the subtitle doesn’t refute that.
With her accent, it’s clear she’s not American. My take (assuming she said the line) is that she is a European star (that hip Americans should know) who is living in the U.S., and that her exciting European friends are coming over to visit her.
Here’s some fodder for the idea that she did at least one coffee commercial:
AmIAnnoying.com says:
But, unlike Peter Lemonjello, she was in fact famous. Just not famous in the U.S.