What does "Bette Davis Eyes" mean?

[Guinastasia]

Yes, I know it’s a song by Kim Carnes.

However, I’m watching the “Law & Order”, and they’re investigating a possible fertility scam. At one point, Briscoe and Logan are talking to a lesbian couple, one of them was artificially inseminated.

Okay, these chicks are kinda flaky, especially when they ask about the doner. They only know he’s Catholic, doesn’t drink, smoke, in perfect health . But then they say, “And we know too-he’s got BETTE DAVIS EYES!” And giggle.
What the hell does that mean?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I don’t remember that episode, but maybe it helps to take Kim Carnes out of it and go back to the original writer:

http://mixonline.com/ar/audio_kim_carnes_bette/

Actually, the song had a little history already. It was penned in the mid-'70s by [Donna] Weiss and Jackie DeShannon and was first recorded by DeShannon, in a decidedly country setting, for her New Arrangement album in 1975. DeShannon once said that she had been moved to write this evocative portrait of a teasing woman after seeing smitten actor Paul Henreid lighting cigarettes for Bette Davis near the end of the classic film Now Voyager.

Possibly it’s the image of a smoldering Paul Henreid they were thinking of.

[astro]

http://bettedavis.freeservers.com/photo.html

[Flutterby]

I’d think they meant he has these really awesome flirty eyes that draw you in.

[alice_in_wonderland]

Well, Bette Davis had remarkable, striking eyes.

If a child was born with such eyes, and mom didn’t have them I guess you would assume that the donor father did and had passed his “striking eye” gene along to Jr.

[Otto]

Considering the popularity of the song among gay men, perhaps the lesbian couple was intimating that the donor was gay? I didn’t see the episode but would that make sense within the context of the scene?

[Eve]

At least he doesn’t have Ben Turpin eyes!

[astro]

@Eve

At least he doesn’t have Ben Turpin eyes!

or Marty Feldman eyes

[panache45]

@Otto

Considering the popularity of the song among gay men, perhaps the lesbian couple was intimating that the donor was gay? I didn’t see the episode but would that make sense within the context of the scene?

This is the only explanation that would explain their giggle, as at an inside joke.

[Polycarp]

@Otto

Considering the popularity of the song among gay men, perhaps the lesbian couple was intimating that the donor was gay? I didn’t see the episode but would that make sense within the context of the scene?

That’s enough to make a crow blush!

[Otto]

All the better just to please you.

[racinchikki]

I don’t see the allure in Bette Davis’ eyes. To me it’s always looked like she’s been squeezed too hard.

[betenoir]

@panache45

This is the only explanation that would explain their giggle, as at an inside joke.

I beg to differ. I saw it as an inside joke between the to of them that one of them (the one who wasn’t getting pregnant) had “Bette Davis eyes”, and they went looking for a donor who did too. (As that - looking for a donor who physically resembled the non-biological parent) is what the lesbian couple I know did.)

[Richard_Pearse]

@astro

or Marty Feldman eyes

Cripes, it’s been so long since I’ve seen him, I forgot just how bizarre he looks.

[Labdad]

The great Al Hirschfeld was certainly taken with her eyes - have a look.

[FriarTed]

Christina Ricci has Bettie Davis Eyes… Entertainment Weekly magazine in one brilliant passage referred to Ricci as the love child of Bettie Davis & Peter Lorre.

[Kalhoun]

@astro

or Marty Feldman eyes

Or Sammy Davis Eye.

[Dr.Rieux]

@astro

or Marty Feldman eyes

Dr. Fronkensteen: “Damn your eyes!”
Eyegor: “Too late!”

[NicePete]

@Kalhoun

Or Sammy Davis Eye.

Or Peter Falk Eye, for that matter…

[Annie-Xmas]

@Kalhoun

Or Sammy Davis Eye.

I’ll see you Sammy and raise you Andrew Vachss