Blarney Rock

Where style meets substance

fanfair

Shorter Commitments— the working-class Irish soul than group the in Alan Parker's new film of the same name—and prettier too, are the Commitment-ettes, their female backup singing trio.

The women who play the "ettes" are a mismatched set of performers who somehow belong together. Pixieish Bronagh Gallagher, eighteen, is an actress from the North of Ireland. Sultry Dublinborn Maria Doyle, twentysix, has sung in such groups as Hothouse Flowers. And blonde Angeline Ball, twenty-two, is a va-voomy cabaret entertainer.

Parker remembers the audition at which he knew he wanted them. "They were in the hallway laughing and talking,'' he says. "They automatically had glued themselves to one another before I made the choice. I think they'll be friends for life." And that's more than a commitment-ette.

MICHAEL MUSTO