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Molly Ringwald Says 'Brat Pack' Title ‘Minimized the Work We Were Doing’: ‘It Was Pejorative’

Molly Ringwald says the 'Brat Pack' — the term coined by journalist David Blum to describe the actors who appeared in a string of films like The Breakfast Club (1985), St. Elmo's Fire (1985) and Pretty in Pink (1986) — was "a pejorative term."

Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald and Anthony Michael Hall in 'The Breakfast Club' in 1985.Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock "I figured my cover story — with 'Hollywood’s Brat Pack' splashed above a publicity still from St. Elmo’s Fire that fortuitously caught Estevez, [Judd] Nelson and [Rob] Lowe in a bar, grinning and hoisting brewskis — would likely annoy these young stars for a few days, and perhaps cause some brief agita among Hollywood publicists who tend to want to control the stories that come out about their clients," Blum, who was 29 when he penned the original article, wrote in the piece. Blum — who also appeared in the documentary — told him in response that he was just "doing my job as a journalist" and that the name "wasn’t meant to destroy anyone but really to just define a group of people in a clever or interesting way."

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