Mahogany (1975)

Impeccable kitsch such as this comes along only a few times each decade. Mahogany (1975), the post-Lady Sings the Blues (1972) re-pairing of Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams, was the Showgirls (1995) of its day, a mass-panned proto-Glitter (2001) with Diana as the wide-eyed wannabe at the center of a corn storm. Miss Big Cheese Supreme plays a secretary in a Chicago department store who has her heart set on becoming a fashion designer. She and politician Billy Dee have a bit of a thing going, but then fate flings her into the arms of high fashion: Photog Anthony Perkins recruits her juicy booty to be a model in Rome! At this point in Mahogany, wrote critic Roger Ebert, the film becomes an "unholy alliance between daytime soap opera and Jacqueline Susann," with Di rising to the top of the designer-rags race and then falling back down (and way, way over the top) in a haze of unbelievable camp and fine scotch.