With Bob Dylan’s biopic A Complete Unknown becoming a film critics’ darling, and The Beatles’ four-movie biopic officially confirmed – not to mention pop star Lizzo locked in to star as Sister Rosetta Tharpe – it’s no secret that biopics have become a lucrative way to sustain an artist’s legacy. However, it’s the one thing Eddie Van Halen’s former wife, Valerie Bertinelli, doesn’t want to happen – at least not until after she’s dead.
“Oh god, I hope they never do one of Van Halen,” Bertinelli said on Monday’s episode of The Drew Barrymore Show [as reported by Entertainment Weekly]. “Make sure I’m dead. I told Wolfie [son Wolfgang Van Halen], ‘Make sure I’m dead,’” to which Barrymore responded, “Oh, you know they’re gonna do one of Van Halen.”
However, when asked who her dream casting would be, she replied, “Oh… Selena Gomez. She would be amazing. But Selena, don’t do it! Please don’t do it!”
Elsewhere in the interview, Bertinelli, who was married to Van Halen for over two decades, addressed the longstanding narrative that she was the one responsible for the band’s numerous shakeups throughout the years.
“Well, I have been called Yoko in my day,” she quipped, a nod to the narrative Ono has also faced over the decades in relation to the Beatles.
“As if I had the power to break up a band. Yoko’s an amazing woman. She’s an artist, and she did not break up the Beatles. The Beatles had their own issues.”
She also clarified that Van Halen were having internal issues that led to tensions within the band and countless departures. “And it wasn’t all Ed’s fault. Okay, I’m just going to put that out there. Everybody loves to blame Ed, and he can’t defend himself. Nowhere near was it all Ed’s fault… He just wanted to write his music and play his music.”
Bertinelli might have to address her stance on biopics with another Van Halen family member, however.
Last year, Alex Van Halen revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that he’s slowly working on a Van Halen biopic – and is currently on the lookout for a producer, even saying, “It’s just a long-term plan. I mean, to put things in perspective, the Queen movie took 30 years to make.”
This follows the Van Halen drummer and co-founder’s tell-all memoir, Brothers, released last October, in which he chronicled his career and relationship with Eddie.
