Alicia Silverstone in 'Clueless' (1995), and making her TikTok debut this week.
Alicia Silverstone in 'Clueless' (1995), and making her TikTok debut this week.
Alicia Silverstone in 'Clueless' (1995), and making her TikTok debut this week.
Alicia Silverstone in 'Clueless' (1995), and making her TikTok debut this week.

'Ew! As if': Alicia Silverstone re-enacts famous 'Clueless' scene in TikTok debut


Farah Andrews
  • English
  • Arabic

When you think of Clueless, the film that captured the zeitgeist of the 1990s, there is probably one scene (and outfit) that springs to mind.

Alicia Silverstone's character, Cher, is walking into school, pondering the dramas of the day, when she is approached by a high-school boy.

"Ew," she shouts as she pushes the boy away from her. "Get off of me!"

And then comes the now much-quoted: "As if".

Naturally, it was this very scene that Silverstone, 44, chose to re-enact to make her TikTok debut, wearing her famous yellow tartan jacket and miming along to the audio from the 1995 film.

Her son, Bear, 10, stepped in to play the anonymous boy. Unlike in the film, though, Bear got a hug and a kiss at the end, as his mother broke character.

At the time of writing, the video had been live for less than 24 hours and already attracted more than 5.8 million likes and 129,200 comments. It has been watched more than 25 million times.

Silverstone has totted up 1.3 million followers on the video-sharing platform.

Relive the original 'As if!' scene here: 

The yellow tartan Dolce & Gabbana suit is almost as famous as Silverstone's character.

Speaking of the stand-out design, the actress said in an interview with Vogue last year: "At first, you see Cher is wearing a plaid Dolce & Gabbana yellow and black chequered skirt, white Mary Jane shoes, white knee-high socks, and then there's a white T-shirt and a yellow cardigan. And then on top of it, of course, the suit jacket.

“There were three options for this opening scene: a blue version, a red version and the yellow version.”

She said director Amy Heckerling and costume designer Mona May decided to go for yellow for Cher, because "they felt that it was most appropriate for the scene".

“It’s a nod to a schoolgirl uniform, but in an elevated, chic, very high-fashioned way,” Silverstone said. “And it’s so absurd. Immediately, you’re transformed, you know the world you’re in because that’s not how kids dress to go to school. It’s just not. But somehow it just feels right and it works.”

Every Halloween, Silverstone gets sent pictures of people dressed up in the outfit, she said.

This is not the first time Silverstone has reached for the yellow two-piece. She dug the costume out to appear on Lip Sync Battle in June 2018, when she did a rendition of Iggy Azalea's Fancy. In the Fancy video, Azalea pays tribute to Cher, with a yellow tartan suit of her own.

Clueless, which also stars Stacey Dash, Brittany Murphy and Paul Rudd, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

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Starring: Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, Joel Fry

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Biography

Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day

Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour

Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour

Best vacation: Returning home to China

Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument

Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes

Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems

LA LIGA FIXTURES

Friday

Granada v Real Betis (9.30pm)

Valencia v Levante (midnight)

Saturday

Espanyol v Alaves (4pm)

Celta Vigo v Villarreal (7pm)

Leganes v Real Valladolid (9.30pm)

Mallorca v Barcelona (midnight)

Sunday

Atletic Bilbao v Atletico Madrid (4pm)

Real Madrid v Eibar (9.30pm)

Real Sociedad v Osasuna (midnight)

RESULTS

5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (Turf) 2,200m
Winner: M'A Yaromoon, Jesus Rosales (jockey), Khalifa Al Neydai (trainer)

5.30pm: Khor Al Baghal – Conditions (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: No Riesgo Al Maury, Antonio Fresu, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami

6pm: Khor Faridah – Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner: JAP Almahfuz, Royston Ffrench, Irfan Ellahi

6.30pm: Abu Dhabi Fillies Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: Mahmouda, Pat Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi

7pm: Abu Dhabi Colts Classic – Prestige (PA) Dh110,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner: AS Jezan, George Buckell, Ahmed Al Mehairbi

7.30pm: Khor Laffam – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (T) 2,200m
Winner: Dolman, Antonio Fresu, Bhupath Seemar

EMIRATES'S%20REVISED%20A350%20DEPLOYMENT%20SCHEDULE
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Brief scoreline:

Liverpool 2

Mane 51', Salah 53'

Chelsea 0

Man of the Match: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)

The specs

Engine: 3.8-litre V6

Power: 295hp at 6,000rpm

Torque: 355Nm at 5,200rpm

Transmission: 8-speed auto

Fuel consumption: 10.7L/100km

Price: Dh179,999-plus

On sale: now 

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The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

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