Pippi Longstocking actress from 1988 movie quarantined with an Okie during pandemic, fell in love

GRAND LAKE, Okla. — Actress Tami Erin played the iconic role of Pippi Longstocking in the movie The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking which was released in 1988.

Erin was based in Los Angeles and kept in touch with a good friend, Tommy Parker, a fashion photographer originally from Tulsa and had been living in New York City for years.

Around 2015, Parker began joking around with Erin telling her they would end up marrying each other.

In 2020, the pandemic hit and Parker invited Erin out to quarantine with him in Missouri.

She said yes, and the two fell in love.

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Then, in 2022 they both returned to where Parker grew up and settled in Grand Lake, Oklahoma.

Erin and Parker have been Oklahoma based ever since.

Erin has not forgotten her experience playing the role of Pippi when she was younger.

“She’s the world’s strongest girl but she’s also brave and inspires people. Children have watched the movie over and over again when they’re sick in the hospital so I think it’s also that Pippi always comes out on top and also a sense of adventure that life is just a series of adventures. Everybody should be more Pippi,” said Erin. “She is just living her life according to her own terms she’s got a chest of gold coins, can buy whatever she wants live in her house with her horse and her monkey does whatever she wants and she’s in charge of her own life she plays with pirates those are her best friends it’s just a really refreshing by character for girls to know that you can be strong too.”

This year marks the 35th anniversary of the film The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking, Erin has decided to auction off two dresses she wore in the movie.

“They’re the only ones in the world they were designed by Jaqueline Saint Anne who is an award-winning wardrobe designer so there are only these three costumes we had other ones but over the years they’ve gotten lost so these are the last three costumes and they’ve been in dotage this whole time when I brought them out I was just so touched like it made me it really was amazing it brought me back to all the magic of all that so I’m excited to pass them on and hopefully they’ll wind up on display somewhere,” said Erin.

One of the wardrobe pieces went live on the world wide web today.

Kieta is a memorabilia expert that works for a company based in Las Vegas that will be auctioning off these wardrobe pieces.

“Having these costumes really come out of literally Tami’s closet and bringing Pippi back to life in our present day and age 2022 you know Pippi has now come back,” said Kieta. “I think that Tami Erin and her presence and I think her love of keeping the character with her website and with whatever else that she does I think has also been very important for the movie the costumes and the epic legacy. Iconically speaking every child and every parent would have no trouble for kids to read Pippi Longstocking. You know it’s like Huckleberry Finn you know it’s one of those again epic legendary books first the book itself and the story and bringing the story to life and then we have the story to life on the big screen and to be able to get anything from that set but then of course from Pippi the main character you know is very difficult to do epic iconic legendary it’s got all the juicy sauce to it it’s got Tami behind it I mean it’s precious.”

Tami said auctioning off these two Pippi Longstocking dresses is a gift to the fans.

I want them to celebrate with me yeah the 35th anniversary because there’s millions of fans all over the world that have seen this beautiful movie that we made and celebrate 35 years with all the fans all over the world yeah that’s what it’s about.

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