Was there a romantic connection between Columbia and Brad? I ask because during the floor show, Janet and Rocky are together on one side (and they had a liaison), and on the other side are Columbia and Brad. Furthermore, I don't know if Columbia is alluding to it with her song lyrics in Rose Tiny My World, "the love of a certain dope." Is she referring to Brad, Eddie, or Frank?

She most likely meant Eddie. As a nice little touch for this line in a stage production I saw, Columbia made a head motion towards the Eddie actor, who joined the house band after his death scene.

Of course, some people have taken the "dope" reference literally.... but then, Columbia wasn't the one in the house waiting for the Candy Man, was she?

I thought she meant Eddie, too, unil I saw the stage show, where all the characters are sprayed with a drug that leaves them "in a state somewhere between entrance and exit." That's what the lyic refers to, though it isn't relevent to the movie, where they've been frozen as statues (a great kitsch conundrum, if you ask me).

as hard as i try....i can't see Columbia with Brad...I just can't...and either way, Brad supposedly goes homosexual after Rocky Horror/Shock Treatment, and i can understand why, Janet is kind of a pshyco...

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*Oh So Dreamy, Oh Fantasy Free Me! So You Can't See Me, No Not At All! In Another Dimension, With Voyeuristic Intentions, Well Secluded, I See All!*

I think when she sings "love for a certain dope" she is talking about Frank, she told him she loved him before he transformed her.

Edit: I've lately had doubts about how much Columbia and Brad's relationship (or those of others I've mentioned) shows the possibility of helpful, understanding, and connecting relationship. Different things in my personal life have led me to this. They seem mesmerized be other, and there's an underlying sense to me of a sort of mother-son relationship that has a certain sexually consuming desire to it, a certain coveting of the others surface role as an unconventional risk taker versus innocent, repressed boy.

What I originally wrote:

I'd be really sad if there wasn't a romantic connection between them, since I relate most to Brad, and I find Columbia the most attractive of the women in the film (especially when her makeup starts to wear off in the end).

I think a case can be made, however, but their connection is only very lightly hinted at. If you've ever watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (the Swedish version), you'll notice that there is very similar dynamic in the first meeting of Blomkvist and Salander and Columbia and Brad - his attempts at standard greetings, her seeming to laugh at such conventions. I've yet to fully understand Salander's reasons for loving Blomkvist, but it is explained in the book she has protective feelings for him because of how naive and easily trusting he is - how much of a "dope" he is. Columbia acting like a mothering figure for Brad also reflects on this. If you find it hard to swallow the idea that Columbia is similar to Lisbeth Salander, consider the fact that Joan Jett played Columbia in a 2001 Broadway production of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Brad has a bit of Eddie in him, but I think he is conflicted about that side of himself, just as he is about his sexuality. His more vicious, alienated side seems to be hinted at in his sarcastic and biting comments about the Transylvanians. In Ovid's Metamorphoses there is a story of the aggressive, masculine Salmacis who pursues the boyish Hermaphroditus. Hermaphroditus blushes and feels ashamed by her declarations of love. The Italian artist Scarsellino hinted at a hidden vicious side in Hermaphroditus by having him pet a black dog with a collar on it:



Another book that has a lot to say about that vicious side and the sort of couple we're talking about is Jane Eyre

I think after going through the Medusa Transducer, Brad accessed a bisexual/feminine exhibitionist side, rather than simply a homosexual side.

A few other points of support:
- About Eddy: "I very nearly loved him" (Nearly.)
- To Frank: "I loved you" (past tense)
- She is in front of the statue of Brad when she says "love for a certain dope"
- When Magenta and Columbia are undressing Brad and Janet, Columbia looks at Brad and says "Slowly, slowly! It's too nice a job to rush."

God Bless this post.

Nope never crossed my mind.And another thing,in my opinion i don't think brad went homosexual at the end because remember theirs still shock treatment.Maybe a little bi-curious:lol:

Well, remember in the stage show, they aren't turned to statues. They are sprayed with a drug that puts them in a hypnotic trance, except for Columbia who has an ecstatic, stoned monologue (oddly, cut on Broadway and replaced by her serious monologue from the film...as the wonderful recording available here attests). So "my love of a certain dope" likely refers to this. It is unlikely to refer to Eddie, whom she always speaks of with adoration, or to Frank, whom she says she was a fan of, but is now only a fan of that "certain dope."

My two cents.

I feel "a certain dope" is referenced to a drug, not a person.

There IS NO Columbia-Brad connection. They aren't connected in any way.

Brad is an upstanding and caring individual. When Eddie busts out of the freezer and Columbia runs off he only starts after her out of concern and suprise of the situation and not anything to do persoanlly with Columbia. He just wants to use the phone remember.

Comlumbia only kisses brad in the pool becuase HELLO it's an orgy and everyone was kissing everyone else. That's what an orgy is. Her lyrics "certain Dope" are not anythign related to Brad. Brad is not a dope.

Furthermore, Brad ends up on the other side with janet in the Floor Show. Their placing at the beginning of the floorshow has little signicance as to who they are placed by since they all change postions anyway.

I love these people who try to philosiphise Rocky Horror. It was written by an out of work actor who only wrote what he thought he'd like to see on stage and some of his favorite gags. It has nothing to do with Greek Tragedy OR Girl With the Dragon Tattoo for that matter. What a load of crock. Stop comparing the film to other works and stop theorizing and just anjoy the film and the play. Oh which, by the way, any production of the play past 1991 is a total bastardization of the original play Richard intended. Regardless of who plays the characters, Joan Jett or not.

I do enjoy the film - the music is fun to listen and sing to and I also enjoy the emotional impact it has on me, of finding characters I relate to - Brad and Eddie - and ones I idealize - Columbia. I also like pondering what it has to say about modern sexuality. Perhaps this is just theorizing, but I'm grateful for some helpful insights I've gotten into my personal life.

"Brad is an upstanding and caring individual" - then why does the audience constantly yell "asshole"? Why does he sing "I'll be good, you'll see, take this dream away"? Why does he sing "I've done a lot, god knows I've tried...to find the truth...I've even lied." Do you not see how much he had been lying about his identity? He tries so hard to be composed and strong to Janet's feminine vulnerability so as to realize a certain masculine status--until the floor show where he finally shows the sensitive, boyish side he's been hiding. Why does he sing "It's beyond me / help me mommy" and go to Columbia rather than Janet? A mothering figure is someone who will be protective of him and therefore stronger than him - and Janet is too vulnerable. And the "asshole" part - he's hiding the conflicts he feels about his lust. Don't you remember him holding tightly, nervously on to Janet when Eddie displays his sexual prowess? And then after, Brad indulges his hidden transgressive lustful side with Frank when he thinks no one is watching, and no one will tell Janet.

Brad isn't a dope? What would you call him, given his mishandling of situations and his being led along? He's awkward in his singing to Janet, he naively tries to rise to Ralph's masculine status by proposing to Janet, he's overly hesitant in requesting they use a phone (until he realizes how far he's been led along - at which point he gets mad), and he doesn't stop the others from taking off his clothes. Further, he's naive enough to think Janet wouldn't betray him sexually.

Even if the play had nothing to with "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo or Greek Tragedy", you still haven't disproved my claim that there are similarities between Columbia and Brad, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander, Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, and Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester--sensitive, lost boys and tough, sprightly girls.