Tammy Faye’s Turn

The Eyes of Tammy Faye offers an inside glimpse into the life of the former televangelist.

Tammy Faye Messner — formerly Bakker — is a vision in lavender. Her 4′11″ frame is swathed in a full-length skirt and matching sweater set, accented with an eye-poppingly large amethyst ring, purple-beaded bracelet and matching necklace. The whole lot is topped off with a stunning red coif, and she’s been given a boost with the help of 3-inch heels on strappy silver sandals.

But it turns out that Tammy Faye, 58, doesn’t need any kind of a boost. The former televangelist known for crying mascara into rings around her eyes is now the star of a new documentary about her life. The Eyes of Tammy Faye (narrated by female impersonator RuPaul, a fellow extravagant dresser), will be opening across the country throughout August. And on this particular July day, Tammy Faye is greeting reporters at New York’s Essex House, a swanky hotel on Central Park South. She’s generous with friendly greetings and bubbly chit-chat, and her eyelashes don’t look nearly as extreme in person as they do on television.

In fact, Tammy Faye Messner is certifiably cute. And despite all she’s been through, she remains upbeat.

Born in a devout family in International Falls, Minn., she married itinerant preacher Jim Bakker in the early ’60s. They co-founded and served as hosts on the North-Carolina based PTL (Praise the Lord) Club, a 24-hour Christian broadcasting network, which reached over 20 million people in its heyday in the early ’80s and spawned its own Christian theme park, Heritage USA.

But then came the fall. Bakker became involved with PTL secretary Jessica Hahn in 1980, then in 1987 was convicted of tax fraud. Since then Tammy Faye has successfully battled drug addiction and colon cancer. She remarried (Heritage USA contractor Roe Messner) and faced his imprisonment (and release) on a fraud conviction for hiding $400,000 in assets during his 1990 bankruptcy proceedings. After her remarriage, she became estranged from her grown children from her first marriage, Tammy Sue and Jaime, but they’ve since reconciled.

Filmmakers intrigued by her attitude

It’s no wonder Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato, directors of The Eyes of Tammy Faye, say they have been fascinated by their subject’s never-give-up attitude.

They were also clearly interested in her views. One of Tammy Faye’s unexpected facets is her open-minded attitude about homosexuality, which may seem paradoxical given her strong fundamentalist Christian beliefs. In fact, the film contends that the Christian right was instrumental in the PTL’s downfall, partly because of Tammy Faye’s beliefs.

Personally, she says she believes Christians are far too
judgmental. “The Bible says that our job is not to judge, it’s to
love,” she says. “And I think Christians ought to drop the judgmental
thing and begin to love people.” Besides, Tammy Faye — who cohosted
1996’s short-lived talk show The Jim J. and Tammy Faye Show, with the openly gay Jim J. Bullock — maintains she can never forget the way the gay community came to her rescue during her darkest hours.

“When [current husband Roe Messner] was in prison for two years, the gay community literally took care of me,” Tammy Faye remembers. “They sent me gifts, they sent me money, they sent me pictures of their dogs named Tammy Faye!”

She says her bond with the gay community is only natural: “I, too, have been a minority in that the whole world was against me. I know how that feels. I know how it feels to have people run you down and hurt you.”

These days, Tammy Faye and Roe Messner live in North Carolina. She was spending her time being a grandma — “Mama Faye, they call me” — when the film came along.

“We were gonna settle down and just enjoy life,” she says. “Well,  this movie came along and a bomb exploded in my life, and I’m really doing more than I’ve done in years. Which is fun because I’m not a person to just sit down.”

An added bonus was the bond she developed with the film’s narrator. “We have so much fun,” petite Tammy says of the 6′4″ RuPaul. “We laugh all the time we’re together . . . We talk about makeup, we talk about life, we talk about God, we just talk about everything.”

For the future, says the woman who’s done TV and now film, she’d
like to write books about fashion, style, “looking thin and dressing
thin, and how to make something out of nothing.” She’s also interested
in another TV platform: “I would love to have a talk show where
you bring people on who have been in similar situations and ask,
‘How did you get through it?’ And give people hope that no matter
what we go through life is still fun.”

But on this day she is most looking forward to her upcoming visit
to a New York City gay bar. “I can’t wait to get over there,” she
says. “I don’t drink, though. I will just be drinking Diet Coke.”

But Tammy Faye delivers her biggest surprise when she reveals
that she won’t be shopping on this particular trip to New York. “I have been busy from early morning to late at night,” she says
with a sigh. “But can you believe, Tammy Faye saying she’s too tired
to go shopping?”

— TRACEY MIDDLEKAUFF