CLIQUES : The Importance of Hating Brenda

It all started when a couple of clean-cut, fun-loving kids began gathering every week to watch “Beverly Hills, 90210.” Almost imperceptibly, malign comments about the character of Brenda and the actress who plays her, Shannen Doherty, began to surface. Doherty’s recent brush with the law and her reputation for snobbery, hostility and general celeb brattiness have made her the fodder du jour for gossip columns and fanzines. Slowly, the gatherings evolved into informal but raucous anti-Brenda meetings, where as many as 25 participants would scream epithets whenever she appeared. Finally, they ran an ad in a rock fanzine seeking like-minded souls, and-- boom! --the “I Hate Brenda” club was born.

“The response was tremendous,” says one of I Hate Brenda’s founders, Kerin Morataya, 22. “I get at least 10 calls a day on our hot line telling us about how they hate Brenda.”

Besides the “Brenda Snitch Line,” a repository for any evil tidbit about Brenda or Shannon, the L. A.-based anti-fan club makes “I Hate Brenda” T-shirts and bumper stickers and publishes the I Hate Brenda Newsletter. It features tales of on-set hostility, prima donnaism and just plain not-niceness, as well as articles such as “Who Likes Brenda Anyway?” It also includes a Q&A; with Eddie Vedder, lead singer of Pearl Jam, on his experiences with Doherty (her staff badgered him for backstage passes and asked, pointedly, if he had a girlfriend).

“She is the type of woman that I strive not to be--quick to judge, inconsiderate and very selfish,” says Morataya. “We will not stop until Brenda is off the air.”