Spinal Tap A to Zed

Pettibone, Jeanine: Later Jeanine Pettibone-St. Hubbins. Longtime girlfriend and (second) wife of David who settled with him in Pomona, California, after the band's 1982 tour. Replaced Ian Faith as manager in Austin, Texas, and played tambourine during last leg of band's 1982 U.S. tour following a confrontation in which Faith described her appearance as "an Australian's nightmare" and Jeanine insulted Ian's genitals. Derek: "Things went wrong more smoothly once Jeanine took over." Years later, David conceded that Jeanine "was not musical" and Nigel advanced the theory that this encounter may have been a set-up by Marty DiBergi. (DV) Jeanine met David in 1977 at a wake for her friend Detmer, who had died of botulism. "The shock of blond, the blaze of red velvet, the aura of Remy Martin, and Something Else," she recalled years later. "The Dream Warrior I have known in my slumbers for so many years." Jeanine says she immediately recognized David as a dead 700-year-old Japanese warrior-poet and herself as a dead 645-year-old Japanese Princess. As for the band, "they are Fantasy that will not be tamed. I am a Reality that will not be denied." (IST) David credits Jeanine, whose love of astrology was demonstrated in This is Spinal Tap when she did the band's charts, with getting his cosmically challenged life back in order. Yet David and Jeanine's relationship has never been easily defined. At one point, the guitarist denies Nigel's accusation that she is his "fucking wife"; at another, he denies to Ian that she's even his girlfriend. Nigel and Jeanine didn't always fare better, although in one uncut scene they do have an almost loving exchange. Jeanine tells Nigel that she's noticed his "Neanderthal look" on stage and thinks it works well with his "nocturnal glow." Nigel says he was "trying to make it subtle" and wasn't really "striving for caveman." Nigel: "I'm never going to love Jeanine in the way David does, but let's just say it's been worked out. We speak in civil tones." David: "More civil nods, really." (QM) Derek: "Jeanine felt Nigel never really wanted her on stage. Eventually Nigel was giving her a tamborine with no bells on it to play. Then he would give her a tamborine with no bells and no drum skins. So Nigel was really just giving Jeanine a wooden ring! She couldn't hear what she was playing and that was it." (KR) Nigel: "We've worked out a compromise-she stays home." (RL) Nigel, explaining the relationship on MTV: "The wound has been squeezed and the puss has shot out and been wiped up." On the commentary of the Special Edition DVD, David and Nigel also reveal that Nigel and Jeanine had at least one sexual encounter. Nigel: "It lasted about 10 minutes." David: "She said it was six minutes." (DV) David, like Nigel, considers Jeanine to be "brutally frank" and often solicits her opinions on new songs or production numbers. Now that they've settled down, the couple owns two Shar-Peis: Mr. Pip and Dragon Princess. David: "It looks like it was a larger dog with tighter skin, and then someone grabbed him by the anus and pulled him as hard as they could." (MH1) Jeanine's businesses also continue to multiply. She makes and sells Irish sweaters in her shop Potato Republic with the help of 14 "wonderful" but illegal Hispanic girls, sells leprechaun key rings and ceremonial candles in The Crow's Wing, runs a new age boutique called Krystals 'n Kandles (alternately The Drippery), and has started a business that works out the star sign of your computer (QM). In early 2000, David and Jeanine had divorced on friendly terms. She now runs a company called Herb Lane and a website called Herbal Harmony. One of her products is designed to enhance bustlines. "You make a paste of the herbs and rub it on your tits and you have to do it even so one tit's not larger than the other or it's a little bit funny." (VH1) Nigel's feelings toward Jeanine never warmed. He said in 2001: "She's a chilly woman." (DS) David still has his affections. David: "We'll never completely fall out." Nigel: "You can only fall so far." David: "Until you bounce." (DS) See also Astrology; The Drippery; Coupling; Dubly; Marriage; Milwaukee; Potato Republic; St. Hubbins, Pam; St. Hubbins, David.

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