By Jessica Hopper

Starring in a classic, much-celebrated Volkswagen Golf TV ad in '87 (where Paula, dressed in full Princess Di get-up, tosses aside the rich trappings of her life, but keeps her motor) made Paula Hamilton the face of the sassy '80s woman and, as some described her, the first It-girl. Drug addiction, affair scandals, alcoholism and attempted suicide followed, but there was once a time when we all wanted to toss our pearls, mink and man away à la Paula.