Display MoreBack in 2024, we made an interesting discovery: we identified that the 'pin up' poster briefly seen in Lieutenant Blair's quarters in the Wing Commander was made from a stock photo that had been reused in other places! This conclusively disproved an old (and already very unlikely) piece of IMDb trivia that it was a photograph of Sarah Michelle Gellar and it brought us to a new question: who was the stock photo model?
As unlikely as it seems, we now have an answer... because she stopped by the forums to tell us herself! Her name is Rae Cline and a portfolio shoot made it into a stock photo collection way back when. Here's her story:
Hi Bandit LOAF. The woman is me.Yes, it is from stock footage. The photographer is Jack Cutler. You can find him on IG @jack_cutler_foto. You can find me on Instagram, too, @raeclineauthor.
I never received any royalties for the stock photo in Wing Commander, of course, but Jack photographed a fantastic portfolio for me for free. I had a few trade magazine covers but nothing big. This poster in Wing Commander is definitely my 5 minutes that were really only secondsI do have a debut novel releasing in August 2026. You can read more on my IG and also my author site at raecline.com. Attaching a few other photos Jack took for my portfolio.
Thanks for the shout out. Happy gaming! ❤️
Fascinating! As you can see, it turns out she's not just a pretty face. In fact, she's a writer with a lengthy list of articles, poems and short stories to her credit! If you're interested in one of the human stories behind Wing Commander you'll find her website pretty fascinating. Here's her biography:
Rae Cline is the author of the short story collection The Indefinite State of Imaginary Morals (Patasola Press, NY). Her debut novel is forthcoming from 7.13 Books in 2026. Her stories, essays, and poetry have appeared in print and online at The Paris Review, The Missouri Review, McSweeney’s, DIAGRAM, North American Review, Gargoyle and more. Her fiction and creative nonfiction have won prizes, scholarships and fellowships from Johns Hopkins, American University, Aspen Writers Foundation and North American Review. She earned an M.A. in Writing at Hopkins and received her M.F.A. in Fiction and Creative Nonfiction from American University, where she was the recipient of the Starr and Sartwell scholarships. A teacher for thirty-five plus years, she has taught writing and literature at the secondary level, working with at-risk youth, mainstream youth and gifted and talented. She currently teaches and has taught on college campuses, lecturing at Johns Hopkins, American University, the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, McNeese State University and other campuses and venues. The daughter of an Army Veteran and born along the Ohio River, Rae splits time between NYC and the Gulf of Mexico with her husband Rand and Havanese puppy Sophi. She is the founding editor in chief of Eckleburg where she writes the Openings column. She is also a Democratic committee person and founder of the Warm Words Project, a homeless and domestic violence outreach initiative. Rae is represented by Jennifer Carlson with Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency.Ms. Cline's upcoming book is And These Signs Shall Follow: A Novel and it's due out this spring. We will post a link once there's a pre-order link available! You can also find an article about the fictional character intended to be referenced by the poster, Saranya Carr, here.
