As Frank's in-house female ex-lover, Columbia is permitted a certain latitude in her actions appropriate to her identity as "a groupie." She appears to have had time for a fling with the ex-delivery boy, Eddie, and she is the first member of the household to call Frank down for his selfishness. She is also the first person killed when Riff Raff seizes power in the castle. It is her death that makes Frank realize that his danger is real.
But what Columbia will be best remembered for is her glittering Ann Mille-like tap dance across the ballroom floor during the "Time Warp", and her impossibly Betty Boop-ish voice.
Singing and dancing have long been a part of Little Nell, born Laura Campbell, the daughter of a prominent Australian newspaper columnist for the Sydney Telegraph who wrote regularly about the misadventures of his four children. In her father's column, Laura was christened "Little Nell" after the Dicken's character in The Old Curiousity Shop, and the name has stuck with her ever since. From the time she arrived in England at the age of eighteen she was a busker-a panhandling street performer. And she busked her way right into The Rocky Horror Show.
One day, performing her act-singing 1930's songs and tapdancing in top hat and tails-outside the theater where Jesus Christ Superstar was playing, director Jim Sharman saw her and immediatly cast her as Columbia in his next theatrical production. Which of course turned out to be....The Rocky Horror Show. (big surprize....)
During the summer of 1978 she opened a one woman play, Stoop, in London. She has since released a new record, "Fever" on one side and "See Ya Round Like A Record" on the other, in addition to her popular "Do the Swim." Her acting credits include roles in the PBS television series "Rock Follies", and the punk rock movie, Jubilee. She also can be seen in a small part of Pink Floyd's The Wall.