Appearances in Popular Culture
- Ferry's idiosyncratic appearance and vocal delivery on this song was affectionately parodied on sketch show Big Train, where the actor Kevin Eldon played Ferry as Chairman Mao Zedong on his death-bed inexplicably returning to life and singing the song with the rest of Roxy Music.
- Along with a number of other Roxy Music songs, it features prominently in the 1998 Todd Haynes film Velvet Goldmine.
- Olivier Assayas's 1994 film Cold Water uses the song as a framing device.
- Virgin Atlantic Airways operates a Boeing 747 aircraft named Virginia Plain
- In the Sex Pistols documentary The Filth and the Fury, Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones mentions Roxy Music as a major childhood influence while a part of the Top of the Pops performance of "Virginia Plain" is shown. Jones later appeared in the 2009 BBC film More Than This - The Story of Roxy Music, discussing the same thing.
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