CBS has no love for big-star TV movies
You think winning two Oscars would earn you some respect, right? What about a Tony and Emmy winner? No, apparently not — in either case. Two high-profile TV movies which feature Jessica Lange and Mary-Louise Parker are being broadcast — unceremoniously — over the next three Saturday nights on CBS. Yes, they are essentially being dumped. The Nielsen numbers for programs on Saturday nights is next to nothing. By running Sybil and Vinegar Hill, these stars’ respective films on that night of the week, CBS is showing no faith in them, let alone TV movies in general. I guess Hallmark Hall of Fame movies are the exception to the rule.
The Jessica Lange project is a remake of the Sally Field-Joanne Woodward TV classic Sybil. The double-Oscar winner (for Blue Sky and Tootsie) made her version, directed by Joseph Sargent (Warm Springs, Miss Evers’ Boys), with Tammy Blanchard (an Emmy winner for Life with Judy Garland) in the Sally Field role, back in 2007. It has actually been broadcast overseas. CBS has had it on the shelf for over a year. It’s now scheduled for May 24 and June 7; although the running time for the pic is only 90 minutes, so you can assume there will be lots of commercials. The original Sybil (1976) was a mini-series, running 198 minutes. It won four Emmys, including one for writing, music, special and actress (Sally).
The Mary-Louise Parker movie, Vinegar Hill, is even older. It was made in 2005, based on an Oprah Book Club selection, a novel by author A. Manette Ansay. Again, based on the fact that the film was given the Oprah seal of approval (not to mention promotion), and the success of Mary-Louise on Showtime’s Weeds, you’d think CBS might actually want to give this film some prominence. No, it’s scheduled for this Saturday, May 24, 8 o’clock. And like Sybil, this was already broadcast elsewhere; like Brisbane, Australia.
Drew Barrymore and Justin Long: Chow Date
Drew Barrymore and Justin Long: Chow Date
Well, they’ve made it past the ‘just a fling’ stage and now Drew Barrymore and Justin Long are a real bona fide Hollywood couple. And they were spotted enjoying a dinner date last night.
The happy twosome made their way to Los Angeles hot spot Mr. Chow for a romantic meal that was apparently a little too much to bite off, hence Long’s doggie bag.
As they left amid the flashbulbs of the paparazzi, the “Accepted” actor held the door for his “Charlie’s Angels” gal. What a guy!
And it sounds like Drew can’t stop working. Her latest project is called “Grey Gardens” which opens this November and also stars Jessica Lange.
Jessica Lange Biography
Jessica Lange is a blonde, fine-featured leading lady who has transcended the bimbo image established by her notorious screen debut—as the scantily-clad playmate in the embarrassingly bad 1976 “King Kong” remake—to become one of Hollywood’s most respected actresses in the 1980s and ’90s. Shifting easily from mainstream genre fare to worthy little independent films, Lange has maintained the ability to surprise audiences with the unexpected depth of her resources. Born into a close but “wacky” (her phrase) Minnesota family, Lange spent time living as a hippie in Paris and New York in the ’60s before settling down to an acting career. She was already 27 when she made her film debut.
It took Lange several years after her debut to find another screen role. Her then boyfriend Bob Fosse cast her as the Angel of Death in “All That Jazz” (1979) and she co-starred with TV refugees Susan Saint James and Jane Curtin in the comedy “How to Beat the High Cost of Living” (1980). But it was her turn in the Lana Turner role of a sultry femme fatale opposite Jack Nicholson in Bob Rafelson’s remake of “The Postman Always Rings Twice” (1981) that made critics and audiences realize her abilities, despite its less than stellar box office.
Lange finally proved her versatility and attained star status with two 1982 roles, as 1930s actress Frances Farmer in the biopic “Frances” and as Dustin Hoffman’s love interest in “Tootsie”; the first won her a Best Actress Oscar nomination and the second, the award for Best Supporting Actress. She racked up three more nominations by the end of the decade: as a stalwart farm wife opposite her real life companion Sam Shepard in “Country” (1984), which she also co-produced; as country music legend Patsy Cline in the biopic “Sweet Dreams” (1985); and for her searching, intelligent performance as the unsuspecting daughter of an alleged war criminal in Costa-Gavras’ “Music Box” (1989).
In 1992, Lange made her Broadway debut in the celebrated role of Blanche DuBois opposite Alec Baldwin’s Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire”. Both she and Baldwin reprised their roles on a 1995 CBS movie. Lange’s earlier TV work included another Williams heroine, Maggie, in “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” (Showtime, 1984) and as a Minnesota farmer in the “Hallmark Hall of Fame” adaptation of Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers!” (CBS, 1992).
Devoting more time to child-rearing, Lange worked less frequently in the late 1980s and early 90s. She worked with Robert De Niro in two high profile noir remakes, Martin Scorsese’s “Cape Fear” (1991) and Irwin Winkler’s “Night and the City” (1992). Lange was widely acclaimed and received a second Oscar, as Best Actress, for her performance in Tony Richardson’s “Blue Sky” (completed in 1990; released 1994). She was Carly, the sensuous “woman-child” wife of a military nuclear engineer, whose tendency to act out her frustrations lead to domestic and professional complications for her family. Lange had two more successes with “Losing Isaiah” (1995), as a social worker who adopts a crack baby, and “Rob Roy” (also 1995), as the great love of the 18th-century Scottish freedom fighter (Liam Neeson). Lange frequently appeared opposite female co-stars that would push and challenge, such her roles in “A Thousand Acres” (1997) playing sister to Michelle Pfieffer and Jennifer Jason Leigh in a modern King Lear allegory; bedeviling unwanted daughter-in-law Gwyneth Paltrow in the thriller “Hush” (1998); and as the lonely spinster seamstress to courtesan Elizabeth Shue who slowly destroys the lives of those who’ve scorned her in the film adaptation of novelist Honoré de Balzac’s “Cousin Bette” (1998).
Returning to Shakespeare, Lange made for a truly ferocious Tamora in “Titus” (1999), Julie Taymor’s mind-bending, ultra-violent adaptation of Titus Andronicus, but was miscast in the long-delayed “Prozac Nation” (2001) as Elizabeth Wurtzell’s (Christina Ricci) neurotic Jewish mother. The actress was far more effective in the HBO telepic “Normal” (2003) as a wife whose husband of 25 years (Tom Wilkinson) suddenly reveals that he wants a sex change operation; Lange was rewarded with Emmy, Golden Globe and Golden Satellite nominations for her performance. Next she essayed the role of the older Sandra Bloom, who husband was given to fanciful self-mythologizing, in director Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” (2003). She next appeared in Jim Jarmush’s “Broken Flowers†(2005), playing one of four ex-girlfriends of a man (Bill Murray) who tracks down his former lovers after receiving an anonymous letter from the mother of his heretofore unknown son.
From 1970 to 1982, Lange was married to photographer Paco Grande. She was romantically involved with dancer-actor Mikhail Baryshnikov from 1976 to 1982. Since 1982, Lange has lived with playwright-actor Sam Shepard with whom she acted with in “Frances” (1982), “Country” (1984) and “Crimes of the Heart” (1986) and who directed her in “Far North” (1988).
- Born:
on 04/20/1949 in Cloquet, Minnesota - Job Titles:
Actor, Model, Producer, Waitress
Family
- Brother: George Lange.
- Daughter: Alexandra Baryshnikov. born in 1981; father, Mikhail Baryshnikov
- Daughter: Hannah Jane Shepard. born c. 1985; father, Sam Shepard
- Father: Albert Lange. born c. 1911; died c. 1988
- Mother: Dorothy Lange. born c. 1913; suffered a cerebral hemorrhage c. 1968
- Sister: Jane Lange. older
- Son: Samuel Walker Shepard. born on June 14, 1987 in Virginia; father, Sam Shepard
Significant Others
- Husband: Paco Grande. married in July 1970; divorced in 1982; born c. 1942; met c. 1968 while she was a student at University of Minnesota and his father taught at university; began losing his sight from retinitis pigmentosa in the early 1970s; Lange paid him alimony after divorce
- Companion: Bob Fosse. on-again-off-again relationship began in 1975; Lange played the Angel of Death in Fosse’s semi-autobiographical film, “All That Jazz” (1979)
- Companion: Mikhail Baryshnikov. together c. 1976-82; introduced in 1976 by Milos Forman at a party thrown by Buck Henry in Hollywood
- Companion: Sam Shepard. together since 1982; met while filming “Frances” (1982)
Education
- University of Minnesota, 1967
Milestones
- 1968 Embarked upon travels through North and South America and Europe with first husband, photographer Paco Grande
- 1975 Signed seven-year contract with Dino De Laurentiis
- 1976 Film debut in “King Kong”
- 1979 Returned to films as the Angel of Death in Bob Fosse’s autobiographical “All That Jazz”
- 1980 Theater debut in summer stock production of “Angel on My Shoulder” in North Carolina
- 1981 Delivered a sizzle turn as the unfaithful wife Cora opposite Jack Nicholson in the remake of “The Postman Always Rings Twice”
- 1983 Became first actress since 1942 to be nominated for two Oscars in the same year: Best Actress for “Frances” and Best Supporting Actress for “Tootsie”; won the latter award
- 1984 First film as co-producer, “Country”; earned Best Actress Oscar nomination
- 1984 TV acting debut, played Maggie in Showtime production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”
- 1985 Received a Best Actress Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of country singer Patsy Cline in “Sweet Dreams”
- 1988 Starred in “Far North”, directed by off-screen companion Sam Shepard
- 1989 Garnered a Best Actress Oscar nod for her performance as a lawyer defending her father against charges he was a Nazi collaborator in “The Music Box”
- 1991 Teamed with Nick Nolte and Robert De Niro for Martin Scorsese’s remake of “Cape Fear”
- 1992 Broadway debut as Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire”
- 1992 Played lead role of Alexandra Bergson in the CBS adaptation of Willa Cather’s “O Pioneers!”
- 1992 Starred opposite De Niro in “Night and the City”
- 1994 Received second Oscar as Best Actress for her performance in “Blue Sky” (filmed in 1990)
- 1995 Played wife to Liam Neeson’s “Rob Roy”
- 1995 Reprised Blanche DuBois for small screen adaptation of “A Streetcar Named Desire”
- 1996 Made London stage debut as Blanche in “A Streetcar Named Desire”, staged by Peter Hall
- 1998 Had title role in film version of Balzac’s “Cousin Bette”
- 1999 Tackled first Shakespearean role as Tamora opposite Anthony Hopkins’ “Titus”; Julie Taymor’s feature directorial debut adapting “Titus Andronicus”
- 2000 Returned to the London stage to star as Mary Tyrone in “Long Day’s Journey Into Night”
- 2002 Co-starred in the HBO movie “Normal”; received an emmy nomination for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie; received a golden globe nomination for best actress in a mini series or television movie
- 2003 Joined an ensemble cast for the feature “Masked and Anonymous”
- 2003 Played wife to Albert Finney in “Big Fish”
- 2003 Portrayed the heroine’s mother in the film version of “Prozac Nation”
- 2005 Cast as an ex-flame of Bill Murray’s in Jim Jarmusch’s “Broken Flowers”
- 2006 Cast in Wim Wenders’ neo-Western “Don’t Come Knocking” written by and starring Sam Shepard
- Moved with family 12 times before she was a senior in high school
- Returned to New York where she waited tables at the Lion Head bar and later worked as a model with Wilhelmina Agency in the mid-1970s
- Settled in New York where she danced and painted; joined Ellie Klein Theatre Group
- Spent two years in Paris where she studied mime under Marcel Marceau’s teacher, Etienne Decroux
- Will co-star with Drew Barrymore as two eccentric, cat-loving Jackie Kennedy relatives in “Grey Gardens,” a film inspired by the 1975 cult documentary
Anne Heche Biography
A waifish blonde, Anne Heche (pronounced ‘haytch’) was still relatively unknown when she made headlines in April 1997 disclosing her relationship with comedienne Ellen DeGeneres. Almost immediately, there was speculation and questions about whether the actress’ decision to reveal her lesbianism would adversely affect her career, particularly as Heche had been cast as Harrison Ford’s love interest in “Six Days/Seven Nights” (1998). Reportedly, the marketing campaign for the film was altered to play up the adventure aspect of the film instead of the romance, but it was for naught: not only did Heche’s bid for movie stardom fizzle quickly, her much-discussed relationship with Degeneres also collapsed in 2001 and she suffered a highly public 2000 meltdown in which she was found wandering in a dazed state concerned about aliens. Neverthless, she managed to collect herself and reclaim her acting career, as well as become and wife and mother away from the set.
Before becoming a topic of late nighttalk show monologues, Heche had already proven herself as an actress. The daughter of a Baptist minister who was a closet homosexual and succumbed to AIDS complications in 1983 (although Heche has hinted he committed suicide in interviews), the thin wide-eyed performer began her career as a singer and dancer in dinner theater. After her father’s death, Heche did not perform for several years until graduating from high school. Within weeks, she had landed her first major role, that of good and evil twins, Vicky and Marly on the NBC soap opera “Another World”. During her four year stint, Heche earned a Daytime Emmy as Outstanding Younger Actress in 1991 and engaged in a high profile romance with her co-star Richard Burgi.
Feeling stifled, Heche decided to leave the show after four years and enroll at the Parsons School of Design. Instead, she landed a role alongside Jessica Lange in the CBS production “O Pioneers!” (1992) and decided to concentrate on an acting career. Film roles soon followed, including her debut as Mary Jane Wilks in “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1993). She gradually landed larger roles in “I’ll Do Anything” (1994) and the TV-movies “Against the Wall” (HBO, 1994), as Kyle MacLachlan’s wife, and “Kingfish: A Story of Huey Long” (TNT, 1995), as the politician’s mistress. Heche landed the breakthrough role of a doctor friend of Demi Moore who falls victim to a hit man in “The Juror” (1996). She went to co-star with Catherine Keener in the indie “Walking and Talking’ (also 1996) before landing the role of Johnny Depp’s neglected wife in “Donnie Brasco” (1997). Later that year, Heche was teamed with Tommy Lee Jones in the disaster flick “Volcano” and won praise for her turn as a presidential advisor in Barry Levinson’s political satire “Wag the Dog” (a role written for a man which Heche played with no changes to the dialogue). By the time of the latter’s release, Heche and DeGeneres had taken their relationship public. While pundits fretted over what the disclosure might do to Heche’s career, the actress pressed on landing co-starring roles with Harrison Ford in the romantic adventure “Six Days, Seven Nights” and Vince Vaughn in “Return to Paradise” (both 1998). She further solidified her rising star status by tackling the role of Marion Crane (again opposite Vaughn as Norman Bates) in a color remake of Hitchcock’s classic “Psycho” (also 1998)
Heche’s feature career cooled when her image as a lesbian interfered with being cast in conventional heterosexual roles. In 1999 she portrayed the skeptical daughter of a woman proposed as a candidate for sainthood in “The Third Miracle,” rumors persisted that she was the model for the ruthlessly ambitious actress played by Heather Graham in Heche’s ex-beau Steve Martin’s comedy “Bowfinger” (1999), and she wrote and directed the “2000″ segment of the Emmy-nominated HBO movie “If These Walls Could Talk 2″ (2000), an anthology about the lesbian experience in America, with Degeneres and Sharon Stone as a couple trying to have a baby–however, after the film aired she and Degeneres called their relationship quits. Shortly after, Heche was discovered wandering in a confused state in Fresno, California, looking for a spaceship manned by aliens/angels and referring to herself as “Celestia”–she later admitted, in her 2001 memoir Call Me Crazy that she was on Ecstacy, and explained that her extraterrestrial leanings were the result of a psyche fractured since her youth, reportedly due to sexual abuse by her father, a closeted gay Baptist choir master who later died of AIDS. Heche’s claims in the book, written in just six weeks, were denied by her family but, true or not, her revelations did seem to quickly stem the widespread ridicule that had been aimed her way. The actress was soon back in a heterosexual relationship, with Coleman Laffoon–a cameraman she met while filming a documentary about DeGeneres–married him and became pregnant with his child in short order.
As Heche’s life seemed to settle back into a pattern of seeming normalcy, her career also got back on track. She had featured roles in the Denzel Washington thriller “John Q” and as Dr. Sterling in the long-delayed adaptation of Elizabeth Wurtzel’s bestseller “Prozac Nation” (2001) and television writer-producer David E. Kelley cast her in a recurring role as Melanie West, the eccentric, tic-addled soul mate of John Cage (Peter MacNicol) during the 2000-2001 season. She also took over for Jennifer Jason Leigh in the Pulitzer Prize-winning drama ‘Proof’ on Broadway in 2002. In 2004 she played a drug-addicted mother who neglects her children in the Lifetime movie “Gracie’s Choice” and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie. That same year she joined the WB drama “Everwood,” as a love interest for star Treat Williams on the small screen and appeared opposite Niccole Kidman in “Birth” on the big screen, and on the legit stage was nominated for Broadway’s 2004 Tony Award as Best Actress (Play) for a revival of “Twentieth Century.” Clearly, by the time she took on a recurring role on “Nip/Tuck” in 2005 as an ex-mob wife and Witness Protection Program subject who requires plastic surgery from Sean McNamara (Dylan Walsh) and becomes involved with him, Heche had reclaimed a great deal of her once-tarnished professional luster.
- Born:
on 05/25/1969 in Aurora, Ohio - Job Titles:
Actor
Family
- Brother: Nathan Heche. killed in car accident three months after death it was a suicide committed in reaction to her father’s death
- Father: Donald Heche. born in 1938; died of complications from AIDS in 1983; disclosed his homosexuality to his family prior to his death; in her book “Call Me Crazy”, Heche claims her father sexually molested her when she was a child and gave her herpes
- Mother: Nancy Heche. Heche is estranged from her mother since she confronted her about the alleged sexual abuse Heche suffered at the hands of her father
- Sister: Abigail Heche. older
- Sister: Susan Bergman. older; eldest in the family; wrote memoir “Anonymity”, about father and his “secret” life; Heche does not speak to her
- Son: Homer Heche Laffoon. born on March 2, 2002
Significant Others
- Husband: Coley Laffoon. born c. 1974; began dating as of late summer 2000; became engaged in May 2001; married on September 1, 2001
- Companion: Ellen DeGeneres. together as of April 1997; separated in August 2000
- Companion: Richard Burgi. co-starred together on “Another World”; involved in late 1980s
- Companion: Steve Martin. met during filming of “A Simple Twist of Fate”; together from 1992 until 1994
Education
- Francis W Parker High School, Chicago, Illinois, 1987
Milestones
- 1982 Began performing in musicals at a Trenton, New Jersey, dinner theater to help support her family at age 12 (date approximate)
- 1988 Played role of good/evil twins Vicky Hudson Frame and Marley McKinnon on the NBC soap opera “Another World”; won Daytime Emmy
- 1992 TV-movie debut in “O Pioneers!” (CBS)
- 1993 Feature film debut, “The Adventures of Huck Finn”
- 1994 Had featured role in “I’ll Do Anything”
- 1994 Originally cast in a supporting role in “A Simple Twist of Fate”; part ended on the cutting room floor
- 1996 Co-starred in the independent film “Walking and Talking”
- 1996 Had role in the Cher-directed “1996″ segment of HBO’s “If These Walls Could Talk”
- 1996 Won attention for her pivotal role in “The Juror”
- 1997 Appeared as a presidential advisor in “Wag the Dog”; role had originally been written for a man
- 1997 Disclosed her relationship with Ellen DeGeneres (April)
- 1997 Played Johnny Depp’s wife in “Donnie Brasco”
- 1997 Starred opposite Tommy Lee Jones in “Volcano”
- 1998 Cast as Marion Crane in the color remake of “Psycho” directed by Gus Van Sant
- 1998 Played the female lead opposite Harrison Ford in the romantic “Six Days, Seven Nights”
- 1999 Portrayed the skeptical daughter of a woman proposed as a candidate for sainthood in “The Third Miracle”
- 2000 Cast as a Marine Corps captain accused of murdering her former lover, a higher ranking officer in the fact-based Showtime movie “One Kill”
- 2000 Signed deal with Scribner to write a memoir; published in 2001
- 2000 Wrote and directed the “2000″ segment of the Emmy-nominated HBO movie “If These Walls Could Talk 2″, about the lesbian experience in America
- 2001 Had a recurring role on FOX’s legal comedy “Ally McBeal” playing a woman with Tourette’s syndrome
- 2001 Had featured role in “John Q” directed by Nick Cassavetes
- 2002 Replaced Jennifer Jason Leigh in the Broadway production of “Proof,” the Tony Award-winning play by David Auburn
- 2003 Co-starred in “Prozac Nation”
- 2003 Starred opposite Alec Baldwin in the play “Twentieth Century”; received a Tony nomination
- 2004 Joined the WB drama “Everwood,” as a love interest for star Treat Williams
- 2004 Played a drug-addicted mother who neglects her children in the Lifetime movie “Gracie’s Choice”; received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie
- 2005 Guest-starred on FX’s “Nip/Tuck” as a ‘Mafia princess’ about to enter the witness-protection program, who gets a new face from Dr. Sean McNamara
- Family moved eleven times before Heche was 12
- Moved to Chicago with her mother and two older sisters
- Stopped performing and entered therapy after her father’s death
- Wrote, directed and starred in the short film “Stripping for Jesus”