Brooke Shields

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

  1. Linda Blair, The Exorcist, 1972.
  2. Jodie Foster, Taxi Driver, 1975.    
  3. Susan Swift, Audrey Rose, 1977.      The title role… well Marsha Mason’s daughter, Ivy, who journalist Anthony Hopkins believes is his daughter, Audrey Rose, reincarnated.
  4. Kristy McNichol, Little Darlings, 1979.       Shields was first asked to join Tatum O’Neal as the underage darlings pushed into a summer camp bet about who will lose their cherry first. Despite the sensitivity given to the subject, the film was slashed for US TV to make it seem to be about just making a guy fall in love with them. She only made six other movies; Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft in 2012 was her first for 22 years!
  5. Jennifer Jason Leigh, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, 1981.       The US high school movie..! Researched and written by Cameron Crowe, directed by Amy Heckerling. The rôle: Brad’s foxy sister, Stacy. The choices: JJL, Shields, Ellen Barkin, Geena Davis, Jodie Foster (studying at Yale), Diane Lane, Lori Loughlin, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kelly Preston, Elizabeth Shue. Few were keen on joining Richard Romanus in full-frontalism. (The scene was cut to avoid an X-rating!).
  6. Diane Lane, The Outsiders, 1982.    Mal paso.Dumb move. Shields  rejected an offer from Francis Coppola to play Cherry Valance…
  7. Diane Lane, Rumble Fish, 1982.  … and thereby  lost Patty in his immediate next film, his second consecutive movie of a novel by the 16-year-old SE Hinton.  And why did Brooke pass?   To make the appalling Sahara.  Owch!
  8. Elizabeth McGovern, Once Upon a Time in America, 1982.   Italian maestro Sergio Leone claimed he interviewed “over 3,000 actors,” taping 500 auditions for the 110 speaking roles in his New York gangster epic.  He certainly saw 33 girls for nymphet Deborah Gelly: Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Jennifer Beals, Linda Blair, Glenn Close, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Farrah Fawcett, Carrie Fisher, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Linda Hamilton, Daryl Hannah, Goldie Hawn, Mariel Hemingway, Diane Lane, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Heather Locklear, Kristy McNIchol, Liza Minnelli, Tatum O’Neal, Michelle Pfeiffer, Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Cybill Shepherd, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver, Debra Winger. Plus Brooke Shields as the younger version. Deborah was 15 in the first script; McGovern was 20.
  9. Michelle Pfeiffer, Scarface, 1982.      Succeeding Sidney Lumet as director, Brian De Palma offered Elivra Hancock to Brooke – and her mother said no.Loudly. Also considered: Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Colleen Camp, Glenn Close, Geena Davis, Judy Davis, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kay Lenz, Kelly McGillis, Kristy McNichol, Deborah Raffin, Sharon Stone, Kathleen Turner.
  10. Daryl Hannah, Splash, 1983.      A mermaid?  Moi? That’s what they  all said, more or less.  Except Debra Winger who longed to be  Madison. (Director Ron Howard did not agree). The full 19 options were… Hannah, Rosanna Arquette, Jodie Foster (she was booked into The Hotel New Hampshire), General  Hospital  soap queen Genie Francis, Melanie Griffith, Diane Lane, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tatum O’Neal, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Tanya Roberts (booked for Sheena: Queen of the Jungle), Ally Sheedy, Brooke Shields (studying French Literature at Princeton), Sharon Stone, Kathleen Turner, Lisa Whelchel (from The Facts of Life, 1979-1988), Debra Winger.  Plus two Brits, Lynne Frederick and Fiona Fullerton – impressive as the daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra, 1970.  Oh and PJ Soles, who was originally chosen to co-star with… Bill Murray – as Disney’s new (“adult”) Touchstone unit rushed Splash into production to beat Warren Beatty’s similar “half-human-half-kipper” tail. Mermaid.
  11. Linda Ronstadt, The Pirates of Penzance, 1983.    Rock star Ronstadt had shaken up Broadway’s Gilbert & Sullivan revival.Producer Ed Pressman looked for a similar filip for the film – before reverting to the New York cast.

  12. Linda Hamilton, The Terminator, 1983.   
    In all, 55 actresses were considered, seen or tested for Sarah Connor (aged 18; Linda was 27) opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger.   James Cameron auteured Sarah for Bridget Fonda. She passed; so did Tatum O’Neal. He decided to go older…  and Glenn Close won – her schedule didn’t agree. OK, Kate Capshaw! No, she was tied to Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom – and Kathleen Turner was Romancing The Stone. Debra Winger won her audition, said yes… then no.   The other 48 ladies were The ’80s Group: Shields, Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Christy Brinkley, Colleen Camp, Jamie Lee Curtis, Geena Davis, Judy Davis, Mia Farrow, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Teri Garr, Jennifer Grey, Melanie Griffith, Darryl Hannah, Barbara Hershey, Anjelica Huston, Amy Irving, Diane Keaton, Margot Kidder, Diane Lane, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kay Lenz, Heather Locklear, Lori Loughlin, Kelly McGillis, Kristy McNichol, Michelle Pfeiffer, Deborah Raffin, Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon, Ally Sheedy, Cybill Shepherd, Sissy Spacek, Sharon Stone, Lea Thompson, Sigourney Weaver… one aerobics queen, Bess Motta (she became Sarah’s room-mate, Ginger Ventura), two singers (Madonna, Liza Minnelli), two Brits (Miranda Richardson, Jane Seymour), five essentially funny girls, Goldie Hawn, Rhea Perlman (Mrs Danny De Vito), Gilda Radner, Mary Tyler Moore… plus the new MTM, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, from Saturday Night Live. Most were in contention again a few years later for Fatal Attraction (won by Close) and The Accused (going to Foster and McGillis). Ten years later (after T2), Linda gave birth to Cameron’s daughter and Josephine’s parents wed in 1997… for two years.

  13. Alexandra Paul, Christine, 1983.  Shot before the novel came out, this is #8 of Stephen King’s 313 screen credits…  For the bulldozer scene, Alexandra had her twin, Caroline, dressed and made up as her role. After the first take, Alexandra ran out asking director John Carpenter what was going on – had he fired her? “It was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” he said, ”and Alexandra was a pod!” Neither twin played the lead. Christine was a red, Plymouth Fury car, circa 1958.

  14. Helen Slater, Supergirl, 1984.  First choice for Kara aka Linda Lee aka…   superflop! It made the least of all the Super-movies: $14m from a $35m budget. As greeedy as ever, Warner Bros had wanted more coin  from the Superfranchise. When Melanie Griffth also passed, a Christopher Reevesque talent hunt discovered Slater. She won the cape,  the new identity of Linda Lee Danvers, but not Reeve in a cameo. Far better than the Jeannot Szwarc film, Slater turned up, during 2007-2018, as Supie’s biological mother, Lara-El, in the young-Superman-series, Smallville; voiced Supe’s foster-mom, Martha Kent, in Super Hero High;and played her own earthian-ma, Eliza Danvers, in the Supergirlseries, when Melissa Benoist succeeded her – the first  time Kara Zor-El had been seen since the rotten movie 31 years before.

  15. Ally Sheedy, The Breakfast Club, 1984.      For his second film (written in two days!), teenage angst maestro John Hughes aimed high. Too high. He wanted Jodie Foster and Shields as Claire and Allison. At 22, Jodie was no high schooler. Nor Brooke at 19.   Nor, one might add, Sheedy… at 23.

  16. Ally Sheedy, St Elmo’s Fire, 1984.    
    One studio chief called the life-after-college pals “the most loathsome humans” he’d ever read. Nobody liked the script, the song, most casting ideas and the title – one Columbia suit spent 35 memo pages on why it should be Sparks  or The Real World and not after an obscure  meteorological phenomenon! Co-scenarist Carl Kurlunder  told all to Deadline Hollywood for  the 35th anniversary in July 2020 – ten days after the death of his co-writer and director Joel Shumacher. They saw hundreds (“if not thousands”) of actors –  including Brooke, Jamie Lee Curtis, Bridget Fonda, Melanie Griffith, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Sarah Jessica Parker, Meg Ryan, Elisabeth Shue  and Lea Thompson for the young architect Leslie Hunter.  Among the rejectees were  singer Laura Brannigan, Jonathan Cryer, Anthony Edwards, Linda Hamilton, Crispin Glover and Joel felt Madonna would not be keen on an ensemble.  After all, the cast was soon called The Brat Pack.     The packian  d    irectors, John Hughes and Joel Schumacher,  were rather like Lucas and Spielberg in the 70s: dipping into the same talent pool. Those Brat Packers Hughes kept in the high school Breakfast Club, Schumacher made, as here, college kids. When Hughes said “Why can’t I make movies like The Lost Boys, Joel?” Schumacher would reply: “Why can’t I make Pretty in Pink?” The answer was different school experiences. Joel’s was “risque and dangerous from a very early age. My father died when I was four, and my mother died at an early age as well. I started drinking at nine, smoking at 10, sexually active at 11….”

  17. Diane Lane, The Cotton Club, 1984.      Francis Coppola was only making the (bad) film to pay off his One From The Heart debts. Shields wasn’t making it at all because of studying French Literature at Princeton U.
  18. Melanie Griffith, Body Double, 1984.      Brian De Palma saw it as his Rear Window-cum-Vertigo (actually, claustrophobia). Variety called it a sexpenser. It started percolating when the director required a nude body double for Angie Dickinson during Dressed To Kill, 1979. His first choice for his main character, porno star Holly Body, was a porno star: Annette Haven. Well, De Palma wanted this to be the first studio movie with real sex. (The studio did not). This might have something to do with Holly being rejected by Jamie Lee Curtis and Linda Hamilton. And Shields preferred to study French Literature at Pinceton.
  19. Kathleen Turner, Prizzi’s Honour, 1984.      “I’ve been doin’ three to four hits a year for the past couple of years, most at full pay…” Director Johnm Huston looked over 11 Charley Partanna potentials, 19 Maerose Przzis, but just five Irene Walkers… and three of them (Shields, Kristy McNichol, Tatum O’Neal) were too young to be falling for Jack Nicholson, hit man for the Prizzi Family and the unlikeliest Mafioso since the Corleones’ James Caan.
  20. Greta Scacchi, Camille, TV, 1984.    Shields brooked. Everything was being too rushed, without any thought for the correct period costumes.  Or ages. Shields was 19 and although usually played by actresses in their 30s or beyond – Bernhardt, Garbo, Nazimova  and Billie Whitelaw, from the 1964 TV production,and here playing Prudence Duvorney – the real Marguerite Gauthier (Paris prostitute Marie Duplessis) died at 23.   Scacchi was 24
  21. Molly Ringwald, Pretty In Pink, 1985.      Although it was obvious that Molly would 17star – following her two previous John Hughes outings – he kept her in line by seeing Shields, Justine Bateman, Jennifer Beals, Jodie Foster, Diane Lane, Lori Loughlin, Tatum O’Neal and Sarah Jessica Parker. Hughes hated his ending (as much as Molly loathed the dress) and rewrote it for another teen triangle, Some Kind of Wonderful, 1986. Ringwald refused to play it again. “I can’t be 16 forever!” Hughes was furious and never worked with her again.

  22. Kelly McGillis, Top Gun, 1985.   In the script, instructor Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood at the elite USNavy flying school was a bimbob called Kirsten Lindstrom. No, no and no, said Paramount boss Dawn Steel. “Make her a real woman – and intelligent – or I won’t sanction the movie.”  The writers  didn’t have to look far for inspiration. They based Charlie on a civvy flying  instructor, Christine Fox, they met during reseach at San Diego’s Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. First in the frame were: Shields, Carrie Fisher, Jodie Foster, Linda Hamilton, Darryl Hannah, Diane Lane, Tatum O’NeaL, Sarah Jessica Parker. And, of course, Debra Winger, from  the movie’s obvious inspiration – Officer and Gentleman!  Linda Fiorentino refused the film which she saw as a glorification of war. Anyway, the suits preferred an unknown and were bowled over by McGillis in Witness.  (She’d got on better with Harrtson Ford  in that film than Cruise in this). Fox did better than any of them, retiring  in 2014 when Acting Deputy Secretary of Defense, the highest post achieved  by  woman  at the US Defense Department. Where’s her film?
  23. Carrie Fisher, House, 1985.      Director Steve Miner asked her to play April in his (literal) horror about a man and his zombies. No way – far too busy studying at Princeton.
  24. Carrie Fisher, Hannah and Her Sisters,  1985.  Shields  was shortlisted for April. Of course, As we’ve seen, she was shortlisted for most everything in the 80s. But she was studying at Princeton.
  25. Winona Ryder, Beetlejuice, 1987.   Finding Betelgeuse was easier for director Tim Burton than  unearthing Lydia.   He saw  Shields, Justine Batman, Jennifer Connelly, Diane Lane, Juliette Lewis, Lori Loughlin, Sarah Jessica Parker, Molly Ringwald. And fell for Winona. Didn’t we all. She was sweet 17 at the time.
  26. Elisabeth Shue, Adventures in Babysitting, 1986.     Back in the 60s, teenage babysitter Chris Parker was set for Jane Fonda. By the 80s, her logical heir, her niece Bridget, was just not intersted. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was signed, followed by Jodie Foster, then it became a battle between Kathleen Turner (the fourth #1 choice), Shields, Justine Bateman, Valerie Bertinelli, Judy Davis, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Andie MacDowell, Kelly McGillis (spurned by director Christopher Columbus), Tatum O’Neal (who simply fled), Michelle Pfeiffer (preferring The Witches of Eastwick.. until she made it!) and Sharon Stone.

  27. Jodie Foster, The Accused, 1988.   
    Awful thing to say. Except it is true. Jodie Foster would never have won her (first) Oscar for this trenchant drama – if actress Kelly McGillis had not been raped in 1982… At first, the role of the rape victim Sarah Tobias was written for Andie MacDowell. She passed. The Paramount suits then saw 34 other young actresses for the (real life) victim. Or, for their own rape bait fantasies – including 16-year-old Alyssa Milano! Foster was refused a test because she was “not sexy enough”! And, anyway, the studio had decided upon McGillis, a high flyer in  Paramount’s Witness and Top Gun. And, naturally, she refused point-blank! She knew what it was to be brutally raped and Kelly had no wish to revisit the horror and agony of her own assault six years earlier. The suits were annoyed. They needed her. She was hot at the box-office, their box-office. They had made her a star!! Eventually, McGillis agreed to play Sarah’s defence attorney – on condition that unsexy Jodie played Sarah! The suits caved, tested Foster and the rest is Oscar history… So is the huge list of talent also seen for Sarah.   Starting with the Fatal Attraction also-rans: Rosanna Arquette, Ellen Barkin, Kim Basinger, Jennifer Beals, Jennifer Grey, Melanie Griffith, Linda Hamilton, Darryl Hannah, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Diane Keaton, Demi Moore, Kelly Preston, Meg Ryan, Jane Seymour, Sharon Stone, Meryl Streep, Debra Winger.   And moving on to the younger Shields, Melissa Sue Anderson (trying to break her Little House on the Prairie image), Justine Bateman, Valerie Bertinelli, Phoebe Cates, Jennifer Connelly, Joan Cusack, Judy Davis, Kristin Davis, Bridget Fonda, Annabeth Gish, Mariel Hemingway, Kelly LeBrock, Virginia Madsen, Brigitte Nielsen, Tatum O’Neal, Molly Ringwald, Mia Sara, Ally Sheedy,  Uma Thurman.  Oh, and Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, said the suits, was “too nice.” Rape victims shouldn’t be nice? Oh, Hollywood!

  28. Carré Otis, Wild Orchid, 1989.   “My only regret.” And why? ” The script was very nude and I won’t be naked in films. So, I refused.” Zalman King had great difficulty finding actresses for his approach to erotica. “I’d never cajole or manipulate anyone into doing something they’re uncomfortable with. ”So Mickey Rourke did it with his girlfriend. (Or rather, she swears they didn’t!). 
  29. Melanie Griffith, Working Girl, 1988.   Wizard director Mike Nichols’ potential Tess McGills for what could be termed his female-Graduate included Diane Lane, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brooke Shields,  Meryl Streep….and Lorraine Bracco thought she delivered a first-rate audition. She was devastated, she wrote in her memoir, not to have been given the role.
  30. Nicole Kidman, Days of Thunder, 1989.       Dr Claire Lewicki was aimed at all the usual misses. Shields, Kim Basinger, Sandra Bullock, Jodie Foster, Heather Locklear, Madonna, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Ally Sheedy, Sharon Stone, Robin Wright. And a newcomer to such rosters: the Irish Alison Doody. They all passed what was a formulaic Tom Cruise movie – ie, all about Cruise as a cocky young talent, with an older mentor, older (even taller) woman, and surpassing his enemies… literally, in this chapter, as a Daytona NASCAR driver. He chose Kidman, after seeing Dead Calm, and promptly married her. And she learned about superstar formulas. When she begged time to study neurosurgery for her surgeon’s role, she was told, basically, not to be so silly.   
  31. Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman, 1989.

  32. Judith Hoag, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1989.     For the first live- action Turtle trot, the innovative director of music videos Steve Barron saw many a potential April O’Neill: Shields, Jennifer Beals, Lorraine Bracco, Sandra Bullock, Melanie Griffith, Anna Kendrick, Nicole Kidman, Marisa Tomei, Sean Young.   TMNT legend states the winning Hoag lost the sequels because she had complained so much the violence – and the six-day shooting schedule.
  33. Michelle Pfeiffer, The Fabulous Baker Boys, 1989.    After Debra Winger fled, Shields, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Madonna  – were up for Susie the chanteuse.  None of them – especially Madonna, who found the script ”too mushy” – could equal the heat of Pfeiffer’s Making Whoopee rendition atop a piano. Only took six hours to shoot!
  34. Juliette Lewis, Cape Fear, 1991.    Too old at 26 but mong the many- the very many – Christina Applegate, Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Connelly, Shannen Doherty, Nicole Eggeret, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Helen Hunt, Nicole Kidman, Diane Lane, Jennifer JasonLeigh, Alyssa Milano, Demi Moore, Sarah Jessica Parker,Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Tiffani Thiessen, Reese Witherspoon – consideredby Steven Spielberg and, later, Martin Scorsese fortheteen daughter of Nick Nolte and Jessica Lange: Danielle Bowden. (Nicole in the 1962 original). Some found it too sexy and, indeed, Brooke could never have equalled the on-heat musk of Juliette’s totally improvised – and one take – seduction scene with Robert De Niro.

  35. Geena Davis, A League of Their Own, 1991.  
    “There’s no crying in baseball…” Long-time ball fan, director Penny Marshall had never heard of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League (1943-1954) until seeing a 1987 PBS documentary. She swiftly contacted the makers to join her Hollywood writers to use their title for a fictional comedy-drama version.  Penny staged baseball tests for about 2,000 actresses – if you can’t play ball, you can’t play the Rockford Peaches!  Geena Davis, Rosie O’Donnell, Lori Petty were best; those turned down included Farrah Fawcett, Lori Singer, Marisa Tomei and Maria Maples (before becoming the second Mrs Donald Trump).  Jim Belushi and Laura Dern were set to star in 1990 when Fox suddenly pulled the plug; Tom Hanks and Geena took over at Columbia.  Also on the plate for the star player Dottie Hinson were Sally Field, Nicole Kidman, Kelly McGillis, Demi Moore, Ally Sheedy, Brooke Shields, Debra Winger and Sean Young.

  36. Rene Russo, Lethal Weapon 3, 1991.  For a lively addition to the fast-tiring franchise, director Richard Donner leafed through Kirstie Alley, Joan Cusack, Geena Davis, Laura Dern, Jodie Foster, Linda Hamilton, Michelle Pfeiffer, Brooke Shields… and a “too young” Winona Ryder -to be Lorna Cole, an Internal Affairs cop who, after a few suspicions, becomes the partner of Riggs and Murtaugh duo, aka Mel Gibson and Danny Glover. And she survived into #4.   Carrie Fisher was the #3 script doctor but Lorna’s best line – “Close is a lingerie shop without a front window” – was a Russo  ad lib.

  37. Leilani Sarelle, Basic Instinct, 1992.    

  38. Patricia Arquette, True Romance,1992.  “I’m not a whore. I’m a call-girl. There’s a difference, you know!” Quentin Tarantino created Alabama for Joan Cusack. UK director Tony Scott preferred Drew Barrymore, fully booked at the time.  So Shields, Bridget Fonda, Diane Lane, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Juliette Lewis Julia Roberts, Kyra Sedgwick and (inevitably) Uma Thurman were tipped for the girl…  with the name, said QT, sounding like a Pam Grier role! Except she was named Jackie Brownwhen he directed her in 1997.In Tarantino’s first ending, Clarence was killed and Alabama would turn to crime with Mr. White – he’s asked about her during Reservoir Dogs, 1991.  
  39. Sandra Bullock, Speed, 1993.       Although sharing the heroics and the driving of the bus-bomb with Keanu Reeves, most girls saw it as The Guy’s film. An amazing 36 refused to be Annie:  Brooke, Rosanna Arquette, Kim Basinger, Halle Berry, Glenn Close (!), Geena Davis, Cameron Diaz, Carrie Fisher, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Daryl Hannah, Mariska Hargitay, Barbara Hershey, Anjelica Huston, Diane Lane, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Kay Lenz, Alyssa Milano, Demi Moore, Tatum O’Neal, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Jane Seymour, Ally Sheedy,  Meryl Streep (!), Emma Thompson (!), Meg Tilly, Marisa Tomei, Kathleen Turner, Sigourney Weaver and Debra Winger.   
  40. Andie MacDowell, Four Weddings And A Funeral, 1994.      Previously known as: True Love and Near Misses, Loitering in Sacred Places, Rolling in the Aisles and Skulking Around.   Obviously, Shields (Phoebe Cates, Melanie Griffith, Sarah Jessica Parker, Marisa Tomei, Jeanne Tripplehorn) had no sense of humour. Or not when learning that Andie’s cut of the action came to $2m.

  41. Nicole Kidman, To Die For, 1994.    Most bright sparks agreed this was a role to die for… Including Shields, Patricia Arquette, Jennifer Connelly, Joan Cusack, Bridget Fonda, Jodie Foster, Melanie Griffith, Darryl Hannah, Holly Hunter, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tatum O’Neal, Mary-Louise Parker, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer, Uma Thurman. However, Meg Ryan (passing up $5m) and Debra Winger simply refused… and Kidman persuaded director Gus Van Sant that she was his destiny.
  42. Courteney Cox, Scream, 1996.   First, Janeane Garofalo, then Shields, backed away from TV reporter Gale Weathers asking… “How does it feel to almost be the victim of a slasher?”
  43. Ashley Judd, Double Jeopardy, 1999.     Libby is framed for her husband’s murder (if he’s really dead) but Shields, Jodie Foster, Michelle Pfeiffer and Meg Ryan all passed. (What? He was Bruce Greenwood. And yes, of course, he wasn’t…).
  44. Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man,  2001.
  45. Diane Lane, Unfaithful, 2001.   For his passionate US update of Madame Bovary (well, Claude Chabrol’s La femme infidèle, 1969)  (same thing) UK director Adrian Lyne saw six potential husbands, three lovers… And as many as 15 cheating wives: Lane, Shields, Josie Davis, Kristin Davis, Portia de Rossi, Jodie Foster, Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Jennifer Lopez, Alyssa Milano, Meg Ryan, Kyra Sedgwick, Tori Spelling, Hilary Swank, Kate Winslet.  

  46. Nicole Kidman, Bewitched, 2004.   
    For inexplicable reasons, Hollywood kept trying to make a movie out of the  1968-1972 ABC sitcom about a good-looking witch and a Dagwood husband.  In 1993, Penny Marshall was going to direct Meryl Streep as Samantha, then passed the reins to Ted Bissell and he died in 1996 when his Richard Curtis script was planned as Melanie Griffths’ comeback.  Nora Ephron co-wrote and directed this lumbering version about an ego-driven actor trying to save his career with a Bewitched re-hash, but with the emphasis on him (of course) as Darrin, rather than the unknown he chose for Samatha because she can wiggle her nose…  (You didn’t need a nose to know it stank).  Over the years, 37 other ladies were on the Samantha wish-list. Take a deep breath… Kate Beckinsale, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Connelly, Cameron Diaz, Heather Graham, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Angelina Jolie, Ashley Judd, Julianne Moore, Gwyneth Paltrow, Michelle Pfeiffer, Molly Ringwald, Meg Ryan, Winona Ryder, Brooke Shields, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Renee Zellweger.  Plus seven Oscar-winners:  Kim Basinger, Tatum O’Neal, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon… twoFriends: Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow…eleven other TV stars: Christina Applegate, Patricia Arquette, Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Helen Hunt, Jenny McCarthy, Alyssa Milano, Brittany Murphy, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alicia Silverstone… even  Drew Barrymore and Uma Thurman, who had already re-kindled Charlie’s Angels and The Avengers.

  47. Sarah Jessica Parker, Failure To Launch, 2005.    Like Tori Spelling (!) and Reese Witherspoon, Brooke refused to be Paula, the interventionist in Matthew McConaughey’s life in are-mould(y) of the 2001 French hit, Tanguy... about getting 30-something sons to move outof their parents’ home.
  48. Katherine Heigl, Knocked Up, , 2006.
  49. Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns, 2017.   When Walt Disney made the first Poppins, he mused over Bette Davis, Angela Lansbury or Mary Martin for Mary but by 1963, he had only one star in mind. Julie Andrews.  For this reboot, Disney suits went through no less than 37 contenders… Two Desperate Housewives:Kristin Davis, Teri Hatcher. Two Friends:Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow. Two Brat Packers: Molly Ringwald, Winona Ryder.  Two of the three authors of The Penis Song: Christina Aplegate, Cameron Diaz. Three sirens: Kim Basinger, Heather Graham Uma Thurman. Four ex-child stars: Drew Barrymore, Alyssa Milano, Tatum O’Neal, Brooke Shields. Ten Oscar-winners: Sandra Bullock, Helen Hunt, Angelina Jolie, Julianne Moore, Tatum O‘Neal, Julia Roberts, Hilary Swank, Charlize Theron, Reese Witherspoon, RenéeZellweger. Plus: Patricia Arquette, Melanie Griffith, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Peiffer, Meg Ryan, Alicia Silverstone, Naomi Watts. But just two Brits: Kate Beckinsale  – and the winning Emily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  49