- Robin Wright (Penn), The Princess Bride, 1986. Apart from the future star of TV’s Beverly Hills, 90210, director Rob Reiner thumbed through a veritable little black book of Hollywood’s new young hotties! Suzy Amis, Valerie Bertinelli, Yasmine Bleeth, Phoebe Cates, Courteney Cox, Kim Delaney, Rebecca de Mornay, Cathryn de Prume, Sherilyn Fenn, Jennifer Grey, Anne Heche, Marg Helgenberger, Lauren Holly, Patsy Kensit, Juliette Lewis, Carey Lowell, Kelly Lynch, Virginia Madsen, Mary Stuart Masterson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Alexandra Paul,, Amanda Pays, Meg Ryan, Mia Sara, Greta Scacchi, Annabella Sciorra, Kyra Sedgwick, Catherine Mary Stewart, Brenda Strong, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Uma Thurman, Meg Tilly, Charlene Tilton, Nancy Travis, Amy Yasbeck, Sean Young.
- Jenni Garth, Beverly Hills 90210, TV, 1990-2000. What happens when you’re the producer Aaron Spelling’s daughter? You have your pick of the roles, right? Wrong. She auditioned (with others) for the promiscuous Kelly Taylor. And was given the exact opposite: Donna Martin, saying I don’tuntl after the I dos. Of course, maybe Aaron didn’t want Tori playing a bit of a nymopho.
- Neve Campbell, Scream, 1996. In the heroine mix for Wes Craven’s quirky new horror franchise: Drew Barrymore (who preferred to die early like Janet Leighj in Psycho), Melinda Clarke, Melissa Joan Hart, AJ Langer, Melanie Lynskey, Brittany Murphy, Molly Ringwald (“I’m too old!” – at 28), Reese Witherspoon (refused), Alicia Witt. Oh, yes, and Spelling… During Kevin Williamson’s “hottest script of the year,” the horror fans in the horror film muse on who should play their roles. Dewey sees Sidney as a young Meg Ryan and Neve Campbell’s Sid retorts: “With my luck, it would be Tori Spelling.”
- Bonnie Hunt, Jerry Maguire, 1996. Once Tom Hanks passed and Tom Cruise breathed a sigh of relief, auteurCameron Crowe started searching for the girls: Dorothy Boyd (“You had me at Hello…”)and her older sister. The Avery candidates included Jennifer Connelly, Diane Lane, Alyssa Milano, Meg Ryan and – oh, no!– Tori Spelling!! Fortunately, she was tied up with her (well, her father Aaron Spelling’s) series, Beverly Hills 90210, 1990-2000. Hunt said the hardest part of the role was being someone who did not like Tom Cruise… even after he admitted he had no memory of her being in Rain Man with him!
- Charlize Theron, The Cider House Rules, 1999. Author John Irving went through four directors before settling on the Swedish Lasse Hallström to handle what Roger Ebert called a David Copperfieldish story (or, indeed, stories). For Candy, the girl who brings abortion into the equation, Hallström also studied Spelling and Ly Tyler. Tori felt she’d lose to Liv. “I look at Liv Tyler and think, ‘It’s not fair,’ because I can’t find a flaw on her. And on top of that she seems nice, so it’s really not fair.”
- Kate Hudson, Almost Famous, 2000. Looking for his Penny Lane groupie in his semi-autobiographical look back to his Rolling Stone reporter daze, auteur Cameron Crowe saw 48 of LA’s bright young things… Christina Applegate, Selma Blair, Lara Flynn Boyle, Neve Campbell, Jennifer Connelly, Claire Danes, Cameron Diaz, Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jenna Elfman, Jennie Garth, Maggie Gyllenhal, Alyson Hannigan, Angie Harmon, Anne Heche, Katherine Heigl, Jordan Ladd, Kimberly McCullough (busier as a TV director these days, High School Musical: The Musical – The Series, etc), Rose McGowan, Bridget Moynahan, Brittany Murphy, Gwyneth Paltrow, Laura Prepon, Lindsay Price, Christina Ricci, Rebecca Romijn, Winona Ryder, Chloë Sevigny, Marley Shelton, Tori Spelling, Mena Suvari, Uma Thurman, Liv Tyler, Lark Voorhies. Plus the English Saffron Burrows, Anna Friel, Thandiwe Newton and Rachel Weisz, Madrid’s Penélope Cruz, the French Charlotte Gainsbourg, Canada’s Natasha Henstridge, Ukrainian Milla Jovovich, Scottish Kelly Macdonald, Israeli Natalie Portman, German Franka Potente, Australian Peta Wilson and Welsh Catherine Zeta-Jones. And the winner, Canada’s Sarah Polley, simply split. (Silly girl). Crowe then chose Kate (previously booked for Anita) because “she seemed more like a free spirit.” But, but, but… Chloë was the freest spirit in all Hollywood. As she proved two years later in The Brown Bunny… in a way the others would never have dared.
- Reese Witherspoon, Legally Blonde, 2001. The TV titan’s TV actress daughter was in the frame… until Reese entered the radar. She made Elle Woods her very own. Good enough for a sequel, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, 2003. Only in the first, did Reese’s Elle reveal she grew up in Bel Air opposite the house of tele-tycoon Aaron Spelling… Tori’s dad!
- Kirsten Dunst, Spider-Man, 2001.
- Renée Zellweger, Chicago, 2001.
- Sarah Jessica Parker, Failure To Launch, 2005. Although offered few (cinema) movies, Spelling refused to be Paula, the interventionist in Matthew McConaughey’s life in a re-mould(y) of the 2001 French hit, Tanguy. So did Brooke Shields and Reese Witherspoon.
Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls: 10