Stockard Channing

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors
  1. Margot Kidder, Superman, 1977.
  2. Glenn Close, Fatal Attraction, 1987.
  3. Kelly McGillis, The Accused, 1988.   Paramount suits saw 40 young actresses for the (real life) gang rape victim.  Or,their own rape bait fantasies… such as 16-year-old Alyssa Milano!   And a further 28 for her defence attorney. Including the Fatal Attraction also-rans (from Beverly to Debra Winger, by way of Diane Keaton and, naturally, Meryl Streep) plus Blythe Danner, Sally Field, Terri Garr,Mary Gross, Dianne Wiest.   A 1982 rape victim herself, McGillis refused Jodie Foster’s Oscar-winning role, but asked to play her lawyer.
  4. Catherine O’Hara, Home Alone, 1990.   An astonishing 37 stars (Harrison Ford, Jack Nicholson, Jessica Lange, Michelle Pfeiffer, etc) were considered for the forgetful parents – nothing roles in a film written for and duly stolen by the stranded kid, Macauley Culkin.  Sir Ian McKellan worked with Channing in Six Degrees of Separation in 1993. “Stockard is what Tallulah Bankhead must have been like: wonderful, idiosyncratic voice and a wry sense of humour, with inner strength and swagger. I adore her!”
  5. Sharon Stone, Basic Instinct, 1991.
  6. Catherine O’Hara, Home Alone, 1990.  For the zero roles of Macauley Culkin’s forgetful parents (in a film written for and duly stolen by him), an astonishing 66 stars were considered – including 32 later seen for the hot lovers in Basic Instinct:Kim Basinger, Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Kevin Costner, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Douglas, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Linda Hamilton, Daryl Hannah, Marilu Henner, Anjelica Huston, Helen Hunt, Holly Hunter, Diane Keaton, Jessica Lange, Christopher Lloyd, Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Annie Potts, Kelly Preston, Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, Martin Sheen, Sylvester Stallone, Sharon Stone, John Travolta.   Other near Moms were Kirstie Alley, Lynda Carter, Kim Cattrall, Geena Davis, Laura Dern, Jennifer Grey, Gates McFadden, Kelly McGillis, Bette Midler, Ally Sheedy, Mary Steenburgen, Debra Winger… and the inevitable unknown: Maureen McCormick,  part of The Brady Bunch for seven 1981 chapters.
  7. Glenn Close, Mars Attacks! 1998.    For the Tim Burton jape that failed to ignite, Meryl Streep was also talked of for President Jack Nicholson’s First Lady.  Close didn’t help. Too many stars. Not enough satire.  Ironically, the following year, Channing became Martin Sheen’s First Lady for 69 episodes of The West Wing  series, 1999-2006.

 

 

 

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