More about Mrs. Morrissey

First off, in case you didn't see this in the shoutbox, LTC has kindly alerted us to this profile of George Clooney at Entertainment Weekly. Clooney attempts to explain why Jennifer Ehle's role was cut from Michael Clayton:

Clooney's divorced ''fixer'' character originally had a girlfriend. ''We shot it with Jennifer Ehle — she gave a wonderful performance,'' says Clooney. ''And the more we did it, we realized you have to isolate this character more. And having a girlfriend, he's not in as much trouble.'' Clooney wrote Ehle a note to apologize: ''I didn't cut it, but I still feel bad about it.''

More entries about The Russell Girl can be found floating around the blogosphere:

• Jackie found herself dissolved in tears for most of the movie and was a victim of the she-must-be-Meryl-Streep's-daughter phenomenon.
• Matt wrote a thorough review and thought that Lorraine was "well played by Jennifer Ehle."
• Marilyn thought the movie was "pretty good," but didn't care for Ms. Ehle's character, Lorraine.
• Herbie claimed that The Russell Girl restored his faith in television and that Jennifer Ehle and Henry Czerny gave "solid parental performances." (He too fell victim to the aforementioned phenomenon).
• As the voice of opposition, Tivo Lady thought the movie was too "sappy."
• In case you're interested, some of the folks at IMDb have been chewing the fat about The Russell Girl. And, please feel free to post any of your thoughts about the movie at our forum, where there is a separate thread entitled "That Russell Girl."

Here's another review of The Russell Girl from the Boston Globe (albeit a negative one) that we missed earlier.

Just a few more (slightly peripheral) items to add:

• The George Street Playhouse blog has a new entry about Rosemary Harris and her play, Oscar and the Pink Lady, which will run until Feb 10. (Only one more week left; get there if you can!)
• NJGUY has suggested a possible mother-daughter project for Ms. Ehle and Ms. Harris, which has fueled some discussion over at All That Chat.
• The Soundtrack Geek blog mentions Mark Isham, the composer for Pride and Glory, and says, "Now the question is whether it is a 2008 movie anymore as LA Times reported that it had been decided for a 2009 release date." That is the question indeed.
• According to Playbill, Richard Easton was on XM Radio's "Downstage Center" yesterday evening. The interview will soon be available online at the American Theater Wing's website.
• Finally, Bridget Byrne of the Associated Press discusses Masterpiece Theater's Jane Austen mania. This Sunday (Feb 3), they'll be taking a break from the works of Ms. Austen in order to talk about the lady herself in the new semi-documentary "Miss Austen Regrets." PBS.org describes it as such:

  [...] Based on the life and letters of Jane Austen, Miss Austen Regrets tells the story of the novelist's final years, examining why, despite setting the standard for romantic fiction, she died having never married or met her own Mr. Darcy.

  You can watch a preview of the show at PBS.org. (Remember that next Sunday is...drum roll please...Pride and Prejudice!)