Last fall, scribegrrrl assessed some of the most bizarre casting news ever, Drew Barrymore as Little Edie in Grey Gardens. That's the documentary-turned-musical about the relatives of Jackie Kennedy whose lives, dreams, and house decay in one of the most truly uncomfortable things I've ever seen. I wholeheartedly agree: I don't see Barrymore — whose on-screen presence is brilliantly suited for cutesy-romantic and cutesy-badass roles — playing Edith Beale without coming across as, well, just cutesy. For those of you who aren't familiar with the crazy-making documentary-turned-musical, here's some perspective.

In a more comprehensible choice, Jessica Lange, you might recall, is playing the mother. Personally, I'm still trying to understand why we need a dramatized version at all, when you can just rent the documentary. (That is, if you feel like being depressed. Or are depressed, and want to make yourself feel better by comparison.)

But Barrymore and Vogue have been working to convince the skeptics that she's up for it and, in fact, grown-up enough for it. Among other revelations, director Michael Sucsy recounts how Barrymore hunted him down, making her case accompanied by an inches-thick binder of her personal Little Edie collection. I do understand the fascination with Edie, a S-T-A-U-N-C-H woman:

For her part, in the interview Barrymore discusses the process of the film, from makeup to accent to mental readiness. Since Edie has about two decades on Drew, it took five hours of makeup, wigs, and prosthetics to transform her. She also signed on for months of dialect coaching to master the speech cadences of a Long Island debutant from the 1930s. This, she says, was the hardest part for a Valley Girl: "In those days, there were no R's. I talk out of the side of my mouth, and she talks from the back of her throat. It's really a different language." … continue reading

Ah, the chick flick. Much maligned. Often contrived. And, every now and then, downright satisfying. To be perfectly honest, I like a good chick flick — emphasis on good, of course. For me, the appeal is built right into the name. Chick: Well, I am one, and I like them. Flick: Well, movies; who doesn’t love movies? Two upcoming releases seek to find just the right chocolate-and-peanut-butter formula that results in the good kind of chick flick we all love to watch on lazy Sunday afternoons when we should be paying bills or regrouting the tub.

Both also fall into what is usually my favorite of the chick flick subgenres: the female bonding movie. Sure, romantic comedies are the more popular subgenre, but you just get more estrogen for your buck with bonding pictures. The films are Bonneville (opening Feb. 29 limited and March 21 wide) and The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 (opening Aug. 8).

Bonneville, which stars 50-somethings Jessica Lange, Joan Allen, Kathy Bates and Christine Baranski, centers on a cross-country road trip taken by three friends when one of their husbands dies. The trip is done in — you guessed it — a big old convertible Pontiac Bonneville.

Is anyone else getting a decidedly Thelma & Louise feel from that photo? I just hope it doesn’t end the same way. Though, from the trailer, it looks like the ladies have their automotive high jinks in the Utah salt flats, not the Grand Canyon. … continue reading

More than once, we bloggers have lamented, or at least pondered, the phenomenon of musicals being made into movies and vice versa. Hairspray has seemed like the weirdest possible example, going as it did from campy film to cheerful stage musical to downright-ecstatic-and-still-campy movie musical. And then there's the film version of Mamma Mia!, which could be terrible, Meryl Streep notwithstanding. But yesterday, I saw some even crazier movie-to-musical-to-movie casting news.

Here it is: Drew Barrymore has been cast as Edie Bouvier Beale in HBO's adaptation of the bizarro documentary-turned-musical Grey Gardens.

Jessica Lange will play Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (the mother of Barrymore's character).

If you haven't seen the documentary or the Broadway musical, here's the usual summation: A mother and daughter — who just happen to be Jackie Kennedy's aunt and cousin — let their lives and their house go to ruin, invoking the ire of the local authorities and the shame of their famous family. A better way to summarize it is to tell you that Jenny Schecter once professed her deep love for the documentary. … continue reading