Cloris Leachman

The beautiful Cloris Leachman appeared in the February 2008 issue of Vanity Fair in a photograph featuring actresses who are in the upcoming movie "The Women." The film is based on Clare Booth Luce's Broadway play which was adapted into a movie in 1939.

Diane English directs the latest version. It will include Jada Pickett Smith, Annette Being, Debra Messing, Candice Bergen, Meg Ryan, Cloris Leachman and Eva Mendes.

Cloris will play the feisty, warmed-hearted housekeeper of the frazzled, betrayed wife Mary Haines who will be played by Meg Ryan.

This will be Cloris's second film with Meg Ryan. In 2000, Cloris played Meg's mom in the film "Hanging Up." They have only one, brief scene together in "Hanging Up," and it is poignant and sad. Cloris will not come to Meg's aid, though Meg's character needs it desperately. It will be interesting to see Cloris and Meg together again in a different kind of film; one in which Cloris's character helps Meg's character, and plays an important part in her transformation.

In addition to "The Women," we'll also soon be able to see Cloris Leachman in the forthcoming comedy "American Cowslip" with Val Kilmer, Diane Ladd, Bruce Dern and Peter Falk.

A few years ago, Cloris Leachman was brilliant in "Spanglish," a fabulous movie. She is one of the hardest working actors in America, with a longer list of credits than practically any other American actor.

I had the privilege of seeing her perform "Twigs" at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort Theatre in 1979. She played three adult sisters and their elderly mother each separately, each in her own kitchen on the same day, Thanksgiving eve. Amazing. Amazing. "Twigs" was made into a film starring Leachman in 1984. VHS copies are now selling for $64. Very hard to find and worth every penny.