Per Variety, Reese Witherspoon is likely to star in a remake of Bunny Lake Is Missing, a 1965 Otto Preminger thriller about a woman whose daughter goes missing, yet perhaps never existed. Um, Flightplan? That Julianne Moore thing?... Brittany Snow has landed the lead in Finding Amanda, an indie in which a TV exec (Matthew Broderick) tries to save his niece from her life as a Vegas hooker and stripper.... Spike Lee will direct L.A. Riots, a drama based in the racially charged events of 1992.... Per the Hollywood Reporter, James Franco, Frances Fisher and Jason Patric have joined the cast of Paul Haggis' new film.... Dennis Quaid plays an NFL coach in The Express, a biopic of Heisman Trophy winner Ernie Davis. All together now: Let's go, Orange!
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How I Met Your Mother has cast Barney's brother, and he will be played by... Wayne Brady. Adoption? Half sibling? "The less we say about it, the funnier it will be," exec producer Carter Bays tells Variety. "We like that 'What the hell?' factor." Thus far, Brady is only booked for a single, Nov. 27 appearance, but the role may become recurring (as has Bryan Cranston's gig as Ted's boss).... Per the Hollywood Reporter, Frances Fisher (Titanic) and Ivan Sergei (Charmed) have joined the cast of the USA Network pilot To Love and Die in L.A., respectively playing the mother and love interest of Shiri Appleby's daughter-of-an-assassin.
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Talk about a letdown. Sissy Spacek sounded so excited about this Thursday's ER, where she was slated to play the long-lost birth mother of Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes). At the last minute, she dropped out due to a "scheduling conflict" and Titanic's Frances Fisher was tapped to replace her. What exactly was Spacek's conflict?
"You know what? I don't feel comfortable talking about it," Innes politely tells TV Guide Online. "I know that it's a family matter with Sissy, and she's very disappointed not to be able to do the show. It's kind of her business. It had nothing to do with the show, it was more a family conflict that she had."
Fair enough. As for ER selecting Fisher to pinch-hit as Weaver's mommy, Innes says, "Frances was always among the people on the list. We felt like she's very right for the role. She's a wonderfu
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In Laws of Attraction (opening Friday), Frances Fisher plays Julianne Moore's hot mama, Sara Miller, who's addicted to plastic surgery, younger men and rock 'n' roll. The 51-year-old actress — so memorable as Kate Winslet's gold-digging mother in Titanic — hopes her vivacious character will have a life beyond Laws.
"I want to do a spinoff of Sara Miller with [Attraction's helmer] Peter Howitt directing," Fisher says excitedly. "That's what we were all talking about when we were on the set. I feel that Sara could be sort of a new way to look at what 50 years old actually is. [It is] not our mothers' 50."
If her dream movie were made, however, she'd tweak Sara's over-the-top character traits to jive with her own personal outlook. "To tell you the truth, I wouldn't advocate plastic surgery and lip parties," she admits. "That was all a big joke. I'd probably want to tame that down a little bit.
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