Acclaimed Spanish director Pedro Almodovar tells the Hollywood Reporter that he's decided against making La Piel Que Habito his next film; instead, he's going to work on Broken Hugs with Volver leading lady Penelope Cruz.... Britain's Mail reports that although the Sex and the City movie won't be out for months, two sequels are already in the planning stages.... Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen will play Vince Vaughn and Reese Witherspoon's respective moms in Four Christmases. — Ben Katner
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ABC Family has greenlit the TV-movie The Circuit, starring The 4400's Billy Campbell as a stock-car racer whose career is on the decline — to the point that he's now competing on the track against his daughter (Michelle Trachtenberg).... Sissy Spacek, Alfre Woodard and Men in Trees' James Tupper will star in Hallmark Channel's Pictures of Hollis Woods, based on a novel about a 12-year-old girl bounced around the foster-care system.... Judge Lynn Toler and a panel of experts, including psychologist Tara Fields (Intervention), will help couples try to endure relationship rough patches in the reality program Decision House, debuting in September on MyNetworkTV.... CMT's Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders: Making the Team shakes its pom-poms for a second season starting Sept. 14.
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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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Ray Liotta's real-time tour de force as a dying alcoholic defibrillated ER's ailing ratings in November. So it's no shock that the NBC medical drama has lined up more big-name guest stars for February sweeps.
First up, on Feb. 10 is Sissy Spacek, who'll play the long-lost birth mother of Dr. Kerry Weaver (Laura Innes). How did ER land the Oscar-winning actress? "I'm a huge fan of [executive producer] John Wells," Spacek says. "We worked together on [the 2004 indie film] A Home at the End of the World, and since then, he's been sending me ER scripts. This one just spoke to me."
"The show has a pretty solid reputation for actors and if it didn't have that, we would've never had a snowball's chance in hell of getting her," executive producer Dee Johnson says frankly. "As far as I know, [Spacek appears in only] one episode, but it's not like she drives off a cliff at the end, so nothing's impossible."
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