Isn't She Great
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Isn't She Great is a 2000 American biographical film.
A highly fictionalized account of the life and career of best-selling author Jacqueline Susann, the Universal Pictures release focuses on her early struggles as an aspiring actress relentlessly hungry for fame, her relationship with Svengali-like press agent husband Irving Mansfield, with whom she had an institutionalized autistic son, her success as the author of Valley of the Dolls, and her battle with and subsequent death from breast cancer.
Paul Rudnick's screenplay, based on a 1995 New Yorker profile by Michael Korda, was directed by Andrew Bergman. The cast includes Bette Midler as Susann, Nathan Lane as Mansfield, Stockard Channing as Susann's gal pal Florence Maybelle, David Hyde Pierce as book editor Michael Hastings, and John Cleese as publisher Henry Marcus, with John Larroquette, Amanda Peet, Christopher McDonald, Debbie Shapiro, and Paul Benedict in supporting roles.
Midler's nomination for a Worst Actress Golden Raspberry Award sums up the overall quality of the film. Opening in 750 US theatres on January 28, 2000, it was assaulted by the critics and avoided by the public, and domestically earned only $2,954,405 at the box office, far less than its cost of $36 million [1]. It is littered with scenes that make no sense - early in their marriage, the financially-strapped couple lives in a large, exquisitely-decorated Manhattan apartment and regularly has breakfast delivered from expensive eateries; at one point, Mansfield separates from his wife with no explanation whatsoever - or strain credulity - Susann frequently is seen in Central Park communicating with God via her favorite tree. Rudnick portrays the author as a loud, brash, vulgar, illiterate woman whose conversation is peppered with obscenities, and his supporting players are little more than stock characters - Maybelle appears to be a composite of several real-life opinionated actresses, and Hastings is stereotypically prim and prissy.
The film has been released on DVD.
