Soapdish

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Soapdish
Directed by	Michael Hoffman
Produced by	Alan Greisman Aaron Spelling
Written by	Robert Harling Andrew Bergman
Starring	Sally Field Kevin Kline Elisabeth Shue Robert Downey Jr. Whoopi Goldberg Cathy Moriarty
Music by	Alan Silvestri
Cinematography	Ueli Steiger
Editing by	Garth Craven
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	1991
Running time	93 mins
Language	English
IMDb profile

Soapdish is a 1991 comedy film which tells a backstage story of the cast and crew of a popular television soap opera.

It was directed by Michael Hoffman, from a screenplay by Robert Harling and Andrew Bergman.

The central character, a vain aging actress, was played by Sally Field. Also in the cast were Kevin Kline, Robert Downey Jr., Elisabeth Shue, Cathy Moriarty, Whoopi Goldberg, Garry Marshall, Teri Hatcher, Kathy Najimy and Carrie Fisher.

Kevin Kline was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.

[edit] Plot

Soapdish was produced by Sally Field's then husband Alan Greisman. Field stars as Celeste Talbert, the long-time star of a popular daytime drama The Sun Also Sets. Her pal is the show's writer Rose Schwartz, played by Whoopi Goldberg. The show's producer, David Seaton Barnes, is played by Robert Downey, Jr. Supporting player and bombshell Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty) connives to replace Celeste Talbert as the lead. Toward that end, she promises sexual favors to the producer. Meanwhile, twenty years before, Talbert had a falling out with fellow actor and boyfriend Jeffrey Anderson (Kevin Kline) who was discharged at Talbert's request. He is shown reduced to playing roles such as Willy Loman before a crowd of clueless elderly people in a Florida dinner theater. Talbert's niece, Lori Craven (Elizabeth Shue) wrangles a role on the The Sun Also Sets as a destitute deaf mute. The two meet on the set playing a scene where Talbert serves soup to a queue of homeless people. Anderson is called back to the show under dubious circumstances (his character had been decapitated in a motor wreck), to needle Talbert. He and Craven spark up a relationship which Talbert unaccountably finds offensive. It turns out Craven is her daughter by Anderson, not her niece. The ensuing fallout leads to each of the three actors: Talbert, Craven and Anderson, to demand "They go or I go." In a climactic conclusion, the actors head into an episode aired live where they must read their lines from a telepromptor. Craven's character is set to die because of Brain Fever. The actors begin to ad-lib when Nurse Nan arrives and suggests a brain transplant. Talbert's character chooses to save Craven's via the proposed brain transplant. Craven's character speaks at the last minute and requests Talbert not leave the show. Craven chooses to allow Talbert and Anderson be her parents in more than biology. A Dr. Frans Brow, played by Shwartz, from the sex change clinic in Maryland arrives and dictates that Nurse Nan was formerly Milton Morehead of Long Island. The film ends with Craven, Talbert and Anderson winning daytime soap awards; and Milton Moorehead performing Death of a Salesman at the same dinner theater diner Anderson was at at the beginning of the film.

The film is a send up of the silly plots and characters on daytime dramas and of backstage shenanigans.

[edit] Controversy

This film was the source of controversy in the New York City daytime television community in late 1989 and early 1990. Memos were distributed which forbade cast and crew of these shows to talk to producers of SOAPDISH^{[citation needed]}. Naturally, the film's main character is a slanted take on daytime favorite Susan Lucci of ALL MY CHILDREN. Ms. Lucci's personal life is nothing like that of Celeste, but her professional struggles are not dissimilar.

The large photos of THE SUN ALSO SETS' stars in the studio lobby are very similar to the large photos of ALL MY CHILDREN stars in their lobby on West 66th Street in New York City. There has been much wrangling over whose picture is placed where, since it does convey some status^{[citation needed]}.

SOAPDISH held a special premiere for the NYC daytime television community in June 1991. Many daytime celebrities attended the premiere, including Cady McClain, then starring on ALL MY CHILDREN. She later voiced her displeasure over the film stating, "They made us all look like a bunch of idiots."

[edit] External links

• Soapdish at IMDb