2006 News & Updates
July 24, 2006
Jessica Returns to the London Stage
Jessica Lange is no stranger to the London stage, having played both Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey into Night," Subject to signing, she will return to London in October to play Madame Ranyevskaya, the woman surrounded by her family and its (mis)fortunes who is forced to sell the family estate in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." Produced by Howard Panter at the Ambassadors Theater Group, the show is then scheduled to cross over to Broadway.
May 20, 2006
Stars Sophia Loren and Jessica Lange in plea for Russian orphans
MOSCOW (AFP) -
"Nationwide, tremendous work has to be done for children, specifically for HIV positive children," said Hollywood star Lange, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nation's children's agency UNICEF.
"They are stigmatized," she told a press conference. "They have no possibility of being adopted, or to have equal education." She and veteran Italian star Loren are here for a ceremony Sunday to award the Heart of Gold prize for charity works.
"If I can do something for those in need, I'm always ready to do so," Loren told journalists. Money raised at the Heart of Gold ceremony and at a reception for Moscow's new money elite will go to help children in need of heart and brain operations. Lange, who spent the last week visiting orphanages and centres for handicapped and HIV-positive children, said she was impressed by staff caring for orphans and sick children in centres supported by UNICEF.
The two stars, together with Hollywood actor Steven Seagal, were also scheduled Sunday to visit Moscow's Bakulev cardiac surgery unit, and distribute toys among sick children.
A 30-strong demonstration was held in the centre of Moscow on Friday in protest against the feared closure of an orphanage set up with funds provided by the jailed Russian multi-millionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose assets have been seized.
Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man as head of the country's former leading oil producer Yukos, is serving eight years for embezzlement, massive fraud and tax evasion. "The war by the state against Khodorkovsky is smashing the lives of orphaned children," one protest banner read.
Others denounced the alleged role of President Vladimir Putin in the prosecution of Khodorkovsky, saying: "Putin, you're fighting children, not an oligarch."
Oligarch was the term used to describe members of the new business class who surfaced after the collapse of the Soviet Union and made quick fortunes from dubious privatizations in the 1990s.
Critics said the Khodorkovsky prosecution was a Krmelin-inspired move to regain state control over Yukos and curb its owner's political ambitions.
This month the Moscow prosecutor seized property at Koralovo near Moscow where Khodorkovsky set up a school in 1994. The seizure raised fears of the establishment being closed.
Currently it is home to 150 Russian youngsters, including orphans whose parents were killed in a bombing by political extremists in a Moscow theatre in 2002, and another in a school at Beslan in southern Russia in 2004.
May 18, 2006
Goodwill Ambassador Jessica Lange visits a clinic for children living with HIV in Russia
By Elena Kharitonova and Sabine Dolan
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Jessica Lange is visiting the Russian Federation to help draw attention to the needs of vulnerable children, including those living with HIV and AIDS.
Like its neighbours in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Russia today is facing the world’s most rapidly expanding AIDS epidemic. Although there are about 334,000 officially registered cases of HIV infection, more than a million people in Russia may be living with the disease. The number of children born to mothers with HIV is reportedly rising dramatically.
Earlier this week, Ms. Lange visited a specialized HIV clinic for children in the small town of Ust-Izhora, near St. Petersburg. Upon her arrival, the two-time Academy Award-winning actress was treated to a performance by the clinic’s eager five-year-old patients.
Jessica Lange with Dr. Evgeny Voronin, head of the Centre for Prevention and Treatment of HIV Infection in Pregnant Women and Children, St. Petersburg, Russia.
“Contemporary methods of paediatric treatment can make the children forget about their disease,” said Dr. Evgeny Voronin, head of the Centre for Prevention and Treatment of HIV Infection in Pregnant Women and Children. “I could not even dream about such methods just several years ago.”
Today, 40 orphans ranging from one to seven years of age live at the Ust-Izhora HIV centre.
The hospital that houses the centre opened in 1879. Since 1991, it has been operating as a research facility specializing in HIV/AIDS treatment. Perhaps symbolic of the persistent stigma attached to HIV and AIDS in Russia, the clinic’s new orientation drew strong opposition from the local population when it was announced. In fact, the problem of stigma is one of the issues Ms. Lange is highlighting and trying to help address during her visit as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
“HIV is not a thing that can be fought by ignoring it,” she said during an interview on Russian television. “On the contrary, if you pretend that such a problem does not exist, it spreads very quickly.”
Upon her arrival at the HIV clinic, Goodwill Ambassador Jessica Lange was treated to a performance by the clinic’s eager five-year-old patients.
The majority of children born to mothers living with HIV in Russia are essentially orphaned, even if their parents are still alive.
Because up to a year and a half is required to diagnose possible HIV infection in a newborn baby, the children of mothers with HIV are not admitted to child care centres before the end of that period. Most of them live in specialized hospital wards, isolated from the rest of the world.
Later on, if HIV is not detected, they are moved to a Children’s Home, where they have very dim hopes of future adoption. Those who are found to be HIV-positive remain in the hospital or in an isolated unit at a Children’s Home.
On her continuing stay in Russia, Ms. Lange is visiting orphanages, schools and children’s hospitals where many children with HIV are languishing. On Sunday, she will take part in Russia’s ‘Golden Heart’ award ceremony recognizing individual efforts to serve humanity.
Jessica Returns to the London Stage
Jessica Lange is no stranger to the London stage, having played both Blanche Dubois in "A Streetcar Named Desire" and Mary Tyrone in "Long Day's Journey into Night," Subject to signing, she will return to London in October to play Madame Ranyevskaya, the woman surrounded by her family and its (mis)fortunes who is forced to sell the family estate in Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard." Produced by Howard Panter at the Ambassadors Theater Group, the show is then scheduled to cross over to Broadway.
May 20, 2006
Stars Sophia Loren and Jessica Lange in plea for Russian orphans
MOSCOW (AFP) -
"Nationwide, tremendous work has to be done for children, specifically for HIV positive children," said Hollywood star Lange, a goodwill ambassador for the United Nation's children's agency UNICEF.
"They are stigmatized," she told a press conference. "They have no possibility of being adopted, or to have equal education." She and veteran Italian star Loren are here for a ceremony Sunday to award the Heart of Gold prize for charity works.
"If I can do something for those in need, I'm always ready to do so," Loren told journalists. Money raised at the Heart of Gold ceremony and at a reception for Moscow's new money elite will go to help children in need of heart and brain operations. Lange, who spent the last week visiting orphanages and centres for handicapped and HIV-positive children, said she was impressed by staff caring for orphans and sick children in centres supported by UNICEF.
The two stars, together with Hollywood actor Steven Seagal, were also scheduled Sunday to visit Moscow's Bakulev cardiac surgery unit, and distribute toys among sick children.
A 30-strong demonstration was held in the centre of Moscow on Friday in protest against the feared closure of an orphanage set up with funds provided by the jailed Russian multi-millionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky, whose assets have been seized.
Khodorkovsky, once Russia's richest man as head of the country's former leading oil producer Yukos, is serving eight years for embezzlement, massive fraud and tax evasion. "The war by the state against Khodorkovsky is smashing the lives of orphaned children," one protest banner read.
Others denounced the alleged role of President Vladimir Putin in the prosecution of Khodorkovsky, saying: "Putin, you're fighting children, not an oligarch."
Oligarch was the term used to describe members of the new business class who surfaced after the collapse of the Soviet Union and made quick fortunes from dubious privatizations in the 1990s.
Critics said the Khodorkovsky prosecution was a Krmelin-inspired move to regain state control over Yukos and curb its owner's political ambitions.
This month the Moscow prosecutor seized property at Koralovo near Moscow where Khodorkovsky set up a school in 1994. The seizure raised fears of the establishment being closed.
Currently it is home to 150 Russian youngsters, including orphans whose parents were killed in a bombing by political extremists in a Moscow theatre in 2002, and another in a school at Beslan in southern Russia in 2004.
May 18, 2006
Goodwill Ambassador Jessica Lange visits a clinic for children living with HIV in Russia
By Elena Kharitonova and Sabine Dolan
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Jessica Lange is visiting the Russian Federation to help draw attention to the needs of vulnerable children, including those living with HIV and AIDS.
Like its neighbours in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Russia today is facing the world’s most rapidly expanding AIDS epidemic. Although there are about 334,000 officially registered cases of HIV infection, more than a million people in Russia may be living with the disease. The number of children born to mothers with HIV is reportedly rising dramatically.
Earlier this week, Ms. Lange visited a specialized HIV clinic for children in the small town of Ust-Izhora, near St. Petersburg. Upon her arrival, the two-time Academy Award-winning actress was treated to a performance by the clinic’s eager five-year-old patients.
Jessica Lange with Dr. Evgeny Voronin, head of the Centre for Prevention and Treatment of HIV Infection in Pregnant Women and Children, St. Petersburg, Russia.
“Contemporary methods of paediatric treatment can make the children forget about their disease,” said Dr. Evgeny Voronin, head of the Centre for Prevention and Treatment of HIV Infection in Pregnant Women and Children. “I could not even dream about such methods just several years ago.”
Today, 40 orphans ranging from one to seven years of age live at the Ust-Izhora HIV centre.
The hospital that houses the centre opened in 1879. Since 1991, it has been operating as a research facility specializing in HIV/AIDS treatment. Perhaps symbolic of the persistent stigma attached to HIV and AIDS in Russia, the clinic’s new orientation drew strong opposition from the local population when it was announced. In fact, the problem of stigma is one of the issues Ms. Lange is highlighting and trying to help address during her visit as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.
“HIV is not a thing that can be fought by ignoring it,” she said during an interview on Russian television. “On the contrary, if you pretend that such a problem does not exist, it spreads very quickly.”
Upon her arrival at the HIV clinic, Goodwill Ambassador Jessica Lange was treated to a performance by the clinic’s eager five-year-old patients.
The majority of children born to mothers living with HIV in Russia are essentially orphaned, even if their parents are still alive.
Because up to a year and a half is required to diagnose possible HIV infection in a newborn baby, the children of mothers with HIV are not admitted to child care centres before the end of that period. Most of them live in specialized hospital wards, isolated from the rest of the world.
Later on, if HIV is not detected, they are moved to a Children’s Home, where they have very dim hopes of future adoption. Those who are found to be HIV-positive remain in the hospital or in an isolated unit at a Children’s Home.
On her continuing stay in Russia, Ms. Lange is visiting orphanages, schools and children’s hospitals where many children with HIV are languishing. On Sunday, she will take part in Russia’s ‘Golden Heart’ award ceremony recognizing individual efforts to serve humanity.
April 17, 2006
Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute to Jessica Lange
Actress Jessica Lange, third from right, poses with Christine Baranski, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Ann Roth and Amy Madigan, left to right, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute to Jessica Lange, Monday, April 17, 2006, in New York. The annual Gala Tribute honors the career accomplishments of major figures in the film world, and this year Jessica Lange was celebrated for her career which includes two Oscars, for Best Actress in "Blue Sky" and Best Supporting Actress in "Tootsie," and four Golden Globes. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff)
Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute to Jessica Lange
Actress Jessica Lange, third from right, poses with Christine Baranski, Kathy Bates, Joan Allen, Ann Roth and Amy Madigan, left to right, at the Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute to Jessica Lange, Monday, April 17, 2006, in New York. The annual Gala Tribute honors the career accomplishments of major figures in the film world, and this year Jessica Lange was celebrated for her career which includes two Oscars, for Best Actress in "Blue Sky" and Best Supporting Actress in "Tootsie," and four Golden Globes. (AP Photo/Diane Bondareff)
April 2, 2006
Lange's Garden Featured in Architectural Digest
The new Architectural Digest "Hollywood Issue" (April 2006) features Jessica Lange's gorgeous two-acre garden in Stillwater, Minnesota. Lange has since put the residence on the market and moved to New York. Her former garden features individual gardens that she created in honor of her three children as well as water features and stone terraces.
Lange's Garden Featured in Architectural Digest
The new Architectural Digest "Hollywood Issue" (April 2006) features Jessica Lange's gorgeous two-acre garden in Stillwater, Minnesota. Lange has since put the residence on the market and moved to New York. Her former garden features individual gardens that she created in honor of her three children as well as water features and stone terraces.
March 15, 2006
Lincoln Center to Honor Lange
The Film Society is pleased to announce that Jessica Lange will be the 2006 Gala Tribute Honoree. The event will take place on April 17, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall.
Launched in 1972 with Charlie Chaplin as the first honoree, the Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute honors the career accomplishments of a performer, filmmaker or other major figure in the film world. The black-tie evening begins with a cocktail buffet on the Grand Promenade of Avery Fisher Hall, with honoree and celebrities in attendance. Following the reception, guests join other audience members in Avery Fisher Hall for a program of career highlight clips and onstage appearances by a roster of stars, directors and other luminaries who speak in tribute to the honoree. The evening concludes with an elegant dinner dance across the Lincoln Center Plaza on the Promenade of the New York State Theater, where some 800 guests dine, dance and people watch, with the honoree and celebrity guests in attendance. Past honorees have included Clint Eastwood, Susan Sarandon, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola, Mike Nichols, Audrey Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck and Martin Scorsese, among others. The April 18, 2005 honoree was Dustin Hoffman. Speakers included Robert DeNiro, Mike Nichols, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Beals, David O. Russell and Justin Henry.
February 22, 2006
Thesps Tend to 'Gardens'
Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange will star in "Grey Gardens," a fact-based drama about two eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy who made headlines when the health department threatened to raid their flea- and raccoon-infested East Hampton, N.Y., estate.
Commercials director Michael Sucsy wrote the script and will make his feature directing debut on the project this summer. He'll produce with Lucy Barzun and Rachael Horovitz. Barrymore will play Little Edie, and Lange will play her mother, Big Edie Bouvier Beale, the socialite cousin and aunt, respectively, of Kennedy Onassis. The Edies made headlines around the world when Jackie O herself materialized to rescue her family from public disgrace. The Edies were then the subjects of "Grey Gardens," a 1976 docu by David and Albert Maysles, whose rights will be part of the movie package.
Docu, which showed the women living in squalor, made a cult figure of Little Edie. She got a nightclub singing job as a result. Years after their deaths, the Edies have Web sites devoted to them as well as an Off Broadway play.
Sucsy, who summered in nearby Quogue, grew up with the legend of the women and hunted down rights to personal correspondence and journals that chronicle Little Edie's struggle to break free of her mother after they retreated from Park Avenue for the Hamptons. The film will cover 40 years. Kennedy Onassis will be a character in the film, as will Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, who bought the crumbling mansion from Little Edie after her mother's death. "You couldn't capture the eccentric nature of those women better than the documentary did, but it left me with so many questions of what led them there," Sucsy said.
January 18, 2006
Jessica Lange reviving 'Sybil' for CBS
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)
"Sybil" is based on Flora Rheta Schreiber's best-selling book chronicling the real-life treatment from 1954-65 of a young woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder, better known as multiple personality disorder.
Blanchard will play the title character. After a suicide attempt, she is introduced to psychiatrist Dr. Corneila Wilbur (Lange). During their sessions, Sybil, who confides that she frequently loses her memory and can't account for large blocks of time, slowly remembers the physical, emotional and sexual abuse to which she was subjected as a child by her mentally disturbed mother. During 11 years of treatments, 16 distinct personalities -- which Sybil had created to cope with the abuse -- emerge, each varying in age and personal appearance.
Production is set to begin Monday in Nova Scotia,
Field won an Emmy for playing Sybil in the NBC version, while Joanne Woodward secured an Emmy nomination for playing Dr. Wilbur.
Lange has earned six Oscar nominations, winning in 1983 for "Tootsie" and in 1995 for "Blue Sky."
Blanchard won an Emmy for her breakthrough role as young Judy Garland in ABC's "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows." She recently wrapped
Robert De Niro's feature "The Good Shepherd."
The movie will be directed by Joseph Sargent, who has been Emmy-nominated in the longform category 11 times, most recently last year for HBO's "Warm Springs." He has won four times.
Lincoln Center to Honor Lange
The Film Society is pleased to announce that Jessica Lange will be the 2006 Gala Tribute Honoree. The event will take place on April 17, 2006 at Avery Fisher Hall.
Launched in 1972 with Charlie Chaplin as the first honoree, the Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute honors the career accomplishments of a performer, filmmaker or other major figure in the film world. The black-tie evening begins with a cocktail buffet on the Grand Promenade of Avery Fisher Hall, with honoree and celebrities in attendance. Following the reception, guests join other audience members in Avery Fisher Hall for a program of career highlight clips and onstage appearances by a roster of stars, directors and other luminaries who speak in tribute to the honoree. The evening concludes with an elegant dinner dance across the Lincoln Center Plaza on the Promenade of the New York State Theater, where some 800 guests dine, dance and people watch, with the honoree and celebrity guests in attendance. Past honorees have included Clint Eastwood, Susan Sarandon, Al Pacino, Francis Ford Coppola, Mike Nichols, Audrey Hepburn, Jane Fonda, Gregory Peck and Martin Scorsese, among others. The April 18, 2005 honoree was Dustin Hoffman. Speakers included Robert DeNiro, Mike Nichols, Kevin Bacon, Jennifer Beals, David O. Russell and Justin Henry.
February 22, 2006
Thesps Tend to 'Gardens'
Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange will star in "Grey Gardens," a fact-based drama about two eccentric relatives of Jacqueline Kennedy who made headlines when the health department threatened to raid their flea- and raccoon-infested East Hampton, N.Y., estate.
Commercials director Michael Sucsy wrote the script and will make his feature directing debut on the project this summer. He'll produce with Lucy Barzun and Rachael Horovitz. Barrymore will play Little Edie, and Lange will play her mother, Big Edie Bouvier Beale, the socialite cousin and aunt, respectively, of Kennedy Onassis. The Edies made headlines around the world when Jackie O herself materialized to rescue her family from public disgrace. The Edies were then the subjects of "Grey Gardens," a 1976 docu by David and Albert Maysles, whose rights will be part of the movie package.
Docu, which showed the women living in squalor, made a cult figure of Little Edie. She got a nightclub singing job as a result. Years after their deaths, the Edies have Web sites devoted to them as well as an Off Broadway play.
Sucsy, who summered in nearby Quogue, grew up with the legend of the women and hunted down rights to personal correspondence and journals that chronicle Little Edie's struggle to break free of her mother after they retreated from Park Avenue for the Hamptons. The film will cover 40 years. Kennedy Onassis will be a character in the film, as will Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, who bought the crumbling mansion from Little Edie after her mother's death. "You couldn't capture the eccentric nature of those women better than the documentary did, but it left me with so many questions of what led them there," Sucsy said.
January 18, 2006
Jessica Lange reviving 'Sybil' for CBS
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter)
"Sybil" is based on Flora Rheta Schreiber's best-selling book chronicling the real-life treatment from 1954-65 of a young woman who suffered from dissociative identity disorder, better known as multiple personality disorder.
Blanchard will play the title character. After a suicide attempt, she is introduced to psychiatrist Dr. Corneila Wilbur (Lange). During their sessions, Sybil, who confides that she frequently loses her memory and can't account for large blocks of time, slowly remembers the physical, emotional and sexual abuse to which she was subjected as a child by her mentally disturbed mother. During 11 years of treatments, 16 distinct personalities -- which Sybil had created to cope with the abuse -- emerge, each varying in age and personal appearance.
Production is set to begin Monday in Nova Scotia,
Field won an Emmy for playing Sybil in the NBC version, while Joanne Woodward secured an Emmy nomination for playing Dr. Wilbur.
Lange has earned six Oscar nominations, winning in 1983 for "Tootsie" and in 1995 for "Blue Sky."
Blanchard won an Emmy for her breakthrough role as young Judy Garland in ABC's "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows." She recently wrapped
Robert De Niro's feature "The Good Shepherd."
The movie will be directed by Joseph Sargent, who has been Emmy-nominated in the longform category 11 times, most recently last year for HBO's "Warm Springs." He has won four times.