The cast of Steel Magnolias on Donahue - November 30, 1989

You can tell none of them are friends. Shirley's thinking: "I'm sitting between a country bumpkin and The Flying Nun!".

The nothing-in-common-with-each-other characters they played in the movie were equally as unbelievable as each other's confidants.

All I can say is ... five Oscar nominees, four Oscar winners.

[quote] I would rather have thirty minutes of wonderful than a lifetime of nothing special.

That's how I feel about Julia Roberts's acting career.

Unfortunately, all we got is the latter.

[quote] All I can say is ... five Oscar nominees, four Oscar winners.

Note that Darryl Hannah is not present.

Dolly should have won for 9-to-5 or Travelling Thru

Julia was virtually unknown at this time.

I still have this episode on VHS somewhere. And the original movie poster.

[quote] Darryl Hannah

Oh, dear.

Sally Fields' admission that she stays thin by not eating would have gotten her cancelled today.

And she wonders why she's on Boniva, r10!

[quote] Sally Fields

Oh, dear.

Why wasn't Darryl present?

I know all of their names! Sally Fields, Darryl Hannah, Olympus Dukakis, Shirley MacLean, Dollie Parton, and the one and only Julia Robert!

So take your oh dear elsewhere!!

Sorry, I meant Dollie Pardon. Excuse me.

It's actually Dali Pardon, r15.

[quote] You can tell none of them are friends. Shirley's thinking: "I'm sitting between a country bumpkin and The Flying Nun!".

Dolly is thinking: I hope Shirley doesn’t start regressing into one of her former lives and Julia reminds me of a horse Daddy used to own.

The cast all got along great. It was Herb Ross who was the problem. and was particularly nasty to Dolly and Julia.

Nothing ruffled Dolly's feathers and she gave it right back to Herb, but this was Julia's first big movie, so she took the criticism to heart more. But Shirley and Sally rallied around her, Sally even threatened to quit if he didn't lay off Julia, and he did.

Shirley and Olympia became good friends.

Darryl was the outsider of the group and missed a lot of promotion for the movie.

Lee Radizwell was an epic cunt to Julia at one of the premieres.

Well, R18, you can't just tease me like that. I beg of you, please come back and tell the Lee and Julia story. Please?

Also, is this when Julia was banging Liam Neeson?

Margo Martindale was thinking, “How did my character turn into Dolly Parton?”

Hmm Julia's appeal definitely relies on a fawn-like, hickish naïveté. It's how she played the hooker too and her Southern accent, childish hair flipping is all a part of it. We see through it now. But she really is no great screen beauty.

Julia had a loopy charm that worked in her earlier movies up until about My Best Friends Wedding.

Once she won the oscar, and Hollywood canonized her as some great hollywood leading lady actress, that went out the door. Her work in the 2000's was completely unmemorable.

Though I will say she rebounded over the last couple of years, doing good work in smaller fare.

Phil Donahue was quite handsome.

Julia is soooo bad in this film. She's incapable of nuance. Her wigs are perhaps the worst in screen history. How did she ever become a box office star?

[quote] How did she ever become a box office star?

She married Lyle Lovett. He had connections. Same reason Ernest Borgnine married Ethel Merman. Career boost.

Julia WON the Golden Globe and nominated for Oscar for this! Wow

[quote] You can tell none of them are friends. Shirley's thinking: "I'm sitting between a country bumpkin and The Flying Nun!".

Shirley is from Richmond, VA, so she, too was from the South. Her and Dolly were the only ones.

She was a huge box office star long before Lyle Lovett arrived.

Pretty Woman was a sleeper hit and she became box office gold because of it.

I wonder what Shirley thought about being snubbed by The Academy for Madame Sousatzka in 88 (having won the Golden Globe), Steel Magnolias in 89, then Postcards From The Edge in 90.

What a chilly reception!

[quote] Shirley is from Richmond, VA, so she, too was from the South. Her and Dolly were the only ones.

Excuse me, R28. Ah aym from Smyrna, Georjah and mah cuhluhs aah blush and bashful.

On the DVD commentary for Postcards r30 Carrie Fisher says that Shirley was shocked she wasn't nominated.

Odd how she was snubbed three years running when she had been a frequent nominee in the past. They were just over her.

Roberts getting the Globe and the only one of the actress Oscar nominated is so stupid. She's the weak link in the film. Any of the other would have been a better choice.

[quote] Pretty Woman was a sleeper hit and she became box office gold because of it.

And she refers to it by its working title, 3000. They must have changed the name pretty late in the game.

Was it originally called 3000 as that how's much her punter paid for access to her horny holes?

It certainly doesn’t refer to her IQ.

Aside from Julia they are all old and are going to have funerals soon, though Olympia has already had hers and Shirley will go on to yet another life.

Well Dolly certainly won’t be drowning.

[quote]Odd how she was snubbed three years running when she had been a frequent nominee in the past. They were just over her.

It is odd. But, there is some explanation.

For 1988, there was no way she was getting in over future Oscar winner and fellow Drama Globe winner Foster and Comedy Globe winner (in eventual BP nominee) Melanie Griffith, and arguably the other three. Even though A Cry in the Dark didn't do as well commercially or with the AMPAS, Meryl Streep was Meryl Streep. Like MacLaine, Sigourney Weaver also won the Drama Globe. But, she was also having a banner year and Gorillas in the Mist was a higher profile film. Dangerous Liaisons got a late start but it really hit with the AMPAS, and Glenn was already four-times nominated in a short amount of time. It was also one of the best performances of the year. So, I get why MacLaine missed in 1988.

For 1989, MacLaine was competing with costars. She really isn't a standout. I personally think Field and Roberts were. Field was lead and Roberts got nominated.

For 1990, her supporting category had an incredibly competitive year, even more so than lead 1988. Whoopi was in. Annette Bening wasn't missing for that performance, especially when the AMPAS loved her movie. McConnell and Bracco also were in a BP winner/nominee respectively. Perhaps it was odd that MacLaine missed to Diane Ladd, but, damn, Ladd delivered in Wild at Heart.

She did get BAFTA nods for Magnolias and Postcards. And, of course, she won the Globe for Sousatzka, and got nominated for Postcards.

I have a feeling she was a close 6th in 1990 and was short of knocking Ladd out of the lineup. But, like you said, they were tired of her by then. Would have bene a deserving nod though.

Wasn't there a rumor she refused to be considered Supporting for Postcards, feeling she was co-lead?

Mary! me all you want, but that scene with Sally Field at Shelby's gravesite lamenting the fact that her child's life is over is one of THE BEST performances I've ever seen in my 35 years watching movies. What a tour de force. I get choked up every time.

Her lack of a nomination for this always seemed a strange omission, but who gives a shit about awards anyway.

When Lifetime did a remake of SM, Queen Latifah played the M'Lynn character. They moved the gravesite scene from the cemetery to the hair salon and it was ......... underwhelming. I like Latifah, but she did not have the range or the skill to pull off such a scene. Sally Field is one of my favorite actors and she sure left some big shoes to fill.

[quote] Her wigs are perhaps the worst in screen history.

Excuse ME?!

[quote] She married Lyle Lovett. He had connections.

And here I thought she married him because she's a size queen.

[quote] Her lack of a nomination for this always seemed a strange omission, but who gives a shit about awards anyway.

Miss Field already had two Oscars. She had sufficient.

R40 Hi Sally. It was a total cringe fest you at that gravesite.

As far as Julia goes, she only got the nomination for SM because she died in it. I always thought the film worked better as a comedy. When the saga of Shelby, the baby, and her diabetes starts it really drags the film down into sometimes bad melodrama. Julia would’ve won if Pretty Woman would’ve opened during the voting period though.

[quote] As far as Julia goes, she only got the nomination for SM because she died in it.

I'll nominate that cunt for something if she would just die in a fuckin' fire!

[quote] Julia would’ve won if Pretty Woman would’ve opened during the voting period though.

A hooker winning over an 80-year-old widow with the shrieking harridan Patti LuPony for a daughter-in-law? I don't think so, darlin'.

Jessica Randy R46 Julia wasn't in your category in 89 you Oscar-grabbing Granny

Did anyone see the off-Broadway play? Rosemary Prinz was M’Lynn and Margo Martindale was Truvy.

Funny how Ross focused his attentions on Dolly and Julia . That must be how Daryl Hannah's performance got by him.

Is Dolly wearing her costume from that Designing Women episode ?

Speaking of Designing Women, I'm sorry that I missed the 2005 Broadway show starring Delta Burke as Truvy, Christine Ebersole as M'Lynn, Rebecca Gayheart as Shelby, Marsha Mason as Ouiser, Lily Rabe as Annelle and Frances Sternhagen as Clairee.

Sally Field was leaps and bounds better than any of her co-stars. I don't like Steel Magnolias but Sally and her great performance made it watchable.

It is a real shame that Shirley missed out on an Oscar nod for Postcards from the Edge. She was great in the role and that scene where she is in hospital and does herself up before leave the room was priceless. My big problem with Postcards from the Edge though is Meryl Streep is miscast, can't sing and never captures the character. She undermines the whole film. But Nichols had such a hard-on for her when in fact he should have cast Sissy Spacek who would have been perfect.

R28, oh dear.

I wonder if Shirley's Letterman appearance had anything to do with sabotaging her chances for Madame Soutzaka. I still have no idea what even compelled her to do Letterman in the first place, she clearly was disgusted by him.

I remember the cast of Steel Magnolias making the talk show rounds. The whole cast gushed over Julia and talked about how this was her movie. Maybe that's why she got the nomination? I agree with others, though, that Field was the real standout.

I can't believe Oh limp ya Do cock kiss is the only dead one.

Shirley is a good example of stars who get multiple nominations, talk about how they feel hard-done-by not winning, have an entitlement, finally win, then get largely ignored by The Oscars thereafter.

I can't believe the old, sad talking wall of feces and fat at R56 thought her little witticism was, in fact, witty.

Really hon? You cant believe Julia Roberts became a box office star? Your a fucking idiot. She's a bitch. But start power she does not lack you fucking moron.

r38 Diane Ladd sent out handwritten letters to every Academy member asking them to vote for her.

She's really strange when it comes to awards. She was outraged that she lost to Ingrid Bergman and then Bergman said in her speech Valentina Cortese should have won. She confronted Pia Linstrom (Bergman's daughter) about it on TV. I saw her at a TCM event where she was still apoligizing for attack Linstrom (this was like 2 years ago!)

She did make Ben Mank announce (whispered in his ear after he read her accomplishments and had her on stage) add to his list that she beat Ingrid Bergman for a BAFTA. (I checked it online and she didn't. They were nominated in different years and both won.)

I remember her presenting with Laura Dern after she lost for Rambling Rose and being sullen about losing.

I think Winona Ryder in Mermaids probably was 6th or 7th with Shirley following Diane Ladd's embarrassing campaign. Most people expected Winona would get nominated if it wasnt Shirley

I saw on twitter a while ago an image of them announcing the nominees. They usually put a photo from the film behind the announcer's head. They apparently weren't prepared for Diane Ladd to be nominated and had to use a black and white head shot while all the others had color photos from the film.

IU actually think Roberts was lovely in Steel Magnolias . No one was really shocked by the nomination. She looks luminous in the movie and as pretty as she has ever looked. Her skin and and face look amazing in a performance that is built for sympathy. io watched the live nominations on Good Morning America that year and saw Joan Lunden say wow "there was so many stars in that movie and she gets it" as Joel Siegel said 'so deserved". Strange she was considered the least of of all of them and became the biggest movie star of all of them.

Dolly’s not any great kind of thespian but she’s such a natural and great presence in anything she’s been in - including this - I wish she had done more.

R10 I remember that comment (I actually saw this show when it first ran) and I thought to myself if only all actresses admitted to starving themselves...

The thing that annoys me about Steel Magnolias is why is Shelby in her delicate condition still working as a nurse? A highly stressful job. It's clear her husband has money since M"Lynn wants them to buy a baby and says its done all the time.

She had her baby. Stay home and rest and take care of it and you'd probably still be alive!!!

Watch Sally Field grab Julia's face when she won the Golden Globe and that will tell you all you need to know about how Sally loved her. Sally was also an executive producer on Dying Young when Julia had become a huge star. Stars paying each other back, And Joel Schumacher directed both Dying Young and Flatliners.

To the poster upthread asking about her Liam Neeson days,. She was actually fucking Dylan McDermott during Steel Magnolias in between dumping him for Kiefer Sutherland and fucking William Baldwin and Richard Gere in between if you believe the rumors. Our Julia kinda liked dick when she was young.

I had a long chat with Shirley on a flight once when she sat next to me. I roped her in by asking her about her new age stuff (I know about chakras from a college drama class.) Anyway once she saw I was open to that kind of stuff she was off and talking.

The only real gossip I get was that she thought Streisand behaved "terribly" to people when she first started making movies and that she thought Jeff Daniels was a lovely man and was happy for his success. (He had just won an Emmy and was pictured in a magazine with it that she was reading.) I didn't dare ask about Winger. I did ask about Hitchcock whom she said she adored. Her only complaint was the catering was too good on his films and she is thinks its funny how in The Trouble with Harry you can see her weight fluctuate from scene to scene.

In limpid attempt to one-up Sandra Bernhard and Madonna on Letterman, you can see right through Julia in this clip

Thank you R69 amazing to see the two young Steel Magnolias together. Darryl only ever said lovely things about Julia Roberts. And Julia normally a bitch always said she liked Darryl. Great clip.

That is a great clip. Julia always only said wonderful things about Darryl Hannah.

Darryl Hannah comes off great here. She's shy and lovely

When Julia got super famous Darryl always said she's my friend and I love her. She's a cool person.

I was in college when this came out. I am only a year younger than Julia Roberts and it was a very big deal that someone our age was becoming a huge star. Everyone was talking about her, and when Pretty Woman hit, forget about it. There was no one more famous at that time. Despite some obvious periods of cuntiness and drugs, she’s really managed to turn out just fine.

Did Julia ever get her tits out in a movie or is she of the SJP school of selfishness?

R75 No. I advised her not to. It is the one regret of my career.

M you never got your baps out either

R77 Watch Silkwood honey. I briefly slipped out one. I admit it was a blink and miss moment but I regret it.

M also had her tits in in Bridges Of Madison County

Nope. Julia Roberts has never done nudity. She said something along the lines of not wanting her high school math teacher to know what she looks like naked.

Didn't M do full frontal in "Plenty"?

I love that Truvy's husband opens another beauty parlor without even consulting with her. Now she has to work even harder to support him.

M would have done nudity. She was originally cast as the girlfriend in Kramer vs Kramer.

Bullshit, M would never do that role

R84, Meryl was indeed originally cast in the role Jobeth Williams eventually played in Kramer. Kate Jackson was set to play Joanna but couldn't work around her Charlie's Angels schedule so the role was open and Meryl made a play for it.

Brian Patrick Clark appeared nude in Playgirl? Sleuths need to get to work.

Here you go, drawn like one of my French girls.

R87) A decent start, now let’s get the real thing

R85 M playing second fiddle to Kate Jackson that’s good for a laugh.

Oh what could have been...

M didn't "make a play for it". Hoffman described in interviews actively pursuing her to take the role, bringing her to the Director.

[quote]Well, [R18], you can't just tease me like that. I beg of you, please come back and tell the Lee and Julia story. Please?

You're in luck, R19, there's a 2019 thread about it.

[quote][bold]Lee Radziwell made Julia Roberts cry at the London premiere of Steel Magnolias[/bold]

[quote]On a datalounge recommendation, I purchased 'In Her Sister's Shadow: An intimate Biography of Lee Radziwell'.

[quote]There are more hilarious take downs of airhead, bitchy Lee than you can shake a stick at, but this one anecdote was a standout.

[quote]Here goes. Consider what a legendary cunt Julia Roberts is. Now consider how cunty you'd have to act like to make that one cry at her own premiere.

[quote]Lee Radziwell IS that cunt

link to the thread below:

How long was Shelby suppose to be in a coma ? She collapses before Halloween when Annelle was getting married. When she dies, Annelle is pregnant. Annelle gives birth the following Easter so she got pregnant around July. Was she in a coma for months or was good church girl Annelle a slut and got knocked up before the wedding ?

I’m always intrigued by the scene of the little boy’s birthday. He’s supposed to be sitting in Shelby’s lap, but they never show her face. Clearly a body double. Was Julia too strung out that day to film?

R93 That's the boy's mother holding him. He wouldn't stop crying so she stood in. (or sat in)

Shirley McClain may have been born in Richmond but she and her brother were raised in Arlington, Virginia. She came back to the area quite a bit.

You aren't the only one asking that question, R92.

[quote][bold]Fact 1:[/bold] Shelby has a kidney transplant on our about July 4th.

[quote][bold]Fact 2:[/bold] Annelle, who is deeply religious, is getting married on or close to Halloween.

[quote][bold]Fact 3:[/bold] Shelby collapses and slips into a coma on Halloween

[quote][bold]Fact 4:[/bold] Shelby dies and is buried. At the funeral Annelle is pregnant and asks M’Lynn if she can name her baby Shelby

[quote][bold]Fact 5:[/bold] Annelle goes into labor and gives birth on or around Easter

[quote]Just looking at these raw facts raises an eyebrow right away. If you are married on Halloween, there is no way you can have a baby on the following Easter unless you were creasing the sheets before you walked down the aisle. November – April is only 6+ months of gestation time.

[quote]Yes, the baby could’ve been premature, but they make mention of how uncomfortable Annelle is in her advanced stage of pregnancy at the Easter Egg Hunt so I doubt that was the case.

[quote]There is the school of thought that Annelle gave into temptation by letting her boyfriend bed her down before entering into holy matrimony, but I hate that idea. It just doesn’t fit her character. And on a side note, who cast that dude? He looked like Eddie Munster grown up. Ick.

[quote]The only other plausible explanation is that Shelby was in a coma for a very long time. Let’s pretend she collapsed on Halloween of 1989, the year the movie came out. Annelle would have had to have become pregnant around August of 1990 to give birth around Easter of 1991. If she is already pregnant at Shelby’s funeral, that means Shelby would have to have been in a coma for at least 10 months – the last of October 1989 to August of 1990. This would also account for the fact that Jack Jr., who was like 1 1/2 when Shelby collapsed, was a lot older when we next see him at the Easter Egg Hunt where Annelle goes into labor.

[quote]But this theory doesn’t mesh for 2 reasons. For one, Jack Jr. is being pushed in a swing at Shelby’s funeral and is clearly still a toddler. And, they mention that M’Lynn didn’t leave Shelby’s side even once while she was in the coma…she couldn’t risk missing it if Shelby woke up for even a minute. I doubt even the best mother would sit by a comatose daughter for 10 months non-stop.

[quote]Nope, it’s a plot flaw, plain and simple.

[quote]Am I mentally defective for even caring about this?

I've never seen the stage play. Is the tying all the major events to holidays part of the stage play? Or was it an added touch for the film to show the passage of time?

I've always thought beginning and ending the film at Easter was a nice symmetry.

The shower scene makes no sense because Sally says "That's what you get for getting married on Halloween". So you first think that she's getting married on Halloween, then it shows Shelby working at the hospital on Halloween.

So why did Shelby snubbed the shower or did she snub the wedding?

I didn't event think about Annelle's pregnancy.

A better shower scene would've been with Jackson and Marshall.

Even though she's a native of Georgia, Julia Roberts' Southern accent is one of the all-time worst. It's so bogus and phony.

R98 I don't think it's actually Halloween yet.

Why was she still working if she was so desperate for the kid?

r85 she auditioned for it but not they didn't make their final choice

she then as stated got pushed by Hoffman for the wife role

Kate Jackson would have been believable in the role if they had stuck to the book. Meryl makes her deeply troubled.

In the book she is more just irresponsible and flighty. She doesn't get a job and therapy. She has an affair with a tennis pro. Kate could have played that.

Herbert Ross to Dolly Parton: " You can't act" Dolly Parton: This was not news to me, and I told him so. 'I'm not an actress, I'm Dolly Parton. I'm a personality who has been hired to do this movie. You're the director. It's your job to make me look like I'm acting.'

Herbert Ross was kind of a pest. When Maggie Smith did 60 Minutes a few years ago she discussed California Suite and grimaced at the director. She didn't like him either.

This Director sounds like he was too big for his patent leather boots

Dolly may not have been much of an actress but she still came off as much more natural due to the lack of actressy tics. I believed Dolly as Truvy in that setting. Olympia, Shirley, Daryl and Sally were trying too hard to ACT to be even remotely believable as the characters they were supposed to be playing.

I agree R107. Dolly has a natural quality that works in the movies she's been in. It helps that she's a real southerner so the accent and everything doesn't sound forced. Dolly was even likeable and believable in 9 to 5.

Dolly's scenes with Sam Shepard are a bit odd. He seems sort of distant in the movie like he's not really that involved in it. She didn't get much help from him.

Sam Shepard seems like a misanthropic Downer in his acting. He was the same morose fatalist in August Oscage County. Was that his thing?

Well he was playing a suicidal character in August so he shouldn't have seemed so happy there. He's heroic and charismatic in The Right Stuff so he could play other types.

Did he ever flash his pinga onscreen?

no

Shepard seemed like he was in another movie. They needed another Drum (Tom S.) type actor to give the role some humor in Sams brief scenes.

Dolly Parton is excellent in the right role. She has such a natural warmth in everything she does. I don't know if she could handle something like Martha in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, but she's chosen roles that are well within her range and has been great in them. If only more actors realized their limitations the way she has.

I was also surprised by the lack of recognition for Shirley's performances in this and Postcards From the Edge. Those are two of her most memorable roles and she's excellent in them. I guess she pissed off too many people. Of all the big female movie stars, her career is one of the most consistently interesting and strong in terms of her choice of roles. Anyone who can go from Charity to Aurora Greenway and nail both of them is one of the true greats.