#Middlebury
Q: Is it true that actress Jessica Chastain will be playing both Tammy Wynette and Tammy Faye Bakker? – C.P.
A: Jessica Chastain made her professional acting debut in 2004 with a guest-star appearance on the hit medical drama “ER.” She’s so good, it’s shocking that she hasn’t won an Oscar. She’s come awfully close with back-to-back Academy Award nominations for her roles in “The Help” and “Zero Dark Thirty.”
Chastain will play the mascara-caked, publicly humiliated pastor’s wife Tammy Faye Bakker in the upcoming biopic film “The Eyes of Tammy Faye.” Andrew Garfield (“The Amazing Spider-Man”) will play her televangelist husband Jim Bakker, while Vincent D’Onofrio (“Full Metal Jacket”) takes on the role of Jerry Falwell. Chastain, who is also one of the film’s producers, credits Tammy Faye as “a woman ahead of her time.”
PHOTO: Jessica Chastain in “The Help” (DreamWorks II Distribution photo)
In addition to what will surely be another chance at an Oscar with the above project, Chastain also could be a contender for an Emmy by playing another Tammy – country music legend Tammy Wynette. “George & Tammy” is in preproduction for future streaming on Spectrum as a limited series. It’s based on a book written by George Jones and Wynette’s daughter, Georgette. According to Deadline.com, “George & Tammy” was originally pitched as a feature film seven years ago, but was later re-envisioned as a series. It hasn’t been announced yet who will play George, but regardless, I predict the 2022 awards season will be very kind to Chastain.
Q: When is the new Alec Baldwin and Kelsey Grammer sitcom coming out? I heard that the people who wrote “Modern Family” are behind it, so it’s got to be good. – C.J.
A: Back in November, the dream duo of Baldwin and Grammer were picked to star in a new ABC comedy about two ex-roommates who reconnect after their egos drove them apart in their 20s. Unfortunately, ABC was reportedly so unimpressed after watching the pilot episode that it passed on the sitcom. Perhaps it will find a home on another network someday, but for now it’s a dead project.
Q: I read that there’s going to be a sequel to the sitcom “How I Met Your Mother” starring Hilary Duff. I thought she was bringing back her Lizzie McGuire character in a reboot of that show. Is she doing both? –R.R.
A: The return of “Lizzie McGuire” was canceled before it ever really got started on Disney+. The streaming service didn’t have the same creative vision for the show as Duff did, so they parted ways. Duff was hopeful that Hulu would pick up the more adult version of “Lizzie McGuire,” but that never materialized.
Hulu had another idea, however, casting her as the lead in “How I Met Your Father,” a modern spinoff of the long-running CBS sitcom “HIMYM,” which starred Josh Radnor and Cobie Smulders. Hulu has already ordered 10 episodes, so Duff should feel pretty confident after the big letdown that was her original baby.
© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.
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