Tuesday 18 May 1999
By eBroadcast Staff and agencies.

Gillian Anderson to star in a film adaptation of a really boring book that none of you have read

'Just because David's movies are crap doesn't mean mine will be.'

Get ready, X-Files fans. Gillian Anderson is going to duff her serious scientific duds for some equally serious turn-of-the-century corsetry. She's going to star in the film version of Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth. The film will shoot during the summer in Scotland and southern France. Her supporting cast will feature Dan Aykroyd, Eric Stoltz, Laura Linney, Anthony LaPaglia, and Jodhi May.

This film should be a boon for all you Gillian fans who fantasize about her dressed up in different styles. She'll play Lily Bart, a 19th century New York socialite (and a beautiful one, at that) who is, of course, torn between social standing and true love. Does she find herself a rich man and remain a socialite, or does she go with her heart? Have we heard this story before?

The movie will be directed by Terence Davies, and he's also working on the screenplay. His past projects include Distant Voices, Still Lives, Long Day Closes, and The Neon Bible Di. According to Davies, "Lily is an unsuspecting and almost Hitchcockian heroine so caught up in a society of hypocrisy and concealment that she does not see the danger she is in until it is too late.''

Look, as long as she shows up in a push-up bra again (or the late 19th century equivalent), we're there.