Lifetime Television launches Fall season with an original movie THE MERMAID CHAIR --
starring AcademyAward(R) and Golden Globe(R) Award-winning actress Kim Basinger ("L.A.Confidential," "The Door in the Floor") as
Kim Bassinger, Mermaid Chair courtesy of TVsquad.com
a restless wife and motherconsumed with forbidden love for a Benedictine monk and the crisis andself-awakening it ignites within her in an adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd'sexplosive best seller, The Mermaid Chair.
"THE MERMAID CHAIR" airs during a special three-night premiere beginning Saturday, September 9 at 9PM, followed by encore presentations on Sunday, September 10 at 8PM and Monday, September
11 at 9PM. All times are ET/PT.The Mermaid Chair (2006) (TV)
CAN YOU GO HOME AGAIN?
If you've read the novel you know the story. According to Lifetime's press release, Basinger plays Jessie Sullivan a mom who realizes after her daughter leaves for college that she is restless in her life and her 20 year marriage...
Suddenly, Jessie is forced to return to her childhood home on Egret Island, a tiny barrier island off the coast of South Carolina (Blogger note -- the island is really fictitious but based on nearby locales. Jessie's homecoming reignites her
volatile relationship with her mother and awakens nagging questions about her father's death years earlier.
Jessiemeets Brother Thomas (Alex Carter), a Benedictine monk in final stages of taking his vows....and finds they share an immediate and powerful connection.
The relationship experience and being home seem to intertwine to unlock the secrets of her mother's tormented past and the skeletons surrounding her father's death. Lifetime's press release says she undergoes a 'erotic, artistic and life-awakening experience' -- as a reader of the book -- I wonder how they will portray the erotic part via TV....forbidden love-- ahhh....a complex pleasure...especially for a middle aged woman....hard to think of Kim as that but she is....wow
"The Mermaid Chair" is co-produced by Randwell Distribution and Nomadic
Pictures for Lifetime Television. Randy Robinson (Lifetime's "The Pact" and
"Lies My Mother Told Me") is the executive producer. Emmy(R) Award winner
Steven Schachter ("Door to Door," "The Wool Cap") is the director. The
teleplay is by Suzette Couture.Lifetimetv.com: Movies - The Mermaid Chair
| Author Sue Monk Kidd's "The Mermaid Chair" sold more than 1.5 million copies and spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Best-seller List, and it's now coming ... www.lifetimetv.com/movies/info/move3961.html - 13k - Aug 26, 2006 - |
In a previous Hollywood2020 post, blogger, Joyce Schwarz tracked down info about the REAL Mermaid Chair.....The Mermaid Chair - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Is the power of the mermaid chair only a myth? ... The Mermaid Chair is a vividly imagined novel about mermaids and saints, about the passions of the spirit ... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mermaid_Chair - 14k - |
HOLLYWOOD2020 TRACKS DOWN
PIX OF THE REAL MERMAID CHAIR
THE MERMAID CHAIR by author Sue Monk Kidd Cached is a best selling book that will soon be made into a LIFETIME TV movie Cached starring Kim Bassinger. Kim Basinger to Star in The Mermaid Chair (from Monk Kidd's website).
PEEK INSIDE SUE MONK KIDD's JOURNAL ONLINE:
Here's the link to Monk Kidd's journal page that talks about the inspiration for the THE MERMAID CHAIR book 
(see link :http://www.suemonkkidd.com/journal.asp?i=2&j=M) Monk Kidd explains: "While talking with a friend about her trip to Cornwall, England, she casually mentioned that she’d seen a “mermaid chair” in a small church. She described it as a chair with a mermaid carved on its side which had been in the church for centuries though the reason seemed to be a mystery." 
Pix of the real Mermaid Chair in Cornwall, England, from google images.
www.carolynlee.co.uk
www.john.burnett.btinternet.co.uk and another link is
www.eng-villages.co.uk and www.walkingthewall.com
TWO WINGED MERMAIDS.....
Later in that journal entry, Monk Kidd explains: " I went around for a while after that with the image of a mermaid chair vividly planted in my mind: not like the actual chair in the Cornish church, rather a chair whose arms were formed by the carved bodies of two winged mermaids"
Mermaid Trivia: Blogger Joyce Schwarz is a Mermaid collectible fan. She has numerous Mermaid dolls and Mermaid sculptures displayed on her end table in her living room which faces the Marina in Marina Del Rey, CA. A favorite doll is the Bette Midler Mermaid replica based on her character Delores Delago 'the beached Mermaid' who zooms on stage in a motorized wheel chair. Schwarz first became fascinated by Mermaids when she wrote an interview with two of the 'live Mermaids in Florida at: Weeki Wachee Spring The only city of live Mermaids!
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