Middle Age Hollywood

Lately the only place to catch most of Glenn Close's considerable acting talent is on television, where Close pretty much rules the world as the lead character on Damages. But now it looks like the right role has come along to give her her first leading movie role in years. According to Screen Daily, Close will star for her Nine Lives director Rodrigo Garcia in Albert Nobbs, an adaptation of the stage play that won Close an Obie in the 80s.

What's this role that Close can play twice, 30 years apart? Close's character is apparently a woman living in 19th century Ireland who is forced to disguise herself as a man in order to survive. Close is quoted in Screen Daily saying "I believe in this story and its potential to take everyone on a sensuous, funny, heart-breaking ride." Orlando Bloom, Michael Gambon and Janet McTeer will co-star.

Having just seen and largely loathed Garcia's Mother and Child at Sundance, I'm not all that anxious to see what he gets up to next. But then, another Glenn Close starring role is something to be grateful for no matter the circumstances. Maybe this can be Garcia's opportunity to make it up to me.

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Damages is taking a big page from the Law & Order playbook.

The Glenn Close-starring drama is tackling a "ripped from the headlines" story as season three starts tonight on FX.

In this cycle's case, Patty Hewes and Associates is tapped to represent the thousands of people who fell victim to a multibillion-dollar Wall Street investment fraud. Sound familiar? So who's involved and what does it mean for our favorite legal antiheroine? Here's what we can tell you:

Let's just say the Ponzi Tobin family—played by the likes of Campbell Scott, 24's Reiko Aylesworth and Lily Tomlin—has quite a bit in common with the Madoffs.

Close, for one, totally digs tackling such a topical issue.

"It's really interesting. It will make people very interested in what our writers do with the subject," she told us at a bash honoring the show's season-two DVD release. "The fact that they're exploring the family dynamic and the family politics is so cool."

Yeah, Glenn Close totally said cool.

And while she insists "definitely the Tobins are not the Madoffs," she thinks this season, which also features Martin Short in the dauntingly superserious part of the Tobin family attorney, could top the previous two.

"Not to disparage the others, I just think the writers have reached an amazing level. It's almost like they've reached their stride," she said.

Want a few other juicy bits on season three? Read on!

* Ted Danson's crooked, creepy and comical Arthur Frobisher won't be showing up until midseason. He claims he knows very little about what he'll be up to, but offered this tasty morsel: "I just shot two days. [Arthur's] written a book and a very famous Hollywood actor is interested in it. That's all I know," he swore. "And the odds are very good that his ego will get him in trouble again."

* Timothy Olyphant's gig as a love interest for Rose Byrne's Ellen wasn't exactly tied up in a bow at the end of last season, but the handsome Wes is nowhere to be seen in the first two episodes. According to Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who plays Ellen's new potential romance, it's not lookin' good. "I haven't seen him around," he teased.

* Lastly, the gorgeous Aylesworth is sporting a jarring blond 'do in her new role. Because we knew you'd be wondering, we asked if the change was some sort of directive from the show's producers. "It was totally for me—this was breakup blonde," she declared. "I'm still not a blonde [in my mind]. As I go darker, you'll see my heart's mending. It was much blonder right away."


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