Celia Weston Movies
Born and raised in South Carolina, character actress Celia Weston has played many a tough Southern gal despite her theater training in both London and New York. Working both on and off Broadway in the '70s, she moved over to television as the snappy Mel's Diner waitress Jolene Hunnicut on the CBS sitcom Alice. After that, she appeared in Southern-tinged feature films like Honky Tonk Freeway and Stars and Bars. Also adept at playing matronly types, she played the mother of Beastie Boy Adam Horowitz in Lost Angels, the mother of one of the victims in Dead Man Walking, and the supposed mother of Ben Stiller in Flirting With Disaster. Back on the stage in 1997, she earned a Tony nomination for her role as Southern Jew Reba Freitag in Alfred Uhry's Last Night at Ballyhoo and returned to Broadway in 2000 as Mom in the revival of Sam Shepard's True West. She made a comeback to films as well with supporting roles in Ride With the Devil, The Talented Mr. Ripley, and Snow Falling on Cedars. In 2001, she played a Southern belle mental patient in K-PAX followed by the gossip-hound Mona in Far From Heaven, the Fowler's family friend in In the Bedroom, and the guardian of teenaged Bruce Banner in The Hulk. In 2003 she was back to the small screen as a cast member on the Showtime original series Out of Order. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Diane Keaton made her directorial debut with this drama, adapted from the autobiographical novel of sportswriter Franz Lidz. Lidz's story was set in his New York childhood and told of how living with his four eccentric uncles helped him overcome his grief at the death of his beloved mother. The movie is set in southern California and the four uncles from the novel have been whittled down to two. Lidz was christened Steven (Nathan Watt) and he is raised by the luminous Selma (Andie McDowell) and Sid (John Turturro), his father. When Selma is taken ill, Sid keeps Steven and his sister out of her bedroom, fearing they will upset her. Sid is an ingenious but cool-hearted inventor whose head is more developed than his heart. He sends Steven off to live with his two brothers. Danny (Michael Richards) is a high-spirited, paranoid man who suffers from delusions. Arthur (Maury Chaykin) is a big-hearted guy who likes to collect other people's junk. Together they rename the child Franz and teach him to value his own uniqueness. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andie MacDowell, John Turturro, (more)
Jodie Foster made her directorial debut (with a script by Scott Frank) in this tale of a child prodigy's search for social acceptance. Fred Tate (Adam Hann-Byrd) is a precocious fourth grader who has no problem with the most complex mathematical problems or in banging out a Rachmaninoff concerto on the piano, but is totally inept at playing baseball or dealing with children his own age. His mother Dede (Jodie Foster) is a cocktail waitress who acts more like a child than Fred, but cares passionately about her son. Fred comes to the attention of child psychologist Jane Grierson (Dianne Wiest), who runs a summer camp for child prodigies called Odyssey of the Mind. She invites Fred to attend the summer session, creating a rift between Fred and Dede. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Adam Hann-Byrd, (more)
- 1989
- R
Adam Horovitz, of Beastie Boys fame, plays a troublesome teen who is shipped off by his wealthy parents to an institute for "problem" youths. This is the sort of place where any sign of rebellion is dealt with in draconian fashion. The strapped-down Horovitz tells his life story to psychiatrist Donald Sutherland. In flashback, we see a fairly docile young Horovitz, whose chance involvement in a rumble instigated by gang leader Don Bloomfield leads to an arrest. Appearing in court, Horovitz is railroaded into the institute by his father, more as a means of getting even with his divorced wife than out of any concern for his son. Sutherland tries to help, but Horovitz betrays the doctor's trust once too often. Only by extricating himself from the influence of Bloomfield does Horovitz have any chance for redemption--and only by undergoing a domestic reversal of his own is Sutherland truly able to aid the boy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Adam Horowitz, (more)
- 1988
- PG13
After 20 years of marriage, Steve Giardino (Alan Alda) and his wife Jackie (Ann-Margret) agree to a divorce in this situation comedy. The focus is on both of them as they suffer through matchmaking, blind dates, and their new life as eligible singles. Donna (Mary Kay Place) is Jackie's friend, while Mel Arons (Hal Linden) is the confidante of the vain but likeable Steve. Steven worries that he will never find anyone decent to date until he meets the pretty Dr. Kay Hutton (Veronica Hamel). Jackie is enamored with a sculptor (John Shea) before his glaring faults become too much for her. While Jackie's new relationship is on the outs, Steve prepares for a new life with Kay. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Alda, Ann-Margret, (more)
- 1988
- R
Though a fine cast was assembled for this comedy, none can save this embarrassingly humorless satire. Henderson Dores (Daniel-Day Lewis) is a very proper British art expert sent to rural Georgia by his boss to purchase a painting by Renoir. The present owner, hillbilly Loomis Gage (Harry Dean Stanton), claims he bought the painting for $500 in France in 1946. Dores offers $10 million, but Gage's scheming son Freeborn (Maury Chaykin) has made a deal with a rival art dealer for $15 million. Steven Wright plays Dores' business rival Pruitt with his typical deadpan charm, and Joan Cusack and Laurie Metcalf provide romantic interest. Tea and crumpets collide with moonshine and cornbread in this feature, but the results are unpalatable. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Day-Lewis, Harry Dean Stanton, (more)
- 1984
It has taken nine seasons, but waitress Alice Hyatt (Linda Lavin, widowed protagonist of the popular sitcom Alice, has finally landed a permanent boyfriend, one Nicholas Stone (Michael Durrell). And just in cast Alice had any doubts about her newest beau, Nicholas proves his mettle when he helps her cope with her 20-year-old son Tommy's (Philip McKeon) drinking problem. Meanwhile, fellow waitress Vera (Beth Howland) adjusts to her new life as the spouse of policeman Eliot Novak (Charles Levin). Among those making guest appearances in the series' ninth and final season are Golden Girls' Rue McClanahan, cast against type as syrupy day-school owner Mother Goose; Gregory Walcott, B-picture perennial and survivor of the infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space as Big Jake Hunnicutt, father of Alice's waitress pal Jolene; Fred Berry the former "Rerun" of What's Happening, as a chubby break-dancer named Bobo; and future political satirist Bill Maher as a cop. Plus, Mel's Diner continues to attract new regular customers, adding Danny (Jonathan Price) and Doug (Doug Robinson to this season's roster. In the final episode, Mel sells the diner, Alice is on the verge of becoming a fulltime professional singer in the entourage of country star Travis Marsh (Kip Niven), Jolene sets up her own beauty salon, and Vera is about to become a mother. What is there left for the cast to do but reminisce about the past nine years, with the help of an abundance of choice clips from past episodes? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Lavin, Vic Tayback, (more)
- 1983
Season Eight of Alice offers the series' one-and-only crossover episode, "Mel is Hogg-Tied, in which Mel's Diner is visited by Sorrell Booke and Sonny Shrover in their familiar Dukes of Hazzard roles as Boss Hogg and Enos Strait. Also seen this season is former Brady Bunch matriarch Florence Henderson, playing a popular singer who inexplicably proposes to ill-tempered diner owner Mel (Vic Tayback). Otherwise, it is business as usual for waitresse Alice (Linda Lavin) and Jolene (Celia Weston), and for Alice's 19-year-old son Tommy (Philip McKeon). But it's a different story for Alice's ditzy waitress pal Vera (Beth Howland), who in the appropriately yclept episode "Vera Gets Engaged" meets the love of her life, policeman Eliot Novak (Charles Levin), when he gives her a ticket for jaywalking. One episode later, Vera and Eliot are married. Eleswhere, comedian Joey D'Auria, one year away from being hired as the star of the popular Chicago-based cable series Bozo's Circus, plays a cop in the episode "Lies My Mother Told Me". And the versatile stage and screen actor James Coco shows up in a subsequent episode as a dentist who falls in love with Alice--or, more specifically, with Alice's X-rays! One of the Season Eight episodes, "Vera's Secret Lover", was actually filmed for the seventh season, but held back in anticipation of a planned Hollywood writer's strike. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Lavin, Vic Tayback, (more)
- 1982
Alice moved from its familiar Sunday night slot to a Wednesday night berth for its seventh season, then shifted to Mondays in February of 1983. Whatever the night, the series' fans faithfully flocked around the tube to watch the latest shenanigans at Mel's Diner, and the misadventures of waitresses Alice (Linda Lavin, Vera (Beth Howland) and Jolene (Celia Weston), short-fused proprietor Mel (Vic Tayback), and Alice's now 18-year-old son Tommy (Philip McKeon). Halfway through the season, Martha Raye, hitherto confined to sporadic appearances in the role of Mel's meddlesome mother Carrie Sharples, becomes a regular when Carrie moved in with Mel after divorcing her most recent husband. Not surprisingly, she is soon driving everyone at the diner crazy with her overbearing personality, but the regular patrons--including newcomer Artie (Tony Long)--simply love the old broad! The season opener features Debbie Reynolds as a famously promiscuous actress who includes Mel in her tell-all autobiography--or at least that's what Mel thinks. Later on, Jerry Stiller appears as Mel's longtime rival, who shows up at the diner with his young trophy bride. A two-part episode features Joel Grey as himself, headlining a musical revue featuring Alice and financed by Mel--whose ineptitude nearly sinks the project before it can even open. Doris Roberts makes a return appearance as Alice's insufferable mother Mona, this time wreaking havoc at Thanksgiving dinner. Prolific character actor Guich Koock drops in to play Jolene's black-sheep brother Jonas. Cassandra Peterson, better known as buxom horror-movie hostress Elvira, has a flashy role in the episode "Mel's Dream Car." Richard Deacon of Dick Van Dyke Show fame guests as the snobbish owner of a catering firm for whom Mel briefly goes to work; Harlem Globetrotters star Meadowlark Lemon) stops over to give Tommy a few basketball pointers; and series star Linda Lavin essays a dual role, as both Alice and Vera's elderly, obnoxious landlady Debbie Walden, in "Vera the Torch." One of the Season Seven episodes, "The Secret of Mel's Diner", was actually filmed for Season Six, but held back due to a writer's strike. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Lavin, Vic Tayback, (more)
In this involved send-up of two American icons -- the automobile and the tourist trap -- the tiny Florida town of Ticlaw strives desperately for success after it has been denied the most essential of all tourist amenities -- a freeway exit. The insane, and mostly successful, schemes of the mayor (William Devane) and other distinctly unbalanced citizens interrupt, often hilariously, the lives of various eccentric travellers forced into a place they never intended to be. Critics disagree violently on whether this is a neglected classic or sophomoric nonsense. The winning record of director (John Schlesinger) (Midnight Cowboy, Marathon Man, Cold Comfort Farm, etc.,) and first-class performances by William Devane, Beau Bridges, Beverly D'Angelo, Hume Cronyn, JessicaTandy and a plethora of great character actors -- not to mention the water-skiing elephant and the wild rhino -- argue that it's worth a look. ~ Michael P. Rogers, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beau Bridges, Hume Cronyn, (more)
- 1981
Season Six of Alice finds most of the series' original cast still intact: Linda Lavin as waitress and wannabe singer Alice, Philip McKeon as her now 17-year-old son Tommy, Vic Tayback as her bombastic boss Mel, and Beth Howland as airheaded fellow waitress Vera. Missing from the scene is Diane Ladd as waitress Belle Dupree, who'd been brought in during season four to replace departing regular Polly Holliday. Filling the gap left by Ladd is Celia Weston as the newest waitress at Mel's Diner, brassy Jolene Hunnicutt. Additionally, Mel's celebrated chili has attracted several new regular customers, among them Jerry (Jerry Potter) and Mitch (Phillip R. Allen). Heading the guest-star manifest this season is Donald O'Connor, appearing as himself in an episode wherein Vera attempts to enter the Guinness Book of World Record's with history's longest sustained tap-dance. Later episodes feature Doris Roberts (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Alice's meddling mom Mona Spivak, who shows up just in time to ruin her daughter's 40th birthday celebration; former Welcome Back Kotter regular Ron Pallilo) and future Tonight Show host Jay Leno as a brace of skuzzy bikers named Muther and Bones; George Wendt, still two years removed from Cheers, as Alice's would-be suitor, who threatens to commit suicide when she spurns him; and, for the fourth successive season, Martha Raye as Mel's mom Carrie Sharples, who once again succeed in making her son's life miserable by planning to publish his top-secret chili recipe in her new cookbook. Two of the episodes seen during Season Six, "Mel's Cousin" and "Vera's Bouncing Check", were actually filmed for the 4th season, but held back from view due to a Hollywood writer's strike. And finally, we have "Mel's Christmas Carol", which honors the unwritten law that every sitcom must offer at least one takeoff of the Dickens Yuletide classic (For the record, the "Marley" counterpart is herein played by Jack Gilford). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Lavin, Vic Tayback, (more)
