Nurse Ratched actress can't stand 'Cuckoo's Nest'

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Louise Fletcher says she can't bear to watch "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because the Nurse Ratched character she won an Oscar for is so cruel.

"I find it too painful," said Fletcher, 78. "It comes with age. I can't watch movies that are inhumane."

Fletcher is returning this weekend to the institution where the movie was made in 1975, the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, the Statesman Journal reported (http://stjr.nl/WjMOTJ ).

The hospital, long under fire for inadequate programs and crumbling facilities, has been rebuilt in recent years. Fletcher is attending the opening of its Museum of Mental Health.

The movie is based on the novel by Oregon writer Ken Kesey. It centers on the struggle between the steely Nurse Ratched and Jack Nicholson's scheming character, Randall McMurphy, who eventually gets a lobotomy for leading a rebellion among the prisoners on his ward.

"I was really shocked in those scenes where I was actually so cruel," Fletcher said.

In 1975, Dr. Dean Brooks, then the superintendent, opened the campus to the cast and crew. Fletcher said she was in the city 11 weeks, filming six days a week. He and Fletcher have stayed in touch — they talk by phone each July 22, their common birthday.

Brooks recalls the actress as being nothing like the character: "I have found her to be angelic."

Fletcher, whose parents are deaf, took time out from filming to visit students at the Oregon School for the Deaf, he said. He said he's admired how she doted on her parents and cared for them as they aged, and how she dropped everything to spend time with a dying friend in London.

Fletcher said better known actresses turned down the role, and it wasn't until she saw the film for the first time with an audience, in Chicago, that she was convinced she pulled it off.

In scene where McMurphy throws Nurse Ratched against the wall and chokes her in a fit of rage, she said, "they all stood up and cheered in the theater and were stomping their feet. That got to me. I realized, 'Hey, I created a real villain here.'"

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Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com

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Nurse Ratched actress can't stand 'Cukoo's Nest'

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Louise Fletcher says she can't bear to watch "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" because the Nurse Ratched character she won an Oscar for is so cruel.

"I find it too painful," said Fletcher, 78. "It comes with age. I can't watch movies that are inhumane."

Fletcher is returning this weekend to the institution where the movie was made in 1975, the Oregon State Hospital in Salem, the Statesman Journal reported (http://stjr.nl/WjMOTJ ).

The hospital, long under fire for inadequate programs and crumbling facilities, has been rebuilt in recent years. Fletcher is attending the opening of its Museum of Mental Health.

The movie is based on the novel by Oregon writer Ken Kesey. It centers on the struggle between the steely Nurse Ratched and Jack Nicholson's scheming character, Randall McMurphy, who eventually gets a lobotomy for leading a rebellion among the prisoners on his ward.

"I was really shocked in those scenes where I was actually so cruel," Fletcher said.

In 1975, Dr. Dean Brooks, then the superintendent, opened the campus to the cast and crew. Fletcher said she was in the city 11 weeks, filming six days a week. He and Fletcher have stayed in touch — they talk by phone each July 22, their common birthday.

Brooks recalls the actress as being nothing like the character: "I have found her to be angelic."

Fletcher, whose parents are deaf, took time out from filming to visit students at the Oregon School for the Deaf, he said. He said he's admired how she doted on her parents and cared for them as they aged, and how she dropped everything to spend time with a dying friend in London.

Fletcher said better known actresses turned down the role, and it wasn't until she saw the film for the first time with an audience, in Chicago, that she was convinced she pulled it off.

In scene where McMurphy throws Nurse Ratched against the wall and chokes her in a fit of rage, she said, "they all stood up and cheered in the theater and were stomping their feet. That got to me. I realized, 'Hey, I created a real villain here.'"

___

Information from: Statesman Journal, http://www.statesmanjournal.com

View the original article here

Lawyer: 'Melrose' actress chased before NJ crash

SOMERVILLE, N.J. (AP) — A former "Melrose Place" actress charged in a fatal auto accident two years ago was being chased by another driver, her attorney told jurors on the first day of her manslaughter trial Thursday.

A prosecutor countered that Amy Locane-Bovenizer was intoxicated at the time and that caused the crash that killed Helene Seeman and injured her husband, Fred.

Locane-Bovenizer, 40, is charged with aggravated manslaughter and assault by auto and faces up to 30 years in prison if she is convicted.

Attorney Blair Zwillman told a Somerville jury that Locane-Bovenizer was pursued for 4 miles by a woman whose car she had rear-ended, The Star-Ledger reported (http://bit.ly/UiLgMB). He said the woman honked her horn and flashed her lights, causing Locane-Bovenizer to drive nearly 20 mph over the speed limit on narrow country roads.

"Why is she pursuing someone with the most horrendous of distractions possible?" Zwillman asked jurors.

The chase ended when the actress slammed into the Seemans' vehicle as it pulled into a driveway.

In his opening statement, Somerset County Assistant Prosecutor Matthew Murphy said Locane-Bovenizer had eight to 10 drinks at two gatherings before the accident and had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit.

"Death was probable, not merely possible," Murphy told jurors. "These circumstances were so extreme that death was probable."

Locane-Bovenizer appeared on 13 episodes of "Melrose Place" in 1992 in the role of Sandy Louise Harling. She also appeared in numerous movies including "Cry-Baby," ''School Ties" and "Secretary."

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Information from: The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger, http://www.nj.com/starledger

View the original article here