Nine Not Enough For Zeta-Jones

Zeta-Jones thinks, “I already have a supporting actress Oscar. Give me a lead, damn it!”

Catherine Zeta-Jones will not join the cast of the soon-to-be filmed Broadway musical Nine. The New York Daily News is reporting that the Oscar-winner is backing out because her part wasn’t big enough.

Nine, the musical based on Fellini’s 8 1/2, is about Guido Contini, an Italian director dealing with creative difficulties while juggling the many women in his life. Zeta-Jones was slated to play Claudia, the director’s current muse and obsession. Zeta-Jones had supposedly hoped that Rob Marshall, with whom she had previously worked on Chicago, might increase the size of the part. However, anyone familiar with the show knows that it’s an ensemble piece, with all the women flitting in and out and around Contini, the real and only star of the production; making one woman’s part bigger than the others would basically undermine the point of the play.

Javier Bardem has been cast in the leading role of Contini; other cast members include Sophia Loren, Penelope Cruz, and Marion Cotillard. In other words, losing Zeta-Jones means that the only bona fide singer-dancer is gone from the cast (Cotillard lip-synched to Piaf’s recordings in La Vie En Rose).

Of course Zeta-Jones supporters say the whole story is wrong: she didn’t drop out due to complaining about a small part, but because she felt “been there/done that” after doing Chicago with Marshall. Whichever story is true, the part needs to be recast. Rumors include Natalie Portman, Gwyneth Paltrow, Liv Tyler, Keira Knightley, and Kate Hudson. Look! Not a single singer and/or dancer amongst them. Come on, it’s a musical…who needs you know, musical people?