Elaine Stritch to Play Baldwin's Mom in '30 Rock'

The Baltimore Sun reports that legendary Tony Award-winner Elaine Stritch has joined the cast of the NBC hit "30 Rock."

She will play the mother of Jack Donaghy, the network executive played by fellow theatre veteran Alec Baldwin.  "It's a relief to stop dealing with my own life -- as in Elaine Stritch at Liberty -- and just deal with being Alec's mom," said Stritch.

Stritch received a 2002 Drama Desk Award for her acclaimed one-woman Broadway show Elaine Stritch at Liberty; the show also garnered a Tony for Best Special Theatrical Event. She has received Tony Award nominations for her performances in A Delicate Balance, Bus Stop, Sail Away and Company, in which she originated the role of the sardonic Joanne. Other Broadway credits include Call Me Madam (as the standby for Ethel Merman), Pal Joey, On Your Toes, Goldilocks, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Love Letters and Show Boat. On film and TV, she has been seen in Providence, Cocoon: The Return, September, An Unexpected Wife, Small Time Crooks, Autumn in New York, Monster-in-Law, "3rd Rock from the Sun," and "Law and Order," for which she received an Emmy Award nomination.

Created by Tina Fey (Mean Girls, "Saturday Night Live"), "30 Rock" stars Fey, Baldwin, Jane Krakowski, Tracy Morgan and others.  It airs Thursdays on NBC at 9:30 PM.  Set within 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the show follows the comic going-on backstage at a "Saturday Night Live"-esque TV variety show.

Visit www.nbc.com for more information.

Photo of Elaine Stritch by Ben Strothmann