Kristin Chenoweth Courts RACE's Kerry Washington For Lover in Dusty Springfield Biopic

Tony Award Winner Kristin Chenoweth, who is currently developing a feature film based on the life of Dusty Springfield, told E! News back in April that she'd love to have Kerry Washington (currently starring in David Mamet's RACE on Broadway) play her lesbian lover in the film.  

"I want Kerry Washington to play my girlfriend," Chenoweth had told E! in April 2009. "Dusty had a relationship with an African-American woman and she was supposedly very attractive. Kerry is a great actress and I think we'd be amazing together."

E! caught up with Washington recently and she was delighted with the idea.  She tells E! "It's very exciting. I feeling like I've been waiting to make out with her forever."

To read the full report from E!, click here.

The biopic, to be written and directed by Jessica Sharzer, would tell the story of Springfield's 1960s music career, which generated hit songs such as "Son of a Preacher Man" and "The Look of Love." It would also touch on the singer's personal life through her death at 59 of cancer and the recording of Dusty in Memphis. 

Chenoweth is set to serve as co-producer of the film with with Universal's Marc Platt (producer of Broadway's Wicked, in which Chenoweth starred) Springfield's former manager, Vicki Wickham, is set to serve as a consultant for the film.

Both now stars of stage and screen, Chenoweth is the Tony Award-winning star of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown, and Tony-Award nominee for Wicked. She also performed in the Broadway comedy Epic Proportions and in the Kander and Ebb musical Steel Pier, for which she won a Theatre World Award. Chenoweth also performed in an Off-Broadway production of Moliere's Scapin for the Roundabout Theatre Company. She starred in Stairway to Paradise, an original Encores! production celebrating the great Broadway revue, and in The Apple Tree at Roundabout Theatre Company's Studio 54. She returns to the Broadway stage this spring alongside Sean Hayes in Promises, Promises.

On screen, she starred in the ABC series Pushing Daisies, where she was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Television fans know her as Annabeth Schott on The West Wing, and she was seen in the season finale of ABC's hit comedy Ugly Betty. She portrayed Marian, the librarian, in ABC's movie version of Meredith Willson's The Music Man; Lily St. Regis in the television adaptation of Annie; and Mrs. Noodle on Sesame Street. Chenoweth also starred in her own series Kristin for NBC. Moviegoers have seen her in Deck the Halls with Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick, RV with Robin Williams, Bewitched with Nicole Kidman, Running with Scissors with Annette Bening, and The Pink Panther with Steve Martin. Her film credits also include a cameo in Stranger Than Fiction with Emma Thompson. 

Winner of "Outstanding Actress in a Motion Picture" for Ray at the 2005 NAACP Image Awards and Nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for "Best Actress" in the film Lift in 2002, Kerry Washington has garnered critical acclaim for her recent roles in The Last King of Scotland opposite Forest Whitaker for which she was nominated for "Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture" at the NAACP Image Awards in 2007, The Dead Girl opposite Marcia Gay Harden and Brittany Murphy, and in Lakeview Terrace starring opposite Samuel L. Jackson and Patrick Wilson. Kerry will next be seen in A Thousand Words starring opposite Eddie Murphy. She recently completed filming Mother and Child a drama centered around three women portrayed by Annette Bening, Naomi Watts and Washington. Prior to these films, Washington starred as Alicia Masters in Fantastic Four and it's sequel Rise of the Silver Surfer, I Think I Love My Wife opposite Chris Rock, the Wayans Brothers' comedy Little Man, Mr. and Mrs. Smith, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Spike Lee's She Hate Me, Sidney Lumet's HBO film Strip Search and the independent film Sexual Life. Other film credits for Washington include Against the Ropes, The United States of Leland, The Human Stain, Bad Company, Save the Last Dance for which she received a Teen Choice Award for Best Breakout Performance, and the highly acclaimed independent film, Our Song.

Washington currently stars on Broadway in Race,the critically acclaimed new play, written and directed by David Mamet, starring with James Spader, David Alan Grier, and Richard Thomas. Tickets, which have now been put on sale through JUNE 13th, 2010, may be purchased by visiting Telecharge.com or calling (212) 239-6200.

RACE made its world premiere at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre (located at 243 West 47th St.). The show began performances on Monday, November 16, 2009 and officially opened on Sunday, December 6, 2009.

 

 

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