Harmon, Peters join Connick in Lifetime's "Proof"
By Kimberly Nordyke
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Living Proof," the Lifetime movie about the development of the breast cancer drug Herceptin, has assembled a cast that includes Angie Harmon, Amanda Bynes, Bernadette Peters and Swoosie Kurtz.
Also joining Harry Connick Jr. in the movie are Regina King, Jennifer Coolidge, Trudie Styler, Tammy Blanchard, John Benjamin Hickey and Paula Cale.
"Proof" is based on Robert Bazell's book and centers on Dennis Slamon (Connick), the UCLA doctor who developed Herceptin. The movie is set to air in October.
Bynes plays Slamon's student assistant. Harmon portrays Lilly Tartikoff, wife of former NBC entertainment chief Brandon Tartikoff and the person responsible for raising money to continue Slamon's research. Blanchard portrays the first woman to receive Herceptin, while Kurtz plays her grandmother.
Peters plays the first woman to be saved by Herceptin, while Styler and Coolidge play participants in the drug study. King plays a breast cancer survivor, and Hickey is a friend and fellow scientist to Slamon. Cale portrays Slamon's wife, Donna.
"Instead of going to our Rolodexes, we went to our e-mail address books," said Craig Zadan, who is executive producing the cable film with Renee Zellweger and Neil Meron. He noted that Zellweger "wrote beautiful e-mails to people she had a personal relationship with, telling them what we were trying to accomplish with this movie."
Added Meron: "It is very heartwarming that the talent we've assembled easily recognized their ability to use their stardom and do something for the greater good, in particular breast-cancer awareness. People got it immediately."
Dan Ireland ("Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont") is directing from a script by Vivienne Radkoff.
Reuters/Hollywood Reporter
