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JULIANNE MOORE
MUST FIRST-TIMER
AGE 45
WHY HER The four-time Oscar nominee, who started her career on the New York
stage (most notably at the Public Theater, where Meryl Streep and Kevin
Kline had become local gods), finally makes her Broadway debut in
November in Sam Mendes' production of the new David Hare play The
Vertical Hour. And don't think she didn't notice those scathing Julia
Roberts reviews. ''You can work a smaller venue and it'll be a
lower-profile kind of thing,'' she says. ''When you open a Broadway show,
it's everywhere. So it's pretty terrifying.''
SCHOOLYARD SALE ''Initially they were planning on doing this play this spring in a
smaller venue, and I couldn't do it. I was deeply disappointed and
couldn't stop thinking about it. Sam and I both have kids at the same
nursery school and he cornered me there. He was literally standing
outside and was like, 'Julie, may I talk to you? If you can commit to
Broadway right now, we can move the play.' And I was like, ' What?
Okay!'''
CAREER HIGHLIGHT ''Far From Heaven. As an experience, it has not been matched, just in
terms of the absolute pleasure I took every way in being there. And also
as a final product, I was incredibly proud of it.''
WORST JOB ''Checking IDs at the local pool in Virginia. All the beautiful girls
would come by in their bikinis, and I was this skinny, freckly girl in
shorts. It was humiliating.''
BEST THEATER PERFORMANCES SHE'S EVER WITNESSED ''John Malkovich in Burn This and Mary-Louise Parker in Prelude to a Kiss.''
NEXT In the can are the romantic comedy Trust the Man, directed by her
husband, Bart Freundlich (Aug. 18), and the futuristic thriller Children of Men with Clive Owen (Sept. 29). She's just wrapped the Nicolas Cage
action flick Next and is about to start Savage Grace, about the
scandalous ''Baekeland murder'' of 1972.
CHRISTINE EBERSOLE
Must 'Grey' Lady
AGE 53
WHY HER Ebersole's sensational turns as ''Big'' Edie and ''Little'' Edie Beale in
Off Broadway's Grey Gardens — based on the 1975 doc about an eccentric
mother and daughter — garnered sold-out houses, rave reviews (The New York Times called her performance ''one of the most gorgeous to ever grace a
musical''), and a Broadway run this fall.
AGE AGAINST THE MACHINE The SNL alum (class of '81- 82, with Eddie Murphy and Joe Piscopo) and
TV vet (Rachel Gunn, R.N., anyone?) began to get some sobering news from
Hollywood types seven years ago. ''I was 'over-the-hill,''' recalls
Ebersole. ''But I still believed I had something to contribute.'' So the
onetime stage star (she was Guenevere to Richard Burton's Arthur in
Camelot) rediscovered her theatrical roots and won a 2001 Tony for 42nd Street — in which she played (irony alert!) an over-the-hill actress.
ANIMAL HOUSE Ebersole lives in Maplewood, N.J., with her husband Bill Moloney, three
children (Elijah, 12, Mae-Mae, 9, and Aron, 9), three cats, four guinea
pigs, two gerbils, one fish, and three rescued dogs, including Spot
Bouvier Beale Moloney. ''I get presents from people living on the other
side of the veil.'' What now? ''This animal had a name — Spot. And [the
Beales] had one dog...named Spot. I think they sent him to me.''
NEXT Grey Gardens moves into the Walter Kerr Theatre Oct. 3.
