A Writer’s HBO Movie

Anytime I see Bette Midler and Stockard Channing starring in a movie, I want to watch. Tonight while surfacing I discovered both actress featured in Isn’t She Great . A movie about how Jacqueline Susann writes Valley of the Dolls, and at the height of her success, learns she has breast cancer.

This 2000 film, directed by Andrew Bergman and written by Paul Rudnick, took my breath away.

One, the journey of a writer who did not start her life wanting to be a writer, but an actress. Two, a man who believed in the talent of a woman and marries and supports her on her journey. Third, the desire to succeed despite the storm: an autistic son, breast cancer, and publishers rejection.

A lesson I have learned from author Susann, who also penned Once is Not Enough , The Love Machine, Every Night, Josephine, Delores , and Yargo, persistence and personality.