Plot
Leah Lazenby (Stockard Channing) is a single woman who lives in a house she recently inherited from her parents. In order to save money, maintaining her inheritance, she lets rooms to a variety of tenants while she sleeps in her parents' parlour. Leah works in a school for children who are characterized by a learning disability or even antisocial personality disorder.
A cellist named Travis Coles (Sam Waterston) visits to inquire about the upstairs room to let. He can easily pay in advance and is immediately accepted.
Travis fits in very well. He flatters Leah when she's plumbing, helps the other tenants, takes photographs of Leah and her pupils, drives her around in his car, and guards her when she is assaulted by her tenant Kevin (Clancy Brown). Consequently, Leah turns to Travis when she needs to bring Kevin's wife Ellie (Joan Allen) to a hospital. Ellie had just tried to commit suicide because the Kevin had betrayed and eventually left her.
Leah's head teacher (Linda Hunt) assigns her to look after an unruly illiterate teenage girl named Susan (Renée Estevez), who refuses to attend school. Susan lives with her boyfriend. Leah visits her regularly and tries to teach her to read by using fashion magazines. She even includes Susan's boyfriend, but when she thinks Susan opens up to her, the girl plays a cruel trick on Leah, causing Leah to lose her patience and start a physical fight with Susan in public. As the police arrive, Susan falsely accuses her of having assaulted her with a broken bottle and Leah leaves.
Returning home Leah sees Travis repairing the sink and tells him off. Travis answers back by explaining to her she mustn't believe she was the only person who is hurt and she should be more interested in Ellie's problems. Leah then talks to Ellie and they become friends.
Head teacher Mrs. Sanders convinces Leah not to quit her job as a teacher and offers her a different task. While Travis is on a concert tour in Canada, Leah's tenant Mandy (Sarah Jessica Parker) gives birth to a baby. There is a big celebration in Leah's house and Travis can manage to visit during a break of the tour.
Travis and Leah have a moment together. Leah tells him about her new case, a deafblind child. Having his shoulder to lean on she falls asleep. While she rests Travis inducts Leah into the tragedy of his life. He once had a child who died unexpectedly while he was on tour, his wife blaming him for having neglected his family. The next morning they awake together, obviously feeling very comfortable.
Leah's brother Frank (James Handy) is angry with her because the house is returning a puny profit although she's now also her tenant Mandy's babysitter. Even so, she refuses her brother's offer to buy her out.
Travis takes Leah to one of his concerts. When they return home she invites him to her room where she has prepared a meal for them. Finally they kiss.
Where the Heart Is is a 2000 American romantic drama film directed by Matt Williams and starring Natalie Portman, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd, and Joan Cusack with supporting roles done by James Frain, Dylan Bruno, Keith David, and Sally Field. The screenplay, written by Lowell Ganz and Babaloo Mandel, is based on the best-selling 1995 novel of the same name by Billie Letts. The film follows five years in the life of Novalee Nation, a pregnant 17-year-old who is abandoned by her boyfriend at a Walmart in a small Oklahoma town. She secretly moves into the store, where she eventually gives birth to her baby, which attracts media attention. With the help of friends, she makes a new life for herself in the town.
The Business of Strangers is a 2001 American drama film that tells the story of an eventful night shared between a middle-aged businesswoman and her young assistant. The independent film was written and directed by Patrick Stettner. It stars Stockard Channing and Julia Stiles.
Stockard Channing is an American actress. She played Betty Rizzo in the film Grease (1978) and First Lady Abbey Bartlet in the NBC television series The West Wing (1999–2006). She also originated the role of Ouisa Kittredge in the stage and film versions of Six Degrees of Separation; the 1993 film version earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. She was also one of two comic foils of The Number Painter on Sesame Street.
The Matthew Shepard Story is a 2002 made-for-television film directed by Roger Spottiswoode, based on the true story of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay youth who was murdered in 1998. The film scenario written by John Wierick and Jacob Krueger, it starred Shane Meier as Matthew and Stockard Channing as Judy Shepard and Sam Waterston as Dennis Shepard.
Sweet Valley High is a series of young adult novels attributed to American author Francine Pascal, who presided over a team of ghostwriters to produce the series. The books chronicle the lives of identical twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield, who live in the fictional Sweet Valley, California, a suburb near Los Angeles. The twins and their friends attend Sweet Valley High.
Up Close & Personal is a 1996 American romantic drama film directed by Jon Avnet, and starring Robert Redford as a news director and Michelle Pfeiffer as his protégée, with Stockard Channing, Joe Mantegna, and Kate Nelligan in supporting roles.
The Girl Most Likely To... is a 1973 American black comedy television film directed by Lee Philips and written by Joan Rivers and Agnes Gallin. It stars Stockard Channing and Ed Asner. The film premiered on November 6, 1973, as part of the ABC Movie of the Week. The story has plot elements similar to the 1950 film The Second Face.
Ellie Mills is a fictional character from the British soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Sarah Baxendale. The character made her first on-screen appearance on 22 February 2002 and made her final appearance during the episode broadcast on 25 March 2005.
Girls in Love is the first book in the Girls series, written by Dame Jacqueline Wilson, DBE, a noted English author who writes fiction for children and young teenagers. It was first published in 1997. The other books in the series are Girls under Pressure (1998), Girls out Late (1999), and Girls in Tears (2002).
Sorority Row is a 2009 American slasher film directed by Stewart Hendler and starring Briana Evigan, Leah Pipes, Rumer Willis, and Carrie Fisher. It is a re-imagining of the 1982 slasher The House on Sorority Row by Mark Rosman. The film focuses on a group of sorority sisters who are stalked and murdered on the night of their graduation, 8 months after covering up the accidental death of a fellow sister.
Sweet Revenge is a 1976 American crime film directed by Jerry Schatzberg. It was entered into the 1976 Cannes Film Festival. It was the second leading role for actress Stockard Channing in a film, following the previous year's The Fortune in which she co-starred opposite Jack Nicholson and Warren Beatty.
David's Mother is a 1994 American made-for-television drama film directed by Robert Allan Ackerman and stars Kirstie Alley as a devoted mother trying to cope with her autistic teenage son David. The film aired on CBS on April 10, 1994, it has also aired internationally. In the UK it can often be seen on television movie channels True Movies 1 and True Movies 2. It has also been released in home entertainment formats in countries including the United States, UK and Australia.
Grown-Ups is a 1980 British BBC television film devised and directed by Mike Leigh. It stars Lesley Manville, Philip Davis, Brenda Blethyn, Janine Duvitski, Lindsay Duncan and Sam Kelly. It was edited by Robin Sales and produced by Louis Marks for the BBC, and originally shown on BBC 2 on 28 November 1980.
A Girl Thing is a 2001 American made-for-television drama directed by Lee Rose. Consisting of four separate stories, the film premiered on Showtime on January 20, 2001, and concluded on January 27. The ensemble cast includes Stockard Channing, Kate Capshaw, Elle Macpherson, Glenne Headly, Rebecca De Mornay, Allison Janney, Mia Farrow, Lynn Whitfield, Linda Hamilton, Camryn Manheim, and S. Epatha Merkerson.
