Photo:  Miss Finesse with Doris Roberts

Photo courtesy of Miss Finesse

Photo:  Miss Finesse with Ernest Borgnine

Photo courtesy of Miss Finesse

Angels, angels, angels.  My Pradas are exhausted….but in a good way! Yours truly skirted into the fabulous W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale where Ernest Borgnine and Doris Roberts chatted with the press about their movie, “Another Harvest Moon”.  It’s playing at Cinema Paradiso in Fort Lauderdale through Thursday, April 7th – here’s the link for show schedules http://www.fliff.com/schedule.asp.

Ernest and Doris were incredible; words can’t describe how it feels to be in the presence of such talented legends.  Ernest, 94 years young, was recently awarded the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.  Doris won four Emmys for her role as Marie Barone on Everybody Loves Raymond, which brought her international accolades as the most popular actress in television. The consummate professional, to this day Doris takes classes every Saturday morning to perfect her craft.

“Another Harvest Moon” boasts a stellar cast which additionally includes Piper Laurie, Anne Meara, Cameron Monaghan, Richard Schiff and Cybill Shepherd. That’s some serious talent. The movie is a sensitive drama about four elderly Americans coping with life and mortality in a nursing home. I got a chance to see the movie at the premiere and was moved by the honesty of the characters.  The acting was superb, the cinematography divine, and the music score (composed by Ricardo Garcia and William V. Malpede) tapped into every emotion the scenes called for. I left Cinema Paradiso thinking about life and choices.  As Doris herself said at the press conference, “Happiness is 50% DNA and 50% choice”…wise words indeed.

Both Ernest and Doris had such an amazing rapport with us (us being the press), if I had to transcribe the entire conference, this posting would be hundreds of pages long.  Instead, I’ve decided to post a few questions and answers.

Addressed to Doris:

Q:   Hi Doris, I’m Miss Finesse with Living Large with Miss Finesse.  So, just between us girls,  what was it really like working with Ernest on this movie?

A: The best! Absolutely the best. He’s a great inspiration to all of us…and funny.                 (Miss Finesse: Well, you’re both very, very funny.)

Q:  Now this movie deals a lot with the theme of transformation.  How did this movie and your character, Alice, help transform yourself as an actress?

 A:  That’s a hard one. I loved her because she doesn’t give in. She doesn’t settle, she doesn’t give up, she doesn’t take no for an answer even though she is dying and I learned from that part of it.  That’s how I want to be.

Addressed to Ernest:

Q:  What attracted you to this script?

A:  If I like a script, I’ll read it all the way through.  If I fall asleep during half of it; forget it  (laughter). I mean they pay well and everything else, but forget about it.  This one kept my attention all the way through and it’s a story about life as seen through the eyes of a man who writes a script.  You have a life in the rest home that we’re in. You have a life in the people that come and visit you, your family.  So you’ve got two families.  The script is about what happens to this person and the people around him.  The idea is to look at the movie with a sense of you’re getting old yourself and this is what happens when you get old.  The idea of being in a rest home and this life business and what happens to you…it’s quite a story.   I enjoyed it.

I for one am grateful that Ernest and Doris enjoyed the script enough to be a part of this incredible movie. Check out the official movie website at www.anotherharvestmoon.com .  And remember my angels, keep your Pradas on the ground and keep on Living Large!!!