Christine Baranski

Most Polish women have zero manners

Where'd she get that bad rhinoplasty? That's what I wanna know.

Not true....I met her at a movie premiere and she was lovely

I still can't believe that she was married to Matthew "Billy Clyde Tuggle" Cowles. I mean yes he was a brilliant actor, but the man looked like a living troll doll, and Baranski is always so glamorous.

I love her and find her an underrated hilarious gem.

Matthew "Billy Clyde Tuggle" Cowles actually worked together on All My Children - go 1 minute into video below

R6 wow, I had no clue. That’s interesting, am I to believe she started her career in Soaps?

R7 I think it had more to do with her husband being "Billy Clyde" and the producers asking if they wanted to do a short two-week stint.

She also did a short stint on Another World, but as any NY actor would tell you, everyone does a stint on a Soap for the money and the health insurance.

I love her in Bowfinger too...

I have never net her but the anecdotes I have read about her makes me think she is an introvert verses just being a bitch to fans.

You people think I am a cunt?? Let me introduce you to Cybill Shepherd.

She was great in Cruel Intentions.

I HATED her character on the Good Wife. She was such a bitch to Alicia.

is she, though?

If for no other film, I will always love her in The Birdcage. She really killed that role and the movie is one that you can watch 100 times and still watch again. I have no clue what she is like on a personal level and I really could care less.

I have always wondered if she is/was a man. Her ears and hands are huge.

R13, Alicia deserved that bitch slap.

Nice Polish-Carholic girl from Buffalo. Have worked on several sets with her. She’s focused on the job she needs to do but always takes time to at least say “good morning” and exchange pleasantries with the crew. Which is something not ALL of them do.

I have a former student who met her at the post-Tonys party a number of years ago. My student also grew up in Buffalo, so they bonded over that. My student finally confessed to Baranski that she crashed the party, just walked in as if she owned the place (while Betty Buckley was telling the receptionist that she'd left her invitation back in New Jersey--Buckley had also just lost for The Invention of Love). Baranski turned to my student and said, "That takes real balls, kid," and roared with laughter (my student was all of 4'10"). I've always thought Baranski was a good egg, but probably is, as others have said, mildly introverted, maybe even thrown off by her celebrity. Some years later, I saw her and her husband outside a theatre (same one my husband and I were seeing). They looked like a nice, classy couple, and we left them alone.

Matthew Cowles was actually from a very wealthy, old money family down South, he just looked like white trash. It’s Christine who came from humble beginnings.

As if Meryl or Judy Dench could dance like this.

Her best role was Bunny in "The House of Blue Leaves".

R20. His family is related to the Drexels of Philadelphia, one of whose either is a saint or is being considered for sainthood.

R22 I agree. My best friend and I went to see Blue Leaves and were disappointed to read in the program that Stockard Channing had left and was replaced by someone we'd never heard of (though we're excited to see John Mahoney and Swoosie Kurtz). By the end of Act I, as good as the other stars were, all we could talk about was Baranski. She seemed to be channeling Joan Rivers st first, but created her own unique and extraordinarily funny (and venal) Bunny.

Ben Stiller was in it as Ronnie (his mother was the original Bunny and DL favorite Katherine Helmond was Bananas), but I don't remember him much, other than his shaved head. It's not a particularly well-written role (the nuns are better-drawn), more a plot device in an otherwise great play.

I saw her do a staged reading of Sweeney Todd. She was magnificent.

[quote]Ben Stiller was in it as Ronnie (his mother was the original Bunny and DL favorite Katherine Helmond was Bananas), but I don't remember him much, other than his shaved head. It's not a particularly well-written role (the nuns are better-drawn), more a plot device in an otherwise great play.

Actually, r22, when it was first tried out in the late 60s at the O'Neill Center, Act 1 was the entire play. It ended with them leaving to go see the Pope. Guare was encouraged to write an Act 2 to make it longer and more saleable to NYC audiences and so he added the son, the nuns and the movie producer, who all only appear in Act 2. It opened off Broadway with Helmond and Anne Meara. Frank Converse was Artie and Harold Gould was the movie producer.

[quote]It opened off Broadway with Helmond and Anne Meara. Frank Converse was Artie and Harold Gould was the movie producer.

Oops, no switch that around. Gould was Artie and Frank Converse was the producer.

She’s only a cunt to fans who think she’s me.

she is aunti mame! she is eccentric, unique, brilliant, fun, holder of every award, much beloved in the show biz world. world class beauty. ok?

she still married to billy clyde/???? wow he did so many goofball roles, seems way fun.HUNG

why do u think she mean OP ???? ive seen her at stage door often , she never denys a pic or autog, is very liked by them that know her.

R29 Matthew Cowles aka Billy Clyde, died in 2014, they were married until he died. Thanks to the Prospect Park revival of All My Children in 2013, he got to play Billy Clyde one last time.

she been thru a lot. bless her heart. she gives all she got in every show...Master Showman.

She is one of my all time favorite actors. I don't meddle with their personal lives.

I remember reading a posting on here a while back about her being in a record store and the poster(who was working there at the time) said she was rather curt and impolite. I remember being really saddened by that. But I could kinda see her taking on that kind of persona generally, not because she's an all out bitch, but rather to steel herself against dim-wittedly chummy fans (not that the work/poster was necessarily acting like that). I have a feeling, because of her eccentric acting, people/fans assume she's a good-time gal or likes to talk, which may lead to some weird encounters for her. I myself am a fan of hers and, as much as I hate to admit it, I'd probably be a bit too chummy myself in that she just seems kind of cool.

Here is the thing, we expect actors or celebrities to be kind to everyone in every day life. That's bullshit. I can imagine being nice to every person that interrupted me or wanted to chat that was a stranger.

She was also in a relationship with a much older man, actor James Greene, and he died in the early 1980s.

Any stinky pussy issues?

I love Diane and the Good Fight. It would be nice for JM to do a guest arc, but we know that's not likely to happen.

I know of her from her reading of Joyce Carol Oates' story: Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?

She's one of those rare actresses that I've enjoyed in pretty much everything I've seen her in - even Mame where she was a bit miscast (she's more of a Vera). Well, I take that back. I hated her rendition of "I'm Still Here" in the Encores concert of Follies. I'm not sure if she was intentionally trying to make the final notes sound awful, but they sure did. She was playing Carlotta as a lush, so it ended up feeling more like she was playing Joanne from Company.

Has she ever played Joanne in Company? It seems like she was sort of born for that role.

Why is it that she looks waspy and wealthy, and her husband looked white trashy? What is it about their faces that conveys those things, even though they actually aren't those things? Holland Taylor was another one who looked like a wealthy wasp.

I remember her as the funniest Helena ever in Midsummer Nights Dream. "I'm as ugly as a bear" while powdering her face with a compact.

I’ve seen her at the stage door a few times after a theater performance, and she s always been polite and friendly to fans. I don’t know if any negative reputation is deserved.

She's one of the great character actors we have left. She's always a treat to watch even when she's in pure shit. Very few actors have the ability to rise above material, but she does.

[quote]Very few actors have the ability to rise above material, but she does.

She didn't rise above that shitty Nick & Nora. And she was the killer.

Matthew Cowles (her husband), looked like a later Jan Michael Vincent...a healthier version, though.

In all fairness, no one in Nick & Nora could rise above the material and there wasn't a slouch in that cast. That truly was a disaster.

[quote] Have worked on several sets with her. She’s focused on the job she needs to do but always takes time to at least say “good morning” and exchange pleasantries with the crew. Which is something not ALL of them do.

If you were not another actor sharing scenes with her, the director, the costume designer, her hair and make up person, or the producer... you did not work WITH her, you worked on the project she was in. Sheesh.

The Good Fight really went off the rails this season

Now, doesn’t that title just give ya a thrrrrill?

Several years ago I got to visit the set of The Good Wife, as my friend’s best friend was one of the principal cast members. I’ll never forget it, because of the horrible atmosphere on set - you could cut the tension with a knife. Very chilly. Everyone kept to themselves, didn’t interact with one another, etc. Zero camaraderie or friendship on that set, even amongst the crew, who looked bedraggled and overwhelmed. The one exception and bright light on an otherwise very tense set was Christine Baranski. She was lovely and spent ages chatting with us and thanking us for visiting. Julianna Margulies, on the other hand, only muttered a quick and curt “hello” and disappeared to her trailer, where she had all kinds of people - manicurists, assistants, stylists, coming and going for hours. Margulies even refused to take photos with us - although to be fair, our friend warned us against asking. Baranski was happy to take loads of pics. She even asked for a do-over so we could get her “from her good side.”

We went to dinner with my friend’s friend afterward, who confirmed it was a miserable job and that none of the cast were friends - with the exception of Ms. Baranski, who made the effort to be gracious with everyone, save for Margulies apparently, who just eventually wore her out with her diva antics. My impression was that Christine is a very professional, no nonsense actor and she was incensed at Margulies’s unreasonable demands, overblown ego and brittle demeanor.

Not sure where this reputation for Baranski being problematic or rude comes from, but I can definitely state that wasn’t my experience at all. And I don’t think anyone who’s worked with her would claim otherwise. I think it speaks volumes that The Kings cancelled the show just to get away from Margulies, and then turned around and rebooted it with Baranski as the lead.

I don’t appreciate her trying to scrub her childhood embarrassments from the record.

Dammit!

R52 No wonder Josh Charles quit.

Eating disordered females have short tempers they are hangry all the time. This is a pure fact.

Not surprised about The Good Wife set anecdote. We all know Julianna Margulies is a raging ice queen cunt. I can't even stomach interviews with her because she comes off so imperious and phony. Christine on the other hand always looks very glamorous, which might give the impression of her being an uppity snob, but I've always had the impression that she's a nice, relatively normal person with good taste.

R55, yes - I think everyone wanted off that show at a certain point. We only met Charles briefly but he seemed nice enough. Clearly the issue was with Margulies, but because she was the star she had the power to set the tone on set and thus she made it a miserable experience for all involved. That slap in the last episode wasn’t really for Alicia Florrick - it was for Julianna Margulies, and they chose to let Christine Baranski deliver it, because she’s the antithesis of Margulies and put up with years of her bullshit, just like The Kings. It was the cast and crew’s final “goodbye, F you” to Margulies.

[quote]Although it lacks the big, flashy spaceship battles that mark the success of that other CBS All Access draw, streaming legal drama The Good Fight has quietly amassed a passionate following for itself, drawn in both by its pulled-from-the-horrible-screaming-headlines nature—this is a series where a major plot point involves tricking Donald Trump into tweet-firing one of the heroes’ enemies—and the joys of watching Christine Baranski casually rip people to shreds.

[quote]One thing it hasn’t had in its corner as of yet, though: An appearance by Baranski’s former co-star from the show’s parent series, The Good Wife herself, Julianna Margulies. Given that Baranski is not, apparently, on the list of that show’s cast members that Margulies eventually outright refused to be in the same room as, you’d think she might pop up on the All Access series. Indeed, she was apparently slated for a three-episode run on the show at one point—presumably addressing, at least in passing, the ending of the original show, in which she and Baranski’s Diane Lockhart had a pretty definitive parting of the ways—but it was scuttled when CBS refused to pay her appearance fee.

Someone needs to knock Miss Cunty Margulies on her bony ass.

R59, Baranski is too much of a pro to refuse to film scenes with anyone, but make no mistake - the pay wasn’t the only reason Margulies didn’t make a guest appearance on The Good Fight. I think everyone involved decided inviting that kind of toxicity, especially when much of the crew is the same as before and probably has PTSD from working on TGW, was a terrible idea. They might have let her guest if she’d accepted a reduced salary but they knew her ego would never allow that, so mostly they just offered as a courtesy, knowing it probably wouldn’t work.

"You Bitch. You'll be in Bellevue tonight with enough shock treatment they'll be able to plug Times Square in your ear" - looks at audience - "I didn't work for Con Edison for nothing!"

Bunny Flingus was the first time I saw Baranski in anything (thank you PBS) and I instantly fell in love with her performance and she's been a favorite ever since.

What grounds did cunty Margulies have to "outright refuse to be in the same room" as her former co-stars? What a fucking diva--and not in the good way, in the insufferable cunty, way.

Only remember her from the sitcom Cybill. How was she in those Mamma Mia movies?

Her Helena in Midsummer in the park walked off with the show. Can that really have been 30 years ago.

I will never forget her powdering her nose looking into the mirror of her compact while saying "I'm as ugly as a bear."

Julianna is really delusional. Does she honestly think the Good Fight has the same budget as the Good Wife being on CBS All Access?

I love these Julianna stories. I love how she is getting her comeuppance. That Dietland show was shit and promptly cancelled.

Christine isn't a cunt. She may be no nonsense but she's professional and warm to the people who are fellow pros.

Meryl wouldn't put up with bullshit.

Julianna is a grade A cunt and has been for years. No mystery. She needs to stop trying to claim victim status for not being paid more for a guest shot. The fact that she's saying "oh, but I am not a guest, I'm the star" tells us EVERYTHING we need to know in that situation.

It's kinda inspiring that Baranski has had to play second banana to a bunch of spoiled, insecure narcissists all her life who are constantly trying to cut her lines and screen/stage time and she's finally having the last laugh with a pretty fantastic career. I mean, the woman has played so many great roles and been in some terrific shows and movies. She'll be remembered while bitches like Julianna and Cybill will probably be forgotten a few years after they kick the bucket. Makes me think that karma might be real.

Apparently Julianna has been full of herself since day one. There are cunt anecdotes going back to the very first episode of ER

More Good Wife gossip!

[quote]There are cunt anecdotes going back to the very first episode of ER

Cuntedotes.