Actresses

Wanda Sapp often visited movie sets to watch her daughter perform stunts. She never dreamed she'd watch her daughter die. Sapp and two of her other children were present in November, when Sonja Davis fell to her death while working as a stunt double on the upcoming Eddie Murphy film "Vampire in Brooklyn." The family is suing Paramount Studios and Eddie Murphy Productions for $10 million, alleging that the film crew failed to provide proper safety equipment.

Behold a scene of lust and betrayal between a young woman and another woman's fiancé, on top of a kitchen table. Make that on top of a birthday cake. On the betrayed woman's birthday. Oh, and the women are roommates. Then discover that it's not only excusable behavior but also actually a kinky act of kindness. And that's just the opening scene of "Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23," ABC'ssubversive midseason addition to the quirky-girl comedy trend, which has its season finale Wednesday.

Darren James saw the news flash on his TV screen last week: A porn actress had tested positive for HIV. James, 45, felt a moment of shock, then sadness. "I feel really bad for this girl," he said. "One thing I can say, I just wish her well. It's the worst thing to get that call." It's the call James got in 2004 when the well-liked porn star known for his courteous nature on set found himself at the center of an HIV outbreak in the San Fernando Valley's multibillion-dollar porn industry.

While getting started for her debut in Culture Monster's Influences column, brassy Broadway veteran Elaine Stritch, 87, wanted to make one thing clear: She's never been influenced by anyone. "I am not influenced by other human beings," she says. "But I am inspired. If I see a great performance on television, onstage, in the movies, I go to work the next day with a renewed energy and less fear. These great artists take me out of my life and make me want to go there. But I never imitated anyone.

"The word 'actress' has always seemed less a job description to me than a title," Gene Tierney once observed. If she were still among us, the star of stage and screen might be surprised to find tarnished whatever cachet, in the glamour-gilded 1940s and '50s, was attached to the word. If "actress" is indeed a title, in many quarters it is no longer considered one of distinction.

It's been a good week for June Fairchild. She and a friend scraped together enough to stay at the Rosslyn Hotel, a tattered building off downtown's skid row that charges about $28 a night. In her eyes, it is a glorious place. She doesn't see the bars shielding the concierge or the worn patches in the deep red carpet. At 54, she would rather remember what it looked like when she was a starlet in Hollywood during the '70s.

They were the dames. The dolls. The femmes fatales. The beautiful but deadly leading ladies of the shadowy, cynical, hard-boiled films noir of the 1940s and '50s. They made smoking look sexy and suggestive, and they could lure the toughest lug into their evil web with a flick of their wrist and a wave of their long curly tresses.

Drenched in gasoline, Nancy Alvarez is surrounded by police, firefighters and a hysterical juvenile court judge who is trying to talk the 17-year-old out of suicide. The tough, tattooed chola cradles an infant in her lap and brandishes a gas hose and cigarette lighter. For Nancy, the scene is only make-believe, a few moments of a film titled "Judgment," in which she portrays a troubled teen-ager about to end a life of drugs, prostitution and gang membership.

In America's movie theaters, this has been the summer of women behaving badly: Kristen Wiig as an underachieving maid of honor who trashes her friend's bridal shower in "Bridesmaids"; Cameron Diaz as a pot-smoking middle school teacher handing her bra to a student in "Bad Teacher"; Jennifer Aniston as a sexually predatory dentist harassing her male assistant in "Horrible Bosses. " Still to come: Anna Faris as a hard-partying slacker with a long list of exes in September's "What's Your Number?"

The response from Angie Chuang's article "For This Club, Hollywood Life Begins at 35" (April 2) has been overwhelmingly powerful and amazingly diverse. Not only have we--Actresses @ Work--heard from an astounding number of successful mid-career actresses in need of support, but producers, directors, writers and non-show business people as well. It has been confirmed to us that ageism is infecting all of our society--it's not just actresses over 35 who have felt a decline in employment.

Joyce Redman, a two-time Oscar-nominated Irish-born actress whose erotically charged dinner-eating scene opposite Albert Finney was a highlight of the bawdy 1963 British film comedy "Tom Jones," has died. She was 96. Redman died Thursday in Kent, England after a short battle with pneumonia, said her son, actor Crispin Redman. A veteran of the London and Broadway stage, Redman received her first Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress for "Tom Jones," which starred Finney as the incorrigible 18th century English title character who has a series of amorous adventures.

Film producer Stacey Sher and musician Kerry Brown have listed their house in the Beverly Crest area at $5.795 million. Originally designed by Wallace Neff, the 1948 house was once the home of actress Julie Andrews and director Blake Edwards and later remodeled. The 1.61-acre site includes a 7,800-square-foot main house, a 2,480-square-foot guesthouse, a separate building with a bathroom, a tennis court, a basketball court, a swimming pool and waterfalls. The living space features beamed ceilings, stained-glass windows, brick, stonework, mahogany doors and six fireplaces.

Actress Meg Ryan, known for her leading-lady roles in romantic films, has been having an on-again, off-again relationship with her Bel-Air home since she first listed it in 2008 for $19.5 million. Now it's on the market again, this time for $11.4 million. The listing describes the classic Spanish-style house, built in 1931, as having undergone a "museum-quality restoration. " The two-story home features such period details as stenciled beam ceilings, arched doorways and ironwork.

After leasing her West Hollywood house out last year, "Gossip Girl" actress Kelly Rutherford has returned it to the market at $1.099 million. The Spanish bungalow, built in 1926, features a living room with fireplace that opens to a sky-lighted dining room, an updated kitchen, two bedrooms and 13/4 bathrooms. The deck contains a bar and a built-in barbecue. Rutherford, 43, plays husband-hopping Lily van der Woodsen on "Gossip Girl" (2007-present). She was also in the series "E-Ring" (2005-06)

"I always had an acting bug," Clara Mamet declared recently during a rehearsal break at the Ruskin Group Theatre in Santa Monica. The confession wasn't exactly startling, coming from the newest member of a growing family dynasty of writer-performers. Clara Mamet, the daughter of actress Rebecca Pidgeon and author David Mamet, grew up reading a play a day and watching her parents shuttle between stages and film sets. One of her half-siblings, Zosia Mamet, also is an actress, portraying Joyce Ramsay on "Mad Men"and the nerdy Shoshanna on "Girls,"HBO's new outer-borough retort to "Sex and the City.

SACRAMENTO — Halsey M. Minor, the Cnet co-founder and a high-tech business pioneer of the 1990s, tops the state of California's latest list of its 500 biggest income-tax delinquents. Minor and his wife, Shannon, both of San Francisco, owe California $10.5 million, tax officials reported Friday. Minor did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment. Minor's wasn't the only quickly recognizable name on the state list. Former Playboy model and "Baywatch" actress Pamela D. Anderson of Woodland Hills owes $524,241 in state income taxes, the list says.

CATE BLANCHETT "Elizabeth" The Golden Globe winner garners her first best actress nomination for her performance as the strong-willed Virgin Queen. The 29-year-old Australian, previously seen in "Oscar & Lucinda" and "Paradise Road," is also nominated for a SAG Award. FERNANDA MONTENEGRO "Central Station" The famed Brazilian stage actress picks up her first best actress nomination for her role as a retired schoolteacher who befriends a young orphan boy.

Frances Fisher pops open a bottle of wine for a toast to her new Los Angeles home. It's her first day in the first house she can actually call her own, and she's stoked. It doesn't matter that the place is bare from its hardwood floors to its off-white ceilings--that is, except for two tot-sized chairs that belong to 2-year-old Francesca. The actress is putting down roots for her daughter. To this single mother who spent her own childhood in Italy, Turkey, England and Texas, that is significant.

Singer and actress Julie Andrews has listed the Brentwood house she owned with her late husband, director and screenwriter Blake Edwards , for $2.649 million. The traditional-style single-story house features an open plan family room and living room with French doors opening to a garden. The formal dining room has a cathedral ceiling and glass walls. An artist's studio with a bathroom sits above the garage for a total of four bedrooms and three bathrooms. The walled and gated lot measures less than a quarter of an acre.