Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Don’t forget the Mimi generation


Mimi Rogers
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Bridget Byrne Associated Press

However glamorous they might look at age 50, finding a role that suits them can be a challenge for older actresses.

But the creators of Fox’s new TV comedy “The Loop” wrote the part of Meryl with Mimi Rogers in mind.

A high-powered executive for a Chicago-based airline, Meryl has more than professional interest in the company’s young new hire, Sam (Bret Harrison).

He, though, is busy struggling to balance the demands of his first real job with the still party-heavy lifestyle of his friends and roommates.

Meryl’s constant come-ons to sweet, stressed-out Sam are clearly not politically correct, but then not much is in this anarchistic look at the conflict between work and play (premiering Wednesday at 9:30 p.m.).

“There’s a fine line between tasteless and crass and just out-there, offbeat sensibility,” says Rogers.

“This is sophisticated lunacy. … If you are looking for a very broad, silly comedy, it works on that level, but if you are looking for something intellectually subversive, that’s really there, too.”

Rogers is married to producer Chris Ciaffa and they have two children. But she’s still inundated with questions about her previous husband, Tom Cruise.

“Any time anything happens with him I get a call: ‘What do you think of Katie (Holmes)? What do think about this?’ …

“Yeah, he’s having a kid. Of course I think it’s great. What do you want me to say?”

She supposes Nicole Kidman, Cruise’s latest ex-wife, gets similar questions. Rogers gently reminds people that “I’m one ex-wife removed,” and that her brief marriage to Cruise ended in 1990.

“I’ve had two kids since then,” she says. “I can barely remember my own name, let alone be remembering something almost seventeen years ago.”

Rogers has worked almost continuously in film and television since 1981, when she nabbed a recurring role as a night-school teacher at the end of the first season of “Hill Street Blues.”

With Ciaffa, she’s produced a number of television movies, including “Harlan County War” and “Charms for the Easy Life.” Now they’re producing “8888,” a big-budget Fox feature film.

Her supporting roles in recent movies range from the comedy “Dumb & Dumberer: When Harry Met Lloyd” to the emotional drama “The Door in the Floor.” Upcoming is the psychological thriller “Penny Dreadful,” in which she plays a therapist.

She seems untroubled by the ageism barriers that can limit actresses’ careers.

“There is a certain awareness on my part that when it comes to leads, I’m not the actress they are going to look at, because I’m way too old,” Rogers says.

“But I guess having a family – that kind of kills your ambition. I don’t really care about being a big movie star.”

The birthday bunch

Singer-songwriter Neil Sedaka is 67. Actor William H. Macy is 56. Actress Dana Delaney (“China Beach”) is 50. Bassist Adam Clayton (U2) is 46. Actress Tracy Wells (“Mr. Belvedere”) is 35. Actress Annabeth Gish (“The X-Files”) is 35. Rapper Common is 34. Actor Danny Masterson (“That ‘70s Show”) is 30.