Baranski, Christine

Christine Baranski (1952 - )
In Step with Christine Baranski
By James Brady
Personal:
Born May 2, 1952, in Buffalo, N.Y. Married to Matthew Cowles since 1983. Two daughters: Isabel, 16, and Lity, 13.
Films:
Include Soup for One, 1982; Crackers, 1984; Legal Eagles, 1986; 9 1/2 Weeks. 1986; The Pick-up Artist, 1987; Reversal of Fortune, 1990; Addams Family Values. 1993; The Ref, 1994; Jeffrey, 1995; The Birdcage, 1996; Bulworth, 1998; Cruel Intentions, 1999; Bowfinger, 1999; How the Grinch Stole Christmas, 2000.
Television:
Includes Another World, 1964; All My Children. 1970; Playing for Time, 1980; The House of Blue Leaves, 1987; Cybill, 1995-98; Welcome to New York, 2000.
Theater:
Includes The Real Thing. 1984; Hurlyburly, 1985; The House of Blue Leaves, 1986; Rumors, 1988; Lips Together, Teeth Apart, 1991: Sweeney Todd, 1989.
Christine Baranski studied acting at Juilliard, was a cocktail waitress in Manhattan and eventually won Tonys for The Real Thing and Rumors. Last year, Baranski was back on stage with Kelsey Grammar in Sweeney Todd. She's married to Matt Cowles, a writer and longtime soap star on All My Children. Her husband's family is why they were off to Rome for the canonization of Katharine Drexel. "Matt's grandmother was a Drexel, and he's related to the Bouviers [Jackie Kennedy's folks] and Teddy Roosevelt. One cousin served under Custer." On an earlier trip to Europe with her daughter Isabel, Baranski tried to sea her pal Tom Stoppard, who wrote The Real Thing, but she missed him in London. "But that gives me my best Paris story," she said. "We went to that famous cafe Brasserie Lipp, and who was at the next table but Isabel's icon, Mick Jagger having lunch with...ta dah! Tom Stoppard!" In Cheektowaga, N.Y., the suburb of Buffalo where she grew up "they have a Christine Baranski Day," she said. "and I have the keys to Buffalo." And what does Cheektowaga mean? "Land of the crab apple trees."
This may be her second-best season ever, Christine Baranski told me recently over drinks. She stars opposite Jim Carrey in the holiday movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas, has the lead in the new Wednesday-night CBS sitcom Welcome to New York and soon would be off to Rome with her family for the canonization of an American saint, Mother Katharine Drexel, and a possible meeting with the Pope. So, what was her best season? Well, in 1983 84, she got married, won a Tony for The Real Thing and delivered her first child. Isabel.
What about The Grinch? "I play his childhood sweetheart," she said. "He has a big crush on me, and I watch with horror as his childhood humiliations turn him bitter. He lives in a cave, while I grow up to become the Martha Stewart of my day. My clothes are really over-the-top, made by a woman who worked for Dior."
Baranski added, "I like it that once in a career you can say you've been in a big Hollywood movie with a great cast and all the production values, and everyone at the top of their game. Here's an example: The lady who did my makeup has won three Academy Awards."
How did the new CBS sitcom come about? "I was not anxious to go back to TV," said Baranski, who won an Emmy for Cybill. "I was thinking about doing Mame on stage. But I had a one-year development deal with CBS that was running out, so I went to see Les Moonves [CBS Entertainment president] and said I was sorry it was over. But I had read the script for Welcome to New York, and the minute he heard I liked it, he said: 'You've gotta meet the writers.' They were from Chicago, and I liked them. I shot the pilot in L.A. - with caveats: The series itself had to be shot in New York." (Her family lives in rural Connecticut.)
So now Christine plays the urbane producer of a New York morning-TV show who hires a weatherman with a Mid-western sensibility. Is CBS behind Welcome to New York? "The commitment is for 13 shows," she said, "but it has a kind of style I believe in - smart and classy. There's a lot of junk out there. Our show's writing is far more subtle. My favorite movie is His Girl Friday [with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell skirmishing at a newspaper], with that rapid-fire dialogue. It can't be quite that fast with a studio audience. Most sitcoms have talking heads making jokes at each other. We go way beyond that."
Source: Parade Magazine, Dec. 10, 2000.

Actress Baranski Proud of Heritage
Christine Baranski (pictured) believes her late grandparents would be proud that she remained true to her Polish heritage and never adopted a stage name.
The Buffalo, native, who played Maryann Thorpe on the '90s sitcom "Cybill," returned to the heavily Polish community last August to be inducted into the Western New York Entertainment Hall of Fame.
"They would all be so proud that I kept my family name," said Baranski, 49, recalling the contributions of her late grandparents, father and brother to local culture and architecture.
Though her mother, Virginia, is the only member of her immediate family still living in Buffalo, Baranski said she remains a regular defender of Buffalo's climate and sports teams.
"Every year, I've had my heart broken by the Bills and Sabres," she said. "Every year, I'd ask my mom, 'Is Dominik Hasek still good for another season?'"
Baranski's portrait will hang in the lobby of the Shea's Performing Arts Center, alongside those of other Buffalo-area natives including Lucille Ball, Nancy Marchand, Mark Russell and Jay Silverheels.
Source: Straz, Sept. 13, 2001.

Christine Baranski arrives at the 9th annual Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles. Baranski, along with the cast members of hugely popular Robert Marshall's film "Chicago", won the top prize of the night - "outstanding ensemble cast in a motion picture."
Source: Straz, Apr. 24, 2003.

Baranski to star in new TV series
Cheektowaga native Christine Baranski is starring with John Larroquette in a comedy, NBC's Happy Family (premiering Sept. 9 at 8:30 pm/ET),
Instead of the rich, roughcut character, Maryann, that she played on the show Cybil, her new character Annie, is a doting mother who realizes too late that her grown kids are problem children one and all.
Baranski told TV Guide that when the new script came along, she thought: 'Well, how nice to play someone actually closer to myself and to my own life experience."
Source: Am-Pol Eagle, Aug. 28, 2003.