Helen Mirren Joins HBO's Phil Spector Film, Replacing Bette Midler

As previously reported by BroadwayWorld, Bette Midler has pulled out of the cast of the untitled film centered around Phil Spector. Midler suffered from a herniated disc and left the film on doctor's orders. HBO today announced her replacement: Helen Mirren.

Mirren joins stage and screen veterans Jeffrey Tambor and Al Pacino. The film is written and directed by David Mamet, who counts among his many writing credits the Tony nominated and Pulitzer Award-winning Glengarry Glen Ross, and the Oscar winner The Verdict.

The 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson in his Alhambra, California home led to record producer Phil Spector being charged with murder in the second degree. After a 2007 mistrial, he was convicted in 2009 and given a prison sentence of 19 years to life.

Mirren has won international recognition for performances spanning four decades. For her role as Queen Elizabeth II in Miramax's "The Queen," Mirren won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, SAG, BAFTA and Critic's Choice Award. In addition, she was named Best Actress by every critic's organization from Los Angeles to London. At the Venice Film Festival she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and received a five-minute standing ovation for her performance after the film's premiere.

Mirren has also received significant recognition for two other performances she filmed in the same year as "The Queen." For HBO, she portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in the miniseries "Elizabeth I." She won an Emmy, Golden Globe and SAG Award for that role. The two-part series explored the queen's public and private life late in her reign. Mirren also reprised her long-running character Detective Jane Tennison in "Prime Suspect: The Final Act," the last installment in the PBS series. The performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination, however she lost to herself - she was nominated twice in the same category. The character previously won her an Emmy and three BAFTA Awards.

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