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Women in Hats

Women in Hats, May 2008
by Judy Sheehan

Ballantine Books
336 pages
ISBN: 0345480082
EAN: 9780345480088
Paperback
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"Intimate portrayal of the difficulties of being raised as the child of a famous celebrity."

Fresh Fiction Review

Women in Hats
Judy Sheehan

Reviewed by Kay Quintin
Posted April 14, 2008

Women's Fiction

As an actress for Warner Brothers in Hollywood, Bridget "Bridie" Donnelly became famous and went through a series of husbands. Her third husband, director Frank Majors, whom the dysfunctional Bridie married in 1964, is the father of her two children. The oldest, Lilly, was a smart child who smiled constantly. Leigh, the serious one, didn't smile until the age of three. With their mother always in the limelight, Lilly and Leigh severely lacked attention. Lilly, devoted to Leigh, did her best to protect her.

When Lilly is killed in an accident, Leigh is left to fend for herself. Living in the shadow of her famous mother and director father, Leigh grows up to become a director-in- residence at Wonderland Theater. For her birthday, Leigh's husband, Michael, surprises her with a play he's written. "Women in Hats" is a story of his family and his mother's hat shop. When Leigh decides to produce Michael's play, she's manipulated into casting her mother in the lead, but then forced to fire Bridie before the opening. Leigh must learn to live as an independent person of worth and to confront her past conflicts with her mother.

WOMEN IN HATS starts a little slow but becomes more interesting as the story progresses and the characters are fully defined. Leigh is a strong woman who finally confronts her problems head on. The difficulties of being raised as the child of a famous celebrity is thoroughly portrayed to reveal the loneliness this child endured and gives an insight into the difficult life of the famous.

Learn more about Women in Hats

SUMMARY

Her name is Leigh Majors and she isn’t going to change it. She works hard in her off-Broadway theatre as a director of small, critically acclaimed plays. She has a sane and happy marriage with Michael, and a delightful best friend in Maddie. Her mother, the famous Bridie Hart, was America’s favorite TV sitcom mom, who can only play the role of a good mother if somebody else writes the dialogue. Leigh and Bridie have a tense, standoffish relationship on a good day. Still, Leigh’s life is quiet, calm and under control.

But what if Leigh could have more? What if she could have a passionate, romantic relationship? What if she could have (or even become) the mother she always wanted? What if she could step out of her small downtown theatre and direct a Broadway play? What if all of these possibilities open up for Leigh when her husband writes a Broadway-ready play that could become Leigh’s big directorial break? But there’s just one catch: the play will star her mother, the one and only Bridie Hart.

What follows is a Six-Million Dollar adventure where Leigh directs her mother in her husband’s play, Women In Hats. Leigh steps through the looking glass, where her whole life turns upside-down and gets so much better.


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