Adrienne Shelly

This week, Waitress, written and directed by Adrienne Shelly is being released. Years ago I knew her, as Adrienne Levine. This was before she became famous as an independent film actress, writer and director. Waitress is getting good reviews and premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival. I look forward to seeing it.

The last time I saw Adrienne was in the late 90s. She was in town for the Chicago Film Festival. I was visiting a mutual friend in the lobby of the hotel hosting the festival and she bounced into the lobby all happy and go lucky. She reminded me of Holly Golightly without the darkness.

This past Christmas I was watching Turner Classic Movies and between films they ran a tribute to actors who died during calendar 2006. There was Shelly Winters, Red Buttons, Jan Wyatt, Don Knotts and then Adrienne Shelly. I was shocked and saddened. I did not know she had died.

On November 1, 2006 she was murdered by a 19-year-old man who was working in a nearby apartment after Adrienne complained about the noise he was making. The whole story is much worse and it's not worth repeating here.

Adrienne Shelly was married to Andrew Ostroy and had a two-year-old daughter named Sophie. Her husband created the Adrienne Shelly Foundation to support women filmmakers. Please visit the web site and see Waitress. http://www.adrienneshellyfoundation.org/

PeterH