Actress reflects on ‘Cuckoo’ role
Actress reflects on ‘Cuckoo’ role
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Louise Fletcher says she can’t bear to watch “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” because the Nurse Ratched character she won an Oscar for is so cruel.
“I find it too painful,” said Fletcher, 78. “It comes with age. I can’t watch movies that are inhumane.”
Fletcher is returning this weekend to the institution where the movie was made in 1975, the Oregon State Hospital in Salem.
The hospital, long under fire for inadequate programs and crumbling facilities, has been rebuilt in recent years. Fletcher is attending the opening of its Museum of Mental Health.
The movie is based on the novel by Oregon writer Ken Kesey. It centers on the struggle between the steely Nurse Ratched and Jack Nicholson’s scheming character, Randall McMurphy, who eventually gets a lobotomy for leading a rebellion among the prisoners on his ward.
“I was really shocked in those scenes where I was actually so cruel,” Fletcher said.
Sales sluggish for new Rowling book
NEW YORK (AP) — Sales for J.K. Rowling’s first adult novel were hardly magical during its first six days. But the publisher isn’t complaining.
Little, Brown and Company announced Wednesday that “The Casual Vacancy” has sold 375,000 copies so far, a figure which includes hardcovers, e-books and audio books. That makes Rowling’s novel among the fastest selling new releases of the year, although not in the same league as her Potter books. The last Potter, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” came out in 2007 and sold more than 8 million copies in the U.S. alone in its first 24 hours.
“The Casual Vacancy” was published Sept. 27 to high anticipation. Reviews have been mixed, but the book has been at or near the top of Amazon.com since coming out.