News > Virginia Madsen Joins Swank, Gere in "Amelia"

"Sideways" star Virginia Madsen has joined the cast of Mira Nair's Amelia Earhart biopic "Amelia" in the role of Dorothy Binney. Binney was the first wife of publisher George Putnam (played by Richard Gere in the movie). Putnam and Binney divorced in 1929, and the older man married Earhart (Hilary Swank) in 1931. This marriage lasted until the aviator's disappearance and apparent death in 1937. Variety says that the film will chronicle the roller coaster relationship between Putnam and Earhart, and no doubt his first wife will have something to do with that.

Ron Bass wrote the screenplay. Shooting begins this month in Canada and South Africa. 

-David Morgan