Sharon Stone, Judy Davis: First Ladies?

By Stephen M. Silverman

Friday June 06, 2003 11:00 AM EDT

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This season, it was Cybill Shepherd as Martha Stewart and Robert Carlyle as Adolf Hitler who lit up TV screens in biopics. Next season, it's looking like Sharon Stone as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Judy Davis as Nancy Reagan could be doing the same.

The A&E network on Thursday announced plans to make a two-hour movie about the New York senator and former first lady (who's also the author of the new memoir "Living History"). An early 2004 airdate is expected, the network said.

Although casting has not been finalized, producers have already held discussions with Sharon Stone, 45, for the leading role, the Associated Press reports. Robert DeBitetto, senior vice president of programming for A&E, says no decision has been made on who would play Monica Lewinsky.

Gail Sheehy's bestseller, "Hillary's Choice," will be the basis for the script, which will begin with Bill Clinton's inauguration and end with the election of Hillary, now 55, to the senate. In between will be the story of "Hillary's quest to fulfill her own high hopes and ambitions as she repeatedly faces humiliating personal setbacks," said A&E.

Meanwhile, over at CBS, a two-part miniseries about the family life of former President Ronald Reagan, now 92 and suffering with Alzheimer's, and wife Nancy, 81, is in the works.

Based on Carl Sferrazza Anthony's 1991 book "First Ladies: The Saga of the Presidents' Wives and Their Power, 1961-1990," the script is expected to spotlight his relationship with Nancy and his rise in politics, reports Variety. (Nancy Davis was Reagan's second wife, after Oscar-winning actress -- and Democrat -- Jane Wyman.)

Judy Davis, 48, who won an Emmy for playing Judy Garland in "Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows," is negotiating to costar as Nancy Reagan, 81, says the trade paper. No other casting has been mentioned, though shooting is expected to take place this summer for a possible November airdate.