Rita Rudner
Rita Rudner is a witty stand-up comedian with a pillow-soft voice that just wasn't built for profanity. ("I don't swear. When I do, my husband gets out the tape recorder. Once, when I was first doing comedy, there were only five people in the audience, so I did my whole act swearing every other word. All the waitresses and people at the bar ran in yelling, 'Rita's swearing! Rita's swearing! Everyone come!'") She and her husband, former BBC comedy writer Martin Bergman, co-wrote Kenneth Branagh's film Peter's Friends. Their second collaboration, the Bergman-directed A Weekend in the Country, airs June 12 on the USA Network, and stars Jack Lemmon, Christine Lahti, Dudley Moore, and Richard Lewis, along with Rudner. She and her hubby have their co-writing system down pat. ("We make each other feel really guilty, and the person who makes the other feel the guiltiest doesn't write. The guilty person sits down and writes until the other person feels really guilty, and then they take over.") She's proud of her off-camera success, but is frustrated by the lack of worthwhile opportunities in front of the lens. ("Hollywood is a town run by men. A young, beautiful woman has a much better chance than an older, smart, funny woman. I'm trying to do things I'm proud of, which is really what's holding me back. If I would just do any old thing, it would be a lot better for my career.")
