ROSIE O'DONNELL TO PLAY LEAD ROLE IN MOVIE
BASED ON RACHEL SIMON'S BOOK

Beth and Rachel Simon

Rosie O'Donnell will play the lead role in a CBS movie based on the book Riding the Bus With My Sister by Rachel Simon '81, who teaches in the Bryn Mawr College Creative Writing Program. The book explores Simon's relationship with her sister Beth, who has a developmental disability. O'Donnell published an excerpt of Riding the Bus in her magazine, Rosie, before the book was released, and she optioned the film rights at that time. Her endorsement was instrumental in bringing the book to a wider audience, says Simon, who is in much demand as a speaker on issues associated with developmental disabilities and public transportation as a result of the book's success.

Riding the Bus is an account of a year during which Simon spent one day every few weeks with her sister, who rides buses around a Pennsylvania city from morning to night every day. Over the course of the year, Simon not only came to know her sister's community of drivers and passengers, but also learned a good deal about herself.

Simon says she couldn't have chosen a better actor than O'Donnell to portray her sister. "A few months before the book was published, I was indulging in a fantasy about who would be cast in the role of Beth if the book were made into a movie," Simon says, "and it hit me like a bolt of lightning that Rosie O'Donnell would be perfect. Five days later I found a message on my answering machine from Rosie O'Donnell, saying, 'I read your book, I love your book, and I want to play your sister.' It was amazing."

O'Donnell will also serve as executive producer of the project, along with veteran CBS executive Larry Sanitsky. Screenwriter Joyce Eliason has written an adaptation of the book.

Sanitsky and Eliason have worked together on several TV movies, including adaptations of books by Anna Quindlen, Elizabeth Berg and Mario Puzo. As part of their research, Sanitsky and Eliason traveled to Pennsylvania and rode the buses with Beth.

The movie will be filmed in Toronto, Simon says. Casting of roles other than Beth is scheduled to begin next week.

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