By R.D. Heldenfels | The Beacon Journal

Cleveland native Patricia Heaton, Jeff Daniels pair up in new version of '77 Neil Simon movie

Everybody Loves Raymond star Patricia Heaton sat on a New York City street, talking by satellite to reporters in Hollywood. Still, Ohio came up.

Former Clevelander Heaton noted her roots while talking about The Goodbye Girl, a new version of the 1977 movie, which will air on TNT in 2004. Heaton plays the title role, originated by Marsha Mason, opposite Jeff Daniels, reprising Richard Dreyfuss' Oscar-winning part from the earlier movie as an actor who falls for a single mom.

Fans of the older movie have expressed some reservations about the new film. And it was eerie to watch clips of the new version echoing lines from the old one.

In a satellite press conference from the movie's New York location, playwright Neil Simon said the new script is not very different from the old one. He could not even remember any changes at first, until Heaton reminded him that there's a cell phone in the new film.

Director Richard Benjamin said that the old film is "wonderfully done, and set perfectly in its time.'' But the pace of the new film is quicker, in keeping with an audience more accustomed to a faster pace than viewers a quarter-century ago.

"Attention spans are shorter today,'' Benjamin said. "What I like to do is keep everything moving.... We can move the camera and do stuff that produces a kind of energy of today.''

And Heaton had no hesitation in taking her part.

"I was in the second grade'' when the movie came out, Heaton joked. "I saw it but I didn't fully understand it.

"I jumped at the chance to do (the new movie) the minute it was offered to me,'' she said. "Neil's writing is very special for an actor, and you don't often get a chance to do something like that.''

She also saw glimpses of herself in both her character, Paula McFadden, and in Daniels'.

"I lived in eight different places in New York in the nine years I lived here,'' she said. "I came right from Delta Gamma sorority (at Ohio State University) to the Chelsea Hotel, so it was really an interesting move for me.''

Her life there was very much like her character's, she said, with "really big ups and really big downs. That's the thing about New York City. There's a very vibrant energy, so whatever you're experiencing, you experience it in a very big way.''

And, she said in a mockingly tearful tone, "I had a lot of heartbreak here, like Paula. So it's kind of thrilling to come back here and get to play it in a movie.

"And also, when I was living here, I really didn't get any work at all as an actor. I couldn't get arrested. So it's kind of sweet to be filming on the streets of New York. And there's lots of people who watch Raymond, and love the show, so much to Jeff's chagrin, I'm being mobbed by fans.

"They keep mistaking Jeff for Bill Pullman. Or Jeff Bridges,'' said Heaton, who can rarely go long without cracking wise. "Jeff's coming back to L.A. with me to get on a sitcom.''

"It was going really well until then,'' Daniels murmured.

"I tried to hold back, Jeff,'' Heaton told him. "I tried to hold back. I couldn't.''

In fact, she had already needled Daniels a bit after an earlier question to him about how his New York days were reflected in his character.

"Jeff gave us his heartbreak tour around New York City,'' Heaton said. She recalled Daniels saying, `Oh, here's where I lived when I couldn't get a job.'

"It was very pathetic,'' Heaton said.

Still, Heaton did not spare herself from criticism. Reminded that her character is a dancer, she said, "Now, she's a very bad dancer.

"I begged Neil to make her a singer, but it would have screwed up the whole script,'' she said. "It was a very painful and humiliating experience for me. And I'm going to pay the editor a lot of money to make sure that the body double they got is in most of those shots.

"Bear with me, people, on this. Be kind when you watch this movie. Suspend your disbelief.''