When we catch up with her the September after her college graduation, Alice’s disloyal friend Charlotte has already shed any artsier Hampshire coloration and is turning herself into a cool Manhattanite with a possibly big future in television - perhaps with kids, too, if that should seem indicated.

Kate Beckinsale, who was cast out of Oxford for her debut in Kenneth Branagh’s MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, played Flora Poste in John Schlesinger’s adaptation of Stella Gibbons’ satirical novel, COLD COMFORT FARM, also released by Grammercy in the United States; and as the title character in the British Television version of Jane Austen’s EMMA, seen on A&E.

Citing her French-language performance in Manuel Fleche’s MARIE LOUISE…, Stillman says, “Kate was clearly brilliant and the American accent she came up with for Charlotte is wonderful. She and Chloë can do the New England college talk better than anyone. Just Kate’s way of saying ‘howrible’ would crack us up.”

Kate’s other credits include the British comedy SHOOTING FISH to open this May in the U.S. She recently finished shooting in the Philippines director Jonathan Kaplan’s BROKEDOWN PALACE, with Claire Danes.