CALGARY - Brad Pitt has found himself a leading lady for his Jesse James movie. Award-winning stage, TV and screen actress Mary Louise Parker has been cast as Zee James, the outlaw's wife in The Assassination of Jesse James.

Filming begins on the duster in the Calgary area Monday, so Parker is expected to arrive in the city later this week.

Parker joins Pitt and Casey Affleck, who plays Robert Ford, the man who shot James.

Director Andrew Dominik is expected to announce the casting for the remainder of the Jesse James gang within the next couple of days.

Parker, 41, was nominated for a Tony Award in 1990 for her Broadway debut in Prelude to a Kiss and has remained a mainstay on Broadway ever since.

She won the Tony a decade later for her performance in Proof.

She won a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 2004 for the HBO mini-series Angels in America in the role she originated on Broadway.

Parker made her feature film debut in 1990 in Longtime Companion and has appeared in such movies as Fried Green Tomatoes, Grand Canyon, Bullets Over Broadway, Reckless, Red Dragon and The Five Senses.

Her TV work includes the new Showtime series Weeds, the soap Ryan's Hope and as Amy Gardner on The West Wing.


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