ANNETTE BENING - BENING DROPS OUT OF PLAY

BENING DROPS OUT OF PLAY

Movie star ANNETTE BENING has pulled out of her first performance on the Broadway stage for 20 years, citing "personal reasons". The American Beauty actress was to have played a feminist writer suffering from writer's block in director Michael Mayer's play The Female Of The Species. But the 49-year-old has now dropped out of both the production's February (08) premiere at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse and its subsequent New York run, scheduled to open in April (08). It is unclear whether Bening's withdrawal will have any affect on her upcoming role opposite Bette Midler, Carrie Fisher, Meg Ryan, Jada Pinkett-Smith, Eva Mendes and Candice Bergen in movie remake The Women.