another reason i hate toothy julia.

jazz women blue over julia
by richard johnson
page six, new york post

female jazz musicians who appeared in the julia roberts hit "mona lisa smile" are locked in a bitter legal battle with the toothy tinseltown titan.

jeanne daly, jill mccarron, ada rovatti and lauren sevian, all new york area residents, say they were only paid half what they were promised for appearing as extras, and less than a male jazz band got.

the irony is that "mona lisa smile" is a prototypical "chick flick" with a female empowerment theme. set in 1953, it stars roberts as a spunky art history professor who takes a job at all-female wellesley college, and proceeds to persuade her husband-hunting students to strive for something more in life. julia stiles, kirsten dunst and maggie gyllenhaal co-star as students.

"julia roberts plays a professor who gets women to stand up for themselves and break out of their stereotypical roles," jeanne daly told page six. "and here we are being discriminated against. it's pretty pathetic."

daly says that she and other women musicians were told they each would be paid $800 per eight-hour shift for each day of the four-day shoot. but after they arrived on the set, they were given paperwork saying they would be paid $400 per day for 12 hours of work.

the women say they were told the rest of the money promised would be made up in residuals from the movie soundtrack.

but producers later decided the women would not play their instruments live as planned, but would mime their performance - which nixed the residuals. meanwhile, the women discovered that male jazz players in the picture were each getting $650 a day.

daly and her co-plaintiffs - members of the 18-person female ensemble who appeared in the film - sued last fall in manhattan supreme court. they also filed complaints with the equal employment opportunity commission and the screen actors guild.

roberts, her production company red om films and smile productions have counter-sued, accusing the women of filing a "frivolous" lawsuit in a bid to "harass, embarrass and annoy defendants and in order to extract a sizable settlement."

daly shot back: "they're trying to intimidate us as they have every step of the way. i think they have underestimated the tenacity of four very angry female musicians. we're looking forward to moving towards trial."