Mrs. Harris

Mrs. Harris is a 2005 American-British made-for-television drama film written and directed by Phyllis Nagy. The teleplay, based on the book Very Much a Lady by Shana Alexander, focuses on the tempestuous relationship between Herman Tarnower, noted cardiologist and author of the New York Times bestseller The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet, and headmistress Jean Harris. Produced by Killer Films, Number 9 Films, and John Wells for HBO Films, it premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16, 2005, before its broadcast on HBO on February 25, 2006. The film stars Annette Bening as Jean Harris, Ben Kingsley as Herman Tarnower, Cloris Leachman as Tarnower's sister, and Chloë Sevigny as his secretary and lover. The film also features a cameo performance by Ellen Burstyn as one of Tarnower's previous girlfriends; Burstyn played Jean Harris in the made-for-television movie, The People vs. Jean Harris (1981). Plot On a stormy night in March 1980, a distraught Jean Harris arrives at the baronial Purchase, New York home of Herman Tarnower following a five-hour drive from McLean, Virginia. Her goal is to commit suicide beside the pond on his estate after confronting her former lover, who spurned her in favor of his considerably younger secretary-receptionist Lynne Tryforos. When Jean removes a gun from her handbag, Tarnower attempts to take it away from her, and in the struggle he is accidentally shot and collapses. Because the phone isn't working, Jean drives off to seek help from a neighbor, only to return to the house when she sees a police car heading in that direction.