Parker Pushed For Lesbian Plot

MARY-LOUISE PARKER begged the director of FRIED GREEN TOMATOES not to censor the film's lesbian plotline, believing it to be a crucial part of the story.

Parker starred in the 1991 movie with Mary Stuart Masterson playing her best friend, but in the original story - from Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel - their characters were lovers.

Movie bosses were determined to downplay the relationship and portray the couple as just close pals - despite Parker's desperate pleas to filmmaker Jon Avnet.

She explains, "I tried to make it (the homosexual connection) more articulated at the time, but they didn't really want to go that way. And in some ways I wish that it was... Because I tried - I really tried to push it at the time, and they didn't want to go there with me. Mary Stuart did, Fannie Flagg did, but not the director, not the producer, nobody else."