After the jump, the luminous Julia Ormond talks with Earl Dittman about the peculiar experience of working on the Oscar-winning Button (plus: this week’s DVDs and Blu-Rays).

And a little something for the mothers in your life: over here, Mr. Dittman talks to Brooke Shields about the role her own mother played in keeping her safe and sane through the trials of child stardom.

In the Academy Award-winning film (and Best Picture nominee) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Brad Pitt stars as a man who is born in his 80s and ages backwards. Utilizing the latest computer-generated special effects to age Pitt in reverse elevates Button to one of the more dazzling cinematic technological marvels since Jurassic Park. But the film is not all looks and no heart. Based on a F. Scott Fitzgerald short story, the David Fincher-directed Button may be majestic in scope, but it’s emotionally intimate. Cate Blanchett portrays Daisy, the woman Benjamin is destined to love forever. On her deathbed, Daisy mentions the name of Benjamin Button (who happens to be one of nature’s most romantic anomalies) to her daughter, Caroline. As she reads through her mother’s aging diaries, Caroline—brought to life on the screen by 39-year-old, British-born actress Julia Ormond—soon learns of Benjamin’s remarkable story of adventure, romance and redemption—from the end of World War I through the 21st century. As the tale of his life unfolds, Caroline soon discovers she is also the daughter of her mom’s life-long lover, Benjamin Button.

If you could age backwards in time like Brad does in the film—especially given the obsession with youth in Hollywood—would you go for it?
“No! When I look at the film, there is so much loneliness in it for him as a result of that. It poses an interesting question, but no. I wish I had known certain things when I was younger. I worried a lot, as a kid, about how I was going to cope and what I was going to do. And I worried about not being able to deal with problems. It just seemed like there was so much that was unknown, that you would have to deal with in adulthood and the responsibility of adulthood. I wish I’d known to just take a chill pill, and let it be what it would be. And that you’ll cope, ‘It’s okay.’ I think I’m happy that it’s gone forward rather than backwards.”

What was it like making The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button since you didn’t work with most of the cast?
“It was wonderful, it was a very unique experience. This was such an interesting experience, and to see all the baggage you bring, and the anxiety and all the rest of it. Although I would have loved to have been involved with the New Orleans part of (filming) it, and develop a rapport with the other actors and crew, it worked and was just right for the Caroline section of the story that’s revealed to her through the book.”

What do you think of film’s approach towards life and death?
“I thought it was really unique. I thought it was a unique story idea, that someone is born with an affliction that means they live their life experience backwards. And I found it amazing how much that ends up saying to us about life and death, and our life experiences … If you’ve ever nursed somebody to death, they revert back to being a baby. My grandfather was 97 when he died, and he was in a pattern of sleeping for three hours and then waking up and wanting to have a little bit of something. It was just like a baby—your mental capacity and memory deteriorates. There is something so beautiful. It feels like the story of the film goes around in a circle, instead of being a line …  I found that very powerful when I was watching it, in terms of how that actually accumulates into quite a profound experience. Yet David (Fincher) and (screenwriter) Eric (Roth) were so disciplined about not delivering the predictable climactic scene that I think would have somehow lessened it.”

How did you and [director] David Fincher work on your scenes for the film?
“Ultimately, what David and I were striving for was to have a sense of pacing—of how those scenes would fit in to what came after it or what you come out of, and to just remember the temperature of the scene so that you could work to get a good juxtaposition for the film. For me, it was almost like a symphony, when you have all these rich characters.”

How did you go about making the deathbed scenes with Cate so realistic?
“When you get to the point of somebody’s death, for a lot of people, that experience happens in the restriction of a very basic room, a bed, nurses, people in and out. The claustrophobia of that and the finality of that is something that fed into trying to get the circumstances of it as real as possible. I like how it fits with the rest of the movie, in terms of all the other trappings of life that fall away until you’re just left with the starkness of your relationship.”

Unlike Benjamin Button, your character Caroline is not in the whole film. So, how is Caroline important to the story?
“In my character’s arc, I’m there for the moments leading up to her death, but then I’m gone when she actually dies. And you never get to see the moment where she comes back and discovers she’s dead, but hopefully, if it’s done right, you don’t actually need it. When we were doing it, it felt like what was really happening was that, when Caroline initially gets that book and her mother wants to read it, my sense of it was that she fears it was somehow going to get in the way of her having an intimate experience with her mother and that she’s lost it, mentally. She wants to spend this time in denial, and she doesn’t want to talk through stuff that’s unresolved. She wants to focus on this scrapbook that this guy left her. But it’s her death, and it’s what she wants to do. Ultimately, what happens is that the mother shares something that she has held secret from Caroline, for Caroline’s own good. It turns into the exact intimate experience that they’re both seeking. When we filmed our stuff, it was very much about the mother-daughter relationship and how I would respond to hearing this news. And how would I respond to her asking for this, and just the fact that she’s fading away. It was just about the intimacy of being with someone, as they’re looking back.”

So, what was like working with an actress like Cate Blanchett?
“Cate was great. She’s beautiful, she’s smart, she’s very intelligent, and she has no starry ego or hierarchy on set. It was a very sound and gratifying acting experience.”

And David Fincher?
“I thought David was just phenomenal. I can’t think of another director that would have shouldered so much technical stuff and special effects. In your average film, maybe you would be dealing with some of that technical stuff for maybe five days of filming, where the acting takes second place to it. But he really delivered us a concrete platform from which he then wanted you to fly, and he was very specific about what he wanted. It was great.”

Right after doing Benjamin Button with David, you did the biopic Che with director Steven Soderbergh? What was that like?
“That was again another fabulous experience, but a very different directing style. The thing that was true about both of them, was that however small the part was, they both allowed me to talk it through. They were both passionate about going after the detail of it, and making choices that are informed by exploring all the different possibilities. Very often if you have a small role, you don’t get as much time with the director to talk that stuff through.”

So how do David and Steven differ as filmmakers?
“Steven works incredibly quickly. And David certainly works efficiently, but he’s not going to be rolling camera on you when you think you’re in your downtime. Whereas, Steven was just grabbing footage, and everybody was scrambling. And you’d see the lighting department run by going, he’s shooting. He’s his own cinematographer and his own cameraman, so he just knows when he’s ready to start rolling.”

It sounds like you had fun doing both Che and Benjamin Button?
“I did, they were both really special experiences for me. It’s wonderful to work with people who have not just developed their own style and have their own strengths, but who are really devoted to how we create character and how to do our best job to achieve that.”

BD + 2-Disc Criterion Collection DVD Bonus Features: Interviews with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, Commentary with David Fincher, Interview with composer Alexandre Desplat, 4-part documentary that reveals the secrets behind the visual effects and make-up, Featurettes, Still Galleries, Production Photos and an Essay.

Blu-Ray Releases:

There’s Something About Mary
This raunchy, no-holds-barred comedy classic, directed by the Farrelly Brothers, made both Ben Stiller and Cameron Diaz overnight stars when it was first released. Grossing well over $369 million across the world, this hysterical love triangle and gross-out film also holds the distinction of being the successful R-rated comedy films in Hollywood history. For those of you who grew up on a cult compound or have mentally blocked the nasty, in-your-face sight gags from their minds forever, in this riotously funny love story Ben Stiller plays Ted, a nerd still in love with his high school prom date, the sexy and gorgeous Mary (Diaz), even though it’s been years since a humiliating zipper/genital incident cut their special date short. Years later, the now successful Ted hires a private detective (Matt Dillon) to track his true down, but the P.I. quickly falls in love with her, too. A wonderfully crass, comic and uncouth battle for Mary’s heart begins. The Blu-Ray package spills over with 13 deleted, extended and alternate scenes, tons of commentary, featurettes, TV spots and trailers.

Dexter: The Complete Second Season
In its darkly intoxicating and bloody brilliant sophomore season, Michael C. Hall—delivering another eerily subversive performance—returns as Dexter Morgan, a forensic blood-spatter expert who maintains a side job as a bloodthirsty killer intensely proud of his gruesome handiwork. Filled with deliciously dark humor and shockingly graphic murders, the second season of Dexter finds Mr. Morgan the target of a manhunt, lead by a relentless FBI agent (Keith Carradine). In Year Two, not only is everyone’s favorite serial killer on the verge of being unmasked, Dexter begins doubting himself and questioning his code as a murderer who is helping society by doing away with the truly bad guys. Slashing their way back as series regulars, Jennifer Carpenter, Julie Benz, Erik King, Lauren Vélez, David Zayas and James Remar round out the cast. Loaded with special goodies, in addition to Season Two’s 13 episodes, there’s the exclusive BD Live feature, “Blood Fountains” featurette, podcasts and the first two episodes of both Toni Collette’s new multiple personality drama United States of Tara and Edie Falco’s upcoming medical dramedy series Nurse Jackie.

Heroes of World Class Wrestling: Deluxe Edition
An incredibly fascinating documentary—that even non-wrestling fans will love—Heroes of World Class Wrestling chronicles the story of wrestling’s First Family, the Von Erichs, and the rise and fall of the World Class Championship Wrestling league. This Blu-Ray special edition contains the Director’s Cut of the critically-acclaimed documentary with an additional hour-and-a-half of previously unreleased footage. Directed by longtime wrestling fan Brian Harrison, who was only a ten-year-old in 1983—when the WCCW was at it’s zenith—as he watched wrestling’s eternal combat between good and evil take a sharp turn into surreal and tragic reality on his home television set. For the documentary, Harrison flew to Texas to search his childhood hero Kevin Adkisson, known to wrestling aficionados as Kevin Von Erich, the oldest and sold surviving Von Erich brother. Through first-hand accounts from Adkisson and dozens of others who proved instrumental to ascent and decline of World Class Wrestling, Harrison pays tribute to the golden years of this legendary era and its fallen stars. Heartbreaking, mesmerizing and strangely triumphant, Heroes of World Class Wresting will hold viewers spellbound in ways they would never expect.

Bleak House
An innovative, edgy and fast-paced adaptation of the novel regarded as English fiction’s first-ever “whodunit,” all 14 episodes of the Bleak House mini-series (based on the 19th century legal system) will have viewers glued to their sofa seats. Boasting a remarkable cast headlined by Gillian Anderson (Scully from The X-Files), as the beautiful and secretive Lady Dedlock, and Charles Dance (Gosford Park), as the merciless lawyer Tulkinghorn, Bleak House took home a bevy of prestigious accolades and awards including two Emmys, five BAFTAs and the Peabody Award. Directed by Andrew Davies (Sense & Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice) this thrilling, award-winning adaptation of Charles Dickens’ renowned novel crosses all genre boundaries and will leave viewers begging for more. So, what is so special about this edition? How about some all-new audio commentary and interviews with Anderson and Dance?

DVD Releases

Boston Legal: Season 5
After five glorious, innovative and hilarious seasons on the air the doors to the law offices of Crane, Poole & Schimdt in Boston Legal — writer/producer David E. Kelly’s spin-off of The Practice —were sadly closed for the last time. Featuring the incredible Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning acting talents of James Spader (Alan Shore) and William Shatner (Denny Crane) Boston Legal — much like it’s legal/courtroom kissin’ cousins, Ally McNeal and The Practice — was another groundbreaking Kelly drama that wasn’t afraid to mix humor and sex with serious social issues. In its final season, the fast-paced, irreverent and often moving Boston Legal boldly confronted such timely and controversial judicial/personal issues as the 2008 presidential election, murder, Mad Cow disease, extortion, gay marriage rights, kidnapping and Alzheimer’s Disease with equally heavy doses of serious, jokes, pranks and sexual hijinks. Clearly ahead of its time, Boston Legal (which also starred such acting legends as Candice Bergen, Betty White and Rene Auberjonois) put a facetiously refreshing spin on the legal drama genre. It’ll be missed. Luckily, the 4-disc set documenting Season 5 (and containing the highly-rated and emotional two-hour series finale) is packed with enough must-see deleted scenes and commentary to satisfy longtime Boston Legal-eaglers forever.

October Road: The Complete Second Season
Another great series that was not renewed, October Road never snagged the massive viewing audience it needed — and deserved. Given a reprieve for its Second Season (and consequently, final), creatively, October Road delivered! Through its final 13 episodes, October Road continues to follow novelist Nick Garrett (Bryan Greenberg) as he returns home to find inspiration for his follow-up to his bestselling book about growing up a small town boy. Coming to terms with his feelings towards his old girlfriend (Laura Prepon) and dealing with writer’s block are only the least of his worries. Never maudlin or overdramatic, October Road is an emotionally solid and finely-acted series that deserved a stay of execution before being bumped off the network sked. Thanks to high-technology, at least, two seasons of October Road will live on forever.

Gavin and Stacey: Season 1
A hysterical, multi-BAFTA-wining British romantic series (which can be seen on BBC American and BBC Canada) follows the laugh-packed trials and tribulations of Gavin (Mathew Horne) and Stacey (Joanna Page), a pair of young lovers determined to prove the world wrong by making their long-distance relationship a success despite all the obvious and unexpected strikes against it. However, the harder the couple seem to work on stabilizing their often tenuous whirlwind romance, fate always hilariously happens to sabotage their quest for the perfect relationship — bringing their respective nations and families crashing together. Another winning English sitcom, Gavin and Stacey: Season 1 also contains a nice batch of featurettes outtakes and audio commentary. If you’re ready for loads of laughs, Gavin and Stacey certainly fits the bill.

Gene Roddenberry’s Earth: Final Conflict - Season One
With the new, J.J. Abrams-enhanced big screen model of the U.S.S. Enterprise about to warp speed its way into a multiplex near you, late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s last mission into space would be in the intense, thrilling and gripping Earth: Final Conflict series. Finally beaming its way onto DVD, Season One of the short-lived space adventure tells the story of an advanced alien species that visits Earth in the 21st century to share their knowledge and technology with humans. The alien’s chosen Earthling protectors (Kevin Kilner, Lisa Howard), though, quickly find themselves fighting off dangerous underground secret factions and duplicitous government officials — who all mean to harm the intergalactic visitors. Sharing many of the deep, soul-stirring themes that made the Star Trek and Next Generation series cultural mainstays, Earth: Final Conflict hits much closer to home (Earth) as it triples the hair-raising action and dazzles viewers with cutting-edge hi-tech special effects. Informative and entertaining commentaries accompany each of the season’s 22 episodes, while two exciting featurettes offer in-depth and insightful looks into the life and philosophies of the revolutionary Gene Roddenberry.

Love Takes Wing
Adapted from award-winning author Janette Oke’s seventh novel in her bestselling Love Comes Softly series, this western romance about the power of faith and perseverance, stars Cloris Leachman, Sarah Jones, Haylie Duff, Kevin Scott Richardson Patrick Duffy and Lou Diamond Phillips (who also directs). Picking up as Dr. Belinda Simpson (Jones) returns from Boston and takes on a new adventure as she makes her way to Missouri with her best friend Annie (Duff) to become the town doctor. A highly-successful and enduring cinematic and publishing franchise (30 million books and 3.5 DVDs), this latest installment is the perfect gift for that hopeless romantic you want to surprise on Mother’s Day.

The Charles Dickens Masterworks Collection
Over the years, Hollywood has attempted to adapt the works of this 19th century literary icon for the big screen with only limited, often embarrassing results. However, the BBC has — more often than not — always done tremendous justice to Dickens’ classic novels by releasing brilliantly-directed, star-studded and critically-acclaimed productions on the English TV network and for box offices across Terra Firma. In this lavish 10-disc DVD set, the signature works of Dickens come alive like never before. Fueled by Dickens’ classic blend of the comical and the grotesque, the Masterworks collection includes lavish and dazzling cinematic productions of Sense & Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice as well as spectacular, breathtaking adaptations of Bleak House, Little Dorrit, Great Expectations, Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop. Although the Masterworks Collection sports a hefty price tag, the quality and brilliance of each film is worth every single dollar you shell out for this essential DVD package. You definitely get what you pay for with Masterworks — productions of unmatchable quality and distinction.

Enchanted April
Nearly 16 years after its theatrical release, Enchanted April finally makes its way onto DVD. The perfect movie for anyone who has ever dreamed of an unhurried sojourn in Italy, Enchanted April features two Golden Globe-winning performances from Miranda Richardson (Best Actress) and Joan Plowright (Best Supporting Actress). Gorgeous, breathtaking visuals, top-notch acting and Oscar-nominated directing and writing transformed the film into an international box office hit. If your VHS has turned into mush, the Mike Newell-directed classic is the tale of a group of proper Englishwomen (Richardson, Plowright, Polly Walker and Josie Lawrence) who find romance, hope and renewal in the Italian countryside. A selection from the Miramax Award-Winning Collection, this mini-trip to sunny Italy contains all new commentary with Newell.

Jake And The Fatman: Season 2
In this hit action series from the late-’80s/early-’90s, William Conrad plays the cigar-chomping, former-Los Angeles District Attorney J.L. “Fatman” McCabe, a relentless, tough-as-nails justice-seeker who fights criminals (drug dealers, murderers, thieves, rapists. Etc.) alongside his easy-going, cool special investigator Jake Styles (Joe Penny), Jake’s assistant Derek Mitchell (Alan Campbell), sassy secretary Gertrude (Lu Leonard) and the Fatman’s bull bog, Max. Season 2 finds the motley crew of crimefighters in Hawaii, where the Fatman has allegedly retired. An early blueprint for the procedural crime dramas that now dominate television’s Top Ten, Jake And The Fatman more than stands the test of time with most of its timeless crime-busting storylinesthat play as fresh as they did in the early ’90s. Of course, the same can’t be said about everyone’s fashion choices, the automobiles and “unique” hairstyles from that era.

Crusoe: The Complete Series
While there were plans to turn Crusoe into a full-time, weekly drama, far too many TV-viewers were busy watching ridiculous reality shows or limp, too-old-for-television sitcoms to give this sensational series the ratings numbers it needed to stay afloat. A smart and clever take on the adventures of the world’s most famous castaway, Crusoe, as you’ll witness from the far-to-few episodes that still exist, is loaded with action, exciting inventions and romance. Philip Winchester, who stars as Robinson Crusoe, begins his battle for survival after setting sail for the New World. He experiences a surprising reversal of fortune after an attack on the ship finds him stuck on a remote tropical island. With only his native pal Friday (Tongai Arnold Chirisa) by his side, Crusoe uses his 1700s, pre-McGyver like skills to get back to his true love. Another victim of the Writer’s Strike, Crusoe may not have been able to find shelter on television primetime schedules, but with a DVD full of great bonus features, it should find a home in countless DVD collections.