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Melanie Mayron won an Emmy 13 years ago for playing the neurotic Melissa Steadman on the ABC yuppie angst series "thirtysomething." "I have played the best friend to some of the biggest and best movie stars," Mayron, 49 years old, told the 8/25/02 LA Times. "In the leads I have done, I was the best friend--the movie was about the best friend." Mayron has directed numerous episodes of TV series, such as "Providence," "State of Grace," "Ed" and "Dawson's Creek," and several TV movies. She received a Directors Guild of America nomination in 1997 for "The Wonderful World of Disney" family comedy "Toothless." She made her feature debut in 1996 with the family film "The Baby-Sitters Club." (LA Times article 8/25/02) Mayron shot 2002's comedy feature "Slap Her, She's French" in 43 days in Plano, Texas. "Slap Her" stars Jane McGregor as Starla Grady, the most popular girl in high school who's upended by French exchange student Genevieve LePlouff (Piper Pearbo). "My grandmother--she passed away a few years ago--was a Russian Jew. She moved in her late 20s to Philadelphia from Kiev. She was so concerned growing up about what people thought of her--you had to be a certain way and live a certain way even if it wasn't in your heart. That's kind of Starla's thing. She is with this guy because that's who she is supposed to be with. She has got these friends because they are the pretty girls." (LA Times 8/25/02) Shyamalon writes on Imdb.com about Slap: "First I thought this would be another boring high school movie with bad actors, a terrible plot and of course some disgusting jokes. But funnily enough if wasn't. All the actors were great, especially the really lovely Piper Perabo and the brilliant Jesse James. During the movie you really can't tell which of the two girls is the bad one, so the actors play their rolls very well. The plot gets better every minute of the film. It starts not very interesting, as we watch another of these cheerleader dolls with nothing in mind. But as soon as the French character comes into play it gets really interesting and funny and, wow, there is some kind of plot. The thing that the movie will make popular across the States is, that different cultures and mentalities are shown."
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