Happy Birthday Suitless: Ellen Barkin

Ellen Barkin has been around a LONG time.  She first got notice for her roles in Diner and Tender Mercies.  Years later, she would endeavor higher profile dramatic thrillers set in very specific US geographical locations in The Big Easy opposite Dennis Quaid and Sea of Love, a comeback film of sorts for star Al Pacino.  Love did quite well at the box-office and led to Barkin getting cast in Switch, another Blake Edwards' gender bending comedy, for which she played a man who is reincarnated as a woman.  The film failed to interest audiences in large numbers, but helped nab Barkin a Golden Globe nomination.  She went on to play opposite Jack Nicholson in the box-office bomb Man Trouble, but would earn an Emmy shortly thereafter for Before Women Had Wings.  Mostly flying under the radar professionally, Barkin often provides strong supporting work.  In 2007, she experienced a surprise career resurgence as the female lead thanks to director Steven Soderbergh's keen eye in Ocean's Thirteen.

About this time, she was getting a lot of press for her messy divorce to businessman Ronald Perelman.  Not only did the bitch (I use that label in reverence) make out with $40M from the divorce, she got a court to order him to pay her production company $4.3M for reneging on an investment.  From a publicity standpoint, she was riding high.  She has gone on to win a Tony award for The Normal Heart and credible reviews for the recent Another Happy Day, the director Sam Levinson of which is three decades her junior and, as of last summer, she is cohabitating with.  Recently, probably in due part to the settlement (?), she has finally gotten into producing, which includes the hit Letters to Juliet, as well as projects providing her acting roles.  She has two children with ex-husband Gabriel Byrne and is big on Twitter.  Today, she turns 58.  Check her out on one of the latest episodes of Modern Family.