Mary-Louise Parker, currently starring on the Showtime series "Weeds" is the thinking womans actor.  She is able to morph into a character like Meryl Streep does, so you never think of Parker, only focus on who she has become. She made her Broadway debut in 1990, in a production of "Prelude to a Kiss" playing the lead roll of Rita. She wasn't brought on board when the film was made. She was nominated for a Tony Award for her role.

In 2001 she won a Tony award for her role in the Broadway play of David Auburn's "Proof." She again lost out when the play was made into a film and the role was given to Gwyneth Paltrow. That must have hurt. Over the years she has worked steadily in the theatre, on T.V. and in Film. She's taken small roles, had big ones and acted in lots of independent films.

She's probably best known for her role in Fried Green Tomatoes as well as her guest appearances on The West Wing and is currently making a movie starring opposite Bruce Willis in the film "Red" an adaption of the comic book mini-series of the same name. It's scheduled to be released on October 22, 2010.

Parker is bohemian in her personal life. Her homebase has been the West Village for years. At 45, she's never been married but had an 8 year relationship with actor Billy Crudup who left her when she was seven months pregnant with their child. At the time he started dating actress Claire Danes. She had a minor breakdown when he left her, hugely pregnant, but has bounced back remarkably, landing the Weeds role and adopting a baby girl from Ethiopia as a single mother. Her kids are now 5 and 3 and she and Crudup have an amicable relationship as co-parents of their son. She is currently dating 35 year old singer Charlie Mars.

I recently saw a picture of her in a celebrity magazine.  Someone snapped a picture of she and Alec Baldwin literally passing each other on the street in New York and stopping to chat. Alec looks all giddy and little-boyish and she is grinning and looking happily goofy. Must be nice, I thought. To live in a world where you bump into Alec on the street and he thinks it's a thrill to talk with you!

All I know is whenever I see that she is in a film or in a TV appearance I look forward to watching a quintessential actress act like there's no tomorrow. It's a privilege and a joy.