Jennifer Aniston’s thrilled to be making her 9 to 5 remake, especially now a script has been finished, an insider exclusively tells Closer – but she’s worried the project won’t have nearly as much input from Dolly Parton as she’s hoping for, despite her very best efforts.
“Jen wanted Dolly involved in a big way in the 9 to 5 remake but everybody around the project right now, which is currently seeking its director, is preparing for the reality that the only thing the movie might get from Dolly is the right to use her famous classic theme song,” the insider explains. “Dolly may have said some nice things about the project in the past but Dolly is old, Dolly still works all the time, and even a small cameo or a brand new song could be asking too much.”
Although the glammed country star has publicly given her stamp of approval for the remake of the 1980 comedy, actions speak louder than words for Jennifer.
“Everybody knows that Jen holds grudges and never forgets this kind of thing, but there’s also an upside to this for Jen in that it allows her to put her own very distinct stamp on this movie at a time when Jen is really trying to break back into producing movies thanks to her growing power behind the scenes of The Morning Show,” the source continues. “Jen is looking to get this movie green-lit by January and she’s laser-focused on making this a buzzy, Barbie-like experience, with or without the support of the original trio of 9 to 5 stars.”
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Dolly, who portrayed Doralee Rhodes, starred in the film alongside costars Jane Fonda as Judy Bernly and Lily Tomlin as Violet Newstead.
Although Closer’s source says Dolly’s cameo is not likely, the “Wildflowers” singer gushed that she’d want Jane and Lily to return.
“I’m hoping they use my song, and I’m hoping they might find a way to have Lily, Jane and me come back in,” Dolly told E! News in June.
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Later in the interview, the Steel Magnolias actress gushed that her rockstar goddaughter Miley Cyrus would be a great candidate to play Doralee.
“Wouldn’t she be great? Well, she knows me,” Dolly continued to the outlet. “She knows the memories that I have [from the movie].”
Jennifer and Dolly became close after starring in the film Dumplin’ in 2018. Dolly recalled the Friends star mentioning her interest in making a 9 to 5 remake while filming the movie together.
In June, the “Islands in the Stream” singer said she and Jennifer talked about the remake in more detail after the Just Go With It actress invited Dolly to her Los Angeles home.
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“She’d invited me over for lunch and for me to meet her dog – her white dog that she called Dolly Parton,” she giggled to the crowd at the CMA Fest. “I’ve been called a dog before, but this is the first time I’ve actually seen it. Anyway, so I said, ‘Don’t you be hollerin’ around the neighborhood saying, ‘Dolly, don’t pee on my carpet! Dolly, don’t do this.’ Don’t you start doing stuff that’s going to embarrass us both.’”
She continued, “But [Jennifer] did talk about wanting to [remake 9 to 5] then with younger, newer people and that possible, Jane, Lilly and I might – they might look us up now that we’re older and whatever positions we’re holding, the characters that we played – and that we might get to be in it there. I’m certainly they’ll use my song [‘9 to 5’].”
