text: Next came Tadpole, a very low budget piece shot by Gary Winick in 14 days for a mere $150,000. This saw precocious 15-year-old Oscar (Aaron Stanford) suffering a crush on his sophisticated stepmother (Sigourney) and sleeping with her best friend (Bebe Neuwirth) because he's so turned on by the smell of the scarf she's borrowed from Weaver. Of course, massive complications arise, particularly at one dinner party where the naughty Neuwirth threatens to give the game away and teases the boy mercilessly. It was an odd picture, a little messy even after Miramax had picked it up for $6 million and improved many of the shots. And some critics asked what the reaction might have been if Oscar had been a 15-year-old girl caught between two older men. But the film was generally entertaining, winning Winick a directors award at Sundance, and would be a major fantasy source for many young men who'd never have the good fortune to be trapped between Weaver and Neuwirth.
  After this, she pulled out another Weaver special with Holes. This was a Disney adaptation of Louis Sachar's classic novel for young adolescents, featuring Camp Green Lake, where bad boys must dig a 5 by 5 by 5 hole every day until they are good. A simple plan, and often effective. The boys were also persecuted by supervisors Jon Voight and Tim Blake Nelson, who were in turn intimidated by Weaver's fabulous Warden Louise Walker, a terrifying persona who has her own secret reason for having all these holes dug.
  She'd also lend her voice to the fairy tale animation Happily N'Ever After, featuring the hot teen couple Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar. But the industry talk was of one thing only. Would Weaver team up with Ridley Scott once more for Alien 5?
  Sigourney Weaver now works when she likes, taking Charlotte with her or, when necessary leaving her with Jim, who runs the Flea Theatre. She goes to the gym, rides horses, practises karate, dances, snorkels and listens to jazz (she was introduced to this by Jim, and believes it has liberated her). She has her own production company, Goat Cay, and hopes, perhaps when she's 80, to play Miss Marple, like her hero Margaret Rutherford. She's still a political activist. Amongst many other projects, she's on the board of directors of the Lawyers Committee For Human Rights. It's even possible she makes Meryl Streep jealous. Not bad for a big, gawky girl who'd never go anywhere.
  Deacon Frederick North was born on 12 August 1803.1 He was the son of Junius North and Sabrina Fyler.1 Deacon Frederick North married Harriet Hoyt on 14 June 1830.1 Deacon Frederick North died on 3 February 1894 at age 90.1