She-Devil (1989 film)
She-Devil is a 1989 American black comedy film directed by Susan Seidelman and written by Barry Strugatz and Mark R. Burns. It stars Meryl Streep, Roseanne Barr (in her film debut) and Ed Begley Jr. A loose adaptation of the 1983 novel The Life and Loves of a She-Devil by British writer Fay Weldon, She-Devil tells the story of Ruth Patchett, a dumpy, overweight housewife, who exacts devilish revenge after her philandering husband leaves her and their children for glamorous, best-selling romance novelist Mary Fisher. Produced by Orion Pictures, She-Devil was released on December 8, 1989, and grossed $15.5 million at the box office. Streep earned a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy the following year. Plot Frumpy, overweight wife and mother Ruth Patchett desperately attempts to please her accountant husband Bob, who is trying to boost his business. After Bob meets narcissistic romance novelist Mary Fisher at a party, they begin an affair. Ruth, aware of the affair, confronts Bob while his parents are visiting, and Bob leaves her. Angry, Ruth vows revenge on him and Mary. Ruth lists Bob's assets, representing his home, his family, his career and his freedom, planning to cross off each one after destroying it. With Bob away at Mary's and the kids at school, she procures Mary's financial records and overloads the electricity of the house, destroying the house in a massive explosion. She leaves the kids with Mary and Bob and tells him that she will not be returning. Bob's second asset, his family, slowly deteriorates, as Mary's selfish refusal to learn how to be a mother causes tension in her relationship with Bob and begins to interfere with her ability to write her newest romance novel. Mary's new novel is loosely based on her romance with Bob, but her publisher Paula considers it strange and off-putting as there is a chapter about laundry. Ruth takes a job at a nursing home under the pseudonym Vesta Rose, where she befriends Francine, Mary's foul-mouthed, estranged mother, and arranges for her to return to Mary's life at an inopportune moment. She also meets Hooper, a nurse who has worked for the nursing home for 22 years and put aside her earnings for a considerable life savings. Though Ruth horrifies Hooper by secretly switching the senior citizens' sedatives and mundane routines for vitamin and caffeine pills and enriching activities, she gains Hooper's trust by introducing her to desserts. After Ruth is fired from the home for dumping water on Francine's bed to frame her as a bed-wetter and prevent her return, she and Hooper form a partnership and start an employment agency for downtrodden women who have been rejected by society and need a second chance. The agency is successful, and the women Ruth has helped assist her in getting revenge on Bob. Olivia, an attractive but ditsy young blonde, applies to the agency, and she is hired as Bob's secretary where he starts sleeping with her at