Is Clint Eastwood Bringing Doris Day Out of her 50-year Retirement?

Reports from Europe are coming in that Clint Eastwood has lured beloved film star Doris Day out of her near 50-year retirement to star in an upcoming film. This would be a monumental feat, to be sure, but if anyone can do it he can.

Day, 91, famous for her roles in Pillow Talk with Rock Hudson and Alfred Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much as well as for her singing career and long-running TV series The Doris Day Show, hasn’t starred in a feature film since 1968’s With Six You Get Eggroll and has lived a quiet life in Carmel with her animal charity. Eastwood is her Carmel neighbor and word is (from the German tabloid Bild) that he gave her a script that she might not be able to refuse. Currently, Eastwood is in pre-production on Sully, the story of American pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who landed a troubled aircraft full of passengers on the Hudson River and stars Tom Hanks in the titular role. This could be the Oscar chance that fans of Day have been waiting for for decades. Think Gloria Stuart in Titanic or Ruby Dee in American Gangster. Historically, her fear of flying is what has been said to keep her from accepting an Honorary Oscar although her name always ends up on the wishlists year after year. She also declined to pick up a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2008. Day has allegedly made two demands: the film must be shot in Carmel and a cut of the profits must go to her animal welfare charity. Now, this is all currently unsubstantiated so we’ll have to wait and see if there is confirmation from Eastwood or Day’s camps but I’m kinda crossing our fingers for it to happen.

In a rare interview last year, Day said: “Would you believe I’m still offered scripts and projects all the time? Every once in a while I think about working again, but they don’t make the kind of movies I made any more. It’s a different world.”