Showtime to showcase directorial efforts of Mirren, Masterson, and Heche

The behind-the-camera talents of actresses Helen Mirren, Mary Stuart Masterson, and Anne Heche are being displayed in On the Edge, a futuristic movie trilogy of three half-hour shorts being broadcast Friday, June 29, on Showtime. Mirren (Losing Chase) is directing Happy Birthday, a comic look at a world with too many machines, too many files, and too many people with not enough to do. The piece stars John Goodman and Beverly DAngelo and features David Hyde-Pierce and Taylor Negron. The Other Side, based on Bruce Hollands short story Lifeboat on a Burning Sea, is both written and directed by Masterson (Fried Green Tomatoes) and stars Bruce Davison (Longtime Companion) as a dying man who secretly creates a human replica of himself. The romantically versatile Heche has also taken on directing and scripting duties with Reaching Normal, based on the Walter M. Miller Jr. short story Command Performance. The piece features Paul Rudd (The Object of My Affection) and Joey Lauren Adams (Chasing Amy) in an exploration of what happens when we break out of our everyday lives and examine our relationships in order to save them. Heche has previously directed, most recently for the lesbian-themed If These Walls Could Talk 2 on HBO. All three stories are part of a theme involving a movie mogul being held hostage by a temp who shows these films as a means of making the businessman face his personal demons. Check local listings for times.