**Update: **Looks like Epstein and Friedman are keeping the Gloria Steinem role intact, as Variety reports that Sarah Jessica Parker is nabbing that part, replacing the departed Moore.
Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman have been cranking the cameras on buzzed-about biopic Lovelace since late December. Now they’re dealing with a couple of changes to the cast, as Demi Moore has dropped out and Chloe Sevigny has climbed aboard.
Amanda Seyfried is already starring as Linda Lovelace (formerly Linda Boreman), who leapt to infamy when she was plucked from obscurity by Chuck Traynor (Peter Sarsgaard). He cast her in legendary porn pic Deep Throat, and for a while she seemed to be an unlikely superstar. But Linda’s life was filled with trouble and strife, and she went on to write a caustic memoir about her time, before becoming an anti-porn campaigner.
As we reported earlier this month, Moore was cast as MS Magazine founder Gloria Steinem, who wrote articles about Lovelace’s life. But now she’s dropped out citing personal issues and exhaustion.
Sevigny is playing a feminist journalist writing a freelance assignment for a men’s magazine, who is tasked with finding out about the real Linda. While it’s not a direct swap, it does make us wonder if Epstein and Friedman have decided to forgo putting Steinem in the film.
She joins a cast that also includes Hank Azaria, Adam Brody, Bobby Carnavale, Sharon Stone, Chris Noth, Juno Temple, Wes Bentley, Romeo Brown, Robert Patrick, Eric Roberts and one James Franco, who is popping in to make a cameo as Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.