Everybody’s Playing Billie Jean King
Two of this year’s hottest actresses are slated to star in competing films about lesbian tennis icon Billie Jean King (center): Fox Searchlight has cast Emma Stone (left) in “Battle of the Sexes,” a retelling of her historic match against aging chauvinist Bobby Riggs (played by Steve Carell). Back in 1973, when a 29-year-old King was the Number 2 woman in tennis (and still married to a man), 55-year-old retired Wimbledon champion Riggs bragged he could beat any woman on the court. A challenge was issued, with a $100,000 prize for the winner. It’s a great story—which may be why another studio is also making a Billie Jean King/Bobby Riggs movie. HBO and Playtone have tapped Proof scribe David Auburn to write another King-Riggs film, with “Pitch Perfect” star Elizabeth Banks (right) as Billie Jean and Paul Giamatti as Bobby Riggs.
