Tea With Mussolini

BASED ON ZEFFIRELLI’S own childhood in Florence, this comedy-drama tells the story of a young illegitimate boy raised in the 1930s and ’40s by a Jewish-American art collector (Cher) and three eccentric Englishwomen (”Shakespeare in Love”’s Dench, ”The First Wives Club”’s Smith, and ”101 Dalmatians”’ Plowright) after his mother dies. ”I remember my childhood in an aura of fantasy and reality,” says the legendary director. The film ”brought me back and it sometimes put a dagger in my heart.”

Casting the four female roles for the $14 million-budgeted movie was surprisingly less traumatic. ”Films with old ladies, without violence and sex, may not attract an audience,” says Zeffirelli, ”but actresses of the finest caliber jump at it.” After Angela Lansbury and Vanessa Redgrave dropped out because of scheduling conflicts, Dench and Smith stepped in. The hot-again Cher — making her first movie appearance since 1996’s ”Faithful” — signed on the day after reading the script. In true VH1-diva fashion, however, she did not participate in the casual on-set Scrabble games enjoyed by old pals Smith, Dench, and Plowright. Not that Cher wasn’t invited. ”Everyone asks us how we got along with her,” says Plowright. ”The fact is, there was a definite mutual admiration society.”