Woody Loses Winona

Wed., Sep. 10, 2003 4:55 PM PDT by Joal Ryan

Winona Ryder won't be cracking wise for Woody Allen.

The two-time Oscar nominee is out and Phone Booth user Radha Mitchell is in as the funnyman finalizes the field for his latest title-to-be-announced-later flick.

It's enough to make a girl want to go a crazy-mad shopping spree... Er, scratch that.

Accounts differ as to the reason for Ryder's departure from the project. Entertainment Weekly says contract talks never gelled; the New York Post says insurance soared too high.

Reps for Ryder and Allen did not return calls for comment Wednesday.

Ryder is the second high-profile name, after Robert Downey Jr., to be linked, and unlinked, to the Allen project. The Ryder-Downey pairing would have marked the two's first costarring work since before they became more famous for rap sheets, than movies.

In their places, Allen will direct Mitchell and Saturday Night Live alum Will Ferrell.

Downey exited the comedy reportedly over the same issue that the Post says Ryder split--insurance.

In Downey's case, the former state prison inmate and producers reputedly couldn't agree on which party should foot the bill for his insurance premium. The actor reputedly has been viewed as a risk by movie insurers because of a string of drug- and probation-related arrests dating back to 1996.

Ryder has courtroom issues of her own. The Reality Bites star is currently on probation for a felony shoplifting conviction relating to her 2001 bust at the Beverly Hills Saks Fifth Avenue.

Both Ryder and Downey have continued to compile credits despite their records. Ryder is next set to appear in the romantic drama Embers; Downey is next set to appear in the thriller Gothika and the musical The Singing Detective.

Both of those Downey projects reportedly saw their respective production companies pony up the big insurance bucks required to secure his services.

An actor's ability to get completion insurance can be a make or break moment for the actor, and, in some cases, the movie. When 70-year-old French star Jean Rochefort took ill on the set of Terry Gilliam's The Man Who Killed Don Quixote in 2000, insurance execs shut down production. They'd bonded a film to star Rochefort as Don Quixote, and without Rochefort there was, and remains, no movie.

No word, per usual, on the storyline for Allen's movie-in-the-making. Filming is set to begin September 22 in New York. Amanda Peet, Jonny Lee Miller and Chloë Sevigny are also set to appear.