Shirley MacLaine Profile Acquired by ARTE France

Janson Media announced today that it has licensed the documentary Shirley MacLaine: Kicking Up Her Heels (1 x 60') from the company's Hollywood Collection to European art culture channel, ARTE France. Kicking Up Her Heels was written and produced by Gene Feldman and Suzette Winter of New York-based Wombat Productions, and is now available for all television, DVD, VOD, non-theatric, and new media markets worldwide exclusively through Janson Media.

Shirley MacLaine was the product of a strict middle-class background from which she and her brother, the future actor Warren Beatty, escaped into the fantasy world of show-biz. Her ballet training and her long-legged pixie charm led to rapid success on Broadway in musical comedy.

Inevitably, Hollywood called and by 1955 Shirley was cast in Hitchcock"s The Trouble With Harry. It wasn"t too long before the fine dramatic roles also came to her opposite the most popular leading men of the time, like Fred MacMurray, Jack Lemmon, Frank Sinatra, Clint Eastwood and Robert Mitchum. But Shirley was not only known for her capacity to play opposite major male stars, she also soon made it clear that women had equal importance for her, both as fellow players and as real life friends. These women included Audrey Hepburn, Julia Roberts, and former Congresswoman Bella Abzug. It was apparent that this once perky &'gypsy&' of Broadway would leave her mark as one of the finest actresses of her day, an Academy-Award winner, who is ready and able to tackle any role that seems equal to her intelligence and talent. Her widely varied interests encompass the political, the literary and the mystical.

ARTE France is a European culture channel that aims to promote quality programming especially in areas of culture and the arts. Explore, reveal, unravel and why not entertain? These are just a few key words that lead towards our ambitious and exciting goal: &'To transmit knowledge and understanding to the general public reaching out to people of all ages and all levels&'.

Established in 1989, Janson Media is an independent content distribution company based in the United States, with a rights portfolio of over 1,500 hours of exclusive programming available for licensing to worldwide television, VOD, DVD/video, and emerging new media platforms. The company has licensed programming to virtually every country in the world, and its clients include nearly every major broadcaster or media company, as well as a wide range of DVD labels and distributors. Janson Media is also a publisher/ manufacturer of award-winning DVDs.