Product Description Six divas of the silver screen - Sally Field, Dolly Parton, Shirley MacLaine, Daryl Hannah, OlympiaDukakis and Julia Roberts - come together as bosom buddies in this hilarious and heartwarming storyof life, love and loss in a small Louisiana parish. At the center of the group is Shelby Eatenton (Julia Roberts), newly married and joyfully pregnant, despite the fact that her diabetes could make childbirth life-threatening. Terrified and angry at the possibility of losing her only daughter, M'Lynn Eatenton (Sally Field) looks to her four closest friends for strength and laughter as she battlesher deepest fear of death in order to join Shelby in celebrating the miracle of new life. From Amazon.co.uk Based on Robert Harling's play and directed by Herbert Ross, Steel Magnolias is a comedy-drama that follows several years in the lives of women who regularly see one another at a beauty shop in their small Louisiana hometown. The story deepens as Julia Roberts, playing a serious diabetic and the daughter of Sally Field, goes downhill healthwise. But as an ensemble piece, this is one of those enjoyably lumpy tearjerkers with many years' worth of stored truths suddenly being shared between the characters, lots of grievances aired, that sort of thing. Daryl Hannah and Shirley MacLaine assume the most eccentric roles, Dolly Parton the most fun and Olympia Dukakis the most dignified, while Sally Field essentially provides the moral and emotional centre of the movie. -- Tom Keogh, Amazon.com From the Back Cover A beautiful, bittersweet human comedy set in deep south Louisiana, Steel Magnolias unites the unique talents of America's finest actresses as six very special friends bonded together by their mutual triumphs and tragedies. Despite their differences, beautiful and impulsive Shelby (Julia Roberts), her strong-willed mother M'Lynn (Sally Field), beauty parlour owner Truvy (Dolly Parton), elegant wealthy widow Clairee (Olympia Dukakis), sharp-tongued Ouiser (Shirley MacLaine) and mousey newcomer Annelle (Daryl Hannah) enjoy a friendship that spans the boundaries of age and status. Sharing each other's strength and loyalty, these six remarkable women survive the cycles of life, birth and death to emerge stronger, closer and still laughing. Critically acclaimed at the box-office, Steel Magnolias als stars Sam Shepard and Tom Skerritt.