Travolta To Play Mother In "Hairspray"

John Travolta will play Tracy Turnblad's mother in the film version of "Hairspray." This is a role originated, of course, by the unearthly Divine, AKA Glenn Harris Milstead, who collaborated on low-budget, decency-flaunting genius with John Waters for decades, perhaps peaking with the onscreen eating of dog poo in "Pink Flamingos." Is Travolta as serious and committed an actor? We shall see.

Divine's loving mama Frances wrote a memoir of life with her special boy, "My Son Divine," in which she shares that after the poo-eating scene:

Divine's friends overheard him calling an emergency room to ask what diseases his 12-year-old son might have picked up from eating a dog turd ("Yes, well, he's a little retarded."). Clearly Milstead is no ordinary mother.

Does this mean we should try to picture Divine in some of Travolta's roles now? Broken Arrow, Pulp Fiction, Face/Off, and so on? Nawww. It would just make us sad to think of the movies that might have been.

And also...why is it that Hollywood feels a need to do a film of a play that was a film just a few years ago?