Deja Vu:Diane Lane Is Superman's Mom

Diane Lane is an actress who has seemed perpetually 37 for about 20 years. There's a weary, sexy worldly wisdom to her that has allowed her to appeal to both men and women, either in erotic "thrillers" like "Unfaithful" or big crowd-pleasers like "Secretariat." Thirty-seven is a good age for an actress to seem; old enough to be respected, but young enough to still be attractive to all age groups.

The one age she doesn't seem like: elderly.

Yet the 46-year-old, onetime Oscar-nominee Lane will play Martha Kent, Superman's "mom," in the upcoming Superman reboot. She has played moms before, of course, but not mothers that have typically been portrayed as matronly rocking-chair dwellers. To be fair, with Annette O'Toole on "Smallville," Superman's adoptive parents have gotten younger in recent years; it's still rumored that Kevin Costner will play Pa Kent, after all. (Actually, that's totally not fair: Costner is 56, almost a decade older than Lane.)

Lane is considerably younger than those who have played cinematic Supermoms in the past. Phyllis Thaxter played Ma Kent in Christopher Reeve's 1978 version at the age of 57, which was nothing compared to Eva Marie Saint, who was over 80 in Bryan Singer's recent "Superman Returns" reboot.

Lane is only 19 years older than Henry Cavill, who plays Kal-El, but that shouldn't make any difference: She's not his actual mother, and in celestial time, he's probably a lot older than her anyway. Heck, the trip from Krypton itself must have taken 20 years.



Diane Lane will play Martha Kent in new 'Superman' [Entertainment Weekly]