Dorothea Benton Frank speaks at Manatee library luncheon

   The people at the Manatee County Library Foundation were no doubt already thrilled that they had landed best-selling author Dorothea Benton Frank to be the featured speaker at its big fundraiser next week.
   Then, just in the past few days, the news came that Frank's book "The Christmas Pearl" is going to made into a movie starring Whoopi Goldberg.
   Frank will speak at the annual Library
Foundation Author Luncheon, scheduled for March 14 at the Polo Grill & Bar in Lakewood Ranch. The luncheon is the primary fundraising event of the Library Foundation, which supports the Manatee County Library System.

Whoopi Goldberg

   Goldberg is also the executive producer of the film which, like Frank's book, follows an elderly woman who is the matriarch of a family that's together for Christmas at her home. When her usual maid has to leave, Pearl, the maid to the matriarch's grandmother, comes back to the family as a ghost." Goldberg -- who coincidentally won an Oscar for her role in "Ghost" -- plays the ghost of Pearl. It's supposed to start production in June.
   Frank is a fixture on the New York Times best-seller list with such novels as "Sullivans Island," "Plantation," "Isle of Palms," "Shem Creek," "Full of Grace," "Bulls Island" and "Porch Lights."

   Tickets for the luncheon are still available for $45. Call 941-748-5555, ext. 6306 or go to www.manateelibraryfoundation.org.