Movie star Annette Bening may be returning to the theatre in a big way. The actress is talking with playwright George Furth about starring in Furth's comedy Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex, Sex (that's right- seven times). Furthermore, this-coming spring, Bening will be hitting the boards in as Ibsen's Hedda Gabler at L.A.'s Geffen Playhouse.

"They have been talking about [the] play," said Furth's agent Robert Lantz. "There are two great roles, the woman's role and the man's role. She has an appetite for the theatre. She loves it."

Lantz -- who said Bening and Furth were old friends -- stated the two are currently talking about when Bening might be free to do the comedy.

Meanwhile, the dates for Hedda are set. Bening will play the Geffen Playhouse Mar. 16-Apr. 18, 1999, opening Mar. 24, 1999. No other cast members have been announced.

Henrik Ibsen's 1890 drama tells of a woman who marries a wealthy but boring man, and secretly longs for troubled but passionate poet, Eilert Lovborg. When she's faced with blackmail, not to mention the dashing of her idealistic view of Lovborg, she turns to her father's pistol for comfort. Bening received a Clarence Derwent Award and a Tony nomination for her role in Tina Howe's Coastal Disturbances , which played at the Second Stage in 1986 and then moved to Broadway. Previously, she'd been a company member at SF's American Conservatory Theatre, the Denver Center, and numerous Shakespeare Festivals. (Bening's Coastal Disturbances Playbill bio notes that during her training years, she'd played many famous women's roles in theatre: Juliet, Lady Macbeth and Eliza Doolittle.)

Bening's film roles include "Mars Attacks!," "The American President," "Bugsy," "Regarding Henry," Ian McKellen's "Richard III" (as Elizabeth) and an Oscar-nominated turn in "The Grifters."

Bening will begin shooting the film "American Beauty" on Dec. 14. The flick is the first feature piloted by Cabaret director Sam Mendes.

-- By Robert Simonson and David Lefkowitz