Thora Birch

By JILL FEIWELL, MELISSA GREGO

Birch

Thora Birch ("Ghost World") will star the Lifetime original movie "Homeless to Harvard," based on the life story of Liz Murray: a young woman raised in severe poverty, turns her life around and enrolls at Harvard.

Pic will be produced by Patriarch Pictures in association with Barnet Bain Prods. for Lifetime TV.

Casting of Birch follows a recent a string of high-profile thesps -- including Megan Mullally, Barbara Hershey, Jenna Elfman, Sissy Spacek, Blythe Danner, Beau Bridges and Jane Seymour -- to come aboard Lifetime movies.