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Three-time Oscar nominee Annette Bening has withdrawn from the Geffen Playhouse production of Joanna Murray-Smith's The Female of the Species, which will play February 5-March 16. The production was also previously announced to come to Broadway in Spring 2008. A replacement has not yet been named.

The actress cites "personal reasons" for her leaving the project, but also states "I think it is a fantastic play and I wish everyone associated with it all the best."

The Female of the Species is about a feminist author whose world is turned upside down by the arrival of a female fan. It will be directed by Michael Mayer, who won a Tony Award earlier this year for Spring Awakening. Murray-Smith is best known as the author of Honour.

Bening's stage credits include the Broadway production of Coastal Disturbances, for which she received a Tony nomination, and the Geffen production of Hedda Gabler. She received Oscar nominations for her roles in American Beauty, Being Julia, and The Grifters, and she co-starred in Bugsy alongside her future husband, Warren Beatty.