Celeste Cooper (Mother Knows Best)

Celeste Cooper (Joanna Kerns ) 
is the main villainess of the 1997 American Broadcasting Company television film Mother Knows Best . Based on the real-life story of Lee Goldsmith , Celeste Cooper is a wealthy socialite who answers a personal ad from Ted Rogers (Grant Show ), who owns and runs a repair shop for luxury automobiles, for her daughter, Laurel (Christine Elise ), who works at a hospital. Laurel and Ted meet on a blind date and pretty soon, fall in love. The night that Ted comes over to meet Laurel’s parents, Celeste and George Cooper (David Spielberg ), he arrives with smudges all over his face because on the way there, a car in front of his had a flat tire and he stopped to fix it. Celeste takes an instant dislike to him, but manages to hide it. As soon as Laurel and Ted leave for a dinner reservation, she vows to her husband that “Hell will freeze over before he touches my daughter.” Later that night, Celeste pays a visit to Laurel’s residence at a time when Laurel and Ted are making love in her bedroom. After Celeste leaves, Laurel and Ted plan an unsuccessful get-together at a high-class restaurant so that Celeste will get to know him better and this time, they invite Ted’s mother, Harriet (Jeanette O’ Connor).
Over time, Celeste tries to dig up some personal and
damaging information about Ted in order to convince Laurel 
that he is not the right man for her. 
Despite her attempts, Laurel 
refuses to leave him. Eventually, Ted
proposes to Laurel while showing
her around a house that he is thinking of buying for himself and for her. Laurel 
tells Ted that even though she wants to marry him, there is still her mother, Celeste, 
that she has to contend with. After Ted
suggests that they live together for a while and not tell Celeste about the two
of them getting married so soon, Laurel 
says yes. Laurel eventually finds out
that Celeste is a fraud in that she had never went to college when earlier,
while being honored as a “Woman of the Year,” Joan (Jessica Walter ), a friend, had
claimed that Celeste was a graduate of Washington University, that she had won
a writing award there, and that she had given up a promising career in order to
be a wife and mother. In addition to
learning that Celeste was only a cashier when she had met her future husband
and Laurel’s father, George, 
also learns that the city of St. Louis had never
heard of drug prevention program that she had started after calling the city’s mayor. 
When Celeste returns early from a trip, Laurel 
tells her that she’s moving out and that she’s moving in with Ted. Celeste is not particularly for that and pretty
soon, Laurel and Ted decide to get married and they kiss each other in front of
Celeste, who is dumbfounded.
One day after Ted dropped off some of Celeste’s belongings
at her home, Celeste lied to Joan, who came over for a visit, and told her that
Ted had attacked her and threatened her to give him $10,000 for the wedding if
she wanted to see Laurel again. She had
also convinced Joan to not call the police. 
After Joan calls Laurel to tell her what Celeste had told her and after asking
Ted what had happened, Laurel goes over to Celeste’s house to give back her key
and to tell her that she knows all about the eye surgery that she had
done. As Laurel 
makes her way out, Celeste threatens to cut 
out of her will. Laurel 
tells Celeste that she was never interested in her money and continues to make
her way out of the house with Celeste calling after her. Eventually, Laurel and Ted get married and on
the outside, across the street from the church, Celeste and George both sit in
the car and watch the two of them kiss each other while everyone around them
celebrates the happy union. George asks
Celeste, “Why did it have to turn out this way?” as to which Celeste replies,
“It’s not over yet.”
A year later, Laurel and Ted throw a baby shower where
George, Laurel’s father,
attends. He tells her that Celeste
misses her and that she should call her up. 
Celeste meets Laurel later
on at a restaurant and hands her a business card of a divorce attorney with the
belief that since George had told her about her wanting to see her and the fact
that she cried at her own shower, that she might want to leave Ted. Laurel 
left the restaurant offended. On the day
of the birth, Celeste goes to the hospital to see Laurel,
but Laurel doesn’t want to see her
and Ted politely passes the word on to Celeste, who takes terrible offense to
it. Later on at her home, she catches
the carpet cleaner checking out her art instead of just cleaning the
carpet. She threatens to report him and
it is then that she learns that if she reports him, his parole officer will be
informed of it. Instead of reporting
him, she strikes a deal with him by giving him a note stating that she knows
someone who doesn’t deserve to live and that she will pay $10,000.
Later, she tries to lead him on with a false story about how Ted had killed her niece. The carpet
cleaner has his doubts but tells her that he knows someone that he had met in
prison. They come to an agreement and
one night, she is called away from a meeting to meet up with the carpet cleaner
and the guy he had met on the inside, who later turns out to be Dale Cutler
(Sherman Augustus ) from the County Sheriff’s
department. In a car, she pays off $1,000 in advance with the promise of delivering the $9,000 when the job is finished, they talk about
how they plan to make Ted's death look like a drug deal gone bad, and that when the job is done, they are to call
her up and tell her that “the carpet’s been cleaned.” About a week later, Dale and his partner go to Ted’s auto repair
shop as planned but instead of shooting and killing Ted, they spare his life by
shooting one of the water dispensers in his office and then order him to
get inside the trunk of Dale’s car. Dale
calls up Celeste and tells her that “the carpet’s been cleaned.” She wants proof so he tells her to call the medical
examiner at the morgue, who is in on the plan of making her believe that she
has indeed succeeded in killing her son-in-law.
Eventually, Laurel and Ted are told everything about what
Celeste had tried to do to him, the fact that the carpet cleaner had went to the authorities beforehand, and now, all they have to do is meet up with her
at the Snelgrove’s Ice Cream Store in order to get the proof that they need to arrest her and 
see that it goes to trial. Dale and
Celeste meet at the parking lot of the Snelgrove’s Ice Cream Store. Unbeknownst to Celeste, the conversation is
being taped by Dale and the authorities and when Celeste finally pays him off,
Dale reveals to her that he’s really a cop and has her arrested. Ted is soon returned to his family. Later at the courthouse, with the news
covering the trial, Celeste and Laurel meet face-to-face and Celeste tells Laurel 
to tell the reporters that she did it for her. 
 Laurel says goodbye to her
mother, Celeste, and Celeste vows to the reporters that “everything will be
normal again.” During the final scene,
it is stated that Celeste Cooper was sentenced to five years in prison for
attempted murder and that she and Laurel never saw or had spoken to each other ever
again.
==Trivia==
*Jessica Walter , who played Celeste's friend, Joan, also played Evelyn Draper in the 1971 thriller, Play Misty For Me.
==Gallery==
File:MV5BOWZkMmU4NTItZTcyNS00MmNhLWIyZTgtZmQ3YmNlN2RiMDJhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM0ODAyOTc@. V1 FMjpg UX1000 .jpg|Celeste with her son-in-law, Ted.
File:MV5BNTkxZjJjZTEtMWVmNS00ZjZjLWFjM2UtMzc5MGQ5YzQ2MzhiXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM0ODAyOTc@. V1 FMjpg UX1000 .jpg|Celeste, pretending to be shocked over her son-in-law, Ted's "death."
File:MV5BYmQ4MTc1NzYtOWIzMS00N2ZmLTkwZDItYzUwOTZmMGI1NTJlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM0ODAyOTc@. V1 .jpg|Celeste, with her husband, George.
File:MV5BNTZlYzI4MDctMzViMi00NjY1LWJmMjctZDM4NTEwOWUyOGZjXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM0ODAyOTc@. V1 .jpg|Celeste's daughter, Laurel and future husband and son-in-law, Ted.
File:MV5BZDMyN2Q2MzQtYTQ4ZS00ZmZhLTk3NTctNThhMTJjMDMyMmJhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM0ODAyOTc@. V1 FMjpg UX1000 .jpg
File:MV5BODMyM2MyNTktYmZiYS00YzdjLWEwZDQtYmNiOTkwZDIxZGY0XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTM0ODAyOTc@. V1 .jpg
File:MV5BMTIwNTc2YjEtZjQwNS00Mjg0LTk1NmMtZjE2MDk5YTAwYTMxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMzU0NzkwMDg@. V1 .jpg
File:MV5BZjIwNWNjMGQtZjU0MC00YmRkLWFjZDktOWJmYzI4NzY1ZGUzXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTMzODQ1NDE5. V1 FMjpg UX1000 .jpg
Category:1990s
Category:Attempted Murder
Category:Blonde
Category:Bondage Used On Villainess
Category:Callous
Category:Deceiver
Category:Delusional
Category:Family Murderer
Category:Fur
Category:Grandmother
Category:Leather
Category:Live Action Villainess
Category:Master Manipulator
Category:Mother
Category:Murderer
Category:Murder: Indirect
Category:Psychotic
Category:Rich
Category:Snob
Category:Sunglasses
Category:Vain
Category:Fate: Arrested