The relationship between RKO executives and their most volatile star grew hostile when the studio cast Katharine Hepburn as Jo, a part Bennett desperately wanted.

Fleming was cast as Meg March in a 1946 version of this classic family novel. Ultimately the 1946 film was abandoned and it was made in 1949 with a new cast.

According to A Scott Berg's biography of Hepburn, she was offered the role of Aunt March in the 3rd film version (Hepburn had played Jo in the first one). She declined, saying she could not be better than Edna Mae Oliver in the '33 version.

This film started production in 1946 but was stopped. It was to have starred Jennifer Jones as Jo March. The rights to the novel by Louisa May Alcott were then sold to MGM who remade the film in 1949 with an entirely different cast (of MGM stars).

Natalie Portman tried out for the movie but didn't get a part.

Another movie she lost out to Kristen Dunst in 1994.