The director of Natasha Richardson’s last work, a yet-to-be-released film called The Wildest Dream, opened up to Usmagazine.com exclusively about what it was like to work with the late actress.

“I’ll always remember her as somebody who’s full of enthusiasm, drive, and incredibly talented at what she did,” Anthony Geffen told Us Thursday about Richardson’s work on his film, in which she portrays a woman who must deal with the death of her husband.

In the biopic, Richardson played the voice of Ruth, the wife of famous mountain climber George Mallory — who attempted to climb Mount Everest in 1924 but disappeared during the expedition.

“She got very emotionally involved in the film because it’s a very powerful story about a woman who’s trying to come to terms with her husband and knowing that if he goes one more time, he may well not come back,” Geffen said. “She just grasped the role and wanted to be connected with things. When she left, it was almost like there’s a void in the room because she’s so full of enthusiasm for things.”

He added: “She’s a very warm person and it struck me… she was a family person. Here she was in a family role and reading this and responding to it in an emotional way because she was a family person. To me, in the brief period that I got to know her, [that] is the kind of person that she was.”

Her husband, Liam Neeson, narrated the film, and Ralph Fiennes gave the voice of George, who exchanged letters with Ruth throughout his journey. But it was Richardson, Geffen said, who was most involved throughout the film’s production.

“She was one of those people who immediately came into the recording studio and spent some time with us,” Geffen said. “Everybody responded to her, she was full of energy, she was totally engaged to the project and it didn’t matter who they were — whether they were making the coffee or the engineer — she got on with them and connected with them. That’s the Natasha that should be remembered… Maybe it’s fitting as her last project because she was very involved with it and it meant a lot to her but it also was something that she related to.”

Richardson recorded her role during the last week of January in a New York City recording studio. Although she had seen a great deal of the film previously, she had plans to see the final cut of The Wildest Dream next week.

“I was planning to show her the film,” he said. “We were trying to get [the entire cast] together in New York to show it to them. I wanted her to understand where her part fit in.”

Geffen, who will likely release the film this fall, said he is considering dedicating the film to the memory of Richardson.

“I think that’s something that would take discussion and talking to Liam. There’s no question that the film, in its own way — although she’s only a part of it technically — is a fitting tribute to her. I know it’s only her voice, but her voice is very powerful and it’s harrowing in a way, listening to it now.”

Richardson — who was injured in a ski accident in Canada on Monday — passed away Wednesday at the age of 45.

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Actress Natasha Richardson died from bleeding in her skull caused by the fall she took on a ski slope, an autopsy found Thursday. The medical examiner ruled her death an accident, and doctors said she might have survived had she received immediate treatment.

Richardson suffered from an epidural hematoma, which causes bleeding between the skull and the brain’s covering, said Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the New York City medical examiner’s office.

Such bleeding is often caused by a skull fracture, and it can quickly produce a blood clot that puts pressure on the brain. That pressure can force the brain downward, pressing on the brain stem that controls breathing and other vital functions.

Patients with such an injury often feel fine immediately after being hurt because symptoms from the bleeding may take time to emerge.

“This is a very treatable condition if you’re aware of what the problem is and the patient is quickly transferred to a hospital,” said Dr. Keith Siller of New York University Langone Medical Center. “But there is very little time to correct this.”

To prevent coma or death, surgeons frequently cut off part of the skull to give the brain room to swell.

“Once you have more swelling, it causes more trauma which causes more swelling,” said Dr. Edward Aulisi, neurosurgery chief at Washington Hospital Center in the nation’s capital. “It’s a vicious cycle because everything’s inside a closed space.”

Richardson, 45, died Wednesday at Lenox Hill Hospital in Manhattan after falling at the Mont Tremblant resort in Quebec on Monday. Details of her treatment have not been disclosed.

It remained unclear Thursday exactly how she was injured. Resort officials have said only that she fell on a beginner’s trail and later reported not feeling well.

A CT scan can detect bleeding, bruising or the beginning of swelling in the brain. The challenge is for patients to know whether to seek one.

“If there’s any question in your mind whatsoever, you get a head CT,” Aulisi advised. “It’s the best 20 seconds you ever spent in your life.”

Descended from one of Britain’s greatest acting dynasties, including her mother, Vanessa Redgrave, Richardson was known for her work in such plays as “Cabaret” (for which she won a Tony) and “Anna Christie” and in the films “Patty Hearst” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.”

Mourning continued Thursday with Broadway theaters planning to dim their lights in Richardson’s honor at 8 p.m., the traditional starting time for evening performances.

Praise also came from both tabloid celebrities such as “The Parent Trap” co-star Lindsay Lohan and theater artists like Sam Mendes, who directed the 1998 revival of “Cabaret.”

“It defies belief that this gifted, brave, tenacious, wonderful woman is gone,” said Mendes, who also directed the Academy Award-winning “American Beauty.”

Charlotte St. Martin, executive director of The Broadway League, the trade organization for Broadway theaters and producers, called Richardson “one of our finest young actresses.”

“Her theatrical lineage is legendary, but her own singular talent shined memorably on any stage she appeared,” she said.

Richardson gave several memorable stage performances, more than living up to some of the theater’s most famous roles: Sally Bowles of “Cabaret,” Blanche DuBois of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and the title character of Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie,” a 1993 revival in which she co-starred with future husband Liam Neeson. (They have two sons: Micheal, 13, and Daniel, 12.)

The death of Richardson, who was not wearing a helmet, greatly heightened the debate over skiing safety. In Quebec, officials are considering making helmets mandatory on ski hills.

Jean-Pascal Bernier, a spokesman for Quebec Sport and Leisure Minister Michelle Courchesne, said Thursday that the minister met with emergency room doctors this week and will meet with ski hill operators soon.

Emergency room doctors in the province first called for mandatory use of helmets three weeks ago.

Questions also arose about why the first ambulance called to the ski resort was turned away.

Yves Coderre, director of operations at the emergency services company that sent paramedics to the Mont Tremblant resort, told The Globe and Mail newspaper Wednesday that the paramedics were told they were not needed.

“They never saw the patient,” Coderre said. “So they turned around.”

Coderre said another ambulance was called later to Richardson’s luxury hotel. By that point, her condition had worsened, and she was rushed to a hospital.

Richardson said she felt fine after her spill but became ill later and complained of a headache. Doctors say sometimes patients with brain injuries have what’s called a “lucid interval” in which they act fine for an hour or more as the brain slowly, silently swells or bleeds.

Symptoms such as a headache, confusion, vomiting or difficulty seeing, speaking or moving appear after pressure builds in the skull.

Emergency surgery is often need to drain the blood or remove the clot.

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Los Angeles police put the brakes on a speedy getaway by Rihanna from a trendy Hollywood nightclub.

Los Angeles police say they stopped Rihanna’s sport utility vehicle early Thursday on Hollywood Boulevard after noticing it didn’t have a front license plate. A department spokeswoman confirmed Rihanna was inside, but did not have details on the citation issued to her driver.

Video shot by celebrity Web site TMZ showed an officer giving the driver a ticket.

The site also posted video of “Umbrella” singer coming in and out of the trendy Les Deux nightclub. The SUV is seen speeding away from the club, and later at the traffic stop. Paparazzi had assembled around the vehicle both times.

The videos also show Rihanna wasn’t sporting sunglasses, which she had been shown wearing in several photographs taken in Los Angeles and New York since boyfriend Chris Brown allegedly beat her in February. Police investigated the case and interviewed the 21-year-old singer, whose real name is Robyn Rihanna Fenty.

Brown is scheduled for April 6 arraignment on felony assault and criminal threat charges.

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Rihanna’s longtime producer Evan Rogers has spoken out for the first time since the singer’s alleged altercation with Chris Brown to shoot down talk of a new duet between the troubled pair.

“Those were just rumors,”Rogers told Entertainment Weekly. “There’s no duet that’s been recorded other than [”Bad Girl”] that was a bootleg track from months before.”

Rogers, who has worked closely with Rihanna, 21, since discovering her in Barbados in 2003, also suggested that the singer has been listening to the outpouring of advice from the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Tyra Banks and Doctor Phil, since her alleged February 8 incident with Brown, 19, which made headlines around the world.

“I think she’s very aware of everything that’s going on… she watches TV, she goes online,”he told the magazine.

“And I think that it matters to her, but there’s a line that she walks between being human and caring when you hear these kinds of things, and separating your personal life from your professional life.”

Although Rihanna has maintained a low profile since Brown’s alleged attack, Rogers also says his protégée has begun to work on new material in a bid to move on from the incident and reconnect with her fans.

“She just needs to get in [the studio] and make a great album,”noted Rogers. “She’s just getting started now.”

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The 51-year-old hip-hop mogul squired the 23-year-old grapefruit heiress who shows off plenty of freckles in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue to the Art for Life benefit at the Fontainebleau in Miami, but we hear there was trouble in paradise. “Her friends are having major problems with the fact that he’s so much older than she is,” says an insider. Also there were Kim Kardashian, Reggie Bush and Vivica Fox.

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“He’s been in touch a little. The apologies come, and he was like, ‘I made a big mistake,’ ” the raven-haired stripper tells Inked magazine. “And I’m like, ‘Yeah, yeah, I know. Go ahead and say what you need to say to feel better and to sleep at night.’ ” Von Teese isn’t letting any grass grow under her feet. “Right now I’ve got three [guys],” she says. “They’re all in different parts of the world . . . That’s my biggest sin juggling men.”

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Oscar-winning actress Jessica Lange has been hospitalized after a short fall from her steps at her home near Duluth, Minn.

Lange’s representative, Leslee Dart, says the 59-year-old actress bruised her ribs, broke her collarbone and received a small cut on her forehead.

Dart says Lange, who was vacationing when she fell Tuesday, “will be completely fine and expects to be released from the hospital imminently.”

Lange co-stars with Drew Barrymore in the HBO film “Grey Gardens.”

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A spokesman for Stacy Keach says actor was recovering after having a mild stroke.

Publicist Dick Guttman said Wednesday the 67-year-old actor “experienced a very mild stroke with no impairment whatsoever of his motor or speech abilities. He remains today in a Los Angeles hospital for observation and routine precautionary procedures.”

No further details were provided.

Keach had been starring as Richard Nixon in the Center Theater Group’s production of “Frost/Nixon” at the Ahmanson Theatre. In a statement, Guttman said “the producers of ‘Frost/Nixon’ look forward to his speedy recovery and to his return to the show as soon as he is able.”

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