Hi Man
A couple of things hit me about this situation. The first one is a question, one that we all need to ask ourselves before getting our stuff out into the world, and that question is -- Is the script ready to be shown?
This is important because if you're going in without any money the script is your leverage -- in which case the script has to be damn near the best thing ever written.
Now, as a writer I'm painfully aware that I'm not the best judge of whether my script is ready and that I need outside help with it. In fact a sent a script to Rik about eighteen months ago, which with hindsight was at least two drafts away from being showable. Sorry Rik
I guess what I'm saying is that your problem getting past the agent maybe that the script isn't ready -- and if they've already seen a version that's not quite there yet, that door maybe closed to you.
The next thing that occurs to me is that if the script really is that good, you could just put it out into the marketplace as a spec -- get it into the hands of a production company who have enough money to be able to go to her with an offer, get paid for the script and also build a reputation within the industry as a writer. All of which would increase your chances of getting your next film financed.
And finally, it could be that at this point in her career she is only looking at studio offers -- Rik's right, an actor who attaches their name to a script which then doesn’t achieve finance harms their own career -- any agent is going to be aware of that.
So, if she's not up for it, then maybe you should be looking at people for whom it WOULD be the perfect product.
Assuming the script is great I think there are three categories of actor worth looking at:
1) Huge stars who do well by turning out dross, but who really want to be taken seriously as actors (Tom Cruise is an example of this kind of person -- he's big enough to be able to pretty much guarantee investment, and at the same time strikes me as a guy for whom the project is now more important than anything else)
2) TV actors who haven't made the flip into film yet, and whose series recently got canned (I've had success in this category and as names they are very bankable)
and
3) Actors who already have a rep of using their Hollywood money to finance indie projects (Steve Busemi, for instance)
Now I know that neither Tom or Steve are what you're are looking for, but with a little research you can probably find half a dozen women who would be perfect for your project.
Hope this helps -- and if you're unsure about the script send me a copy and I'll do you a free script report.