‘9 to 5’ — Secrets Of The Secretary Revenge Flick

Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin and Dolly Parton delivered laughs while taking on sexual harassment and gender equality in the cult comedy “9 to 5” — but it's up to The National ENQUIRER to deliver its secrets!

Jane got the idea for the film — in which three women fulfill their dreams by getting even with their “sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot” boss (Dabney Coleman) and taking over the company — from Karen Nussbaum, an old friend from the anti-war movement and founder of 9to5, an organization that advocates for working women and still operates today!

Jane went against type, casting herself as nervous divorcée Judy Bernly, and Patricia Resnick, who wrote the original screenplay, says the film was written with Dolly and Lily in mind — but Carol Burnett and Ann-Margret were on the production company's wish list.

Though Lily was first on the list to play Violet, she nearly bailed on the role! “I was shooting ‘The Incredible Shrinking Woman,’ and I was so overworked,” Lily recalls. But Jane Wagner (right), who married Lily in 2013, changed her mind by saying, “This is the biggest mistake of your life ... You’ve got to get on the phone and tell Jane Fonda you want to take back the resignation.” “I am grateful that I did it,” says Lily.

Patricia admits her original script was much darker and saw the women actually trying to kill their boss, but Jane was concerned the women wouldn’t be sympathetic enough. The film’s director, Colin Higgins, who Patricia says was "very influenced by Warner Bros. cartoons,” came up with the fix of having their attempts to kill the boss became fantasy scenes." "He made it a much broader comedy.”

Dolly, a newcomer to film, told her co-stars she thought movies were filmed in the chronological order of the script — which made Jane and Lily laugh out loud. Dolly also learned everyone’s lines! “I memorized [the script],” says Dolly. “I just assumed that you had to!"

Lily and Jane insist they knew the movie would be a success when Dolly performed the tune for them one day on the set. “Dolly sang us the song and used her nails like a washboard,” recalls Jane, now 79. “We knew the [feminist] movement had a new anthem.” Lily adds, “It was a big moment, because we knew the song was sensational.”

“The movie was a huge phenomenon,” says Jeanine Basinger, a film professor at Wesleyan University. “People like to say what a giant feminist document it is, but it’s a funny, funny movie. It gave you a message in a charming, comic way.”

While the three co-stars knew each other before filming began, they became even better friends on set. But for all the movie’s success, Dolly, 71, dismisses talk of a sequel because of their advanced age, joking, “People have wanted another ‘9 to 5,’ but I think we’d have to call it ‘95!’”