The Design of the Descendants

As with most films, the setting often garners top billing as an additional character. Such was the case of Hawaii in director Alexander Payne's story of love, loss and legacy, The Descendants. George Clooney plays Matt King, a land baron who reacquaints himself with his two daughters when his wife is in a coma after a boating accident off of Waikiki. Shot entirely on location Honolulu and around Hanalei Bay, production designer Jane Ann Stewart no doubt enjoyed the perks of her job and spent eight months in pre-production, soaking in the unique culture of the land.

The King family lineage traced back to early settlers of the islands, hence the name "The Descendants." Stewart used this as a reference point for the design, adding history through color, accessories and detail. She gave the home an "old plantation style" look, recreating a Zuber-like mural of explorer Captain Cooke's time on the islands in the dining room. "I wanted it to feel like it had been there since the ships arrived," says Stewart. "I want people to want to go back to that house over and over again." Mission accomplished.

The original house belonged to another "descendants" type family and the wood had been stripped and painted with a semi-gloss white that was restored to original condition by the production team. Set decorator Matt Calahan had the enviable task of locating the furnishings from shops all over the island. "When you're dressing a set, you just layer it with lots of history, a little bit of the orient, some Americana - especially from the '50s and '60s," notes Stewart.

Family photos grace the walls throughout
the house to denote a lineage and history

Modern colors were added to several of the rooms for an updated look

Island touches: A hexagonal coffee table displays seashells
Love the mid century club chairs

Leaf pattern area rug, floral fabrics and celadon wall
color bring the vivid nature indoors

The Descendants won two Golden Globes and has been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for George Clooney.

Photo Credits: Fox Searchlight

Whitney on Film

While everyone knew Whitney Houston as a great voice, she was also an actress and will be returning to the big screen later this August after a sixteen year hiatus in the film Sparkle (Sony, 2012). Starring American Idol winner Jordin Sparks and singer CeeLo Green, Sparkle is a remake of the 1976 film about three church choir singers who form a singing group and deal with drugs and fame. The original film starred Fame's Irene Cara and Phillip Michael Thomas from Miami Vice.

Whitney played a pop diva who hires Kevin Costner as her guard after threats from a stalker in her first film The Bodyguard (1992). Written by The Big Chill's Lawrence Kasdan with Steve McQueen and Diana Ross in mind, the film was notable for her mega-hit song "I Will Always Love You."

Kevin Costner as a former Secret Service agent turned personal bodyguard

With Costner in a scene at The Ivy in LA

Perhaps her best film was the 1995 chick flick Waiting to Exhale. Based on Terry McMillan's novel, the film follows four African American women and their relationships. Houston holds her own in this film with Angela Bassett, Loretta Devine and Gregory Hines and naturally there is a great soundtrack.

Director Penny Marshall's The Preacher's Wife followed in 1996 with Denzel Washington and Courtney B. Vance. The film was a remake of The Bishop's Wife with Loretta Young, Cary Grant and David Niven and considered a moderate hit.

Houston with Denzel Washington in The Preacher's Wife

With actor Courtney B. Vance as the preacher

R.I.P. Whitney.

Photo Credits: Sony Pictures, Warner Brothers

At Home in Highclere

Set on 1000 acres in Hampshire, the Elizabethan style estate has been the home to the Carnavon family since 1679. Known as Highclere Castle, it is also known to millions of television viewers as Downton Abbey.

Michelle Dockery as Lady Mary Crawley

The men of Downton:
Dan Stevens as Mathew Crawley and Hugh Bonneville as Earl of Grantham 

The enormously successful drama has taken the world by storm with its intriguing plot lines, upstairs/downstairs melodrama, Edwardian costumes and a window of aristocratic life in a world gone by. With its sophisticated period perfect interiors and idyllic country setting, Highclere a.k.a. Downton Abbey is as important a character as the outstanding ensemble cast. It is true period production design and set decoration at its best and you can read more in my article in Architectural Digest. 

The Masterpiece Classic can be seen on Sunday nights at 8:00 pm CST on PBS. Be warned as the show should come with a disclaimer: hugely addicting and watch at your own risk. I may have to tape the Super Bowl as I am not sure I can wait to see the show later:)

And while you are waiting for the next episode, be sure to read the book Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle by the Countess of Carnavon. Lady Fiona traces the history and heritage, focusing on Almina who was the illegitimate daughter of tycoon Alfred Rothschild and married the Earl of Carnavon (with an enormous dowry). Life to the manor born was filled with lavish banquets until World War One intervened and their lives were changed forever  -- shades of Downton Abbey.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of PBS, Random House, Highclere Castle

Viva Las Vegas

For those of you attending the Las Vegas Design Market (or just happen to be there at the blackjack table and need a break), I will be speaking on Designs on Film on Wednesday, February lst at 2:00 p.m. with a book signing to follow. There are some wonderful speakers and events -- designers Clodagh, Jamie Drake and Anthony Barratta just to name a few -- and you can check it out here. I will let you know how I do at craps -- wonder if I can place some bets on the Oscars? And something tells me that Elvis song will be stuck in my head for the duration of the trip.

Elvis and Ann-Margret in Viva Las Vegas

The Oceans 11 gang at the Bellagio

Update on Uggie the Dog: He is retiring after his strenuous scene stealing moments in The Artist. My friends at the Weinstein Company shared the following -- Born in Florida, Uggie is nine years old and "re-homed after he was too wild and high-energy for his first owners to be a single companion dog." He was soon adopted by an animal trainer and began his film career. He traveled with the "Incredible Dogs Show" performing stunts on a skateboard (apparently a crowd pleaser at a recent Today Show stint) and even shot a commercial in South Africa.

His film credits include Water for Elephants, Mr. Fix-It and Disney's Life is Ruff. He has recently announced his retirement and going out on a high note with Cannes Film Festival and Golden Globe appearances (I predict the adoptions of Jack Russell Terriers will triple after the Oscars). Apparently Uggie sleeps indoors in the master bedroom with his family on his days off and lives in a multi-dog and cat household. I am seriously in love and he will be missed. 

Sharing the screen with Robert Pattinson and Reese Witherspoon in Water for Elephants

Uggie in The Artist

Will he get his AARP card now? And SAG benefits?

Photo Credits: Warner Brothers, The Weinstein Company, Twentieth Century Fox

A Look Back at Gosford Park

Before the intrigue, splendor and Sunday night "must see" addiction that is Downton Abbey, there was the film Gosford Park (2001). A story of the upper crust world of nobility and their servants in thirties England, the Robert Altman film was reminiscent of Upstairs/Downstairs with a little Agatha Christie thrown in for good measure.

Production designer Stephen Altman (and son of the director), created the authentic period interiors for the story of a group of wealthy Brits and one American who assemble for a shooting weekend at a country estate known as Gosford Park. The film's all-star cast includes Kristen Scott Thomas, Helen Mirren, Maggie Smith, and the late Alan Bates and was nominated for seven Oscars.

Upstairs cast....

and downstairs. 

Shot on location in the UK, it took two estates and a soundstage  to make up Gosford Park -- Wrotham Park, Syon House (upstairs) and Shepperton Studios (downstairs). Altman and set decorator Anna Pinnock took painstaking care to use colors and furnishings authentic to the period with red as the predominant color. Altman explains, "In houses like these, there are antiques from two or three hundred years before, so we just added in layers of modernity. We wanted to make sure it was comfortable and livable, since many of the stately homes we'd seen were like museums and didn't seem like homes."

Wrotham Park

Working on a period film requires extensive research and the ultimate set decorators dream. Altman hired as consultant a butler and cook who had been in domestic service in England in the thirties. From the proper table settings to the appropriate wardrobe for the staff, Altman and his team wanted to make sure they portrayed domestic life in a noble home in an accurate fashion. Rooms were designed for sewing, ironing, making jams and jellies, and even a “brushing room” was added, where guests would be “brushed down” and thus not carry any mud or dirt into the house. I guess it was the precursor to what we know now as the mud room:)

Party guests

Stephen Fry and Kristen Scott Thomas

Costume designer Jenny Beavan's satin gown for Kristen Scott Thomas

Ryan Phillipe as the valet 

The film has many parallels to Downtown Abbey - lots of great period interiors in an idyllic English estate, the wonderful Maggie Smith as scene stealer Constance, Countess of Trentham, devoted maids and mysterious handsome valets, and a classic study of the British class system. Catch it on DVD after Season Two of the PBS show is over and when a fix of all things Brit is in order.

Photo Credits: USA Films

Anatomy of an Awards Show

Hollywood and the world for that matter is obsessed with little golden statuettes, who's wearing what, who will win what and all the hoopla that is known as the awards show. And tonight this season's statue race begins with perhaps one of the best of the season, the Golden Globes.

First, a quick primer. The Golden Globe Award honors the best of television and film as judged by the 93 members of the Hollywood Press Association. Dating back to l944, the show tends to be a tad more glamorous than the Oscars (more celebrities from the big as well as small screens), more interesting (selections are broader as there are split categories for best actor and film based on comedy, drama, etc.), and the speeches more outrageous (translation - alcohol is served). Miss Golden Globe remains an annual staple as a coming out party of sorts for the daughter (and in some rare cases, sons) of a celebrity. Former Miss GG's include Melanie Griffith, Linda Evans, Joely Fisher, Rumer Willis with Donna Douglas (Beverly Hillbillies's Ellie Mae Clampett) as the show's first. Freddie Prinze, Jr. and John Clark Gable were two of the men who held the duties.

Rainey Qualley, daughter of Andie MacDowell and Miss GG 2012

Rumer Willis, daughter of Bruce and Demi

Stars with their publicists and stylists in tow will stroll down 30,000 square feet of red carpet as 550 bottles of Moet & Chandon vintage 2002 and 9,000 champagne glasses await. Five to six thousand guests will be found in the Beverly Hilton attending the proverbial after parties with a lucky 1,300 seated for dinner. (Note: No botox figures were available at this time). Harvey Weinstein, In Style, Vanity Fair's party at Cecconi's and HBO will have some of the hottest most sought after soirees with NBC/Universal throwing their hopeful celebration of the hit film Bridesmaids (nominated for best film in the comedy category) on the roof.

Party map courtesy of The Daily Truffle

All eyes will be on third time host Ricky Gervais who is expected to be bawdy, hilarious and tell it like it is. No one will escape unscathed and expect lots of Sandusky, Tebowing, Ashton and Demi, Kardashian and Republican presidential contender barbs. In the past, he has drawn the ire of the Hollywood Press Association and certain segments of the film industry with his comments on gay actors and scientology. My personal favorite  -- "It's going to be a night of partying and heavy drinking -- or, as Charlie Sheen calls it, breakfast." Sheen laughed so what was the problem?:)

Ricky Gervais, king of barbs

The show has had other scandals that question the validity of the awards. Case in point -  Pia Zadora won "Newcomer of the Year" in 1981 for her performance in Butterfly (I can hear many of you now asking who/what?) amid accusations her producer husband "bought" her the award. Similar stories surfaced around the film The Tourist last year as the studio was accused of offering voters an all expense paid trip to Vegas. (I am not sure the latter had any legs as press junkets have always been the norm.)

Pia Zadora beat out actresses Elizabeth McGovern (Ragtime)
and Kathleen Turner (Body Heat)

And it's hard to remember a time the awards shows were not about the clothes. The red carpet has become a staple and the fashions get equal if not more emphasis than the actual films themselves. A gown can make or break both an actress and designer's career and stylists have become the new power and image brokers in Hollywood (be sure to check out the Ruth La Ferla's New York Times piece on The Power Stylists of Hollywood). Countless hours will be spent dissecting, scrutinizing and analyzing hits and misses and heaven forbid two actresses wear the same gown. It's often excruciating watching the red carpet interviewers come up with questions ("How was the ride over in the limo" makes for compelling journalism) and I suspect every campus in America could have a field day using the word "amazing" for their drinking game.

Last year's red carpet fashions - champagne was the order of the day

The event is truly Hollywood's Super Bowl, a predictor of things to come at Oscar time and 17 million viewers plus  in 167 countries will no doubt tune in. And with Downton Abbey Season Two and The Good Wife airing at the same time, Tivo is the order of the evening.

Follow me on Twitter tonight @catwhit as I give my two cents during the show and red carpet.


Photo Credits: HPA, Daily Truffle

Pats and Eddy are Back...Ab Fab Redux

First there was Lucy and Ethel, followed by Mary and Rhoda, Thelma and Louise and Carrie/Miranda/Charlotte/Samantha. And across the pond (and sandwiched in between the timeline of female buddies) were none other than Patsy and Edina from the hit show Ab/Fab aka Absolutely Fabulous.

The wildly popular BBC show had a cult following here in the nineties as we followed the trials and tribulations of the soon to be Betty Ford poster girls Edina Monsoon (Jennifer Saunders who is also the show's creator) and Patsy Stone (Joanna Lumley). Edina heads her own public relations firm while Patsy is a magazine editor and together the two booze, botox and bleep their way through life while trying to recover their glory days in London's Swinging Sixties. Their antics in this celebrity rehab world we live in appear tame yet hilarious and one wonders how they will handle life and its economic woes of the 21st century as the pair return for three 20th anniversary specials beginning on Sunday, January 8th on BBC America and Logo channels (and no doubt you can find a repeat).

Jennifer Saunders

Joanna Lumley

I can't wait to see if weight gain, wrinkles, Bubbles the assistant and hangovers are the order of the day. Something tells me they will be -- lets just hope the specials have closed captioning as the heavy accents were a challenge to decipher. And for those who can't get enough, Saunders is supposedly working the script for an Ab/Fab film.

Photo Credits: BBC

Life in Suburbia, Sitcom Style

Take three multigenerational families with three very distinct styles and you have the new suburbia, sitcom style ABC's hit show Modern Family that airs on Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. EST. Television interiors have certainly come a long way since the Ricardo's sparse fifties Manhattan apartment and Seinfeld's one bedroom filled with Superman memorabilia and cereal boxes.

From patriarch Jay Pritchett's and saucy wife Gloria's modern home to the Dunphy's conservative and comfortable Pottery Barn filled interiors, production designer Richard Berg and set decorator Tara Stephenson have reinterpreted designs for the new American family. And it's all here in my article in Architectural Digest. And yes, I included Cameron and Mitchel's over the top nursery.  Enjoy!

Photo Credits: ABC