Divorce, French Style

Every now and then a little film comes along that doesn't necessarily enjoy major box office success but is high on style and an all star cast.  From director James Ivory (who has a new film I will be reporting on soon - The City of Your Final Destination), Le Divorce (Merchant Ivory, 2003) is the tale of a pregnant American wife (Naomi Watts) who gets dumped in Paris by her French husband. Kate Hudson plays her visiting sister who has an affair (and gets a red crocodile Kelly bag as a reward), Leslie Caron a chic yet meddling mother in law along with supporting roles by Glenn Close, Stockard Channing and Sam Waterston.

French production designer Frederic Bernard created the wonderfully French appointed interiors and costume designer Carol Ramsey did the wardrobe. Based on Diane Johnson's novel of the same name, it's love, betrayal, crimes of passion and the great divide between French and American culture..... and did I mention great sights of Paris? Besides the Louvre and Eiffel Tower, you might recognize Cafe de Flore. and Le Georges.

Hudson's character gets a French update to her looks post - affair

Caron's pattern on pattern bedroom. Note the charming doghouse!

While I won't ruin the plot the aforementioned Kelly bag, a priceless painting and a Chanel scarf play a role. Only in France...

Diane Johnson's book is available on Amazon.

Photo credits: Merchant Ivory Productions

Movie & a Makeover and a few questions...

I  had the pleasure of meeting the very enigmatic Brian Patrick Flynn while in Los Angeles recently when he was on the panel with me at the Schumacher "It's Not Complicated" event. Brian is the on-air talent of the fun and right-down-my-alley TBS show Movie & a Makeover which shows makeover tips - fashion, beauty and of course, interior design. The movies range from our favorite Something's Gotta Give to this month's schedule that includes Legally Blonde, Miss Congeniality 2, Jerry MacGuire and Bewitched.

I asked Brian a few questions about his interesting design career:

Cinema Style: You have one of the more interesting design careers, tell me about how you got started.

BPF: I started my career as a news producer, then moved to the TV department working on home makeover show. Eventually I got in front of the camera and at the same time I started taking on residential clients as a decorator. When people ask what my occupation is it's easiest to say TV producer -- everything I do is somewhat of a production: upholstery, draperies, kitchen build outs, etc.

For the past seven years I have been Associate Producer AND the on-air talent for Movie & a Makeover. This past year I also launched Decor Demon (great product, innovative interiors and behind the scenes looks at TV and set design).

CS: What is the difference between designing furniture for home versus a television set?


BPF: While homes are meant for comfort and self-expression, sets are a workplace with a ticking clock. Dimensions need to fit the task at hand -- the Chesterfield inspired sofa from our set is only 17.5 inches deep for our small framed host Mia Butler to sit astute and quickly deliver her talking points. (In reality the sofa should be between 22-23 inches deep to allow for comfy lounging).

A set from Movie & a Makoever 

 CS: Are there certain patterns that work better on camera versus residential interiors?


BPF: Designing for the camera and designing for real life are two completely different worlds in relation to textiles. Tight, busy patterns confuse the camera -- large scale graphic patterns are the way to go. If you chose a pattern too large, it becomes too prominent in a scene, taking the focus off your subject.

70's inspired graphic wallpaper

CS: Is there an element you use in your residential interiors that we might not find on your sets?


BPF: Texture! My affinity for texture comes into play more so with residential interiors because texture doesn't always translate too well to video. When designing for TV, color trumps texture, however in the home of real people, it's vice versa.

Brian notes that "Accessorizing is at its best here as I stuck with my routine of large, graphic objects with different textures. This is an example that would translate exceptionally well on TV."

CS: And lastly, what is your overall style?


BPF: Theatrically liveable. A mashup of eras riding the line between masculine and feminine. There is always something theatrical to very space I do which can be scale, accent color, pattern or finishes.

Basically when you walk into any of my spaces, there is a moment of "I feel like I am on a Hollywood set but I also have the urge to take off my shoes and lay down on the floor."  Every time I hear that, it totally makes my day.

Brian's insistence on working with flea market finds started out of necessity due to tight TV set budgets. Now he's turned it into his calling card. On Movie & a Makeover, Brian showed viewers how orphaned dining chairs can quickly become designer grade with sandpaper, glossy spray paint and professionally made cushions. Below is a bachelor pad gets an updated  50's diner look.

Flynn's fresh take on a classic black and white Hollywood look for a bar area. "The strong contrast adds interest to an otherwise bland space, then punched up drama and glamour with a rococo mirror finished in bold cherry red."

For Brian's new series Decor Demon, he stuck to his Hollywood-inspired roots to design a bachelor loft for writer/producer roommates. One of his signature styles is the masculine approach to glamour. To achieve this look, he used graphic wallpapers, rich fabrics (think velvet or mohair) and added a few touches of femininity with curved furniture lines such as this Victorian inspired sofa (below) that was, which he found in the trash and spray painted!

Photos courtesy of Brian Patrick Flynn 

Photo credits: Sarah Dorio 

The Good Look of the Good Wife

Set decorator Beth Kushnick of The Good Wife just launched a new blog on the design of her show. The recent post I did on her show was so popular --  she received numerous questions on how to get the look of the sets. Now you can contact her directly!!

Congrats Beth! You can visit her site here.

Photo Credits: CBS Television

Easter Parade

Since Easter Sunday is upon us, I thought it would a great time to revisit a beloved holiday film, aptly named Easter Parade (MGM, 1948). 

Starring Judy Garland and Fred Astaire as a dancing team who fall in love. Set in 1900's New York, Garland plays Astaire's young protegee who Astaire vows to make a star by the next year's Easter Parade. Hence, the name. The film is naturally filled with wonderful choreography set to Irving Berlin show tunes naturally (just try and get the lead song out of your head) and fanciful parade clothing designed by Irene Lentz- Gibbons. Other tunes made popular were "Steppin' Out With My Baby" and "Couple of Swells."

Gene Kelly was slated to play the Astaire role but a broken ankle intervened. Cyd Charise was replaced by Ann Miller due to a torn ligament and performed her dance numbers in a back brace. Supposedly Judy Garland danced with pinched nerves in her back. Astaire was coaxed out of retirement to make this film and amazingly it marked the first time he and Garland had met!

The vintage lithographs by artist Virginia Fisher of costume designer Irene Lentz-Gibbons designs were the subject of an exhibit at the LA County Museum of Art several years ago. Lentz was the sister in law of famed art director and MGM production chief Cedric Gibbons who designed over 150 films while at Metro. You can read more on Lentz at her website. Her work can be seen on a variety of films ranging from The Ziegfield Follies and Flying Down to Rio to Lover Come Back and Midnight Lace. 

Virginia Fisher's works can be purchased through Art Sellers. All are signed and numbered and many initialed by the actresses themselves.

Happy Easter!

Photo Credits: Antique Helper, Art Sellers, MGM

Happy Birthday Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff

You know her as a beloved actress, animal rights supporter and if you've ever visited Carmel, perhaps you have stopped by her hotel, The Cypress Inn. And you know her as Doris Day a.k.a. Doris Mary Ann Kappelhoff, America's sweetheart and one of the most stylish women of sixties cinema.

This week marks Day's 88th birthday. Her career began as a big band singer (she first recorded the hit Sentimental Journey) and she has starred in 39 films that have ranged from melodrama (Young at Heart with Frank Sinatra) to suspense (Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much which gave birth to her hit Que Sera Sera). But it was her romantic comedies that teamed her with handsome leading men that really put her on the map.

Doris on set of Pillow Talk

Giving new meaning to the film term "romp," Doris starred in several films with Rock Hudson (a lifelong friend) such as Send Me No Flowers (1964), Pillow Talk (1959), and Lover Come Back (1961). She also starred in two of my personal favorites, Move Over Darling (1963) and The Thrill of it All (1964) with James Garner. Move Over Darling was originally supposed to be "Something's Got to Give" with Marilyn Monroe and Dean Martin (eventually that title was used for a very popular 2003 film:) )

Pillow Talk above and center

The Thrill of It All  and its classic sixties master bedroom with twin beds

Her films were filled with iconic sixties costume and interior designs. Audiences loved her as the quintessential (and virginal) Manhattan career woman (and one of the first interior decorators on film) Jan Morrow in Pillow Talk, a competitive Madison Avenue ad woman in Lover Come Back and the housewife turned commercial pitch woman in The Thrill of It All. She was nominated for an Oscar in 1960 for Best Actress on Pillow Talk. (Note - look for a set design piece soon on Move Over Darling).

Perhaps a sign of the times, she was the ultimate role model on screen and women everywhere wanted to be like her and dress like her. Dubbed as the world's oldest virgin in her movie roles, she turned down the part of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate. Imagine how different that film would have been!

Chic in Pink

Doris could have been a sixties Tory Burch

America's sweetheart was not without her tragedies. She was married four times and sadly her third husband Martin Melcher bankrupted her and after he passed away, she learned he had committed her to a television series, The Doris Day Show. The show was a huge success and lasted five seasons. Her son Terry Melcher had the ultimate near death experience as police believe he was possibly targeted in an unsuccessful murder plot by Charles Manson and his "family." Manson approached him at his home (which he shared with actress Candice Bergen)  in Los Angeles for a record deal (through an introduction from Beach Boy Dennis Wilson). Melcher turned him down and legend has it he returned with revenge on his mind and found renters Sharon Tate and friends instead, and of course, the rest is history.  He passed away at the age of 62 after a long battle with melanoma.

Doris at home

A tireless animal rights activist, Doris founded Actors and Others for Animals in 1971 with fellow colleagues Mary Tyler Moore and Angie Dickinson. This eventually led to the Doris Day Animal League in 1994 which focuses on pet overpopulation in the United States (note - the group merged with the Humane Society in 2006). DDAL also founded Spay Day in 1995 and the group also has been at the forefront of legislation on animal testing, puppy mills and horse protection. Apparently she saw animals being mistreated during the filming of The Man Who Knew Too Much and the cause against animal cruelty became a lifelong passion.

If you are ever in Carmel, be sure to stop by or stay at the Cypress Inn. Animals are welcome and it's truly a delightful place. 

She lives a very quiet and reclusive life on an ll acre estate in California and still works on behalf of our four legged friends. Happy Birthday Doris! Movie lovers  and animals thank you!

For more on the life and times of Doris Day, check out these books:

Doris Day: The Untold Story of the Girl Next Door by David Kaufman (Virgin Books, 2009)

Considering Doris Day by Tom Santopietro (Thomas Dunne, 2007)

Michael Freedland's bio Doris Day Illustrated (Andre Deutsch, 2009)

Photo Credits: Leo Fuchs, Ross Hunter/Universal Pictures.

The Greystone Estate

Since I am off to LA this week and time is of the essence, thought I'd reprint some excerpts from Veranda magazine of a past piece I wrote on the magnificent Greystone Estate. No doubt you will recognize the location and the true story of the history of the mansion is as fascinating and as mysterious as the mansion itself.


For the frequent filmgoer, it's an elegant house seen countless times on the big screen. Jack Nicholson made mischief in its grand living room in The Witches of Eastwick. Jude Law courted Cameron Diaz over a meal in the romantic comedy The Holiday - although they were supposedly in England. Even the house's bowling alley made an ominous appearance in There Will be Blood, starring Daniel Day-Lewis in an Oscar-winning performance as an oil tycoon in Southern California. (Other films included Death Becomes Her, The Bodyguard, An Indecent Proposal and What Women Want just to name a few).

Diaz and Cameron in The Holiday

Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick

There Will Be Blood

The storied house in question is Greystone, the largest family estate ever built in Beverly Hills. Situated on a hill above famed Sunset Boulevard, the majestic yet mysterious manor was a gift from real-life oil tycoon Edward L. Doheny to his son and daughter-in-law, Edward "Ned" and Lucy Doheny, during the Roaring Twenties. Built on a 429-acre estate, the mansion became an imposing icon of wealth and power in California's early oil-rich days. "Of all the lavish gifts Edward Doheny gave his beloved son, the fifty-five room baronial castle was, by far, the most extraordinary, considered to be the most luxurious residence south of William Randolph Hearst's spectacular estate at San Simeon, California," says Margaret Leslie Davis in her Doheny biography, Dark Side of Fortune (University of California Press, 1998 and 2001).

You can read the rest of the story  here.

The mansion and grounds (shown here in 1928) are open to the public

Master Bedroom in 1945

One of the many Great Rooms used for film interiors

The Card Room boasts a scenic wall panel 

and black and white patterned marble floors

For more on the Greystone Mansion and Park, go here.

For more on Veranda's Designer Showhouse at Greystone, go here.

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Friends of Greystone, Veranda, Columbia Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Courtesy of Katherine Timme Photo Collection

Camera Ready: It's Not Complicated

I was  privileged to be asked by F. Schumacher to moderate a panel for Westweek at the Pacific Design Center next week.

Camera Ready: It's Not Complicated will feature  Hollywood set decorators, interior designers and photographers who will discuss behind-the-scenes details on the process of designing and shooting interiors for print, film and television.

The panel includes talented set decorators Beth Rubino and David Smith along with interior designer James Radin and their work on director Nancy Meyers's design rich films  such as Something's Gotta Give, The Holiday and It's Complicated. Television host and interior design expert Brian Patrick Flynn will talk about his makeover secrets from the hit TBS series Movie and a Makeover and Hollywood photographer Ken Haber will share his tricks for recording sets to memory.

It's Complicated

The Holiday

Something's Gotta Give

Ken Haber's photography on Shopgirl

For more on the events at Westweek 2010: Design Revolution, go here. I will give a full report on the event soon so stay tuned!

Photo Credits: Courtesy of Universal Pictures,  Columbia Pictures and Ken Haber/Shopgirl, David Smith/The Holiday, Cindy Carr/Living Room/The Holiday.