Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Every now and then a movie will be on television that stops me dead in my tracks and

I drop everything to watch. Guess Who's Coming to Dinner is one of those films.

Unless you have been living on a space station for the past century, Guess Who tells the story of the sudden engagement of a young girl to an African American doctor and the resulting feelings from both sets of parents. It is considered a landmark film due to not only the subject matter -- the year was 1967 -- the performances of Spencer Tracy, Katherine Hepburn and Sidney Poitier were pretty extraordinary as well (and sadly Tracy's last as he died ten days after filming ended).

The majority of the film's plot takes place in Tracy and Hepburn's spectacular house in San Francisco which of course was created on the Columbia Studios backlot. (San Franciscans will no doubt recognize the real Mel's Diner on Mission Street which was used as one of the locationa). Exteriors were shot in Pasadena and the incredible view from the terrace was merely a matte painting. Production designer Robert Clatworthy and set decorator Frank Tuttle's designs were pure vintage sixties modern and earned them an Oscar nomination for Best Art Direction. I only wish I had more shots to share and urge you to rent the DVD for a great design history lesson.

Hepburn and Tracy on set

If anyone finds themselves in Murfreesboro, Tennessee this Tuesday evening, I will be lecturing  at the Oaklands Museum and sponsored by Middle Tennessee State University.

Photo Credits: Columbia Pictures

The Original Sex and the Single Girl

Long before Carrie Bradshaw and Dr. Ruth were conceived lived the phenom known as Helen Gurley Brown who sadly passed away last week at the life-well-lived age of ninety.

I can remember reading her book  Having it All which came out in the early 80s, empowering women to rise above the trophy wife syndrome. While the feminist movement tomes Feminine Mystique and Fear of Flying certainly made their mark, HGB took girl power to a new level during the zenith of the sexual revolution.

Raised in rural Arkansas, Helen hit the big city and literally clawed her way to the top as the birth and rise of her magazine Cosmo is the stuff of publishing legend. Her first best selling book turned film Sex and the Single Girl was touted as the "unmarried women's guide to men" and a primer for women in the sixties. Husband and producer David Brown suggested she write the book for women who wanted to have an affair and it hit the bookstores at a time where women were becoming both sexually and financially independent. The book was later developed into a film starring Natalie Wood (as HGB), Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda and Lauren Bacall and became a huge box office hit in 1964.

For someone who touted extramarital affairs, HGB seemed to have a pretty terrific marriage to Jaws and The Sting producer David Brown (51 years) who was one of the nicest men on the planet (I used to work down the hall from his office at Universal and he'd give us scarves every Christmas. A man after my own heart!) It was apparent those two had the formula for a successful marriage down pat.

HGB with husband David Brown who passed away in 2010

Helen also coined one of my favorite terms (perhaps only known to baby boomers) --"mouseburger" aka quiet little "mousey" women who needed to claim their own power and rise above the traditional roles as life as a homemaker, wife and mother.

While much has recently been written about her death, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it best : “She was a role model for the millions of women whose private thoughts, wonders and dreams she addressed so brilliantly in print. She was a quintessential New Yorker: never afraid to speak her mind and always full of advice. She pushed boundaries and often broke them, clearing the way for younger women to follow in her path...”

Natalie Wood as unsurpassable HGB

Wood and Tony Curtis in Sex and the Single Girl

The ever fashionable Brown as a poster child of the sixties

It's inconceivable to think there will ever be another Helen Gurley Brown. RIP Helen, here's to a Southern girl "done good."

Photo Credits: New York Times, Warner Brothers, Simon and Schuster

A Night at the Inn

I have been missing in action for several weeks due to an injury that requires typing with one finger.....so enjoy my latest Celebrated Living article on actor, philanthropist, Yankees fan, sex symbol, and perhaps the most unlikely of roles, innkeeper Richard Gere. I was fortunate to spend an evening at the inn that he and wife Carey Lowell run in Bedford this past May (aptly named the Bedford Post Inn) and the food, accommodations and yoga classes are heaven. And it's a mere 45 minutes from Manhattan. I also caught a screening of his upcoming film Arbitrage, a wonderful cautionary tale on Wall Street, ethics, loyalty and family-- be sure to see it when it comes to theaters this September.  Enjoy!

Susan Sarandon and Richard Gere as husband and wife in Arbitrage

The Bedford Post Inn

Photo Credits: Nigel Parry/ Celebrated Living, Bedford Post Inn, Roadside Attractions

East Hampton Author's Night

I am thrilled to announce that I will be participating in the upcoming Author's Night to benefit the East Hampton Library. Chaired by actor Alec Baldwin and author Barbara Goldsmith, the fundraiser features authors Dick Cavett, Top Chef's Tom Colicchio, David Balducci, Sam Irvin, Dr. Ruth, Andrew Ross Sorkin, Robert Klein, Kelly Bensimon (of  New York Housewives fame) and Ali Wentworth  just to name a few.

The event is Saturday, August llth at Gardiners Farm in East Hampton. There will be an Authors Reception and book signing followed by dinner parties where you can meet and dine with the various authors. For tickets and information go to their website here.

I will be signing copies of Designs on Film and hope to see you there!

Many thanks to Sara Bliss of Hotel Chic for featuring my guest post on Hotels in the Movies.
She has a fabulous armchair traveler blog - enjoy!



Photo Credits: East Hampton Library, Robert Ashcroft

Bonne Fete Bastille

In honor or Bastille Day, I thought I'd feature the work of the late Yves St. Laurent who helped shape the style of the sixties on film. While many know of his work as a couturier  and perhaps one of the greatest names in French fashion history, he was also a film costume designer.

Deneuve in Belle de Jour and YSL above and below

YSL Costume Sketches for Belle

Belle de Jour also put Roger Vivier Pilgrim Pumps on the map

His greatest work (or maybe it's just my favorite) was for Luis Buñuel's erotic masterpiece Belle de Jour (1966) about a bored housewife (Catherine Deneuve) who turns to prostitution to fill her afternoons -- and tame by today's Fifty Shades of Gray standards. The French film icon became his muse both on and off the screen - the pair also worked on La Chamade (1968), Mississippi Mermaid (1969) and the controversial vampire film The Hunger (1983) (a film at the forefront of the genre). He also designed costumes for actresses Capucine and Claudia Cardinale in The Pink Panther (1963), Leslie Caron in A Special Favor (1965), Romy Schneider in Innocents With Dirty Hands (1975) and Jean Seberg in Moment to Moment (1965). 

Deneuve in Mississippi Mermaid (1969)

Deneuve in The Hunger 1983

Claudia Cardinale and David Niven in The Pink Panther (1963)

Jean Seberg in Moment to Moment (1965)

Romy Schneider in Innocents (1975)

Two of his uncredited films include designs for Sophia Loren in Arabesque (Christian Dior got the nod) and Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's romp A New Kind of Love (1963) that won Edith Head the Oscar for Best Costume Design. 

Real husband and wife team Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward
in A New Kind of Love (1963)

Sophia Loren and Gregory Peck in Arabesque

While the designer passed away several years ago, his legend and design house lives on.
Vive La France!

Nicole Kidman at an Oscar luncheon in YSL

The Help's Jessica Chastain is the new face of YSL fragrances

Photo Credits: Clothes on Film, CNN, Universal Pictures

Amore in the Eternal City

We have globe trotted with Woody Allen to London (Match Point and Scoop), Barcelona (Vicky Christina Barcelona) and the City of Lights (Midnight in Paris). Next up on the writer and director's film/travel schedule is To Rome With Love, a romantic comedy about the loves and adventures of an American architect, a retired opera director and his wife, a man mistaken for a celebrity and a young Italian couple in love.

Alec Baldwin and Jesse Eisenberg

The ensemble cast stars Alec Baldwin, Penelope Cruz, Jesse Eisenberg, Judy Davis, Ellen Page and Woody Allen. From the Trevi to the Trastevere, the film is a wonderful travelogue of one of the most alluring cities in the world. Shot entirely on location, Allen teams with French production designer Anne Seibel (who was nominated for an Oscar for Best Art Direction on Midnight in Paris) who created the film's sets including a full production of the opera Pagliacci and a beautiful fashion show at the Ara Pacis museum. In a classic case of "when in Rome do as the Romans do," Seibel scouted the city on scooter, influenced by the Rome of Fellini and La Dolce Vita (she even watched Gidget Goes to Rome for inspiration). For more on the sets of To Rome With Love, see my article in Architectural Digest.

Allen giving instructions to his cast

To Rome With Love is currently playing in Los Angeles and New York and opens nationwide July 6th.

Photo Credits: Sony Classics

Four Score and Seven Vampires Ago....

As the subject of not one but two movies and countless books this year, our 16th president is enjoying his time in the spotlight. Add the public's obsession with all things vampire and you have the perfect storm -- Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter.

Based on Seth Grahame-Smith's popular novel of the same name, producer Tim Burton and director Tim Bekmambetov bring the story of a President who rules the country by day and battles the forces of evil by night to the big screen. Benjamin Walker (who starred as Andrew Jackson in Bloody Bloody Jackson on Broadway), portrays Lincoln and Rufus Sewell (many of you might remember him as the Kate Winslet's one-sided love in The Holiday) as his nemesis.

And while a story of this nature might be the last place you'd find interesting design, think again. Production designer Francois Audouy and set decorator Cheryl Carasik designed a pretty spectacular plantation lair for Lincoln's bloodthirsty foes along with a French colonial transformation of a Garden district Greek Revival manor and a Zuber panelled White House interior.

Lincoln (Benjamin Walker)  fights the evil vampire Vadoma
with Adam (Rufus Sewell) in the background

For more on the film's designs, see my article The Sets of Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter in Architectural Digest. Honest Abe and his ax-wielding ways open at a theater near you Friday, June 22nd.

Photo Credits: Stephen Vaughn/Twentieth Century Fox

Designing 007

If you find yourself in London this summer with no tickets to the Olympics, be sure and catch Designing 007: Fifty Years of Bond Style at the Barbican. From 1962's Dr. No to the upcoming Skyfall, the exhibit chronicles the incredible evolution of the most famous secret agent in history. It's all here - Sir Ken Adams, Peter Lamont and Syd Cain's fantastical set and production designs, automobiles, gadgets, props, and the costumes and tailored suits (everyone from Armani and Tom Ford contributed to the James Bond look).

The One and Only and Accept No Imitations: Sean Connery
(Pierce Brosnan was a great runner up)

The Car: Aston Martin

The Gadget: Little Nelly helicopter in You Only Live Twice

The Bond Girl: Ursula Andress in Dr. No (and the first)

The Production Design: Ken Adam's sketch for the
Fort Knox "Rumpus Room" in Goldfinger

The  Suit: Pierce Brosnan in Brioni

The Set Decoration: Goldfinger

The Villain: Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) and cat in You Only Live Twice

The Martini and a Bath: Diamonds Are Forever

The Soundtrack

The Barbican exhibit opens July 6th and runs through September 5th. For the Bond aficionado, this is better than a martini shaken not stirred...and beats the penthalon and torch relays any day.

Photo Credits: Danjag/United Artists, Brioni