Category: Television
The Return Of Audrey Hepburn
More Than 13 Years After Her Death, Hepburn Is As Popular As Ever
Say the name Audrey Hepburn, and even now — 45 years after the movie came out — it’s impossible not to think of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Lately, Hepburn, or somebody trying to look like her, seems to be everywhere. She even made a Halloween appearance on the CBS sitcom “The Class.”
And twenty-somethings, whose grandparents went to see Hepburn in “Funny Face” when it came out in 1957, saw Hepburn this fall, jumping out of the film into a Gap ad.
“I think she’s totally timeless, and at the same time very timely, with what’s going on right now in fashion,” Trey Laird, creative director of the Gap who thought of the Hepburn ad, told Sunday Morning correspondent Martha Teichner. “Her voice, her movement, her eyes, her smile, her style … everything about her is so unique.”
She never considered herself even pretty, nor a good actress, she told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith in 1991.
“I find it very hard to look at myself, and I think I fall short of what my performance should have been, but as time goes by, I’m becoming much nicer to myself,” she said then.
Hepburn was flat-chested, tall and long-necked in an era when leading ladies tended to look like Marilyn Monroe. She was an unlikely star.
“Isn’t that the way every Cinderella story begins?” her son Sean Hepburn Ferrer said. “I mean, she sees herself as the ugly duckling. She’s different from everybody else. She’s not sexy. She’s not voluptuous. She didn’t have the proper training [and] lost everything.”
Audrey Ruston was born in 1929, the daughter of Ella van Heemstra, a Dutch baroness, and Joseph Hepburn-Ruston, a good-looking British ne’er-do-well, who sympathized with the Nazis and walked out on his family when Hepburn was six.
“What kind of yearning does that create? What kind of desire, need, hole that can never be filled?” Ferrer said. “Everything has an impact.”
Arnhem, the Dutch town where Hepburn and her mother lived, was the site of one of the biggest and bloodiest battles in World War II. In the aftermath, they nearly starved to death.
“Pretty soon they were eating (tulip) bulbs and bread was made with peas, so it was green, and they were eating dog cookies,” Ferrer said.
When food finally arrived, it came from the United Nations agency that was the forerunner to UNICEF, a favor Hepburn would return one day as spokeswoman.
Hepburn wanted more than anything to be a ballerina, but she was too tall, too old, and too malnourished to make up for the years she had lost to the war. She did manage to dance, but as a chorus girl in London cabaret shows.
The French author, Colette, made Hepburn a star when she spotted her on a Monte Carlo beach and decided Hepburn would be perfect for the Broadway version of her novella, “Gigi.”
But it was as a princess running away from responsibility into the arms of Gregory Peck that she became a Hollywood star. In 1954, at the age of 24, she won an Academy Award for “Roman Holiday.”
Enter Hubert de Givenchy. In an interview in Paris earlier this month, the fashion designer — now nearly 80 — remembered when “Miss Hepburn” appeared for her appointment, to ask him to dress her in her second Hollywood film, “Sabrina.”
“And I’m thinking it’s Katharine Hepburn. At that time, I never heard about Audrey Hepburn,” he recalled.
Little did he know his name and her look would end up forever linked. She would wear his clothes in eight films, among them, “Funny Face,” “Charade,” and of course, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Hepburn’s friendship with Givenchy outlasted her two failed marriages.
Her first husband was actor/director Mel Ferrer. Her second was psychiatrist and Italian aristocrat Andrea Dotti. She desperately wanted children and, after multiple miscarriages, had two sons, Sean and Luca.
When her boys were small, Hepburn made home movies, but stopped making Hollywood movies for eight years to be with them. Sean Hepburn Ferrer said his mother’s need to love and be loved was almost central to her identity.
“It’s interesting that someone whose faith has been so shaken would be such an advocate for it and hang onto it with such passion,” he said.
Hepburn and UNICEF were the perfect match — a passionate coming together of her need to love and be loved and the millions of desperate children she was determined to help.
A 1988 trip to Ethiopia was the first of eight she took for UNICEF. By the time she left on her last mission, to Somalia, cancer was killing her. She died on January 20, 1993. Her sons set up the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.
Yet 13 years after her death, she still captivates people. On the day that Christie’s auction house announced it would be auctioning for charity (on December 5) one of the famous “little black dresses” Givenchy designed for her to wear in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” even a model dressed up to look like Hepburn drew a crowd. The dress is estimated to sell for at least $120,000.
“She had such elegance and grace and finesse and intelligence that she certainly endured,” Helen Bailey, who works at Christies, said. “Maybe it’s something that nowadays people are harking back to, and being inspired by her all over again.”
“The Audrey Hepburn Treasures,” is a book that details some of the most precious items of the Hepburn estate. All profits will go to the Audrey Hepburn Children’s Fund.
From: CBS Sunday Morning News, November 26, 2006
Entry filed under: Press Mentions, Television | Comments OffGardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn (2006 HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE)
A great gift for any garden lover!
The special tribute edition of Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn
Pursuit of Beauty offers an experience of remarkable authenticity, and a consummately incisive portrait of Audrey Hepburn: the bravura performer; the fine, collaborative artist; the delighted lover of gardens and nature, the life affirming humanitarian, and the truly gracious, incomparable star. Also featuring signature scenes from the acclaimed series, In Pursuit of Beauty serves up 17 spectacular garden locations with Audrey, in seven countries – Holland, Dominican Republic, USA, Japan, Italy, France and England.
Viewers can enjoy In Pursuit Of Beauty as one grand, al fresco world tour, or pause and breathe in the beauty of more than thirty scenes. Chapter access is provided for each of Audrey’s five separate production itineraries. Two particularly captivating sequences include Audrey at the tulip naming ceremony in her honor at the Hepburn ancestral home in Apeldoorn – all in Dutch; and “One Fine Day”, which includes on-location interviews with Audrey, the director, the producer, and with extensive behind-the-scenes footage of Audrey’s memorable day of filming at Tintinhull House in Somerset, England.
Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn – Audrey’s Emmy Award winning and final performance before the camera – has been recognized as the most accomplished, beautiful garden series ever produced. Audrey believed that the gardens, not she, were the real stars, and wrote: “After years of challenge and reward in my own garden, I greatly looked forward to spending time in some of the world’s most beautiful gardens. I never imagined they would reveal the diverse range of expression they did.”
The new Tribute Edition 3-disc DVD features the complete series of 8 programs, with narration by renowned actor Michael York: Roses & Roses Gardens, Formal Gardens, Country Gardens, Public Gardens & Trees, Flower Gardens, Tropical Gardens, Japanese Gardens, Tulips & Spring Bulbs. Also included are selections from the original music soundtrack featuring the works of Purcell, Debussy, Ravel, Rameau, Vivaldi, Copland and more.
BONUS FEATURE: Until now, the story of Audrey Hepburn’s decided influence in Gardens Of The World has never really been told. who better to tell this enchanting story than Audrey herself? The newly produced 45-minute documentary reconstructs Audrey Hepburn’s grand world tour for Gardens of the World – cinéma vérité, with intimate never-before-released footage of Audrey on location in the spring and summer of 1990 – and premiers on the Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn Tribute Edition 3-disc DVD . “I know that for Audrey the making of Gardens of the World was not only a marvelous adventure, but also one of the most rewarding experiences of her life and career”, noted Audrey’s life partner, Robert Wolders. “The new documentary so wonderfully captures her heart and spirit. It confirms those personal qualities of Audrey the public somehow instinctively imagines to be true, but otherwise would NEVER be able to know.”
Entry filed under: 2006 Holiday Gift Guide, Holiday Gift Guide, Television | Comments OffPhotos from CSI: NY Holly Golightly look-alikes episode
We’ve finally found some high resolution photos from the Sept. 27th CSI: NY episode “Not What it Looks Like” featuring Holly Golightly look-alikes!
Check them out at the Modern Day Gallery.
About the episode: Three women who are all dressed as Holly Golightly rob a jewelry store and injure other shoppers in the process. The CSI’s have a hard time understanding how the women got away when they had a tip.
Learn more at the CSI: NY website.
Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn Extended Edition Now Available
The special tribute edition of Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn
Product Description
In Pursuit of Beauty offers an experience of remarkable authenticity, and a consummately incisive portrait of Audrey Hepburn: the bravura performer; the fine, collaborative artist; the delighted lover of gardens and nature, the life affirming humanitarian, and the truly gracious, incomparable star. Also featuring signature scenes from the acclaimed series, In Pursuit of Beauty serves up 17 spectacular garden locations with Audrey, in seven countries – Holland, Dominican Republic, USA, Japan, Italy, France and England.
Viewers can enjoy In Pursuit Of Beauty as one grand, al fresco world tour, or pause and breathe in the beauty of more than thirty scenes. Chapter access is provided for each of Audrey’s five separate production itineraries. Two particularly captivating sequences include Audrey at the tulip naming ceremony in her honor at the Hepburn ancestral home in Apeldoorn – all in Dutch; and “One Fine Day”, which includes on-location interviews with Audrey, the director, the producer, and with extensive behind-the-scenes footage of Audrey’s memorable day of filming at Tintinhull House in Somerset, England.
Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn – Audrey’s Emmy Award winning and final performance before the camera – has been recognized as the most accomplished, beautiful garden series ever produced. Audrey believed that the gardens, not she, were the real stars, and wrote: “After years of challenge and reward in my own garden, I greatly looked forward to spending time in some of the world’s most beautiful gardens. I never imagined they would reveal the diverse range of expression they did.”
The new Tribute Edition 3-disc DVD features the complete series of 8 programs, with narration by renowned actor Michael York: Roses & Roses Gardens, Formal Gardens, Country Gardens, Public Gardens & Trees, Flower Gardens, Tropical Gardens, Japanese Gardens, Tulips & Spring Bulbs. Also included are selections from the original music soundtrack featuring the works of Purcell, Debussy, Ravel, Rameau, Vivaldi, Copland and more.
BONUS FEATURE: Until now, the story of Audrey Hepburn’s decided influence in Gardens Of The World has never really been told. who better to tell this enchanting story than Audrey herself? The newly produced 45-minute documentary reconstructs Audrey Hepburn’s grand world tour for Gardens of the World – cinéma vérité, with intimate never-before-released footage of Audrey on location in the spring and summer of 1990 – and premiers on the Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn Tribute Edition 3-disc DVD . “I know that for Audrey the making of Gardens of the World was not only a marvelous adventure, but also one of the most rewarding experiences of her life and career”, noted Audrey’s life partner, Robert Wolders. “The new documentary so wonderfully captures her heart and spirit. It confirms those personal qualities of Audrey the public somehow instinctively imagines to be true, but otherwise would NEVER be able to know.”
Learn more about Gardens of the World with Audrey Hepburn
“I Call It Love” Video
Have you seen Nicole Richie in father Lionel Richie’s video for “I Call It Love,” re-enacting the opening scene and other memorable moments from Breakfast at Tiffany’s?
Check out the video at Lionel’s website here.
Learn more about Lionel’s new CD Coming Home.
Would this woman shop at The Gap? (Gap Advertising Campaign)
Would this woman shop at The Gap?
THANKS TO AN UNRELENTING AD CAMPAIGN, THE CLOTHING RETAILER HAS MADE AUDREY HEPBURN UBIQUITOUS AGAIN. BUT COULDN’T THEY HIRE ANY LIVE CELEBRITIES?
The Gap could hire just about anybody to sell its clothes, but this season it searched far beyond all of contemporary Hollywood. They retreated nearly half a century … to Audrey Hepburn.
The clothing retailer is using the deceased Hepburn and her look from the 1957 movie “Funny Face,” specifically, to plug its new line of skinny, black pants, and it’s possible that in Hepburn they have found the single best person in human history to convey the extraordinary cool of skinny, black pants.
She wears skinny, black pants with such effortless perfection that any sentient being, anywhere, who bears witness to Hepburn’s sanctification of the look, would surely covet it.
We’ll get to the ad itself, but first the obvious question: Couldn’t the ad people find somebody alive to shill for their pants? Some trendy Sarah Jessica Parker type, or an ultra-cool Lenny Kravitz knockoff, to name two of the famous faces that appeared in previous ads?
And now, the obvious answer: They just don’t make them like Audrey Hepburn anymore.
Thanks to the celebrity gossip mill, which everyone seems to disdain – and everyone seems captivated by – today’s Hollywood giants are inevitably downsized, with every detail of their lives, from minor weight gain to ugly divorce, exposed to public scrutiny. Those who don’t come off as vulgar end up appearing failingly human.
So, going for polish? You’ve got to tap historical figures.
Good answer, but too simple. Let’s discuss.
There is something to the claim that they don’t make them like Audrey Hepburn anymore.
She was born in Belgium to an aristocratic family, attended boarding school in England, and then after her parents divorced, lived in The Netherlands under Nazi occupation, where she danced ballet to raise money for the anti-Nazi underground movement and suffered from malnutrition.
After the war she continued dancing, tried acting, excelled, landed movie roles and got her first starring gig opposite Gregory Peck in “Roman Holiday.”
She rocketed from there to international fame, a bright star that never fell, capping her long career with a deep dedication to helping suffering children around the world. Her ability to speak English, French, Italian, Dutch/Flemish and Spanish aided this international humanitarian effort and her image.
Do they make ‘em like that today? Well yes, they do, all over the world talented women endure hardships and triumph in grand form, but they generally aren’t elbowing their way up the Hollywood ladder and establishing themselves as enviable starlets.
And even if they did, would they land at the top of the heap as clean and classy as Audrey Hepburn? Would Hepburn herself arrive at the pinnacle unscathed today?
Gossip machine
With Us Weekly and Entertainment Tonight and Jossip.com tracking her every visit to a deli for a pack of cigarettes, theorizing about her various hair styles, dissecting her two divorces?
It’s not a stretch to conclude that no, nobody can enter Hollwood today, rise, succeed, and stand flawless. Even Audrey Hepburn, for goodness sake, would emerge from the gauntlet tattered and tawdry, just another Jessica Simpson, Jennifer Lopez, or Angelina Jolie, all tainted – right or wrong – by the relentless interpretation of their everyday lives as scandal.
The good news is that Hepburn wasn’t forced to trudge through that tunnel of humiliation, and so we have Audrey Hepburn the immaculate icon, a jeweled vessel of mischevious grace, of spunk and smarts and a style exhilarant with confidence and dash.
She’s like a pure form, like a primary color of class – perfect, it turns out, for corporate image crafting.
In the brilliant Gap ad, she dances to AC/DC’s rock’n'roll anthem “Back in Black,” first in a smoky bar – a mash-up of a clip from “Funny Face” with the song – then alone on the screen, all the while in skinny black pants and a black turtleneck and black loafers, her dark hair pulled up in a perky ponytail.
“I rather feel like expressing myself now,” she says in the ad, pronouncing rather as “rahther.”
“If a girl wants to dance, a girl wants to dance. It’s nothing more than a form of expression, a release.”
Fans mixed on ad
And so she expresses herself in service to The Gap, only the woman herself has nothing to do with the sales pitch.
For old hands at the Hepburn phenomenon, she’s long been a sun around which they orbit, a goal to which they aspire. Her website-maintaining, YouTube-posting fanatics are split about The Gap ad. Some find it crass, antithetical to Hepburn’s spirit. Others, like former Boulderite Carrie Spritzer, who has an ambitious Hepburn website, say it’s OK.
“If it takes a little bit of advertising to raise awareness about her (even if it makes us cringe), then I’m all for that because she deserves our attention,” she wrote in an e-mail.
She’s getting it. Let’s hope the attention doesn’t pluck Hepburn from the firmament and cast her down to earth – a confusion of The Gap and “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” a cute slogan, a fallen star.
From: Denver Post, Article by Douglas Brown, October 4, 2006
Entry filed under: Advertisements, Press Mentions, Television, Website News | Comments OffCSI: NY Holly Golightly look-alikes episode
Did you catch the Sept. 27th CSI: NY episode ‘Not What it Looks Like‘ featuring Holly Golightly look-alikes? Learn more about the episode at the CSI: NY website.
Entry filed under: Television | Comments OffElegance Defined: In An Age Of Indulgence, Audrey Hepburn Looks Even Better (Hartford Courant)
In An Age Of Indulgence, Audrey Hepburn Looks Even Better
On “CSI: NY” this week, a bunch of identically dressed women pull a jewel heist, all dressed like Audrey Hepburn from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” The women may have been crooks, but they looked fabulous.
Just shows you how the aura of Audrey continues to resonate.
It’s happened a lot, lately. The iconic Givenchy dress that Hepburn wore in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” will be auctioned by Christie’s in December. Gap’s new ad for its skinny black pants uses old footage from “Funny Face” of Hepburn cavorting in signature black pants and flats. A new biography, “Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn” by Donald Spoto, is out this month. And Ikea is selling a print of Hepburn as Holly Golightly, while CB2 has a wall clock imprinted with another Golightly pose. Hepburn has, it seems, expanded from fashion to home design.
“Audrey Hepburn is an inspiration in that her classic and timeless style has continued to resonate throughout the years in everything from fashion to pop culture to home décor,” says Kim Ficaro, style editor for Domino magazine. “The most important thing about Audrey’s style is that she stayed true to herself, and that is what people respond to. Any woman can find the Audrey Hepburn within herself and express it.”
Certainly, fashion has long been inspired by Hepburn, who died in 1993. Designer Carmen Marc Valvo showed some of the most crisp little black dresses that oozed Audrey charm in his Spring 2007 runway show during the recent Fashion Week. And Target has tapped designer Behnaz Sarafpour to do Audrey-style fashions (at mass retailer prices) come November. Hepburn lives.
“Fashionistas will not allow her to rest in peace, nor should they. She is the very antithesis of sexy vulgarity of the Paris Hilton type, and therefore Audrey is the antidote to the trash and flash that has been driving fashion during the recent celebrity tsunami,” says David Wolfe, creative director for Doneger Group. “Fashion-sensitive folk [designers, stylists, editors] are just plain bored with vulgarity and so are pushing the pendulum to the opposite extreme.”
In a world of vulgarity, it’s nice to know, we can still cling to Audrey Hepburn.
From Hartford Courant, by Greg Morago, September 29, 2006
Entry filed under: Advertisements, Books, Press Mentions, Television | 1 Comment »Everyone Loves Audrey: Her Style and Sensibilities Continue Their Influence 50 Years After Her Stardom (ABC News)
Fifty years ago, she was the toast of Hollywood and a style icon. And more than 10 years after her death, Audrey Hepburn is still setting trends.
From big sunglasses to her ubiquitous skinny black pants, Hepburn’s look is back.
Donald Spoto talks about the so-called “Audrey effect” in his new biography, “Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn.”
Spoto says the starlet’s combination of vulnerability and vivacity makes her so enduring. New audiences have been exposed to Hepburn’s glamour thanks to Gap ads featuring her dance from the movie “Funny Face” — reset to the AC/DC song “Back in Black.”
According to Spoto, “Funny Face” was a turning point in Hepburn’s career.
“She realized in that film what had been her ambition as a child and teenager, which was to be a ballet dancer,” Spoto said.
Sadly, because of malnutrition and illness she suffered during World War II, she wasn’t able to realize her dream.
As fans of Hepburn know, she nevertheless went on to have a fulfilling career, all the while turning heads with her signature looks. In an interview with ABC’s Barbara Walters, Hepburn said her style was attainable to everyone.
“They can look like Audrey Hepburn if they want to by cutting off their hair, by buying the large glasses, by having the little sleeveless dresses,” she said.
Spoto said Hepburn created a name and look for herself by standing out in the crowd of 1950s starlets.
“In the ’50s, of course … it was the era of kind of opulent sexuality,” he said. “It was Marilyn Monroe and Jane Mansfield. Along came Audrey Hepburn, who was just enough different to appeal to both men and women.”
Humanitarian and Style Icon
Late in life, Hepburn devoted herself to humanitarian work — long before stars like Brad Pitt and Angelia Jolie made it popular.
“We have to give Audrey Hepburn high marks for spending the last six years of her life going into dangerous situations worldwide to try to help starving children in war-torn countries with no thought of her own safety,” Spoto said.
“She went and did something for the world. She made a difference. She made the world a better place.”
Indeed, decades later, the world is still feeling the “Audrey effect.”
To view a clip of this interview, visit the ABC News webpage.
Learn more about Enchantment: The Life of Audrey Hepburn.
From ABC News, September 24, 2006
Entry filed under: Books, Enchantment, Interviews, Multimedia, Press Mentions, Television | Comments OffKeep it Simple (Gap Advertising Campaign)
Every woman knows that a perfect pair of black pants is a quintessential wardrobe staple. More than a decade ago Gap became known for a fabulous pair of black pants that flew off shelves and helped millions of women across the country dress with sophistication and style. This season Gap is back with “the Audrey Hepburnâ„¢ pant” — a perfect fitting pair of skinny black pants that will remind women of the perfect Gap black pants they owned years ago. Named after Audrey Hepburnâ„¢ — a timeless fashion icon known for her classic, feminine style — Gap’s “Audrey Hepburnâ„¢ pant” is sleek and simple with modern details that make them undeniably cool.
Gap has a long heritage of offering clean, classic and simple styles. This fall Gap has a wide range of great fitting sophisticated pants in all lengths and shapes, as well as classic shirts, turtlenecks, sweaters and outerwear. Worn day or night, these are the items Gap has always been known and loved for.
Visit the Image Library to download print-ready photos from the fall collection.
From: Gap News
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