Let's bring Mayerling back to life!

For those of you that don't know, in 1957 Audrey Hepburn and husband Mel Ferrer starred in a television adaptation of the popular story Mayerling, about a prince and his ill-fated love affair. It was part of the Producers' Showcase series, and as far as I know it was never officially released on home video to own.

This is where Dan comes in. He emailed me recently and has taken it upon himself to start up a petition to get Mayerling released! It's not just someone collecting signatures on the internet, either; he has spoken to people associated with the company holding the rights and the main reason why the film has never been released was because they honestly think there isn't enough interest in this piece. I know quite a few people who beg to disagree! I'm sure quite a lot of you do too, and this is where you can actively help. Dan has a petition to sign here, as well as a campaign on Facebook. Sign it, like the page, pass the links on, and get the word out! Let's show the people in charge that there is interest in Mayerling, get it dusted off and properly released for all to enjoy. Dan has posted a message with more details on the Audrey 1 forum, and if you've never even heard of Mayerling before, he's also been kind enough to post a clip on YouTube:

Mel Ferrer, Audrey Hepburn's first husband, has died

The news hasn't been up long, but actor Mel Ferrer died yesterday (Monday, June 2nd) at his home near Santa Barbara. He was 90.

Mel was Audrey's first husband, and he and Audrey had one child together, son Sean Hepburn Ferrer, who now runs The Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund with his half brother Luca Dotti. You can read a little more about Mel in the few articles up so far [here and here], and I'll keep checking back to see if any more news comes up.

rare insight into Audrey Hepburn

There's a new video on You Tube from a made-for-TV biography that I don't think I've ever seen. The clip that was uploaded was from a Chinese airing, but maybe it's been aired in English-speaking countries? Either way, it's fantastic interviews with Mel Ferrer, Henry Mancini (composer of "Moon River"), Stanley Donen (director of Funny Face and Two For the Road), and Hubert de Givenchy. It's a really fascinating segment to watch and gives more insight into Audrey's career and relationships with these men, you really just have to see it to appreciate it. I certainly can't do it justice!

My Best Friend: Audrey Hepburn continued

Last month I posted about a new BBC biography series called My Best Friend, and how Sean Hepburn Ferrer had filmed an episode about his mum, Audrey Hepburn. Beaker from L'Ange des Enfants was kind enough to send me a copy of this, and I've just finished posting it to You Tube for everyone to enjoy. :) If you live outside of the UK then chances are you haven't seen this biography yet, and I highly recommend that you do. Not only does it give you yet another side of Audrey, but we see more of the elusive Sean. The program seems to have been filmed at his house in Tuscany, but it also shows new footage of La Paisible, Audrey's wonderful home in Tolochenaz, Switzerland. Sean is very open about his relationship with his mother, and talks quite frankly about his parents' divorce and what went wrong. It's the most I've ever heard on the subject, and it gives a lot of insight to both Audrey and Mel Ferrer that most people either never got or seemed to have missed entirely. All in all, it's a lovely biography with fascinating content and great pictures, a good way to spend half an hour.







While the You Tube clips came out rather nicely, the original is far better without all the compression. I'll be posting the full show -- not chopped into three pieces -- on the website shortly, along with some other You Tube videos. I'm also working on getting some great Audrey clips that I only have on videotape uploaded to the computer to share as well, so keep checking back!

for your viewing pleasure

Someone has posted some Audrey Hepburn goodies to You Tube! That someone would be me. :) Better late than never, here are some of the birthday presents I have for you:



Audrey Hepburn in Paris, the all French interview she and husband Mel Ferrer conducted at Orly airport in France. I had posted this video before, but sadly PrinceCharmingxoxo's account at You Tube was suspended and all of his videos were taken down. Thankfully, he either sent me his videos or told me where to go to get my own copies, so they can now be shared again! Hopefully he'll be back soon with a new account, so you can thank him when he returns.



A solid gold sculpture of Audrey Hepburn, done by renowned artist Renato Signorini.



A fashion show, presumably using the costumes from Sauce Piquante, done by the cast. Audrey isn't actually credited or called by name in the film, but you can definitely spot her and her elfin ears if you look. I hope she got a pay bonus for wearing that ridiculous dress, too.



Audrey and Mel Ferrer visit Utrecht, Holland, to attend the premiere of Mel's film El Greco. Audrey receives a hero's welcome, of course!



Last for tonight, the UK premiere of My Fair Lady receives a royal welcome with the attendance of no less than a princess!

There will be more videos coming soon, and all of the videos on You Tube will also be up on the multimedia page of the website as well.

Edit: PrinceCharmingxoxo is alive and well as the new MrNatashaRostov! So please, drop him a line thanking him for finding a lot of these wonderful videos, and encourage him to keep looking.

Audrey Hepburn cancer awareness

A couple of days ago, I received a letter from a doctor in India about Audrey. An introduction isn't really necessary, so here is the letter in full:

Hello,

There is something common in our interest..like Audrey Hepburn. I am always the Fan of Lady Audrey Hepburn. Great charity is done by Hepburn team.

I stumbled on your site while I was surfing the net. .

It is a meticulously prepared site.Congratulations.

Audrey died of advanced colon cancer. It made me think a lot. Colon cancer is one of the cancers which has best prognosis if treated early. Still many patients reach the expert medical aid at little later stage. I felt this is happening because of less awareness.

It is always admirable if intelligent proactive persons from community get organised for noble cause. Nothing is more precious than life. Every saved life is an achievement. We can educate masses regarding early diagnosis of cancer. Info should make people aware of the apparent low profile presentation of the disease. If the rational decisions are taken quickly, the results are quite good.
Knowledge Helps. .
Let us join hands to fight cancer.

We must thank film industry and Audrey Hepburn for providing us beautiful moments with so many films like Roman Holiday, Sabrina and many others.

Regards

Dr. Shriniwas Deshpande

Surgeon, Samarth Gastroenterology

Pune

India

The letter is deeply touching and, I feel, very important. Most types of cancer can be easily treated and possibly cured completely if caught early enough, and all it takes is a little extra awareness. We lost a beautiful person to this affliction, but maybe with a little effort we can keep others from succumbing to this disease.

Interestingly enough, another Audrey Hepburn tie-in with cancer awareness came to me today. The Smoking Gun has recently added a film clip archive section to their site and there are a couple of Audrey clips worth noting. The first is a public service announcement she and Mel Ferrer did backstage during the run of Ondine, and is for cancer research. You can view the whole film here. I'm not sure if the full announcement has ever been widely available before -- I've only ever seen the first 30 seconds or so myself.

The other clip worth mentioning is a film reel about the 1965 Oscar ceremonies, when Audrey presented My Fair Lady co-star Rex Harrison with the Best Actor statue, which you can see here.


Last for today, there's a new shoe shop in Ireland that is very Audrey inspired. Called The Shoe Gallery, its walls are covered in pictures of Audrey Hepburn and even the merchandise itself is inspired by her taste in clothing, according to The Athlone Advertiser. It sounds like it would be great fun to shop there!

Audrey Hepurn en français

A new video clip on You Tube has an interview of Audrey Hepburn and Mel Ferrer arriving in France (possibly at Orly?) and having a short interview with a woman. It's a bit noisy and distracting in here right now so I can't concentrate with my limited French, but I did hear that they flew in from Amsterdam, that Audrey had a new contract with Paramount studios, and that the interviewer comments on Mr. Famous's hair, since Mel was playing with it throughout. If anyone has better French (and a quieter domain) than me, please feel free to post a better translation in the comments section!



Oh, and your speakers aren't broken. The sound only comes in at the beginning of the interview, after the fellow with the Hasselblad camera snaps a picture, and the sound is very soft.

Edit: The user who originally posted this video has had their account suspended, so I am now hosting the video myself.

Audrey Hepburn's car for sale? Plus, footage from her first screentest

There was an eBay auction last week for a white Mercedes-Benz supposedly owned by Audrey Hepburn. There's a lot of speculation going around between Audrey fans, and the ad itself is very strange. The seller of the car (based in San Francisco) has a very long piece about the car up, though if you actually read the eight paragraphs, it's mainly insisting that Audrey's two favourite colours were white and red (the colours of the car), and lists every example in her films available to back up this fact. It might have been in a biography or it might have been speculation from another fan, but I had always heard that Audrey actually hated the colour red, and went so far as to tear up all red flowers in her gardens. She loved white and pastel colours both in her house and garden and on herself, and it is true that whatever car(s) she had with husband Mel Ferrer were white, and he drove them. The comments on the auction are also a bit strange and don't seem to ring true. But the part that bugs me the most is the fact that Audrey was never comfortable driving and would pretty much always have her husband or a friend drive her, and she stopped driving altogether after a minor accident and an ensuing lawsuit scared her for good. According to Barry Paris's biography Audrey Hepburn, this accident happened around the time of The Unforgiven, which was filmed in 1959. The Benz that was for sale is a 1968 model, which means it was bought and shipped to California for Audrey a full 10 years after she stopped driving. I also don't understand why she would need a car for herself in L.A. because by 1968 she had effectively stopped her career -- Wait Until Dark was released in 1967 -- to try and save her broken marriage to Mel Ferrer and raise son Sean Ferrer, and didn't start filming again until 1976 with Robin and Marian. Why would she demand her own car on standby in America when she was raising a family in Italy and effectively a "Roman housewife"? Thankfully, the reserve was not met on this auction and so no one is out the $25,000 final bid, because it would be a shame to have someone scammed into buying an otherwise lovely car worth a quarter of the winning bid in the misguided belief that Audrey Hepburn had been the sole owner of the car before the current seller (who also implies in the comments section that he/she rode in the car with Audrey and knew her). Personally, I don't believe it at all, but you are of course free to believe whatever you'd like. I'm only here to give you Audrey news, not tell you what to think. :)

As an add-on to yesterday's news about the British Film Institute, there are two news video clips that show a brief bit of footage from Audrey's first screen test! The first clip comes from BBC's website, and the quality is unfortunately not very good. Click here to view the news story, and from there you can click the film clips link in the right column, or you can just click here to watch only the video. The second news clip comes from Sky News, and I actually couldn't get this to play for me, so I'm not entirely sure if it's the exact same footage they show in the BBC clip, or how the quality is. Either way, click here to view it. As it turns out, the screentest seems to be for a 1954 film called The Belles of St. Trinian's, and Audrey was auditioning for the role of a shopgirl. Judging by the date of the film, I'd guess she got booked for Gigi and Roman Holiday instead?

more pictures for your viewing enjoyment

While Audrey Hepburn news may have suddenly come to a halt, there's still plenty to look at here. Today I've uploaded four new picture galleries for you! First is a gallery of various pictures taken throughout the 1960s, from magazines, fashion shoots, candids, etc, 81 pictures at this point. Go here for the pictures.


Next is a gallery of Roman Holiday photos. There are 57 candids, photo stills and publicity shots to be found so far (because more are always coming in!).

After that, we have 36 Paris When It Sizzles stills, publicities and candids for your enjoyment, which you can find here.








And lastly, a gallery with 42 photos of Audrey with first husband Mel Ferrer. Since there are so many pictures of her with her immediate family I thought it would be nice for each family member to get their own gallery, instead of just lumping it all together in a family gallery. So first in the installment is photos throughout Audrey's relationship with Mel, which you can see here.

Enjoy!