Finally, the big day is here. I hope everyone has their Audrey Hepburn (or Holly Golightly) costumes all set and ready to go. Don't forget, if you love your costume and would like to use your style and hard work for a chance to win some free Audrey goodies, enter the costume contest! Click the link to the right for more details. If you don't have an Audrey costume or are shy about showing your costume, it's okay, you can enter too. You just have to like getting free things to enter. :)
Anyway, if you're more the stay at home type, or you're going to be celebrating indoors and would like a little spooky entertainment, might I suggest turning out the lights and watching Wait Until Dark? While it's Audrey's only scary movie, it's an excellent one (she was nominated for an Oscar!), and on everyone's top ten lists, including Pittsburgh's Post-Gazette. They compiled a top ten list of movies that were scary without being gory or disgusting, and right below Psycho is Wait Until Dark. Though made 40 years ago, it's still as frightening as ever, and I do hope it becomes as timeless and iconic in its genre as Psycho is now. If you don't own it already, I'm sure a nearby video rental would have a copy or two, but you might want to get there early, before they're all picked over!
Since it's practically Halloween already, I'm going to talk about a great scary movie, Wait Until Dark. It was Audrey Hepburn's last film before retiring for ten years to focus on her children and family, and the last film for which she earned an Oscar nomination. It's also the last film of hers that was scored by the fantastic Henry Mancini, who wrote "Moon River" for dear Audrey. This soundtrack was a huge departure for Mancini, who usually does what would now be considered as lounge or soft pop music. Unfortunately, the soundtrack was never officially released, so it's impossible to find. It was never on vinyl, sadly, and was never on CD ... until now! After searching high and low for this, there seems to be only one place that offers the Wait Until Dark soundtrack.
Film Score Monthly offers a rare or never before released soundtrack every month with their magazine, and each album is a limited run. Through the Screen Archives Entertainment website you can buy your own copy of the soundtrack, sans magazine, for $19.95. It's a limited press of 3,000 copies, so this definitely won't be around forever! It's a shame I didn't think to look sooner, because the soundtrack would have been a great addition to your creepy Hallween music. Well, there's always next year. The picture at top left is the cover of the soundtrack, very scary. You can read more about the soundtrack and Henry Mancini here, as well order your own copy and even preview some tracks from the album. This might be the only chance we ever have to own this soundtrack! I've already ordered my copy.
It's getting closer to Halloween, and maybe you already have your chic Audrey Hepburn (or Holly Golightly) costume assembled and ready to go. But how about getting a little more into the Halloween spirit by watching Wait Until Dark, a claustrophobic thriller with Audrey? It's scary, it's intense, and it's Audrey in her last Oscar-nominated role. Last year Alan Arkin's sinister Harry Roat was voted one of the Top Ten villains on film, so you might want watch this one with a friend. And with a light on. Anyway, you can rent it or watch it straight from YouTube in its entirety, thanks to the same great person who put up Breakfast at Tiffany's:You can view the other segments here, and don't forget to say thank you!
If you're in the Washington, D.C. area or will be this summer, then you might be interested in taking in an Audrey movie under the stars. This year's Screen on the Green will feature Wait Until Dark on July 30. All movies will start at dusk, which AOL is estimating to be around 8:30 pm. It's one thing to watch a scary movie in your own house, how creepy would it be to watch in the great, dark outdoors? Make sure to mark this one on your calendars! I'm fairly sure this is free, too.
If you'll be closer to Atlanta, Georgia this summer, then you might be interested in catching Breakfast at Tiffany's under the stars in conjunction with TCM's Screen on the Green Festival. Breakfast will be shown on June 22, but there will be other great movies screened throughout the festival (A Hard Day's Night being one of them). This festival is definitely free, and you can find more information on their official site.
If you didn't end up watching the Oscars last night, Audrey Hepburn herself was featured! During a segment on writers in cinema, a clip from Paris When It Sizzles was shown. For those of you who aren't familiar with the film, Audrey plays a typist named Gabrielle Simpson who is hired to type a non-existent script for slacker screenwriter Richard Benson, played by William Holden. There was also an Audrey-inspired commercial that aired during the ceremonies.
What's also interesting to note is the fact that her sinister co-star from Wait Until Dark, Alan Arkin, won Best Supporting Actor last night! How To Steal A Million co-star Peter O'Toole did not win his Best Actor nomination, unfortunately.
It seemed to me that Anne Hathaway's Oscar dress seemed to be a bit Audrey-inspired -- inspired by Eliza Doolittle, in fact. Did anyone else notice this resemblance?
Last for today, I've put together a gallery of Audrey Hepburn at the Oscars through the years. Though most of the 44 pictures currently in the gallery are from her 1954 win for Roman Holiday, there are some appearances from the 60s and 80s thrown in and I hope to find even more to share. In the meantime, enjoy what's there!
Terribly sorry for the lack of updates recently. Due to the holidays, work has been insane (to put it one way), and it was all I could do to eat and sleep in between. I'll build up my stamina, promise. :) Anyway, there hasn't been much real Audrey news lately, so you haven't missed anything. She's still mentioned many times per day in news articles, but it's usually "she looked very Audrey Hepburn-ish" or "I felt like Audrey Hepburn," things usually totally unrelated and not worth posting.
So on to the news! What little there is. First up is a review of Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus. That film has been mentioned here before, and it's being mentioned again because the short review likens Nicole Kidman's pointless wanderings to that of Audrey's character Suzy Hendrix in Wait Until Dark. The reviewer? None other than Barry Paris! That makes me doubly surprised that he would liken Nicole to Audrey. Anyway, he doesn't give the film a very good review, mainly because it focuses (no pun intended) on her twisted psyche involving her upstairs neighbor and never really shows the art she became famous for. If you're interested, here's the full review, about halfway down the page.
The next news article comes thanks to The Audrey Hepburn Circle. Marni Nixon recently did a radio interview promoting herself and her book, and she of course talks about her career as a dubbing artist. She talks about Audrey, and I'll just quote chipmunkalvyne, who said it best: "She says Marilyn Monroe's voice went with Marilyn Monroe. Well, so did Audrey's with Audrey!" To hear the interview for yourself, simply click here.
On a side note, it's very sad to hear how Natalie Wood and Audrey were both fooled throughout filming just to get a good performance from them. Also, how did no one ever knew that Marni was present at Audrey's singing lessons! I wonder what lie they told Audrey to make her okay with someone sitting in on her lessons. Marni used to claim that she and Audrey rode in to the studio together in Audrey's limousine, and that Audrey knew full well who Marni was and what she was doing, and that Audrey was very cold to her. Funny how the story's changed . . .
Anyway, does anyone remember the old online Audrey paper doll from a few years ago? It had most of Audrey's better known costumes from her films, and you could just drag clothes on and off of her, including hats, jewelry and shoes? It seemed to have been lost forever, but it seems to have just moved! Hooray, I really used to like that paper doll. Anyway, here it is.
P.S. I personally don't care for the boots (stockings?) and handbags. Not very Audrey-ish!
I promised a picture gallery today and I delivered! (But just barely.) The latest picture gallery is a Charade screengrab gallery with 633 lovely stills for you, including a few from the theatrical trailer.
Next up, chron.com came out with a list of the Top 10 Truly Terrifying Performances, and Alan Arkin's neurotic psychotic terrorizing Audrey is on the list! So if you're wandering around the Internet on Halloween night and can't think of what to do, maybe you could watch Wait Until Dark. (Which is what we're going to do now.) Or, if you read this on November first and want to continue your Halloween hangover, watch it anyway! With the lights off, if you please. To see the full list, click here.
Last up for tonight, the timeless Little Black Dress turns a classy 80 years old. Starting with Coco Chanel in 1926, the LBD has gone through many incarnations throughout the years, but it's one of the main reasons why Audrey is remembered in the fashion world -- especially with Breakfast at Tiffany's and Holly's two famous black dresses. It's nice to see that some beautiful things never go out of style, no matter how bizarre (and maybe ugly?) fashion can get at times. See the full history of the LBD here.
So I just got an email from the Children's Fund (don't get huffy, I'm on the mailing list just like a million other people are), and they're finally offering The Audrey Hepburn Treasures for sale on their website like they did when Sean's Elegant Spirit came out. But unlike Elegant, Treasures is not signed, so please make note of that. It's also selling at full price ($49.95 US), so I personally think you're better off at Amazon. And don't worry about hurting the Children's Fund, since they published the book anyway and will get the writer's cut.
What's better than that, though, is the fact that they've finally updated the events page! Now you can see what they're doing. They kind of cheated by entering stuff from the more recent past that hadn't been up before, but here's the link to the events page (now with pictures!), and for the lazy amongst you, here's a list of their upcoming events:
November 4, 2006 Audrey Hepburn will receive the Lifetime Humanitarian Rose Award at a gala being held at Kensington Palace in London, England. The honor is being given by the People's Princess Charitable Foundation, a non-profit organization founded in memory or Princess Diana, whose mission it is to raise funds for charities around the world using the Princess' collection of dresses it owns and which annually recognizes, "extraordinary individuals."
November 28, 2006 The 2006 Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award will be presented at UNICEFS's annual Snowflake Gala in New York City. Established in 2004, past recipients include Sir Roger Moore, Pamela Fiori and special award recipients Bob Geldof, Bono and One org.
2007 Timeless Audrey Exhibit – European Tour After an 18 month, 10 city tour of Japan, Timeless Audrey, the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund traveling exhibit on the life and career of Audrey Hepburn, will launch its multi-city, multi-country European tour. Funds from the exhibit, created to benefit UNICEF's "All Children In School" educational initiative, help to provide 120,000,000 children with quality basic education.
No offense to the Europeans, but I'm pretty cheesed about that last entry. The exhibit was supposed to come to America this year (2006) and tour, and that would be the last stop. So you guys took our Audrey time! Completely not fair, unless I make a trip . . . well, thinking about it. Still, it was pretty mean of them to tell me about the American leg and get a lot of people's hopes up.
Also, there are a few new items in their shop for your shopping pleasure. Besides the two books they have up, there's also new UNICEF postcards, a DVD called "The Children of the Tsunami" (remember their big fundraising when the tsunami hit?), the t-shirts from before, the world music CD, and finally the Christmas cards with Audrey's drawings.
Moving on, I found an article that's really very funny. It talks about the upcoming dress auction, and as long as you're dreaming about buying it -- let alone wearing it! -- this article will help you choose some jewelry to go along with the priceless dress.
Next up is an article about Audrey's new wave of popularity, and while the author seems to admit that the Gap ads were crass and a bit silly, nothing could really hurt Audrey's image and it does well to promote her to new generations. It talks about her continuing popularity and her timelessness, and can be read in full here.
Lastly, here's yet another article talking about the Gap commercials, but this piece morphs into a review for Spoto's book. It says Spoto's book is formulaic, but gives a mini-biography of Audrey as well as some good quotes. One that's been pointed out in the Audrey Hepburn Circle is, "Humanitarian means human welfare and responding to human suffering -- that's what politics should be about, ideally." You can read the full story here.
Finally, the big day is here. I hope everyone has their Audrey Hepburn (or Holly Golightly) costumes all set and ready to go. Don't forget, if you love your costume and would like to use your style and hard work for a chance to win some free Audrey goodies, enter the costume contest! Click the link to the right for more details. If you don't have an Audrey costume or are shy about showing your costume, it's okay, you can enter too. You just have to like getting free things to enter. :)
