A Life in Pictures review; plus, a fan needs your help

I've been working hard all morning updating the site, and there is now a full review of Anova Books' upcoming Audrey Hepburn: A Life in Pictures. It's a bit more fleshed out than the original blog-only review I did last month, and will be on the website permanently here. As with any Audrey product that's listed on the site, if you own it or have seen it/read it and would like to leave your own review, please do so! Fellow fans would love to hear your point of view.

The Audrey Hepburn community has been updated as well, adding a lot of new fans just waiting to strike up a friendship with fellow Audrey fans from around the world. One new member in particular needs your help! They run the Roman Holiday Locations website and say:

Help me! It's trivial, yes, but would the community like to take a try at identifying some of the remaining unknown film locations for Roman Holiday? The easy ones are done, but you can see some nice screen shots just for fun! Any help would be greatly appreciated!

If you think you can help in any way, or if you'd just like to see where Roman Holiday was filmed on location, then please stop by the website and poke around. It'd be a great help to others fans, and may help you if you find yourself in Rome one day with some time to poke around!

Lastly, the links page has been updated to include some new sites that have come up recently. If you're bored or maybe need some help for an Audrey-related report, check there for some great resources and fun ways to waste some time.

My Best Friend: Audrey Hepburn

Last year Sean Ferrer filmed a show for BBC called My Best Friend: Audrey Hepburn. It was part of an ongoing series about behind-the-scenes biographies of celebrities as told by their best friends. As Sean himself said at the time, "It doesn’t happen always that your parent is also your best friend," but he and his mum were always very close. He had also called Audrey his best friend in his book An Elegant Spirit. I haven't seen this show yet, but if you care to register at the website of the company that produced this, 3DD, then you may be able to see it for free online! (I'm waiting for my password.) You can click here to learn a bit more about the documentary, and you can register for your password here.

Also, there's been lots of activity in the Audrey Hepburn community. If you haven't already, check it out!

the Audrey Hepburn Community

The Audrey Hepburn Community has really been taking off lately! I've had to add a second page to fit all of the new members, which you can see here. So if you're looking for a new friend who just happens to be a fellow Audrey fan, you might want to give this place a shot. We've got people from all over the world signing up, including fans from Spain, Greece, the UK and the US.

In other virtual news, Second Style Magazine, an e-zine dedicated to Second Life, is having a Fashion Challenge: Inspired by Audrey Hepburn. I'll admit I'm a pretty big Sims nut (I may even have an Audrey Hepburn Sim in one of my neighborhoods . . .), but I'm totally out of the loop on this Second Life stuff. Anyway, it seems to be a massive online community of virtual people representing real people, and you can buy clothes and jewelry and other perks to spice up your virtual self. If you're into this sort of thing, you can dress your Second self in the most Audrey-inspired way you can, enter the contest, and win some virtual money! Along with some virtual jewels. Click the fashion challenge above for more information on how to enter, including picture uploading guidelines and contest rules.

Contest winners, Gardens of the World, and updates!

Je suis désolé, es tut mir leid, I am so sorry about taking so long with the contest! I won't waste your time with excuses, so I'll just get straight to it an announce the winners of the December contest. Second prize is a copy of the new Taschen Icons book on Audrey, and was won by Amy! First prize is a copy of the new special edition of "Gardens of the World," and has been won by Rosana! Ladies, please check your email so we can ship off your wonderful new prizes. And since the drawing was delayed until after the holidays, if you've received your prizes from someone else in the meantime, we'll work out some other prize you don't have. :)



Speaking of "Gardens of the World," I received my own copy for Christmas, and I've already watched half of it! I can't express to you how wonderful it is. The first disc starts off with roses, and really captivates you from the first. They couldn't have picked a more addicting first segment, honestly. If you're a horticulture fan like myself, then you'll absolutely swoon over these fantastic gardens and beautiful flowers. Audrey herself looks radiant and genuinely happy, so even if you're not a gardening nut, you'll be happy with the view of Audrey. I'll write up a real review later, when I've finished all 3 discs, but I can already tell you this is going to get 5 stars. Absolutely fantastic and very addicting. And I'm making myself wait on this one, but the third disc with the special features has footage from the Audrey Hepburn tulip ceremony! Now I can finally see what it looks like.

Now that things have settled down, there's more time for updates on the website, too. Three new people have joined the Audrey Hepburn community this month, so stop by and check them out. If you're looking for a fellow Audrey fan to chat with, this should be the first place to look! Alas, a couple of people recently have been forgetting to leave their email addresses, so no one can write to them! So if you do have a profile on the community, please check it and make sure you've left an address. If you've forgotten, just write to us and we'll fix it.

The quotes page has also been updated! More and more quotes coming in all the time, both quotes by Audrey and quotes about Audrey from her costars, directors, family and friends. Also, if you have a favourite quote that's not on the page, feel free to drop us a line and let us know!

And if you haven't noticed, this page has had some fixing as well. I'm still working on trying to get the heading picture back up ("upgrade" my foot, Blogger!), but we now have a picture of the week and a way to subscribe! If you have a customizable homepage, like AOL, Yahoo or Google where you can add news feeds, you can now get your Audrey news on the same page. Just click the link on the right and it'll take you to the subscription page. From there, all you have to do is choose the button with your homepage brand, and the Audrey news is added! Easy as pie. And more updates are coming, too.


Well, that's all for now. Remember, if you entered the contest, check your email! After about a week, unclaimed prizes will be redrawn and given to people who want their goodies. :)

Note: The Taschen Icons book on Audrey has been pushed back yet again in the US! The last known release date was December 22, but as of yesterday Amazon still doesn't have books to ship and no local bookstore of mine has any copies. So Americans will either have to order from Canada or keep waiting ...