footage of the City of Joy school; plus, a new Gardens of the World?

Thanks to Ankit's sharp eyes, we can now see video footage of the dedication of the first of many new Indian schools, paid for by Audrey Hepburn's Breakfast at Tiffany's dress. It shows Dominique Lapierre and his wife arriving at the school, plus some children performing songs and dances to celebrate their new school. Dominique himself has a bit to say about Audrey, and the clip also shows the December 2006 auction of the dress in London, plus footage of the lovely Audrey herself in the iconic first scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's. You can go here to view the video (try here or here if the first link doesn't work, since BBC is a little weird about linking to their videos).

The Telegraph from Calcutta, India has a wonderful article about the new school and the Lapierres' work for the children of India. I love the way the article opens, too:

In Sudan, they call a water pump Unicef. And courtesy Audrey Hepburn and her new huckleberry friend, villages in South 24-Parganas and the Sunderbans might soon start calling their primary schools by some other name — Dominique, perhaps.

I'm sorry if I'm boring anyone with this continued coverage of the school opening, but I personally think it's very big news and something Audrey herself would have pushed hard for if she was still here. It meant so much to her, therefore it's important to me.

Lastly, I came across an article today that really only mentions Audrey in passing, but it's still terribly interesting (especially if you're a flower nut, like me). It seems that Janis Blackschleger, who produced Gardens of the World and became quite chummy with Audrey, met up with an Englishman living in California and mentioned that she wanted to do an updated Gardens of the World series. I don't know if others feel the same way, but after watching the series recently myself, I really wished they would have kept making more episodes, even if it had to be without Audrey. It's really an engrossing series (though Audrey did accent the flowers rather nicely), and there are so many more lovely gardens yet to see, plus new flower hybrids being created every day. If you find this sort of thing interesting, you can read more about the new possible series here. Janis herself will be at the Philadelphia Flower Show on March 10 to talk about Irish gardens (what the article above is mostly about), if anyone is in the neighborhood and would like to pick her brain about working with Audrey. :)

"When you were with Audrey you felt prettier, better about yourself and your own possibilities."
-Janis Blackschleger

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 ...

The Audrey Hepburn daylily, humanitarianism, and more

A lot of random stuff today, just from wandering around the web. You'd think I never left the house on my days off! But first, a new page for the website. Now if you go to the index page and click on the "je ne sais quoi" graphic, it'll take you to a new page. This page was made for anyone and everyone to talk about Audrey in their own languages, along with posting their favourite picture of her. It was always my plan to have a multilingual site, and I'll work on it more once the english section is firmly entrenched, but for now there's at least some place to express yourself in whatever language you like. Hopefully other non-English speakers will come and enjoy your thoughts, and you might be responsible for making a new Audrey fan! To see the new page, click here.

Next up, I've found a new flower named after Audrey! A lot of people already know about the Audrey Hepburn rose and the Audrey Hepburn tulip (though I still can't find a picture of that one), but while wandering around I found an Audrey Hepburn daylily. It's a lovely flower:


However, I didn't know that the blooms only last one day! Hence the name daylily (or day lily, both are correct). There are numerous blooms on one stalk, but after learning that I'm not sure if it validates the $75 price tag. And there are even more expensive daylilies than that! Still, if you're crazy about flowers and have a garden of your own, it might be worth looking into. You can see more daylilies here to get an idea of the flower overall, and you can go here for ordering information.

Next up, there's going to be a special on Barbara Walters Thursday and Friday nights at 10 Eastern on ABC. It's actually about her 30 biggest mistakes, and Audrey will be in it! Apparently, they'll show footage of a bird pooping on Audrey during the interview. I guess it'd be interesting to see how she took it -- very cooly, I'm guessing. If you're interested in catching it and want more information, go here. I'd watch it just for the Audrey segment alone! Though of course they don't say which night she'll be on.

The next article isn't actually Audrey related, but I still think it's vastly relevant. It's a great article from The New York Times about celebrities and charity causes, and how it's such a double-edged sword now to be famous and "conscientious." Though Audrey wasn't the first celebrity to use their name and image for the good of others, she is often credited with kick-starting this phenomenon and it's interesting to see how much has changed since she started working for UNICEF. The article touches on Angelina Jolie's adoptions, Madonna's ruinous adoption of her own, and even the new Gap Red campaign, started directly after the Audrey campaign. Here's the link.

And lastly, something fun to end the post. I've found a great boutique online that offers some of the best dresses I've ever seen. You can peruse at your own leisure, but I wanted to point out one dress in particular, since it so closely resembles an Audrey dress:


Doesn't it look an awful lot like this dress?


The dress's page is here, and it comes from Dadadie Brücke.