A few years ago they released Audrey Hepburn (Movie Icons), one of the best little picture books I have ever seen, and now they're at it again. This time it's a monster collection of Bob Willoughby's work with Audrey, spanning 13 years, in a gorgeous hardcover book with a Tiffany blue spine. But there's a catch: the book is limited to a run of 1,000 (with an extra 200 artist's proofs), and they're priced at a pre-order sale of $500. After September 30th, the price jumps to $700 (€500, or £450). I'm dying here. I was just saying how much I love books on Audrey, and I especially love picture books on her. But oh, even I can't justify that price! And I certainly can't afford it. Quel dommage. Who wouldn't love a book that beautiful?
If any of you are ever lucky enough to own a copy, please let us know what it's like! For now, we shall content ourselves with a virtual tour of the book, showcasing 100 pages, on Taschen's website. (Information via Amazon and Taschen, along with a lovely writeup on Wayneford's Posterous that is worth reading.)
Oh, finally! I have just finished uploading my pictures from the Timeless Audrey exhibit in Berlin to Flickr for your enjoyment.
First I'd like to thank Daniel yet again for getting us in to the Audrey Hepburn Humanitarian Award ceremony, and for being so very generous as to allow me to take all the pictures I wanted and share them with you. As such, I ask that you please not use (or abuse) these photos in any way. Pictures are not allowed in the exhibit on a normal basis but an exception was granted, and I'd like to show that not only I but all of us are appreciative of this exception and will follow the rules. So, like all beautiful things, look and admire but leave it as you found it. Thank you, and enjoy the view. :)
Edit: Oh shoot! I was sure I'd mentioned this in a previous post, but on looking back I realize I never gave thanks to the person who made this trip to Berlin possible. I'm such a heel. Anyway, if you're the sort of Audrey fan who hits all the cool websites then you know Richard from Audrey1. It was his idea for him, Kendal (whom you may also know) and I to see this exhibit while we could, made all the arrangements, everything to make sure we appeared at the door in one piece. So click the link and drop by the forums (if you don't already) or write a note saying, "You're cool!" Or be original and make up your own thing, just say thanks for having this idea and the drive to do it that gave us a good look at the usually mysterious exhibit we've all heard about but have never really seen before now. Thank you, Richard, and I'm very sorry I didn't in fact put up a thank you note earlier like my demented mind thought I had. Please forgive!
Anova Books, the publishing house that is releasing the new picture book Audrey Hepburn: A Life In Pictures this November, was kind enough to send me an advance copy of the book to review for this site. I found it waiting on my doorstep for me after a hard day at work, so I took the cat (and the book) outside and gave it a good going-over. It's a beautifully bound hardcover book, and after a short and very sweet introduction by Hubert de Givenchy and a biography on Audrey, the rest is beautiful pictures! Most are full-page photos, and lots of the photos featured in the book are either completely new or else larger reproductions of great pictures I've only been able to find as a tiny, pixelated thumbnail somewhere online. It was so great to sit out in the sun and relax with some quality Audrey eye candy after a draining day, and this book will make a perfect coffee table book for anyone, new or old fan.
I'll write a more in-depth review in a little bit and that will be the permanent review on the reviews page, and maybe take some pictures of the book to post here and tease you with. :) Don't forget that the book will be released on November 1st in the US, and you can pre-order here through Amazon. For those of you in the UK it will come out on September 4th, you lucky dogs, and you can pre-order here.
Extra special thanks to Rebecca at Anova for being sweet enough to send me a copy of this fantastic book. I'm not overexaggerating when I say that you've made my year, darling!
*Note: I know updates here have been few and far between, and I both apologize for my spottiness and thank everyone for being so patient. I'm working really hard on not working so much (outside of Fab Audrey, that is), so I can devote more time to this and the things I really enjoy in life. Like all things Audrey. :) Thank you again for your patience and I will make it up to all of you!
There seems to be yet another new Audrey Hepburn picture book coming out! This one is published by Anova Books, and is called Audrey Hepburn: A Life in Pictures. This is not to be confused with an earlier picture book called Audrey: A Life in Pictures by Carol Krenz -- at least I'm pretty sure it's not a reprint. There's a different cover and publishing company involved, though judging by the Amazon preview available to us, there are a lot of more well-known pictures of Audrey featured in this new book. Well, perhaps more information will come out about this book between now and its release date of November first and we'll know for sure if it's a reprint or not.
And just a reminder: Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's, the new picture book by photographer Howell Conant, will be released on May 28! This book is supposed to be chock-full of all sorts of Breakfast at Tiffany's goodies, including many never before seen or very rare photos taken from production and publicity shoots for the film.
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!
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.
If you've noticed that news updates here have been a little spotty lately, now you know why. I've been working hard to try and get these stinking things done! So, for the 100th post, I give you 570 screengrabs from How to Steal a Million.
And, if you haven't heard already, Audrey's co-star in the film, Peter O'Toole, was just nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award. His eighth nomination, mind you. Congratulations to Peter!
In other Audrey news, yesterday was the big Swann Galleries auction of celebrity documents and contracts. Three contracts signed by Audrey were up for grabs. While all of the buyers are kept anonymous, it seems that the Audrey documents did fetch far more than expected. Lot 150, which was a contract for Audrey to appear in, funny enough, How to Steal a Million, sold for $5,400, far over the expected range of $1,000-1,500. Lot 151 was a contract allowing Audrey to borrow a print of How to Steal a Million, and while it was expected to sell for between $600-800, it sold for $900. The last of the Audrey Hepburn lots, lot 152, was a contract allowing her to borrow a print of Two For the Road. This was expected to sell around $600-900 and ended up selling for $1,000. You can read more about the auction in general here, and you can view the selling prices of all items here.
There's yet another new picture book coming out on Audrey! This one, called Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's: Photographs by Howell Conant, features pictures of Audrey onset for publicity photos and candid pictures during filming of her most iconic film, Breakfast at Tiffany's. The description on GermanArtBooks.com, which has the most information I can find yet, says that there are also fashion shoots, but it's unclear if they are Tiffany's related or not. All photos in the book were taken by Conant, who was also a good friend of Grace Kelly's, and there is some text written by actress Leslie Caron (who was often referred to as "The Other Audrey Hepburn"). And here is the release information for various countries -- at least as much as I could find at this time: U.S. and Canada: May 2007 UK: ? Germany: February 2007 France: ? Japan: February 2007
The book is 80 pages long, with 40 colour and duotone plates. Ooh, I can't wait!
Next, with all the buzz around the Golden Globes and upcoming Oscar nominations, everyone is gravitating towards red carpet talk. A new list has come out naming the top 7 Icons That Have Shaped Red Carpet Jewelry, and Audrey came in #2! She was noted for her understated tastes and simple jewelry, while contemporary Elizabeth Taylor came in at #1 with her more flashy, diamond-oriented tastes. To read the full list, click here.
Last up for today, there's a few more Audrey Hepburn film screenings to mention. San Jose's California Theatre, which screened Breakfast at Tiffany's last weekend, will be showing My Fair Lady this coming weekend. You can find all screentimes and dates here, as well as ticket information. The Colonial Theatre in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, which screened Funny Face earlier this month, will be showing Charade on Sunday, January 21st. Ticket information can be found here.
Lots more updates on fabaudrey.com! There's now a review up for the Gardens of the Worldspecial edition, as well as a review forSabrina (with a clip of Audrey singing "La Vie en Rose" thrown in for good measure).
But the part I know you've all been waiting for is the picture galleries. This time there's 3 new galleries at once: 69 Breakfast at Tiffany's photos, culled from production stills and publicity photos.
81 My Fair Lady pictures, also from production stills, various posters, and lots from her impromptu costume sessions with Cecil Beaton.
And lastly, 46 How to Steal a Million pictures. Remember that all of these photo galleries are works in progress, and they're always being added to as I continue to go through this massive mess I call a collection. It's entirely possible that they'll never be completely done! So keep checking back for more and more pictures.
Or home? If you've been poster shopping before, then you know it's not hard to find an Audrey Hepburn poster. But why are some of them so expensive? There should be no reason, and Bare Walls seems to think so, too. I stumbled across them last night and found a fantastic collection of posters, many being foreign posters that aren't seen as much (at least in the U.S.), and the average price is $16.95! And, unlike most poster websites, you can view much larger versions of the poster watermark-free. They also offer oversized glossies of Audrey as well, and most shots are the more rare photos, like Audrey in her very early modeling days. It's nice to find lesser-known photos of her -- and it'll impress your friends even more. :)
Finally, the Roman Holiday screengrabs are here. There's 469 grabs for your enjoyment, and I must say this was a really fun one to work on. I mean, they all are, but I loved this film even more after doing the grabs, and it reminded me of just how much I loved all the authentic Italian talent they had in this film. I will always love Mario Delani, the barber.
And while there still isn't really any new news, I did find another short review of Enchantment that's a little different from all the rest. They sum themselves up well, though, with the last sentence: "Spoto offers a pleasantly polite, though not groundbreaking, biography." For the full article, go here.
Tomorrow I'll post the new contest. The prize will be the special edition Gardens of the World series, since that obviously won by a landslide in the voting.
Thankfully my home didn't decide to burn down (yet), so I was able to get up 229 pictures for you! This gallery is just miscelaneous pictures from throughout the 1950s, like modeling pictures and candids. You can go straight to the gallery by clicking here, if you'd like.
Next up, someone finally got the 60 second Gap commercial back on You Tube! I'll always kick myself for not downloading it right away. The sound isn't quite synched up at the beginning, but I'll take what I can get right now.
Edit: video has been removed from YouTube
I found a review of the new They All Laughed DVD on USA Today, and they didn't seem to care about it too much. It rated 2 1/2 stars out of four, and no bonus features are listed. (The only ones I know about so far are a commentary with director Peter Bogdanovich and an interview with him and fellow director/fan Wes Anderson.) You can see their review here, about halfway down the page.
And lastly, Ray-Ban is bringing back some classic shades. The Wayfarers, worn in many classic movies like The Blues Brothers and Breakfast at Tiffany's, is going to come back from the dead, for the price of $129. There's apparently going to be a pretty big media blitz to stir up more interest in the shades (and to try and get away with their major price inflation), so maybe we'll see some more use of Audrey in ad campaigns? The most important part of the story is here, but if you want to read more, you'll have to subscribe to The Wall Street Journal. Lame.
P.S. I'm having trouble deciding what I want to give away in the next contest, so maybe you could help us out! There's a poll on the contests page, so vote on what you'd like to see given away next. If you want to suggest something that's not listed, simply click on the "something not listed here" button, then drop us a line saying what you would like to see. We'll take all suggestions seriously, as long as you don't suggest us buying the Breakfast at Tiffany's dress and then giving it away. Don't you dare! :)
I've been slaving away for the past two days to bring you the latest FabAudrey creation, the Breakfast at Tiffany's screengrabs page! Yes, I screengrabbed the entire movie -- and trailer -- and then cleaned up each and every picture so that they looked their best before posting them for you. Please be patient if the page takes a little while to load, since there are over 900 pictures in that gallery. I hope you enjoy them! And please, if you ever come across any glitch in any part of the website, report it so it can be fixed ASAP. Thanks, and enjoy!
Okay. I try not to link to . . . how shall I say it? Stupid things? on the site, quality over quantity and all that, but I get the feeling that people might nag about this one. So apparently Andy Dick did a parody of Audrey's Gap commercial for the Jimmy Kimmel show, and it's up on You Tube. First, for the people who haven't seen it (all two of you), the original ad:
And now the parody:
Try not to read the comments under the original ad's posting, because it's just a bunch of ignorant people mocking Audrey's dancing. Not worth responding to. :) And hopefully this is the only parody I will ever post, because I try not to give that stuff much attention. There are better things to look at.
A few years ago they released Audrey Hepburn (Movie Icons)
, one of the best little picture books I have ever seen, and now they're at it again. This time it's a monster collection of Bob Willoughby's work with Audrey, spanning 13 years, in a gorgeous hardcover book with a Tiffany blue spine. But there's a catch: the book is limited to a run of 1,000 (with an extra 200 artist's proofs), and they're priced at a pre-order sale of $500. After September 30th, the price jumps to $700 (€500, or £450). I'm dying here. I was just saying how much I love books on Audrey, and I especially love picture books on her. But oh, even I can't justify that price! And I certainly can't afford it. Quel dommage. Who wouldn't love a book that beautiful?
