pipoca
girl with the most cake
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The dress is beautiful!
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Grace Kelly
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The dress is beautiful!
scriptgirl
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Isn't it, though?
ebay
ebay
scriptgirl
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Good for you! You should see the karma I get!
empas
empas
its definitely a different kind of shot of her, i think that is what makes it so interesting. Thanks 
scriptgirl
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baidu
scriptgirl
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ebay
scriptgirl
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ebay
scriptgirl
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The Guardian
Alfred Hitchcock loved cooking and eating as much as he relished torturing his characters on screen, as his ample waistline attested. But according to a new book out in France this month, the film-maker and gourmand also enjoyed rustling up dishes to star in his movies.
In The Sauce Was Nearly Perfect – a pun on the Gallic translation of Dial M for Murder, The Murder Was Nearly Perfect – authors Anne Martinetti and François Rivière have collected the recipes of 80 dishes that made guest appearances in Hitch's films, such as the Moroccan tagine of The Man Who Knew Too Much, the quiche lorraine from To Catch a Thief, a plum bread in Rebecca, a pecan pie in Marnie, Vertigo's Maryland turkey supreme and the trout cooked up in North by Northwest.
According to the authors, Hitchcock, who was the son of a greengrocer, also used food as a means to drive the plot. Witness, they say, how key scenes happen around food: a policeman getting frustrated over an overcooked bird in Frenzy, the family meal in Young and Innocent, the picnic scene in To Catch a Thief or the dinner party at the house of writer Isobel Sedbusk in Suspicion.
The book combines recipes with a description of Hitch's life-long love affair with food. The master of suspense could often be found indulging in haute cuisine at Chasen's and Romanoff's, two of the best-known temples to posh nosh in Hollywood. At home, he loved the classic British dishes, such as Dover sole and meat pies, cooked up by his beloved wife Alma. Diets were tried but quickly abandoned, hence the constancy of famous silhouette.
Are there gastronomically-infused scenes in Hitchcock movies that have seemed particularly delicious to you? Or, for that matter, are there any food-related bits in movie history that have stuck in your craw? Over to you.
Alfred Hitchcock loved cooking and eating as much as he relished torturing his characters on screen, as his ample waistline attested. But according to a new book out in France this month, the film-maker and gourmand also enjoyed rustling up dishes to star in his movies.
In The Sauce Was Nearly Perfect – a pun on the Gallic translation of Dial M for Murder, The Murder Was Nearly Perfect – authors Anne Martinetti and François Rivière have collected the recipes of 80 dishes that made guest appearances in Hitch's films, such as the Moroccan tagine of The Man Who Knew Too Much, the quiche lorraine from To Catch a Thief, a plum bread in Rebecca, a pecan pie in Marnie, Vertigo's Maryland turkey supreme and the trout cooked up in North by Northwest.
According to the authors, Hitchcock, who was the son of a greengrocer, also used food as a means to drive the plot. Witness, they say, how key scenes happen around food: a policeman getting frustrated over an overcooked bird in Frenzy, the family meal in Young and Innocent, the picnic scene in To Catch a Thief or the dinner party at the house of writer Isobel Sedbusk in Suspicion.
The book combines recipes with a description of Hitch's life-long love affair with food. The master of suspense could often be found indulging in haute cuisine at Chasen's and Romanoff's, two of the best-known temples to posh nosh in Hollywood. At home, he loved the classic British dishes, such as Dover sole and meat pies, cooked up by his beloved wife Alma. Diets were tried but quickly abandoned, hence the constancy of famous silhouette.
Are there gastronomically-infused scenes in Hitchcock movies that have seemed particularly delicious to you? Or, for that matter, are there any food-related bits in movie history that have stuck in your craw? Over to you.
scriptgirl
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new york daily news
ometimes in life it's the little things that make the difference, y'know?
Watching a group of very rich women not bat a false eyelash as they check into the $14,000-a-night Marie Antoinette suite at their upscale European hotel is fine.
"First Class All the Way," after all, is no more or less than its title promises - a show about how the rich live when they travel. So they're just playing their position.
Seeing hostess Sara Duffy arrange for the women to have a private tour of the parts of the Monaco palace where the royal family mourned the death of Princess Grace, well, hey, why not?
The $12,000 bottle of wine, the one that seems to be a 1966 Monopole? No problem.
Bottoms up, gals. All that traveling can make a body work up a powerful thirst.
But eventually "First Class All the Way," which airs on Bravo, becomes annoying.
And no, it's not the fact that while millions of Americans are seeing their life savings shrivel and aren't sure how to make the next mortgage payment, "First Class" follows the casual goings of people who could have our life savings fall out of their purse at Tiffany's and never even notice.
Doesn't history tell us that watching the rich provides a satisfying escape at times when our own fortunes ebb?
Doesn't it make us glad to live in America, a country where we can all aspire to uncountable wealth?
What do we call ourselves when we look at a glass that's 90% empty and say, "That glass is 10% full!"
Great Americans. That's what.
So "First Class All the Way," in that sense, is performing a public service, reminding us of our dreams.
Still, there is that one little moment. One of the women on this upscale expedition loses her passport, poor thing, which means she has to get a replacement from the embassy.
Now embassies, for those who have never had the pleasure of trying to replace a lost passport, are levelers. There are rules and procedures. The order of service is the order of arrival.
But the woman who lost this passport, with the aid of a terrified Sara Duffy associate who behaves as if her life were at stake, manages to do something - Whine? Stamp her feet? Flash her checkbook? - that secures her passport in record time.
Happy ending, right? Not exactly. The Duffy people pointedly note that this important woman still had to wait behind unimportant people.
Now that's annoying. How could the embassy do this to her?
"First Class All the Way" is the kind of show that makes you want to write a letter to our next President demanding that whole embassy staff be fired.
ometimes in life it's the little things that make the difference, y'know?
Watching a group of very rich women not bat a false eyelash as they check into the $14,000-a-night Marie Antoinette suite at their upscale European hotel is fine.
"First Class All the Way," after all, is no more or less than its title promises - a show about how the rich live when they travel. So they're just playing their position.
Seeing hostess Sara Duffy arrange for the women to have a private tour of the parts of the Monaco palace where the royal family mourned the death of Princess Grace, well, hey, why not?
The $12,000 bottle of wine, the one that seems to be a 1966 Monopole? No problem.
Bottoms up, gals. All that traveling can make a body work up a powerful thirst.
But eventually "First Class All the Way," which airs on Bravo, becomes annoying.
And no, it's not the fact that while millions of Americans are seeing their life savings shrivel and aren't sure how to make the next mortgage payment, "First Class" follows the casual goings of people who could have our life savings fall out of their purse at Tiffany's and never even notice.
Doesn't history tell us that watching the rich provides a satisfying escape at times when our own fortunes ebb?
Doesn't it make us glad to live in America, a country where we can all aspire to uncountable wealth?
What do we call ourselves when we look at a glass that's 90% empty and say, "That glass is 10% full!"
Great Americans. That's what.
So "First Class All the Way," in that sense, is performing a public service, reminding us of our dreams.
Still, there is that one little moment. One of the women on this upscale expedition loses her passport, poor thing, which means she has to get a replacement from the embassy.
Now embassies, for those who have never had the pleasure of trying to replace a lost passport, are levelers. There are rules and procedures. The order of service is the order of arrival.
But the woman who lost this passport, with the aid of a terrified Sara Duffy associate who behaves as if her life were at stake, manages to do something - Whine? Stamp her feet? Flash her checkbook? - that secures her passport in record time.
Happy ending, right? Not exactly. The Duffy people pointedly note that this important woman still had to wait behind unimportant people.
Now that's annoying. How could the embassy do this to her?
"First Class All the Way" is the kind of show that makes you want to write a letter to our next President demanding that whole embassy staff be fired.
scriptgirl
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AJC
Princess’s foundation rewards filmmaker
By Gracie Bonds Staples
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Prince Albert II of Monaco was there, but all Nikyatu Jusu could think of was how wonderful it was to have her mother at her side.
“That was huge,” she said.
They shared a love of writing, but growing up that wasn’t something Jusu believed she’d ever do —- at least not for a living.
But here she was at a New York gala, one of several students being honored by the Princess Grace Foundation as an emerging artist in theater, dance and film.
It was a big moment for the girl from East Point.
Seven years ago, when she graduated from Whitfield Academy and headed to Duke University, it was to get a degree in biomedical engineering. This never figured into her dreams.
Then in her sophomore year, in her search for an “easy A,” Jusu signed up for a screenwriting class. Thus began her circuitous journey to this room, with these people and her mother, Hannah Khoury, who, like Nikyatu’s father Ronald Jusu, immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone.
“We had to complete a feature-length screenplay, which is like the equivalent of writing a book,” Jusu remembered, laughing. “I knew nothing about screenwriting.”
Her professor, though, saw what she didn’t and encouraged her to stick with it.
It was then that something wonderful happened.
By the end of her sophomore year, screenwriting had become the center of Jusu’s life.
Instead of a degree in engineering, she graduated in 2005 with a degree in literature, the closest she could get at Duke to filmmaking, and headed north to New York University for graduate school.
Sometime in July while searching the Internet, she happened upon the Princess Grace Award, a scholarship given to help emerging artists realize their career goals. It seemed the perfect vehicle to get her to the next step. All she needed was a nomination, but before she could ask for it, Jusu said she received an e-mail from the foundation. Congratulations, it said.
John Tintori, chairman of NYU’s graduate film department, had already nominated her.
“Her films are wonderfully written and directed,” he said. “She has the ability to tell compelling stories that make the audience both think and feel.”
Jusu was thrilled.
Not only did the award come with a $25,000 scholarship, it placed her among students from some of most prestigious schools in the country —- Columbia, Yale and UCLA.
No pressure, Tintori told her, but try to win.
By that time, Jusu already had a film, “African Booty Scratcher,” which had traveled the film festival circuit. The 13-minute drama about a young girl who refuses to wear a traditional African gown to the high school prom was purchased last October by HBO and is airing on the network.
“That was the film that actually put me on the map,” said Jusu, who celebrated her 26th birthday Tuesday..
It was also the centerpiece of the portfolio she submitted for the Princess Grace Award. She accepted the award last week.
“It was huge,” she said. “Very exciting.”
The award will help fund Jusu’s thesis film, “Say Grace Before Drowning,” about a woman who escapes a West African civil war to come to America.
That’s her real award, she said, what filmmakers really live for —- the chance to make their next film.
To suggest a story, write Real Living, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6455 Best Friend Road, Norcross, GA 30071; e-mail [email protected]; or call 770-263-3621.
Princess’s foundation rewards filmmaker
By Gracie Bonds Staples
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Prince Albert II of Monaco was there, but all Nikyatu Jusu could think of was how wonderful it was to have her mother at her side.
“That was huge,” she said.
They shared a love of writing, but growing up that wasn’t something Jusu believed she’d ever do —- at least not for a living.
But here she was at a New York gala, one of several students being honored by the Princess Grace Foundation as an emerging artist in theater, dance and film.
It was a big moment for the girl from East Point.
Seven years ago, when she graduated from Whitfield Academy and headed to Duke University, it was to get a degree in biomedical engineering. This never figured into her dreams.
Then in her sophomore year, in her search for an “easy A,” Jusu signed up for a screenwriting class. Thus began her circuitous journey to this room, with these people and her mother, Hannah Khoury, who, like Nikyatu’s father Ronald Jusu, immigrated to the United States from Sierra Leone.
“We had to complete a feature-length screenplay, which is like the equivalent of writing a book,” Jusu remembered, laughing. “I knew nothing about screenwriting.”
Her professor, though, saw what she didn’t and encouraged her to stick with it.
It was then that something wonderful happened.
By the end of her sophomore year, screenwriting had become the center of Jusu’s life.
Instead of a degree in engineering, she graduated in 2005 with a degree in literature, the closest she could get at Duke to filmmaking, and headed north to New York University for graduate school.
Sometime in July while searching the Internet, she happened upon the Princess Grace Award, a scholarship given to help emerging artists realize their career goals. It seemed the perfect vehicle to get her to the next step. All she needed was a nomination, but before she could ask for it, Jusu said she received an e-mail from the foundation. Congratulations, it said.
John Tintori, chairman of NYU’s graduate film department, had already nominated her.
“Her films are wonderfully written and directed,” he said. “She has the ability to tell compelling stories that make the audience both think and feel.”
Jusu was thrilled.
Not only did the award come with a $25,000 scholarship, it placed her among students from some of most prestigious schools in the country —- Columbia, Yale and UCLA.
No pressure, Tintori told her, but try to win.
By that time, Jusu already had a film, “African Booty Scratcher,” which had traveled the film festival circuit. The 13-minute drama about a young girl who refuses to wear a traditional African gown to the high school prom was purchased last October by HBO and is airing on the network.
“That was the film that actually put me on the map,” said Jusu, who celebrated her 26th birthday Tuesday..
It was also the centerpiece of the portfolio she submitted for the Princess Grace Award. She accepted the award last week.
“It was huge,” she said. “Very exciting.”
The award will help fund Jusu’s thesis film, “Say Grace Before Drowning,” about a woman who escapes a West African civil war to come to America.
That’s her real award, she said, what filmmakers really live for —- the chance to make their next film.
To suggest a story, write Real Living, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 6455 Best Friend Road, Norcross, GA 30071; e-mail [email protected]; or call 770-263-3621.
scriptgirl
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Broadway World
oday one of Princess Grace's most treasured possessions, the Imperial Blue Serpent Egg by Peter Carl Fabergé (created in 1887) was unveiled as a highlight of the upcoming exhibition Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique, premiering at the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 19. The unveiling took place at the offices of the Consulate General of Monaco in NYC and included a video message from H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. Following the video message, Princess Grace Foundation-USA Chairman, Hon. John F. Lehman, along with members of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Consul General of Monaco, unveiled the stunning Fabergé egg, which was graciously loaned by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.
On hand to unveil this rare jeweled masterpiece, on-view for the first time in the U.S., were two Princess Grace Foundation-USA Fabergé Theater Award winners – Arnulfo Maldonado (2008) and Alec Hammond (1995). The Princess Grace Foundation-USA, a public charity formed after the death of Princess Grace in 1982, awards scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships to assist emerging theater, dance and film artists.
In 1995, Fabergé endowed the Princess Grace Foundation-USA with the funding to create an annual award in their name. The award was inspired by the artist Peter Carl Fabergé and the great admiration that H.S.H. Princess Grace of Monaco held for Her Fabergé egg. This special honor is awarded to only one theater artist each year who shows excellence in design.
This year, the Fabergé Award will be presented to Arnulfo Maldonado, graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He has received a fellowship for costume design to work with the Diverse City Theater in Manhattan. Alec Hammond received his original Princess Grace Award in 1995, the inaugural Fabergé Award, for Scenic Design at the Yale School of Drama. He is currently designing the television pilot Lie To Me and will be presented the 2008 Princess Grace Statue Award, for continuing excellence in the arts. Both designers will receive their Awards at the Princess Grace Awards Gala on October 15, 2008 in NYC.
About The Princess Grace Foundation-USA
The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) is a not-for-profit, publicly-supported foundation headquartered in NYC founded more than 25 years ago by Prince Rainier III of Monaco in honor of His wife, Princess Grace [Kelly]. PGF-USA's mission is to support emerging artists in theater, dance and film through the awarding of scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships. Since its inception, PGF-USA has awarded more than $5 million in grants to nearly 500 recipients. The Awards further the legacy of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, who anonymously helped emerging artists pursue their goals throughout Her lifetime. The Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Awards were created to honor the artistry of today's most talented scenic, costume, sound and lighting designers.
oday one of Princess Grace's most treasured possessions, the Imperial Blue Serpent Egg by Peter Carl Fabergé (created in 1887) was unveiled as a highlight of the upcoming exhibition Artistic Luxury: Fabergé, Tiffany, Lalique, premiering at the Cleveland Museum of Art on October 19. The unveiling took place at the offices of the Consulate General of Monaco in NYC and included a video message from H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. Following the video message, Princess Grace Foundation-USA Chairman, Hon. John F. Lehman, along with members of the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Consul General of Monaco, unveiled the stunning Fabergé egg, which was graciously loaned by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.
On hand to unveil this rare jeweled masterpiece, on-view for the first time in the U.S., were two Princess Grace Foundation-USA Fabergé Theater Award winners – Arnulfo Maldonado (2008) and Alec Hammond (1995). The Princess Grace Foundation-USA, a public charity formed after the death of Princess Grace in 1982, awards scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships to assist emerging theater, dance and film artists.
In 1995, Fabergé endowed the Princess Grace Foundation-USA with the funding to create an annual award in their name. The award was inspired by the artist Peter Carl Fabergé and the great admiration that H.S.H. Princess Grace of Monaco held for Her Fabergé egg. This special honor is awarded to only one theater artist each year who shows excellence in design.
This year, the Fabergé Award will be presented to Arnulfo Maldonado, graduate of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. He has received a fellowship for costume design to work with the Diverse City Theater in Manhattan. Alec Hammond received his original Princess Grace Award in 1995, the inaugural Fabergé Award, for Scenic Design at the Yale School of Drama. He is currently designing the television pilot Lie To Me and will be presented the 2008 Princess Grace Statue Award, for continuing excellence in the arts. Both designers will receive their Awards at the Princess Grace Awards Gala on October 15, 2008 in NYC.
About The Princess Grace Foundation-USA
The Princess Grace Foundation-USA (PGF-USA) is a not-for-profit, publicly-supported foundation headquartered in NYC founded more than 25 years ago by Prince Rainier III of Monaco in honor of His wife, Princess Grace [Kelly]. PGF-USA's mission is to support emerging artists in theater, dance and film through the awarding of scholarships, apprenticeships and fellowships. Since its inception, PGF-USA has awarded more than $5 million in grants to nearly 500 recipients. The Awards further the legacy of Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, who anonymously helped emerging artists pursue their goals throughout Her lifetime. The Princess Grace Fabergé Theatre Awards were created to honor the artistry of today's most talented scenic, costume, sound and lighting designers.
scriptgirl
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reuters
By Alexandria Sage
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Life!) - Pierre Berge didn't know the first thing about fashion when he sat down one day in 1958 to watch the first Christian Dior show under the atelier's new youthful designer, Yves Saint Laurent.
Still, even with Berge's layman's eye, it was immediately apparent that the young designer had electrified the crowd.
"Even though I knew nothing about fashion, I realized something was happening," recalled Berge, who enjoyed a 50-year collaboration with Saint Laurent that lasted until the designer's death in June.
The first public showing of Saint Laurent's work since his death opened at San Francisco's DeYoung Museum this past weekend. The collection of 130 ensembles spans 40 years from the designer's trapeze dresses for Dior to the famous tuxedos, jumpsuits and safari jackets that revolutionized women's fashion and established the Yves Saint Laurent label as the icon of innovative couture.
"Hailed as the last of an era, Saint Laurent was the bridge between the golden age of haute couture and the new modernity," according to the show notes.
Fashionable women including French actress Catherine Deneuve, Princess Grace of Monaco and Bianca Jagger, who wore a white tuxedo suit to her marriage to Mick Jagger, were fans.
By Alexandria Sage
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Life!) - Pierre Berge didn't know the first thing about fashion when he sat down one day in 1958 to watch the first Christian Dior show under the atelier's new youthful designer, Yves Saint Laurent.
Still, even with Berge's layman's eye, it was immediately apparent that the young designer had electrified the crowd.
"Even though I knew nothing about fashion, I realized something was happening," recalled Berge, who enjoyed a 50-year collaboration with Saint Laurent that lasted until the designer's death in June.
The first public showing of Saint Laurent's work since his death opened at San Francisco's DeYoung Museum this past weekend. The collection of 130 ensembles spans 40 years from the designer's trapeze dresses for Dior to the famous tuxedos, jumpsuits and safari jackets that revolutionized women's fashion and established the Yves Saint Laurent label as the icon of innovative couture.
"Hailed as the last of an era, Saint Laurent was the bridge between the golden age of haute couture and the new modernity," according to the show notes.
Fashionable women including French actress Catherine Deneuve, Princess Grace of Monaco and Bianca Jagger, who wore a white tuxedo suit to her marriage to Mick Jagger, were fans.
scriptgirl
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ohio.com
alk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If the Cleveland Museum of Art's current exhibit, Artistic Luxury: Faberge, Tiffany, Lalique, doesn't fall into that category, I don't know what does.
Organized by Stephen Harrison, the museum's curator of decorative art and design, this sumptuous and fascinating exhibit brings together more than 300 objects from 50-plus international lenders, including Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Prince Albert II of Monaco, Joan and Melissa Rivers, as well as public and private lenders in London, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Lisbon, Berlin, Hamburg and across the United States.
Aside from the wow factor — countless rubies, diamonds, emeralds, opals and pearls nestled in gorgeous designs in a variety of precious metals, as well as an astounding number of unconventional materials — the chief importance of this exhibit is historical.
''It was my intention in doing this exhibit to put Peter Carl Faberge, the Tiffanys (father and son) and Rene Lalique — on whom we have had numerous monographic shows in the last 20 years — to put them in context with each other as well as the period,'' said Harrison.
''The historical context is the early 1890s and the first world's fair. . . . The first gallery sets the scene,'' he explained. ''It's the Belle Epoque, the last two decades of the Gilded Age, that moment where, as someone once said, the ripe slips over to the rotten.
''There was no income tax at that time, and the rich grew richer and the poor, poorer. It was an era not unlike the age we live in today, the difference being we know what happened to this bunch — revolution and a world war.''
He continued, ''In these works there's much more of an emphasis on an artistic palette and art and design, all of which was geared to capture the hearts and minds of their customers.''
Harrison, along with decorative arts scholars Emmanuel Ducamp in Paris, and Jeannine Falino in New York, worked for 51/2 years to put this gorgeous show together.
The glittering objects create a display that has to be one of the most enticing and comprehensive accounts of a fascinating period in the history of modern design, chronicling the role the designers played in shaping it.
At the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Faberge, Charles Lewis and Louis Comfort Tiffany and Lalique strove to position themselves ahead of their many competitors in the luxury market, each presenting his works as high art.
To underscore their claims, they displayed mesmerizing objects: Tiffany glass, Easter eggs for the czars (Faberge borrowed 40 from the Russian royals for his display), and realistic insects as menacing metaphors realized in both precious and unconventional materials. Many of these objects revealed advanced art influences — Art Nouveau, Viennese modernism, symbolism — and styles from around the world, such as Russian folk and Native American designs.
The show chronicles the context in which Faberge, Tiffany and Lalique worked and influenced one another and were in turn influenced by other great designers in the United States and Europe, several of whose works are also on display.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is displays of works the three designers made for the Exposition Universelle, the only time they showed their creations at the same venue. It was an encounter that would drive their creativity and their rivalry to incredible heights.
This exhibit not only reveals that competitive spirit among the designers, but also the corresponding rivalries among their patrons.
Varvara Kelkh (anglicized as Barbara Kelch), the granddaughter of an immensely wealthy Russian mining, shipping and railway magnate, bought Faberge eggs and had them delivered to her penniless-but-noble husband to give to her at Easter.
''She commissioned Faberge to make seven of these eggs,'' said Harrison. ''She saw herself as a rival to the czarina.''
Consuelo Vanderbilt, granddaughter of the legendary American multimillionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt, married the Duke of Marlborough in a famous 19th-century money-for-title arrangement.
Consuelo was encouraged by her husband to compete with the Prince and Princess of Wales, to buy and dress lavishly. When the duke took her to Russia, she saw the Imperial Blue Serpent Egg in the czar's collection and ordered Faberge to make her a copy.
To order a full-size Faberge egg was to make a major statement about one's wealth and status, as these extraordinary baubles carried royal cachet.
Faberge never repeated himself when he designed for the czars, but he had no such compunction when creating nonimperial commissions, since he saw those revealing more about the buyers' ambitions than their true status.
Faberge made Consuelo one in a lustrous pink enamel that's larger than the imperial egg and is emblazoned with the Marlborough crest. It's the only large Faberge egg known to have been commissioned by an American.
Consuelo sold the egg in 1926, a few years after she had her marriage to the duke annulled. It was bought by Polish soprano Ganna Walska, and later by Malcolm Forbes.
In 2005 the Marlborough egg was bought by Russian industrialist Viktor Vekselberg for the Link of Times Foundation, which is trying to repatriate art lost to Russia during the Communist reign.
Not so the Imperial Blue Serpent Egg. Ironically, while the American-commissioned egg is back in Russia, the original Imperial Blue Serpent Egg is now owned by Prince Albert II of Monaco. It was much loved by Albert's mother, Princess Grace, and she kept it on a desk in her bedroom. This is the first time the egg has been seen in an international exhibition or in the United States.
This exhibit also reunites works by Faberge, Tiffany and Lalique that haven't been shown together since the 1900 Exposition Universelle.
More highlights include:
• Seven additional Faberge Easter eggs, four of them made for the Imperial Russian family; the only Imperial Easter egg by Cartier; and the Imperial Basket of Flowers by Faberge, all designed for the czars and their families and later sold by Stalin to raise capital for the Soviet government.
• The first presentation in the United States of the Magnolia Window by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, created for the 1900 world's fair. Purchased in 1901 for the Stieglitz Academy of Art and Design in St. Petersburg, it remained in storage at the Hermitage Museum during the Soviet years and has only recently been exhibited in Russia. It has never before been seen in the West.
• The famous cigarette case given to King Edward VII of Great Britain by his mistress Alice Keppel, the great-great-grandmother of Camilla Parker-Bowles, on loan from Queen Elizabeth II.
• Thirty-six fabulous Faberge pieces from the CMA's permanent collection, a gift from Cleveland's India Early Minshall.
• Major examples of Louis Comfort Tiffany's Favrile glass, including stained glass and a selection of his lamps.
• Rene Lalique's dramatic Art Nouveau designs for artistic jewelry, including stylized insects and birds, plant forms, mythical creatures and idealized female figures. His important glass sculptures will also be featured, including a new CMA acquisition, Frogs and Lily Pads Vase (1911).
• Sparkling jewelry encrusted with diamonds and rare gemstones by Tiffany & Co., along with the solid gold, gem-encrusted Adam's Vase from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the star of the Tiffany booth at the 1900 Paris world's fair.
This vase was what Harrison calls the ''ultimate golden parachute.'' Created of American gold, gems and precious minerals, the 23-pound vase was a present to a company chairman on his retirement, not long after which the company went bankrupt.
''The French critics thought it was vulgar beyond belief,'' Harrison said. ''But the Tiffany clientele didn't. They saw in it the same craftsmanship found in large works by Faberge.
''The historical associations are very, very important,'' he said. ''The 1900 world's fair is all about looking back at the same time as looking forward. Context is everything.''
Perfectly exhibiting this Janus-faced tendency is the incredible Martele Dressing Table and Stool in solid silver by the Gorham Mfg. Co., Tiffany & Co.'s fiercest American competitor in metalwork.
The mirror of this set is ornamented with Art Nouveau motifs, ''but the chair and table legs have ball-and-claw feet, which is late 18th-/early 19th-century design,'' Harrison pointed out. ''So one part looks forward and the other part looks back.
''Historicism is the most important component of that world's fair, which was the most visited world's fair of all time. What an exciting time it must have been.''
The exhibit will be seen in only two venues — at the CMA through Jan. 18, and at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Feb. 7 to May 31. The lavishly illustrated 288-page exhibit catalog lists for $60 hardbound, $39.95 softcover.
alk about a once-in-a-lifetime experience. If the Cleveland Museum of Art's current exhibit, Artistic Luxury: Faberge, Tiffany, Lalique, doesn't fall into that category, I don't know what does.
Organized by Stephen Harrison, the museum's curator of decorative art and design, this sumptuous and fascinating exhibit brings together more than 300 objects from 50-plus international lenders, including Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain and Prince Albert II of Monaco, Joan and Melissa Rivers, as well as public and private lenders in London, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris, Monte Carlo, Barcelona, Lisbon, Berlin, Hamburg and across the United States.
Aside from the wow factor — countless rubies, diamonds, emeralds, opals and pearls nestled in gorgeous designs in a variety of precious metals, as well as an astounding number of unconventional materials — the chief importance of this exhibit is historical.
''It was my intention in doing this exhibit to put Peter Carl Faberge, the Tiffanys (father and son) and Rene Lalique — on whom we have had numerous monographic shows in the last 20 years — to put them in context with each other as well as the period,'' said Harrison.
''The historical context is the early 1890s and the first world's fair. . . . The first gallery sets the scene,'' he explained. ''It's the Belle Epoque, the last two decades of the Gilded Age, that moment where, as someone once said, the ripe slips over to the rotten.
''There was no income tax at that time, and the rich grew richer and the poor, poorer. It was an era not unlike the age we live in today, the difference being we know what happened to this bunch — revolution and a world war.''
He continued, ''In these works there's much more of an emphasis on an artistic palette and art and design, all of which was geared to capture the hearts and minds of their customers.''
Harrison, along with decorative arts scholars Emmanuel Ducamp in Paris, and Jeannine Falino in New York, worked for 51/2 years to put this gorgeous show together.
The glittering objects create a display that has to be one of the most enticing and comprehensive accounts of a fascinating period in the history of modern design, chronicling the role the designers played in shaping it.
At the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Faberge, Charles Lewis and Louis Comfort Tiffany and Lalique strove to position themselves ahead of their many competitors in the luxury market, each presenting his works as high art.
To underscore their claims, they displayed mesmerizing objects: Tiffany glass, Easter eggs for the czars (Faberge borrowed 40 from the Russian royals for his display), and realistic insects as menacing metaphors realized in both precious and unconventional materials. Many of these objects revealed advanced art influences — Art Nouveau, Viennese modernism, symbolism — and styles from around the world, such as Russian folk and Native American designs.
The show chronicles the context in which Faberge, Tiffany and Lalique worked and influenced one another and were in turn influenced by other great designers in the United States and Europe, several of whose works are also on display.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is displays of works the three designers made for the Exposition Universelle, the only time they showed their creations at the same venue. It was an encounter that would drive their creativity and their rivalry to incredible heights.
This exhibit not only reveals that competitive spirit among the designers, but also the corresponding rivalries among their patrons.
Varvara Kelkh (anglicized as Barbara Kelch), the granddaughter of an immensely wealthy Russian mining, shipping and railway magnate, bought Faberge eggs and had them delivered to her penniless-but-noble husband to give to her at Easter.
''She commissioned Faberge to make seven of these eggs,'' said Harrison. ''She saw herself as a rival to the czarina.''
Consuelo Vanderbilt, granddaughter of the legendary American multimillionaire Cornelius Vanderbilt, married the Duke of Marlborough in a famous 19th-century money-for-title arrangement.
Consuelo was encouraged by her husband to compete with the Prince and Princess of Wales, to buy and dress lavishly. When the duke took her to Russia, she saw the Imperial Blue Serpent Egg in the czar's collection and ordered Faberge to make her a copy.
To order a full-size Faberge egg was to make a major statement about one's wealth and status, as these extraordinary baubles carried royal cachet.
Faberge never repeated himself when he designed for the czars, but he had no such compunction when creating nonimperial commissions, since he saw those revealing more about the buyers' ambitions than their true status.
Faberge made Consuelo one in a lustrous pink enamel that's larger than the imperial egg and is emblazoned with the Marlborough crest. It's the only large Faberge egg known to have been commissioned by an American.
Consuelo sold the egg in 1926, a few years after she had her marriage to the duke annulled. It was bought by Polish soprano Ganna Walska, and later by Malcolm Forbes.
In 2005 the Marlborough egg was bought by Russian industrialist Viktor Vekselberg for the Link of Times Foundation, which is trying to repatriate art lost to Russia during the Communist reign.
Not so the Imperial Blue Serpent Egg. Ironically, while the American-commissioned egg is back in Russia, the original Imperial Blue Serpent Egg is now owned by Prince Albert II of Monaco. It was much loved by Albert's mother, Princess Grace, and she kept it on a desk in her bedroom. This is the first time the egg has been seen in an international exhibition or in the United States.
This exhibit also reunites works by Faberge, Tiffany and Lalique that haven't been shown together since the 1900 Exposition Universelle.
More highlights include:
• Seven additional Faberge Easter eggs, four of them made for the Imperial Russian family; the only Imperial Easter egg by Cartier; and the Imperial Basket of Flowers by Faberge, all designed for the czars and their families and later sold by Stalin to raise capital for the Soviet government.
• The first presentation in the United States of the Magnolia Window by Louis Comfort Tiffany and Tiffany Studios, created for the 1900 world's fair. Purchased in 1901 for the Stieglitz Academy of Art and Design in St. Petersburg, it remained in storage at the Hermitage Museum during the Soviet years and has only recently been exhibited in Russia. It has never before been seen in the West.
• The famous cigarette case given to King Edward VII of Great Britain by his mistress Alice Keppel, the great-great-grandmother of Camilla Parker-Bowles, on loan from Queen Elizabeth II.
• Thirty-six fabulous Faberge pieces from the CMA's permanent collection, a gift from Cleveland's India Early Minshall.
• Major examples of Louis Comfort Tiffany's Favrile glass, including stained glass and a selection of his lamps.
• Rene Lalique's dramatic Art Nouveau designs for artistic jewelry, including stylized insects and birds, plant forms, mythical creatures and idealized female figures. His important glass sculptures will also be featured, including a new CMA acquisition, Frogs and Lily Pads Vase (1911).
• Sparkling jewelry encrusted with diamonds and rare gemstones by Tiffany & Co., along with the solid gold, gem-encrusted Adam's Vase from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the star of the Tiffany booth at the 1900 Paris world's fair.
This vase was what Harrison calls the ''ultimate golden parachute.'' Created of American gold, gems and precious minerals, the 23-pound vase was a present to a company chairman on his retirement, not long after which the company went bankrupt.
''The French critics thought it was vulgar beyond belief,'' Harrison said. ''But the Tiffany clientele didn't. They saw in it the same craftsmanship found in large works by Faberge.
''The historical associations are very, very important,'' he said. ''The 1900 world's fair is all about looking back at the same time as looking forward. Context is everything.''
Perfectly exhibiting this Janus-faced tendency is the incredible Martele Dressing Table and Stool in solid silver by the Gorham Mfg. Co., Tiffany & Co.'s fiercest American competitor in metalwork.
The mirror of this set is ornamented with Art Nouveau motifs, ''but the chair and table legs have ball-and-claw feet, which is late 18th-/early 19th-century design,'' Harrison pointed out. ''So one part looks forward and the other part looks back.
''Historicism is the most important component of that world's fair, which was the most visited world's fair of all time. What an exciting time it must have been.''
The exhibit will be seen in only two venues — at the CMA through Jan. 18, and at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Feb. 7 to May 31. The lavishly illustrated 288-page exhibit catalog lists for $60 hardbound, $39.95 softcover.
scriptgirl
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cnn
Madonna to wed in Princess Grace's tiara
December 14, 2000
Web posted at: 6:01 AM EST (1101 GMT)
LONDON, England -- Madonna is planning to get married wearing a tiara previously worn by the late Princess Grace of Monaco, according to her official fan club website.
The 42-year-old princess of pop will also wear a dress designed by Stella McCartney when she weds British film director Guy Ritchie on December 22, the website said.
Her daughter Lourdes is expected to be one of the bridesmaids at the ceremony at Skibo Castle near Dornoch in Scotland.
The fan page also said the 32-year-old groom would wear a kilt in Hunting Macintosh tartan.
"It's the most wonderful news of all! Madonna and Guy Ritchie are set to marry in the Scottish Highlands on December 22nd," said the site.
"Madonna is planning to wear Cartier's famed Princess Grace tiara and a Stella McCartney-designed dress from Chloe.
"Let's all join together in extending to Madonna and family our very best wishes for this most sacred occasion."
The exquisite tiara, created by Cartier, was worn by Princess Grace -- formerly the Hollywood actress Grace Kelly -- at her daughter Caroline's wedding in 1978. Madonna mentioned the actress in the lyrics of her song Vogue 10 years ago.
Princess Grace died in September, 1982, after a car crash in the south of France.
Madonna to wed in Princess Grace's tiara
December 14, 2000
Web posted at: 6:01 AM EST (1101 GMT)
LONDON, England -- Madonna is planning to get married wearing a tiara previously worn by the late Princess Grace of Monaco, according to her official fan club website.
The 42-year-old princess of pop will also wear a dress designed by Stella McCartney when she weds British film director Guy Ritchie on December 22, the website said.
Her daughter Lourdes is expected to be one of the bridesmaids at the ceremony at Skibo Castle near Dornoch in Scotland.
The fan page also said the 32-year-old groom would wear a kilt in Hunting Macintosh tartan.
"It's the most wonderful news of all! Madonna and Guy Ritchie are set to marry in the Scottish Highlands on December 22nd," said the site.
"Madonna is planning to wear Cartier's famed Princess Grace tiara and a Stella McCartney-designed dress from Chloe.
"Let's all join together in extending to Madonna and family our very best wishes for this most sacred occasion."
The exquisite tiara, created by Cartier, was worn by Princess Grace -- formerly the Hollywood actress Grace Kelly -- at her daughter Caroline's wedding in 1978. Madonna mentioned the actress in the lyrics of her song Vogue 10 years ago.
Princess Grace died in September, 1982, after a car crash in the south of France.
scriptgirl
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International Herald Tribune
Long before the current crop of celebrity bad actors with their jail stints and rehab visits, there were the Grimaldi kids, the wild children of the Riviera, who kept a generation of paparazzi and gossip columnists busy with their outrageous behavior.
The prince and princesses of Monaco titillated the world with their public cavorting and not-so-private affairs. The youngest, Stephanie, bedded a succession of men - a race car driver, her bodyguard, her father's butler, an elephant trainer and a trapeze artist, to name a few - and gave birth to three children along the way.
But the Grimaldis are all grown up now and a dusting of snowy respectability has settled over them. Prince Albert II and his lawyers have resolved the paternity suits that dogged him, acknowledging fatherhood of a boy and a girl born to different women. Princess Caroline has settled down with a German prince. Even Princess Stephanie has dropped out of the society pages.
During a recent interview in his palace, Albert, 49, now in charge of the principality, reflected on the event that helped send him and his sisters into their difficult years: the sudden, tragic death of their mother, the former Grace Kelly, whose wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco took place in the days before the news media made public fodder of royalty's private indiscretions.
"It's obvious that it was difficult for all of us," the prince said. "It took me a while to get over it and try to help my family, help my father as much as possible."
Today in Culture
Hank Williams's softer and sillier side
Decoding the subtle injustices of ugliness
Book review: 'From Colony to Superpower'
Now, 25 years after her death, the children are commemorating their mother's life by exhibiting some of her most personal possessions.
Hundreds of objects - from letters to dresses - will be displayed in the principality this summer. A separate, smaller exhibition will travel to Sotheby's in New York in October.
Princess Grace was 52 when she careered off a hairpin turn while driving to the palace from the family's retreat, Roc Agel, high above Monaco. Her green Rover tumbled 35 meters, or about 120 feet, before coming to rest upside down.
"She had just left the family property, and I was still up there and I had seen her because she came in to my room to try and get me out of bed," Albert recalled, raising his eyebrows in an expression of resignation. "I was still having breakfast when we heard the news from my father."
The death was hardest on Stephanie, who was in the car at the time of the accident. She was just 17 and had been locked in a running battle with her mother over her love affair with Paul Belmondo, a race car driver and the son of the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. She survived with minor injuries.
"Coming to terms with her being in the accident was very instrumental in, well, in her difficult years after that," the prince said. "We all underestimated it. A lot of people did. A lot of people outside the family underestimated the trauma that she went through."
The news media speculated for years that a mother-daughter argument had distracted Princess Grace and caused the accident, or even that Stephanie herself was at the wheel. The reality was far more banal: doctors concluded that Princess Grace had suffered some sort of attack, most likely a minor stroke.
Both Albert and Caroline also seemed to lose their bearings after the accident. Albert ran through women like water, leaving at least two pregnant. Caroline, with one failed marriage behind her, lost her second husband in a speedboat accident in 1990 and went on to marry Prince Ernst August of Hanover, who made a name for himself with drunken boorish behavior.
Today, with their father gone (Rainier died in April 2005), Albert on the throne and the scandals behind them, the children have decided that it is time to look back on the legacy of their American-born mother, including her Hollywood career.
"There were going to be some other people trying to commemorate her memory in different ways, so we thought it would be the most opportune time to celebrate her life," said the prince, sitting in the room of the palace where he was sworn in as sovereign.
Albert, together with his sisters, selected hundreds of items from among his mother's possessions for public display beginning July 12 at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco's modern barnacle-like conference center by the sea.
"It was very much a family process," the prince said, adding that he hadn't seen many of the things since he was a child. "It wasn't a painful process. It was an emotional one, but a joyful one."
The items include the very personal - a poem Princess Grace wrote as a gift for Albert on his 18th birthday and home movies never shown outside the family. But there are also mementos of her public life, letters from Alfred Hitchcock and from Jacqueline Kennedy, for example.
Visitors will see the gown Grace wore in what was billed at the time as "the wedding of the century," her marriage to Prince Rainier. Among the other dresses on display will be one she wore in the 1956 film "High Society" - her last film before becoming a princess - and the one that she wore when she accepted an Oscar in 1955 for her performance in "The Country Girl."
"I hadn't seen some of her dresses for years," the prince said. "With my sisters we were saying, 'Remember when she wore that on that day?' So it was odd."
Among the exhibition's sponsors is the fashion house Hermès, which owes the princess for the wild success of its Kelly Bag, so named because a photo in Life magazine showed Grace holding a large Hermès bag to shield her belly from the paparazzi when she was pregnant with Caroline.
Albert said that he hopes the exhibition will help keep memories of his mother alive for a new generation. There are more than sentimental reasons for doing so: the glamour that Princess Grace brought with her from Hollywood helped revive Monaco's flagging fortunes after the war, and the fairy-tale fantasy is equally important to keeping the principality attractive as a convention and tourist destination.
Wearing steel-rimmed glasses and a dark blue suit, Albert talked about reconciling the mother he knew with the screen icon that other people saw. "We did watch some of her movies with her present and it was kind of strange to see her on the screen and turn your head and have her there," he said.
As her only son and the heir to the throne, Albert was particularly close to his mother while his father was famously distant. "Sometimes there's a very special relationship between a mother and her son," he said.
"She did say that I have good instincts and that I should try to follow them," he added.
The prince's illegitimate progeny suggest that he ignored that advice for years. Famously promiscuous, he endeavored to keep his liaisons out of the newspapers while his parents were alive. As a result, he was long frustrated by rumors that he was gay. "I have nothing against those kind of people, I'm just not one of them," he said in a 2005 interview.
He has acknowledged paternity of a son, Alexandre, and an American daughter, Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, now 15. She was born to a California woman whom he met when she was on vacation on the Côte d'Azur.
"I've seen her," the prince said of Jazmin, "and she's been over and I see her and everything is fine."
Neither is an heir to Albert's title since Monaco's constitution prohibits illegitimate children from taking the throne. Succession will pass to Albert's sisters' children in the event he dies without an heir. Most recently he has been seen with Charlene Wittstock, an Olympic swimmer from South Africa.
When asked if he has anything to say about an eventual marriage - a subject of endless speculation in the principality - he said: "No. Nothing. No plans right now."
Long before the current crop of celebrity bad actors with their jail stints and rehab visits, there were the Grimaldi kids, the wild children of the Riviera, who kept a generation of paparazzi and gossip columnists busy with their outrageous behavior.
The prince and princesses of Monaco titillated the world with their public cavorting and not-so-private affairs. The youngest, Stephanie, bedded a succession of men - a race car driver, her bodyguard, her father's butler, an elephant trainer and a trapeze artist, to name a few - and gave birth to three children along the way.
But the Grimaldis are all grown up now and a dusting of snowy respectability has settled over them. Prince Albert II and his lawyers have resolved the paternity suits that dogged him, acknowledging fatherhood of a boy and a girl born to different women. Princess Caroline has settled down with a German prince. Even Princess Stephanie has dropped out of the society pages.
During a recent interview in his palace, Albert, 49, now in charge of the principality, reflected on the event that helped send him and his sisters into their difficult years: the sudden, tragic death of their mother, the former Grace Kelly, whose wedding to Prince Rainier III of Monaco took place in the days before the news media made public fodder of royalty's private indiscretions.
"It's obvious that it was difficult for all of us," the prince said. "It took me a while to get over it and try to help my family, help my father as much as possible."
Today in Culture
Hank Williams's softer and sillier side
Decoding the subtle injustices of ugliness
Book review: 'From Colony to Superpower'
Now, 25 years after her death, the children are commemorating their mother's life by exhibiting some of her most personal possessions.
Hundreds of objects - from letters to dresses - will be displayed in the principality this summer. A separate, smaller exhibition will travel to Sotheby's in New York in October.
Princess Grace was 52 when she careered off a hairpin turn while driving to the palace from the family's retreat, Roc Agel, high above Monaco. Her green Rover tumbled 35 meters, or about 120 feet, before coming to rest upside down.
"She had just left the family property, and I was still up there and I had seen her because she came in to my room to try and get me out of bed," Albert recalled, raising his eyebrows in an expression of resignation. "I was still having breakfast when we heard the news from my father."
The death was hardest on Stephanie, who was in the car at the time of the accident. She was just 17 and had been locked in a running battle with her mother over her love affair with Paul Belmondo, a race car driver and the son of the French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo. She survived with minor injuries.
"Coming to terms with her being in the accident was very instrumental in, well, in her difficult years after that," the prince said. "We all underestimated it. A lot of people did. A lot of people outside the family underestimated the trauma that she went through."
The news media speculated for years that a mother-daughter argument had distracted Princess Grace and caused the accident, or even that Stephanie herself was at the wheel. The reality was far more banal: doctors concluded that Princess Grace had suffered some sort of attack, most likely a minor stroke.
Both Albert and Caroline also seemed to lose their bearings after the accident. Albert ran through women like water, leaving at least two pregnant. Caroline, with one failed marriage behind her, lost her second husband in a speedboat accident in 1990 and went on to marry Prince Ernst August of Hanover, who made a name for himself with drunken boorish behavior.
Today, with their father gone (Rainier died in April 2005), Albert on the throne and the scandals behind them, the children have decided that it is time to look back on the legacy of their American-born mother, including her Hollywood career.
"There were going to be some other people trying to commemorate her memory in different ways, so we thought it would be the most opportune time to celebrate her life," said the prince, sitting in the room of the palace where he was sworn in as sovereign.
Albert, together with his sisters, selected hundreds of items from among his mother's possessions for public display beginning July 12 at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco's modern barnacle-like conference center by the sea.
"It was very much a family process," the prince said, adding that he hadn't seen many of the things since he was a child. "It wasn't a painful process. It was an emotional one, but a joyful one."
The items include the very personal - a poem Princess Grace wrote as a gift for Albert on his 18th birthday and home movies never shown outside the family. But there are also mementos of her public life, letters from Alfred Hitchcock and from Jacqueline Kennedy, for example.
Visitors will see the gown Grace wore in what was billed at the time as "the wedding of the century," her marriage to Prince Rainier. Among the other dresses on display will be one she wore in the 1956 film "High Society" - her last film before becoming a princess - and the one that she wore when she accepted an Oscar in 1955 for her performance in "The Country Girl."
"I hadn't seen some of her dresses for years," the prince said. "With my sisters we were saying, 'Remember when she wore that on that day?' So it was odd."
Among the exhibition's sponsors is the fashion house Hermès, which owes the princess for the wild success of its Kelly Bag, so named because a photo in Life magazine showed Grace holding a large Hermès bag to shield her belly from the paparazzi when she was pregnant with Caroline.
Albert said that he hopes the exhibition will help keep memories of his mother alive for a new generation. There are more than sentimental reasons for doing so: the glamour that Princess Grace brought with her from Hollywood helped revive Monaco's flagging fortunes after the war, and the fairy-tale fantasy is equally important to keeping the principality attractive as a convention and tourist destination.
Wearing steel-rimmed glasses and a dark blue suit, Albert talked about reconciling the mother he knew with the screen icon that other people saw. "We did watch some of her movies with her present and it was kind of strange to see her on the screen and turn your head and have her there," he said.
As her only son and the heir to the throne, Albert was particularly close to his mother while his father was famously distant. "Sometimes there's a very special relationship between a mother and her son," he said.
"She did say that I have good instincts and that I should try to follow them," he added.
The prince's illegitimate progeny suggest that he ignored that advice for years. Famously promiscuous, he endeavored to keep his liaisons out of the newspapers while his parents were alive. As a result, he was long frustrated by rumors that he was gay. "I have nothing against those kind of people, I'm just not one of them," he said in a 2005 interview.
He has acknowledged paternity of a son, Alexandre, and an American daughter, Jazmin Grace Grimaldi, now 15. She was born to a California woman whom he met when she was on vacation on the Côte d'Azur.
"I've seen her," the prince said of Jazmin, "and she's been over and I see her and everything is fine."
Neither is an heir to Albert's title since Monaco's constitution prohibits illegitimate children from taking the throne. Succession will pass to Albert's sisters' children in the event he dies without an heir. Most recently he has been seen with Charlene Wittstock, an Olympic swimmer from South Africa.
When asked if he has anything to say about an eventual marriage - a subject of endless speculation in the principality - he said: "No. Nothing. No plans right now."
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scriptgirl
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You are welcome. It means a lot to me that people appreciate the pics I post.
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ibl
