Venus at the Prow 2

When I blogged about the old BBC series Edward and Mrs Simpson a good two weeks ago, I had no idea that Madonna was making a directorial debut of this very subject. Subsequently, I saw these lush preview pictures (below) in Vanity Fair. It does look promising, even if one rather doubts Madonna doing anything without a very heavy hand!Madonna's at the prow with her directorial debut feature, W.E. The first look pictures of the £18million drama, which stars Andrea Riseborough (too pretty! Wallis is supposed to be a man!) as Wallis Simpson, and the film looks beautiful, and carefully styled. The movie also stars Abbie Cornish and James Fox, and is described as a two-tier romantic drama, looking at both the affair between King Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson, and the modern relationship between a Russian security guard and a married woman. Madonna said: "W.E. is about the nature of true love, and the sacrifices and compromises that are often made. I've wanted to tell this story for a very long time, and bringing it to life has been a great adventure for me."
It's set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival next month and due for general release in December.The real deal (below).... And CUT!!! This is a rare picture of Madonna without her knees wide open for once - as director on the set.

The Untold Story

Don't you love the promise of that irresistible headline - above the title - "The Untold Story of Elizabeth Taylor's Final Days"? Can't wait to read it - I bet it's craaazy! And I have to say that casting against type for the Vogue Italia cover (you don't necessarily think swimwear when you think Kristin McMenamy) is exceptionally brilliant when dealing with this annual theme.

Weekend Reading List: Royal Wedding Long Weekend

"Nothing has changed in the royal household since the time of Queen Victoria, and it remains a very old-fashioned house," Burrell warns, in a new interview. Be careful, Kate. Try to draw on the experiences of your late mother-in-law and understand that not everyone in the royal household has your best interests at heart." - Paul BurrellThis long weekend, I'm mostly pottering about and fussing with my plants (they are not looking all that well due to the wilting heat) and reading books inspired by the royal (to-do) wedding of William and Kate. Yes, that wedding. I remember immensely enjoying the vivid gossip provided by Princess Diana's controversial ex butler. Paul Burrell is a former member of the British Royal Household, and was a footman for Queen Elizabeth II when he begain service at the age of 18. I think I must have been one of the first to dash down to Kinokuniya in 2003, to buy Mr Burrell's just-released autobiographical book, A Royal Duty, which revealed frank details about life as a member of the Royal Family staff. It was fascinating, voyeuristic, behind-the-scenes tattle about the Queen, the Prince and Princess of Wales at home in Highgrove and at Kensington Palace. It was no wonder that the book was an international bestseller because it was a complete tell-all, masquerading as a defense of Diana's morals and an apology for her behaviour. I'm a rabid anglophile and true royalty fanatic so you can imagine how I lapped it all up. This was followed by his 2006 The Way We Were. It became apparent that he was milking his connection with the late Princess for all it was worth: We learn of her tawdry Hollywood affairs, her happiness with Hasnat 'The One' Khan; The stable lad, etc. There was also that bizarre episode that involved the interment of the Princess's best friend's baby in the garden; Her ambiguous rivalry with Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of Pork; And the seedy and tragic story of the affair with Dodi Al Fayed.I made another mad dash down to the shops for Tina Brown's 2007 The Diana Chronicles. It goes through much the same high/low ground as the Burrell books, but with less inane slobbering and much better subtext. It certainly was less sympathetic to Princess Diana (in fact, it was unsympathetic to almost all concerned, and no one, royal or otherwise comes off looking very well). And as ex editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, Talk and The New Yorker, Ms Brown certainly has more credibility, if less access, than Burrell the Besotted Butler. Ms Brown's book also has more bite: She described Dodi Al Fayed vividly as "an Egyptian lounge lizard". You like? I couldn't put it down - even today."Don't be afraid of the Queen. Her Majesty is one of the friendliest, most approachable ladies. The way to her heart is through her corgis, so accompny her on walks often. Make friends with the palace's downstairs. Make friends in low places, because it is the downstairs that makes the upstairs work. It's not the royal family who are the snobs at Buckingham Palace. The real snobs are the people who work on behalf of them." - Paul Burrell

More Electric Youth

... And a really cute, youthful cover for Vanity Fair. That's really electric!

Do You Believe?

“Until you’re ready to look foolish, you’ll never have the possibility of being great.” Eat your heart out Anna Dello Russo, because Cher is back!
197319741978
1999
2002“If I woke up tomorrow in a guy’s body, I would just kick and scream and cry and fucking rob a bank, because I cannot see myself as anything but who I am—a girl. I would not take it as well as Chaz has. I couldn’t imagine it. She’s a very smart girl—boy! This is where I get into trouble. My pronouns are fucked. I still don’t remember to call her ‘him.’"
Chastity Bono had the sex change procedure in 2009 so she could live as a man, changing her name to Chaz. Chaz Bono looks like this.

The Roitfeld Kiddies

Vanity Fair has announced their 2010 International Best Dressed List and both Roitfeld kids Julia and Vladimir Restoin-Roitfeld are on it. They hardly belong up there with Kate, Carine and Pharrell (yes, he's in the list!). Julia gets tartier with every new outfit; and Vlad Vlad, while cute and all that (pity about the horriblah girlfriend), is merely as well dressed as any of those young men in the international fashion flock - they are a legion. Attractive doesn't mean well dressed, just as well dressed doesn't mean stylish, nor stylish, chic. I wish these list makers would get these definitions straight and not make lists more meaningless than they already are.

Shades Of Grey

"You can get older and still be rock 'n' roll. I thought all that gray hair would make a beautiful picture. You've got to keep moving forward." - Kristen McMenamy, 45.
"I'm perpetually lonely. I'm lonely when I'm in relationships. It's my condition as an artist. I'm drawn to bad romances. And my song [Bad Romance] is about whether I go after those [sort of relationships] or if they find me. I'm quite celibate now; I don't really get time to meet anyone." - Lady Gaga

Mega September

Weekend Reading List

Mona and her family were at BG's today half watching a French musical, half having a post-pizza snooze. We went straight into BG's room and she showed me all her new favourite perfumes (there weare so many that I ran out of body parts on which to spray them on for a sniff); Then she pushed her closet doors wide with a kick and pulled out some Pull & Bear shorts that she said I should buy; Next, she showed me some cast iron wood pigeon bookends and an antiqued wood frame that she said she bought from the Robinson's sale; And then I sat (gingerly) on her bed to study some photo albums from two decades ago. Horrors. Everyone looked so young then! I left an hour later with a bag of reading that BG wanted to chuck, including Interview (Carey Mulligan - who is she???) filled cover to cover with cool people I don't recognise and am not interested in; The Penelope Cruz-edited Vogue Paris; Eight issues of Real Living (I've never heard of this title before); Two issues of Martha Stewart Living; Last month's Men's Non No (I can't remeber the last time I looked in one, although there were years in my life when I bought every issue!); And two issues each of Vanity Fair and Time (these my father can read). Then we went out to look at BG's plants which forms a thick screen that hides his door. A single passion fruit hangs like a jewel from its serpentine twine, green and glittering like a jade fruit.

World Cup

...I remember bumping into Ronaldo at a late, late dinner in Capri; The restaurant was overhung with gigantic pale lemons that scented the night air. I later asked everyone, did you see him? Did you?

Desnudos

Italian Vanity Fair. F said: "You sure will heart". Yes, F, I heart.

Magazine Sales

Newsstand sales were down nearly across the board for fashion and lifestyle titles in the last half of 2009, including Vogue, with a 15.1 percent drop in single-copy sales and Allure with a 17.2 percent decline. Faring better was Elle, sales of which only dropped 0.2 percent. The economy is mainly to blame for the declines. Some titles gained, like Harper's Bazaar, with a 0.3 percent increase, and Vanity Fair, with an impressive 5 percent increase, buoyed by strong sales of the August issue with Heath Ledger on the cover. The titles that fared the best in the women's fashion category are health-oriented magazines, including Health, with an 11.1 increase in newsstand sales.
(WWD)

Irving Penn's Vanity Fair Covers

Italo Calvino, Aug 1983

Philip Roth, Sep 1983

Francine du Plessix Gray (what a name!), Nov 1983

Woody Allen (as Groucho Marx), Dec 1983

Hanna Schygulla, Jan 1984

In 1983, Irving Penn provided six successive Vanity Fair covers. Looking at them, one is immediately struck by their serious tone and intent, compared to what we see now, the magazines looked austere, dignified, important, not the glossy throwaway things we have come to disregard. Times have certainly changed, and in terms of magazines, not for the better, I might add.

Jackie

Nice picture of her looking feminine: She usually looks a little drag. Of course the word 'Jackie' is sort of choking her and she is sort of drowning in coverlines. October issue.

Dominick Dunne (1925 - 2009)

Novelist and reporter Dominick Dunne, who made a career covering the lurid trials of celebrity defendants (Claus von Bülow, O. J. Simpson), and obsessively wrote on high society tittle-tattle died on Aug 26, 2009, at 83. His best-selling novels were The Two Mrs. Grenvilles, An Inconvenient Woman and A Season in Purgatory, as well as an essay collection Fatal Charms. He wrote a memoir The Way We Lived Then: Recollections of a Well-Known Name Dropper. Vanity Fair, where Mr Dunne was a social correspondent, announced that his last book, Too Much Money: A Novel, is scheduled for publication this December.

Recession Vogue

"...Several Condé Nast editors said off the record that the budget cuts have not significantly altered the atmosphere of the top magazines, which have long had access to the best photographers and readily projected a spare-no-expense mentality to help maintain their status. A fashion shoot at a magazine like Vogue, or Vanity Fair, or W, can easily cost $150,000. Anna Wintour, the editor of Vogue, has killed shoots that didn’t meet her standards and ordered them reshot. Such creative excess serves Vogue’s star image, like the Town Cars waiting outside Condé Nast, and apparently has been condoned by management so long as revenues are high.
In other areas, though, Ms. Wintour is known for being strict with her budgets and questioning expenses. There are likely to be fewer Vogue editors at the shows in Europe this fall. It may be difficult for outsiders to appreciate the logic in fashion shoots that require a team of 30 photographic assistants, digital producers, lighting experts, hairstylists, makeup artists, a manicurist, editorial gofers and caterers to feed everyone. It’s not uncommon at a top American magazine, editors say, to spend $5,000 a day just on food at a shoot. In this regard, European glossies are practically tightwads.
The mentality is changing, however. Another Condé Nast editor, referring to chastened consumers, said: “Everybody thought they had to spend money. They thought it was a new way of life. Now they’re rubbing the dust out of their eyes. ‘I don’t need that handbag. What was I doing?’ ”..." - Cathy Horyn, The New York Times

Vanity Fair's 2009 International Best-Dressed List

If you still believe in these lists, this one's probably as credible as it gets: Predictably Lady Obama is on the 2009 roster; I'm not quite sure why - I don't think she's particularly well-dressed, actually. Mrs Obama does seem to have an idea of what her style is, but I don't think it necessarily translates into being well-dressed, which is a different matter altogether. I'm delighted to note that the other American First Lady, Anna Wintour was not given the nod; but then, Renee Hellweger is on the Hall of Fame, so that sort of balances out. Hellweger is Anna's creation, of course, her Hollywood proxy. I know; gross. More dreary Hollywood scores with the Brad Pitt (bland) and Anne Hathaway(a little Devil goes a long way). Catherine Deneuve brings Parisian chic to the Hall of Fame, someone deserving at last.

Remember The Time

Vanity Fair's two covers for September.