The pleated ivory dress that blew around Marilyn Monroe in an iconic scene from "The Seven Year Itch" sold for $4.6 million at a weekend auction of Hollywood costumes -- far exceeding its estimate. The so-called "subway" dress is perhaps the most recognizable in movie history. In Billy Wilder's 1955 movie, a passing train sent a draft through a grate as Monroe giddily stood … [Read more...]
Director Sidney Lumet Dies at 86
Sidney Lumet, who directed such impassioned, often furious, movies as Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon and Network, died this morning at his home in New York City. He was 86. The cause of death was lymphoma, his stepdaughter Leslie Gimbel told the New York Times. Lumet, who received five Oscar nominations and seven DGA nominations for his work, was awarded an honorary Oscar in … [Read more...]
Elizabeth Taylor: selection from a life… what today’s press has been saying, her best films and her changing look
Today's press A London-born beauty who never lost her clipped, clean way of speaking, Ms. Taylor possessed vivid features known to three generations of filmgoers: Raven hair, dark eyebrows, ivory skin, a near-perfect figure and, most remarkably, violet eyes that were among the most commented-on physical attributes in Hollywood history. Her great beauty arguably both aided … [Read more...]
Maria Schneider, star of Last Tango in Paris, dies in Paris at 58
French actress Maria Schneider, most famous for her role as Marlon Brando's lover in "Last Tango in Paris," has died aged 58. Le Figaro newspaper quoted her family as saying she had died yesterday morning in Paris after a long illness. The daughter of French actor Daniel Gelin and a Parisian bookshop owner, Schneider was 19 when she was cast in only her second … [Read more...]