My amazing new local - A Little Of What You Fancy

I have eaten in every establishment Elaine Chalmers has ever cooked in.  Ten years ago when she ran the restaurant below Smallfish Records on Old Street I would go in for my breakfast, back for my lunch and often pick up something for my dinner, it was easy to eat healthily as the salads were inspired, interesting and so delicious.  Elaine's is a genius with food.  
After a stint cooking at the

Happy Halloween

I was about to run to the shops to get a load of sweets for the trick or treaters when The Actor informed me we are going out for a very late Sunday lunch.  Last year we had so many kids knocking all evening.  I wasn't at all prepared so I kept giving them a pound coin each.  It was getting rather expensive in the end.  I think sweets is better than giving them money for fags or whatever.  

I'm probably too old for these!

I'm sure these lace bunny ears are not aimed at my age group but I don't care!  I've never minded looking silly in the past.
I saw them in a magazine as a suggestion to wear for Halloween.  At a mere £12.50 from Top Shop and being a fan of silly head gear I immediately ordered a pair.

They were really long and stuck straight up so Mrs Jones fiddled around with them and they are much better

"Laura" Starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews

The setting for Laura is set among New York City’s upper crust, with Detective McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigating the murder of beautiful advertising executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). The suspects are some of her closest friends and associates including fiancé (Vincent Price), aunt (Judith Anderson), and mentor (Clifton Webb).

When production on Laura  started, no one believed that the end product would we worth seeing. From the beginning the project was problematic. Arguments between studio boss Darryl Zanuck and the original director, Rouben Mamoulian ended in Mamoulian being fired. Zanuck then assigned Otto Preminger, already the film’s producer, to be its director too. The only problem: Preminger had never directed a motion picture before.

Under Preminger’s supervision, what began as a fairly ordinary murder mystery, turned out to be a critical and box office success. Tierney in the title role became a superstar and was forever identified with the beautiful, enigmatic Laura Hunt. Andrews, as Detective Mark McPherson, established himself as a major star and popular leading man. Webb, who hadn’t made a movie since the early days of talking pictures, earned an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role as Waldo Lydecker. Thomas M. Pryor, in his October 12, 1944 New York Times review called Laura “a top-drawer mystery.”

With some of the sharpest and wittiest dialogue ever recorded on film, Laura set the standard for 1940s film noir. Andrews’s portrayal of McPherson became a prototype for what would become known as the hard-boiled detective, influencing a generation of movie actors. Pryor from the Times put it this way: “Mr. Andrews is fast proving himself to be a solidly persuasive performer, a sort of younger-edition Spencer Tracy.”

The musical score by David Raksin is one of the most hauntingly beautiful movie themes ever recorded and will forever be associated with the enigmatic Tierney.

Dr Feelgood

Mrs Jones and I watched Oil City Confidential the other night and absolutely loved it.  I'd caught a little bit of the film when it was shown on BBC4 and knew it was right up my street.
I've seen director Julien Temple's films on the Sex Pistols - The Filth and The Fury, Joe Strummer and Glastonbury.  I liked all of them a lot but this I think is his best.
I didn't know that much about Dr

Friday quotes - Joan Collins

"The problem with beauty is that
it's like being born rich and getting poorer"
Joan Collins(b. 1933)
I've always been a huge fan of Joan Collins, she's a British institution.  Joan looks amazing, she's funny and she has balls.  I think she's fabulous.  When her first book came out I bought it immediately - who wouldn't want to know Joan's tips for looking good?

One of my dream nights out

Bring Two Friends and Win a Prize

Bring two friends who have never been to a "Meet Me at the Movies" event and win a free MMATM coffee mug. Your friends will be glad you invited them and you'll love the mug!

Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotten star in the Hitchcock classic, Shadow of a Doubt.

The Prairie District Neighborhood Alliance (PDNA) invites you to "Meet Me at the Movies," Friday October 29, 2010 at 6:30 p.m. at Sherwood Community Music School, Columbia College recital hall, 1312 S. Michigan Ave. Shadow of a Doubt starring Teresa Wright and Joseph Cotton is the classic movie to be screened. The cost for the movie is $5 per person. 

Coffee taste better in a "Meet Me at the Movies" mug.

Thursday quotes - a few of my favourites

"Your English style will no doubt put all the gentlemen to bed.I speak figuratively of course"
John Gielgud(1904-2000)


Photography by Cecil Beaton
"The trouble with most English women is that they will dress as if they had been a mouse in a previous incarnation and do not want to attract attention"
Edith Sitwell(1887-1964)



"One day I was walking down Bond Street thinking how impeccably

Flower power

Photography by Miles AldridgeShannan Click

Photography by Camilla AkransMariacarla Boscono


Photography by Camilla AkransMariacarla Boscono
I love these pictures.  The flower make-up in the first one is gorgeous.  The other two are from a shoot for Italian Vogue.  The flowers are fabulous and so are the outfits.  Mariacarla is wearing my Giles for Christian Louboutin shoes from last year.

Ryan Gosling Interview Magazine November 2010

Rachel McAdams InStyle Magazine November 2010

We all need a bit of colour

Photography by Richard Burbridge
I love this shoot from i-D magazine's September  2004 issue.  The make-up is by the wonderfully talented Pat McGrath.  Pat has an amazing body of work and is responsible for designing all the make-up for the Dior shows.  Pat's team are the most professional and inspiring I have ever seen in action.  I love the dramatic looks she creates.  
I don't think I could

Dior's fabulous new Christmas colours

Dior brings out something gorgeous and covetable for Christmas every year.   I've bought so many of the special edition Christmas pieces over the years, Dior keyrings full of lip balms, beautiful compacts, crystal rings that contain lipsticks - all sorts of things, the design is always fabulous and they make great little presents.
For Christmas 2010 the Dior look is all about gold and black.  

I love these new Vogue covers

Photography by Mario SorrentiNatasha Poly
I love this for the hippy styling and the vivid make-up

Photography by Sølve SundsbøAnja Rubik
And I love this for the Seventies glamour and the big hair.
What do you think? xxx

Show you my wardrobe - Part eight

Photography by Steven MeiselKaren Elson
I'm feeling much better now, thank you so much for your good wishes.  As I'm almost finished on my 'life laundry,' although still not quite organised on the wardrobe, I thought I'd show you some more of my clothes.
Photography by Peter LindberghMilla Jovovich
I love the feel of velvet.  I have a fair bit of velvet furniture.  I don't need any more clothes

Vintage looks

Photography by Sølve SundsbøAnja Rubik, 2010

Photography by Helmut NewtonCatherine Deneuve, 1971


Photography by Sølve SundsbøAnja Rubik, 2010


Michelle Pfeiffer in Scarface, 1983

I love this picture of Michelle

Photography by Sølve SundsbøAnja Rubik, 2010


Joanna Lumley in The New Avengers, 1976
I love Sølve's pictures for November 2010's Russian Vogue, the pictures are beautiful.  I'm a

Sunday in bed

Apologies for the lack of blogging, I still have a cold.  Dull, but a good excuse to stay in bed!  The Actor would call it Flu but it is just a head cold.  Some of my friends have had it much worse and have been completely laid up.  I haven't been out all weekend, apart from to the corner shop, I don't feel too bad but I'm sure I'm very contagious.  I told The Actor not to see me as I don't

A few Birthday pictures

Ava Gardner


Marilyn  Monroe


Marlene Dietrich

Judy Garland


Shirley Temple


Slash from Guns N Roses
Boringly I have a cold, it came back this morning.  The paracetamol masked it for a bit.  I'm seeing if I get a second wind to go out.  I'd really like to and I want to see Phoebe and Giles but I don't want to get worse or give it to any of my friends.
At the moment I'm wrapped up watching

Fashion's Most Wanted is one today!

It's my blog's Birthday.  I can't believe it's been a year already!  It's absolutely flown by.  I posted an interview with one of my best friend's Phoebe Arnold in July last year then forgot about it.  I started blogging daily on 23rd October 2009, which also happens to be Phoebe's Birthday.  We are off to celebrate her Birthday tonight.  We'll have to have to have some cake or something for

Lulu & Co

Poppy Delevigne and Lulu Kennedy.  Poppy looking gorgeous in Gareth Pugh for Lulu and Co and Lulu looks stunning as always in a fabulous dress by Jonathan Saunders
I can't believe I missed Lulu's party!  I'm SO gutted.  I'm never sick.  I was sick on Thursday daytime and had to cancel everything.  I was really looking forward to the launch of my wonderful friend Lulu Kennedy's new label Lulu

Another party I missed!! I'm so sorry Christos xxx

Photography by Neil Matthews
I also had to cancel going to my gorgeous friend Christos Tolera's new club night Spanish Fly which  I'd planned to go to on the way home from Lulu's and take anyone I could from Harvey Nicks with me.  
Instead I'm posting a gratuitous modeling picture of Christos!  I'm sure no one will mind!  So sorry I missed you darling, I promise I'll come next week xxx
To read

Friday quotes - Keith Richards

"Everyone talks about the rock these days;the problem is they forget about the roll"
Keith Richards(b. 1943)
As Keith's long awaited autobiography is out on Monday I thought today's quotes and pictures should be the fantastic Mr Richards.  I know the book has been serialised in some of the papers.  I'm very particular, I will never start watching a film halfway through so I don't want to read

The "Wright" Stuff: Teresa Wright Makes Her Mark

Studio portrait of Teresa Wright

"I only ever wanted to be an actress, not a star."
During the early 1940s, few movie actresses made the impact that Teresa Wright did. Wright was Oscar-nominated for the first three movies she appeared in, a record that no other actor or actress has accomplished. Embraced by the public and critics as well, Wright never wanted to be a movie star.

Muriel Teresa Wright was born in 1919 in New York City. After seeing Helen Hayes on the stage, Wright decided she wanted to be an actress. After gaining experience in regional theater, she decided to try her luck on Broadway during the late 1930s.

Early Broadway Success
Almost immediately, Wright found herself playing a small role in Thorton Wilder’s Our Town. During the play’s run, she understudied for Martha Scott, who had the lead role of Emily. When Martha Scott left for Hollywood, Wright stepped into the lead. After her success in Our Town, she was cast as Mary Skinner in an even bigger success, Life With Father. During one performance, a talent scout from the Samuel Goldwyn studios noticed something special about Wright.

Goldwyn was looking for someone to play Bette Davis’s daughter in his production of The Little Foxes, someone who would be able to stand up to the formidable Miss Davis on the big screen. The talent scout thought Wright was up to the task. Before long, she was brought to Hollywood and signed a long-term contract with Goldwyn.

When The Little Foxes was released in 1941, Wright was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, alongside Bette Davis who was nominated for Best Actress. The Goldwyn talent scout’s faith in Wright was validated.

Hot Property
Samuel Goldwyn immediately arranged for Wright to costar in William Wyler’s production of Mrs. Miniver at MGM starring Greer Garson and Walter Pigeon. After she completed that film, she was costarring opposite Gary Cooper in The Pride of the Yankees, directed by Sam Wood. Both Mrs. Miniver and The Pride of the Yankees were released in 1942 and Wright was showered with critical accolades once again.

During that eventful 1942, Wright found herself nominated for both Best Supporting Actress for Mrs. Miniver and Best Actress for The Pride of the Yankees! She lost the Best Actress award to Greer Garson, but won the Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Garson’s daughter-in-law in Mrs. Miniver.

Hitchcock Comes a Calling
When director Alfred Hitchcock was casting Shadow of a Doubt, he considered  Wright for the lead role of Charlotte (Charlie) Newton. He wanted her for her obvious talent, but Hitchcock also wanted her because she was considered a hot property and her appeal would add to the box office. He was correct on both counts. From the start Hitchcock was impressed not only with Wright’s talent, but her professionalism on the set. Wright’s characterization is a tour-de-force. She begins the film as a naive, innocent girl and ends it as a mature worldly-wise young woman.

Wright is top billed in the Hitchcock classic

During its initial release, Shadow of a Doubt  was a critical and popular success. Today it is considered Hitchcock’s first great American film. Unlike his earlier U.S. movies, Shadow of a Doubt was set in a small American town populated with average people living seemingly average lives. The notion that innocence and evil live side by side would become a popular theme that Hitchcock would continue to explore in later films.

Wright starred alongside some of the biggest male stars of the 1940s.

A Major Star
After working with Hitchcock, Wright became a major star, appearing opposite some of Hollywood’s most famous leading men, including Dana Andrews, Robert Mitchum, Ray Milland, and Gary Cooper (after Pride of the Yankees, they starred together again in Casanova Brown). During the late 1940s, Wright lost out on two important film roles that hurt her career.
  

Pursued is considered the first psychological western.

The Roles That Got Away
Wright’s husband, Niven Busch was a screenwriter and popular novelist. He wrote the best-selling novel Duel in the Sun and adapted the screenplay for producer David O. Selznick. Wright was set to star as the half-breed Pearl Chavez. The role was to be a change of pace for the actress. During production, Wright became pregnant and had to drop out. Jennifer Jones, another actress with a girl-next-door image picked up the role and a Best Actress nomination to boot.

The role of Pearl Chavez was written for Wright.

The next role that Teresa Wright lost, again due to pregnancy, was the portrayal of Julia Broughan in The Bishop’s Wife. The role eventually went to Loretta Young, and again, another box office hit slipped through Wright’s fingers.

You're Fired!
In 1948, Wright made a movie for Goldwyn called Enchantment. Goldwyn had high hopes for the film and Wright had one of the key roles. When production wrapped, Wright didn’t particularly like the result. Scheduled to travel to publicize the film, Wright said she was ill and couldn’t participate. Goldwyn didn’t believe Wright and he fired her. Overnight, Wright was a star without a studio. Used to making $5000 a week and $200,000 per picture, Wright was now a freelance artist during a turbulent time in Hollywood. The major studios were losing money because they were forced to give up their theater ownership, which reaped them huge profits.

Wright was Marlon Brando's first leading lady.

In 1950, Wright agreed to star opposite a Hollywood newcomer named Marlon Brando in what would be his very first film, The Men. The film was an independent low-budget production for which Wright accepted a salary of $25,000. Wright said that after she made that film for that low fee, she was rarely given A-list material again. She still had starring roles in movies, but none matched the quality of her early successes.

Wright Finds Work During Television's "Golden Age"
Instead of giving up on acting, Wright started working in TV during its golden age. She was Emmy-nominated for playing Annie Sullivan in a TV production of The Miracle Worker five years before the film version was made. Later she portrayed famed photographer Margaret Bourke-White in a 1960 TV production. In addition to her TV work, Wright went back to Broadway starring in The Country Girl, Bell, Book and Candle, The Heiress, and Death of a Salesman opposite George C. Scott.

During the 1970s, Wright occasionally worked in films and television. During this period she had roles in Roseland and Somewhere in Time. Her last major role was playing Miss Birdie, Matt Damon’s landlady, in John Grisham’s The Rainmaker in 1977.

Teresa Wright died of a heart attack on March 6, 2005. She was 86 years old.

Pearl Lowe for Peacocks Dinner at the Connaught

Last night my great friend and old flatmate Samantha and I went to a dinner and collection preview given by the lovely people at Peacocks at the Connaught Hotel in Mayfair.  Sam came to stay with me for a month while she sorted a place out and ended up staying for five and a half years!  She only moved out because she wanted The Actor and I to live together.  I absolutely loved living with her

Willis new single launch at The Drop

Check this out, and the other songs if you're not familiar with Willis.



After the Connaught Sam and I went along to our friend's Nathan's venue for the fabulous Hayley Willis's new single launch.
Hayley performed live, her voice is amazing.  It was unbelievable the amount of sound her and one guitairst could make.  A long of the songs have really tribal beats, I love it.  I have a pre-copy of

RIP Ari-Up

Photography by Caroline Coon
Arianna Forster(1962-2010)
I was very sad to hear that Arianna died yesterday of lymphatic cancer aged 48.  The trailblazing frontwoman and founder member of The Slits with Viv Albertine, Palmolive and Tessa Pollitt.  Arianna was fifteen when The Slits embarked on the White Riot Tour of 1977 with The Clash and Subway Sect.
Arianna's mother Nora was a friend of Jimi

Anne Does Vogue In Paris

To promote her latest movie (featuring Jake Gyllenhaal) "Love And Other Drugs"
Anne Hathaway was shot in Paris by famed photographer Mario Testino for U.S. Vogue
the results are just flawless...