- Fashion Rules!
- Archives
Can you imagine how many actresses have wanted to play the legendary and iconic Coco Chanel? Mira Sorvino nearly got the gig in a mini-series that never saw the light of day. Demi Moore tried to develop a movie about Mademoiselle Coco, but it never got off the ground.. Katharine Hepburn played her in the 1969 musical on Broadway, and got a Tony nomination. Juliette Binoche and Audrey Tatou have taken meetings. But finally, Mademoiselle Coco IS, in fact, coming to the small screen – on September 13th, Saturday night, at 8pm in a three hour original movie for Lifetime television (the future home of “Project Runway.”) “Coco Chanel” stars MacLaine as the older Coco, reminiscing about her long career – and Czechoslovakian young brunette actress Barbara Bobulova, who’s worked mostly in Italian and French television, as the young Coco. whose lovers helped her raise the financing to open clothing shops after her mother had died when she was 6, and the young Gabrille Chanel was raised by aunts and nuns (who taught her sewing). It was her stint as a cabaret singer that set Coco up to be in a position to meet the rich men who eventually financed her and allowed her to become the diva designer she was destined to be.
Lifetime’s website – Mylifetime.com – has a number of nifty Chanel tie-ins: for instance, you can enter a contest on there to win a two thousand dollar Chanel quilted bag (which Mademoiselle created in 1956, not long after her big money maker, Chanel No, 5 perfume. And there’s a timeline of her achievements and creations, and a history of stars who’ve worn Chanel on the red carpet, and highlights from varied great Chanel collections.
Shirley MacLaine is actually interviewed, and she admits that Audrey Hepburn – with whom she starred in the film “The Children’s Hour,” told her she should play Coco Chanel 47 years ago. “I disagreed,” MacLaine admits, “because Chanel was little and scrunched-over and very short. And Audrey said, “No, the spirit of the woman matches your spirit.” I found Coco to be everything between generous and rude. I didn’t know what Audrey meant [about matching spirits]. But it turns out she was right. I couldn’t wear Chanel suits and pearls and hats during the day now. I don’
t have that kind of lifestyle, but her clothes were meant more to express her personality. Remember, she was an orphan. She was poverty-stricken. She was always afraid that it would happen to her again, and her need to stay a woman in charge is what was behind these clothes. I DID wear Chanel knockoffs when I was in my twenties and thirties- but now my personal taste runs more to plain, simple lines. But I actually did attend a Chanel collection once, in my twenties or thirties. I could even have met her. But seems to me, if I had met her, I would have remembered it.”
Meanwhile, MacLaine has one more living person she’d like to portray – Georgia O’Keefe – and says she’s working on it. In the meantime, when you look at her photos as CC from the movie – with her bob darkened and pearls and black jackets – she does seem to have captured the spirit of the woman.
