Who2 Editorial Blog
Notes and Commentary from the Editors
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Shirley MacLaine is Coco Chanel?
"Even before she died in 1971, Chanel had to witness her life turned into a Broadway musical. At first, she was thrilled that Hepburn would star in 'Coco.' When she learned it was Katharine and not Audrey, she was horrified."Heh. We were wondering why Coco Chanel is so high on our Who Popular? list this weekend. Turns out that Lifetime is running a new movie about her life, with Shirley MacLaine as the aging Chanel.
Which, as The San Francisco Chronicle points out above, isn't the first time the Chanel role has been weirdly cast.
The Chronicle piece is a gleeful pan. "Every time you find yourself getting pleasantly lost in the melodrama of the younger Coco's loves and losses, along comes Shirley with her big, husky Virginia-bred voice to utter idiotic lines of dialogue culled from Chanel sayings." Ouch!
Turns out the Broadway version of Coco, with Kate Hepburn as Chanel, ran for a respectable 329 performances in 1969-70. (It was a musical!)
Posted by Mr. Holznagel at 5:41 AM 
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2 Comments:
i just finished seeing the movie with ms. maclaine, although she is one of my favorite actresses, i don't see her as "coco", sorry!! my mother was from paris, fr., my grandmother was a singer in the opera house in paris, i know french women, we are mysterious and flirty in a natural sort of way, our genetic makeup, petite, elegant, although ms. maclaine is a wonderful actress, she does'nt portray the petite coco channel, it's just out of character, i compare this to the movie made of "piaff", now the actress was a dead ringer for her, i do feel if u are doing a life story of someone in movie mode, look for an actress that might have genetic similarity... i enjoyed the movie, but, like i say, ms. maclaine does'nt seem like the wonderful "coco channel"... at the age she is portraying her, the actress that portrays her younger years is more probable....
i just saw the movie with ms. maclaine, good movie, but sad to say although ms. maclaine is one of my favorite actresses, she does'nt portray "coco", even as the elderly coco, my mother was from paris, fr., my grandmother sang at the opera house in paris, i know french women, we are petite, coy, elegant, flirty by nature, the way we move, do things ect., facial expressions, ect.,.. sorry but ms. maclaine, although a good actress, just doesn't cut it... i think of the ,movie about Piaff, the actress chosen for her role was a dead ringer, gremovie.. for her, awesome performance, i believe if u are doing a movie of someones life, the person portraying that someone should have at least a similarity, maclaine doesn't make that happen, the movie was good but..... the actress portraying, coco as a young woman was close.....
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