I’ve been catching up with the guestbook entries, and there are so many sweet and lovely entries! I’m so glad the site makes so many people happy, helps them remember a wonderful woman, and helps newer generations discover her for themselves. While us girls may sigh once in a while, wishing we could look more like Audrey, someone by the name of Just Me has a perfect way of saying “Stay you”:

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The “How to be Audrey Hepburn/Holly Golightly for Hallween” article has been doing so well, but I thought of something that could be added to it. What if, instead of carrying a chic black purse with your smashing costume, you carried a little orange box instead? It might not look as pretty, but by trick-or-treating for UNICEF you would not only be looking like Audrey, but acting like her as well. You wouldn’t have to collect a lot, because every little bit helps, and you can also get your friends in on it with you by going to UNICEF’s site and ordering boxes for the whole group. You create your own fundraiser, be it by trick-or-treating, a bake sale, a car wash, a haunted house, whatever you can think of! Then UNICEF will send you your little boxes. You collect change for them and mail the money back, and you’ve just made a child’s life better. It really doesn’t get any easier than that, especially if you would like to be more involved in charitable acts but don’t have a lot of time or money (or both).

And you don’t even have to live in the US to do it! Besides the United States campaign, citizens of Canada, Mexico, and Hong Kong have their own campaign. Each name links to its country’s UNICEF site, where you will learn more information about that particular program.

As many of you might know by now, last week José Luis de Vilallonga died at age 83. Jose was known in the Audrey Hepburn world as the man who played the dashing Brazilian boyfriend of Holly Golightly, José da Silva Pereira. José was a man of many talents, though, as he was also an author and a highly respected aristocrat, writing as a journalist and publishing the official biography of King Juan Carlos of Spain. You can read more about José’s fascinating life here.

The second article I’d like to share is a little old as well (for some reason I just sat on it instead of posting it right away), but still very pertinent, I think. You’d have to live under a rock on the moon to have not heard about a certain socialite’s stint in jail, a young woman with the initials P.H. I don’t want to put her name here because I really don’t want to. You know who I’m talking about and that’s all that matters. Anyway, after being released from jail and loudly proclaiming that she was a changed woman and would now use her status as a so-called icon to help others, P.H. has done little, if anything, towards that goal. MSNBC, however, won’t let P.H. forget her promise and even published an article showing her how to go about using her celebrity towards a better cause. Their golden example? None other than Audrey Hepburn. Even if you can’t stand P.H., please read the article, if just to get yourself motivated or to remind yourself of why you love Audrey. As if you needed reminders! It’s a wonderful article and while being aimed at a certain heiress, really applies to any young woman who needs a little help shaking off the silliness and immaturity and learning to really think beyond yourself, which will finally make you useful towards other people. “Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you’ll find one at the end of your arm. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands. One for helping yourself, the other for helping others.”

A couple of days ago, I received a letter from a doctor in India about Audrey. An introduction isn’t really necessary, so here is the letter in full:

Hello,

There is something common in our interest..like Audrey Hepburn. I am always the Fan of Lady Audrey Hepburn. Great charity is done by Hepburn team.

I stumbled on your site while I was surfing the net. .

It is a meticulously prepared site.Congratulations.

Audrey died of advanced colon cancer. It made me think a lot. Colon cancer is one of the cancers which has best prognosis if treated early. Still many patients reach the expert medical aid at little later stage. I felt this is happening because of less awareness.

It is always admirable if intelligent proactive persons from community get organised for noble cause. Nothing is more precious than life. Every saved life is an achievement. We can educate masses regarding early diagnosis of cancer. Info should make people aware of the apparent low profile presentation of the disease. If the rational decisions are taken quickly, the results are quite good.
Knowledge Helps. .
Let us join hands to fight cancer.

We must thank film industry and Audrey Hepburn for providing us beautiful moments with so many films like Roman Holiday, Sabrina and many others.

Regards

Dr. Shriniwas Deshpande

Surgeon, Samarth Gastroenterology

Pune

India

The letter is deeply touching and, I feel, very important. Most types of cancer can be easily treated and possibly cured completely if caught early enough, and all it takes is a little extra awareness. We lost a beautiful person to this affliction, but maybe with a little effort we can keep others from succumbing to this disease.

Interestingly enough, another Audrey Hepburn tie-in with cancer awareness came to me today. The Smoking Gun has recently added a film clip archive section to their site and there are a couple of Audrey clips worth noting. The first is a public service announcement she and Mel Ferrer did backstage during the run of Ondine, and is for cancer research. You can view the whole film here. I’m not sure if the full announcement has ever been widely available before — I’ve only ever seen the first 30 seconds or so myself.

The other clip worth mentioning is a film reel about the 1965 Oscar ceremonies, when Audrey presented My Fair Lady co-star Rex Harrison with the Best Actor statue, which you can see here.

Last for today, there’s a new shoe shop in Ireland that is very Audrey inspired. Called The Shoe Gallery, its walls are covered in pictures of Audrey Hepburn and even the merchandise itself is inspired by her taste in clothing, according to The Athlone Advertiser. It sounds like it would be great fun to shop there!

I’ve seen these articles come into my inbox quite a few times now, so I thought I’d share. Apparently Natalie Portman wearing Audrey’s dress is a big deal, leading many to call her our generation’s Audrey Hepburn and Audrey’s clone. Unlike some starlets, Natalie has openly admitted that she could never fill Audrey’s shoes and doesn’t even want to try, which is nice and refreshing and really what people need to hear. She has also said she would never play Audrey in a biopic, so get that idea out of your head. Audrey clone or not though, we could do a lot worse on role models for young women. To view the article, click here.

Another article I’d like to share starts out as a review for the Spoto biography, but quickly morphs into something completely different. It’s a sort of lovesong for Audrey and her uniqueness, and it’s very lovely. The author even throws in a brief — but very good — biography of Audrey at the end, which would make it very hard for any casual reader to not be curious about her afterwards. The article can be found here.

The last article is just a quick add-on. Its main point is that Audrey always seems to be in style, which is nice, but I was personally very intrigued by the last half of the piece. It compares Audrey with the starlets of today, especially the D-listers like Paris Hilton (may I never mention her name again) and Jessica Simpson. The interesting part is the author’s hypothesis that even Audrey herself wouldn’t have emerged unscathed from the tabloid machines today, who take any innocuous happening and turn it into the basest trash. That’s something I’ve always wondered about myself, really. You can read the full story here.

And if this doesn’t make you mad (or ill), nothing will.

I know it’s old, but it never ceases to be irritating. What was it Mag Wildwood said about “a piece of cheap Hollywood trash”?