There are a few fun Grey Gardens-related products out there that I haven't blogged about. They're mostly things that pre-date this blog, but there are some items that just fell through the cracks. Somehow I missed telling you all about artwork by Bruce Lennon, who has an online art store through Yessy.
From Yessy, by Bruce Lennon
Nicely done!
So Celia Maysles made a film about her father, David Maysles. According to the article below, Al Maysles tried to block it from being shown, but it was shown anyway. According to the review, apparently part of the film was actually shot in Grey Gardens, and features Lois Wright of Grey Gardens.
Here's hoping it comes to film festivals in the US, or out on DVD!
From indieWIRE, by Brian Brooks, on 26 November 2007
Dispatch from Amsterdam
Daughter's Personal Search for Her Father Exposes Maysles Family Rift
A provocative new first person documentary by a member of the Maysles family has stirred audiences at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) in recent days and it will likely garner more attention as the filmmakers seek wider awareness for the project. Among the hot tickets in The Netherlands has been Wild Blue Yonder, the directorial debut of Celia Maysles, daughter of the late David Maysles and niece of Albert Maysles. Sifting through the list of IDFA's three hundred-plus titles this year reveals a roster of films about war, the environment, love, cult of personality and drugs, and the almighty name of Maysles also grabbed a significant share of buzz on the first weekend of the festival in Amsterdam.
Usually the legendary Maysles name itself would be enough attract the attention of documentary aficionados, but the disclosure that "Wild Blue Yonder" was made without the blessing of Celia's uncle Albert Maysles stirred even greater interest among audiences clamoring for tickets. Told with a handheld, first person approach, Celia Maysles' first film features a number of scenes with Albert Maysles, including interactions that become more emotional as she digs deeper and deeper to try and learn more about her father who died in 1987, when she was seven years old.
Initially, the elder Maysles seems supportive of his niece's desire to make a film about her father, but, as seen in the film, begins to resist when she seeks archival footage to use in her personal documentary. "I was thinking of just filming this... that it was something inside me that I just needed to get out," commented Celia Maysles, who sold her house in Oregon where she worked as a social worker, to make the film. Made with Charlene Rule, the film is produced by Celia Maysles and Xan Parker and executive produced by Henry Corra, who worked with Maysles Films in the 1980s and early '90s. Cactus Three is handling sales of the film.
Now 27, she explained, in the film and at a Q & A in Amsterdam this weekend, that she set out to gain insight into her father who remained an enigma, also hoping to learn more about the autobiographical film Blue Yonderi which he was working on at the time of his death. For her exploration of his life and death, she hoped to use footage controlled by Maysles Films but ran into a roadblock when Albert Maysles refused her access to material. In telling her story, Celia Maysles exposes a deeper family rift that emerged after her father David Maysles' death, when her own mother battled Albert Maysles for control of previous films, against an internal pact made by the two brothers.
In the doc, and in a subsequent conversation with indieWIRE on Monday, Albert Maysles cited an agreement between himself and his brother that if either of them died, the other would control their entire library of work for a sales price of $50,000. Celia's mother Judy, however, apparently did not honor that agreement and a subsequent lawsuit resulted in a ruling where Albert had to pay $350,000 (in addition to an equal amount in legal fees), to retain control.
Albert Maysles, who said in New York on Monday that he has not been given an opportunity to see "Wild Blue Yonder" despite asking to screen it, is in the midst of making his anticipated autobiographical film, Handheld and From the Heart. He explains to his niece on camera in her film that he is concerned their movies might overlap or compete with each other if they use similar footage. Celia counters that she simply wants images of her dad, and in an emotional phone call seen from her perspective, when pressed about the context for the footage she asks her uncle Albert, "What better context is there than a daughter's search for her father?"
"In some ways, I'm grateful to Al because I wouldn't have digged so hard and found what I did about my Dad," an emotional Celia Maysles said after the IDFA screening this weekend. "I also had a lot of help from the very filmmakers that my dad taught. When I asked them for help, they dropped everything," she noted, citing help from Charlotte Zwerin, Bruce Sinofsky, and Joe Berlinger, among others.
The new documentary includes interviews with D.A. Pennebaker, Susan Froemke, Lois Wright (who appeared in Grey Gardens), Christo and Jean-Claude, among others and Celia Maysles uses clips from the Maysles Films Grey Gardens, Gimme Shelter, Salesman, Christo in Paris, and Running Fence. She also visits the "Grey Gardens" house today in one of the many extended sequences devoted to the Maysles' acclaimed documentary about the Beales of East Hampton. According to a statement in the credits, the copyrights to those films are owned by Maysles Films and, "Celia used clips from these films by applying the 'fair use' doctrine of the U.S. copyright act." Albert Maysles confirmed on Monday that Celia Maysles has not secured permission for use of the clips in her film.
Pressed about the conflict with her uncle Albert during a Q & A this weekend in Amsterdam, Celia said that she hopes to avoid a lawsuit and expressed relief over finally screening the movie for an audience. Relieved she added, "I was scared he would try to stop it from showing here." But, festival insiders indicated that there was never a question about whether or not the film would screen at IDFA.
[Eugene Hernandez contributed to this article.]
It looks more and more like there's a good effort to bring Grey Gardens the Musical to London!
From New York Post, by Liz Smith, on 20 November 2007
The London production of "Grey Gardens" is now "on" with a vengeance. Rights reverted from the original Broadway production and came back to the authors and composers. Music man Scott Frankel and star-producer Tony winner Christine Ebersole took off for London to put little Edie Beale and her adventures on the West End.
The goofy cousin of the late Jackie Kennedy Onassis and her East Hampton house saga have been in the London spotlight lately because of the release of the original Maysles documentary on the Beales. British fashion mags then rushed to push Edie's "revolutionary costumes." So this musical will be a natural for the Brits, who love eccentrics.
Great news! And here's a more extensive article about the musical in London:
From Playbill, by Kenneth Jones, on 21 November 2007
Will Grey Gardens Grow in London? Creative Team Has Hope
A London production and a national tour were mentioned as possibilities for Grey Gardens when the musical was still running in Broadway in spring 2007, but those prospects now look to be vague.
That doesn't mean there isn't hope — or that there isn't a wide future life for the quirky musical inspired by the film documentary of the same name.
The lead Broadway producers of the show about the eccentric aunt and cousin of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis no longer own the rights to the Tony Award-nominated script (by Doug Wright) and score (by composer Scott Frankel and lyricist Michael Korie), so the writers are looking ahead to future productions.
There are no plans for a national tour based on the 2006-07 Broadway production, Frankel told Playbill.com, but Dramatists Play Service, Inc. is handling the show's licensing to stock, amateur, university and resident theatres. Independent productions will start playing in those markets in 2008, Frankel said.
And London? Frankel himself and the Tony Award-winning Christine Ebersole (who played dual roles in the show, snagging the 2007 Tony for Best Actress in a Musical) were in London in recent weeks, talking to commercial and institutional producers and artistic directors about a U.K. life for the cult hit.
Ebersole had earlier expressed hope of reprising her Grey Gardens role(s) in London, and she and Frankel investigated possibilities in the West End and Off-West End.
"There was a fair amount of enthusiasm at the prospect of it," Frankel said.
The hope, Frankel told Playbill.com, is that the show's Broadway director Michael Greif (Rent) would be involved in any London run, and that Mary-Louise Wilson would be invited to play aging Edith Bouvier Beale (she also won a Tony doing it) opposite Ebersole's middle-aged dreamer, Edie Beale.
There are various scenarios that could play out, Frankel suggested, mentioning British star casting as a possibility for the role of "Big" Edith.
"No one is a bigger fan of Mary-Louise Wilson than I am," Frankel said. "I would just have a hunch that she would not want to play London, simply because she loves her garden and loves her house in the country — and she has other interests and other projects. We did discuss the very real possibility of putting a name Brit star, well known over there, like a Judi Dench or a Julia MacKenzie, in that part opposite Christine. That might well give it a currency in terms of British box office, and selling it to a less-familiar British public."
Would British audiences "get" the tale of two American society ladies living in squalor?
"On the downside, the documentary is not nearly as well known in the United Kingdom as it is here, even on a cult level," Frankel said. "On the plus side, they certainly have in their culture a frame of reference for dotty women living in moldering country houses, as well as aristocrats running out of money in said houses. That seemed to resonate with them, as well as the Kennedy/Camelot perspective, which still looms large with certain generations over there."
For more information about future licensing for Grey Gardens, visit www.dramatists.com.
Actually, the upcoming HBO film could bring more attention to the musical, couldn't it?
This article is from 2006, but quite nicely captures the attention being paid to Edie's fashion sense at the time. Edie's star as a fashion icon has only been rising since this article appeared.
The brilliant William Ivey Long is featured prominently in this article. Another costume designer interpreting Little Edie's style is Catherine Marie Thomas, who, according to IMDb, is responsible for Drew Barrymore's looks in the upcoming Grey Gardens feature being filmed in Toronto.
And, while we're on the topic of fashion, Phillip Lim referenced our girls in his Fall 2007 collection.
From New York Daily News, on 19 February 2006
Little Edie, Big Style
The unlikely fashion icon continues to make her mark - on the stage and the runway
Over the past 40 years, there has been no shortage of editors, designers and museum curators willing to cast Jacqueline Kennedy as the most important style icon of the 20th century. So there is more than a little irony in the current frenzy for Edie Beale, her eccentric first cousin, who was as well known for the sweaters she wrapped around her head as she was for the bizarre life she lived with her mother, scores of cats and a family of raccoons in a decaying East Hampton mansion known as Grey Gardens.
But four years after her death, there is no denying this is Edie's Moment.
It was evident last week on Marc Jacobs' runway, where his fall collection was filled with wools, cashmeres, chiffons and sequins worn, as Edie would, in mismatched layers of leggings, skirts, coats and furs.
It's evident, too, in Mary-Kate Olsen's trash-can chic, in which the billionaire actress-entrepreneur manages to make everything look just-found and tossed-on. And it's evident, of course, in the new musical "Grey Gardens," the Broadway version of the 1975 Maysles Brothers documentary that exposed the Beales' unapologetically anti-Jackie style.
"Edie Beale's look goes beyond fashion. It's the true meaning of the word style," says designer Isaac Mizrahi, a longtime devotee. "She had a passion for clothes and a way of putting them together that has stuck in my mind and influenced what I do. The way that we now make mistakes on purpose comes from Edie Beale. I'm still and always trying to match her sense of the absurd, her playfulness, her sense of the drama of clothing."
"I love an alternative point of view," agrees funky designer Todd Oldham. "And none was more distinct than hers."
On the surface, it seems impossible that Beale - "Little Edie" to her mother's "Big Edie" - could have such clout. Though she grew up wealthy (her uncle was Jackie's father; her own father was a Wall Street lawyer), she wound up descending into such squalor that the Suffolk County Health Department threatened to evict her and her mother in 1971 if their 28-room house wasn't cleaned up. (Jackie and her Gucci wallet came to the rescue.)
And just as their view of proper housekeeping was skewed, so was their sense of dress. Edie would swath her bald head in cashmere sweaters. And fasten the swaddling with a gaudy brooch. She wore towels as dresses. And skirts upside down. And tied the ends together like a sarong (before Yohji Yamamoto did it) or fastened them with safety pins (pre-Gianni Versace). Every piece - many from Bergdorf Goodman, many cast-offs from Jackie - was rearranged to fit the moment.
"Why wear a skirt upside down?" says Christine Ebersole, who plays both Edies in the new musical. "You do if your waistline has expanded and you can't close it at the waist."
Improvisation was the beauty of it. "'Designer' clothes went out in the 1980s, and what replaced them is the idea of styling things," says Mizrahi, who interprets the high-low sensibility into his Target cheap-chic and his private couture. "Found things, absurd things, old things, even threadbare things, things with patina and brand-new things."
An Imaginary First Act
To channel Edie for the stage version of "Grey Gardens," costume designer William Ivey Long studied not only the original documentary, but the youthful photos that the Beales show off in the film. He used them to create beaded and floaty ballgowns for an imaginary first act that takes place on the day Little Edie is to be engaged to Joseph Kennedy Jr. (It never happened.)
For the second act - essentially a re-creation of the movie - the clothes are grittier. "Everything begins as a skirt or a sweater, and your job is to figure out what did she do with it," Long laughs. "I can encapsulate her entire design esthetic into four looks."
Though Long is known for such wild costumes as the Bavarian sausage headpieces for "The Producers" and Edna Turnblad's Pucci prints in "Hairspray," the already off-kilter Edie needs no props. "I tried not to think of her as madcap, but as making truly comfortable clothes out of very good previously constructed comfortable clothes."
Perhaps the closest reincarnation of Edie so far comes from the Olsen twins, who (Badgley Mischka contract or not) have created a style that is pure anti-style. "Here are two girls who can wear whatever they want, and the way they choose to put themselves together is layered, free-spirit, pile-it-on, can't-tell-what-designer, is it vintage, is it old, did they get it for free or did they pay for it," says Kristina O'Neill, fashion features director of Harper's Bazaar. "They look like they think for themselves when they get dressed."
And that may be the ultimate allure of Edie's style. Says O'Neill: "We're fascinated by people who make interesting choices, who are not robotic dressers."
I just got wind of a "Little Edie" doll! The attention to detail is quite remarkable. They were created for the launch of GG Online, and there's one being auctioned off on eBay!
By GG Online
Little Edie Beale Doll
She took over three months to create and another month to produce. Each is crafted of resin and hand-painted in great detail. Only a limited number were made and each is a numbered edition. She stands 8 inches tall. Her head bobbles.
She is dressed in the "Revolutionary Costume" (complete with upside down skirt cinched with a gold pin). Her headscarf sweater features the fake Mexican brooch with two hand-applied Swarovski crystals. Her treasured binoculars are around her neck. She wears ripped stockings and red shoes (perfect for a Thursday out on the town in East Hampton!). The raccoon and cat are separate pieces and can be posed any way you desire on the base. The flag is also separate.
The doll is already in the collections of Albert Maysles, Christine Ebersole, and others.
Here are a few "making of" photos
Apparently the documentary about a musical about a documentary (a documentary about Grey Garden the Musical) which premiered at the Hamptons International Film Festival will be available on DVD soon. The article doesn't have the details about how to get the DVD, but your 4-legged friend will surely post that information here when it comes in!
A couple of odd little factual mistakes here, but overall a very nice story!
From Hamptons.com, by Tom Clavin, on 19 November 2007
Grey Gardens Goes to Broadway and Back
Who knew that an 82-year-old woman and her 56-year-old daughter living in squalor in East Hampton would become a cultural phenomenon and spawn a cottage industry? The latest product of this industry was on view recently at the Hamptons International Film Festival, and it is about to be released nationally on DVD.
Like the untamed cats they once fed, Edith Bouvier Beale and her daughter, Edie, are back... again. The third documentary on them is "Grey Gardens: From East Hampton to Broadway." And though both women are dead, this is not the last we will see of them: HBO is about to go into production of a movie with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore portraying the captivatingly demented duo, with much of it to be shot in the Hamptons.
The original "Grey Gardens" was something of an accident. Albert and David Maysles (David died in 1987) had lensed the first arrival in America of The Beatles in 1964 and made the critically acclaimed documentary "Salesman" in 1968. They achieved widespread notice as filmmakers with "Gimme Shelter" (1970, with Charlotte Zwerin) that concluded with the stabbing death of a man while The Rolling Stones were performing at Altamont near San Francisco in Dec. 1969. The brothers were approached by Jacqueline Onassis and her sister, Lee Radziwill about doing a documentary on their family, the Bouviers, who included their aunt and cousin in East Hampton.
The brothers agreed. On and off for several months they shot footage and then came to a surprising realization: Edith and Edie Beale would make for a lot more interesting movie than Jackie and Lee. The mother and daughter lived a very private existence in Grey Gardens, the family estate that had gone without any maintenance for years and was literally falling down around them. Dozens of cats and other animals had easy access to the interior of the main house. The interior of their minds is where Big Edie and Little Edie spent much of their time, yet they allowed the Maysles brothers and their cameras into their home.
For the next two months the filmmakers all but lived at Grey Gardens as they followed the two women in their daily routines. Among the more memorable scenes that made the final cut was Edith, once a highly regarded concert singer, warbling songs for them and Edie, with her dreams of being a dancer, improvising a soft shoe to the Virginia Military Institute fight song.
When the film was released in 1976 audiences and critics were in turn fascinated and appalled by what they saw. The mother and daughter, 82 and 56 at the time of filming, were certainly unique, and formed a combination that was both bizarre and poignant. Showing them living in cat-overrun filth and Gothic decay, yet in money-drenched East Hampton and being related to the legendary "Black Jack" Bouvier, was a jaw-dropping spectacle. The Maysles brothers were smart enough to let the story tell itself. Roger Ebert wrote that the film was "one of the most haunting documentaries in a long time."
The Beales themselves thought so too, and apparently valued the truth of the film over their own exposure to thousands of strangers in the audience. According to Albert Maysles, when Edith Beale was dying, her daughter asked her if there was something more she wanted to say. "It's all in the film," Edith said.
"When we finished making the film, we brought it with a projector to Grey Gardens," said Maysles. "Afterward, Edie paused for a moment and then turned toward me, and in a very loud voice she shouted, 'The Maysles have created a classic!'"
Most critics, like Ebert, agreed and the film remains one of the most famous American-made documentaries. Grey Gardens itself has undergone a complete overhaul thanks to the efforts of its present owners, Ben Bradlee and Sally Quinn, both formerly of The Washington Post. But the screen story of the Beales remained set in a time when the East Hampton estate's occupants wore skirts upside-down and bathing suits from 1948, sang "Tea For Two" and other old favorites, and shared a loaf of Wonder Bread with a raccoon.
Thirty years later, when Albert Maysles was reviewing unused footage, he realized there was enough to create a feature-length follow-up to the original documentary. In July 2006, "The Beales of Grey Gardens" was shown in New York City.
He barely beat Broadway to the Beales. "Grey Gardens – The Musical" premiered in the spring of 2006 at Playwrights Horizon, with Christine Ebersole and Mary Louise Wilson, and tickets couldn't be sold fast enough. It moved to Broadway that Oct. Ebersole actually plays Edith in Act I, which takes place in 1941, and then plays Little Edie with Wilson as her mother in Act II, set 32 years later as Grey Gardens decays around them. Among the songs are "Body Beautiful Beale," "Being Bouvier," "Entering Grey Gardens," and "Another Winter In A Summer Town." Both Ebersole and Wilson won Tony Awards for their performances.
For the new documentary (which runs 50 minutes), Albert Maysles went behind the scenes of the Broadway musical. The cast and creators are interviewed about how the show was put together and how Ebersole "channeled" both Beales in her performance. Also part of the story is the making of the original "Grey Gardens" documentary and the impact it has had over three decades.
Maysles is finally done with Grey Gardens. Though he turns 81 this month – Happy Birthday, Albert! - he has a full plate of work. He recently founded the Maysles Institute, which teaches documentary filmmaking to eight to 12-year-olds whose parents are in prison. His next documentary, titled "In Transit," is an ambitious project about people on trains in a half-dozen different countries. Next up is opening a movie theater called the Harlem Cinematheque to screen films relevant to that community.
"There's so much more to do," Maysles said. "I'm at a stage now where I know exactly how to use my camera. With that instrument in my hands, I can do so much good. Every time I go into a film, it's an adventure."
It does indeed seem that Edith Bouvier Beale and Edie Beale have turned into something like a franchise. There is also a book about them. In 1975, Lois Wright, an artist and friend of the Beales, was invited to live with them at Grey Gardens. Wright kept a journal of her 13 months there. From that came "My Life at Grey Gardens," in which Wright, who still lives in East Hampton, chronicles events at the estate from her arrival through the passing of Big Edie in 1977.
There is, of course, a CD available containing songs of the Broadway play. Can an "Edith and Edie's Greatest Hits" CD be far behind?
I very much like the idea of a Greatest Hits CD!
While googling for upcoming showings of Grey Gardens at film festivals and Al Maysles speaking engagements, I found the following information about a film by Celia Maysles, the daughter of David Maysles. Yes, that David Maysles!
Wild Blue Yonder premieres on Saturday, 24 November 2007 at 4:30pm at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2007.
From International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam 2007
Wild Blue Yonder
Celia Maysles 70', USA, 2007 WP
The brothers Albert and David Maysles are known as the co-founders of the movement that became known as direct cinema. Their 1976 film Grey Gardens, about an eccentric mother and daughter in a run-down mansion, became a cult classic. Albert still runs Maysles Films, but David died in 1987 at the age of 54. Celia Maysles, David's daughter, is now 27. She was a young girl when her father died, but the loss strongly influenced her life and even led to a serious mental breakdown many years ago. She is determined to find out more about her father and the autobiographical nature of his work. Celia is especially curious about the project that David was working on right before his death; a personal film called Blue Yonder. One of the people she interviews is her uncle Albert, who initially supports her plan, but then suddenly banned her from the Maysles film archive. Celia is deeply disappointed, but is determined to continue her quest.
This sounds like a fascinating project, and reminded me of this article from the beginning of last year:
From New York Daily News, by Joe Dziemianowicz, on 14 March 2006
'Grey' Stokes a Family Feud
Audiences are digging the new musical "Grey Gardens," which details a dysfunctional mother and daughter — both cousins of Jackie O! — living in squalor in the Hamptons.
Behind the scenes of this "Garden" party about Edith and "Little" Edie Bouvier Beale, however, two filmmakers with ties to the documentary that originally brought the women's story to life are weeding through a festering family feud of their own.
One of them is Albert Maysles, a noted documentarian who made "Grey Gardens" three decades ago with his brother, David. It became a cult classic, inspiring the current hit musical starring Christine Ebersole (as well as an upcoming movie starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore).
The other individual in this nettlesome affair is Celia Maysles, Albert's niece and David's 27-year-old daughter, an ex-social worker and aspiring documentarian currently at work on a movie about her dad, who died when she was 7. The working title of her film is "Blue Yonder," the name of the autobiographical documentary her father was working on when he died of a stroke in 1987.
The issue that has them at odds is Uncle Albert's refusal to let Celia use clips from any Maysles films — including her father's "Blue Yonder" — for her film. After a protracted battle with David's widow, Albert got sole ownership of all Maysles films.
That long-ago legal wrangling had lasting effects, and generated enough bad blood to make the Beales' bickering seem like a garden of Eden.
The Maysles brothers made more groundbreaking cinema together, including "Gimme Shelter," a chronicle of the Rolling Stones' notorious Altamont concert, during which a young African-American man was killed by a Hells Angel.
"I didn't know my father growing up," says Celia. For the past two years she has interviewed family, friends, filmmakers and Maysles movie subjects (Mick Jagger is still on her wish list) for her film, which she has partially financed by selling her house in Portland, Ore.
Albert, whom Celia actually interviewed for her film, says he sympathizes with his niece. "I can appreciate that kind of loss," he says. "My brother was only 13 when our father died. It was a sad thing that David didn't know his father better."
As for why he hasn't granted permission to use clips, he says, "I'm making my own autobiography. I don't want to get into a competition with her over material. Also, I need to see what kind of film she's making." Enduring family rancor probably has him concerned how he'd come off.
"People who worked with him are appalled that he won't share the material," says Celia. "I feel my father's story should be told — and I'm the person to tell it."
In fact, Celia grew up unaware of her father's body of work. "All I knew is that my name is hard to spell," she says. "I hoped making the film would be a way to have a relationship with my family."
Only recently has Celia stopped fixating on what her uncle has kept out of the film and fully appreciated what she has. As of now, 200 hours of footage have been whittled down to four hours. She wants to finish shaping the film by the end of the year — with or without clips from her father's films.
"I'm confident that there's much more to my father's story than his films," says Celia, who has tickets for tonight's performance of "Grey Gardens." "In his work, the odds were always against him, but he succeeded because he was so determined. In that way, we're alike."
If any readers are in Amsterdam and get the opportunity to view Wild Blue Yonder, please let me know how it is.
I can completely picture Edie in these outfits and I'm struck by how beautiful Drew is!
From INF Daily, on 13 November 2007
Drew's old-time charm
Drew Barrymore looked great when we caught up with her on the set of Grey Gardens in Canada today. Drew's 50s-style outfit really suits her soft curls and rounded features. And the pillar box hat tops off the stylish look nicely.
And the hat was captured on film again...
From Pop! Goes the News, by John R. Kennedy, on 13 November 2007
Barrymore goes back in time
Drew Barrymore was on Front Street this afternoon shooting scenes for Grey Gardens, the HBO movie in production here until early December.
No fan of the paparazzi, the actress ducked behind umbrellas as she made her way to and from the set in front of the Royal York hotel. In the photo, at right, Barrymore is seen in the passenger seat of a vehicle taking her to her luxury trailer on Bremmer Boulevard.
Tonight, Barrymore is shooting a winter scene outside the lower level of Union Station.
Grey Gardens is based on the true story of Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale (Jessica Lange) and her daughter Edith Bouvier Beale (Barrymore) who made headlines in 1971 when the health department raided their run-down mansion in East Hampton, New York. Authorities found dozens of cats as well as raccoons and piles of garbage and excrement but agreed not to evict the women when family member Jacqueline Onassis (Jeanne Tripplehorn) stepped in to pay for a clean-up. (The women died in 1977 and 2002 respectively.) A musical play, based on a 1975 documentary, opened on Broadway last year.
Barrymore hasn't worked in Toronto since shooting the comedy Fever Pitch here in 2004.
Grey Gardens also stars familiar TV faces Malcolm Gets (Caroline in the City), Arye Gross (Ellen) and Ken Howard (Crossing Jordan). Troubled actor Daniel Baldwin, who arrived at Pearson International Airport tonight, is also part of the cast.
And there are even more pictures of Drew from this scene!
From Fashion Mag Daily, on 14 November 2007
Drew Barrymore is Little Edie
Drew Barrymore, dressed as 30s Park Avenue debutante 'Little Edie" with a glimmering black pillbox hat and sheer gloves, reviews her lines while walking along the set of her new film, Grey Gardens, in Toronto, Canada on Tuesday. Joining her are actresses Jeanne Tripplehorn as Little Edie’s first cousin, Jackie O and Jessica Lange as her mother, "Big Edie."
In other exciting news, organizers of the 34th Peoples' Choice Awards announced Thursday that Drew, 32, scored a major nomination for Favorite Leading Lady, alongside Jessica Alba and Queen Latifah. Congrats, Drew!
How does this raccoon feel about all the photos of Drew that are appearing on the internet? Perhaps this blog said it best:
From Sally-Jane Vintage, by Sally Jane, on 14 November 2007
Grey Gardens Movie
Is anyone else as excited about the HBO Grey Gardens movie as I am? From the look of these shots, the wardrobe alone is going to be worth it.
Your favorite raccoon was googling around and came across the website of Kalina Ivanov, the production designer for Michael Sucsy's upcoming Grey Gardens film with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. Ivanov's site has some sketches of her designs for the film. The sketches are absolutely gorgeous and stand on their own as art!
From KalinaIvanov.com, by Kalina Ivanov
Cute, huh?
From eNewsBuzz, on November 2007
Drew Barrymore Runs for Cover on the Set of "Grey Gardens"
More photos have surfaced!
From News Durham Region, by Jeff Hayward, on 10 November 2007
Actress Drew Barrymore attracted a crowd on onlookers in Uxbridge Friday, during the shooting of a movie scene on Brock Street at Strawberry Threads. The store was transformed into a grocery market for the scene, which required Ms. Barrymore to drive a vintage car for a short distance on the blocked-off street. The movie, 'Grey Gardens', is an HBO production with a 2008 release date.
Wednesday, 7 November 2007 would have been Little Edie's 90th birthday, and Robb of MyGreyGardens assembled a tribute to Edie from some fans. It's nice to read such kind words and experience the positive thoughts. Check it out!
I was playing around at the Internet Movie Database, and I discovered that there's a film with the Big Edie from the Grey Gardens musical (Christine Ebersole), and the Big Edie from the upcoming feature film (Jessica Lange). This film is Tootsie, and it was the first film for which Lange earned an Academy Award. Ebersole has a small but entertaining role as a party guest at the beginning of the film.
Tootsie
starring Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange
An anonymous source tells me that Canadian actor Justin Louis will be playing David Maysles in the upcoming Grey Gardens film starring Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. Arye Gross will be playing David's brother Al.
This is turning out to be quite a cast!
From Reuters, by Borys Kit, on 5 November 2007
Tripplehorn adds color to "Grey Gardens"
Jeanne Tripplehorn (HBO's "Big Love") has been cast as Jackie Kennedy Onassis in "Grey Gardens," the true story of two eccentric members of the Kennedy clan.
The HBO Films project, now shooting in Toronto, is inspired by the Maysles brothers' 1975 documentary of the same name.
Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore already have been cast as "Big Edie" and "Little Edie," the respective aunt and cousin of Onassis, who made headlines when the health department threatened to raid their flea- and raccoon-infested 28-room East Hampton, N.Y., mansion.
Also joining the cast are Daniel Baldwin, who plays Julius Krug, the former secretary of the interior and secret true love of Little Edie; Ken Howard ("Cane") as Big Edie's husband; Malcolm Gets ("Caroline in the City") as Big Edie's accompanist; and Arye Gross ("The Practice") as filmmaker Albert Maysles. Michael Sucsy is directing.
The latest addition to the cast is actor Arye Gross. Hmm... whom do you think he will be in the film?
From Variety, by Byron Perry, on 4 November 2007
Arye Gross
Arye Gross will guest star in an upcoming "Law & Order: SVU" episode. Gross recently had a recurring role on "The Riches" and will co-star in HBO Films' "Grey Gardens" opposite Drew Barrymore. His credits include "Minority Report" and "The Practice."
I just received some leaked information... Arye will be playing Al Maysles in the film. Thank you, leaker!
Roland wrote me a very nice e-mail about the book The Bouviers: Portrait of an American Family by John H. Davis. It's a great resource for Bouvier family history. Roland even sent in some photos from the book!
By Roland
I wanted to let you about my discovery at a Goodwill store in south Jersey.
I'm a homes & garden editor for a newspaper in south Jersey and recently we did a story on the Joseph Bonaparte (Napoleon's brother) property in Bordentown, NJ (this will make sense in a second.)
So, I'm in the Goodwill store and I see this book The Bouviers: Portrait of an American Family by John H. Davis (1969). Being a huge fan of Grey Gardens I grabbed the book and looked in the index for Big and Little Edie. I see their names and I jump for joy!
I get the book home and start reading all the good parts about Big Edith and her trouble with her family. The book actually goes into great detail about Edith's father and grandparents and her brother Jack and her red headed sisters etc... The book also has a great photo of Big Edie when she was in her early teens. The book also talks about Edith's withdrawal from society, the cats, the money, Little Edie, the singing, the piano and it goes into detail about that famous portrait of her.
Anyhow, back to Joseph Bonaparte and the story in my section. It turns out that Joseph Bonaparte was friends with Michel Bouvier (Big Edith's great grandfather). Michel Bouvier was a carpenter and made furniture for Joseph and was a general contractor for one of Joseph's homes. Crazy right. The book goes into great detail about this and about how the family made money and their life in Philadelphia and New York.
Please recommended it to all who love the Bouvier story. It really fills in a lot of holes and the back story makes watching Grey Gardens and The Beales of Grey Gardens a new joy. By the way, the author John H. Davis is cousins with Little Edie and Jackie.
And here's the Joseph Bonaparte story.
A photo of the book.
A photo of Cousin Lee "Then you can be like Cousin Lee on Mr. Blackwell's list!"
A photo of (Big) Edith's father: John Vernou Bouvier Jr. known as the "Major." I hear Little Edie use this term. I guess it came from her grandfather.
A photo of Big Edith's grandmother, Caroline Ewing Bouvier.
By the way, Big Edie is named after her two grandmother's Caroline Ewing and Edith Leaman; hence, Edith Ewing Bouvier Beale.
A photo of Big Edie's mother Maude Sergeant Bouvier.
A family photo of Big Edith's family. Edith looks like she is about 14 or 15.
Another family photo with Little Edie's grandparents. I highlighted Little Edie, Cousin Lee (baby on lap) and Jackie.
The last photo is of Big Edie's father with her younger twin sisters. Who knew she had younger twin sisters? In the book Big Edie said "Everything was wonderful until the twin cames... they spoiled it all."
One last thing. Big Edie was a Jersey girl. Born in Nutley, NJ on April 28, 1893.
I just came across a couple of very charming paintings of our friends on Etsy. At the time of writing, the originals are still available for purchase (see below). There are so giclee prints of the paintings available here and here.
From Etsy, by Rowley, on 2 November 2007
You Don't See Me As I See Myself
This is an original oil painting of Little Edie, painted on hand stretched canvas measuring 8 x 10" in size.
The painting is signed by the artist on the back.
From Etsy, by Rowley, on 2 November 2007
Tea for Two
This is an original oil painting of Big Edie, painted on hand stretched canvas measuring 8 x 10" in size.
The painting is signed by the artist on the back.
This Halloween, I encountered the spitting image of Edie Beale at a party I attended, and it hit me that our girls may finally be in the public consciousness. And then, I did a little search on Google and Flickr, and found that there were quite a few Edie Beales at Halloween parties!
Below is just a taste of the various Edie Beale costume photos on the internet.
From Are you sure you want to know?, by Michael, on 2 November 2007
What's your favorite Halloween costume
My favorite costumes are those that have the very odd or very outlandish connection, such as these lovely ladies from Grey Gardens!
I'm not sure this is a good thing... but it's certainly amusing!
So we already knew the following casting information for the Grey Gardens movie that's currently being filmed in Toronto:
From IMDB
Grey Gardens (2008)
Drew Barrymore ... 'Little' Edith Bouvier Beale Jessica Lange ... 'Big' Edith Bouvier Beale Olivia Waldriff ... Young Jackie - Age 7
And this information just appeared on the Internet Movie Database:
From IMDB
Marcia Bennett ... Hostess Duane Murray ... Doorman Perry Mucci ... Young Photographer Neil Girvan ... Concierge Neil Babcock ... Young Phelan Jr. - Age 14 Kevin Etherington ... Fashion Photographer
What we don't yet know (and who's to say these are characters in the movie) is who's playing:
Got any info to leak? Let me know!
According to the Internet Movie Database, 8-year-old actress Olivia Waldriff is playing Young Jackie Kennedy in the upcoming Grey Gardens film with Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore. Waldriff's IMDb profile includes a picture of her and Drew from the filming, presumably from around the time the beach scenes were filmed.
From IMDb
IMDb Photos - Photographs of Olivia Waldriff
It seems that Grey Gardens is only one topic of many in this book. Still, it should be very interesting, and I can't wait until my copy arrives...
Available here.
From Amazon.com
A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents
by Steven Kasher, Michael Chaiken, and Albert Maysles
 |  |
Grey Gardens
HBO Films DVD
(Digital version from Amazon.com here.)
(Digital version from iTunes here.)
Grey Gardens
Soundtrack by Rachel Portman
(Digital version here.)
Grey Gardens &
The Beales of Grey Gardens
Criterion Collection DVD Set
Grey Gardens
Criterion Collection DVD
(Digital version here.)
The Beales of Grey Gardens
Criterion Collection DVD
Grey Gardens
Masters of Cinema DVD
Grey Gardens 11" x 17" Reproduction Poster
(Framed version here)
BFI Film Classics: Grey Gardens
by Matthew Tinkcom
Grey Gardens
by Sara & Rebekah Maysles
Soundtrack to Grey Gardens MP3s
My Life at Grey Gardens
by Lois Wright
Forty Years of Gardening
by Anna Gilman Hill
Edith Bouvier Beale of Grey Gardens
by Eva Beale, et al.
MemoraBEALEia
by Walter Newkirk
Little Edie Live! A Visit to Grey Gardens audio CD
Talk to Her: Interviews
by Kristine McKenna
Contemporary Film Directors:
Albert Maysles
by Joe McElhaney
Grey Gardens the Musical
original Broadway cast recording CD
(Digital version here.)
Grey Gardens
by Doug Wright, Scott Frankel, and Michael Korie
Grey Gardens: The Complete Book and Lyrics of the Broadway Musical
by Doug Wright
Grey Gardens Songbook
by Scott Frankel & Michael Korie
The Road Not Taken: A Selection of Robert Frost's Poems
by Robert Frost
The Marble Faun
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
by Omar Khayyam
translated by Edward Fitzgerald
Andromeda and Other Poems (includes Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorree)
by Charles Kingsley
Wild Blue Yonder DVD
A Maysles Scrapbook: Photographs/Cinemagraphs/Documents
Ghosts of Grey Gardens DVD
Gigi
Wings
Nashville
It's All in the Stars
Art by Pacifico Palumbo