Slipper or cake?

Despite the lovely weather, winter has started to make itself felt in London - slightly sparkly roofs this morning, and the single-figure night-time temperatures mean that the central heating is now on all the time. To add insult to injury, we have acquired new upstairs neighbours... who have small children! It's only been one day of the incessant running up-and-down across our ceiling, but I am already wound up to the "Nth degree". If it keeps up, we may have to start planning to move. Oh dear.

Never mind, eh? With another lovely and - ahem - rewarding week in work to come, we are definitely in need of some cheering up. What better distraction on this Tacky Music Monday than Miss Leslie Caron and Mr Michael Wilding camping it up performing a lovely bit of ballet, in this glittering scene from The Glass Slipper?

Palace Kitchen Ballet scene from The Glass Slipper (1955)

Have a good week, folks!

Who wants to wallow in champagne?

Today, one of the great survivors of the classic Hollywood era Celeste Holm celebrates - remarkably - her 95th birthday!

Hers is indeed a remarkable career. She won an Oscar for Gentleman's Agreement (in which she played opposite Gregory Peck), and was nominated for both Come to the Stable (in which she starred with Loretta Young, Hugh Marlowe and Elsa Lanchester) and of course All About Eve (in which she more than held her own against the remarkable Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders and Thelma Ritter). She played opposite Frank Sinatra twice - in High Society and The Tender Trap.

Before her screen success, she was fêted as the original "Ado Annie" in the Broadway smash Oklahoma!, and, after All About Eve she had a long and successful US television career - including a memorably camp and villainous appearance in Falcon Crest.



Facts about Celeste Holm:

• Apparently Bette Davis said of her: "There was only one bitch in the cast of All About Eve - Celeste Holm." Ouch.
• At the age of 87, she married opera singer Frank Basile, 46 years her junior. Following their marriage, the couple have had a long and protracted legal battle with Miss Holm's sons over the control of her money (which was held in a trust).
• Miss Holm successfully sued Pedro Almodóvar for using film footage of her from All About Eve without her permission in his film All About My Mother; her contract from the film stipulated her image could not be used.
• She still (despite being diagnosed with Alzheimer's) makes occasional cameo performances on stage and screen (including a part in a 2012 movie called College Debts), and continues to act as a spokesperson for UNICEF.

Here is the redoubtable Miss Holm, starring as the Fairy Godmother opposite another house favourite here at Dolores Delargo Towers, Miss Lesley Ann Warren, in a 1965 American TV production of Cinderella. Just right for a Sunday...

Celeste Holm, Lesley Ann Warren - Cinderella - Impossible

But, of course, it is for this classic routine that she is perhaps most fondly remembered...

Celeste Holm & Frank Sinatra - Who Wants To Be a Millionaire? (High Society)

Who wants to be a Millionaire?

I DO!!!

Celeste Holm official website

It’s behind you!!

"A sparkling tale of magic, midnight and mischief: jam-packed with laughter, cross-dressing, singing, shoes, envy, dancing and cake."

We went to see Stephen Fry's Cinderella panto at the Old Vic last night, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed it! This is a fabulous spectacle of innuendo, smut, explosions, puppet mice, drag, and hunks. The humour is completely filthy, but we were in stitches...

Stephen has taken the traditional panto and cleverly interpreted it with his trademark cleverness, and I can guarantee most of the dirty jokes will have flown quite successfully over the heads of the children there (and probably many of the adults as well).



The cast were excellent - especially Sandi Toksvig's Narrator, Hal Fowler and Mark Lockyer as the Ugly Sisters (who looked remarkably like Paris Hiton and Nicole Ritchie), the gorgeous Joseph Milson as Prince Charming (look out for his shower scene), and Pauline Collins (doing her best "Nan" from Catherine Tate Show impression) as the Fairy Godmother. And Paul Keating as Buttons was a queeny joy!

[NB- We met Mr Keating in the Arts Theatre bar after his stunning and sexy performance in the Pet Shop Boys' Closer To Heaven in 2001. He is still as cute now as he was then...]

Although the show has not received many good reviews in the tabloids ("too gay", apparently!), ignore the critics and try and get to see it before it closes in January.

A fitting end to the year's theatre trips - I recommend it!

Cinderella - Old Vic Theatre website