Coco Chanel: A New Look at a Grand Life

Lifetime Chanel TV Biography airing on September 13, 2008. Okay! It's been on TV ... what's your response! See Poll below.

When TIME magazine published it's Top 100 Most Influential People of the 20^th Century, the ratio of men to women was overwhelming. So the women who were included on this illustrious list were definitely something special. One of those special women was Coco Chanel, who passed away in 1971, but whose aura continues to loom large over society, especially the society of women. As TIME reporter, Ingrid Sischy, wrote of Chanel, "She was shrewd, chic and on the cutting edge. The clothes she created changed the way women looked and how they looked at themselves." To sum up way too briefly, she got women out of corsets, and into slacks and other comfortable clothes, both of which changed how both men and women considered the power potential of "the weaker sex."

Ironic that the clothes Chanel deemed ‘comfortable' and efficient are now considered ultra-chic and full-out high style...comfort is always there, but today the Chanel name is also spelled C-H-I-C.

Beyond the clothes, TIME's Sischy reported that "probably the single element that most ensured Chanel's being remembered, even when it would have been easier to write her off, is not a piece of clothing but a form of liquid gold - Chanel No. 5, in its Art Deco bottle, which was launched in 1923. It was the first perfume to bear a designer's name."

Today the concept of a ‘named' perfume parades across perfume aisles in department stores and drugstores. From fashion personalities like Ralph Lauren to entertainers like Jessica Simpson, From international designers Dolce and Gabbana to A-list pop icon Jennifer Lopez...the scent's the thing...and they all owe their profits to the spunky, revolutionary Coco Chanel.

The Lifetime channel is behind a new mini-series about the famous Chanel. According to Variety, the premiere entertainment business publication. Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld has given his blessing to the miniseries; the famed design house is even working closely with the production to get fashion details and other elements of Chanel's life correct.

The production's director in Variety, as saying "We've worked hard with it, and turned it into something that is meaningful and worth making an event miniseries. There's no point in doing it if it won't educate people and entertain, but in an original way. It's a love story, it's a rags-to-riches story, it has some strong social statements about women and about how the world has changed."

And portraying in the Lifetime Channel mini-series is no less an icon than the actress Shirley MacLaine, this role comes after more than 50 years behind the movie camera!

Coincidentally, Chanel introduced Paris customers to her first quilted leather handbag with chain straps (now a timeless Chanel classic accessory) the same year MacLaine took on her first film role, 1955.

MacLaine also has a long line of Paris connections. Her films Irma La Duce and Can Can were both set in Paris. And her stage show at the Lido in the late 70s was a rare one for a performer from the USA. MacLaine in her mid-40s...check out the slim bod and the great kicks and the E N E R G Y ! (Note, the Youtube contributor notes that this 1979 footage is wobbly in places...but priceless!)

MacLaine has been an entertainer since she left her Virginia home at age 18 and headed to New York City to find work as a "gypsy," a chorus line singer/dancer. For the last 20 years, her career has focused on several movie roles as sassy-harsh-lovable-enigmatic mother (Terms of Endearment, Postcards From the Edge, Mrs. Winterbourne, Bewitched) to sassy-harsh-lovable-enigmatic non-mother roles (Steel Magnolias, Madame Sousatzka, Guarding Tess). She's now moved on to playing the sassy-harsh-lovable-enigmatic grandmother! (In Her Shoes, Rumor Has It). There's no way to miss that MacLaine is definitely an example of an actress who has continued to work steadily way past her 40^th birthday...an age many actresses have bemoaned for the lack of work available. Despite the stereo-typing here of "sassy-harsh-lovable-enigmatic" in dramatic roles, the bulk of MacLaine's earlier film roles were romantic comedies, several musicals and a solid drama now and then.

MacLaine was not long on Broadway before she was hired for her first movie (The Trouble With Harry) in 1955. MacLaine won a Golden Globe for that first role and received her first Academy Award nomination just three years later in the drama Some Came Running.

MacLaine's ‘star power' was confirmed with that Academy Award nomination, 40 years ago...and her ‘star' has shone brightly each decade with stunning achievements. Including winning the Academy Award for Terms of Endearment. A member of a valued "short list" of talents whose huge talents can be witnessed by all from the earliest days of their careers -- Goldie Hawn and Hawn's daughter Kate Hudson to name two; Diane Keaton, Cate Blanchett, Meryl Streep to name three more.

But for all her dramatic movie roles...her dancing skills astounded audiences time after time. Then came her singing abilities...not a perfect-pitch songstress like Julie Andrews, her singing voice conveyed the humor, heart, and grand style of her abilities. Luckily for us, long before music videos existed, there remains lots of film footage to help all of us remember this great actresses other roles as singer and dancer.

With a career stretching over five decades...how to pick a choice few videos? Hummmm, by focusing on some "Paris" scenes...Tres Bien!

Enjoy!

MacLaine has been making a few headlines lately for the paperback release of her latest book Saging While Aging. The book renews the media interest in MacLaine's careeer and spiritual beliefs, which usually veer far beyond the "typical" movie star's (Not counting scientologists like Tom Cruise and John Travolta, of course). The fact that "odd notions" by MacLaine, Cruise and Travolta have not seemed to hinder their respective careers is one of the best testaments to our culture's overwhelming adoration of talent.

For More on MacLaine's "mother" movie roles...click here!