Tag: Classic Women

Part of a showbiz family (see below), Lisa Gaye was lovely (and a devout Christian).  Certainly, the movie studios thought so, as she was signed to a four-year contract when she was only 17.  But judge for yourselves:

And not just a pretty — okay, gorgeous — face, either.

In Technicolor:

Never as well known as her sister (Debra Paget), you can certainly say hers was a handsome showbiz family.  Seen here with Debra and brother Frank :

Lovely formal clothing, not a tattoo in sight… how I miss those days.

She was named after Audrey Hepburn, and her parents must have had some extraordinary foreknowledge, because Audrey Tatou is probably the closest thing we have to the classy, gamine and always-elegant Hepburn.  Let’s start with her face:

…then zoom out a little:

…just a bit more:

…and into the tout ensemble:

I know, she’s slender to the point of skinny, quite unlike my usual preference.

But then again, Audrey Hepburn was just as skinny, and it’s to her that we’re comparing her namesake, and not to the pumped-up, pneumatically-enhanced and overblown actresses of the modern era.

Exquisite.  Absolutely wonderful.

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By the way, I happen to think that the Tatou Audrey is a far better actress than the Hepburn Audrey.  On her own (in Amélie) she was brilliant, and in The Da Vinci Code  she more than stood up to the towering talent that surrounded her:  Alfred Molina, Ian McKellern, the incomparable Jean Reno and of course, leading man Tom Hanks.

Not just a pretty face, she.

Let’s confine ourselves to just one horny royal today, this being France’s Louis XV, who was a very busy lad.

Madame de Pompadour

…who wasn’t just his mistress, but pretty much the equivalent of his chief of staff (yeah, that staff as well).

Marie-Anne de La Tournelle
…who joined each of her four sisters as mistress of Louis XV.  Ran through the family, he did.

Marie-Louise O’Murphy
One of the few of all the royal mistresses who gave us a peek at her whole body, thanks to having been a model for artist François Boucher.

Madame du Barry

Now this was an interesting one.  Not only did Madame du Barry go through the French court and nobility like a cleaver through a lamb — she must have had considerable bedroom skills — but she was also the longtime mistress of the grandson of Louis V, Louis XVI.

A multi-generational floozy!  Sadly, though, the French Revolution’s guillotine was the last thing she gave head to.

Americans wouldn’t know her, but former Seffrican hottie Glynis Barber has been a fixture on Brit TV shows for decades.  Here she is in the early years:

Then came the middle years:

…that last in her 50s (!)

And in more recent years:

She’s a year younger than I am, which makes her (as I write this) 68.

Not fair, really.

I’d never seen Shelley Fabares before the excellent Coach  TV show, but… phew.

Oh yeah, she did some earlier stuff, back in the 1960s:

Oh wait… did someone say “Elvis movies”?

But when all’s said and done, it’s the face…

Just… exquisite.