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Showing posts from August, 2008

A Conversation with Edith Head

Published Friday 1 August 2008 at 16:55 by Emma Barnett In one sense she is the "master of self promotion" and in another, she's "the woman who isn't there". It's this diversity of character aptly portrayed by Susan Claassen, that makes A Conversation with Edith Head such lovely watching. Head, arguably the greatest ever costume designer to the stars, has come to London in the shape of Claassen. In her time, this small, determined power-force, won eight Oscars, had a career spanning 58 years first at Paramount and then Universal, and dressed all the greats, from Mae West to Grace Kelly. She died at the age of 83 in 1981. It was supposedly after watching a TV biography of Head, Claassen knew she could play her and promptly with Paddy Calistro, co-author of Head's posthumous autobiography, joined forces to write this script And she was right. Set in 1981 while working on Steve Martin's Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, you are welcomed as an audience