To those with memories of Hollywood’s Golden Age, watching Leslie Caron in An American in Paris (1951) opposite Gene Kelly was enough to turn anyone into Francophile. That oh-la-la Francophilia was reinforced when she played Gigi (1958), in which Maurice Chevalier thanks heaven for little girls.
Maurice, himself now in celluloid heaven, would be pleased to know that the praise he sung over 50 years ago is still so intimately attached to Leslie Caron that Thank Heaven is the title of her memoir, to be published on Nov. 30.
Thank Heaven (Viking) is a recollection of her life both professionally—among her many roles she has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Lili (1953) and The L-Shaped Room (1962), she once again appealed to our Francophilia in Chocolat (2000), and she made her mark on television in an episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit (2006), for which she won an Emmy Award—and personally—her love affairs, her three husbands, her divorces, motherhood, her alcoholism and depression, and finally her recovery. Living primarily in Paris, she continues to work as an actress as well as an innkeeper, since she owns Auberge La Lucarne aux Chouettes in Villeneuve-sur-Yonne, Burgundy.
Leslie Caron will be in the United States for the following schedule of events coinciding with the release of Thank Heaven:
December 1, New York City. Barnes & Noble, 1972 Broadway, 7:30pm.
December 2, Philadelphia. Central Library, noon. Leslie Caron will be interviewed by Philadelphia Inquirer film critic Carrie Rickey. Attendance is free. That evening she will be the guest of honor of a gala dinner and film tribute organized by the Alliance Francaise de Philadelphie. Click here for further information.
December 4, Pasadena. All Saints Church, 7pm.
December 5, Los Angeles. Borders Books & Music, 7pm.
December 8, Hollywood. Receiving star on “Hollywood Walk of Fame,” 11:30am.
December 8, Beverly Hills. Tagore Gallery, 5:30pm.
France Revisited thanks Daniele Thomas Easton, former Honorary Consul of France in Philadelphia and Wilmington, for tipping us off about this news.
saw here in an american in paris. she was quite as starry-eyed and apple-cheeked in the film. she simply has retained her beauty and vivacity into her sixties.