Weddings And Movie Stars - Tapa dura

Bells Are Ringing
The wedding usually comes at the end of a movie comedy, fading to black with the implication of 'happily ever after.' For the performers, though, the ceremony is just the start of the story--usually a tragedy. 'Weddings and Movie Stars' (Reel Art Press, 288 pages, $79.95) is a glorious compendium of Hollywood happy days, mixing movie stills, posed photos and candids of the famous marrying. Thus the nice shot of Bette Davis (below left) marrying her sailor on leave, William Grant Sherry, in 1945 is followed by shots of her marrying Gary Merrill in 1950. They'd met on the set of 'All About Eve, ' which featured Marilyn Monroe making a lasting impression in a small part. An equally fleeting episode was Monroe's tabloid-fantasy marriage to Joe DiMaggio, which only lasted nine months, despite the press frenzy of their January 1954 (top) wedding. Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge (left), the sister-in-law of his boss, lasted 11 years, though his womanizing doomed the marriage. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (below right), are among the more successful pairs featured in the book. They wed in 1945 and remained together until his death in 1957. More typical is the tale of the Jaggers: Champagne flowed in 1971, when Mick married Bianca Perez-Mora Macias in St. Tropez (bottom). But they divorced nine years later. 'My marriage ended on my wedding day, ' she later said.
The Editors

June 25, 2011, The Wall Street Journal
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Bells Are Ringing

The wedding usually comes at the end of a movie comedy, fading to black with the implication of 'happily ever after.' For the performers, though, the ceremony is just the start of the story--usually a tragedy. 'Weddings and Movie Stars' (Reel Art Press, 288 pages, $79.95) is a glorious compendium of Hollywood happy days, mixing movie stills, posed photos and candids of the famous marrying. Thus the nice shot of Bette Davis (below left) marrying her sailor on leave, William Grant Sherry, in 1945 is followed by shots of her marrying Gary Merrill in 1950. They'd met on the set of 'All About Eve, ' which featured Marilyn Monroe making a lasting impression in a small part. An equally fleeting episode was Monroe's tabloid-fantasy marriage to Joe DiMaggio, which only lasted nine months, despite the press frenzy of their January 1954 (top) wedding. Buster Keaton and Natalie Talmadge (left), the sister-in-law of his boss, lasted 11 years, though his womanizing doomed the marriage. Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall (below right), are among the more successful pairs featured in the book. They wed in 1945 and remained together until his death in 1957. More typical is the tale of the Jaggers: Champagne flowed in 1971, when Mick married Bianca Perez-Mora Macias in St. Tropez (bottom). But they divorced nine years later. 'My marriage ended on my wedding day, ' she later said.

The Editors
June 25, 2011, The Wall Street Journal

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A movie lover's encyclopaedia of weddings, this beautiful book is exhaustively compiled and features many previously unreleased images. It is a tribute to the most iconic Hollywood stars from the 1920s onwards in ceremonies from the low key to the lavish. Whether your taste is for the explosive or the fairy tale, it will quench your thirst for impeccable glamour and salacious gossip. With weddings to rival epic studio productions, gowns by designers from Givenchy and Balmain, to Dior and Vivienne Westwood, this book offers an unprecedented opportunity to peek behind the scenes and witness many of the secret ceremonies that to this point have remained under wraps. Here are our greatest stars at their most candid: Elizabeth Taylor, Sinatra, Marilyn, Lennon, Madonna and Sarah Jessica Parker. Also featured are on-screen stills from classic movie weddings like The Graduate and The Philadelphia Story. This sumptuous tome succeeds in preserving our most beloved stars at their most vibrant, off-screen and in love and celebrates the wedding in motion pictures.