Liz Taylor couture soars to $2.6 million at auction
NEW YORK (Reuters) One of actress Elizabeth Taylor’s Dior evening gowns sold for $362,500, boosting the total for the auction of her haute couture to $2.6 million at Christie’s.
The silver encrusted brocade gown from 1968, with matching bag, had been estimated at about $5,000, but a protracted bidding war among several determined would-be buyers drove the price to about 70 times that, including commission.
The Wednesday sale, the third in a weeks’ worth of auctions of Taylor’s storied jewels, clothes, memorabilia and other items, was not marked by the freewheeling frenzy that prevailed on Tuesday, when her finest jewelry took in $116 million.
But the $2.6 million was still about 10 times the pre-sale estimate, owing to the Taylor cachet and also driven by competitive online bidding from around the globe.
Christie’s said the sale set a record for a couture auction, although the evening’s top lot was actually an Andy Warhol lithograph of Taylor which fetched $662,500.
“The couture was an extremely successful auction,” said Andrea Fiuczynski, president of Christie’s Los Angeles, who served as auctioneer.
The results, she said, were a testament to Taylor’s iconic status, which she said is unmatched today.
“There isn’t any celebrity now who does everything she did,” Fiuczynski told Reuters, speaking to Taylor’s work as an actress, activist, humanitarian, savvy businesswoman and style icon.
Taylor died of congestive heart failure in March at age 79.
Two other offerings soared past $100,000 - a Chanel ball gown and cape with shoes and matching bag, which fetched $134,500; and a Versace beaded bolero jacket emblazoned with images of Taylor in her film roles,Cheap Ed hardy Shoes, which sold for $128,500.
A few pieces of jewelry included in the sale also commanded strong prices, notably a fish charm necklace estimated at $500 which sold for $30,000 and a pair of rock crystal and gold Gucci ear pendants, which went for $74,500 against an estimate of $1,500.
The Taylor auctions continue on Thursday with a memorabilia and fine arts sale. Online auctions of some 1,000 lower-priced items from Taylor’s estate are running concurrently.
(Reporting by Chris Michaud; editing by Mohammad Zargham)
NY grocery changes course on Alec Baldwin TV ads
ROCHESTER, N.Y. A New York-based supermarket chain has had a change of heart about grounding Alec Baldwin as a spokesman because of his antics aboard an American Airlines flight.
Wegmans Food Markets said Wednesday it will continue running television ads featuring Baldwin after being inundated with “hundreds and hundreds of tweets, emails, and phone calls” in support of the actor.
“We regret ending the Alec Baldwin holiday commercials one week earlier than planned in response to a couple of dozen complaints,” Wegmans said in a statement. “We have decided to run the commercials again, effective immediately. Clearly,Cheap Ed hardy t-shirts, many more people support Alec.”
Wegmans revealed Tuesday it had pulled the ads after drawing customer criticism about Baldwin’s behavior. He was removed from a New York-bound flight at Los Angeles International Airport on Dec. 6 for refusing to turn off his cellphone.
The commercials, which were filmed for the 2010 holiday season, were supposed to run again for three weeks last month but were pulled a week early after Baldwin’s airline dustup.
Baldwin was hired for the ads after he mentioned that his mother, who lives in the Syracuse area, is a loyal Wegmans customer.
“We appreciate Wegmans’ decision and the sentiment expressed in their statement,” Baldwin publicist Matthew Hiltzik said.
Wegmans, a family owned business founded in Rochester in 1916, is credited with helping pioneer “one-stop shopping.” It has 79 stores in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland and Massachusetts.
John Travolta Working With Lindsay Lohan Would Be Great p Cheap Ed hardy hoodies
From starlet to crowd princess?
Lindsay Lohan is currently in talks to play Victoria Gotti in a movie about Gambino family foreman John Gotti starring John Travolta as the late Don. And the Pulp Fiction star, 57, tells UsMagazine.com that he’d be thrilled to have the troubled actress, 24, play his daughter.
While blonde-again Lohan did pose afterward to Victoria (highlighting their alike traits) Cheap Ed hardy hoodies, she kept mother about playing the founder and star of Growing Up Gotti, immediately 48. But her mommy Dina Lohan said she would definitely "support" her little girl catching above the role.
"I’m actually darling friends with Victoria," said Dina, 48. "She brought Mark Fiore, the producer, apt me and said she wanted Lindsay to activity her and that she respects Lindsay for an actor. I love Victoria, so it’s obtain obtain!"
To research the character, Travolta has been spending time with Gotti Jr. and the two have base many in mutual.
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"I know however she would favor to do would be magnificent," Travolta said at a reception session for the flick in NYC Tuesday. Then he joked, "I understand premier hand, Lindsay happens to be a very big flare of mine from years antecedent while she was a little girl and liked [Grease's] Danny Zuko and [Welcome Back Kotter's] Vinny Barborino, so I all thought she was gorgeous and gifted and filled with a lot of depth!"
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"His dad lost a son, and I lost a son and we discussed namely in depth and how painful that is and how painful it was because his dad," said the performer, who’s 16-year-old son Jett died in 2009. "It was one surprising kind of evening. It was quintessential as this, and even now I hadn’t done the film, I’d love him anyways."
Likewise, John Gotti, who died in 2002 at the age of 61, would have evidently been amused with the casting of Travolta. Asked if his father had been a fan of the Saturday Night Fever star, Gotti’s son, John Gotti Jr. replied, "Absolutely, in the ’70s and ’80s, who wasn’t a John Travolta fan?"