Shirley MacLaine is set to star as Coco Chanel in a Lifetime miniseries scheduled to air in 2008. The legendary actress will play the fashion icon in her later years, while Barbora Bobulova (In Love and War) will play the younger Chanel.
According to a Variety story, Enrico Medioli (Once Upon a Time in America) wrote the script, which follows the life of Chanel, from her humble beginnings in a Paris orphanage to her later years as she tried to reinvent herself after spending years in exile.
Director Christian Duguay (Human Trafficking) explains: “It's a love story, it's a rags-to-riches story, it has some strong social statements about women and about how the world has changed.”
He adds that the crew, including costume designer Stefano de Nardis (Gangs of New York) is working closely with Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld and the famed design house on the project.
Chanel, who died in 1971 at age 87, was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people of the 20th century. According to her IMDB.com listing, she learned to sew while attending a convent school. Her perfume, Chanel No. 5, was the first to include a blend of floras, rather than smelling like a single type of flower.
Chanel was portrayed by Katherine Hepburn in the 1970 Alan Lerner/Andre Previn Broadway Musical, Coco, although she declared Hepburn (who was 60 at the time) too old to play her.
Also, the sunscreen business can thank Chanel for her contributions to the industry. She popularized the sun-tanned look in the 1920s after appearing on her vacation yacht with a tan. Prior to that, porcelain white skin was the norm, because it was believed that only people of lower class worked in the sun.
No word on whether MacLaine and Chanel knew each other in a former life.
