Thursday, April 12, 2018

Cherie Burns's "Diving for Starfish"

Cherie Burns's books include the biography, Searching for Beauty—The Life of Millicent Rogers, the American Heiress Who Taught the World About Style, The Great Hurricane: 1938, and Stepmotherhood—How to Survive Without Feeling Frustrated, Left Out or Wicked.

Here she shares some ideas for casting an adaptation of her new book, Diving for Starfish: The Jeweler, the Actress, the Heiress, and One of the World's Most Alluring Pieces of Jewelry:
My vote is for Reese Witherspoon to play me in the adaptation of Diving for Starfish. I’m the character who goes on a quest to find three famous ruby and amethyst starfish brooches made in Paris in the 1930s. Only as I have been out talking about the book this past week have I thought of it as a film narrative. It's a lot like The Orchid Thief. The reader, or audience in this case, would come along with me on my search which takes me into all sorts of places behind the scenes in the jewelry world and into the homes of some of the rich and famous women who have owned them. Millicent Rogers and Claudette Colbert. Great cameos there for Gwyneth Paltrow and Catherine Zeta Jones! Tim Hiddleston would be the leading jeweler Lee Siegelson. Kirsten Scott Thomas could be a superb Jeanne Boivin, the haughty French joailliére whose salon, the House of Boivin, created the starfish. Bruce Greenwood would make a superb Ward Landrigan. Brad Pitt could excel as the hustling Texas dealer in the story. Murray Monschein…. Hmmmmm? How about Danny Devito? Is he still out there.? Alicia Vikander as Nathalie Hocq, the French mystery beauty who owns the Boivin archives and smoked cigars. Lesley Manville suits the role of classic discreet Parisienne lady “authenticator.” Let’s go against type and have Helen Mirren play the plain-faced designer Juliette Moutard. I will give more thought to who should play all those fascinating jewelers in New York and Paris.

This could be fun!
Visit Cherie Burns's website.

--Marshal Zeringue