BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S WITH CENTENARY IRIS APFEL

Today, The Grandma has met Iris Apfel, the American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion icon, who is a Grandma's old friend. Together, they have had breakfast at Tiffany's remembering another old friend, Holly Golightly.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a 1961 American romantic comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, written by George Axelrod, adapted from Truman Capote's 1958 novella of the same name, and starring Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly, a naïve, eccentric café society girl who falls in love with a struggling writer. It was theatrically released by Paramount Pictures on October 5, 1961, to critical and commercial success.

Nominated for five Academy Awards (winning two), with the music (including Moon River) nominated for six Grammy Awards (winning five), the film was selected in 2012 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

More information: BBC

Iris Apfel (née Barrel; born August 29, 1921) is an American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion icon.

In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel led a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies.

In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear it. She has become a fashion icon, she signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97 and featured in a 2014 documentary called Iris by Albert Maysles.

Born Iris Barrel in Astoria, Queens, New York on August 29, 1921, Apfel is the only child of Samuel Barrel (1897-1967), whose family owned a glass and mirror business, and his Russian-born wife, Sadye Barrel (1898-1998), who owned a fashion boutique. Both were Jewish.

Although raised on a farm by her parents and grandparents, she often rode the subway in to explore Manhattan, where she fell in love with Greenwich Village. While still a child, she shopped its antique shops, starting her extraordinary collection of jewellery from around the world.

She studied art history at New York University and attended art school at the University of Wisconsin.

More information: Twitter-Iris Apfel

 As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands,
one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.

Audrey Hepburn

ROGER MOORE & 007: THE SPY WHO LOVED ME

Roger Moore playing The Saint

Sir Roger George Moore (October 1927 – 23 May 2017) was an English actor. He played the British secret agent James Bond in seven feature films between 1973 and 1985. He is also known for playing Simon Templar in the television series The Saint between 1962 and 1969.

Moore took over the role of Bond from Sean Connery in 1972, and made his first appearance as 007 in Live and Let Die (1973). The longest serving Bond to date, Moore portrayed the spy in six more films.

Worldwide fame arrived after Simon Templar in a new adaptation of The Saint, based on the novels by Leslie Charteris. Moore said in an interview in 1963, that he wanted to buy the rights to Leslie Charteris's character and the trademarks. 

It was only after Sean Connery had declared in 1966 that he would not play Bond any longer that Moore became aware that he might be a contender for the role. However, after George Lazenby was cast in 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service and Connery played Bond again in Diamonds Are Forever (1971), Moore did not consider the possibility until it seemed abundantly clear that Connery had in fact stepped down as Bond for good. At that point Moore was approached, and he accepted producer Albert Broccoli's offer in August 1972. In his autobiography Moore writes that he had to cut his hair and lose weight for the role. Although he resented having to make those changes, he was finally cast as James Bond in Live and Let Die (1973).

Roger Moore playing James Bond

After Live and Let Die, Moore continued to portray Bond in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974); The Spy Who Loved Me (1977); Moonraker (1979); For Your Eyes Only (1981); Octopussy (1983); and A View to a Kill (1985).

Moore was the oldest actor to have played Bond, he was 45 in Live and Let Die (1973), and 58 when he announced his retirement on 3 December 1985.

In 1976, he played the character of Sherlock Holmes in the film Sherlock Holmes in New York.

Moore's friend Audrey Hepburn had impressed him with her work for UNICEF, and consequently he became a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1991. He was the voice of Father Christmas or 'Santa' in the 2004 UNICEF cartoon The Fly Who Loved Me.

His family announced his death in Switzerland on 23 May 2017.

More information: Roger Moore

Over the next two years UNICEF will focus on improving access to and the quality of education to provide children who have dropped out of school or who work during school hours the opportunity 

to gain a formal education! 

Roger Moore

AUDREY HEPBURN: ELEGANCE & HUMANITY

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn (4 May 1929 – 20 January 1993) was an actress and humanitarian.

Recognised as a film and fashion icon, Hepburn was active during Hollywood's Golden Age. She was ranked by the American Film Institute as the third greatest female screen legend in Golden Age Hollywood and was inducted into the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame. Born in Ixelles, a district of Brussels, Hepburn spent her childhood between Belgium, England, and the Netherlands, including German-occupied Arnhem during the Second World War where she worked as a courier for the Dutch resistance and assisted with fundraising. In Amsterdam, she studied ballet with Sonia Gaskell before moving to London in 1948 to continue her ballet training with Marie Rambert and perform as a chorus girl in West End musical theatre productions. She spoke several languages, including English, French, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, and German.

Hepburn was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of UNICEF. Though she had done work for UNICEF in the 1950s, starting in 1954 with radio presentations, this was a much higher level of dedication. Her family said that the thoughts of dying, helpless children consumed her for the rest of her life. In 2002, at the United Nations Special Session on Children, UNICEF honoured Hepburn's legacy of humanitarian work by unveiling a statue, "The Spirit of Audrey", at UNICEF's New York headquarters. Her service for children is also recognised through the U.S. Fund for UNICEF's Audrey Hepburn Society.

More information: Audrey Hepburn's Children Fund Official Site

The most important thing is to enjoy your life
–to be happy- it’s all that matters.

Audrey Hepburn

MONTSE, AUDREY & HÉRCULE: BREAKFAST IN BELGIUM

Audrey Hepburn

Montse (aka The Second) is our farmer. 

She was born in Belgium as Audrey Hepburn and she wanted to be an actress and a UNICEF ambassadress as her but one day, in a scholar visit to the country lands she discovered her real passion: the animals and the agriculture. 

She’s vegetarian, of course, and belongs to an undefined number of Protective Animal Associations. She has three Maltese dogs which escort her everywhere. 

Moreover, she is a fanatic of Hércule Poirot, the Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie.

More information: UNICEF