Updated May 17, 2013, 12.09 p.m. GMT with Italian TV report on Thursday’s incident involving Gandy and Le Bon’s Jaguar XK 120


Tullio M. Puglia

Jaguar is participating in this year’s Mille Miglia from May 16 to 19, 2013, fielding a total of 24 cars, including six from Jaguar Heritage Racing.
   Its team includes Le Mans winner Andy Wallace and Alex Buncombe, and luminaries such as Olympian Sir Chris Hoy, Michael Quinn, three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis, actress Hannah Herzsprung, models David Gandy and Yasmin Le Bon, and Salvatore Ferragamo, the grandson of the famed designer, with whom he shares his name.
   The heritage models are three XK 120s and three C-types, while Jaguar will also field modern F-types, Lucire’s Car to Be Seen in for 2013.
   On the first day, Gandy and Le Bon, co-drivers of an XK 120, were pushed off the road by another competitor, but have begun again at the starting line on May 17. A brief Italian news report is embedded at the end of the article.
   Jaguar has previewed this year’s Mille Miglia with a short film, shown below, featuring Gandy, Le Bon, Buncombe, Murray Walker and, famously, Sir Stirling Moss and his 1952 co-driver Norman Dewis.
   Ferragamo is the Jaguar F-type’s Italian ambassador, a duty he also has with Relais & Châteaux worldwide. He was presented with an F-type 3·0 V6 S at the Castello di Gabbiano, in Mercatale Val di Pesa, near Firenze. His co-driver for the event is Michael Quinn, grandson of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons.
   Bentley, meanwhile, says it will field two 4½-litre Supercharged Blowers, dating from the 1930s.

Tullio M. Puglia

Above From Starfish’s heyday: the summer 2010–11 collection, Free Radical.

The companies behind Starfish have appointed liquidators, according to public notices placed in metropolitan newspapers today.
   Both Starfish Retail Ltd. and Starfish Wholesale Ltd. went into liquidation as of May 8, with creditors expected to make their claims with Price Waterhouse Coopers in Wellington, New Zealand by June 12.
   Starfish has had a long history in Wellington, and is one of the labels most closely identified with the city. Founded by sisters Laurie and Miriam Foon, initially selling out of the boot of their car, the company soon became known for its commitment to corporate social responsibility and the environment.
   Laurie Foon was Lucire’s first feature interviewee in 1997, at a time when Starfish was behind a movement to stop the city motorway bypass. It was one of many social causes that the company stood behind in its 20-year history.
   The companies that are in liquidation now were incorporated the year after, though the label itself started in 1993.
   Starfish also launched a more premium label, Laurie Foon, in the 2000s.
   Its fashion consistently ranked among this magazine’s picks for each season, and was a highlight of New Zealand Fashion Week for Lucire fashion editor Sopheak Seng.
   Alongside Untouched World, Starfish was highlighted in Summer Rayne Oakes’s international guide to eco-fashion, Style, Naturally.
   Throughout its history, Starfish remained passionate about the environment and stayed true to its ethos. On principle, it resisted offshore manufacturing when many of its rivals opted for cheap labour.
   Starfish’s liquidation follows the closure of long-time label Ashley Fogel and another highly regarded Wellington brand, Alexandra Owen.

Above A preview of some of the locations in Lamborghini’s 50th anniversary convoy.

Cars for a convoy commemorating the 50th anniversary of Lamborghini arrived at Milano today. The Grande Giro, with 350 models from the Italian supercar maker’s stable, will pass through Lombardia, Toscana, Lazio, Umbria and Emilia Romagna, stopping over in Forte dei Marmi, Grosseto, Roma, San Giustino Valdarno and Bologna. After Bologna, where the cars will be by Friday afternoon, they will make their way to Sant’Agata Bolognese, the home of Lamborghini.
   Organizers say that the convoy will be 4·5 km long, and features models ranging from the original 1963 350 GT to the current Gallardo and Aventador. Sixty-five per cent of the drivers are male, the youngest at 22, the oldest at 75.
   The cars meet at the parc fermé in Piazza Castello, Milano at 10 a.m. on May 7 and leave for Bobbio tomorrow.
   Lamborghini was founded by tractor maker Ferrucio Lamborghini, who believed he could out-do Ferrari. It was incorporated on October 30, 1963. The brand was put on the map with the 1966 Miura, a mid-engined vehicle that changed the way exclusive sports cars were configured. Up until then, they were commonly front-engined.
   To some, the Miura remains the most beautiful car ever made, and the credit for its styling, by the house of Bertone, remains the subject of debate today. Some say it was the work of Giorgetto Giugiaro, others Marcello Gandini.
   The Miura was succeeded by the Countach, a dramatic car with “beetle wing” doors and razor edges, styled by Gandini.
   Lamborghini had changed hands over the years, with Chrysler taking a controlling stake in the late 1980s. An investment group took over in 1994. It is currently a subsidiary of the Volkswagen group.

Lauro Atti, David Kaiser and Wolfango.it

Updated May 17, 2013 at 12.46 p.m. GMT with videos from Jennifer Keishin Armstrong

In the 36 years since The Mary Tyler Moore Show ended, we’ve had snippets of information here and there: TV specials celebrating various anniversaries, articles when the release of the disappointing Mary & Rhoda TV movie appeared, and retrospectives when Mary Tyler Moore herself was presented with a SAG award. But no one, till now, has put together a tome on how the show was created and its eight-year history.
   Jennifer Keishin Armstrong’s Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted and All the Brilliant Minds Who Made The Mary Tyler Moore Show a Classic is the best researched book on the topic. Newly released by Simon & Schuster, Armstrong has talked to the surviving members of the cast and crew, including writer Treva Silverman, and producers and creators Allan Burns and James L. Brooks, as well as Moore, Valerie Harper, Gavin MacLeod and others. She has exhaustively researched period articles and even feminist conferences. But don’t expect a laborious effort to get through the 300 pp.: anyone with even a passing interest in television sitcoms, television history in general, recent American history or the media’s role in the development of feminism will find Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted an absorbing and entertaining read, tracing the origins of the show in the 1960s to the years after its final episode, told chronologically.
   It’s hard to believe now just how revolutionary The Mary Tyler Moore Show was in 1970. It’s even harder to believe that it had a difficult gestation and plenty of doubt among network executives. CBS had expected it to flop after its 13-episode commitment, not take home multiple Emmys. Ed Asner could have walked away permanently after a bad audition. But it became a ratings’ winner, catching the smart, urban crowd, and the fictional Mary Richards became the first mainstream character to tell America that it was OK to be single, over 30, and independent.
   Jay Sandrich’s style of directing is mentioned—he believed that actors should play to each other, rather than on stage in the theatre, performing to the audience. That, the live audience, and the use of film helped lend The Mary Tyler Moore Show a different style. The use of Evan-Picone as a sole supplier of Moore’s wardrobe also helped with realism: Mary Richards might repeat an outfit during a season, which a real working woman would. Brooks and Burns, in their own commitment to reality, sought out female writers, who were extremely hard to come by in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to give the show an authentic voice. The networks themselves had remarkably few women, with the few female executives who had broken the glass ceiling needing to leave their high heels outside the washroom so that their male colleagues knew they were inside.
   Norman Lear’s remake of Till Death Do Us Part, called All in the Family, which proved more ground-breaking in pushing the envelope, is also mentioned more than just in passing. All of it is placed into the context of the social changes in the United States at the turn of the 1970s, making Armstrong’s book a particularly useful text, covering many bases.
   We read about male friends writing to CBS angrily when it was implied that she had stayed over at a boyfriend’s, or even about how ground-breaking one scene was when Mary’s visiting mother, talking to her father, says, ‘Don’t forget to take your pill,’ to which both father and daughter replied, ‘I won’t.’
   The team’s personal demons—Ted Knight had anxieties stemming from his slow rise to stardom, for instance, and the pressure put on Grant Tinker and Mary Tyler Moore’s marriage—are dealt with, and Armstrong successfully transplants the reader to the 1960s and 1970s as though the events were unfolding before us. The fact Mary Richards fought for equal pay but still accepted a lower rate did not endear the show fully to feminists, but The Mary Tyler Moore Show largely stayed true to not dealing with the issues of the day—rather, it would address them through character-driven plots, with one or two exceptions. On that note, it was quite unlike All in the Family, which would deal with racism or sexism head-on.
   Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted is better than any DVD commentary or documentary so far produced on the show. With over 300 pp., it is the definitive reference on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and to a lesser extent, its spin-offs. In terms of interest among American readers, we think it’s going to make it after all.

Armstrong has emailed Lucire with some of the events she has planned to promote her new book.
   ‘If you’re in New York, I especially encourage you to join us for MTM-related bar trivia to celebrate release week. There will be prizes—T-shirts, books, mugs, and free Entertainment Weekly subscriptions!’ she says.
   ‘So far I’ve got stuff planned for New York, DC, Chicago, Milwaukee, and LA, but I’ve still got more in the works, so if you’re somewhere else, please check my website for updates.’
   Right now, those events are (please check her website for corrections and updates):

• Thursday, May 9, 7 p.m.: Mary Tyler Moore Show trivia night for Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted release. At Pacific Standard, Brooklyn.
• Monday, May 13, 12 p.m.: Mary Tyler Moore Show discussion and reading from Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted. At 92nd Street Y Tribeca, 200 Hudson Street.
• Friday, May 17, 7 p.m.: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted reading and discussion at the Village Zendo, 588 Broadway (near Houston), Suite 1108.
• Monday, May 20, 12 p.m.: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted reading and signing at the National Archives, Washington D.C.
• Tuesday, June 4. 7 p.m.: The Mary Tyler Moore Show and the Modern Woman discussion at Boswell Book Co., Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
• Wednesday, June 5, 8 p.m.: Sexy Feminism and Chicago Doll party, Old Town Social, 455 W. North Ave., Chicago—join us for a fundraising raffle, cocktails, and fun.
• Thursday, June 6, 7 p.m.: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted Chicago launch party, Hemingway House and Museum, Oak Park.
• Friday, June 7: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted reading and talk at Book Cellar, Lincoln Square, Chicago.
• Sunday, July 7, 7 p.m.: How to Write a Non-fiction Book Proposal workshop with LA Writers’ Group.
• Tuesday, July 9, 7 p.m.: Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted panel discussion: What Has Changed for Female TV Writers Since the ’70s? With Mary Tyler Moore Show writer Treva Silverman. At Book Soup, Los Angeles.
• Thursday, July 11, 7 p.m.: A dialogue and how-to discussion about pop-culture writing with Gavin Edwards, co-author of VJ: the Unplugged Adventures of MTV’s First Wave. At Pop-Hop Bookshop, Los Angeles.

   Jennifer Armstrong’s website can be found at jenniferkarmstrong.com, and her Twitter account is jmkarmstrong. Mary and Lou and Rhoda and Ted can be pre-ordered via Amazon at this link in hardcover, and at this link for Kindle. Release is May 7, 2013.—Jack Yan, Publisher

Copyright © Chanel

Top Gabrielle Chanel, Seen by Karl Lagerfeld, original drawing by Karl Lagerfeld. Above An Imaginary Meeting Between Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld, original drawing by Karl Lagerfeld.

In our round-up of news from ‘The Scene’: as part of Chanel’s celebration of the jacket, the house has released a new video (below) featuring its history, with footage featuring Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel herself.
   Designer Karl Lagerfeld has also released 11 sketches to celebrate the jacket, including illustrations of Gabrielle Chanel and an imaginary encounter between himself and the founder of the house.
   The story picks up in the mid-1950s, when Chanel felt that the style of the time was too restrictive. The jacket was created for women who could wear it during the day with greater freedom and be stylish enough for the evening. The tweed jacket, which became a signature for Chanel, was also born. Style icons soon adopted the look: Brigitte Bardot, Grace Kelly and Romy Schneider sported theirs. Karl Lagerfeld’s arrival in the 1980s saw a revival of the jacket.
   Lagerfeld honoured the jacket with a book, The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited by Karl Lagerfeld and Carine Roitfeld, and a series of exhibitions. Milano will play host to the next exhibition opening April 4, with new works (featuring Keira Knightley, Diane Kruger, Carla Bruni and Carole Bouquet), before it moves on to Dubai.
   Meanwhile, last week’s Gucci Private Suite at Ellerslie during the Auckland Racing Club’s race week was the place to be for New Zealand’s largest city. William Yoon, Gucci’s Asia-Pacific president, and Helen Koo, the managing director for Australia and New Zealand, played hosts. Gucci—in line with its own equestrian heritage—sponsored one race, the Gucci Sprint, where a horse named Vogue won. Celebrities included occasional Lucire correspondent Amber Peebles (in Gucci) and her husband Brooke Howard-Smith, Rachel Hunter, Academy Award nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes and Jonathan Morrison, Boh Runga, Clifton Piper, Cameron Ireland, Sandy Nairn, and Michelle Blanchard.

Almost a year after the passing of Whitney Houston, Madame Tussauds has unveiled four wax figures of the late singer, in the presence of her family, in New York.
   Her sister-in-law and former manager Pat Houston did the unveiling.
   The four figures represent different points of Houston’s life, spanning three decades, from her 1988 music video for ‘I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)’, which earned her a Grammy award, in a tight purple–pink tank dress; her 1991 Super Bowl national anthem performance, considered a defining moment in her career; her lead role in The Bodyguard in 1992, wearing her Queen of the Night dress which Warner Bros. had lent to Madame Tussauds for the creation of the waxwork; and her photo shoot for her final studio album, I Look to You, in 2009, wearing a gold, sequinned floor-length gown.
   Each figure is going to a different Madame Tussauds museum in the US: Las Vegas, Washington, DC, Hollywood, and New York respectively.
   The figures were crafted in London over a four-month period and cost $1.2 million.
   Madame Tussauds says it is the first time in 200 years that it has simultaneously created so many versions of the same person representing different stages in their life.
   In the video below, Pat Houston describes some of the figures. Her favourite, she says, is The Bodyguard one.

In addition to haute couture and costumes, Jean Paul Gaultier has already designed a Coca-Cola bottle and recycling bags. And now he turns his attention to trains.
   Thalys, the ticketing organization run jointly by the French, Belgian, Dutch and German railways, teamed up with Gaultier for this latest venture.
   As an official partner of the exhibition, The Fashion World of Jean Paul Gaultier: from the Sidewalk to the Catwalk, held at Kunsthal in Rotterdam from February 10 to May 12, the designer was asked to lend his creative talent to a train bearing his trade mark colours and stripes. The exhibition has been organized by the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and the Kunsthal.
   Gaultier unveiled the train at Paris’s Gare du Nord on Wednesday, and took it to Rotterdam for the promotion.
   The exhibition features some 140 of Gaultier’s designs, including haute couture and stage and film costumes.
   He says, ‘The idea of giving a train a makeover, of dressing the Thalys train up in sailor stripes, was funny for me and it’s appropriate for Holland. Amsterdam, Rotterdam, the ports of Amsterdam, sailors, sailors stripes and everything else, I found it fitting. And what’s more, stripes symbolize speed.’
   Emily Ansenk, director of the Kunsthal, says, ‘We are absolutely delighted with the arrival of Mr Gaultier today, on the eve of the opening of our spectacular exhibition in the Kunsthal. It is a great honour to have him come to Rotterdam for his exhibition, with his own signature. We have lots of parties in Rotterdam worked out together to make this amazing project a success, for that I would like to thank everyone.’
   Thalys is also offering a discount for passengers should they wish to attend the exhibition, with an entry fee of €10 instead of €12·50, on presentation of proof of travel.
   Gaultier is staying in Rotterdam till Saturday, when he will open the exhibition officially, as well as a Jean Paul Gaultier boutique in the Bijenkorf.

Danjaq LLC/United Artists Corp.

Above Instead of Switzerland, it’s Scotland, and Daniel Craig pays homage to Sean Connery in a Skyfall publicity photo.

The 85th Academy Awards—the Oscars—will pay tribute to 50 years of the James Bond films, it was announced Friday.
   Show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron said in a statement that there will be a special sequence ‘saluting the Bond films on their 50th birthday.
   ‘Starting with Dr No back in 1962, the 007 movies have become the longest-running motion picture franchise in history and a beloved global phenomenon.’
   The six actors who have portrayed Bond in the official franchise—Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig—will feature in the sequence.
   The Oscars telecast will take place on February 24. Nominations will be announced on January 10 in Los Angeles.
   The latest entry in the Eon Productions franchise, Skyfall, has taken over US$1,000 million, with the film still yet to open in China.
   The film, directed by Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes, has overtaken 1965’s Thunderball as the highest-grossing Bond film adjusted for inflation.
   Since the “reboot” of the franchise in 2006 with Casino Royale, the Bond films have had more critical nods than their predecessors, which were generally acclaimed on their technical merit. In the mid-1960s, Goldfinger won an Oscar for sound effects, while Thunderball won for special visual effects.
   Daniel Craig had a BAFTA nomination for Casino Royale, the first Bond actor to achieve this, while Skyfall’s Javier Bardem received a best supporting actor nomination by the Screen Actors’ Guild.
   Skyfall is on the shortlist of the Producers’ Guild of America’s best film nominees, alongside Lincoln and Argo.
   The theme song, by Adele and Paul Epworth, could take home a best song Oscar.
   The British Academy Awards, the BAFTAs, paid tribute to 50 years of the Bond films last year, with Tom Jones singing the theme song from Thunderball.