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Olivia, Hef, and Betty
Mar. 30th, 2012 03:57 pmLove this bit from this Olivia interview about Betty Page:
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After their first meeting, Bettie Page immediately became a fan of Olivia’s work and was delighted to hang her portrait of ‘Crackers In Bed’ in her own boudoir. “Better than Vargas and Petty combined,” said Bettie in an interview. “Olivia, she makes me look so beautiful, her pictures outshine the rest.”
Years after their first meeting, Joel and Olivia escorted Bettie to the Playboy Mansion for a screening of The Notorious Bettie Page, Mary Harron’s unauthorised biopic. Joel explains that the legend was unhappy. “She said to me, ‘Notorious Bettie Page? That’s not good. Why am I notorious?’ She didn’t like the title and she really didn’t enjoy seeing some of the things they put on screen.”
“She kept yelling, ‘Lies! Lies! All lies!’” says Olivia. “It was like a public spanking being administered. I remember the people next to her getting up and shuffling chairs. She was just groaning and mumbling throughout the whole picture. And I don’t blame her. After the lights came up, she headed out, upset. She was about to beat to a pulp anyone that got in her way.”
Olivia watched as Joel took Bettie to her waiting limo. “She was wailing and I just didn’t have a clue what to say to her,” she recalls. “Then someone told Hef that she’d left crying and he came out and started whispering in her ear. In a perfect moment of Hefner behaviour, he knew exactly what to say to her. He calmed the situation, she started to smile and everything was fine.”
When Bettie passed away last year, Joel was one of the pallbearers at her funeral. The icon was suitably buried about 20ft from Marilyn Monroe. “It was sad to see the old girl go,” sighs Olivia. “But the last year or two of Bettie’s life were so miserable that I was happy for her. We never got to see her that much, but she’d phone about once a month. It was so cool to hear, ‘Hi, this is Bettie Page,’ on the end of the line.”
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More here: http://www.bizarremag.com/film-and-music/interviews/8824/olivia_de_berardinis.html
Olivia's website is here: http://www.eolivia.com/site/index.asp
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After their first meeting, Bettie Page immediately became a fan of Olivia’s work and was delighted to hang her portrait of ‘Crackers In Bed’ in her own boudoir. “Better than Vargas and Petty combined,” said Bettie in an interview. “Olivia, she makes me look so beautiful, her pictures outshine the rest.”
Years after their first meeting, Joel and Olivia escorted Bettie to the Playboy Mansion for a screening of The Notorious Bettie Page, Mary Harron’s unauthorised biopic. Joel explains that the legend was unhappy. “She said to me, ‘Notorious Bettie Page? That’s not good. Why am I notorious?’ She didn’t like the title and she really didn’t enjoy seeing some of the things they put on screen.”
“She kept yelling, ‘Lies! Lies! All lies!’” says Olivia. “It was like a public spanking being administered. I remember the people next to her getting up and shuffling chairs. She was just groaning and mumbling throughout the whole picture. And I don’t blame her. After the lights came up, she headed out, upset. She was about to beat to a pulp anyone that got in her way.”
Olivia watched as Joel took Bettie to her waiting limo. “She was wailing and I just didn’t have a clue what to say to her,” she recalls. “Then someone told Hef that she’d left crying and he came out and started whispering in her ear. In a perfect moment of Hefner behaviour, he knew exactly what to say to her. He calmed the situation, she started to smile and everything was fine.”
When Bettie passed away last year, Joel was one of the pallbearers at her funeral. The icon was suitably buried about 20ft from Marilyn Monroe. “It was sad to see the old girl go,” sighs Olivia. “But the last year or two of Bettie’s life were so miserable that I was happy for her. We never got to see her that much, but she’d phone about once a month. It was so cool to hear, ‘Hi, this is Bettie Page,’ on the end of the line.”
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More here: http://www.bizarremag.com/film-and-music/interviews/8824/olivia_de_berardinis.html
Olivia's website is here: http://www.eolivia.com/site/index.asp
