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Post by paca on Aug 16, 2012 5:28:40 GMT -5
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Post by agentf on Aug 16, 2012 16:19:16 GMT -5
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Post by paca on Aug 19, 2012 8:35:19 GMT -5
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Post by countess on Aug 19, 2012 10:40:01 GMT -5
Monte Carlo, a dream: the azure sky, the azure sea. Sunday, the 12th September 1982. I was there for two days as a reporter for "Colorful" followed the footsteps of the rich and famous.
I had spent the afternoon at the "Monte Carlo Beach Club" as a guest of Anja Lopez, the widow of a South American sugar baron. At four had departed Madame Lopez of me and had got into full gear, including ruby necklace into the sea to swim their orbits.
Shortly before seven, we met again, she had invited me to dinner at the hotel of their friend Max Grundig, the "Vista Palace" high above Monaco.
While driving from a good five minutes in her champagne-colored Rolls-Royce Convertible said Madame Lopez: "This is the turning for Roc Agel, the country seat of Monaco's royal family."
Enlarge 13th September 1982. Grace and her daughter Stéphanie Rover 3500 plunged her into a hairpin bend of the D 37 about 40 meters into a ravine. That evening Grace was declared brain dead, the devices were switched off
Photo: dpa Picture-Alliance Later we drank champagne, ate sole and spoke also about Princess Grace, who was a young woman came 26 years ago in Monte Carlo to give up her old life as a Hollywood star Grace Kelly and take her new life as Princess of Monaco.
Madame Lopez she had met only weeks ago, the last time at the Monaco Red Cross Ball. She found that her Highness not looked happy.
In Thilo Wydras new biography "Grace" describes the Austrian director Robert Dornhelm, a close confidante of the princess, whose state of health on that same weekend: "Grace," said Dornhelm was, "since returning from the common voyage of the royal couple with Caroline and Albert not happy also been ailing. "
He continued: "There was a lot to eat, and she has not felt comfortable. It has since grown and get a sinus infection. At our last meeting, she was very depressed, very depressed. I tried to cheer her up. "
After dinner with Madame Lopez returned to the hotel, I opened the window of my room overlooking the golden lit Casino, the Opera and the elegantly dressed people.
Monte Carlo - the life of a party, If I wanted to call my report. I lay down on my bed, still a little read in Graham Greene's "Nothing Too in Monte Carlo," in which the English author described the glamorous life in Monte Carlo from the fifties.
What happened that night on the estate Roc Agel, Thilo Wydra explains, "Just in this family weekend at Roc Agel Stéphanie has opened her stunned parents that they are not the sought after (fashion) training was going to run, but rather with her boyfriend Paul Belmondo wanted to attend a racing school. Racer to be that this is now their goal. Grace and Rainier can hardly believe it, especially since Grace has always had a strong aversion to driving. Grace and Stephanie have had at the end dispute - this part I have seen, "recalls Robert Dornhelm.
Monday morning, the 13th September, again such a beautiful day. By ten, I strolled down to the harbor, made me in café au lait and croissant notes for my next interview: Anneliese Abarth, the Austrian entrepreneur, Victor Pastor, the gray eminence in the princely state, Mariana, the estranged wife of Bjorn Borg.
Against one I was back at the "Hotel de Paris". The concierge, who I held out my room key, asked me: Have you heard? What? Princess Stéphanie and have been in a car accident. When? This morning. Where? On the way back from Roc Agel. Something serious? No!
From my room, I called at the office in Offenburg. Back then there were no cell phones or laptops that you could get fast information on the Internet. Around this time, two and a half hours after the accident, nothing had gone on the news ticker. I ran to the press office of the palace, asked Nadja LaCoste, the spokeswoman for the prince and got the information that Madame LaCoste was still on vacation.
But it gave me a message in the hand, the read is harmless. There was talk of a broken leg and slight external injuries. The entrance to the Centre Hospitalier Princesse Grace, where the Princess Stéphanie and were hospitalized, were a few policemen who politely asked me to move on. Back at the hotel I met a colleague from the local newspaper "Nice Matin", and he knew no more than a broken leg.
The truth was different.
Excerpt from "Grace": "In the hospital, Grace Kelly is examined by Dr. Charles Louis Chatelin, chief of surgery, and finally a first four-hour emergency surgery undergone: Your bruised chest is opened as well as her abdomen.
Internal bleeding must be stopped. The bleeding in the head appear to be very strong, the brain damage sustained and heavy, it had a CT scan of her head urgently be made to classify the extent of the damage can be. "
Because, as Thilo Wydra writes in the hospital was no CT scanners, the princess was transported to a private doctor.
Is "The practice in the 2nd Stock. First they tried to lift the unconscious Grace boot for Docteur. In the narrow elevator they would - strapped to the gurney - was erected almost vertically. After that you get them, still. On the stretcher, dragged up the stairs and tried to keep the stretcher as horizontal as possible "
In the afternoon I visited Victor Pastor, the builder king of Monaco. During our conversation, a call was put through. He asked me to leave his office. After ten minutes, his secretary informed me that Mr. Pastor had unfortunately no time.
When I met him years later, he told me that there had been a call from the palace, informing him was that the Princess was seriously injured.
I phoned from my contacts Monaco, Christine Esswein, the close friend of the princess, a Bauunternehmerin from Karlsruhe, Vanis, the director of "Hotel de Paris", Henri Francois-Poncet, the Germany head of Moët Chandon.
All shook soothingly. I spent the evening in my hotel room, as there was no news until around midnight, I lay down to sleep.
At night, the drama took to the last hours of the princess its inexorable course.
"It is about 6 clock in the morning. Grace was now almost clinically dead, the brain damage that are seen on the scanner images are too strong and extensive, also partially inoperable: submits that this is a brain hemorrhage, bruising of the anterior brain lobe and bleeding in the back of the right brain. Even if she woke up unexpectedly from a coma, a high probability would have been that she would no longer have their mental powers. There would be "no more prospect, is in Wydras biography.
"After son Albert and daughter Caroline said goodbye to her mother, Rainier remains behind alone with his wife. At noon Rainier finally granted the doctors permission to turn off the devices that were previously his wife alive. It's a tough decision in a lonely hour. "
Nothing of all this had spread to the outside. Because I could not always wait for my hotel room on a call, I pleaded with the receptionist to inform me immediately if she learned something new.
At half past eleven at night I stood at the railing of my balcony as the lights went out to the casino. At the same time, the phone rang. Tearfully whispered the attendant: Elle est mort - she's dead
Enlarge 15th September 1982. Grace laid out in an open coffin in the chapel of the Prince's Palace, a day after her death. Prince Rainier ordered eight days of national mourning
Photo: AP The phone rang a second time, the news team from Offenburg. Tomorrow I'm gain, a team of reporters and photographers on his way.
In the hall, burned candles. A waiter carrying a tray full of champagne glasses around the hall. An elderly gentleman had ordered champagne and asked that we toast to the queen, the young princess, who has survived and on the health of the prince.
Later told me her friend Christine Esswein that the duchess had taken refuge in the last years of her life ever deeper in their faith and in an intense spirituality.
In "Grace" Thilo Wydra quoted from an interview in which she talked about growing old: "For a woman it is a torture, the end. I think it's pathetic, forty to be. . . I'm a wreck. I can not bear it. "
Twelve years later, on 14 September 1982 at 22.35 clock has Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, left their lives.
She was 52 years old
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Post by agentf on Aug 19, 2012 11:55:36 GMT -5
I wish I understood a word of this. From what I gather, it doesn't really offer new insight. Not to be callous, but I also wanted to be a race car driver. My mother refused. We had a great female Formula Atlantic driver in the 70s when I grew up. I think every girl wanted to be her. The only question I have is why would Victor Pastor be contacted about the state of her health? Updated: Weird, Monique Proulx, the FA driver has died. Her son died before her, of AIDS: www.auto123.com/fr/course-automobile/deces-de-monique-proulx?artid=146607
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Post by paca on Aug 19, 2012 12:33:53 GMT -5
well, the one thing that has not been related before that Grace had been rather unhappy before her death. SHe is said to have gained weight during the cruise for the holidays and felt sickly.
As to Pastor, I don't know if he was in some way involved in any government related work. The pastors are one of the most prominent families in MC though, nothing happens without them knowing about it. Besides when people die, most people have a list of those who need to be informed personally, so I gather that they are on that list, after family.
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Post by agentf on Aug 19, 2012 19:13:54 GMT -5
Oh come one, let's go full conspiratorial and say Pastor had something to do with it. I think Grace doesn't rest easy in the afterlife. I'd love a good medium's opinion. I also personally resent how she's bandied about as the bandaid to Monaco's woes. She deserves better. I'd get British psychic David Wells over there to clarify matters and intuit just what went on, even if only to divulge it to the family members. She's one big question mark to me. Some have said she was vocal about the illegal gold trade in the ports where Joe Kennedy was meddling. They're not loathe to throw a good woman over the edge. I don't think it was accidental and I don't think Stephanie upset her to the point of a heart attack. She loved her wild child, I'm sure she knew how to handle her by then. No, this will smell until a clear answer comes out. Sadly, Monaco loves murkiness judging how they won't even let scrutiny into an advisor's grandchild's drowning. Bad moral hygiene.
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Post by paca on Aug 20, 2012 4:45:50 GMT -5
Oh I don't think she was upset by STeph and that what cause her stroke. I do think though that she apparently wasn't well together before the accident healthwise, so if she had had a checkup, they might have detected sth before hand. Also I find it odd that already at 40 she complained that she was a wreck and that age was not good for a woman. I don't know about any of you, but at 40 I still felt as good as I did 10 years beforehand. I certainly didn't feel old then nor do I feel old now that I am past 40. It took my mom to approach 70 to realize that she was no longer 40 and that it was time to slow down, at least whilst your body was fighting a cold. So I wonder if maybe she had been in bad health for a longer period already. I admit that my granny seemed old to me when she was in her mid fifties, but the woman had lived through 2 wars and periods of hunger. Grace never had to hunger and she most likely had good quality food for most of her life. I did hear about her having a drinking problem, which in MC is pretty common, so most people wouldn't have noticed. So that might have caused her to feel older then her age. Psychologically she was probably not prepared for aging either. So I guess from her point of view it was maybe kind of fate to have her die early. Can you imagine what she might have done to herself to stop aging? ? btw some news on the film. Apparently Tim Roth has been cast to play Rainier...I like Tim ROth, but surely he does have nothing of Rainier. Not in the slightest. btw the filming starts briefly after the 30s anniversary of her death... www.monacomatin.mc/monaco/grace-of-monaco-tournage-des-septembre.966420.html
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Post by agentf on Aug 20, 2012 5:35:34 GMT -5
Paz Vega as Maria Callas??? Someone hates Maria Callas
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Post by paca on Aug 20, 2012 5:50:40 GMT -5
LOL what do you expect? they hired Kidman to play Grace and Roth for Rainier. With all due respect to the director, who really is capable of delivering great films, but this cast with people knowing what the real person looked like would have to be incredibly good, to make you forget that they are not baring any resemblance. The same goes about the Diana movie. I am sure they could have made a lesser known actress look more like her and pull it off better then what they got. Naomi isn't a good enough actress to make you forget that she bare resemblance. Meryl is. But how many Meryls are out there?
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Post by agentf on Aug 20, 2012 9:41:44 GMT -5
I love Tim Roth. He was great in Rob Roy, better than Liam Neeson. I'm not paying to see that movie or the Diana movie one way or another. I tried downloading Palais Royal! with Valerie Lemercier this weekend but got too busy. It's supposed to be a good spoof on all the stuff we royal watchers get duped with, and it has that Lambert guy who's very easy on the eyes (and Catherine Deneuve etc... it's from 2005, not new). Anyways, that's the kind of movie about royals I'd watch ;D PS: Even Diana's lover didn't want to work on the Naomi Watts movie: www.monstersandcritics.com/people/royalwatch/news/article_1702203.php/Princess-Diana-s-former-lover-rejects-movie-role
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Post by paca on Aug 20, 2012 10:13:45 GMT -5
Yes, Tim roth is good, but he certainly isn't a Rainier. Not a young one either. I think a young de Niro might have pulled that off, but Roth really lacks the mediterranean vibe. I like Dujardin, and he certainly would have that mediterranean thing about him and he has the kind of charme that would make it credible a Rainier getting Grace. I don't think he would be able to capture the cunning part about Rainier though. And no I won't pay to watch either. They eventually end up on TV anyways. I think that the Queen was just the limit, but I didn't pay to see that either. IMO it's like with the Grace exhibit. It is way to recent to be history and thus turns the visitor into a gawker and voyeur. I think a greater distance allows for a better artistic exploitation if there is a story to tell. I really don't see the significance in the bit they picked about Grace. It's voyeurism and not sth that really has relevance to a lot of people. Not even to trashy...
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Post by agentf on Aug 20, 2012 17:38:23 GMT -5
Isn't the movie about the threat of annexation by France in the 60s or something? Newsflash: nobody buys a gorgeous woman as political heroine. They like them nasty like Condoleeza Rice, Madeleine Albright even Margaret Thatcher or nowadays Angela Merkel. They don't want no glossy queen. This is either the desperate brainchild of someone who wants to absolutely hang everything on her legacy. Someone who's trying to stoke nationalistic sentiment within Monaco. I think Monaco had enough pills to swallow in the last 60 years. Let's not overlook that Grace was probably an unwitting instrument of the Cold War political agenda of the Americanization by way of the Marshallization of France abetted by Hollywood studios. Monaco fell for her regardless because her core Christian values as mother and wife but they know she's gone and they're not as gullible as an average American...
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Post by agentf on Aug 25, 2012 6:34:58 GMT -5
www.theedgemalaysia.com/features/217999-bejewelled-celebration.htmlThis is interesting, about Mont Blanc's hommage to Grace. It talks about the first meeting where Mont Blanc pitched Albert and they both liked the gorgeous pic of Grace taken for the movie that I like most, The Swan. Clearly, they're making off better with her jewelry line than the one dedicated to CC.
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Post by paca on Aug 28, 2012 5:54:39 GMT -5
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Post by MadameConcorde on Sept 11, 2012 14:51:10 GMT -5
''Grace Kelly face a son destin'' : le documentaire inedit, 30 ans apres sa disparitionA l'occasion des 30 ans de la disparition de Grace Kelly, France 2 diffuse ce soir à 22h45 le documentaire inédit "Grace Kelly face à son destin" et fait ainsi revivre l'icône blonde, idole de toute une génération. Réalisé par Patrick Jeudy, ce documentaire retrace la vie de l'actrice devenue princesse de Monaco, à l'aide des témoignages de ses proches, notamment de Jinx, journaliste et amie de longue date de Grace Kelly. On apprend enfin pourquoi Rainier s'est empressé de demander la main de Grace seulement six mois après l'avoir rencontrée. L'interview apporte ainsi des éléments de réponses à la question que le monde entier s'est posé à l'époque : "Pourquoi Grace Kelly, étoile d'Hollywood au sommet de son art, quitte-t-elle tout pour aller vivre une vie régie par des codes de bienséance sur la Côte d'Azur ?" read more: fr.news.yahoo.com/grace-kelly-face-destin-documentaire-inedit-30-ans-193000678.htmlRIP Princess Grace
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Post by emmeline on Sept 12, 2012 9:36:13 GMT -5
And they are still using Grace's image. I couldn't have expected less, specially now that's been 30 years she's gone.
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Post by paca on Sept 15, 2012 4:32:15 GMT -5
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Post by emmeline on Sept 15, 2012 9:49:09 GMT -5
I think it's a little distasteful too. I was expecting a mass, maybe a public speech, but "celebrating" her glamour the date she passed away...
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Post by paca on Sept 15, 2012 10:10:03 GMT -5
exactly. IMO a mass or some solemn commemoration would be in order. I don't mind the screening of her movies, but a gala dinner with a tombola the day of her death is misplaced. I am not surprised that none of the family attended. But seeing they had some personal items of Grace and some promotion for the trashlenes, it was apparently approved. IMO they could have had a celebration of her life maybe at her birthday date sort of the Irish way, but this has an haut gout... besides she was only partly of Irish decent and it doesn't seem to have been that much of her culture to be doing sth of an Irish wake style thing...
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