Breakfast with the Understudy for One Day

(George Peppard & Audery Hepburn [matching trenches!])

I watched Breakfast at Tiffany's for the First Time today. Yes, I know I'm hugely behind. As I placed the DVD into the player, all I knew was that it featured Audery Hepburn wearing 'that' dress and the song 'Moon River'. And that it is based on a novella by Truman Capote.

It's a lovely, lovely film, and I can see why Hepburn's fashion moments are so praised (probably aided by Hubert de Givenchy [!]), there were numerous times when I mentally said 'I want that dress, that jumper, that coat' etc.

I loved the scene at the five and ten when Holly and Paul manage to steal masks. The cameo by John McGiver as the Tiffany's Salesman was lovely. George Peppard makes a dashing romantic lead, unsuprisingly falling for his new neighbour.

The only downside is Mickey Rooney's performances as the oriental landlord. God knows what he was doing/saying in the film.

I've also killed time reading both the above books. David Nicholls is the author of Starter for Ten, which was made into a film starring James MacAvoy.

The Understudy is a humorous novel following Stephen McQueen ('no relation') who is constantly cast as corpses and extras. He finds himself understudying one of the 'sexiest men in the world' Josh Hope in a play about Lord Byron and who becomes tangled up in the actor and his wife Nora's lives.

One Day is also hugely funny, but also much more moving-as it follows Dexter Mayhew and Emma Morley over 20 15th July's from their graduation in 1988. I loved the book, especially Emma, and loved and hated Dexter in equal parts. It is unsuprisingly being made into a film (unsuprisingly because it bounces at a pace that would make an awesome film) starring Anne Hathaway as Emma and Jim Sturgess as Dexter.

Now, I love me some Anne Hathaway and she can do a fine English accent as well, seen when she played Jane Austen in Becoming Jane. But Jim Sturgess? Really? Granted, I've only seen him as Natalie Portman's brother in The Other Boleyn Girl but...hmm. I'm suprised that former Nicholls star and Hathaway's co-star in Becoming Jane, James MacAvoy wasn't up there....buttt...Also, Hathaway's casting is interesting. She is beautiful. And yet Dexter has to have some thing about dating attractive, mostly younger, richer women. On reading the novel, I got an image of Emma not being ugly but not beeing as knock-out beautiful as Hathaway. But what do I know? It could work wonderfully!