Film "W.E." de Madonna: Communiqué Officiel de Presse.

"W.E" Press Release
Directed by Madonna
Written by Madonna and Alek Keshishian
Date Fall 2011
Genre Drama, Romance
Studio Semtex
Web site http://www.imglobalfilm.com/
ABBIE CORNISH, ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, JAMES D'ARCY OSCAR ISAAC, RICHARD COYLE, JAMES FOX AND LAURENCE FOX JOIN "W.E"
Madonna's Directorial Feature Debut to start Principal Photography on 5th July
Based on an original screenplay, "W.E", a film written by Madonna and Alek Keshishian is set to begin shooting this summer in Europe (UK and France) and the US.

A two-tiered romantic drama focusing on the affair between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard.
With Abbie Cornish, Oscar Isaac, Andrea Riseborough and James D´arcy

"W.E" tells two parallel love stories separated by more than six decades. Acclaimed actress Abbie Cornish (Sucker Punch, Bright Star, Elizabeth: The Golden Age) has been cast in the role of Wally Winthrop, a young married New Yorker in 1998 who is obsessed with what she perceives as the ultimate romantic love story, King Edward VIII's abdication for his love of Wallis Simpson. Andrea Riseborough has been cast in the role of Wallis Simpson. Riseborough is best known for her outstanding Bafta Nominated performance of Margaret Thatcher in the acclaimed BBC drama "The Long Walk to Finchley" and will soon be seen in Brighton Rock. British star James D'Arcy (Master and Commander, Secret Diary of a Call Girl) will play the part of Edward VIII. Wally Winthrop's Russian love interest Evgeni will be played by rising star Oscar Isaac (Robin Hood, Sucker Punch) and her husband William will be played by Richard Coyle (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time). Art imitates life as the revered British acting dynasty provides father and son, James Fox (Sherlock Holmes, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Bafta nominated A Passage to India, Bafta winner The Servant) and Laurence Fox (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Becoming Jane) in the roles of King George V and his son, Bertie.

1936 England - Wallis Simpson, an American woman, captured the heart of King Edward VIII. Already divorced and married to her second husband when she met Edward, then the Prince of Wales in London, the two fell in love. However, once crowned, Edward was told by the Church and the Prime Minister that he could not marry Wallis and remain King... He abdicated, giving up the throne to be with the woman he loved. Once married and known as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, they lived out what many considered to be the romance of the century.

1998 N.Y - Wally Winthrop has a troubled past and moves to New York from the South to work in Sotheby's Estate department. She gives up her job to marry a successful psychiatrist but the marriage is unhappy and Wally finds herself bored, frustrated and often alone. She seeks refuge in her obsession with what she believes to be the ultimate romantic love story, King Edward VIII 's abdication for his love of Wallis Simpson. When Wally discovers that there is going to be an auction of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor's Estate at Sotheby's, she takes the opportunity to return to her old hunting ground to try to understand the nature of the great love affair through the artifacts that once belonged to the couple. While at Sotheby's, Wally meets Evgeni, a Russian security guard, with a mysterious past. As she immerses herself deeper into the love story of Wallis and Edward, while spending more time away from her marriage, she finds herself falling in love.

We travel back and forth in time with Wally and Wallis, two fragile but determined women whose lives become inextricably linked. However, as the story unravels it becomes apparent that Wallis Simpson's life was not as perfect as Wally had thought.

The film will be produced by Kris Thykier (producer The Debt, Kick-Ass, Harry Brown, Stardust) with Executive Producer Scott Franklin (producer Black Swan, The Wrestler, Hounddog). The production team include Production Designer Martin Childs (Oscar Winner Shakespeare in Love, Oscar Nominated Quills, The Boy in Striped Pyjamas), Director of Photography, Hagen Bogdanski (The Lives of Others, The Young Victoria), Costume Designer, Arianne Phillips (Oscar Nominated Walk the Line, Bafta Nominated A Single Man) and Hair and Make Up Designer - Jenny Shircore (Oscar Winner Elizabeth, Bafta Winner and Oscar Nominated The Young Victoria)

Officiel: Le film "W.E." de Madonna va faire sa première au Festival du Film de Venise.

From Arianne Phillips (ariannephillips) sur Twitter:

@ariannephillips Arianne Phillips
Madonna's directorial debut w/the film W.E will premiere@theVenice Film festival it's official I am so excited for everyone 2C the costumes.

Projections privées de "W.E." de Madonna au Festival du Film de Cannes.

Madonna pulls directorial out of Cannes as it is incomplete
PTI – Sun, May 15, 2011

London, May 15 (PTI) - Plans to screen Madonna's eagerly awaited directorial ''W.E.'' at the Cannes film fest have been stalled as the project is not ready yet.
The pop superstar, 52, had hoped to premiere the movie, about King Edward VIII and American divorcee Wallis Simpson, at Cannes but she is still making finishing touches to the soundtrack, reported Daily Mail.
There are three weeks more of post production to complete before the film is ready to be screened to an international audience.
"It was hoped that Madonna would be the star of this year's Cannes," said a source at the festival.
"But the film isn't ready. While the movie's distributors will attend the festival, they will preview select cuts to buyers at private screenings instead of showing the entire feature."
The movie is the Material Girl's first big-budget directorial role. She has secured backing from Indian billionaire Anil Ambani's IM Global film financiers.
Newcastle-born actress Andrea Riseborough stars as Wallis Simpson and James D'Arcy as Edward.
Bafta winner James Fox plays King George V, Natalie Dormer is the young Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon while Laurence Fox plays Bertie, Edward's younger brother and the future King George VI.
Madonna's 14-year-old daughter Lourdes has a cameo role.

Source: PTI.

La danseuse de Madonna, Sofia Boutella, signe pour 'Streetdance 2 3D'.

Madonna dancer Sofia Boutella and actor Falk Hentschel Sign for 'Streetdance 2 3D' (Cannes)
10:41 AM 5/13/2011 by Stuart Kemp

Directed by Max and Dania from a script by Jane English, "Streetdance 2 3D" also features the return of the first film's dancing sensation George Sampson.

CANNES -- Madonna dancer Sofia Boutella and actor Falk Hentschel are dancing onto movie screens after signing for Streetdance 2 3D, the sequel to the U.K. box office dance smash.
Having danced on two of Madonna’s world tours (Confessions and Sticky & Sweet), Boutella was most recently seen as the lead in Michael Jackson’s posthumous video release Hollywood Tonight. Falk was last seen on the big screen in the Tom Cruise action thriller Knight & Day.
Directed by the returning team Max and Dania from a script by the first outing's scribe Jane English, Streetdance 2 3D also features the return of the first film's dancing sensation George Sampson.
The follow-up sees top street dancer Ash (Hentschel) humiliated and laughed off stage by American crew Invincible before he sets off to gather the best dancers from around the world to take them on - with a dance style they weren't expecting.
Shooting from the beginning of June, Vertigo says it will shot on location throughout Europe including London, Paris, Rome and Berlin and plans to release it in Spring 2012. Protagonist Films is handling international sales here in the Marche du Film.
The film is co-funded by the British Film Institute and BBC Films and is a co-production with Eagle Pictures in Italy and Film Eins in Germany.
Vertigo is also prepping a big action follow-up to the micro-budget hit Monsters that launched writer/director Gareth Edwards into the Hollywood limelight. Edwards, who is prepping Godzilla for Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros., will exec produce Monsters 2.
Award winning promo duo Brent Bonacorso and Jesse Atlas will direct the picture, which is budgeted at around $5 million, five times more than the original's budget, made for less than $1 million.
Monsters actor Scoot McNairy and Vertigo’s Rupert Preston will also exec produce and Vertigo producers Allan Niblo and James Richardson have also brought in Ben Pugh and Rory Aitken from Between the Eyes as producers.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter.

"Dick Tracy" de Madonna va ouvrir le Festival du Film Hero Complex 2011.

Official Press Release - Communiqué Officiel de Presse

Press Releases
Warren Beatty, Nicholas Meyer, Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci, Damon Lindelof, Richard Donner & Jon Favreau Don Their Capes for The Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex Film Festival
Geoff Johns to Make Special Appearance and Select Footage From Disney-Pixar's Upcoming "Cars 2" To Be Screened at June 9-12th Event
May 4, 2011

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Times' Hero Complex Film Festival blasts into its second super-heroic year over four days at the Chinese 6 Theatre in Hollywood beginning June 9th. Eight iconic fan favorites will return to the big screen with rare live Q&A sessions with their filmmakers -- and a surprise or two -- hosted by pop culture writer Geoff Boucher.
The festival opens with Warren Beatty and his acclaimed take on the famed 1930's gumshoe, "Dick Tracy." Next up, the history and future of one of science fiction's most beloved franchises will be showcased with the unique pairing of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and director Nicholas Meyer followed by 2009's "Star Trek" and creative team members Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci and Damon Lindelof discussing the reboot and its upcoming sequel. Richard Donner will then provide behind-the-scenes perspective on the legendary shooting of "Superman" and "Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut" with a special appearance by DC Entertainment Chief Creative Officer and famed comic book writer Geoff Johns. Finally, Jon Favreau will talk about bringing "Iron Man" and "Iron Man 2" to theatrical life.
The festival will also feature a free weekend matinee of "The Incredibles," after which select footage from this summer's action-packed comedy "Cars 2" will be shown and attendees will get to chat with supervising animator Dave Mullins about the making of the film.
Tickets are available starting today. A limited number of multi-day festival passes are being offered and include a print of the exclusive 2011 Hero Complex Film Festival poster designed by superstar comic book artist and writer Mike Mignola. Tickets can also be bought for individual days and the complete festival schedule is posted at latimes.com/herocomplexfilmfest.
The Los Angeles Times' award-winning Hero Complex debuted in 2008 as the first site by a major mainstream news outlet dedicated to genre-based film, TV and publishing projects. Hero Complex has gone on to become a wildly popular must-read for all things "geek" and hosts numerous events throughout the year, including a new, soon-to-be-announced Screening Series of upcoming releases, a dedicated area for comic and graphic novels at the annual Los Angeles Times Festival of Books and an influential presence at Comic-Con.
The Hero Complex Film Festival is being presented in association with USA Network, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and TNT's "Falling Skies," a 2-hour series premiere event June 19th, 9pm.

About the Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles Times is the largest metropolitan daily newspaper in the country, with a daily readership of 1.9 million and 2.9 million on Sunday, more than 8 million unique latimes.com visitors monthly and a combined print and online local weekly audience of 4.5 million. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Times has been covering Southern California for more than 129 years.
The Los Angeles Times Media Group (LATMG) businesses and affiliates also include The Envelope, Times Community Newspapers, Brand X, LA, Los Angeles Times Magazine and Hoy Los Angeles which, combined with the flagship Los Angeles Times, reach approximately 5.2 million or 38% of all adults in the Southern California marketplace. LATMG also owns and operates California Community News as well as Tribune Direct's west coast division and is part of Tribune Company, one of the country's leading media companies with businesses in publishing, the Internet and broadcasting. Additional information is available at http://latimes.com/aboutus.

Source: Los Angeles Times.

Madonna and Warren Beatty for "Dick Tracy".
 

Madonna à New York aux Studios NBC - 25 avril 2011.

Madonna at the Rainbow Room at NBC Studios in New York on April 25, 2011 with Guy Oseary.

Madonna au Rainbow Room des Studios NBC à New York le 25 avril 2011 avec Guy Oseary.

More photos here:

Madonna in New York at NBC Studios - April 25, 2011
 

Madonna 'écrivant de la musique classique pour W.E.'.

24 April 2011 23:01

Pop superstar Madonna is putting her musical ability to good use by reportedly composing a classic score for her new film W.E.
The singer has directed a big screen epic about the romance between American socialite Wallis Simpson and British royal Edward VIII, who abdicated the throne in 1936 to marry the divorcee.
The movie is due to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France next month (May11) and reports now suggest Madonna is hard at work writing the soundtrack for W.E. with producer William Orbit ahead of the picture's big debut.
A source tells Britain's Mail on Sunday, "Madonna is working with William Orbit, who produced her synth-electronica album Ray of Light, but it will be quite an adjustment for them. Abel Korzeniowski, who composed the soundtrack to (Colin Firth's movie) A Single Man, is on hand to help."

Source: Contactmusic.

UK newspaper "Mail on Sunday" - April 24, 2011.
Journal anglais "Mail on Sunday" - 24 avril 2011.

Madonna invitée au Festival du Film de Cannes.

Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp Bound for Cannes
By Peter Mikelbank and Stephen M. Silverman
Tuesday April 12, 2011 09:30 AM EDT

Cue the paparazzi: Cinema's rite of spring – the Cannes Film Festival – will feature an all-star cast, as will be officially announced on Thursday. But, for now, PEOPLE has learned that fans can expect to find Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, as well as Sean Penn and Scarlett Johansson sharing the spotlight along the Croisette from May 11 through 22.
In addition, invitations to the 64th Cannes Fest are also out to Rolling Stone Keith Richards, Madonna, Jack Black and France's First Lady, Carla Bruni, who happens to be making her acting debut in a Woody Allen movie.
One thing is already for certain: Robert DeNiro will be sticking around the entire fest – he is the head of the jury that hands out the prizes.
Topping the list of premieres is the multi-generational saga Tree of Life, starring Pitt and Penn and directed by the highly regarded Terence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven). Pitt will no doubt remain in the South of France during the first half of the festival, which will also bring a sneak peek of Kung Fu Panda 2, featuring the voice of Jolie, as well as that of Dustin Hoffman and Jack Black.
Depp's appearance is keyed to a world premiere, that of Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which marks the return of Jack Sparrow. Cruz is among the costars.
The festival's previously announced Opening Selection, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, will bring to Cannes cast members Rachel McAdams, Michael Sheen, Owen Wilson, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody and, it is anticipated, Marion Cotillard, though she is due to give birth at the end of April.
Also on the agenda: a special tribute to the late Elizabeth Taylor, whose amFAR event to benefit her AIDS foundation has become an annual Cannes event.

Source: People.

Wallis Simpson Vs Elizabeth.

The warring wives of Windsor

Royal rows are nothing new. Nazi spy, nymphomaniac, lesbian hermaphrodite, versus the sweet English rose who would bloom as Her Majesty and become Queen Mum to a nation. Wallis Simpson and Elizabeth, Duchess of York, married to brothers who were both kings of England, couldn't have been more different in personality, temperament and style. And they would remain bitter enemies all their lives. Justine Picardie chronicles the drama behind their undying feud
By Justine Picardie
Sunday April 10 2011

It is 75 years since the abdication of King Edward VIII, and all the central characters in the drama are now dead, yet the story seems to have lost nothing of its power to fascinate. Indeed, a new generation of audiences has been absorbed by the award-winning re-telling of the tale in The King's Speech, and there will be more to come this summer, with Madonna's take on Wallis Simpson in her forthcoming film W.E..

We have seen Wallis reinterpreted through the lens of fashion -- in Dior's pre-autumn 2011 collection -- and name-checked as a muse by Daniella Helayel, the Issa designer responsible for Kate Middleton's blue engagement dress; while pieces from Wallis's own wardrobe were auctioned in London recently including her scarlet and shocking-pink lingerie and a Dior black crocodile handbag. Then there was Wallis portrayed by Gillian Anderson in the television adaptation of William Boyd's novel, Any Human Heart, and Wallis defended on the BBC by Andrea Riseborough, the star of Madonna's new film ("she was a very good woman"), and the last days of Wallis will be told in a new book by the late Queen Mother's biographer, Hugo Vickers, published last week.

But for all the variations, the essential theme remains as it ever was: Wallis Simpson, the American interloper, chic in little black dress and pearls, thin as a pin and sharp as a knife, black hair like a helmet, red lipstick in a slash across the face, vampiric white skin; Elizabeth, the Duchess of York, soon to be the Queen consort, plump in pastels and matching hat, a sweet English rose who was to bloom as Her Majesty, matriarch of the royal family and Queen Mum to a nation. Wallis had the good clothes, but Elizabeth the kind heart, as reflected by Helena Bonham Carter as the heroine of The King's Speech.

If every generation needs to repeat the old story of the King and Mrs Simpson -- a cautionary tale, among other things, of what might be lost by marrying for love -- then the origins of the myth are increasingly obscured by the accretions of folklore. The Duke of Windsor, demoted from king after his brief reign in 1936, has been variously described as a pleasure-seeking playboy and a spineless masochist, who gave up the crown for a woman of such controversial character that she was forever cast as the wicked witch.

A Nazi spy, lesbian hermaphrodite, man in disguise, nymphomaniac who learnt her sexual tricks in Shanghai: all these lurid accusations have been levelled at Wallis, and much else besides. (According to the Special Branch of Scotland Yard, she had a secret affair with a man named Trundle in 1935, while still married to her second husband Ernest Simpson and already conducting a relationship with the Prince of Wales; and there were suggestions that she was also involved with Hitler's ambassador to London at the time, Joachim von Ribbentrop.)

The twists and turns of the narrative could provide a dozen film plots -- and almost certainly will -- but there is another prism through which to examine this intriguing saga: the costume drama of Elizabeth and Mrs Simpson, in which their clothes provide as many clues as their letters and conversation. Both women had a marked sense of personal style that went further than mere decorum; their identities were made clear by what they wore and how they wore it, in a manner that had more to do with self-definition than passing fashion. Each always looked entirely herself -- and the polar opposite of the other.

That they were rivals, however different in style, is an inherent element of their interwoven stories; the antagonism forming a curious common ground, compounded by their linked destinies through marriage to royal siblings. Indeed, not long before the announcement of the engagement of the Duke of York to Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon at the beginning of 1923 the papers had carried reports that she was, in fact, to marry his brother, the Prince of Wales (the future Edward VIII). Hence the suggestion, half a century later, by Diana Mosley [nee Mitford] that Elizabeth's enduring antipathy to Wallis was fuelled by jealousy.

In a letter to her sister, the Duchess of Devonshire, written soon after the death of the Duke of Windsor in 1972, Diana (Wallis's friend and future biographer) observed: "the theory of their contemporaries that Cake [the Mitford sisters' nickname for Elizabeth, derived from her sweet tooth and healthy appetite] was rather in love with him (as a girl) and took second best, may account for much."

Edward himself was initially rather sceptical about his brother's choice: "Little Elizabeth Lyon, the future Duchess of York, I don't think ... " But by the autumn of 1923 their contemporary Duff Cooper reported in his diary that the Prince, in the midst of complaining about "the gloom of Buckingham Palace" and his "bad-tempered" father, was cheered by the presence of his young sister-in-law: "The Duchess of York is the one bright spot there, they all love her and the king is in a good temper whenever she is there."

Not that anyone seemed to take Elizabeth very seriously at the beginning, aside from her devoted husband. At her pre-wedding ball, the British prime minister, HH Asquith, described "the poor little bride" as being "completely overshadowed"; while her wedding dress, designed by Madame Handley Seymour, was -- in the words of her biographer, Hugo Vickers -- "abysmal in its dowdiness".

Virginia Woolf, observing the Duchess of York at the theatre one evening in December 1929, was dismissive with faint praise: "A simple, chattering sweethearted little woman in pink: but her wrist twinkling with diamonds ... "

A little more than a year later, when Mrs Simpson first entered the orbit of the Prince of Wales, she could not have presented herself in a more dissimilar form to his sister-in-law Elizabeth. Wallis was not a beauty, by her own admission: "Nobody ever called me beautiful or even pretty," she wrote in her memoirs. "My jaw was clearly too big and too pointed to be classic. My hair was straight when the laws of compensation might at least have provided curls."

But she was undeniably stylish, as recognised by Cecil Beaton, who also noted that she was "alluring", her skin "incredibly bright and smooth like the inside of a shell, her hair as sleek as only the Chinese women know how to make it". And her effect on Edward was devastating; his equerry, Sir John Aird, lamented that the prince "has lost all confidence in himself and follows W around like a dog".

Elizabeth, however, considered Wallis to be "the lowest of the low, a thoroughly immoral woman" from the start, and did her best to avoid meeting her. "I do not feel I can make advances to her and ask her to the house," she wrote to her mother-in-law, Queen Mary, "and this fact is bound to make relations a little difficult."

When the two women did happen to encounter each other in 1935 -- at Edward's country retreat, Fort Belvedere -- it was with disastrous consequences. The Duchess of York walked into a room, only to discover Mrs Simpson doing an imitation of her. Wallis dubbed Elizabeth "the Dowdy Duchess", or "the fat Scottish cook", while Elizabeth simply called her "that woman" or "a certain person". Their mutual antipathy hardened into distrust, bitterness and lasting resentment as the abdication crisis unfolded, following the death of King George V in January 1936.

That summer, while the Yorks took on the duties of public life, Mrs Simpson dominated Edward's life as the new king. In August he set off with Mrs Simpson on a yachting trip around the Mediterranean, where Duff Cooper and his wife Diana witnessed the embarrassment of the king getting down on all fours to release the hem of Mrs Simpson's dress from under a chair, while she berated him for his supposed failings. Diana Cooper wearied of Wallis -- "her commonness and her Becky Sharpness irritate" -- but also believed that "Wallis is bored stiff with the king".

By November 1936, as it became clear that Edward could not be dissuaded from marrying Wallis, Elizabeth wrote to Queen Mary: "I feel quite overcome with horror and emotion ... One feels so helpless against such obstinacy."

She was, she told a trusted friend, "very depressed and miserable", while her husband expressed his darkest fears to his brother's private secretary: "If the worst happens and I have to take over, you can be assured that I will do my best to clear up the inevitable mess, if the whole fabric does not crumble under the shock and strain of it all."

When the king made his abdication speech on December 11, 1936, Elizabeth was stricken with flu in bed, but wrote to him: "We are all overcome with misery, and can only pray that you will find happiness in your new life." The coronation of the new King, George VI, was set for May 12, 1937, and he and his wife made it evident that Edward and his mistress -- by then living in France -- would not be welcome; nor would Wallis be granted the title Her Royal Highness.

Despite -- or perhaps because of -- this snub, the arrangements for the wedding of Edward and Wallis continued regardless, though the timing could not have been worse. The decree absolute of her divorce had only come through nine days before the coronation, but Wallis pressed forward with ordering her trousseau, considering designs by Schiaparelli and Chanel, and finally settling on Mainbocher for the wedding dress, which was to be blue -- christened "Wallis blue" by the couturier.

On May 11, the eve of his brother's coronation, Edward held a press conference in a French chateau to announce his formal engagement to Wallis. According to the American author Charles Higham: "On the evening of the 12th, Wallis and the duke listened to King George's hesitant post-coronation broadcast; outside, a heavy rainstorm lashed the chateau while the duke knitted a blue sweater for Wallis, plying the needles busily."

Higham, it must be said, offers a lurid account of the duke as a bisexual fascist with a penchant for crocheting; his report of the lead-up to their wedding may be uncorroborated, but it is undeniably intriguing: "Representatives of Van Cleef and Arpels arrived from Paris with trays of jewellery, followed by a case of gems, an inscribed gold box from Hitler ... and costly gifts from Mussolini."

Cecil Beaton arrived to take photographs the day before the wedding ceremony on June 3, and wrote in his diary that "I find her intelligent within her vast limitations ... She has obviously a tremendous admiration for the duke ... and is determined to love him, though I feel she is not in love with him".

Beaton had also been in London for the coronation, less than three weeks previously, where he had watched the arrival of the royal glass coach. "Inside, sitting high on crimson satin cushions sat their majesties, white and waxen, the king slightly deathlike with cadaverous face leaning forward with an ermine cap on his head.

The queen looked much lovelier than any of her photographs and her unaccustomed pallor was moving."

While the Duke and Duchess of Windsor seemed somehow reduced in their subsequent exile abroad -- she thinner than ever, he more shrunken than before -- the king and queen appeared strengthened by their crowning. Reports of Elizabeth's previously frequent bouts of flu lessened (a precursor of her robust good health in later life, and apparent impatience with those who complained of ill health around her). And her wardrobe choices became more confident, with a new choice of couturier, Norman Hartnell, who designed the queen's famous all-white wardrobe for the state visit to Paris in July 1938. Her mother, Lady Strathmore, had died the previous month, but black was deemed too funereal for Elizabeth to wear to Paris; the choice of white, however, had some precedent for royal mourning (le deuil blanc of French queens).

The French were unusually impressed by her dignity and elegance; Duff Cooper, the future ambassador to Paris, observed: "Everyone says that the queen has something magnetic about her which touches the masses as well as the lucky few who know her." But the Duke and Duchess of Windsor were nowhere to be seen, having been advised that the royal couple would not receive them in Paris or elsewhere.

The rift had been deepened by the Windsors' trip to Germany the previous year, when they met Hitler and other Nazi leaders. The ostensible reason was for the duke to study the working conditions of the German labour force; but his official biographer, Philip Ziegler, writes that the visit was more likely inspired by the desire to impress Wallis: "He wanted to prove to the duchess that, even though she had not married a king, she was at least the wife of someone who commanded the respect of a major power ... In Germany at least he could be sure of a proper welcome and, more significantly, so could the duchess."

By October 1939 Elizabeth was open (at least in a letter to a family member) in associating Edward with the Nazi leader. "Odd creature, he is exactly like Hitler in thinking that anybody who doesn't agree with him is automatically wrong." But still, according to a senior British diplomat who had discussed the Windsors' embarrassing foreign activities with the king and queen, "she had not a word to say for 'that woman'".

It was a phrase that was to have a curious echo over half a century later, when as Queen Mother she was known to refer to Diana, Princess of Wales simply as "that Spencer woman"; perhaps as a shrewd recognition of the risk she posed to the stability of the monarchy, or possibly because of the faint reminder she saw in Diana of the glamorous, chic adversary that Wallis had once represented.

By this point the Duchess of Windsor had departed, after a lingering living death in Paris; and Elizabeth's husband was long dead, too (gone to an early grave in 1952, for which she blamed the stress of his unsought reign, brought about by the actions of the Windsors). But the implacable enmity seemed finally to yield to a code of civility: when the Duke of Windsor was suffering from terminal cancer in 1972, the Queen Mother visited him and the duchess at their house in Paris, for the first and last time. Ten days later he was dead. His funeral took place at St George's Chapel, Windsor, on June 5 -- just after the Windsors' 35th wedding anniversary -- and the duchess stayed at Buckingham Palace, although she only met the Queen Mother on the day that Edward was buried.

Both women wore black, Wallis bird-like in Givenchy, Elizabeth stately with a veil over her head, her expression unknowable, and her words to Wallis unheard ...

Source: Sunday Independent, Ireland.

On the cover of "Living", supplement of Irish newspaper
"Sunday Independent" - April 10, 2011.

En couverture "Living", supplément du journal irlandais
"Sunday Independent" - 10 avril 2011.

Wallis Simpson and Elizabeth (above)
The Duke and Duchess of York (Wallis Simpson and Edouard)

Comment Edward VIII a courtisé une maîtresse avant Mme Simpson.

By Stefano Ambrogi Stefano Ambrogi – 25/03/2011
Editing by Steve Addison.

LONDON (Reuters Life!) – A letter penned by the future King Edward VIII to his mistress depicts him as a starry-eyed, incurable romantic, years before his sensational decision to marry divorcee Wallis Simpson cost him the British throne.
The hand-written letter sent to married socialite Freda Dudley Ward shows him to be head over heels in love 17 years before his devotion to Simpson plunged the monarchy into crisis.
His decision to abdicate catapulted his stammering brother "Bertie," the future King George VI, on to the throne as portrayed in the Oscar-winning film "The King's Speech."
In 1919, the 25-year-old unmarried Prince of Wales tells his secret lover "beloved little Fredie Wedie" she was all he ever wanted.
"This is only just a teeny weeny little scrawl to catch the last post sweetheart and to tell you how fearfully madly I'm loving you this afternoon angel and looking forward to 4.30 tomorrow," he wrote.
"Although I only said all this about 12 hours ago I can't help saying it all again this afternoon -- only I mean it even more sweetheart!!"
Mother-of-two Dudley Ward was Edward's first mistress. Their relationship lasted for five years after they met by chance at a party in 1918. She remained a close confidante of Edward's until 1934 when his relationship with Simpson began.
"Just can't get over all your sweetness to your devoted little boy and he is so so happy this afternoon darling and just not caring for anybody or anything altho he's fearfully busy," reads the letter, to be sold at auction in London on April 2.
It continues: " -- then I don't have time to realize how much I miss HER and how consequently sad and depressed I am tho hopelessly happy 'deep down'!!"
He signed the letter "Your very very devoted adoring little David" -- the name his family used for him.
When the king eventually met Simpson, he abruptly severed all ties with Dudley Ward. In a call to Buckingham Palace in 1934, she was told by an operator: "I have orders not to put you through."
Dudley Ward died in 1983 at the age of 88 and never spoke of the affair.
Richard Davie, director of International Autograph Auctions, said the letter gave an insight into Edward's thinking and ultimately his true desires.
"If you think of Edward VIII, then immediately you conjure up one picture really: his abdication. And the reason he abdicated was for the love of another woman. So he was obviously a very romantic sort of person," he told Reuters.
"It shows how head over heels in love he could fall by the sort of gushing language he uses in it," he added.
"There are plenty of (his) autographs around and other letters, but not love letters. The fact that it is a letter to a mistress and lover he had before Wallis makes it quite rare."

Source: Reuters.