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01/09/2009 8:30 am

Culture

Liz Smith: Anne Hathaway as Holly Golightly? Bruce and Cybill 'Moonlighting'? Stiller and Wahlberg – Joining Forces?

“Well, that would be simply divine now darling, wouldn’t it?”

That’s Anne Hathaway commenting on the possibility that she might reprise Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golightly in a remake of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” Anne was spotted by our ubiquitous pal, Hal Lifson, at Billy Reed’s Coffee Shop in Palm Springs. Hal reps the revitalized Riviera Resort and Spa, but he has a knack for star-sighting, and also for just asking the stars, “What’s up?” 

“Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” based on the famous Truman Capote novella, has been on the sometimes fast, sometimes slow track to remake for several years. The problem has always been – who could, who would, dare to slip into Audrey’s little black frock and redo Holly, the stylish high-price call girl? (Yes, most people seem to forget that our sainted Audrey was actually a hooker in this movie!) Challenging the iconic image of Audrey H. is a problem – I think now of the abysmal remake of Audrey’s “Sabrina.” 

But Anne Hathaway has an unusually alert, charming way about her – elfin, sexy, princess – without being prissy. If anybody could be Holly Golightly in the 21st century, it’s Anne. (She survived the saccharine of those “Princess Diary” movies which propelled her to fame a few years back … held her own with Meryl Streep in “The Devil Wears Prada … proved her serious acting chops in “Brokeback Mountain” and in this year’s “Rachel Getting Married.”) 

Before Mr. Lifson let Anne get back to breakfast (she was accompanied by her manager and her brother) he asked what a big movie star was doing at a little coffee shop? “Are you kidding? I’m a Jersey Girl. I grew up going to diners. I live for the next grilled cheese sandwich.”

And here’s a little “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” history. Despite the success of the film, author Truman Capote never thought Audrey Hepburn was right for the role of Holly, nor did he care for director Blake Edwards’s softening and sentimentalizing the hard-edged story. Who did Truman lobby for? He wanted Marilyn Monroe! But studio heads did not agree.

So, instead of chic, Manhattan-based “Tiffany’s,” Miss Monroe went off to the blistering Nevada desert to film the fascinating-but-depressing “The Misfits,” thereby ending her marriage to playwright (and “Misfits” screenwriter) Arthur Miller.

If the movie gets a second life, you can be sure it will be truer to what Capote intended – no dreamy “Moon River” warbling or cutesy skirting the issue of sex-for-cash. (And certainly no Mickey Rooney in offensive Asian makeup as Holly’s crazy landlord!)

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Has it really been 20 years since one of the most brilliant, sexy and funny TV shows ever went off the air? I do mean “Moonlighting,” which launched the career of Bruce Willis and rescued the career of Cybill Shepherd. At its best – the first three seasons, out of five – nothing was wittier, more innovative, daring and enjoyable than watching Cybill and Bruce as detectives who were wildly attracted to each other, but fighting it. (There was contentious real-life drama on the set, too. I remember printing many a spicy item during those years.)

The creator of “Moonlighting” was Glenn Gordon Caron, and a little bird tells us that Caron is hot to reunite Cybill and Bruce for a 20th anniversary “Moonlighting” TV movie. The most surprising aspect of this is that Bruce Willis, who went on to become one of the biggest movie stars in the world (still is), has shown definite interest. An insider says, “Bruce is ready to give it a go. He still holds a lot of fondness for the show. As for Cybill, she has never denied the occasional strife of “Moonlighting” (If you recall she became pregnant with twins during the run, a further burden on everybody’s nerves) but always had a healthy respect for Bruce’s talent, charisma and the quality of the series itself.