UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS AND FOUR PAIR OF GREEN SNEAKERS

Hello everyone. Holiday time is a busy time and I haven’t been thinking much about costumes.......except 

I was invited to a holiday party the other day where there will be an “Ugly Christmas Sweater” competition, and that reminded me once again about darling Betty White (whom I did blog about recently, but there are no end of funny stories about working with her). We were filming a Christmas movie called “Stealing Christmas” with Tony Danza, Lea Thompson, and Betty, but, as is often the case with Christmas movies, it was being shot in spring for the following year. Betty was playing the owner of a store that sold model trains, but was all decorated for Christmas, so I wanted to dress her in nothing but Christmas sweaters. But it was March, and there were no more in the stores! Nothing but spring merchandise!

Thank goodness for the internet - what did we do before it! I was able to find three great sweaters, covered with all sorts of sequinned trees, snowmen, reindeer, and gifts, from various sources, including Ebay. She looked quite adorable in the sweaters and it perfectly matched her character, the decor of her little store, and her personality!

Often costume designers have to find things that are out of season. In retail stores, try finding slippers except at Christmas - why should that be the only time to buy slippers?  Even the thrift stores are now getting so sophistocated and well organized that they put away their summer clothes in winter, and vica versa in summer!

Shopping online is a relatively new thing for costume designers, and of course is not always possible when things are needed immediately. But it is quite amazing what you can find. I was costuming the wonderful BB King, and we needed a pair of green sneakers for him for his video “One Shoe Blues”. I needed at least 4 choices, as the shoe would be prominently featured, and he wears a size 12, so where on earth was I going to purchase those? Thank goodness for Zappos.com (I am not affiliated in any way) because, believe it or not, they had 4 different styles of GREEN sneakers in the right size! In the end we kept all 4 pairs.

Sometimes costume designing requires a treasure hunt, and it is quite fun. One time for “Passions” the script called for one character to give another character a “Partridge in a Pear Tree” pin, and I thought, where on earth am I going to find that? Again, thanks Ebay!

Have I been stumped? I’m sure I have. Anything can be made in Hollywood, given enough time and money. One jewelry designer said, you can only have 2 out of 3: fast, cheap, or well-made.  Fast, well-made, but not cheap. Cheap, fast, but not well made. Etc. 

But producers don’t want to hear us whine, so somehow, we find what we need!

ADORABLE FUNNY FABULOUS BETTY WHITE!

What you see is what you get with Betty White. She is every bit as funny, adorable, and (dare I say it) nice as she appears to be. A year or so ago, the entertainment news kept talking about the “come back” of Betty White, but if you look at her IMDB, you will see that she has NEVER stopped working, and working a lot at that.

I had the excellent fortune of working with her on a TV sitcom called “Ladies Man”, which ran for two years on CBS. How can you not love Betty? She was and is the most professional, competent, and delightful actress you could ever have the good fortune to work with. On “Ladies Man” we had two “young people”, Alexa Vega, age 11 at the time, and Kaley Cuoco, age 15 at the time. cast as family members. (Sharon Lawrence and Alfred Molina played the parents of the family in this sitcom.) It was wonderful to see how the younger actresses instinctively learned from a true pro - how to be on time, know their lines, be appreciative to the crew, and thoughtful to all those around them.

I learned quickly what Betty’s “look” was. Her color favorites were all the sherbet colors - blue, turquoise, aqua, green, sometimes pink, and very occasionally yellow. She liked turtleneck tops and long sleeves, and pants, not skirts. Because of the quick changes on “tape night” I always changed any jewelry clasp to a small magnetic clasp that didn’t require putting on glasses to fasten it.

But what impressed me about Betty was that she was game for anything and never complained if she were in an uncomfortable scene or costume. One time she was dressed as Joan of Arc in full metal armor, a very heavy costume, and yet, not a peep out of her. Another time she was in an angels wings, the harness of which was cutting into her skin. She never used her age (then 78) as an excuse for special treatment.

A few years later I was thrilled to find out that she had been cast in a TV movie I was designing in Vancouver, Canada. She arrived the day before filming, but I already had the advantage of knowing her sizes, preferences, and taste. 

One Friday night I was at the Vancouver airport taking a flight back to LA (where I was starting to design “Passions” on the weekends) and she went whizzing by on an escorted VIP cart. When I saw her again she was so embarrassed that she had a ride to the gate and I had to walk, dragging my suitcase. She apologized over and over, despite my protests. I asked her why she was flying back to LA for such a quick trip when she had lots of big scenes again on Monday and she said, “Oh Diana, I can’t  leave my dogs that long, I miss them too much.” Her love of animals is legendary, and her stamina, talent, and humility are also legendary.