By Judi McLeod
Thursday, December 7, 2006
Dominique Lapierre writes beautiful books. The words to describe the pure and simple faith of his characters such as the old woman ravaged by leprosy attended to by Polish priest Fr. Stephan Kovalski, in Lapierre's City of Joy City of Joy, don't exist.
No one but Lapierre could create with such indelible pathos, the haunting images of the desolation of anand Nagar, the overcrowded poor slum in Calcutta, India, and centerpiece in the City of Joy.
Perhaps more than any living person, Lapierre immortalized the meaning of the Shroud of Turin. In his book, Fr. Kovalski keeps a picture of Christ after death said to be imprinted on the shroud in the miserable hovel where he spends long sleepless nights. The stories of how the picture affects some of those suffering from leprosy live on as inspiration in the reader's heart long after reading the book.
Lapierre's love and compassion for Calcutta's poor follows him through life and continues through his City of Joy aid charity, which helps desperate children in India.
So it shouldn't surprise anyone who has read about Dominique Lapierre to learn that a true story about of him out of England, arrived in time for this year's Christmas season.
It's the unlikely story of a little black dress, not the common type you see on the cover of fashion magazines, but one whose ultimate sale will shelter and nourish untold legions of children who wouldn't have had much chance without it.
It's the coming-full-circle true story of how actress audrey Hepburn's "Breakfast at Tiffany's" black dress came to flush new life into Lapierre's charity, a story as inspirational in outcome as anything that can be found between the covers of a single book.
Lapierre has been an angel for destitute children with nowhere to turn in poverty-struck India. and in turn, it would seem that angels look after him.
Who having seen it could ever forget the iconic black dress worn by audrey Hepburn in the 1961 film, "Breakfast at Tiffany's"? When the dress came up for auction at Christie's this week, it fetched more than $800,000.
The black dress worn in one scene where Hepburn, as the wistful socialite Holly Golightly jumps out of a cab onto an early-morning, deserted Big apple street to peer through the window of Tiffany Jeweler while she gobbles breakfast from a brown paper bag is as much a part of the movie as its haunting theme, "Moon River".
"Including the premium paid to auctioneers at Christie's, the total cost for the sleeveless, floor-length Givenchy cocktail gown rose to $920,000," (www.reuters.com, Dec. 6, 2006). "The sale room at Christies broke into applause at the end of a long and tense session when it was finally bought by an anonymous telephone bidder. Christie's would only say that the successful bidder was European.
"The dress, one of three versions made for Hepburn for her memorable role in the classic romantic comedy, was being auctioned on behalf of the City of Joy aid charity.
"There are tears in my eyes," said Lapierre, who runs the charity. Givenchy gave the dress to his friends the Lapierres to raise money for the charity.
"I am absolutely dumbfounded to believe that a piece of cloth which belonged to such a magical actress will now enable me to buy bricks and cement to put the most destitute children in the world into schools."
Christie's said the auction set a new world record for a movie dress, but it fell short of the auction house's own world record for any woman's costume.
That belongs to the white silk evening gown worn by Marilyn Monroe the night she sang "Happy Birthday, Mr. President" to John F. Kennedy in 1962.
For all of her drawing power as a film star, Hepburn described herself as "a skinny little nobody".
The world's most famous gamin, who spent her last years traveling to third world countries raising money for children, shares something in common with Dominique Lapierre.
No one would have been happier than Hepburn to know that something she wore in a movie would lead to waifs having their own brick-and-mortar schools.
Lapierre will be putting smiles on the faces of children once hopeless and a radiant one on the face of an immortal gamin.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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