Today I learned the Brooke Shields grandfather won Wimbledon in 19311 and that it was Polly Platt, the writer of Pretty Baby who introduced Matt Groening to James Brooks2. I learned these because we watched the movie Once Upon a Time in Hollywood3 last night.
Aside from it being an outstanding movie, it led to a bunch of discussion with my wife this morning on Charles Manson and Roman Polanski. I really appreciated the revisionist history and the humanizing of Sharon Tate in the film. Quentin Tarantino did an excellent job and I think it's his best film to date. After doing the deep dive on the events in the film, we turned our attention to Polanski and the #MeToo topics of that era of Hollywood involving Polanski, Mia Farrow, Jodie Foster, and Brooke Shields.
Brooke Shields grandmother, Marina Torlonia di Civitella-Cesi, was from Italy and her family handled the Vatican finances. Her first acting experience was cut from Annie Hall. Platt had wanted Foster for Pretty Baby4 since had already played a child prostitute in Taxi Driver, but cast Shields instead. Shields mother had been asked by the family to terminate the pregnancy and instead moved away to raise Brooke alone openly stating at infancy that Brooke would be in show business.
Evidently, there is an upcoming 2 part documentary on it also titled Pretty Baby which premiered recently at the Sundance Film Festival5.
- Frank Shields - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Shields
- Polly Platt - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Platt
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Once_Upon_a_Time_in_Hollywood
- Pretty Baby - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Baby_(1978_film)
- Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields - https://festival.sundance.org/program/film/638a193ad406b28cf1f2d067