MONDO EXTRAS

The press follow Hepwitt and Ferrer on their wedding day in Switzerland, and Hepwitt sweetly tells the journalists to leave them alone. Hepwitt talks about giving up her career for motherhood, and Ferrer drops a bomb called Funny Face. She changes her mind, for the moment, about immediate motherhood, and Ferrer promises to be with her wherever she shoots a film. On the Belgian Congo set of The Nun's Story, this bile-o-pic shows us the first and only glimmer of Hepwitt's interest in her humanitarian causes. It is quite sad that the movie spends so much time concentrating on Hepwitt's obsession with her long neck, her movie-set love life, and her feelings of inadequacy, without doing justice to Hepburn's deep and abiding commitment to her charitable works. I guess the shallow Jennifer Love felt the wardrobe wouldn't be as glamorous.

On a movie set in Mexico, Hepwitt is thrown by her horse and flown back to the US for treatment. She is several months pregnant but will recover and so will the baby. While pawing through her built-up correspondence, Hepwitt comes across a letter from her father which says he fears she never received his other letters because he never heard back from her. Hepwitt throws a hissyfit at her long-suffering mother, tells Ma Hepburn she is just jealous, and then seems to go into premature labor. She loses the baby.

Hepwitt travels to Ireland to visit her father. Pa Hepburn pays more attention to his German-named dog than to his long-lost daughter. They have nothing to say to one another, other than Pa Hepburn's explaining that he wasn't cut out to be her father, then or now. Hepwitt goes away broken-hearted, returns home, and apologizes to her mother for being a spoiled little snot. Hepwitt tells her mother she's decided to have a baby rather than do another movie. Sean Ferrer is born and baptised, and Mel convinces Hepwitt to do Breakfast at Tiffany's.

So we are back where we started. Now we see Hepwitt kissing her baby in between takes on the set of Tiffany's. The "nameless cat" is brought over to do the final scene, and Hepwitt is prompted to pointedly explain Holly Golightly's reasoning for throwing her cat out into the rain. Hepwitt turns to Capote and says, "Holly Golightly puts the cat out because Holly is the cat." Capote takes off his glasses and drawls, "Tha's riiight." But Hepwitt isn't finished with showing off her genius: "She doesn't have a real name and neither does the cat. She feels homeless and unloved and unlovable, just like the cat." The production assistant still doesn't get it: "So when she goes back to find the cat, it means -- ?" Hepwitt is told to stand by for the final take, but she continues with her explanation, "So, when she goes back to find the cat, it means that she's finally accepted herself. That she can love herself, even though she's a scrawny, soaking wet, no-name cat." Hepwitt gives Capote a meaningful look, and he raises an eyebrow at her as she says, "It's not a bad thing to be." The production assistant walks away, and Hepwitt gives Capote another sidelong glance before walking away also. The rain is cued and Hepwitt is shown driving up in a cab, ignoring the soaking Peppard on the street, and darting down the alley while she screams, "Cat!" She finally finds him and clasps him to her dinners, laughing. Then she and Peppard end the scene by making out. They get the scene in one take and wrap the film. Everyone applauds, and Capote embraces Hepwitt and smiles at her. My wastebasket over-runneth.