Let’s start with England’s James II:
Arabella Churchill
…and
Dorothy Sedley
…then on to France’s Napoleon Bonaparte:
Maria Walewska
…and his nephew, Napoleon III:
Harriet Howard
Rachel Félix
Virginie Castiglione
Back across the Channel, we have England’s William IV:
Dorothea Jordan
And finally, across the Atlantic, the mistress of yet another William:
Monica Lewinsky
…and not “Karen”, as we know the bitch-genre of today. Karren Brady is altogether the right sort of woman (see here for the details, which include the fact that she’s Conservative, as opposed to being a Limo-Labourite).
All very impressive, but not as impressive as the lady (okay, Baroness) is in person:
Of course, she’s no longer an ingenue business wizard; in fact, she has a daughter who could be regarded as equally toothsome:
Quite the genetic lineage, there… but to the surprise of not a single Reader, I prefer Mommy.
Although she was made famous to American audiences in Dynasty, Stephanie Beacham had already had quite a career beforehand. But who cares? Today, she’s in her sizzling seventies, and looks as good as she always did. Proof? you say? In more-or-less chronological order, then:
As we all remember her in Dynasty — with the big hair:
And nowadays…
(click to embiggen — and note the freckled cleavage!!!!)
Beautiful back then, stunning now.
I know I’ve featured Anita Ekberg on these pages many times before, as well as giving her a little solo outing; but can one ever have too much Ekberg, I ask? I think not. So here are a few I haven’t posted before:
Stunning? I report, you decide.
Actor David Niven once described the Young sisters (Polly Ann, Elizabeth and Loretta) thus: “Each one was prettier than the others”, and who am I to argue with his judgment? So as we looked at Loretta last week, let’s look at the oldest of the three (the fourth, Georgiana, was a half-sister, but we’ll get to her later).
Say hello to Polly Ann Young:
I think Niven was right… and we’ll look at Elizabeth next week.
I think I first fell in love with Loretta Young in The Bishop’s Wife — one of the better Christmas movies of all time — and mostly, it should be said, because of that sexy contralto voice.
Not that the rest was too horrible.
And she didn’t look too bad as an older woman, either:
Classy and lovely, always.