My Life with Cleopatra Read Free Page A

production manager on
I Want to Live!
when I was making it.
    Carlo said he was certain Sophia would be interested in doing the picture. Then he asked me when and where we planned to do it. When I said in July on the Studio’s back lot, he answered, “You’ll never make it this summer and you’ll never make it in America. Italy is the only place to make it.”
    M ARCH 4, 1959
    Nigel Balchin signed to prepare a screenplay of
Cleopatra
, with Ludi Claire’s outline for a springboard.
    M AY 12, 1959
    Elizabeth married Eddie Fisher today in Las Vegas.
    Elizabeth and Eddie are expected to go through New York on their way to the Mediterranean for a cruise honeymoon. Then she’s going to do
Suddenly Last Summer
for Columbia and Sam Spiegel, which makes it unlikely that I’ll get her for
Cleopatra
, which is supposed to start in July.
    J UNE 15, 1959
    Skouras took Gina Lollobrigida and her husband to director Rouben Mamoulian’s house for dinner to discuss
Cleopatra
with them both.
    J UNE 19, 1959
    Received this morning a preliminary production cost estimate for
Cleopatra
, based on the script by Nigel Balchin.
    The operating budget for
Cleopatra
, labeled “Production No. J—01” called for 64 days’ shooting. It showed that the total cost was supposed to come to $2,955,700, without the cast or director.
    J ULY 29, 1959
    The studio executives were so enthusiastic about the first-draft script by Nigel Balchin that Adler has called Kurt Frings, Elizabeth’s agent, to get him to take the script abroad to Elizabeth and to Audrey Hepburn, another of his clients. Adler ended the conversation with Kurt, admonishing him not to tell me about it.
    I don’t know what’s on Buddy’s mind, trying to keep this information from me. Obviously, as Frings is a great friend of mine, he would tell me, as he knew I always wanted Elizabeth for the part.
    Meanwhile, I discovered that they are excavating on the back lot with bulldozers, preparing to build the city of Alexandria. No one has asked me about this because we have never finally determined where the picture is to be filmed.
    A UGUST 1959
    Both Elizabeth and Audrey Hepburn have agreed to do
Cleopatra
.
    Kurt Frings gave me the good news on the phone today. He just came back from visiting both of his clients in Europe.
    A UGUST 18, 1959
    Called Schreiber to see if there was anything definite on casting. He said, “No.”
    I told him that Audrey Hepburn had read the script and was interested. He seemed surprised that I knew. An hour or so later he called me back to say we can’t have Hepburn because Paramount has her under contract and won’t release her.
    I called Skouras, who told me Elizabeth doesn’t want to play Cleopatra—despite Kurt assuring me that she does.
    A UGUST 27, 1959
    The planned Suzy Parker test for
Cleopatra
didn’t come off as scheduled. When the studio called her in New York requesting a test, she became hysterical and burst into tears. It turned out she was pregnant, a secret no one knew until today.
    S EPTEMBER 1, 1959
    Called Elizabeth in London where she is doing
Suddenly Last Summer
.
    She said she will do
Cleopatra
for a million dollars and a few changes in the script, and as long as the picture is not to be made in Hollywood.
    Elizabeth sees Cleopatra as I do—the greatest woman’s role ever written, and she thinks as I do, that this can be a great picture. When I said that a million dollars was an unheard-of price for an actress, she said that I knew as well as she did that this was going to be a long, hard picture. But she doesn’t mind taking the money on a spread payment, so much per year, since she really wants it to put in trust for her children.
    I called Skouras to tell him the news. He said he doesn’t like the idea of working with Elizabeth because “she’ll be too much trouble.”
    S EPTEMBER 28, 1959 *
    A meeting was held at the studio yesterday (Sunday), to which I was not invited—and for obvious reasons.
    Spyros Skouras was