NYLON - February 2008 - (Page 86) DAME HELEN MIRREN’S ROLE AS AN UNHAPPY SPOUSE IN THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE AND HER LOVER WOULD MAKE THE QUEEN’S HEAD SPIN. Long before she was impressing critics with her spot-on interpretation of stodgy royals in The Queen and Elizabeth I, or achieving cult status among crime-TV buffs as the toughas-nails lead detective in the Prime Suspect series, Helen Mirren appeared in a string of, shall we say, more risqué roles, like Age of Consent and Caligula, which helped earn her the nickname, “the thinking man’s crumpet.” “Yes, I’m famous for getting my kit off in England,” Mirren recently acknowledged on 60 Minutes. Her willingness to show some skin is perhaps most apparent in the bizarre black comedy The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover in which she plays Georgina. The unsatisfied and abused wife of Albert, a gangster and part-time restauranteur, she embarks on a lurid, and graphic, affair with one of the restaurant’s patrons. The visually opulent film, which originally earned an X and then a NC-17 rating, was widely considered to be a comment on Thatcherism, or the rule of money over art and culture, and besides offering many a glimpse of the leading actors’ backsides, it also delved into a wee bit of cannibalism. The saucy, seductive Georgina eventually enacts the ultimate revenge on her ignorant bully of a husband by forcing him at gunpoint to dine on her dead lover’s body. “Try the cock Albert. It’s a delicacy, and you know where it’s been.” BOOTS NO. 7 SHEER TEMPTATION LIPSTICK For lips that are positively lust-worthy. $9.99, AT CVS. LUSH MARILYN HAIR TREATMENT A lavish treatment to make blonde hair as bodacious as possible. $16.95, LUSH.COM. POTTER & MOORE CANE SUGAR BODY EXFOLIATOR With this much skin exposed, a good all-over exfoliator is in order. $45, AT HENRI BENDEL. NUDE REPLENISHING NIGHT OIL Consider this nourishing night oil the bare minimum you can do for your skin. $78, AT BARNEY’S NEW YORK. AGENT PROVOCATEUR MAITRESSE GOLD EDITION The sexy female silhouette on the provocative fragrance’s commemorative bottle mirror’s Mirren’s in the film. $90, AT BLOOMINGDALE’S. POP BEAUTY ROSE BELLE A generous makeup palette to give you that just-had-illicitsex-in-the-kitchen kind of flush. $28, SEPHORA.COM. still lifes: jonathon kambouris. helen mirren: courtesy of the everett collection. http://LUSH.COM http://SEPHORA.COM
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