Tag Archives: Profumo Affair

Scandal ’63 Revisited: Symposium in Leicester

21 Tuesday Mar 2023

Posted by in Art and Photography, Film, History, Poetry, Politics, Profumo Affair

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A symposium for Scandal ’63 Revisited will be held at Leicester Gallery on Friday, April 14th, ahead of the exhibition’s last day on Saturday. Tickets are free but must be reserved in advance here. (The flyer image seen above shows an outtake from Christine Keeler’s iconic photo shoot with Lewis Morley, who later recreated her most famous pose with the Leicester-born playwright and provocateur, Joe Orton.)

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‘Scandal’ Revisited as New Exhibition Opens in Leicester

01 Wednesday Mar 2023

Posted by in Art and Photography, Film, History, Politics, Profumo Affair

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Scandal, the 1989 movie dramatising the Profumo Affair, is showing at the Phoenix Leicester at 7:30 pm this Friday, March 3rd, introduced by producer Stephen Woolley with an onstage Q&A. Whatever you may think of the narrative, Scandal boasts terrific performances by John Hurt as Stephen Ward and Joanne Whalley as Christine Keeler (seen above with Bridget Fonda); surprising cameo turns (Leslie Phillips as Lord Astor!); and a fabulous retro soundtrack topped by Dusty Springfield’s comeback hit, ‘Nothing Has Been Proved.’

The screening is in partnership with Leicester Gallery on the De Montfort University campus, where a new exhibition, Scandal ‘63 Revisited: Reframing the Profumo Affair via Art and Artefact, opens on Friday, following a private view from 6 pm – 8 pm on Thursday with Christine Keeler’s son, Seymour Platt. (If you plan to attend the preview, please RSVP to leicestergallery@dmu.ac.uk.) Continue reading →

2021: A Year in Books

24 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by in Books, Fiction, Non-Fiction

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Among all the great new writing and reissues I’ve found this year, it’s clear that the world of books, like film, is becoming ever more diverse and we are all richer for it. After a long absence, Gayl Jones returned with the monumental Palmares, following a woman’s epic journey from slavery to an embattled free settlement and beyond. Set in 17th century Brazil, this story contains multitudes, offering an extraordinary meditation on the cost of freedom. Continue reading →

Sal Jones Gives Christine (and Marilyn) the Last Laugh

12 Friday Jun 2020

Posted by in Art and Photography, Marilyn Monroe, Profumo Affair

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London-based artist Sal Jones, whose paintings were featured in the recent exhibition, Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler, has painted another portrait, ‘The Last Laugh,’ based on a candid photo taken by the pool at Cliveden during that fateful summer of 1961. Continue reading →

Dear Christine: A Tribute in Art, Poetry and Prose

13 Wednesday May 2020

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Dear Christine: A Tribute to Christine Keeler first took root in 2014, when Fionn Wilson painted a set of four portraits in black and white, based on 1960s photographs by Lewis Morley and others. Like myself, Fionn first discovered Keeler in retrospect. She asked other women artists, some of whom had lived through the Profumo Affair to contribute works about Christine. For many of us, her story represents a rite of passage. As Fionn notes in her foreword to the exhibition catalogue, the scandal “let the genie of sex out of the bottle” and “dealt a death blow” to class deference. At the same time, it unleashed a brave new world of tabloid exposure. “Never had the press been so bold and it has never looked back.” Continue reading →