SHIRLEY MACLAINE - HEPBURN RECOMMENDED MACLAINE FOR CHANEL ROLE

SHIRLEY MACLAINE has late Hollywood star AUDREY HEPBURN to thank for her new role playing fashion icon COCO CHANEL - because she recommended her for the part more than forty years ago.
MACLaine, who will take the role in a forthcoming mini-series - entitled Coco Chanel - claims Hepburn likened her to the French fashion designer, when the pair starred together in 1961 movie The Children's Hour.
MACLaine says, "She told me I should play Coco Chanel. I said, 'She was a little scrunched over and very short.'
"And she said, 'But the spirit of the woman is what matches your spirit'.
"She was obviously right."
And the 74-year-old admits the comparison isn't necessarily flattering: "I think we are both colourful, we are both rude, and we are both spontaneous. We can't hold what we feel to be the honest opinion in. And I think we are both probably dead."