Oscar-nominated actresses Helen Mirren and Julie Walters plan to strip down to their bare essentials for the upcoming film Calendar Girls, in which they play the unlikely Women’s Institute pin-ups who posed nude for the 2000 Rylestone and District charity calendar.
The actresses will portray the inspiration behind the calendar, WI members and Tricia Stewart and Angela Baker. The real-life calendar project featured middle-aged WI members photographed doing everyday acts – such as gardening or making jam – wearing nothing but a hat or a string of pearls.
“We knew we wouldn’t have bottoms in,” said Tricia, also Miss October, when the calendar was released. “But we didn’t mind some nipples showing.”
And it seems the film version of the story will be equally tasteful. “Anyone who has seen the calendar will know how much they’ll see,” says director Nigel Cole. “It’s all done, as Kenny Everett used to say, ‘in the best possible taste’.”
The original calendar, developed as a more marketable alternative to the usual WI country landscape edition, was in honour of Angela’s husband John, who died of leukaemia in 1998. The internationally famous collection of nudes raised £500,000 for the Leukaemia Research fund, and eventually sparked a US version.
Makers of the film have made a sizable donation to the cancer fund, and will also donate a percentage of the movie’s profits.
Photo: © Alphapress.com
Photo: © Alphapress.com
