Director Stanley Donen talks about Audrey’s first meeting with Cary Grant and it’s pretty cute.
I arranged a dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant in Paris. Audrey and I arrived first. Cary came in, and Audrey stood up and said, ‘I’m so nervous.’ He said, ‘Why?’ And she said, ‘Meeting you, working with you—I’m so nervous.’ And he said, ‘Don’t be nervous, for goodness’ sake. I’m thrilled to know you. Here, sit down at the table. Put your palms up, put your head down and take a few deep breaths.’
We all sit down, and Audrey put her hands on the table. I had ordered a bottle of red wine. When she put her head down, she hit the bottle, and the wine went all over Cary’s cream-colored suit. Audrey was humiliated. People at other tables were looking, and everybody was buzzing. It was an horrendous moment. Cary was a half hour from his hotel, so he took off his coat and comfortably sat through the whole meal like that.
Audrey said: He took it so well, rather like he did in Charade when I dropped the ice cream on his suit. That scene came out of that experience in the restaurant. Can you imagine how I felt? I wanted to crawl into a hole. I felt terrible and kept apologizing, but Cary was so dear about it. The next day he sent me a box of caviar with a little note telling me not to feel bad.
