Latest news with #NationalLampoon'sVacation
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Legendary Hollywood star spotted in scenic Scots seaside town
Do you recognise who it is? A LEGENDARY Hollywood star delighted punters after he was spotted in a scenic Scottish seaside town. Chevy Chase, 81, is famous for playing Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Vacation and starring in the first season of Saturday Night Live in the 70s. 5 Chevy Chase visited The Smithy with his family for lunch Credit: FACEBOOK: The Smithy 5 He also posed with staff after having dinner in The Fox and Willow Credit: FACEBOOK: The Fox & Willow 5 He is famous for playing Clark Griswold in National Lampoon's Vacation Credit: Alamy And he surprised fans after he was seen visiting multiple places across Ayrshire yesterday. The US actor and comedian was spotted inside The Fox and Willow in Ayr after popping into The Smithy coffee shop in Prestwick. It is understood that Chevy is in the area for a family wedding, and fans were delighted to see him exploring local towns. Staff at The Smithy were stunned by his visit after he came with his family to enjoy some lunch. The cafe and bakery shared snaps with the Community star while he was there, and shared them on their social media pages. Posting on Facebook, staff wrote: "Thanks to Chevy Chase and his family for stopping by for some lunch today at The Smithy at Sandyford. "HASTE YE BACK (come back soon)". A few hours later, workers The Fox and Willow shared their own snaps with Chevy after he decided to visit them for dinner. The gastropub teased that the actor would be returning over the weekend and urged locals to keep an eye out for him. Staff beamed in the snaps as they posed with him outside the venue. Legendary comedy actor looks unrecognisable as he celebrates 80th birthday, The post was captioned: "Who joined us for dinner tonight... Do you recognise this face? "He enjoyed his meal so much that he's coming back at the weekend!" Excited fans flocked to the comments after the post racked up more than 1,300 likes, comments and shares. One person said: "Wow. What an actor". Another added: "This is amazing!!!" Someone else wrote: "Wowzers! Such a legend!" And a fourth posted: "Wow….you get the best clientele at the Fox and Willow!" While a fifth chimed in: "Noooo way!!!!! Absolute legend". 5 Fans were delighted when they saw he was in Ayr Credit: GC Images
New York Post
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Christie Brinkley thanks ‘Vacation' co-star for saving her from going topless in classic comedy
Christie Brinkley has Beverly D'Angelo to thank for not going topless in 'National Lampoon's Vacation.' The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model appeared in the 1983 comedy as the flirty 'Girl in the Ferrari' opposite Chevy Chase. Viewers witnessed how Chase's character, Clark Griswold, struggled to keep his eyes on the road as the blonde bombshell in the sports car beside him zoomed between lanes. Meanwhile, Griswold's wife Ellen was asleep in the passenger seat. In Brinkley's new memoir, 'Uptown Girl,' the pinup described how the producers of the film asked her to go topless for a scene, but she refused. 'The most memorable part of filming was the scene where I bump into Chevy's character at a motel pool and talk him into going skinny-dipping, which we shot at two in the morning,' wrote Brinkley in an excerpt obtained by Fox News Digital. 'That's when the production team asked me to go topless for the shot, but I wasn't comfortable with it: I knew very well by then that part of my appeal as a model was that men had to imagine what was underneath my swimsuit, and I wasn't about to give that away for what I thought would be a small, goofy movie. (None of us at the time ever suspected 'National Lampoon's Vacation'would take off the way it did).' 9 In Christie Brinkley's new memoir, 'Uptown Girl,' she described how the producers of the film asked her to go topless for a scene in 'National Lampoon's Vacation.' Warner Bros. 9 Brinkley played a blonde bombshell in the sports car beside Chevy Chase's character, Clark Griswold. Warner Bros. 9 Brinkley says that co-star Beverly D'Angelo, who portrays Griswold's wife Ellen, saved her from doing a nude scene. Warner Bros. 'When the production team asked again about the possibility of nudity — and I couldn't blame them for trying — Beverly walked out onto set in the nick of time. 'I'll do it,' she said. 'I'll be the one to go topless! You'll get your t—ies.' I couldn't have loved her more [at] that moment. And in my opinion, the scene between Chevy and me is funnier and cleverer because I throw my bra and panties at him from off camera, and all that the viewers can see are his oversized facial expressions.' Brinkley, 71, told Fox News Digital she was thankful to have D'Angelo, 73, step in and save her that day. 'I was so grateful from day one when I got there,' she said. 'I arrived at the location, and I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. I was in this motel in the middle of nowhere, and then I got a call from Beverly right away saying, 'Hey! Welcome. We're all going to head out and grab a bite to eat. Why don't you come with us?' That's the kind of thing that just puts you at ease and lets you feel like, 'I can relax. I've got a friend.'' 9 According to Brinkley, D'Angelo 'walked out onto set in the nick of time. 'I'll do it,' she said. 'I'll be the one to go topless!'' Getty Images Chase, 81, was just as welcoming, Brinkley revealed in her book. '[He asked] me for my 'beauty secrets' in his own hilarious way: 'Christie, you gotta give me tips to make my hair look thicker!' she wrote. 'As funny as he was, he was also shy, a combination I found endearing, and we quickly developed a playful chemistry that translated on-screen.' Brinkley has been photographed on six continents, in more than 30 countries and has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers worldwide. But in the five decades she's been modeling, Brinkley has never posed nude. 9 'I knew very well by then that part of my appeal as a model was that men had to imagine what was underneath my swimsuit, and I wasn't about to give that away,' Brinkley said. Getty Images 9 Brinkley details her experiences with Chase and D'Angelo in her memoir. Janet Mayer/Shutterstock 'I really knew that I wanted to be a mom, and I didn't want [my children] to go to school and have some kid go, 'There's your mom! I see your mom!'' the star told Fox News Digital. 'And so, I just made that decision. And then I think people knew. I think there was something about me that I didn't attract that kind of… I didn't have photographers saying or trying to get me to strip down all the time. It just didn't happen.' In her memoir, Brinkley emphasized that she never posed in her birthday suit. 'To be clear… if anyone asked me to pose nude, which they eventually did, I said no,' Brinkley wrote. 'To this day, I have never done a nude shoot — not because I'm a prude, but because I've always wanted to be a mom, and I never wanted my kids to be embarrassed by nude photos of their mother circulating somewhere in the magazine world. Plus, I think it's much sexier to suggest than to show it all.' 9 Brinkley has been photographed in more than 30 countries. 9 Brinkley has written 'Uptown Girl.' 'I've refused to do other things as a model, too, most notably when, a few months into my career, a client asked me to fly to the South of France to accompany a group of men on a yacht in the Mediterranean,' Brinkley wrote. 'The job, they said, would be to be nice to everyone on board, because everyone on board could be beneficial to my career. The trip would include an overnight, but in the morning, I could fly back to Paris — no harm, no foul.' 'I may have been a naïve kid from Malibu, but nothing about the trip sounded right to me,' she shared. 'Where, after all, was the modeling part? I heard rumors that other models with more successful careers at the time had taken the same trip and come back with fancy cars, jewelry, and a new magazine cover, but none of that mattered to me. If I was going to get ahead in the industry, I wanted to do it on my own terms, not underneath someone else's.' 'That proposed trip was the only time in my career I was ever asked, directly or indirectly, for a sexual favor,' Brinkley continued. 'I know that makes me one of the lucky few, and I like to think that once you declare your worth, no one questions it again, but I know that's not true, either. Instead, you have to declare your worth over and over again, if not in one way, then in another — especially in an industry like modeling, where fame, money, and misconceptions can run wild. 'But as long as you believe in yourself, it doesn't really matter what other people want or ask you to do. You write your own script… And as long as I'm writing my own script, I'm also going to call my own shots, no matter which side of the camera I'm on.' 9 'To this day, I have never done a nude shoot — not because I'm a prude, but because I've always wanted to be a mom, and I never wanted my kids to be embarrassed by nude photos of their mother,' Brinkley said. For decades, Brinkley was known as 'America's Sweetheart,' a title that suited her just fine. 'It's very sweet,' she told Fox News Digital. 'I never really took it literally. I just thought that it's a compliment you take with a grain of salt. But it was very pleasant and sweet that they wanted to say something nice about me.' Brinkley said she has zero regrets about her stance. Today, she hopes her story will inspire others to live life on their own terms. 'Now I can look back and go, 'Wow, I did that. Good for me,'' she said.
NBC News
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- NBC News
Christie Brinkley recalls Billy Joel's 7-word response to her writing a memoir
Christie Brinkley, one of the most recognizable faces in modeling, offers a revealing glimpse into the challenges of being one of the world's original supermodels in her new memoir, 'Uptown Girl.' Gracing the cover of more than 500 magazines and appearing in memorable movies like the 1983 hit film, ' National Lampoon's Vacation,' Brinkley's career spans five decades, and she delves into much of it in her new book. 'I just want to tell some stories,' Brinkley tells in a sit-down interview. 'I hope it'll be a nice diversion in a world that can use a good book every now and then, take you away on a little adventure.' From being discovered at a payphone in Paris to being kicked out of Frank Sinatra's hotel room, 'Uptown Girl' offers insight behind Brinkley's upbringing in Southern California and her ascent to the top of the modeling world. The book also explores her four marriages (and divorces), including 11 years she spent with Billy Joel. It's the music legend who penned 'Uptown Girl,' the song that inspired the memoir's title, which has become Brinkley's enduring nickname — in spite of the fact that, according to the supermodel, it wasn't initially written for her. Brinkley writes in her memoir that it started out as a song for a 'mystery girl' Joel had been having phone conversations with, but when his relationship with Brinkley began, he finished it in her honor. Their relationship was then immortalized in the hit song's iconic music video, in which Brinkley appears in. 'Dancing in the kitchen' with Billy Joel In 'Uptown Girl,' Brinkley, 71, opens up about her various heartbreaks, difficult early childhood with an abusive father and the helicopter accident that almost claimed her life in 1994. However, the model says that opening up about her marriage to Joel was the most difficult part of penning the memoir. 'The hardest thing to include was criticism of Billy, because I do care about my friendship with him,' she says of the chapters that reveal Joel's heavy drinking and suggested affairs, which has been making headlines since her book came out. 'In the book, I feel like I balanced, very much, about how happy we were and how joy-filled our days were,' she says of their marriage. 'It was literally dancing in the kitchen as we cooked, singing together, and making each other laugh. It was a beautiful, wonderful relationship.' According to the memoir, that relationship became strained, in part, after Joel sued Frank Weber, his former manager, for having allegedly siphoned off his profits. It was a betrayal that Brinkley writes left Joel 'withdrawn and stressed' as singer-songwriter felt immense pressure to recoup his financial loss. 'He was going through extraordinary circumstances in his life, things most people wouldn't ever have to deal with,' she describes. Despite the vulnerable nature of the admissions, Brinkley says they were important to include in the memoir. 'I did have to go there because that was the reality.' Brinkley tells that Joel had given his blessing to talk candidly about the ups and downs of their longtime relationship. 'He said, 'Just say what you need to say,'' Brinkley recalls. 'And I think that's part of his healing, so I applaud him for all of that. It takes a lot of courage.' The new memoir reveals some darker times in their relationship, including instances of Brinkley waking up in the middle of the night to discover Joel was missing, then him returning home in the wee hours of the morning after being out drinking all night. She also writes about the growing distance in their marriage that ultimately left her feeling 'lonely, despite the fact that he was right there.' It was a loneliness so pervasive that Brinkley was thinking about Joel as she boarded a helicopter in Colorado, shortly after their separation in 1994, and wondered if the crooner would be worried about her embarking on a trip to go heli-skiing. 'For a moment I thought about my husband, Billy, whom I'd split with again, and hoping this trip to Telluride would wake him up to the reality that he might actually lose me,' she writes. What she didn't know was that shortly after, the helicopter would crash into the San Juan mountains, leaving Brinkley and several companions temporarily stranded until they were rescued. Though Joel ultimately flew to her side and jetted her back to Long Island aboard a private plane, her dream of their reunion was dashed when she overheard him on the phone saying to an unknown caller, 'No, don't worry. I'm not going back to her. I just need to see her through this.'' The revelation brought home the fact that their marriage was over. Two weeks later, they announced their divorce and as she penned in her memoir, 'the dream broke apart like debris.' Despite their divorce, Brinkley tells that they still remain friends. 'He's a very loyal guy. He's loyal to his friends, he's generous. He just had a lot of stresses on him at the point when we were together and it just kind of came crashing down on us.' 'I was raised to be grateful' Outside of her marriage, the helicopter crash changed her life in other ways. 'I went through a phase of post-traumatic stress disorder,' she says of the accident that left her clinging to the side of a mountain amid a pile of helicopter wreckage. 'One of the hallmarks is bad decision-making. And I made quite a few, which I lay out in the book and that chapter was hard to write just because I didn't want to think about any of (the helicopter crash). I didn't want to go back to that place. At the time when it happened, I actually thought it was so awful, I wanted to purge it from my body and from my memory banks.' While she's endured her fair share of trauma, Brinkley remains the eternal optimist, both in love and life. 'I was raised in a very positive household, so I was raised to be grateful and counting my blessings and to know the good things that I have, no matter what,' she says. Among those blessings are Brinkley's three children: Alexa Ray Joel, 39, her daughter with Joel, as well as her son, Jack Brinkley-Cook, 29, and other daughter, Sailor Brinkley-Cook, 26, both of whom she shares with her ex-husband Peter Cook. While appearing on the April 28 episode of "TODAY," Brinkley shared that out of her three children, her oldest daughter is the one who's read most of her memoir and that she loves it. 'She was kind of blown away by it,' said Brinkley. As for the other two, the model joked that her younger children 'skimmed through' it and said, 'We know her!' but otherwise, 'I don't think they understand the reason to read it.' 'This is not a revenge novel' Though Brinkley has released two other books, including a 1983 fitness book and 'Timeless Beauty,' a wellness guide published in 2015, 'Uptown Girl' is her first memoir, and she wants readers to take something positive away from her experiences. 'I just really hope people understand that the book is much more than rehashing divorces,' she explains, referring to her other marriages to Jean-Francois Allaux, Richard Taubman and Cook, all of which ended in divorce. 'This is not a revenge novel. It's filled with joy and when there are bad moments, it's sort of how to keep going and not let them pull you down,' she says. 'And how to stay positive and maybe learn something from it or let it propel you into someplace that you didn't dare go before.'
Fox News
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Fox News
Christie Brinkley's ‘National Lampoon' co-star Beverly D'Angelo saved her from going topless in film
Christie Brinkley has Beverly D'Angelo to thank for not going topless in "National Lampoon's Vacation." The Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model appeared in the 1983 comedy as the flirty "Girl in the Ferrari" opposite Chevy Chase. Viewers witnessed how Chase's character, Clark Griswold, struggled to keep his eyes on the road as the blonde bombshell in the sports car beside him zoomed between lanes. Meanwhile, Griswold's wife Ellen [D'Angelo] was asleep in the passenger seat. In Brinkley's new memoir, "Uptown Girl," the pinup described how the producers of the film asked her to go topless for a scene, but she refused. "The most memorable part of filming was the scene where I bump into Chevy's character at a motel pool and talk him into going skinny-dipping, which we shot at two in the morning," wrote Brinkley in an excerpt obtained by Fox News Digital. "That's when the production team asked me to go topless for the shot, but I wasn't comfortable with it: I knew very well by then that part of my appeal as a model was that men had to imagine what was underneath my swimsuit, and I wasn't about to give that away for what I thought would be a small, goofy movie. (None of us at the time ever suspected 'National Lampoon's Vacation' would take off the way it did)." "When the production team asked again about the possibility of nudity — and I couldn't blame them for trying — Beverly walked out onto set in the nick of time. 'I'll do it,' she said. 'I'll be the one to go topless! You'll get your t---ies.' I couldn't have loved her more [at] that moment. And in my opinion, the scene between Chevy and me is funnier and cleverer because I throw my bra and panties at him from off camera, and all that the viewers can see are his oversized facial expressions." Brinkley, 71, told Fox News Digital she was thankful to have D'Angelo, 73, step in and save her that day. "I was so grateful from day one when I got there," she said. "I arrived at the location, and I wasn't really sure what to do with myself. I was in this motel in the middle of nowhere, and then I got a call from Beverly right away saying, 'Hey! Welcome. We're all going to head out and grab a bite to eat. Why don't you come with us?' That's the kind of thing that just puts you at ease and lets you feel like, 'I can relax. I've got a friend.'" Chase, 81, was just as welcoming, Brinkley revealed in her book. "[He asked] me for my 'beauty secrets' in his own hilarious way: 'Christie, you gotta give me tips to make my hair look thicker!' she wrote. "As funny as he was, he was also shy, a combination I found endearing, and we quickly developed a playful chemistry that translated on-screen." Brinkley has been photographed on six continents, in more than 30 countries and has appeared on more than 500 magazine covers worldwide. But in the five decades she's been modeling, Brinkley has never posed nude. "I really knew that I wanted to be a mom, and I didn't want [my children] to go to school and have some kid go, 'There's your mom! I see your mom!'" the star told Fox News Digital. "And so, I just made that decision. And then I think people knew. I think there was something about me that I didn't attract that kind of… I didn't have photographers saying or trying to get me to strip down all the time. It just didn't happen." In her memoir, Brinkley emphasized that she never posed in her birthday suit. "To be clear… if anyone asked me to pose nude, which they eventually did, I said no," Brinkley wrote. "To this day, I have never done a nude shoot — not because I'm a prude, but because I've always wanted to be a mom, and I never wanted my kids to be embarrassed by nude photos of their mother circulating somewhere in the magazine world. Plus, I think it's much sexier to suggest than to show it all." SUPERMODEL CHRISTIE BRINKLEY SHARES BEAUTY SECRETS "I've refused to do other things as a model, too, most notably when, a few months into my career, a client asked me to fly to the South of France to accompany a group of men on a yacht in the Mediterranean," Brinkley wrote. "The job, they said, would be to be nice to everyone on board, because everyone on board could be beneficial to my career. The trip would include an overnight, but in the morning, I could fly back to Paris — no harm, no foul." "I may have been a naïve kid from Malibu, but nothing about the trip sounded right to me," she shared. "Where, after all, was the modeling part? I heard rumors that other models with more successful careers at the time had taken the same trip and come back with fancy cars, jewelry, and a new magazine cover, but none of that mattered to me. If I was going to get ahead in the industry, I wanted to do it on my own terms, not underneath someone else's." "That proposed trip was the only time in my career I was ever asked, directly or indirectly, for a sexual favor," Brinkley continued. "I know that makes me one of the lucky few, and I like to think that once you declare your worth, no one questions it again, but I know that's not true, either. Instead, you have to declare your worth over and over again, if not in one way, then in another — especially in an industry like modeling, where fame, money, and misconceptions can run wild. "But as long as you believe in yourself, it doesn't really matter what other people want or ask you to do. You write your own script… And as long as I'm writing my own script, I'm also going to call my own shots, no matter which side of the camera I'm on." For decades, Brinkley was known as "America's Sweetheart," a title that suited her just fine. "It's very sweet," she told Fox News Digital. "I never really took it literally. I just thought that it's a compliment you take with a grain of salt. But it was very pleasant and sweet that they wanted to say something nice about me." Brinkley said she has zero regrets about her stance. Today, she hopes her story will inspire others to live life on their own terms. "Now I can look back and go, 'Wow, I did that. Good for me,'" she said.
