Champagne...and Real Pain

More than 50 years after arriving in Paris, Maggi Nolan, former society columnist for the legendary Herald Tribune, has written a moving account of life in Paris in the fifties. She left America in 1946, and soon took on a new existence at the heart of high-end bohemia, rubbing elbows with the rich, the famous and the wonderfully original at Maxim's, the Ritz, and La Tour D'Argent. People like Maurice Chevalier, Olivia de Havilland, J. Paul Getty, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, Princess Grace of Monaco, Aly Khan, Ari Onassis, and many more! They were all there, and Maggi reveals them with surprising candor, splendor and untold tales, capturing the spirit of an age gone by. But beneath the glory, there was more. While sipping champagne with Yul Brynner, Darryl Zanuck, or the Duchess of Windsor, Maggi led a private battle. Harassed by a womanizing husband, Maggi struggled to keep the custody of her two daughters, at a time when the role of women in society was greatly confined by laws biased by tradition. The power of Maggi's story grows from the contrast between the glamour and the pain, held against the elegance and mythic quality of Paris' international community of stars, royalty, and celebrities.