Well…

I started off enjoying this book. Curious because I’d read from Audrey Hepburn biographies that American film studios had assets frozen in Italy and, if they ever wanted to see that money again, they had to come to Italy and spend it there. That’s a story! The story I thought this book would give me.

It did, but it also gave far too much misinformation. I paused my reading often to look up salacious gossip spilled about celebrities I didn’t know well. Was it true? In some form, yes. But when I reached the first chapter on Audrey Hepburn, it was an almost instant DNF. Audrey did not perform cartwheels and back flips on the Spanish Steps to entertain the crew and 10,000 people gathered to watch filming. Just…what?

After that nonsense, I read only the remaining Audrey chapters and looked through the photos at the end. Audrey’s older son, Sean, is quoted in the Audrey chapters, and it’s interesting to see his story on his stepfather’s infidelities change. In this book, published in 2018, we get “two women were brought home” by Audrey’s second husband, Andrea Dotti. And that family and Audrey’s loyal housekeeper, Giovanna, broke the news to her. In 2026, with “Intimate Audrey,” we get the melodramatic mess of an opening to Chapter 10, with Giovanna breaking down in tears and literally beating her own head with her fists, telling signora (Audrey) about the countless women Andrea has brought home to their marital bed and forced Giovanna to serve both him and his lovers breakfast in bed. Very interesting how the story has evolved in 8 years.

Back to “Roman Holiday,” though: it’s informative when it’s not salacious, and I can’t even tell when it’s fibbing because nothing is cited. Not even a bibiography, and I can only assume that the children of celebrities she quotes extensively were interviewed by her for this book, because there is nothing indicating when and where these interviews take place.

For the love of the Eternal City, learn how to cite and source!