Word: imelda
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...walls had been appropriated at will by the Marcoses from the Metropolitan Museum of Manila. Scrapbooks contained photographs of properties in New York City and London, presumably belonging to the royal couple. Bea Zobel, an art collector who led volunteers in sorting through the Marcoses' possessions, noted that Imelda may have spent as much as several million dollars on jewels and antiques in a single day. Given her husband's official salary of $5,700 a year, such a shopping spree amounted to more than 500 years' income for the former First Couple. "The Marcoses did not realize the value...
Even more graphic evidence of decadent splendor, Marcos-style, was afforded by a private collection of more than 500 videotapes unearthed in Manila and New York. In one of the tapes, taken by an exclusive presidential crew, Imelda cavorts with bejeweled guests in a private Malacańang disco, complete with disk jockey's booth and man-made waterfall. Another video chronicles an abandoned bacchanal aboard the presidential yacht, celebrating the birthday of the youngest of the three Marcos offspring, Irene Araneta, last year. A man in a baby bonnet bursts out of a cake. The First Lady jives under flashing...
...visitors found themselves inside a bizarre combination of Macy's and the palace at Versailles. As hundreds of Manila's poorest, many of them in ragged clothes and rubber sandals, shuffled between golden ropes through Malacańang Palace, the residence of former President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife Imelda, they witnessed a show of conspicuous consumption beyond their imaginings. Inside Imelda's boudoir were two queen-size beds on an elevated platform, and a grand piano. The former First Lady's washbasin was made of gold. Downstairs, in a not-so-bargain basement, the woman who used to refer...
...third video, discovered inside one of the Marcoses' semiofficial New York residences, showed Imelda, in black velvet and diamonds, as hostess at a dinner party for Saudi Arabian Billionaire Adnan Khashoggi in a plush Manhattan town house. "You have contributed a lot," says her guest in a gallant toast. "History will judge...
Even more frustrating to Solondz is when filmmakers he respects lose their integrity in pursuit of a wider audience. While discussing his favorite filmmakers, Solondz raised writer/director Mike Leigh’s recent movie, “Vera Drake,” in which Imelda Staunton gave an Oscar-nominated performance as the titular abortionist, as an example of when great filmmakers go bad. Solondz takes pains to praise Leigh’s talents as a “masterful filmmaker, the actors were beautiful, it was beautifully shot and it’s a wonderful indictment of a patriarchal...