By Jill Brooke
Gal Gadot, who starred as “Wonder Woman” will now portray “Cleopatra.”
Paramount Studios won the auction to take another crack at the historical movie about the Egyptian queen, which in 1963 starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.
“It will be with the ‘Wonder Woman’ team of director Patty Jenkins and will star Gal Gadot as Queen of the Nile,” says showbiz411’s Roger Friedman. “Who will play Mark Antony? Don’t think it will be Chris Pine who was Gadot’s love interest before. But you never know these days.”
What we do know is that Cleopatra is a meaty female-strong role for one of the world’s most popular actresses who was also named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people.
And we can safely assume that flowers will likely be in abundance in the movie.
Historically, Cleopatra loved the lotus flower and especialloy roses.
She would take a rose bath every day and would also use the perfume of the rose blossoms to scent the sails of her royal ship. In fact, researchers calculated that her use of floral fragrances to perfume her body would cost the equivalent of $800 a day.
Not only that, but she would also experiment with poisons that would be camouflaged in flowers.
At one memorable gathering, she placed a few deadly drops on flower petals and had the flowers woven into the chaplet which Antony was to wear at supper.
She playfully plucked the flowers from his head and put the petals into wine. Prior to putting the poisoned wine to his lips, she said, “If it were possible for me to live without you, how easy it would be for me to devise ways and means to kill you.”
But she never did since Antony was the love of her life.
However, to prove her point, she did have a servant drink the poisoned wine who subsequently died.
Just recently, there was a two-hour Science Channel special titled, “Cleopatra: Sex, Lies and Secrets,” which followed archaeologist Dr. Kathleen Martinez uncovering Cleopatra’s long-disputed resting place.
Many industry insiders are very excited about the upcoming movie production with florists getting their resumes ready to pitch for the job.
Plus it will be fun for Gal Gadot to be in this movie.
As she once said in an Instagram she shared, “Surround yourself with flowers and have a beautiful day.”
Jill Brooke is a former CNN correspondent, Post columnist and editor-in-chief of Avenue and Travel Savvy magazine. She is an author and the editorial director of FPD.