Gillian Anderson Joining e Loving “The Great”

By Jill Brooke

Hulu is saying it with flowers – by introducing Gillian Anderson as the newest cast member of Hulu’s “The Great” with this photo of the actress festooned in an over-the-top floral dress! It just screams drama and style.

Don’t you just adore this hat and dress designed by Catherine Martin, who also created the designs for “Moulin Rouge,” and “The Great Gatsby.”

“I like transforming things with pattern,” Martin has said.

In the comedy-drama, billed as “anti-historical,” Anderson will play the mother of Catherine the Great, Empress of All Russia, played by the charming Elle Fanning. The second season of the series will run on Hulu starting November 19th.

Anderson just won oodles of awards for her impeccable performance as Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in “The Crown.”

We also can’t wait to see the flowers in the series that were nominated for “The Best-Dressed Rooms in TV and Film Awards” under the category of floral design for its beautiful floral fabrics, furniture, costumes and breathtaking landscapes.

Style icon Cornelia Guest noted how the series “had whimsy and the colors were beautiful. And those hedges. The hedges were beautifully crafted.”

As Variety. revealed, the new series consists of 10 episodes. Season 2 will see Catherine coup Peter and take the throne for herself, after which she must fight everyone in her life to bring the ideology of the Age of the Enlightenment to her reluctant new country. Anderson’s Joanna is one of Catherine’s many adversaries in that struggle.

The Russians, like the British, adore their flowers. In fact, the Russians have created a market just for 3 foot rose stems. So it’s not a surprise that this Hulu’s miniseries was full of flowers.

Merle Ginsberg, Style Editor, Los Angeles Magazine is excited to see Anderson in this role. “She is one actress who can really wear a costume – work a costume,” observes Ginsberg. “She’s done a LOT of period pieces, and has it down – from her movement to her facial expressions. This floral-on-black look she’s sporting is just divine, and without the hat, could even work right now. It’s all about black and cabbage patch roses print right now.”

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 and floral editor for aspire design and home magazine