Article 98
Honolulu last stop on 'Doris Duke' film sked
January 1999Honolulu. Final filming on the CBS miniseries "Too Rich: The Secret Life Of Doris Duke" starring Lauren Bacall has begun here. Bacall plays the billionaire tobacco heiress daughter of Duke U. founder James Buchanan Duke. At her death in 1993 at age 80, Doris Duke was one of the wealthiest women in America.
Nine days of filming on the island of Oahu are expected to be completed January 22, said producer Randy Sutter.
The two-part mini, set for February 21 and 23, also stars Richard Chamberlain as Duke's flamboyant butler Bernard Lafferty and Mare Winningham as Duke's adopted daughter Chandi Heffner.
Lafferty, a notorious spendthrift and tippler, had been named executor of three Duke sub-foundations after her death, despite a New York judge's insistence that he be barred from serving on the major foundation. Lafferty died in November 1997, controversy still surrounding his role in Duke's mysterious death.
The Von Zerneck-Sertner Films' production, under the moniker Duke Prods., is not using Duke's 5.5-acre, $50-million-plus Diamond Head estate known as Shangri La, but instead has rented a nearby mansion.
The mini, which also has filmed in Montreal and Los Angeles, highlights only some portions of Duke's life, including periods in Hawaii in the 1930s, when she had a close friendship with Hawaiian Olympic swimming champion and surfer Duke Kahanamoku; and in the 1980s, when she adopted the 35-year-old Heffner.
The Montreal location was used to represent European and New York scenes, and Los Angeles was used because Duke had a house there, Falcon’s Liar. Hawaii is the last location for filming, Sutter said.