“We want to assure you that Bulgari has not disappeared from the film industry,” said Stephane Gerschel, of the Italian jewelry house, at the first annual Bulgari Honors Style dinner held at Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood on Thursday, December 12. Gerschel, Bulgari’s international communications director, gave a quick history of the jeweler’s early relationship with Hollywood before introducing a new film the company commissioned directed by Francesco Cinquemani and Nicolaj Pennestri called In the Mood for Jewels. The short movie includes the house’s newest precious jewels styled in inventive new ways (on shoes, in hair, stacked on fingers and wrists).

“We were a small Roman jeweler when Liz Taylor walked into the shop while filming Cleopatra with Richard Burton,” said Gerschel, noting that Taylor and Burton, who starred in the 1963 film, “exchanged a lot of Bulgari jewelry whenever there was a separation and a reunification.” Guests at the dinner experienced partings and unions firsthand as magician David Jarre (the talented son of Charlotte Rampling) borrowed rings from diners for his tricks. Personal gold and platinum keepsakes promptly disappeared after they were handed over to Jarre, only to turn up on Jarre’s keychain or suspended in the air between his fingers. Taylor and Burton would have loved that parlor trick.

by Elizabeth Varnell

Pictured: Stephane Gerschel & Marta Pozzan
Photo by Stefanie Keenan