Paul Barnaby

Known for her towering turban of tropical fruit, Brazilian-born Portuguese singer, dancer and actress Carmen Miranda was a celebrated star of the silver screen, stage and radio. Skyrocketing to fame in the 1930s on Brazilian radio, Carmen was offered a Broadway contract by producer Lee Shubert, a starring role in a Busby Berkeley movie and even the chance to perform in front of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1943.

Impresario of the silver screen and creator of beloved theme parks around the world, Walt Disney combined the roles of entrepreneur, dreamer and businessman. It should come as no surprise then that Disney’s long-time LA home is an homage to his life’s work. Externally lavish and elegant, but packed with whimsical touches on the inside, it's much like the famous ‘easter egg’ details he liked to lace into his films.

In​ the dreadful 2001 film version of Louis de Bernières’s novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, a miscast Nicolas Cage plays the soldier hero. The opening scene depicts the (second) Italian invasion of Greece in 1941. Mussolini’s first invasion, in 1940, had been a political and military disaster, the first sign that Italian fascism’s ambitious war aims were unlikely to succeed.