Author, screenwriter, essayist, journalist Joan Didion….the high priestess of literature.  I have devoured all of her books.

Now 80 years old, Didion is the égérie of French fashion house, Céline, in their Spring 2015 ad campaign.  How cool is that?  In the same way, Saint Laurent (they’ve dropped the “Yves”) invited Joni Mitchell, 71 years old, to be in theirs.

Didion’s nephew is Griffin Dunne, actor, film-maker and son of Dominick Dunne. For those who haven’t already seen the short documentary film he made on his famous aunt, here it is below.  It is sad….very sad….and beautiful.

For those who don’t know, Didion published a magnificent memoir with an equally magnificent title – The Year of Magical Thinking – following the sudden death of her husband (as they were sitting down to dinner in their Manhattan apartment) in December 2003. Tragically, her only child, Quintana Roo, aged only 39 and a recent bride, died in 2005.  In Didion’s book, Blue Nights, she has pieced together literary snapshots, and retrieved memories about her daughter’s life and death.