Julie Andrews...

MITCHELL FINK WITH LAUREN RUBIN
07/31/2000
New York Daily News
(Copyright 2000 Daily News, L.P.)

Lessons from a 'Lady'

It's taken many years, but the transformation is about to become complete: Eliza Doolittle is Henry Higgins.

Julie Andrews, who starred on Broadway in "My Fair Lady" as the English flower girl and is taught to speak properly by Higgins, is about to perform a similar task for a little girl in director Garry Marshall's next movie.

The movie, which Whitney Houston is producing, is called "The Princess Diaries," and is about the daughter of a single mother who discovers that the father she never knew came from royalty. The problem is, she neither feels like a royal nor speaks like one.

To the rescue comes her paternal grandmother (Andrews), who transforms her into a lady.

The story is expected to start shooting in September.

NEWSFILE: 1 AUGUST 2000