My Funny Valentine 2: Susan Sarandon and The Spanish Steps

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         "Oh, thestreets of Rome are filled with rubble,
        Ancient footprints areeverywhere.
      You can almost think that you'reseein' double
   On a cold, dark night on the SpanishStairs."

  

By Daily Mail Foreign Service


Last updated at 8:24 AMon 13th February 2012.


It is the wideststaircase in Europe, as well as one of Italy's leading attractions.


But the Spanish Stepsnow has a rather more unusual claim to fame – it is, apparently, the site whereactress Susan Sarandon conceived her daughter.


The Thelma and Louisestar shocked an audience in New York with the intimate details, telling themshe had had trouble conceiving – until she visited the 300-year-old steps in1984 with her then boyfriend, Franco Amurri.

S.S. -- Lesser Days



'If anyone out there'shaving trouble getting pregnant, go to Italy,' she said. 


'Have a summer and don'tworry about it and eat and drink and ... ****, and you'll probably getpregnant. And that's what happened with Eva on the Spanish Steps.'

 Miss Sarandon's daughter,Eva Amurri, now 26, is a model and actress.


Miss Sarandon, 65, waswith film director Mr Amurri for more than a year after the end of herrelationship with director Louis Malle.


The actress alsorevealed that as a young woman she had been diagnosed with severeendometriosis, a common cause of infertility.


When actor Alan Cummingquestioned what she said, Sarandon replied: 'On the Spanish Steps? That's whereEva was conceived, on the Spanish Steps?'

S.S. -- Better Days.



The Spanish Steps inRome is the widest staircase in Europe and more than 300 years old and one ofRome's leading attractions.


Three years after herdaughter was born actor Tim Robbins became her long term partner until theysplit in 2009.


Sarandon spoke abouther pregnancy during a conversation with The Good Wife star Alan Cumming.

 

Susan Sarandon with Padma Lakshmi (left) in New York togetherlast week. 



Both women werediagnosed with endometriosis, a common cause of infertility

The Scottish born actorplans to hold a monthly talk with his celebrity friends at an event calledLucid Conversations.


Speaking about herdiagnosis, Miss Sarandon said: 'I had been put in the hospital and they said Ihad very severe endometriosis, which is a condition that a lot of womenhave. 

Blogging research teaches you unusual facts such as SusanSarandon's devotion to ping-pong.




'It's one of these notdiagnosed conditions that can be quite, quite devastating. Actually, PadmaLakshmi had it.'


Lakshmi, host of TopChef and former girlfriend of Salman Rushdie, was unable to conceive for anumber of years before falling pregnant in 2010 with her daughter Krishna


Details of the talkbetween Sarandon and Cumming were reported on a blog post on the HuffingtonPost.


Sarandon and her26-year-old daughter appear together in an advert for the Neiman Marcus store.





        "Gotto hurry on back to my hotel room,
      WhereI've got me a date with Botticelli's niece.
    She promised that she'd be rightthere with me
  When I paint my masterpiece." 

From the top



NOTE:  


I, for one, found thisarticle regarding the "now it can be told" circumstances surroundingthe conception of Susan Sarandon's  26-year old daughter offensive,unnecessary, stupid and vulgar.  Ms. Sarandon, a fine actresswho has long behaved  brashly and expressed her self-appointed "conscience ofthis-and-any-other conceivable generation" opinions loudly and annoyingly, tells a lurid, depressing and disgusting tale (how would you have enjoyed encounteringSarandon and her imamorato in flagrante delicto on your way back to your hotel afterdinner?), irritatingly and I'm sure illegally dragging Francesco de Sanctis' profoundly beautiful 1723-25 Spanish Steps (theScalinata della Trinità dei Monti) into the equation.  


Sarandon's advice to take the summer off to travel to Italy in order to"eat and drink and ... ****" falls squarely into thecelebrity-entitled "nice work if you can get it" department.  Itreminds me of every wealthy boldface talking head on television pretending to be part of the 99% and ignorantly, self-importantly and coldly opining about other people's unemployment and hard luck until the camera panned away or a commercial break struck.  (This happened frequently during the recent coverage of the Occupy New York demonstration in Zuccotti Square.)  When movie starsopen their mouths, one is usually sadly reminded of their mysterious talent for speaking words written by other people and sounding intelligent, moving gracefully, hitting marksand staying in frame, while behaving like preachy unfeeling ignoramuses in most other contexts.  (I'm talking to you, Matt Damon.)


All that being said, I'm genuinely pleased for Susan Sarandon and PadmaLakshmi that they overcame their problems with endomitriosis and infertilityand were able to have children.


Acting is a weird trick.  In the long view, it's quiteunimportant (unlike, for instance Harry Houdini's tricks, which wereactually magic.)  Discretion is and always will be the better part of valor.


(When I Paint My Masterpiece lyric by Bob Dylan.)