The title is Who is Doris Payne? and it’s a “fact-based film” reports Variety. I read these two facts and was thinking, great, another biopic about an anonymous person who suffered tragically. Then I read a bit further and we’re talking about a film about an international jewel thief whose career spanned five decades with Halle Berry in the lead role. Okay, you’ve got my attention. TV scripted Eunetta Boone penned the script.
After a quick search online I found an article headlined “75-year-old jewel thief looks back” on MSNBC which opens with this:
When Doris Payne went to work, she stepped into her fancy dress, high heels and donned a wide-brimmed hat. Her creamy, mocha skin was made up just so, her handbag always designer. Sometimes a pair of plain gold earrings would do. Always, she looked immaculate, well-to-do.
It was a lonely job. She worked by herself and few people knew what she did.
New York. Colorado. Nevada. California. They all beckoned, and so did Greece and France, England and Switzerland as she plied her trade over five decades.
She is 75 now, and she remembers the things she has done with amusement. Yes, she says, that was me, and she throws back her head and laughs.
There was the February day, eight years ago, when she strolled into the Neiman Marcus store on the Las Vegas Strip and asked to see a pair of diamond earrings.
Hmm, she said. She’d think about it over lunch.
She returned and asked to see diamond rings. Employee Linda Sbrocco showed her several — this one … no, this one … how about that one? Soon Sbrocco was swapping jewelry in and out of cases at a dizzying pace. Payne slipped rings on and off, and had Sbrocco do the same.
Then Payne was gone. And so was a $36,000 marquis cut, 2.48-carat diamond ring.
This was how Doris Payne went about her work as an international jewel thief.
Never did she grab the jewels and run. That wasn’t her way. Instead, she glided in, engaged the clerk in one of her stories, confused them and easily slipped away with a diamond ring, usually to a waiting taxi cab.
I have a mixed opinion on Berry, primarily due to the fact I don’t think she deserved an Oscar for her performance in Monster’s Ball, but at the same time believe she deserved at least a nomination for her performance in Things We Lost in the Fire. Either way, she’s certainly a capable actress and this role seems right up her alley.
The Variety article doesn’t offer any additional information on the production outside of saying J2 partners Justin Berfield and Jason Felts are developing the feature. Interesting fact about that duo is Berfield played Reese on Fox’s “Malcolm in the Middle”.
