It is with sadness that we announce the closing of The Helen Mirren Appreciation Society and this website. The HMAS has had a 13 year history, filled with wonderful experiences, fun meetings with Helen, lively discussion and good friendships. We are shutting our doors, effective later this summer, and by mutual agreement transferring the domains over to Helen's management.
The members of the HMAS continue to support and admire Helen Mirren and will be found wherever Helen appears on screen or stage, as well as participating in the variety of other options for online conversation.
We encourage fans to visit Helen's new website: http://www.helenmirrenofficial.com/
Current and former HMAS members are welcome to join the newly created Facebook Group - The Helen Mirren Appreciation Society (HMAS) to reconnect and continue to admire Helen together.
Best regards,
Ann and Nadine
Administrators of the HMAS
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Painted Lady singer Darren in concert
The location: Barford St Michael Church, South Newington Rd, Barford St Michael, Oxfordshire OX15 0RJ
Tickets £5 on door or from Barbara 01869 338207 or email susan.addison@virgin.net
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Inkheart set to open in US cinemas on Jan 23rd
Author Cornelia Funke's best-selling children's novel comes to vivid life on the big screen with this family-friendly tale about a bookbinder whose storytelling skills possess the curious power to transport the characters he speaks about into the real world. Brendan Fraser and Helen Mirren star.
See photos, trailers and get Inkheart movie tickets
See photos, trailers and get Inkheart movie tickets
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Helen Crowned "The Most Stylish Woman"
Helen was awarded the title at The Inspiration Awards for Women. Among the other nominees were Keira Knightley, Yasmin Le Bon and Agyness Deyn.
Helen was quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "I appreciate beauty, and I know I'm not beautiful, so I know it's not to do with that. I appreciate overt gorgeousness, sexiness - like the Marilyn Monroe type of thing - and I know I'm not that, so I don't see it, and I don't get it."
Helen was quoted by the Telegraph as saying: "I appreciate beauty, and I know I'm not beautiful, so I know it's not to do with that. I appreciate overt gorgeousness, sexiness - like the Marilyn Monroe type of thing - and I know I'm not that, so I don't see it, and I don't get it."
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Taymor's Tempest
Julie Taymor, a
ward-winning writer-director and best known for creating "The Lion King" on Broadway and directing the Oscar-winning "Frida" and "Across the Universe",
is gathering a Oscar-studded cast for her big-screen adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest" that, in a gender-defying twist, will see Helen Mirren reigning over the magical island.
The play centers on Prospero, an exiled duke-turned-sorcerer, Taymor -- who likes to take an experimental approach to her stage and film projects -- has rechristened the lead character Prospera so that Mirren can take on the role.
Cast includes Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Ben Wishaw and Felicity Jones. Geoffrey Rush is in negotiations to join the cast. The movie is set to be filmed on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
The play centers on Prospero, an exiled duke-turned-sorcerer, Taymor -- who likes to take an experimental approach to her stage and film projects -- has rechristened the lead character Prospera so that Mirren can take on the role.
Cast includes Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Russell Brand, Alfred Molina, Ben Wishaw and Felicity Jones. Geoffrey Rush is in negotiations to join the cast. The movie is set to be filmed on the Hawaiian island of Lanai.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
The book that changed Helen's life
Book Aid International is sponsoring an Online Charity Auction to raise money for their work in sub-Saharan Africa, taking place on eBay between 13 and 27 October.
Various celebrities from the literary and political world have donated the book they feel changed their lives, and signed and inscribed it.
Helen Mirren has signed a copy of "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky.
Other contributors include Iain Banks, Sir Richard Branson, Cherie Booth, David Cameron, Robbie Coltrane, David Dimbleby, Sebastian Faulks, Julian Fellowes, Frederick Forsyth, Michael Howard, Sir David Jason, Boris Johnson, Gary Lineker, Dick King-Smith, Meera Syal, and Twiggy. Visit and click on the "News" tab for more info
The auction takes place at
If you want to learn more about the book that Helen says changed her life, and for those unlucky enough not to win the auction, you can read and/or purchase Suite Francaise from Amazon.com
Various celebrities from the literary and political world have donated the book they feel changed their lives, and signed and inscribed it.
Helen Mirren has signed a copy of "Suite Francaise" by Irene Nemirovsky.
Other contributors include Iain Banks, Sir Richard Branson, Cherie Booth, David Cameron, Robbie Coltrane, David Dimbleby, Sebastian Faulks, Julian Fellowes, Frederick Forsyth, Michael Howard, Sir David Jason, Boris Johnson, Gary Lineker, Dick King-Smith, Meera Syal, and Twiggy. Visit and click on the "News" tab for more info
The auction takes place at
If you want to learn more about the book that Helen says changed her life, and for those unlucky enough not to win the auction, you can read and/or purchase Suite Francaise from Amazon.com
Friday, September 26, 2008
Helen Mirren to star in Miramax's The Debt
Daniel Battsek, president of Miramax announced that Helen Mirren will star as an undercover Mossad agent in their new film, The Debt.
A remake of the 2007 Israeli film HaHov, The Debt evolves around three Mossad agents who, 20 years after World War II's end, learn that a Nazi war criminal is still alive and set out to pursue him across Europe.
A remake of the 2007 Israeli film HaHov, The Debt evolves around three Mossad agents who, 20 years after World War II's end, learn that a Nazi war criminal is still alive and set out to pursue him across Europe.
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Helen returns to the National Theatre in Phaedra
Helen Mirren will return to the stage next summer to star in a new National Theatre production of Phaedra, directed by NT artistic director Nicholas Hytner. The production, which will co-star Margaret Tyzack, is slated to open in the NT Lyttelton in June 2009.
It will be Mirren’s first stage appearance since winning the Best Actress Oscar for the 2006 film The Queen and her first in six years, having last trod the boards – also at the National – in Howard Davies’ 2003 production of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra.
Mirren takes the title role in Jean Racine’s 1677 classic tragedy, in a version by Ted Hughes, based on a Greek myth about a queen who falls passionately in love with her stepson in her husband’s absence. She follows in the footsteps of other famous Phaedras including Glenda Jackson, Diana Rigg and, most recently at the Donmar Warehouse in 2006, Clare Higgins.
It will be Mirren’s first stage appearance since winning the Best Actress Oscar for the 2006 film The Queen and her first in six years, having last trod the boards – also at the National – in Howard Davies’ 2003 production of Eugene O’Neill’s Mourning Becomes Electra.
Mirren takes the title role in Jean Racine’s 1677 classic tragedy, in a version by Ted Hughes, based on a Greek myth about a queen who falls passionately in love with her stepson in her husband’s absence. She follows in the footsteps of other famous Phaedras including Glenda Jackson, Diana Rigg and, most recently at the Donmar Warehouse in 2006, Clare Higgins.
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Helen clarifies
A statement, released by Helen's publicist:
"Helen Mirren does not dispute the accuracy of statements attributed to her in an upcoming
GQ
article," reads a statement released Tuesday by Mirren's publicist, Stan Rosenfield.
"She merely asks that people read the article in its entirety before drawing conclusions. If they do that, she says, their conclusions will likely be far less sweeping and sensational than those drawn by some in the popular press. She does not wish to qualify any of her remarks. She just wants to avoid having them presented in inflammatory language."
"She merely asks that people read the article in its entirety before drawing conclusions. If they do that, she says, their conclusions will likely be far less sweeping and sensational than those drawn by some in the popular press. She does not wish to qualify any of her remarks. She just wants to avoid having them presented in inflammatory language."
Helen in hot water over GQ interview
Helen Mirren has enraged a number of people over comments in a recent interview, where her earlier admission about date rape in her youth was revisited. Her remarks have been widely quoted, mis-quoted, commented upon and reacted to during the past few days. A number of people have written to the HMAS, either thinking they were addressing Helen herself or simply to say "how can you people admire such a person who said...". Some people have been sincere, upset and confused, others have been merely abusive, including sending death threats and flooding the fan club's inbox with obscenities.
The Helen Mirren Appreciation Society does not speak for Helen in any way, but over the 11 years we've been a formal organisation, we've had the pleasure of meeting Helen on several occasions and our impressions are clear: Helen is a genuinely kind, caring, decent and thoroughly "normal" woman. She doesn't watch her words like a politician, trained in communication and PR skills. Sometimes she says things that get people riled up. In a friendly interview situation, she speaks like you and I do with our friends, and not as someone aware of the impact her words might have on the world - particularly when taken out of context.
From our mailbox, It seems as if people have jumped to a variety of conclusions and impressions from third-person reports and partial quotes, taken out of context. People have attributed motives - for instance that Helen was offering advice or telling women what they could, should or shouldn't do - where we believe no such motives exist. As said before, we don't speak on Helen's behalf, but we believe that these are, in fact, inaccurate assumptions.
One of the reasons we admire Helen Mirren is because she doesn't behave or speak like someone the world should pay a whole lot of attention to - except when she's doing her job. She talks like your friends do, like you do - even when she's giving an interview and a tape recorder is running. Would she be better off if she were more aware of the size of the megaphone and the impact her words could have? Probably. Would the world be better off if Helen stopped talking like a real person, all flesh and fallibility, unguarded and without pretense? Not in our minds.
Here is the related segment from the GQ interview by Piers Morgan, in its entirety: (warning: some expletives used)
The Helen Mirren Appreciation Society does not speak for Helen in any way, but over the 11 years we've been a formal organisation, we've had the pleasure of meeting Helen on several occasions and our impressions are clear: Helen is a genuinely kind, caring, decent and thoroughly "normal" woman. She doesn't watch her words like a politician, trained in communication and PR skills. Sometimes she says things that get people riled up. In a friendly interview situation, she speaks like you and I do with our friends, and not as someone aware of the impact her words might have on the world - particularly when taken out of context.
From our mailbox, It seems as if people have jumped to a variety of conclusions and impressions from third-person reports and partial quotes, taken out of context. People have attributed motives - for instance that Helen was offering advice or telling women what they could, should or shouldn't do - where we believe no such motives exist. As said before, we don't speak on Helen's behalf, but we believe that these are, in fact, inaccurate assumptions.
One of the reasons we admire Helen Mirren is because she doesn't behave or speak like someone the world should pay a whole lot of attention to - except when she's doing her job. She talks like your friends do, like you do - even when she's giving an interview and a tape recorder is running. Would she be better off if she were more aware of the size of the megaphone and the impact her words could have? Probably. Would the world be better off if Helen stopped talking like a real person, all flesh and fallibility, unguarded and without pretense? Not in our minds.
Here is the related segment from the GQ interview by Piers Morgan, in its entirety: (warning: some expletives used)
PM: You have hinted at the fact that you were date-raped when you were younger, more than once.
HM: I was, yes. A couple of times. Not with excessive violence, or being hit, but rather being locked in a room and made to have sex against my will.
PM: But you didn’t report it to the police?
HM: No, you just couldn’t do that in those days. It’s such a tricky area, isn’t it? Especially if there is no violence. I mean, look at Mike Tyson. I don’t think he was a rapist.
PM: Do you think if a woman voluntarily ends up in a man’s bedroom takes all her clothes off and engages in sexual activity in bed with him, she should always have the right to say “no” right to the last second, and if the man ignores her then it’s rape?
HM: Yes. But I don’t think she can have that man into court under those circumstances. I guess it is one of the many subtle parts of the men/women relationship that has to be negotiated. Times have changed. I hate young girls gong around beating each other up, but I love the fierceness of young girls nowadays, and the way they just say, “fuck off”, because I wish I’d been taught to say “fuck off!” when I was younger. I wish I’d had those words in my arsenal of self-defence. Instead, I was polite and didn’t have the courage to say that to men who wouldn’t accept “no” for an answer. I was pretty naïve, I went to a convent school until I was 18, and had never spent a night away from home, or gone to parties, or any of that. So I was very innocent when I went to college in London, and I was living on my own. And I found guys were horrible – mean, rude, insulting, and so without feeling. And I was looking for love and for someone who just liked me, made me laugh and was nice to me. And instead I just met all these creeps.
PM: What would you like your epitaph to be?
HM: “What’s next?”
HM: I was, yes. A couple of times. Not with excessive violence, or being hit, but rather being locked in a room and made to have sex against my will.
PM: But you didn’t report it to the police?
HM: No, you just couldn’t do that in those days. It’s such a tricky area, isn’t it? Especially if there is no violence. I mean, look at Mike Tyson. I don’t think he was a rapist.
PM: Do you think if a woman voluntarily ends up in a man’s bedroom takes all her clothes off and engages in sexual activity in bed with him, she should always have the right to say “no” right to the last second, and if the man ignores her then it’s rape?
HM: Yes. But I don’t think she can have that man into court under those circumstances. I guess it is one of the many subtle parts of the men/women relationship that has to be negotiated. Times have changed. I hate young girls gong around beating each other up, but I love the fierceness of young girls nowadays, and the way they just say, “fuck off”, because I wish I’d been taught to say “fuck off!” when I was younger. I wish I’d had those words in my arsenal of self-defence. Instead, I was polite and didn’t have the courage to say that to men who wouldn’t accept “no” for an answer. I was pretty naïve, I went to a convent school until I was 18, and had never spent a night away from home, or gone to parties, or any of that. So I was very innocent when I went to college in London, and I was living on my own. And I found guys were horrible – mean, rude, insulting, and so without feeling. And I was looking for love and for someone who just liked me, made me laugh and was nice to me. And instead I just met all these creeps.
PM: What would you like your epitaph to be?
HM: “What’s next?”
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