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"HBO's Liberace Movie, Behind the Candelabra, Set Design\nMichael Douglas and Matt Damon star in the Liberace biopic, which features stunningly extravagant production design\nFor Liberace's master bedroom at his Las Vegas mansion, production designer Howard Cummings and set decorator Barbara Munch Cameron re-created the pianist/singer's extravagant space on a soundstage using archival photographs and television footage\u2014complete with\u00A0a version of the Sistine Chapel mural on the ceiling. (Liberace commissioned the reproduction from painter Michelangelo Buonarroti, a descendant of Michelangelo.) \"Liberace had a French point of view,\" says Cummings. \"This was his interpretation of Versailles\u2014Liberace's idol was King Ludwig, and he felt he was his reincarnation.\"\n\nThe carved 10-foot-high four-poster features a monogrammed crest, and the walls are covered in a Champagne moir\u00E9 silk. Powder-blue carpeting runs throughout the suite, as it's described in Scott Thorson's 1988 book, Behind the Candelabra: My Life With Liberace, which is the movie's source.\nLiberace had a penchant for opulent bathrooms such as this one, which features Grecian-style marble columns, a brass bar cart, and gold swan tub fittings. As Cummings says, \"The tub was a focal point in the bedroom, and he did this in a lot of his houses.\" In a stroke of luck, the designers came across the son of the man who fabricated the original and who still had the tub mold and drawings. The entertainer's original brass bell (seen at the base of the tub) was discovered at L.A.'s House of Props, and, as the designer notes, Liberace likely used it to \"summon the houseboy for another round of bubbly.\"\nTaking camp to a heavenly new level, Liberace commissioned the artist Buonarroti to paint a portrait of his face\u2014surrounded by cherubim and piano keys\u2014over the bathtub. For the film set, scenic artist Marian Westall painted a mural using Michael Douglas's visage, then scanned, enlarged, and printed it on canvas, which was applied like wallpaper.\nThe designers scoured Hollywood for every available chandelier and candelabra, items as synonymous with Liberace as his elaborately gilded pianos. Shown here is a sitting area of the Las Vegas estate's master bedroom; the portrait is of Liberace's mother, Frances, played by actress and close friend of the entertainer in real life Debbie Reynolds.\n\"Liberace owned about a dozen houses,\" Cummings explains. \"He was a shopaholic and liked to fill them with stuff. He would buy expensive antiques with a provenance and then throw in items from a junk shop. He had no reservations in that way.\" Shown here is a detail of the Las Vegas master bedroom with a portrait of \"Lee,\" as friends knew the entertainer. The portrait of Michael Douglas as Liberace was painted by production designer Alex Tavoularis.\nThorson and Liberace, played by Matt Damon and Michael Douglas, are shown here in another angle of the master bedroom. As for Liberace's design aesthetic, Cummings explains, \"Liberace did two of everything\u2014the crazy matching daybeds had typical '70s bumper detailing on them.\" The statue of the Greek god Hermes outside the window made an earlier appearance (painted gold) in Soderbergh's 2012 film Magic Mike.\nZsa Zsa Gabor's home in Bel Air doubled as the exterior for Liberace's Las Vegas residence. Cummings had a wall built to block the view of Century City and a piano-key design was painted along the pool's edge (the design was retained after filming). Liberace's fondness for Roman sculpture also came into play\u2014Cummings notes: \"We bought up every naked statue of David in the city.\"\nMunch Cameron discovered this ornately detailed reproduction of a 19th-century French Provincial piano with gleaming ormolu detail at the celebrated Los Angeles design emporium Phyllis Morris\u2014where Liberace also shopped. Set in the dining room of Liberace's Vegas home, shooting of this interior scene took place in Gabor's house, with her original curio cabinet in the background.\n\nLocating pianos became urgent business for the shoot. Producer Jerry Weintraub had persuaded the Liberace Foundation to loan one of Liberace's Baldwin pianos and Munch Cameron tracked down this companion to it. For a set decorator working on Liberace, she says, \"it doesn't get any better than this.\"\nThe Los Angeles pied-\u00E0-terre was the only one of Liberace's dozen houses used for filming. Cummings notes that \"Liberace was a mirror fanatic,\" as evidenced by the mirrored storage closets along his bedroom wall. The painted Greek bust on the corner pedestal was also owned by Liberace and was placed in its original spot.\nThe design of the L.A. penthouse reflects a mishmash of Asian, Neoclassical, Baroque, Louis XV, Hollywood Regency, and Art Nouveau styles. Black lacquer, animal prints, Asian prints, red velvet tufted sofas, track lighting, and, of course, crystal candelabra were used in the den, with furniture arranged exactly as it was when Liberace lived there. (The designers located a zebra-print rug at West Hollywood's Lester Carpet, where the entertainer shopped.)\nFor his blockbuster shows at the Las Vegas Hilton, Liberace was known to make his entrance draped in a\u00A016-foot-long sequin-lined fox cape after being driven onstage in a 26-foot Rolls-Royce by his chauffeur and lover, Scott Thorson. The Rolls-Royce used for shooting was Liberace's actual car, loaned by the Liberace Museum in Paradise, Nevada. The original marquee sign now resides at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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