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Home , Zsa Zsa Gabor

lifestyle TUESDAY, DECEMBER 20, 2016

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In this file photo, Zsa Zsa Gabor, she appears in the Paquin’s sequence in In this file photo, actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and Herbert Hutner arrive for the New York pre- In this file photo, Zsa Zsa Gabor arrives at London Airport from Paris, in a the role of in director ’s 1952 Technicolor produc- mier of the film ‘The Ugly American.’ Crimson dress and a straw hat. tion ‘ Moulin Rouge’ — AP Photos Zsa Zsa Gabor: A rare, unforgettable celebrity

ou didn’t have to know exactly who she was to appreci- She was a symbol, from the on, of European style and Studebaker Lark, kittenishly calling this midlevel compact “so “Naked Gun 2 1-2” and various other cameo appearances. ate Zsa Zsa Gabor. She belonged to a rare, hard-to-cata- flair, of material and romantic extravagance. She was rich in nice, so chic.” The car featured newfangled disc brakes, and in Dahling, the Zsa Zsa legend cannot die, even in a culture with Ylog vintage of celebrity, not only the great-aunt of Paris more ways than one. She was playful and outspoken. She was her fractured English, Gabor purrs to the audience, “My friend short memories where attention-seekers jostle for camera Hilton, but a true ancestor of Hilton’s jet-set flamboyance. For blessed with a ritzy, come-hither name: Zsaahhhh Zsaahhhh! says I would be in jail from coast to coast if I wouldn’t have time. She lives on, unchallenged, in the cultural ether. such a flashy member of the leisure class, she did plenty, Some of the heavy lifting that helped sustain the Gabor brand them.” In 1989, she hit the brakes and had a celebrated brush Meanwhile, it’s not hard to imagine her in heaven right now, appearing in a number of films, including ’ “Touch was courtesy of Zsa Zsa’s lookalike sister Eva, who shared the with the law while driving not a Lark, but her own Rolls-Royce tricked out with wings and a Blackglama mink, advising St. of Evil”; logging enough husbands to field a baseball team; and Gabor pizazz. Eva’s star turn in the as a sitcom socialite Corniche convertible. She slapped the face of a Beverly Hills, Peter that the Pearly Gates clash with her diamonds. — AP flaunting sex appeal, excess glamour and an exotic accent into on “” has guaranteed her immortality in the pop- California, police officer who had the effrontery to stop her for her senior years. But none of this fully accounts for the endur- culture pantheon — and, by association, given Zsa Zsa status a traffic violation. ing recognition she enjoyed and cultivated. Maybe she just beyond her own accomplishments. The officer was rude, she testified at the trial where she was knew how to work it. Maybe it happened above and beyond But Zsa Zsa could be funny, too. In a TV commercial from subsequently found guilty of assault. Her arrest became just her control. It certainly helped that she was in on the joke. 1963, a begowned, bejeweled Gabor extols the virtues of the another sparkling career move. She spoofed the incident in

In this photo, a sign in front of a decorated house warns visitors to keep off the In this photo, Dyker Heights resident Lucy Spata, whose elaborate Christmas dec- premises in the Dyker Heights neighborhood of New York. orations along with those of her neighbors, draw thousands of onlookers to the Brooklyn Borough neighborhood each holiday season, stands in front of her home in New York. NYC Christmas displays draw some bah-humbugs

t's a neighborhood Christmas display with New York she set out some orange traffic cones. "I don't want to use a flash. "Let's go folks. You can't hold up traffic," an City attitude: Big, brash, loud and over-the-top. sound like a Scrooge," she says, "but it's horrible." officer inside a police van shouted at drivers stopped in IBlazing lights, giant toy soldiers, angels, snowmen, the street. "I like it when they take pictures," says Angela wise men, Santas and piped-in Sinatra caroling form an 'Merry Christmas' Peralta, whose display includes a candy cane arch over all-out barrage on the senses from nearly every house in To that, residents like 30-year-old Vinny Privitelli the driveway, a "Merry Christmas" banner and a waving, the heart of Brooklyn's Dyker Heights neighborhood, an respond: lighten up. This year, he spent all of November inflatable snowman. In this photo, a giant animatronic Santa Claus towers over tourists taking annual extravaganza that draws thousands of tourists and thousands of dollars to install strings of red and "People are very respectful. They say it's beautiful." By photos at the elaborately-decorated Polizotto mansion in Dyker Heights every evening by the car and busload. But all of it has white lights on his roof and around every window and most accounts, the light displays became a neighbor- neighborhood in the Brooklyn Borough of New York. — AP Photos some residents just wishing for a silent night. "As pretty adorn his lawn with reindeer, a trio of dancing elves and hood activity in the 1980s, and buses began bringing in as it can be, it's difficult," says Linda Rebmann, 72, who a nativity scene. Privitelli admits part of the fun is trying tourists from Manhattan about a decade ago. Some bus has lived in Dyker Heights all her life and has only an to outdo his neighbors, some of whom hire professionals tours play up the area's Italian-American heritage, unlit cranberry wreath on her home. "It's a little out of to do their displays. And he has no problem with the including stops at a nearby bakery for cannolis and hot hand. It's gotten to be a bit much." throngs of visitors who come to check it out. "It's nice to chocolate. Among the bus visitors this year was Jeanne Nobody is talking about pulling the plug on the dis- see them enjoying it, that's what we get out of it," he Andrews, 66, who traveled from Vincennes, Indiana, to plays, which are still a source of neighborhood pride. But says. "Everything in the news is negative, so at least we experience Christmas in the Big Apple. She went to see there has been extra grumbling this season, especially get one positive thing." the tree in Rockefeller Center and the windows at after some parking spots usually used by residents were Around the corner, a crowd of 35 people stopped at Macy's, but this was different. "I like this because it's so blocked off for rows of tour buses. "This close to another house, where every inch of the stoop and patio personal. Every family has something different," she says. Christmas you can't walk. It's like Manhattan," says Joyce was packed with glowing nutcrackers, snowmen, rein- "I love it. I just think it's spectacular." — AP Arpino, 55, a resident for three decades. She says she deer and plastic angels. On another lawn, a 13-foot-tall, stopped decorating inside her windows because gawk- animatronics Santa Claus sat between a pair of giant toy ers would peer inside and rap the glass. Tourists used to soldiers and two carousels ablaze with lights. It was all so park in front of her house or even in her driveway until bright that the selfie-snapping crowds didn't need to

In this photo, visitors to the Dyker Heights neighborhood of the Brooklyn In this photo, a sign warning spectators not to come onto the property is hung in Borough of New York gather in front of Lucy Spata’s house. front of a lighted creche display in the Dyker Heights neighborhood of the In this photo, a private home in the Dyker Heights neighborhood of the Brooklyn Borough of New York. Brooklyn borough of New York is elaborately decorated for Christmas.