elegant beauty. The couple go to Maxim's restaurant. Gigi performs perfectly as his courtesan, which only upsets Gaston. After presenting her with an expensive diamond bracelet, he grows uneasy with the unrelenting scrutiny being heaped on them. Honoré delivers a crushing blow when he congratulates Gaston on his new courtesan and remarks that Gigi is so delightful that she will likely keep him amused for months. Gaston, too in love with Gigi to subject her to an appalling life of uncertainty and social judgment, brusquely insists they leave. He drags Gigi up the stairs and into her grandmother's apartment. Sobbing hysterically, Gigi asks what she did wrong. Gaston leaves without answering, but realizing the depth of his love, soon returns. He asks Madame Alvarez for Gigi's hand in marriage. Gigi is overjoyed, as is her grandmother. The final sequence returns to Honoré Lachaille, who proudly points out Gaston and Gigi getting into a carriage in the Bois de Boulogne: elegant, beautiful, and happily married. Cast Production Development Hollywood producer Arthur Freed first proposed a musicalization of the Colette novella to Alan Jay Lerner during the Philadelphia tryout of My Fair Lady in 1954. When Lerner arrived in Hollywood two years later, Freed was battling the Hays Code to bring his tale of a courtesan-in-training to the screen. Another roadblock to the project was the fact Colette's widower had sold the rights to her novella to Gilbert Miller, who planned to produce a film version of the 1954 stage adaptation by Anita Loos. It cost Freed more than $87,000 to purchase the rights from Miller and Loos. Lerner's songwriting partner Frederick Loewe had expressed no interest in working in Hollywood, so Lerner agreed to write the screenplay only. He and Freed discussed casting; Lerner favored Audrey Hepburn, who had starred in the Broadway production written by Loos, but Freed preferred MGM contract star Leslie Caron, who had co-starred in An American in Paris for him. Both agreed Maurice Chevalier would be ideal for aging boulevardier Honoré Lachaille, and Lerner proposed Dirk Bogarde for Gaston. Lerner agreed to write the lyrics if Freed could convince Bogarde and designer Cecil Beaton to join the project. He decided to approach Loewe once again, and when he suggested they compose the score in Paris, Loewe agreed. In March 1957, the duo began working in Paris. When Chevalier, who already had agreed to appear in the