Steve Martin and the Shopgirl

Posted on September 13, 2005

The San Francisco Chronicle explores Steve Martin's inspiration for his novel, Shopgirl, which is now a feature film being screened at the Toronto Film Festival. Apparently, the story was based on an actual relationship Martin had with....a shopgirl.

As Steve Martin knows, artists often get inspiration from their lovers. A Picasso collector, he did the audiotape for the Museum of Modern Art in New York show of Picasso's paintings of his female companions. A mystery woman in Martin's life inspired "Shopgirl," which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival Friday night. Martin wrote the screenplay based on his novella and stars as a wealthy and meticulous older man courting a 24-year-old who sells gloves at Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills.
"This is Steve's personal story -- it's based on his actual relationship," Claire Danes, who plays the title role, told me. Meeting the real shopgirl, Danes said she was struck by how much they resemble each other. "We both have kind of slight frames, and I have dark hair in the movie like hers." At an elegant dinner party celebrating the premiere, I searched for a Danes look-alike. After all, if you had a movie named for you wouldn't you want to attend the hoopla? But I didn't spot any possibilities, and Martin was conspicuously there by himself.
He and I were having a pleasant enough chat about the movie when I delicately asked who it's based on. "What difference does it make, really?" he replied, tightening up slightly. And he's right. The important thing about "Shopgirl" is that it touches universal emotions -- the very definition of art. Despite his closeness to the dialogue, Martin insisted he "was not neurotic" about changing lines during the shoot. Mostly he's just happy "Shopgirl" is finally opening after a series of delays he found "very frustrating." The same thing happened to him with the "Pink Panther," which was to be released this fall, but has been pushed to February.

Since Martin is notoriously tight-lipped about his personal life, it's a joy to hear Claire Danes blab the whole story to a journalist. No word yet on what Martin thinks about Ms. Danes' indiscreet revelations.