Curiosidades

The 1969 Jacqueline Susann novel The Love Machine includes the characters Judith and Gregory Austin, a socialite and television network CEO, purportedly based on Babe and William Paley. Dyan Cannon portrayed Judith in the 1971 film adaptation.

She was the daughter of brain surgeon Harvey Cushing, professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins, Harvard and Yale, and Katharine Stone (née Crowell).

Her personal, unconventional style was enormously influential. A photograph of Paley with a scarf tied to her handbag, for example, created a trendy tidal wave that millions of women emulated.

Several retrospectives have claimed that Babe neglected her children while in pursuit of social status and depended upon the wealth of her husbands to support her lavish lifestyle. Her daughter Amanda has admitted that their relationship was "virtually nonexistent" and that the distance "was her choice, not mine".

A heavy smoker, Paley was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1974. In preparation for her impending death, she planned her own funeral, including the food and wine selections that would be served at the funeral luncheon. She allocated her jewelry collection and personal belongings to friends and family, wrapped them in colorful paper, and created a complete file system with directions as to how they would be distributed after her death.

She often mixed extravagant jewelry by Fulco di Verdura and Jean Schlumberger with costume pieces and embraced letting her hair go gray instead of using dye.

Long after her death, Paley remains iconic in the world of fashion and style. "Babe Paley had only one fault," commented her one-time friend Truman Capote. "She was perfect. Otherwise, she was perfect.".

Known by the nickname "Babe" for most of her life, she was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1958.

She was named to the best-dressed lists of 1945 and 1946.

Many fashion designers and interior decorators continue to reference Paley's style in their own creations.

Her older sisters Mary and Betsey both married into wealthy families. Mary Cushing was the second wife of Vincent Astor, and Betsey Cushing married James Roosevelt, the son of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and then later John Hay Whitney. Together, they were known by the public as by the media as the "fabulous Cushing sisters.".

She was an American socialite whose second husband William S. Paley was the founder of CBS.

By many biographers' accounts, Paley was lonely and frustrated as William Paley carried on a chain of extramarital affairs. This psychological battering took its toll on her and her family. She was also under public and media scrutiny, and seemingly expected to maintain an unrealistic standard of beauty and social grace.

In 1941, Time magazine voted her the world's second-best dressed woman after Wallis Simpson and before Aimée de Heeren.

In 1938, Paley began working as a fashion editor for Vogue in New York City. This position gave her access to designer clothes, often given in exchange for Paley's high-profile image.