Penny Bianchi At Large – and in The Riv
Legendary Decorator, beloved villager, and Charlie Munger muse Penny Bianchi is herself a striking figure – a living, breathing design element in her own right. The indescribable Bianchi casually radiates charm, wit, joy – and the fauvist Je ne sais quoi one experiences when falling into a painting by Chagall. To madly understate it, there is only one Penny Bianchi.
So it was that the producers of the hit HBO series White Lotus included the inimitable Bianchi in a teeming frou-frou party scene filmed at Sicily’s luxurious Villa Elena – renowned decorator Jacques Garcia’s lavishly resurrected 17th century Jesuit monastery. Garcia’s palatial hangout – itself built atop an architectural parfait that dates to the third century BCE – had so stunned White Lotus creator/director/writer Mike White, he is reported to have turned to his personal assistant with a hollered exclamation. Oh my God! Your grandmother has to see this!
“And so he invited me over to see this amazing palace,” says Penny Bianchi. “Yes, it’s a palace. It’s an Italian palace. And so we all went, my two grandchildren, my daughter, and me. And that’s when Michael put me in the scene. It was filmed in that palazzo.”
Was Bianchi – in sync with the rest of Planet Earth – an avid fan of White Lotus when she was chosen to appear in it? “I didn’t know anything about White Lotus,” she answers in a tone of mild wonder that acknowledges the global rarity of that position. “Michael’s been writing TV shows and movies for years, you know. I just remember when I watched the first season, I was so curious to see it because (my granddaughter) Poppy was involved; and I loved it! I just loved it!”
Mike White – the Michael in Bianchi’s telling, has been a family friend since… well, for quite a little while. “He’s been my daughter’s best friend since they were infants. They were in the crib room together at Sunday School. Once they could stand up, if they didn’t put them in the same crib, they would scream their heads off.”
Television and film lore is rife with stories of the endlessly repeated take. Surely Bianchi’s brief cameo in the champagne-quaffing soiree was a quick wrap? “15 takes,” Bianchi says with a grin, clearly untroubled by the schedule. “We were there until three o’clock in the morning!” Long an established supernova in the Interior Decorator universe, Bianchi’s appearance in this globe-circling entertainment has made the decorator… what’s the phrase? A crowd-stopping celebrity.
“It was very fun to be in it. And it’s amazing, Jeff. We have breakfast every Sunday morning at Tre Lune and sit outside. People I have never seen before in my life stop and say, ‘I saw you in White Lotus!’”
More recently, The Riv’s Photographer Extraordinaire Kim Reierson was in Sicily and captured this glamor shot of the San Domenico Palace Taormina, a Four Seasons Hotel – which stands in for the eponymous White Lotus hotel in the series’ second season. Included in the photo is The Riv’s inaugural issue and Reierson’s own bangle-crowded wrist. Reierson’s otherworldly photos in the magazine capture Penny in her Art is Life element – the Montecito Menagerie the famed decorator calls home. Do catch The Riv’s forthcoming Fall 2024 issue where you’ll find Penny on page 72 – Charlie Munger’s last interview on page 90 – and a magazine cover suitable for framing.
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