Capote's Remains Invited to NYC Party

Breakfast at Tiffany's almost had a very high-profile guest mark its opening on Broadway last week: author Truman Capote himself. Producers wanted to fly in Capote's ashes for the after-party, the New York Post reports. They were even willing to pay for first-class airfare for the remains, which are in the possession of Johnny Carson's ex-wife, Joanne (Capote's "closest confidante in his later years," a source explains), but the plan got scuttled over security fears. Carson keeps the ashes in an urn in her Los Angeles home—in the bedroom where Capote died nearly three decades ago, the Daily Mail notes.

"We did try to get him here," a rep for the production says. "Joanne says he always wanted to [see] Holly Golightly open on Broadway, and we thought it would have been poignant for the entire company. I think ultimately the risk of theft was just too high, but he was certainly there in spirit." The ashes have already been stolen from Carson's home once, in 1988, and later returned secretly; there was another attempted theft years later at a party. (More Truman Capote stories.)