Audrey Hepburn at the party held on her return to London after filming «Roman Holiday» in 1953

At the outset the 24-year-old Hepburn was not even considered for the part of Princess Anne in William Wyler's romantic comedy; the leading contenders were Elizabeth Taylor and Jean Simmons. Nor, for that matter, was the 37-year-old Gregory Peck certain to land the male lead: Cary Grant was seriously considered for it.

But the most interesting point is that the source of the screenplay, which won an Oscar, may well have been a real love story: the romance of the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Margaret, with the Royal Air Force pilot Peter Townsend, who served as equerry to the King. The well-known facts of the royal affair shone so plainly through the plot that Paramount had to strike a deal with the British government, under which Audrey Hepburn's heroine was not to be connected with any member of the British royal family.

As for the screenplay, it won the Oscar twice over. In 1954 the award went to Ian McLellan Hunter, since the actual author of the script, Dalton Trumbo, had been blacklisted as an abettor of communism. Justice was restored only in 1993, after the deaths of both screenwriters, when the Academy presented a new statuette to Trumbo's widow.