and
Tower Court, the oldest and most impressive of the dormitories.(None
of the exteriors were any part of the Wellesley campus;
the interiors of the academic buildings were all shot
at Columbia and Yale, and the town scenes were filmed
in Tarrytown, New York.)
An early version of the script
was given to Wellesley administration members so that
they could vet the script before giving permission for
filming. In a letter from the President of the College,
to alumnae, dated January 9, 2004, Diana Chapman states
that “The early version of the script, which several
of us read and discussed before granting permission
for the filming, emphasized the intelligence of Wellesley
students and their close mentoring relationships with
dedicated faculty: two of the College's paramount strengths.”
Portraying these strengths in the movie was probably
the most important consideration when it came to allowing
the film to be made at Wellesley College. Furthermore,
the administrators felt that the film’s portrayal
of women’s choices in the 1950s, “whether
one must choose between career and family and how to
find one's own path when it may conflict with society's
expectations or those of parents, professors, friends”,
was an accurate and important message about Wellesley’s
mission and purpose.
Unfortunately, the movie in its
finished form was a travesty to most Wellesley College
community members. Instead of being portrayed as a college
where women were striving to educate themselves and
stand up for themselves regardless of their marital
status, the college was wrongly shown as a finishing
school for snobby rich girls whose only aim in life
was to get married.This was the background against which
Julia Roberts
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