Specs maker puts Evans in the frame

Specsavers, eat your heart out. After Martin Scorsese's recent TV ad for Freixenet cava, it seems no self-respecting ad campaign can do without a Hollywood great. This time, it's the Los Angeles-based spectacles company, Oliver Peoples, who have landed a coup by persuading film producer Robert Evans - famous for The Godfather and Chinatown - to star in a black-and-white short film alongside a drop-dead gorgeous blonde called Kate Nauta to mark the company's 20th anniversary.

On top of that, Oliver Peoples persuaded Evans - as famous for his heavy-rimmed specs as he is for conducting most of his business from his bed - to help them design a new frame, a thick rectangular plastic job called 'The Robert Evans'.

"They took about eight months to design. It would have been easier to build a yacht," said Evans when he threw a party at his Hollywood mansion on the eve of the Oscars to launch the film and the limited-edition specs.

Evans, now 77, has been famous for his parties for more than four decades and this was no exception. As guests schmoozed in the gardens of Woodland - the home once owned by Greta Garbo - five bikini-clad, bathing-capped members of the US Olympic synchronized swimming team hopped into Evans's pool for a routine that, according to the LA Times, would have made Esther Williams proud.