The Beauty of Retrospect: Nancy Dutiel

This is former Lancôme spokesmodel Nancy Dutiel in a photo from late 1982. It's from an ad for waterproof mascara, explaining why she's in a pool.

This photo reminds me of something Columbia Pictures chairman Harry Cohn once said of Esther Williams: "Dry, she ain't much. Wet, she's a star." Nancy Dutiel, whether wet or dry, never became a star in the modeling world, largely because she was replaced at Lancôme by Isabella Rossellini in 1983. And the last thing you want to do is precede Isabella Rossellini in anything, else you'll wind up as the answer to a trivia question.