Felicity Huffman and the Cursed Black Diamond
Posted on March 8, 2006
Best Actress Nominee Felicity Huffman reportedly was supposed to wear a famous black diamond necklace that had a long and cursed history. But on Sunday evening, she arrived in a black Zac Posen gown, earrings, but no necklace.
Was she worried about the curse? Did she decide that the dress looked better without a necklace? Here's the history of the cursed jewel:
Known as the Black Orlov or The Eye of Brahma, the jewel's curse allegedly began when it was removed from a Hindu shrine in southern India and then claimed to be responsible for the violent deaths of two Russian princesses.Legend tells of a monk removing the original rough 195-carat diamond from the eye of the Idol of Brahma at a shrine near Pondicherry, India. This sacrilege allegedly cursed all future owners of the precious stone to a violent death.
In 1947 Princess Nadia Vyegin-Orlov and Princess Leonila Galitsine-Bariatinsky - both former owners of the Black Orlov - leapt to their deaths in apparent suicides. Fifteen years earlier, J.W. Paris, the diamond dealer who imported the stone to the USA, had jumped to his death from one of New York's tallest buildings shortly after concluding the sale of the jewel.
The story continues that the diamond was recut into three separate gems in an attempt to break the curse.
How very Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Would you dare wear this necklace?
Jeweller Magazine is skeptical of the diamond's tale of origin.