Love Me Tender

I heard this story in a sermon at St. John Neumann in St. Charles, IL yesterday…

Look up Dolores Hart on IMDB — and prepare to be wowed. Hart, a Hollywood brat discovered while attending Marymount College, starred opposite Elvis in “Loving You” (1957). George Cukor directed her and Anna Magnani in “Wild is the Wind” (1957). The future prioress starred in the cult favorite “Where the Boys Are” (1960) — and even played a nun in Michael Curtiz’s “Francis of Assisi” (1961). And then, in 1963, at age 24 on the verge of marriage and following the premiere of her final feature, “Come Fly With Me,” this leading lady who had been compared to Grace Kelly and kissed “the King” on screen, entered the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis in Connecticut.

Yes, the Hollywood star gave up the spotlight for God. According to the Oscar-nominated documentary short, “God is the Bigger Elvis,” Hart discovered an inner peace and contentment in the cloister that had been absent on stage and screen, and in her engagement to California businessman Don Robinson. Hart has confessed it’s tough explaining the change in vocation, but has described it as:  “Falling in love. One falls in love with the Lord.” Now, the feisty 73-year-old Prioress, Mother Dolores Hart, will not only attend the Oscars this weekend, she voted for them.  She’s the only nun currently a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Source: Love Me Tender: Mother Dolores Hart on Elvis, her Big Bang Theory of Sexuality, and her Oscar-nominated short ‘God Is the Bigger Elvis’ | Coverage of The 84th Annual Academy Awards® – Yahoo! Movies#_=_#_=_

Go to the source if you’d like to read the Mother Dolores Hart interview. Good stuff from the ‘stranger than fiction’ category…