Marie Antoinette in spotlight again

NEW YORK, Oct. 15 (UPI) -- Two centuries after her death, Marie Antoinette is in the spotlight again as the subject of a feature film, two books and a PBS documentary.

The New York Post reported on the comeback of the woman who became queen of France at age 19 and is remembered by the flippant phrase "Let them eat cake!"

Known as a fashion plate and brought up in extreme privilege, Marie Antoinette encompassed an image of excess and often silliness.

Published in September, "Queen of Fashion: What Marie Antoinette Wore to the Revolution" by Caroline Weber, shows how Marie Antoinette's fashion sense gave her a sense of self. In the new novel "Abundance," Sena Jeter Naslund tells the story from Marie Antoinette's viewpoint.

"It's the story of a woman who suffered and then was transformed, yet at the same time wasn't a very good queen," says David Grubin, producer-director of "Marie Antoinette," a documentary that aired on PBS in late September.

Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette" premiered on Friday with Kirsten Dunst ("The Virgin Suicides") starring as the teenage queen.