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In the late 1950s, the Hollywood film industry decided that it was essential for Doris Day to change her screen image if she was to survive as a top star. By 1959, she had not only dropped from the top box-office personalities, but her last five films had not been as profitable as previous ones. She had been the girl-next-door for too many years and now, at 35 years old, she needed to catch up with her moviegoing public, who had grown more sophisticated with the passing of decades. When producer Ross Hunter sent Doris a script for a new project called Pillow Talk (1959), she was instantly attracted to its humour and cleverness. However, being genuinely unaware of her potential as a sex symbol, she had difficulty visualizing herself as a chic interior decorator, the lead female character in the film. Fortunately, Hunter's argument that she had «one of the wildest asses in Hollywood» convinced Doris that she was not just an old-fashioned girl and she gladly took the job. There w...