An Iconic Piece Of Jewelry Played A Key Part In An Agatha Christie Movie

As Marilyn Monroe famously sang in "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," diamonds are a girl's best friend. In real-life, however, some of the world's most iconic rocks don't get the chance to socialize all that often thanks to their protective owners. One such jewel that doesn't get out much is the Tiffany Yellow Diamond. Compared to some of the most expensive diamonds on the planet, it's a relative snip at around $30 million, but don't go raiding your piggy bank just yet. As a lustrous emblem of the Tiffany & Co. empire, it's unlikely it will be sold in the foreseeable future, and it isn't the kind of trinket that the legendary jewelers will let just anybody try on. To date, only four women have had the honor of wearing the gem since it was first unearthed in 1877. More recently, however, the fabulous stone has played a key part in Kenneth Branagh's "Death on the Nile," albeit a replica version rather than the real thing.

In both Agatha Christie's 1937 novel and the 1978 movie version starring Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot (our pick of the best Agatha Christie movies), the murder mystery plot involved an expensive but otherwise unexceptional string of pearls that served as a red herring. Following on from his successful revamp of "Murder on the Orient Express," Branagh's adaptation not only gave the classic whodunnit a lavish (if questionable) CGI makeover but also upgraded the misleading clue to the Tiffany Yellow Diamond. The internet was abuzz when the first trailer dropped to reveal a sparkling replica around the neck of Gal Gadot, who was arguably most prominent among an underwhelming cast that included Branagh himself as Poirot, Annette Bening, (ugh!) Armie Hammer, Tom Bateman, British comedy legends Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, Sophie Okonedo and (double ugh!) Russell Brand. Say what you want about the line-up and the quality of the movie, Gadot wore it well and the diamond's presence added another layer of opulence to an already luxurious tale that takes in the splendor and romance of Egypt in the 1930s. Let's take a look at the real Tiffany Yellow Diamond's history and the women who got to wear the genuine article.

Part of the Tiffany Yellow Diamond's allure is its unusual color, size, and rarity. Most diamonds are white or pale in color, but fancy yellow ones are extremely hard to find; only around 1 carat out of every 10,000 falls into this category. Of all the types, yellow are the most common but are still very rare. The more vivid in color they are, the more expensive they become.

This particular rock was discovered in 1877 at the Kimberley Diamond Mine in South Africa, just 10 years after the very first yellow diamond was found. Remarkably, that stone was found just lying in the grass by a kid who gave it away without realizing how rich it would have made him. The Tiffany Yellow Diamond started out as a hulking 287-carat rough diamond. News quickly spread, and the rock was snapped up by Charles Lewis Tiffany for $18,000 (around $550,000 in today's money). The purchase cemented his reputation as "King of the diamonds," and he shipped it off to Paris. There, master craftsman George Frederick Kunz spent a year figuring out the best way to cut it to maximize its brilliance.

Kunz's solution was to transform it into a 128-carat cushion-shaped gem with an incredible 82 facets. When correctly arranged, facets allow the optimum amount of light to enter the stone; there, it is refracted and makes the diamond sparkle from within with fire and brilliance. 58 facets were traditional at the time, but the extra 24 sides gave the jewel an uncommon radiance. Pleased with the result, Tiffany gave the yellow diamond his name, and it has remained synonymous with the famous jeweler's reputation for excellence and luxury ever since.

The Tiffany Yellow Diamond toured the globe as a loose stone for the first several decades of its new life. It was displayed at exhibitions such as the 1939 World's Fair in New York but also found its permanent abode at Tiffany's flagship store in Manhattan. Eventually, the stone took on a new dimension when it was mounted in an opulent white diamond necklace in time for the 1957 Tiffany Ball in Rhode Island. That was the first chance somebody got to wear it.

The Tiffany Ball was a high society affair with illustrious guests that included then-senator John F. Kennedy and his wife Jackie. Despite the stacked guest list, the Yellow Diamond was the star of the show, and the wearer that night was perhaps less famous than you might expect. The first neck it appeared on in public belonged to socialite Mary Whitehouse, not to be confused with Britain's ever-outraged moral crusader of the same name.

The stone was reset again in a spectacular Ribbon Rosette necklace for perhaps its most iconic bearer, Audrey Hepburn. The 1960 location shoot of "Breakfast at Tiffany's" was the first time that movie cameras were allowed inside the flagship New York store, and the diamond makes a cameo appearance in a scene where Hepburn's Holly Golightly browses the boutique with her new date Paul, played by George Peppard. Hepburn got to wear the piece in publicity material for the film, pairing it with her legendary Givenchy "little black dress" and further boosting the stone's association with glamor and romance.

Almost 60 years passed before another celebrity got to try on the Tiffany Yellow Diamond. By that point, it had been reset again in another necklace to celebrate the company's 175th anniversary, and Lady Gaga celebrated her Oscar for Best Original Song ("Shallow") from "A Star is Born" by collecting the award while wearing the priceless piece. Infamously, she was stopped by security after the event. A little tipsy on champagne, she forgot that she was still wearing the diamond as she headed out for some munchies at Taco Bell and was pulled over by security.

The most recent person to showcase the diamond was Beyoncé Knowles, who wore it in a 2021 ad campaign for Tiffany & Co. Paying homage to Hepburn, she also wore a black Givenchy number and warbled a cover of "Moon River" to her hubby Jay-Z. Who will be the next lucky star to wear the fabulous rock?