Von Zerneck Sertner Films

Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke is a four-part miniseries that was first broadcast on CBS in 1999 starring Lauren Bacall and Richard Chamberlain. It was based primarily on the book The Richest Girl In The World: by Stephanie Mansfield as well as Bob Colacello’s two in-depth articles about Ms Duke in Vanity Fair. Colacello was the magazine’s authority on Doris Duke.

The title of the series was derived from the book Too Rich: The Family Secrets of Doris Duke by Pony Duke and Jason Thomas. Manfield’s book was the first to be obtained by CBS, which optioned it for a planned miniseries in early 1995. The Duke-Thomas book, which was “being peddled as a miniseries” by the authors months before publication, was originally optioned earlier that year by the producer Doris Keating, who planned a miniseries of her own.

Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke presents a dramatized account of the life of the heiress, philanthropist, and once richest woman in the world, Doris Duke. It has since been re-broadcast on The Hallmark Channel, and on Lifetime combined together and presented as a 192 minute movie. The film stars Hayden Panettiere as young Doris Duke, Lindsay Frost as 20 to 50 year old Doris Duke, and Lauren Bacall as an elderly Doris Duke. Bacall, who had met Doris Duke a few times, was pleased to have been able to appear in a TV miniseries, devoting a few paragraphs to the experience in her autobiography.