Sunday Reads: Get to Know Our Woman of Substance, Gabrielle Anwar

When Tudors actress Gabrielle Anwar recently wed restaurateur Shareef Malnik, it was a wedding for the ages, captured in the pages of not only Haute Living, but reported by People, The Daily Mail and The New York Post’s Page Six. It was a prairie-themed western affair straight out of the 1800s, which captured the imagination of those who were invited—as well as those who weren’t.

Anwar searched high and low for just the right prairie, fancying one with a river running through it. Setting such a beautiful stage befits the actress who first drew attention on the big screen riding horses in Wild Hearts Can’t be Broken, tangoing with Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman, as Henry VIII’s sister in The Tudors, and finally, in Burn Notice, filmed in Miami.

“I have been collecting Victorian vintage clothing for many years and I thought this would be a wonderful chance to wear them.” Of course, the moment Anwar started dancing in her vintage lace ensemble at the reception, it proceeded to fall apart. “I guess it wasn’t meant to be around longer than that special day,” she says acceptingly. The affair stretched out over three days with whimsical highlights like the release of 80 wild horses after the groom kissed the bride. The romantic overtures and programming that included events like High Tea with Love Poems, “Downward Cow” yoga with Gabrielle and “Shareef’s Last Wild Ride” shouldn’t surprise anyone who has witnessed Gabrielle and Shareef at their InterContinental Miami Make-A-Wish Ball. Each year the duo tops themselves with a memorable on-stage performance (one-year videoing a ballet performance, tights and all, and another with Malnik making his entrance by emerging from under her voluminous skirt.) Anwar has emceed the ball for four years to spectacular effect eliciting higher and higher donations each year. 2015’s ball raised $2.5 million, a number with which Anwar says she is not quite satisfied. “The pockets are deeper in that room,”she quips. Still,she is quite happy to remove her Louboutins at the end of the night and go over the numbers with Malnik, knowing that it “directly translates to how many sick children will get a dose of joy.”

Continue reading here….