One of these days I'll walk into the NYC Creed Boutique and pretend to be interested in a bottle of Green Irish Tweed. Rodney or Louis will approach me and start their spiel about how Cary Grant is associated with GIT, and I'll blithely say, "Actually, during his lifetime Mr. Grant was associated with Brut, not GIT. You know, Brut, right? The cheap cologne in the little green plastic bottles you find in all the drugstores."
Oh, to see the looks of incredulity cross their faces upon hearing this, and I'd have PDFs of the info ready and waiting on my iPhone, just in case they asked for further verification. No doubt the revelation that one of the world's suavest male movie stars was a creative director for lowly old Fabergé, and had no public association with Creed, would stick in their craws. So be it - it's true. Cary Grant was involved in spreading public awareness of Brut and other Fabergé products during his retirement. George Barrie, co-founder of Rayette-Fabergé and creator of the Brut line of cosmetics, shared a flight with Cary Grant, and convinced him to become one of Fabergé's spokesmen. The following is an excerpt from Marc Eliot's 2009 biography about Grant:
"During the flight, alone with Grant, Barrie proposed that the actor consider joining the board of Fabergé, a position that offered only a token annual salary of $15,000 (with stock options) but would require nothing more than the occasional personal appearance . . . Barrie did not think he had much of a chance of getting the actor to accept the deal, but to his surprise, shortly after returning to LA, he received a phone call from Grant saying he would love to be associated with the world-famous cosmetics firm as its 'Good Will Ambassador.' As Grant later told reporter Cindy Adams, he was delighted to represent Fabergé because 'The use of my name doesn't harm the company, and I'm permitted to do whatever I choose.'" (page 360)
Grant's connection with Brut is bolstered in the following excerpt from Ken Mansfield's The White Book: The Beatles, The Bands, The Biz: An Insider's Look At An Era:
"A little background - Cary Grant had just made a series of commercials for Brut cologne (he was on the board of Fabergé, Brut's parent company) and somehow through this endeavor became acquainted with George Harrison." (page 154)
The funny thing about Cary Grant and perfume is that no company, not even Fabergé, was able to get the man to say on the record that he actually WORE any of its fragrance products, but that didn't stop Fabergé from cashing in on the actor's name.
Did Cary Grant wear Brut? There is no written account anywhere to suggest that he did, although one has to wonder why he would accept a paltry $15K a year to join Fabergé's executive board if he did not at least like something they made, anything really. Perhaps he was familiar with Brut deodorant. Perhaps he did wear the stuff. Grant was a notorious tightwad throughout his lifetime, reputedly careful with every penny he ever earned, so I could see him wearing something as inexpensive as Brut. By most accounts, Grant worked for Fabergé during the late sixties and into the seventies, eventually retiring from his post to raise his daughter Jennifer away from the public eye.