Meggin Patricia Cabot is an American novelist. She has written and published over 50 novels of young adult and adult fiction and is best known for her young adult series The Princess Diaries, which was later adapted by Walt Disney Pictures into two feature films. Cabot has been the recipient of numerous book awards, including the New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age, the American Library Association Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers, the Tennessee Volunteer State TASL Book Award, the Book Sense Pick, the Evergreen Young Adult Book Award, the IRA/CBC Young Adult Choice, and many others. She has also had number-one New York Times bestsellers, and more than 25 million copies of her books are in print across the world.
* Meg Cabot at a book signing of The Princess Diaries.
The Princess Diaries (film)
The Princess Diaries is a 2001 American coming-of-age comedy film produced by singer Whitney Houston, Debra Martin Chase and Mario Iscovich, and directed by Garry Marshall. Loosely based on Meg Cabot's 2000 young adult novel of the same name, the film was written by Gina Wendkos and stars Anne Hathaway and Julie Andrews, with a supporting cast consisting of Héctor Elizondo, Heather Matarazzo, Mandy Moore, Caroline Goodall, and Robert Schwartzman. The film follows Mia Thermopolis (Hathaway), a shy American teenager who learns she is heiress to the throne of a European kingdom. Under the tutelage of her estranged grandmother (Andrews), the kingdom's reigning queen, Mia must decide whether to claim the throne she has inherited or renounce her title permanently.
Theatrical release poster
Garry Marshall served as the film's director. He changed the film's setting from New York to San Francisco in honor of his grandchildren.
A semi-retired Julie Andrews was cast as Queen Clarisse Renaldi, the actress' first Disney role since Mary Poppins (1964). The character of Mia's grandmother was expanded specifically with Andrews in mind.
Due to its themes, The Princess Diaries has been heavily compared to the play Pygmalion; the play served as the basis for the stage musical My Fair Lady, in which Andrews originated the role of main character Eliza Doolittle.