Friday, 13 Feb, 2009 Offbeat

To celebrate Valentine's Day and surprise her boyfriend, a woman from UK spent thousands of pounds to rent a penthouse suite and recreate the scene from the Oscar-winning movie "American Beauty" by covering her body with rose petals.

The blonde 25-year-old Lesley Heague also decided to hire a photographer who would take a picture of her covered in rose petals (just like the actress Mena Suvari in the movie) for a personalized Valentine's Day card.

The idea came to Miss Heague after she asked her boyfriend, Luke Scrase, what was his favorite film. She anticipated her boyfriend, 21, to be surprised by her romantic idea, believing that "American Beauty" was the DVD he wanted to watch in the weekend.

However, it turned out that she misheard the title of the movie and Mr. Scrase's favorite film was "American Gangster" with Denzel Washington. But it was too late since she already paid GBP695 for the room at the luxurious Vincent Hotel, located in Southport, Merseyside, and ordered petals from two dozen red roses to be spread on the bed and in the bathroom, reports The Telegraph.

"I wanted to do something really special for Luke. I was sure he said he was a big fan of American Beauty, so I thought I'd go the whole hog and set up a themed weekend," she said. Miss Heague liked the idea so much that she mentioned it to Luke's best friend, who told her that Luke has never seen American Beauty.

Though she felt somewhat disappointed she decided that the weekend should not go to waste. She bought both "American Beauty" and "American Gangster" DVDs.

Luke said: "What Lesley has done is really great and I'm planning to have the pictures framed from her Valentine's card."

A spokesperson for the Vincent Hotel mentioned that it was for the first time in hotel's history that a client dressed a room with rose petals. The spokesperson added: "But we like to oblige any reasonable requests so we are happy to make these arrangements and I am sure her Valentine's Day weekend with us will be very memorable."