In February 2020, employees at the Opnieuw & Co thrift store in Mortsel, Belgium, stumbled upon a rose-covered photo album unlike any they’d ever seen. Inside were numerous photos of a woman posing with Hollywood icons like Antonio Banderas, Tom Cruise, Angelina Jolie, Bruce Willis, and more. The store employees were intrigued by the mystery woman and her connection to these famous stars.
Believing the album must have been donated by mistake, the thrift store staff took to Facebook to track down the owner. Their post, which asked for help in identifying the woman, quickly gained attention and eventually led to the discovery of her identity: Maria Snoeys-Lagler.
As it turns out, Maria Snoeys-Lagler was no ordinary fan—she was a former member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), a non-profit organization of journalists and photographers who report on the entertainment industry. The HFPA is best known for hosting the prestigious Golden Globe Awards. Snoeys-Lagler, a Hollywood reporter who passed away in 2016 at the age of 87, had an enviable career that allowed her to rub shoulders with the biggest names in Tinseltown.
With the mystery solved, the photo album was returned to Snoeys-Lagler’s daughter in California. The story of the thrift store find not only brought back memories of 1990s Hollywood glamour but also shed light on the extraordinary life and career of Maria Snoeys-Lagler.
