That’s Hollywood For You

Anita Ekberg should be more famous than she is . . . Okay, so Kirk Douglas is a Viking! . . . Venetia Stevenson loves her horse as much as that boy loves “Lassie.” . . . I’ll bet movie execs wish they could buy back those old movies they sold to TV… Joan Collins kisses with her eyes open if she doesn’t like you . . . Jim Garner’s hobby is sleeping . . . How about that neatly formed bundle tagged Christine Carere! She told me, “I’ve been told I smile a lot in my sleep.” . . . The actress who attracts the most attention on a night club dance floor is Mari Blanchard . . . Garbo: An inextinguishable star . . . A sign in Kim Novak’s den: “I learn more and more and realize I know less and less” . . . Marilyn Maxwell always seems good-natured to me . . . “Indiscreet,” with Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman, proves just how good a movie can be when grownups are sent to do the jobs usually assigned to youngsters like Molly Bee and Rocky Dee . . . I’d like to see a Jerry Lewis show in which he’d limit himself to mugging, say ten times .. . Get yourself Patti Page’s new album, backed up by Pete Rugolo. It’s as good as any out. Ditto Polly Bergen’s latest, “My Heart Sings.” . . . Best known number in the rock ’n’ roll set is 53310761. It’s the serial number of Pvt. Elvis Presley.

I get the impression Rossano Brazzi is keeping his distance from an actress even when he’s holding her in his arms . . . Brigitte Bardot, who should know, insists that in love nothing is as eloquent as mutual silence. And I have a confession to make: I watched B.B. in “La Parisienne” for about a reel before I realized the movie had subtitles . . . 20th Century-Fox should give May Britt better roles . . . Eddie Fisher is one of the best-dressed fellows on TV, but did you notice the sleeves of his tux are too short? . . . Whenever Natalie Wood and Bob Wagner play gin rummy for more than an hour, Natalie wins. I know. I took half of Bob’s game . . . As of going to press, I’d say the Oscar-winning movie would be “Gigi,” with “The Big Country,” “The Defiant Ones,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” and “The Old Man and the Sea” completing the list of the nominated five . . . Wonder if Dean Martin will ever get a role in a movie in which he sings? . . . Diane Varsi is a tough interview. Mamie Van Doren isn’t. Her talk flows . . . If you’re in town and Frank Sinatra is in town, the Villa Capri is a good place to find him . . . I miss live TV from New York. It gave us such fine actors as Rod Steiger, E. G. Marshall, Jack Warden and Eva Marie Saint . . . Montgomery Clift told me: “When I started in the theater, I believed faith could move mountains. Now I know only stagehands can move mountains.”

Sophia Loren doesn’t seem like a foreign actress any more . . . I’d like to see someone do a fast-moving musical with Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme playing the leads and Keely Smith and Louis Prima doing the romantic comedy leads. Like it? . . . Polly Bergen likes to have her feet tickled, by her husband, Freddie Fields . . . Julie London can whisper a song to me any time she wants.

I saw Jean Simmons and got that old feeling . . . Tony Perkins sometimes refers to himself as Gary Cooper without wrinkles . . . Carol (“The Light in the Forest”) Lynley tells me, “I’m going to work like a demon until I’m twenty-one. And then when I’m that old I’m going to retire.” . . . Perfect casting: Nick Adams for the role in “What Makes Sammy Run?” . . . “It’s all right to be 100% for something,” Jayne Mansfield told me, “but I’m learning not to be too 100% for something.” . . . That’s Hollywood For You.

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 1958