That’s Hollywood For You
I admire Bob Mitchum’s performance in the “Blood Alley” hassle because he didn’t blow a whistle. . . . The hardest gal in pictures to figure out is Leslie Caron. . . . Did you know there’s more smootching in drive-in theatres during a Grace Kelly movie than say a Jane Russell or Audrey Hepburn picture? . .. Burt Lancaster has a hatred for phonies and a deep fear of accidentally becoming one. . . . There’s no actress who can do the mambo like Mari Blanchard. . . . I can do without every movie having a “mood” song being sung over the credits. They’re overdoing it! . . . Don’t overlook perky, pretty Peggy King when you’re naming “Stars of Tomorrow.” If I may be allowed a prediction, Peggy, just signed by Paramount for a second chance in pictures, will soon be on all popularity polls.
Edmund Purdom is his favorite actor. . . . There’s no actress who loves to sleep as much as Gloria Grahame does. . . . I don’t get excited over every new singer with a hit record. I’m loyal to Bing, Lena, Frankie and Ella—to mention a few. . . . Trying to explain the astonishing statement that at eleven she danced in a USO chorus, Sheree North said: “I was well developed and it wasn’t hard for me to lie about my age.”
Why do I keep thinking that Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn don’t care too much for each other? . . . Piper Laurie claims she has matured in many ways since she became a movie star. . . . Somehow I don’t believe the romantic items I read about Bob Wagner and Joan Collins, the bop-speaking doll from England. . . . It seems that sooner or later every good movie is made again as a musical. There’s “A Star Is Born” and “Young at Heart” with many others such as “My Man Godfrey” in the works. Bet no one can take a musical, throw away the songs and make a good straight picture out of it. . . . Joan Crawford wrote Rock Hudson a note of congratulations on his wonderful performance after seeing him in a movie. That’s what I like—a movie star becoming a fan club for another movie star. . . .
Most young actresses trying to crash the movies act as if they’re Marilyn Monroe or Audrey Hepburn. All young actors trying to get into pictures act as if they’re Marlon Brando. . . . As for Marlon, he tries to analyze the handwriting of most of his friends. . . . I can’t understand why Pat Crowley isn’t making a movie. . . . I’m waiting for Kim Novak to bend down and split those tight pedal pushers. . . . Can’t help wondering what Edwin Booth would have said looking at Richard Burton in “Prince of Players.” . . . Add to remarkable remarks Pier Angeli’s on love scenes: “I always feel just terrible when I know I’m going to do a love scene. It’s because I always think love scenes should be sort of, well, private.”
Jean Simmons recently returned from England with husband Stewart Granger, told me: “I left London because the weather was too good. I hate London when it’s not raining. I missed that old Hollywood fog.” . . . If I may be permitted another prediction, James Dean is a leading contender in the 1955 Oscar Derby as result of his role in “East of Eden.” My favorite character Marie Wilson was visiting a home where there were a number of reproductions of Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters and Marie said to her husband: “Look, Bill, here are the pictures that Jose Ferrer painted in that ‘Moulin Rouge’ movie.” That’s Hollywood for you!
It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE APRIL 1955
