This Is The Truth

RUMOR: “Shelley Winters goes to Rome this winter to make a movie with her husband, Vittorio Gassman, and her ex-boyfriend, Farley Granger. This should be fun to watch…”

FACT: It certainly should be, but there is not a word of truth in it. This was just something that popped out of the unpredictable Shelley’s mouth when she was stuck for a story to give the press. In the first place, Farley would have no part of such a movie. He is a serious-minded young man when it comes to his work, and he most decidedly would not participate in so strange a triangular gimmick. Shelley denies there is any jealousy between her husband and former fiance (?), but we rather gathered from speaking to them both that they don’t share common interests at all. As a matter of fact, we believe that Farley would appreciate it very much if the Gassmans would forget about him entirely. Shelley may go to Rome, but it will be a social and not a movie-business call.

RUMOR: “Paris reporters got quite a shock the other night when they saw Kirk Douglas and Leslie Caron out on a dale. Is something wrong with her marriage? . . .”

FACT: Yes, there is something wrong with Leslie’s marriage, but probably not what this columnist implies. It’s all based on the choice Leslie’s faced with: being a ham on the screen, or being the wife of a ham packer in the Middle West. Ever since she married George Hormel, eldest son of the meat packer, George has been resisting his family’s pleas to come back to the factory and take over. He has resisted because his wife is an actress and loves it—and because he himself prefers music to meat. George is in the Coast Guard now and when his hitch is up, in about a year, he will have to face the decision. If there’s no indication that he can be really successful in the musical world, he’s honor-bound to keep an old promise and go into the packing plant. Then Leslie will have to choose between acting or homemaking. But that day is still in the future. The reason she is in Paris now is that George is on a six-months’ tour-of-duty cruise for the Coast Guard—and it’s a good time for her to visit her old home town. The date with Kirk Douglas means nothing. Absolutely nothing.

RUMOR: “Peter Lawford canceled his reservation to fly East with Judy Holliday when he learned photographers would snap them as they boarded the plane. . .”

FACT: Peter Lawford avoids photographers like kids avoid the Good Humor man. And for good reason: He has nothing to hide. There has been much printed about Peter and Judy in the past few months, most of it completely inaccurate. Unless they are much more subtle than seems possible, their relationship is about as platonic as a relationship can get. In the first place, Judy is married and, according to every indication, plans to remain so. Peter is an avid showbusiness fan, as his trotting about the country with Martin and Lewis and other acts proves. He thinks Judy is one of the greatest, and when she suggested last summer (after they had worked together so successfully in “It Should Happen to You”) that they dream up a nightclub act, he could think of nothing else. That was what the “romance” was all about. We suppose someday the elusive Peter will marry someone—but not Judy Holiday.

RUMOR: “The Robert Mitchums are feuding again and it looks as though this time it will end their marriage. . .”

FACT: Not in a hundred years! If you ask Robert Mitchum if he thinks he is a good husband, he’ll look at you as though you were crazy. And if you ask his wife, Dorothy, the same question, she’ll look at you as though she thinks you’re crazier than Bob does. Bob Mitchum has no illusions about himself as a model anything. But he knows why he stays with Dorothy—and why she puts up with him. He loves her—and she loves him. There is nothing else to be considered as far as they are concerned. Bob has been apart from his wife many more times than anyone knows about. But he always comes home! If the fight gets really rough, he might have to use an axe to get back in. And if he stayed away long enough, Dorothy would come and get him with a club.

Rumor: “Kathryn Grayson got a real charge out of making a record album with her former husband, Johnny Johnston. They say she still pines for him, even though he’s remarried. . .”

FACT: No, Kathryn Grayson is not still in love with Johnny as this and other stories would have you believe. But she is a changed girl from the one she used to be, and this has her friends deeply worried. If she got a charge out of making the album, it was the first she’s had in a long time. Kathryn, you see, has become almost a recluse, never going out and seldom seeing anyone but a small handful of friends. She and her daughter rattle around in a huge mansion, a thoroughly depressing place, and she can’t seem to force herself to mix or enjoy life at all. When she’s working, she dashes for the dark shadows the minute the whistle blows, and she isn’t seen again until the morning call. Too bad that a girl so beautiful and once so gay should be so sad.

RUMOR: “Montgomery Clift doesn’t want to leave Manhattan because he’s in love with a girl in a New York show. This time it’s for real. . .”

FACT: Not this time! It was for real once, though, and very few people knew about it. The girl was Judy Balaban, the daughter of a prominent motion-picture executive, who was married last spring to agent Jay Kantor. And it was part of a round robin of unhappiness. But enough time has elapsed now to tell about it, we suppose. You see, Elizabeth Taylor was quite seriously in love with Monty. But he yearned for Judy. Mike Wilding was already in love with Liz. And Marlene Dietrich, they say, was dreaming dreams about Mike. Well, one day Monty, who was dating Liz regularly, told her how he felt about Judy. Liz was crushed, and two days later, she announced her engagement to Mike Wilding, who, in the meantime, had told Marlene how things stood. Marlene was philosophical. Then Monty proposed to Judy. But she said no. He hasn’t been quite the same since—and he’s not in love with anyone, unless it’s still Judy.

RUMOR: “Mario Lanza is off to New York to settle a big picture deal which, he says, will surprise everyone. . .”

FACT: Including this writer. No, we’re afraid that Mario is not yet ready for a triumphal return to the movies—and a great pity it is, too. Mario has been unable to concentrate on any branch of theatrical endeavor since his walk-out on M-G-M more than a year ago. His record sales have fallen off and he isn’t making any new ones at the moment. He has offers to make pictures, but his conditions are so overwhelming when he gets around just to saying maybe, that producers faint and, when revived, run for the hills. If he pulls himself together and drops close to a hundred pounds he can still be the biggest box-office star we have, though.

RUMOR: “It’s beginning to look as though Robert Taylor has finally given his longtime girl friend, Ursula Thiess, the gate. . .”

FACT: Vice versa! At long last, Ursula has decided that marriage with Bob is not a likely wind-up for this amour, so she has taken her heart to market. The romance has been constant mainly because both Bob and Ursula don’t like to play the field. It has been simple for them just to go out with each other and not have to bother making friends, and eventually sweethearts, of other men and women. Ursula has never denied that marriage was what she eventually wished for. But she is now convinced Bob will never take an altar walk with her. She put it bluntly the other day when, after a couple of years of waiting, she was given a good part by RKO. “I will no longer,” she said, “have to ride around on Robert Taylor’s coat tails.”

RUMOR: “Now that Zsa Zsa Gabor is free of George Sanders, she will more than likely pick up with, and possibly marry, Porfirio Rubirosa. . .”

FACT: Not at all likely. In the first place, George’s exit was the biggest shock Zsa Zsa has had since somebody accused her of being a made-up old lady with a grown daughter. She always felt that George, who has the temperament of an over-fed, sometimes surly St. Bernard, would always be around no matter what she said about him as a mate or how many other men she had her name linked with. It’s sort of like having your cat lock you out of your own house. She was more stunned than anything. But now that she’s had time to think it over, she feels real pangs of loneliness. Their pals will tell you that George is finished. But that could be all wrong. George is very unpredictable. At any rate, Porfirio is just a playboy to Zsa Zsa.

RUMOR: “Cy Howard is so attentive to his girl friend, Gloria Grahame, in London, where she is making a picture and he is writing a play, that their friends say the wedding day is just around the corner. . .”

FACT: In this crazy business, anything can, and often does happen. So it’s possible that Cy Howard and Gloria will marry. But we’ll say it has the same chance of happening as a plow horse does of winning the Kentucky Derby. In the first place, Cy Howard would just as soon stick his head in a furnace as marry anyone. He keeps saying that, but nobody believes him. And Gloria, although she sticks pretty close to Cy for laughs, is still in love with her ex- husband, director Nick Ray. She carried a blazing torch for a long time and many people are sure she still does.

RUMOR: “The minute John Wayne’s divorce from Chata is final, he will get a license and marry Pilar Palette. . .”

FACT: This is unlikely. Maybe John Wayne was in love with Pilar when he first met her and was lonely and crushed by his rejection at the hands of Chata. But the terrible experience he went through during the months he prepared for his divorce trial and during his weeks in court have soured him almost completely on the institution of marriage. It is not at all likely that he will give a serious thought to another wife for a long time. During the past several months, Pilar has been quite ill and Wayne, a very loyal man, has been her more or less constant companion. He has faith in her acting ability—and will launch her on her American career.

THE END

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1954