Under Hedda’s Hat

A weather report on the world’s biggest love deal might read: fair and warmer, but humidity high and possible squalls. Says Sybil Burton: “Positively no divorce for at least two years.” Richard Burton now says: “What I have done is to move outside the accepted idea of monogamy without physically investing the other person with anything that makes me feel guilty. So I remain inviolate and untouched.” Eddie Fisher’s contribution to the overall picture: “You can believe me when I tell you I am really in love.” Renata Boeck is a real beauty!

Liz’ apartment at the Dorchester in London will be redecorated while she chaperones Richard and Ava Gardner through “Night Of The Iguana” in Mexico. Liz wanted to live on a yacht, and wanted the Zaca (Errol Flynn’s boat) which is now in Majorca, but which Patrice Wymore really prefers to keep in Jamaica. The triangle is neatly placed for a quick divorce: Liz could get a quickie in Mexico, or Eddie, who’ll divide his coming months in Nevada between Lake Tahoe and Las Vegas, could do the divorcing. When will all this happen? I don’t know—because I am one of the few who still believes that Burton will never marry Liz.

Above: Paul Anka and his beautiful wife Anne have the right idea—whither he goest, so goes she. That’s the best way to keep a marriage on solid ground when your husband is as popular as Paul is. He is mobbed wherever he goes—especially over in Europe.

Elvis and Ann-Margret hold hands in public and give out a glow when together, but they give out little information. She did admit she’ll be going out with only Elvis in the future. She’s ordered a wardrobe lavish enough for a trousseau and will take her father and mother to the London opening of “Bye Bye Birdie” on November 1st. She’s settled her parents in a home in Benedict Canyon, so this leaves her very little unfinished business where they’re concerned.

Elvis had planned a trip to Hawaii to buy a pad there for himself, but changed his mind at the last moment and headed for Memphis in his air-conditioned trailer—with five of his bodyguards. A sixth drove the $50,000 (1964 vintage) RollsRoyce El just bought with proceeds from “Viva Las Vegas.” He’ll be back in Hollywood this month to start another picture.

Now that they’re reconciled, Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin have settled down in New York, far from Hollywood complications and the people he feels have disturbed their marriage. Bobby’s publishing business is located in Manhattan and he plans to reorganize his life and career along different lines.

While Pat Boone was in Europe he allowed his six secretaries to take turns living in his Hollywood manse. Pat has managed to keep the human touch in spite of fame and wealth. He drove back from the East Coast, stopping off in Florida to see his mother and father.

Above: I don’t know what the beer bottle was telling Paul Newman, but if it’s where he’s getting all his good marriage and career advice, more stars should start listening to beer bottles!

Troy Donahue keeps Suzanne Pleshette’s interest sharpened by occasionally dating pretty Diane McBain. Both Suzanne and Troy still swear they have no present marriage plans. Hmmm!

Above: Frank Sinatra flew in from New York on the same jet with me. He was with his current best girl, Jill St. John. When we landed, he and Jill got into a smaller plane and took off into the wild blue yonder for parts unknown. Hmmm to this, too.

Lauren Bacall accepted a picture offer, and I was surprised. She has a full-time job at home, what with taking care of her two children by Humphrey Bogart, her child by Jason Robards, Jr., and his two by previous marriage. This is quite a change for Lauren. She has little time for parties or night clubs these days.

You don’t hear so much of Warren Beatty since his split with Natalie Wood. She got him more print mileage than half a dozen press agents could have. He asked $150,000 to star in “Ensign Pulver” and must have done a double take when he read the prize went to Robert Walker, Jr. Bob has wanted to play Pulver as long as he can remember, but never dreamed he’d get the chance. He was happy to do it for Josh Logan for $15,000.

Above: Judy Garland was happy to have daughter Liza as a guest on her TV show, but she wasn’t happy with all the talk that Liza’ll marry soon. Mama put her foot down hard over that!

Above: Handsome Keir Dullea told me he had to learn to ride a horse for “Mail Order Bride.” He liked the horse so much, he’s going to buy him and stake him out on Staten Island so he can keep riding when he’s home in New York. But the way Keir’s career is going in Hollywood, he may never get to New York. Right now he’s in Spain.

Jane Fonda won’t be coming back to Hollywood until Christmas time. She’s just made a picture in Paris, will visit Russia and come home via the Far East.

Rod Taylor and bride hit the front pages in his hometown, Sydney, Australia. The Prime Minister and the Lord Mayor extended official greetings. But the airline lost his luggage on the way over. As Rod put it, “Local boy popular but naked!”

The girl who’s snagged two of our top movie names isn’t a star, or even an actress. She’s Shirlee Adams, pretty air line hostess who dates Henry Fonda when she hits one coast and Gardner McKay on the opposite side of the U.S. Her job has its advantages, doesn’t it!

Roz Russell found so many Hollywoodites in Honolulu when she vacationed there that the main drag looked like Beverly Hills. Roz, who flew to the islands, played a joke on a couple of friends who came by boat. She dressed herself up in a mumu, big hat and ukulele and joined a picket line outside their hotel. When the pals walked through to register, Roz screamed “Capitalists!” at the top of her lungs.

Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Jim Garner all turned down offers of $10,000 for one day’s work in TV commercials. They held to the idea such a step would be a blight on their glamour. But Barbara Stanwyck agreed to come on and sing the praises of instant coffee. Such notables as Edward G. Robinson, Claudette Colbert, Herbert Marshall, Gary Merrill and Julie London all were in favor of the TV offer. A couple of them said it helped get them movie offers.

Sue (Lolita) Lyon denies she’s engaged to marry Hampton Fancher, III, but she saw a lot of him before going off to the Mexican location of “Night Of The Iguana.” Well, we will see!

Maximilian Schell managed to have a romance with Nancy Kwan without a lot of fireworks, but beauing Princess Soraya around has been a different thing. Schell, while costarring with Melina Mercouri in a picture made in Istanbul, was asked by her husband, actor-producer Jules Dassin, not to bring Soraya on the set. Newspapers got wind of it and reported a feud between the two women. One paper told of a quarrel in which the two girls were reported exchanging sharp words. Said Melina: “Nothing but lies. I was never introduced to Soraya. She is always surrounded by such a crowd of admirers and photographers that my husband feared his set would be trampled and his work delayed, so he asked that she remain away from it.”

Above: George Peppard and Elizabeth Ashley were a red hot duo during “The Carpetbaggers” filming, but now that it’s in the can, some say the romance is, too. Liz had to go to New York for a Broadway play—and if the separation doesn’t cool the romance, nothing will. Me? I think they’ll marry when both are divorced—unlike the other Liz.

Above: In Europe with her daughter, Giselle Galante, Olivia de Havilland was mum on the status of her marriage. There were rumors that she and Frenchman Pierre Galante had come to a final parting of the ways, but Livvy wouldn’t confirm or deny them.

Tim Considine (son of Carmen Pantages Considine) and Charlotte Stewart don’t deny they’re engaged, they just haven’t gotten around to making the formal announcement. She’s a pretty young actress he met when she was guest on his TV show, “My Three Sons.”

Carol Lynley isn’t dating, although she’s separated from Mike Selsman. There’s no settlement as yet, or suit on file. But Carol recently got Mike to retract his statements that she isn’t a good mother, and he now says he won’t sue for custody of the baby. Carol has put her Benedict Canyon home on the market. She’ll choose a different type home in a district where there will be children for her daughter Jill to play with.

Bing Crosby and his Kathy are taking their brood to northern California, and buying a home in the swank Burlingame colony. Bing has things figured out down to the last item: his mother will run the house and handle the budget; he and Kathy will be able to work when they want to and come back to normal living afterwards. Meanwhile, his kids will be out of the dizzy professional climate which has left his four older boys with only one solid marriage among them. Gary, once the maverick of the four, and Barbara Stuart recently celebrated their third wedding anniversary; but the other three boys have separated from their respective wives.

Above: Barbara Eden, much to husband Mike Ansara’s delight, is about the busiest girl in town. She makes one film after another and does a fine job in every one of them. Now there’s a record.

Our stars are sinking a lot of money into Australia. First Art Linkletter and Steve McQueen bought cattle ranches there. They talked so much about it to Jack Lord, he made a couple of trips down under and bought himself an 18,000-acre place with some of the “Stoney Burke” profits (he owns 25% of that TV series). Now it’s Rhonda Fleming’s turn to look it over with an eye toward investing.

Blond Susan Oliver did better than other competitors when she went to Moscow as one of the American delegation to their film festival. She studied Russian via sleep records, learned enough of the language to sing a song, and got herself a job at the Leningrad Stadium, playing a guitar and wearing a Western costume complete with tight black pants, shirt and big Mexican hat. One hundred thousand Russians jammed the place and she collected a salary for it, too.

Didn’t 20th steal a page from Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay when they created that fantasy scene of how a rich night-club star lives for “What A Way To Go”? The set had an all-pink house, pink pavements, pink swimming pool, pink costumes, even a pink Rolls. It was Jayne who cashed in on the pink frenzy for years. When that publicity stunt wore out she got lost on an island and was almost bitten to death by mosquitoes—but nobody believed it was for real. Her separation from Mickey and romance with an Italian director was also taken with a grain or two of salt. Her Latin lover refused to get a divorce Italian style. Now a chastened Jayne, back with her Mickey, is expecting a baby. Any new publicity ideas will doubtless be welcome!

Shirley MacLaine wouldn’t let her daughter Sachie work in her current picture, “What A Way To Go,” playing Shirley at age of nine. So she did the little-girl scene herself, and very convincingly. “I turned down an offer for Sachie to play the child in ‘How To Kill A Mockingbird,’ ” she told me. “Her father and I talked it over together and decided if she started acting she might not want to quit. I was tempted since she’d only do a short scene in this picture, but didn’t want her to be late for the opening of school.” Everyone’s eyebrows went up when Shirley, who doesn’t go in for the big splash as a rule, bought a $100,000 yacht which sleeps twelve. But Steve Parker is having it sent to Japan and is building a dock for it, so she’ll have to go there to use it.

When Gig Young and Elizabeth Montgomery (Robert’s daughter) were divorced last January in Juarez, I thought she’d be first to marry again, but Gig beat her to the altar by marrying Elaine Whitman. She’s a real-estate operator who found him a house in Coldwater Canyon, helped him redesign and redecorate it. They’ve known each other for six months. Gig also told me he may be doing a play on Broadway this very winter.

When former restaurateur Mike Romanoff finally got himself a top part in a movie, he laid down some hard and fast rules. He was not to be called by his own name in the picture “Shock Treatment,” which is set in an insane asylum, and he was not to be referred to as a restaurateur. But someone at 20th must have a keen sense of humor because although Mike’s part runs through the picture, he hasn’t a single line to say. He plays an inmate who thinks he’s mute.

Bob Mitchum says he’ll look around for a California farm when he gets a moment off from work, but not with any idea of moving to the West Coast for good. “Dorothy and Petrine and our sons all love our farm in Maryland, as much as I do,” said Bob, full of contentment, “so we’ll still headquarter there.”

Bob Hope told me that when he and Pola Negri found themselves together in an elevator in New York’s Hampshire House, Pola cut him dead. “She passed me by like I was a bellboy; but the girl with her sort of smiled at me and that took me out of the deep freeze. I must say Pola looks great, though.” Incidentally, it’s Walt Disney who is bringing Pola back into movies in “The Moon-Spinners” with that scene-stealer Hayley Mills.

That’s all the news for now. I’ll write more next month.

—BY HEDDA HOPPER

 

It is a quote. PHOTOPLAY MAGAZINE DECEMBER 1963