Old Hollywood Gossip

[Martini Girl]

It's my understanding Cary Grant wanted to marry Sophia Loren, but she rebuffed him for Carlo Ponti. Cary was said to be devastated. This all happened around the time "Houseboat" was filmed. It was not a happy set from what I read. From IMDb:

Carlo Ponti obtains a Mexican divorce from his first wife and marries Sophia by proxy while she was in Hollywood filming Houseboat - and dating co-star Cary Grant. [17 September 1957]

[pomegranate]

butternut said:

As for Cary Grant, I thought it was pretty well established he was bisexual. The scene in My Favorite Wife where Randolph Scott swings on the rope over the pool while Cary Grant watches cracks me up. Didn't Grant have a big thing for Sophia Loren during/after Houseboat? I think they had a fling, but he wanted it to last beyond an on-set romance. I have always tried to imagine his conversations with Dyan Cannon during their marriage. Definitely and odd pairing in my mind.

Oh, anyone got the scoop on Bing Crosby? Is it true he beat his wife and/or children? Every time White Christmas comes on I think of those rumors and turn the channel.

Sophia and Grant did have a relationship, he was nuts about her, but she had been with her manager Carlo Ponti since she was fifteen. She did consider leaving him to be with Grant because Ponti couldn't get a divorce, but I think she ended up staying with him out of loyalty for helping her with her career. I think the Mexican divorce was found to be invalid. Eventually Sophia, Carlo and his wife (who supported their relationship) became French citizens which allowed them to divorce, and for him and Sophia to marry.This is my favorite picture of her.

Whenever I hear about Bing Crosby, I think of this. I'm starting to scare myself that I remember all this stuff!

[esoterica]

This is one of my favorite pics of Sophia. NSFW

This is a good article about Lana Turner and Johnny Stompanato.

One of my personal favorites from Old Hollywood is Carole Lombard.
I've read stories about how she purposely swore like a sailor in order to drive away men who harassed her. There are hilarious stories about some of the things she used to say. I read that even though Clark Gable married twice after her death, he never got over her and his widow even had him buried next to Lombard.

I also love Tallulah Bankhead. Some of the anecdotes about her are just hysterical. Yes, she might have been a promiscuous cokehead, but she was never a talentless, classless skank like Lilo, etc.

[Yossarian]

esoterica said:

This is one of my favorite pics of Sophia. NSFW

Wow! Those are some mighty fine bosoms!

[Deleted]

eulalie said:

Barbara Stanwyck is said to have tried suicide after she found out her husband, Robert Taylor, had an affair with Lana when they costarred in the aptly named movie, Johnny Eager.

I always thought Barbara and Robert were both gay, and their marriage was a studio-arranged cover up. Can't remember where I heard it, though, so I'm probably wrong!

The whole Christian Science thing's always fascinated me --it was the Kabbalah/Scientology of its day, but less restricted to the talentless, stupid and attention-whorey. Ginger Rogers' autobiography's full of CS propaganda (and stories about her scary, domineering mother) --I was really disappointed, since she seemed so down-to earth and independent in her movies.

[shriekingeel]

If Sean Connery (who started out as a bodybuilder) had done nothing else in his life but beat the crap out of punk-ass Johnny Stomponato, I would still love him.

[GinFizz]

mutley said:

I always thought Barbara and Robert were both gay, and their marriage was a studio-arranged cover up. Can't remember where I heard it, though, so I'm probably wrong!

They may have swung both ways, but their marriage seems to have been genuine. Babs was very possessive. Like most of the old-time leading men, Bob screwed around with many of his co-stars...Lana, Ava, Eleanor Parker...

[Deleted]

Jack Nicholson's had quite the strange family: the woman he grew up calling his sister was actually his mother and his 'mother' was actually his grandmother. He didn't even find out about it till 1974 when Time magazine were doing a feature on him (and both had already passed on).

[Deleted]

That explains a few things about Jack's weird relationships with women.

[kanding]

Does anyone know about the rumor that Kirk Douglas sexually assaulted Natalie Wood or another of his costars?