Katharine Hepburn

[abigail]

Katherine Hepburn's Last Will & Testamant is online . 23 pages and a 6 page codicil, but you'll have to pay for it if you want to read it .

[Deleted]

snowberry said:

Yeah, I can tell you that if I had known her, I probably wouldn't have liked her.

Very true. I think she's one of those people that you wouldn't want to be best buddies with, but that you admire the HELL out of, nonetheless.

[cleangenie]

So, was McFadden her lover or her daughter?

To me, she is Gwyneth Paltrow's fore mother. She illicited strong feelings both ways -- some loved her, some hated her; she had a long period where she was box office poison after she had enjoyed great early success; and she had airs of East Coast elitism. She's always thought of as a great actress/screen presence but rarely showed much range. She is long and rangy and very pretty, if not beautiful, in some pictures but rather plain and mannish in others. She had a very superior attitude which made some people envy her but others just hate her. She did not have a particularly great education but always came off as if she was extremely well bred and educated.

It all fits: I think Gwyneth should try to be the next Katherine Hepburn not the next Grace Kelly.

[Deleted]

It's a mystery!

[Deleted]

cleangenie, ok, this is my cue to jump in and defend her. I'm biased, because I went to her school and we worship her over there. I'm not sure what you mean by not a particularly great education--she certainly didn't go to Harvard or MIT, but Bryn Mawr was, and still is a well respected liberal-arts institution. Most of the women of her generation never received any proper education at all.

[queequeg]

Ah, I love all the gay gossip about old movie stars but what's so frustrating is that for nearly all of them we'll just never know.

Personally, I think there is something fishy about the Hepburn-Tracy relationship and how it's been portrayed but whether that means they were gay or not, I have no idea. I don't particularly want Katherine Hepburn on my team anyway!

Now, on the other hand, if someone could find some evidence about Barbara Stanwyck (other than that she kind of didn't deny it outright once) I'd be a happy woman.

[huntergrayson]

Oh, dahling, there's this absolutely fascinating book called "The Girls" by Diana McLellan. Lord knows how much is true but, oh, what stories!

I think the whole Spencer/Hepburn thing is all fuzzy with nostalgia. I don't doubt that they loved one another, but it's deeply, deeply masochistic and screwed up.

So, was McFadden her lover or her daughter?

See, our contemporary gossip just seems positively dull now doesn't it?

[mochakitty]

cleangenie said:

So, was McFadden her lover or her daughter?

To me, she is Gwyneth Paltrow's fore mother. She illicited strong feelings both ways -- some loved her, some hated her; she had a long period where she was box office poison after she had enjoyed great early success; and she had airs of East Coast elitism. She's always thought of as a great actress/screen presence but rarely showed much range. She is long and rangy and very pretty, if not beautiful, in some pictures but rather plain and mannish in others. She had a very superior attitude which made some people envy her but others just hate her. She did not have a particularly great education but always came off as if she was extremely well bred and educated.

It all fits: I think Gwyneth should try to be the next Katherine Hepburn not the next Grace Kelly.

I think her and McFadden struck up a friendship via correspondance and she became somewhat of a daughter-figure to Hepburn.

Regarding Paltrow, I disagree. Gwyneth is a good-very good actress but she is still not fit to lick Hepburn's boots. I know some will disagree but Hepburn is one of the all time acting greats. She had a magnificant career that very few actresses today can hope to lay claim to. She was an icon long before Streep. True, Gwyneth illicits strong feelings but it's usually for more shallow faults such as perceived superficiality, ungratefulness, and not living up to her potential. It's not because her detractors regard her as a truly controversial figure at odds with society. I don't think people will remember Gwyneth Paltrow as being ahead of her time in the way many view Hepburn. Paltrow is a footnote to Hepburn's icon.

[Deleted]

Hepburn being bisexual is not totally outside the realm of possibility to me, but I don't buy that her relationship with Spencer Tracy wasn't intimate or sexual. He practically left his wife for her, set up house with her, etc. It doesn't make any sense to me.

[Deleted]

That and I heard Tracy used to smack her around on a few occassions. Why she'd put up with that if he was just a beard is absurd.

As far as Hepburns go, I'm more of an Audrey gal.