wowOwow - The Women on the Web

08/12/2009 12:00 am

Culture

Liz Smith: Marilyn and Tony Curtis: Fact or Fantasy?

Also from Our Gossip Girl: catching up with Ali MacGraw … Michael Jackson: guilty, innocent or just plain dumb?

Marilyn Monroe © AP

"You heard that there was some actor who said kissing me was like kissing Hitler? Well, I think that’s his problem!" So said Marilyn Monroe, weeks before her death, to writer Richard Meryman, in what would be her last interview for Life magazine.

Monroe continued: "If I have to do intimate love scenes with a person who really has these kind of negative feelings about me, then my fantasy comes into play. It’s like, out with him, in with my fantasy. He was never there!"

The unnamed "actor" was, of course, Tony Curtis, the same Tony who now claims that not only did he have an affair with Monroe during the filming of "Some Like It Hot," but that she was pregnant with his child! (Monroe was married to Arthur Miller at the time, and her pregnancy was obvious in some scenes in the film. She later miscarried.)

All who could refute Tony are dead. But Miss Monroe’s words on the subject live on. And she wouldn’t even say his name.

***

"The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion," said the one and only George Washington.

I guess our first president would be shocked to find USA Today with a headline reading "Why Obama’s Church Choice Matters: There are political and spiritual implications."

And then there is the governor of Texas who recently said, "The idea that laws shouldn’t be informed by religion is an extreme position. Freedom of religion is not to be confused with freedom from religion."

Of course, Gov. Rick Perry is the same dingdong who wants Texas to secede from the union, so where does he get off telling the rest of us anything.

***

Who, among current celebrities, has the best upper arms? I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that the winners are Michelle Obama, Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Lopez. Madonna seems not to qualify.


Aniston, Lopez, Obama © Getty Images
If you don’t come by excellent upper limbs and glutes, you can have excess skin and fat taken away in what is known as axilloplasty. (I suppose this means you can have your axillos plasticized.)

***

Wandered into Orsos after theater and ran right into Ali MacGraw who is still beautiful and now lives quietly in Sante Fe, NM. The star of the classic movie "Love Story" doesn’t always get the credit she deserves. As a matter of fact, later in life she made one of my all-time favorite movies with, of all people, the comic Alan King. "Just Tell Me What You Want" is partly the story of a tempestuous couple who stage a fight in Bergdorf Goodman. It is simply terrific as directed by Sidney Lumet and you should look for it on DVD.

I told Ali I had just been thinking of her because I had read that very day the details of her late love Steve McQueen’s unhappy death from cancer. It’s all in the coming new book Morbid Curiosity: The Disturbing Demises of the Famous and Infamous.

Ali mused for a moment: "Yeah, yeah, you know Liz, all these rumors and feelers that they are looking to film the Steve McQueen story. Where in the world do you think they’ll ever come up with anyone who looks and acts like Steve!?"

***

Let’s see now – the popular, young actor Jude Law has three children with his ex-wife Sadie Frost. And now he is expecting one more by somebody named Samantha Burke, who seemed to fall into the category of one-night-extended stands.

One has to admire Jude’s exemplary attitude after finding out Samantha was pregnant and settling things for the coming baby via lawyers. Jude seems like an intelligent and talented person.

But one has to wonder that so many young men have never heard of birth control.

35 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

I’ve read Tony Curtis’s comments elsewhere.  He was a great-looking guy, but once he opened his mouth, it was all over.  Yes, it’s easy to make up a fantasy when there’s no one else left to refute it.  That’s cheap & wrong.

By CaroleDelMonte on 08/12/2009 7:04 am

Funny about Tony Curtis. I remember when he used to complain about how much he couldn’t stand MM.  I think its a case of "the seniler I get, the more I remember."  Its pretty pathetic he’s taken Mickey Rooney’s, (the ultimate bore) route to attention getting.  What ever happened to aging gracefully? 

By LinCercone on 08/12/2009 7:14 am

Oh Liz: I agree, I loved that movie, "Just tell me what you want" I thought Ali was at her most beautiful and Alan King was wonderful.  Call me crazy but I always found Alan King very sexy.

By LinCercone on 08/12/2009 7:22 am

Must agree.  The movie was very good.  I also liked Ali McGraw in  Goodbye Columbus.  I was in high school and I wanted to look like her.  Always thought she was so attractive and I liked how she dressed.

By JHolmes on 08/12/2009 10:42 am

I have heard Tony Curtis many times in interviews say how much he disliked kissing Marilyn.  Then Joe DiMaggio died and Curtis has suddenly changed his tune speaking about how wonderful Marilyn was and how he was really in love with her.  Case of self-preservation?  I have heard that Joe was a pretty scary guy and we all know that he never stopped loving Marilyn.  Just my two cents.

By BettyTabar on 08/12/2009 7:56 am

I met tony curtis once… um.. yeah… no… The man creeped me out -hard core.  He said some very disturbing inapropriate things that made me VERY uncomfortable. 

I don’t think the man is playing with a full deck. 

By audb on 08/12/2009 8:37 am

All I know about Tony Curtis is that he was gorgeous when he was young, but now he looks like a woman.

By DeBrcaobj on 08/12/2009 9:37 am

DeBúrca obj -  That’s a scream, but it’s true. You’re still the best DeBúrca obj.  

By LauriateRoly on 08/12/2009 2:53 pm

Think about it—he looked fabulous in Some Like It Hot.  By the way,  I played that movie here at home, and I think it is still one of the great comedies ever made.  Monroe had great comedic talent.

By DianaT on 08/13/2009 11:41 am

Hi Liz,

It wasn’t actually George Washington who said the above quote, it was a line in the Treaty of Tripoli which was signed by then-President John Adams.

By NikoletteC on 08/12/2009 10:16 am

Ian Halperin also claims Michael Jackson was gay which will only to serve to fuel the molestation matter.  And on and on and on it goes.

Why don’t we just say Michael Jackson was a mess and leave it at that?

By BabySnooks on 08/12/2009 10:23 am

Dear Baby S….being gay and being a child molestor are two very different things, please!  Yes, poor Michael was a mess.  But in the immortal words of Joe E. Brown, uttering "Some Like It Hot’s" last line: "Nobody’s perfect!"   (As for Mr. Curtis, a very sad case.  Hard to believe anybody as lovely and genuinely nice as Janet Leigh was married to him.)

By Mr. Wow on 08/12/2009 11:11 am

MR. WOW:  Thank you for clarifying that.  Its shocking to me that ‘in this day and age’ people would make such ignorant comments.  I don’t know the statistics but I’d venture to say there are more pedophiles abusing girls than boys.  In any event, being gay is neither criminal nor a disease.  I swore I wouldn’t respond to any more MJ trash, but I have to say, I don’t believe MK was a child molester, gay or criminal in any way.  I do believe he was asexual, and a very sad, confused man.  It seems he was used from the time he was a small child (meal ticket) and continued to be used by others all his life, (fame by association).  Probably the only people who didn’t take, but gave unconditional love to him were his children.  Sad life, sad end.

By LinCercone on 08/12/2009 11:34 am

I think you both need to read before you speak - I didn’t say his being gay indicated he was a child molester. I said Ian Halperin claiming he was gay would fuel the matter with those who believe his being gay not only indicates but "proves" he was a child molester. And it will. And they do. And that is just reality in America. 

By BabySnooks on 08/12/2009 11:58 am

BS:

Excuse Me, Direct Quote,

"Ian Halperin also claims Michael Jackson was gay which will only serve to fuel the molestation matter."

There was no "with those who believe, etc.  Besides I was speaking in general terms, but apparently I hit a nerve.  OOPS!

 

By LinCercone on 08/12/2009 4:05 pm

123next ›last »