News and Gossip in B*L*O*O*M

Dedicated to the work of Deborah Kerr
and all the people, actors and technicians - producers,
directord - who helped Deborah make those wonderful films
we all loved to watch and identified with all these
years . . . and in the years to follow.


A PICTORIAL GALEXY and Generality - Writings of the LIFE - TIMES and FILM CAREER of Deborah Kerr | Filmography 1940 - 1950s NOTES and FACTS | Filmography 1960 - 1980s NOTES and FACTS | Biographies | JUNGLE Films | News and Gossip in BLOOM | Addle an Addict and Baffle a Buff | Vintage - CINEMA - Classics | COMEDY and ROMANCE Films | Gallery of PHOTOS | COSTUME Films | HIGH and SOCIAL DRAMA Films | CRIME and HORROR Films | RELIGIOUS and MUSICAL Films | Emotion Pictures | OBITUARIES | Legacy of a L A D Y - End of a Legend




Second Marriges Can Be Scandalously Happy - No More Stormy Weather For Deborah Kerr

ANGST VOR DEM ALTER HABE ICH NIE GEKANNT !

Now Retired And Resting With Family And Loving Friends - Deborah Kerr Is A Winner At Last !

DEBORAH KERR'S PROUDEST MOMENT !

A late headline for the how-time-flies department:

DEBORAH KERR, the onetime queen of Hollywood glamour, is a grandma. Her daughter, Francesca, and son-in-law John Shrapnel dubbed her with that title by presenting her a new grandson in London. And was Deborah proud. "I am," she trilled, "the most excited woman in the world." With a bulging scrapbook of Grandma pictures to prove it.


WHAT TYPE OF DIVA ARE YOU?
The Bay Area Reporter's Tavo Amador checks in with this: "In 1964, Joan Crawford got herself booked to present the best director Oscar, hoping it would go to her old friend 'My Fair Lady's' George Cukor. Joan wanted to pay tribute to the black-and-white Ascot scene from the film. Leaving nothing to chance, Joan found out that Deborah Kerr was presenting the writing awards immediately before but couldn't get Deborah to disclose if she was wearing black or white. Joan summoned Edith Head and had two dresses made, one in white silver bugle beads and one with  jet bugle beads.'My diamonds will go with both,' Joan told head. The Great Star wore white on the Red Carpet, but when Deborah appeared onstage in white chiffon, our girl rushed backstage to change. When Joan walked regally out in stark black to announce Cukor the winner, he kissed her hand in homage. Edith Head said, 'That's why she was Joan Crawford . . . they don't make 'em like that anymore.'


 

 



An English Rose Recovers To Bloome Again - How Deborah Kerr Made Virtue Pay Off !
Or . . . The Housewife Beautiful May Have *S*T*A*R*S* In Her Eyes But Deborah Still Has Her Feet On The Ground . . .!

I assume a slightly less enthusiastic posture for WRITTEN ON THE WIND, due largely to the presence of Lauren Bacall. She's chic, she's sleek, and she knows how to smoke, but I have always found her to be an actress of exceptional limitations. Her performance in WRITTEN ON THE WIND does nothing to change that opinion. WRITTEN ON THE WIND's good girl should have been played by Doris Day, Jean Simmons, Deborah Kerr, Eva Marie Saint, or . . . . anyone but Lauren Bacall. She's not abysmal, but everyone around her works at a higher level. The real attention-getters here are Stack and Malone as a pair of seriously pathological siblings. Malone, especially, attacks her role with the kind of holy commitment that makes high camp such a treat. Everything she does or says telepaths an aching sexual hunger. She dances with wild abandon! She picks up strange men! She wears red chiffon! Douglas Sirk, to his everlasting credit, steers her clear of self-parody by making her the pivot of the story. Her actions in the last-chapter courtroom do wonders to her character, elevating her from cartoon to person. It's a bravura turn, fully deserving of the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress she won in the spring of 1957.

the Source: Bright Lights Film Journal/Douglas Sirk on DVD 

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Confessions Of A Saint And Sinner - Heaven Knows, Mr. Mitchum And So Does
Deborah Kerr !




Deborah Kerr ~ How Much Of A ' L A D Y ' - Her HALO Never Was - She Remains Hollywood's Elegent Redhead Now in Her 80s !
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James Jones's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY, about life in an Army base, was a best-seller before Fred Zinnemann decided to adapt it for the big screen. Set in Hawaii prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, it captures the essence of military life in all its complexity and detail. The main story centers on the conflict between individualism, embodied by Montgomery Clift's Private Prewitt, and rigid institutional authority, represented by the Army. Having once blinded a man in the ring, Prewitt refuses to fight for the uniit's team, despite promises of rewards, and pressures from his superior. A stubborn yet decent soldier, Prewitt admires the Army but he's unwilling to compromise his notion that "if a man don't go his own way, he's nothin'," which sums up the film's message as well as a recurrent theme in all of Zinnemann's films.
Daniel Taradash's fine screenplay contains half a dozen sharply etched characterizations, including Burt Lancaster's Sergeant Warden, an efficient but human officer; Clift's Prewitt, an inner-directed soldier guided by his code of ethics; Frank Sinatra's Maggio, the cocky but honest Italian-American soldier; Deborah Kerr's Karen Holmes, the frustrated, adulterous wife married to a weakling (Philip Ober); and Donna Reed's Alma, a dance-hall hostess. Zinnemann's direction is tight and restrained, bringing to the surface the film's issues which, as Pauline Kael observed, represented new, more mature attitudes and touched a deep social nerve. FROM HERE TO ETERNITY is candid in its treatment of military life and personal frustrations, and most important of all, in its frank view of sexuality. The erotic beach scene between Lancaster and Kerr, which was daring and innovative at the time, has unfortunately been imitated and ridiculed to death.
FROM HERE TO ETERNITY was nominated in 1953 along with two historical features, JULIUS CAESAR and THE ROBE, George Stevens's classic Western, SHANE, and William Wyler's elegant comedy, ROMAN HOLIDAY. Nominated in thirteen categories, FROM HERE TO ETERNITY won eight, the largest number of awards a movie has won since GONE WITH THE WIND. " The industry which voted the honors now merits an appreciative nod, " wrote the New York Times's Bosley Crowther, having convinced his peers to honor the film, director Zinnemann and actor Lancaster with the New York Film Critic Award.
The casting and acting by each member was perfect, due in part to the fact that Zinnemann rehearsed the entire film with props, an uncommon practice in Hollywood, which gave the actors a unique opportunity to develop their roles. All five players were nominated. Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift cancelled each other out as Best Actor (the winner was William Holden in STALAG 17); Kerr was nominated for Best Actress, but lost to Audrey Hepburn. It was the film's secondary players, Frank Sinatra and Donna Reed, who went home with Oscars.

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From NEWSWEEK CONDENSED BOOKS (c) 1978
MONTGOMERY CLIFT: A Biography
by Patricia Bosworth

Howard Hawks offered Montgomery Clift the role of John Wayne's foster son in a western he was preparing called "RED RIVER," in February 1946.
It took three days to make Monty look good enough to be pitted against Wayne because he didn't know how to punch or move when rehearsed. The fight scene with Wayne was the beginning of a series of bloody film fights in which he always played the idealist and loner. In "FROM HERE TO ETERNITY," "THE YOUNG LIONS," "WILD RIVER," and "THE MISFITS" he was subjected to incredible beatings of one kind or another.

Monty and Wayne did not get along. Wayne told a LIFE magazine editor, "Clift is an arrogant little bastard." Although Monty wanted to relax when he finished "RED RIVER," the screenwriter Peter Viertel introduced him to a young Austrian-born director named Fred Zinnemann who was then working with Viertel on "THE SEARCH." Zinnemann described the movie to Monty in a Beverly Hills coffee shop. THE SEARCH was about the fate of concentration camp survivors; the plan was to film it like a documentary on location in Europe at the actual cities of the U.N. rehabilitation centers. monty read Viertel's treatment and was intrigued with both the theme and the character Zinnemann wanted him to play - that of a carefree G.I. who inadvertently gets involved with refugees. monty made some suggestions to zinnemann but no real commitments. He wanted time to think.
The idea of losing his privacy terrified him. He told the novelist james Jones later, 'I watched myself in RED RIVER and I knew I was going to be famous, so I decided i would get drunk anonymously one last time.'
There were several script revisions causing an angry Peter Viertel to bow out; he refused, unsuccessfully, to eliminate any reference to "Hitler's final solution."
This ommission upset Monty as much as Viertel; he believed the movie-going public should be reminded of the mass killings. bothered by the "goody-goody" dialogue, he told Kevin, "It's like The Yearling with sugar added." Monty signed with Zinnemann for the part in March 1947.

On March 26th, 1948, THE SEARCH opened all over the United States to Unanimous acclaim. Suddenly Montgomery Clift was famous. He went to Hollywood to star opposite Olivia deHavilland in THE HEIRESS. He was paid ,000. Just before THE HEIRESS finished shooting, RED RIVER opened around the country. The picture received great notices, and Monty superlative ones. With the tremendous personal success from RED RIVER ("Clift is the hottest actor since Valentino," wrote Look), Monty foud himself in even more demand. He finally signed with Paramount for three pictures with the then unheard-of stipulation that he have script approval and the movies be directed only by Billy Wilder, George Stevens, or Norman Krasna. He also had the freedom to work at any other studio of his choice.

James Jones and Monty got into a big discussion about FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. Jones had just sold his best-selling novel about corruption in the U.S. Army before Pearl Harbor to Columbia for ,000. "I'd like you to play Prewitt," he recalls telling Monty. "Monty got all excited - he loved the idea. I told him Harry Cohn wanted John Derek for the part, but that I didn't want him. 'But can I play a fighter?' Monty wanted to know. I told him he sure as hell could!" Monty had been waiting to play Prewitt in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY for almost two years, but in spite of entreaties by author James Jones, Harry Cohn wanted Aldo Ray. For months, director Fred Zinnemann fought with Cohn over casting. Zinnemann finally threatened to quit unless Cohn agreed on Monty. Columbia's president asked why. "Because," Zinnemann answered, "I want to make a good picture and Clift is the only actor who can play Prewitt." He rolls over on the grass and Zinnemann calls cut! And someone says, 'Pew's dead,' in a hushed voice.

As soon as shooting concluded for Monty, May 2nd, 1953, he made plans to go to the Kevin McCarthys on Cape Cod. There were only signs that summer that all was not well. Monty swam, lay in the sun, and read a great deal, but he complained to the McCarthys of having blackouts.
During his blackouts that summer on the Cape, Monty drove his car into a ditch on the way to the dump with the garbage. He had no memory of the incident, nor did he remember running over a friend's herb garden. at a restaurant in Provincetown he addressed a waiter, "Hey, fuck-face!" but he expressed disbelief when chastised about it later. "I didn't say that!"

FROM HERE TO ETERNITY went on to win the New York Film Critics Award for best director, best movie, and best actor (Burt Lancaster). It won seven Academy Awards (Sinatra and Donna Reed both won best supporting Oscars). Monty was nominated for best actor, but he lost to William Holden, who won for STALAG 17. Monty and Sinatra remained close. For a while they phoned each other constantly; and they drank together in Hollywood and New York. Monty idolized the singer. He played his records until they wore out, he kept his photograph in a place of honor in his duplex, and he showed off the gold lighter Sinatra had given him on Christmas that was engraved "Merry merry buddy boy. I'm with you all the way. Maggio."
The two kept in close contact until one night Monty got very drunk and came on sexually with a man at a party in Bel Air. Sinatra witnessed the incident and he had his bodyguard throw Monty out.

He needed constant sexual reassurance, and he was able to get that from men more easily than women. According to record producer Ben Bagley, Monty had a small penis and was extremely embarrassed about it.
"He talked about it all the time to me," said Bagley. "I think it was the secret tragedy of his life. A lot of homosexuals gossiped about Monty's problem because gays put great importance on . . . size." In the unexpurgated version of Kenneth Anger's HOLLYWOOD BABYLON, Monty is called "Princess Tiny Meat."
At the beginning of the summer, screenings of A PLACE IN THE SUN were held. Charlie Chaplin attended one of them in Hollywood, and afterwards told George Stevens, "This is the greatest movie ever made about America." That quote was repeated in the press, and an excellent word of mouth began on the film. A PLACE IN THE SUN became one of the emblematic films of the 1950s. "A new generation of soul searchers reacted to the tormented youth portrayed by Clift," wrote Joe Morella and Edward Epstein in their book, The Rebel Hero in Films.
Film critic Andrew Sarris, who saw the movie countless times, says, "Clift and Elizabeth Taylor were the most beautiful couple in the history of cinema. It was a sensuous experience to watch them respond to each other. Those gigantic close-ups of them kissing was unnerving - sybaritic - like gorging on chocolate sundaes."
Then, of course, there was Monty's cruising sexual swagger (which Brando and James Dean pick up on). Few audiences in the 1950s were aware of the meaning of that androgynous swagger - it was very subtle and Monty only did it for a few seconds on film.




PEOPLE Magazine
November 30th, 1998
insider

Elizabeth Taylor wore red, the late Roddy McDowall's favorite color, at the November 15th party she threw at her L.A. home for about 100 of the actor's closest friends.
McDowall, who died on October 3rd, specified that he did not want a public funeral or a formal memorial service but agreed to a private gathering. Taylor's guests, who included GREGORY PECK, JACK LEMMON, ANJELICA HUSTON, and LIAM NEESON, were moved to tears with a version of "Amazing Grace" by a Scottish bagpiper and later shared funny stories about McDowall. Taylor was in good form. "She was very funny, very raucous and very loving when talking about Roddy," said one guest.
All of McDowall's personal papers and photographs will be sealed for 100 years. The reason, he told singer MICHAEL FEINSTEIN, who also attended Taylor's party, was that "in 100 years, it will no longer be gossip."


BLOG ARCHIVE PAGE
March 21st, 2006
Ryan Reynolds shares his workout regimen
Most Beautiful Man
The World's #1 Male Celebrity Site.

I work one body part per day as in: chest day, back day, shoulder day, leg day, with arms mixed in. Lower abs are the hardest muscle to develop. Most males store their fat in the lower abdomen. I use one of those exercise balls between my legs, lifting up and down, using my arms to anchor myself. I also put a 15 pound dumb-bell between my feet, and do leg raises while lying on the ground.
I also follow a strict diet. I eat something pretty much every 2 - 3 hours, never "stuffing" myself, but never letting myself get hungry. I drink tons of water throughout the day.
Breakfast:
1/2
cup egg whites and 2 eggs. Oatmeal - no sugar. A protein bar 1/2 hours later (thebest oatmeal is this stuff called McCann's steel cut oatmeal. It takes about a half hour to cook, but you just make enough to last a couple weeks. Add applesauce and cinnammon to improve the taste.)
Lunch:
Chicken and veggies/brown rice. A protein bar 2 - 3 hours later.
Dinner:
Fish or chicken with salad and vegetables. Balsamic vinegar for dressing. A couple more protein shakes throughout the night and right before bed.

You also need creatine to help supply energy to muscle cells. The best creatine is the plain, flavorless/ sugarless kind that you mix with water or juice.




 



TIMES - UNION
Monday, March 25th, 2002
Albany, New York

2001 ACADEMY AWARDS WINNERS
Historic night for Hollywood's finest

Halle Berry gets landmark award; "Beautiful Mind" wins best picture, and for its director . . .

BEST PICTURE
"A Beautiful Mind"

BEST DIRECTOR: Ron Howard
"A Beautiful Mind"

BEST ACTRESS: Halle Berry
"Monster's Ball"

BEST ACTOR: Denzel Washington
"Training Day"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jennifer Connelly
"A Beautiful Mind"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jim Broadbent
"Iris"




TIMES - UNION
Tuesday, April 30th, 2002
Albany, New York

50 YEARS A QUEEN, ELIZABETH'S GOLDEN

Prime Minister Tony Blair and four previous British leaders celebrated Queen Elizabeth II's 50 years on the throne by holding a formal dinner in her honor at 10 Downing St. on Monday night.
It was one of many events that will celebrate her Golden Jubilee year. The monarch became queen at age 25 on February 6th, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI.





RICHARD BURTON - W H O . . . !
1953s Angriest Star in Hollywood

Hollywood's newest gift to womankind is a fierce young man in the large-screen, full-color model: Richard Burton, who swarms through a lifetime of frenzied emotion in a 6,000,000 epic called "THE ROBE." What are these near-unknown's qualifications? Well, he once kissed Olivia de Havilland for ten minutes.

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Deborah Kerr's

90-Min. Special/London, Nov. 14th.

American Broadcasting Co. is to produce two TV specials in London this month - addition for the hour long Bing Crosby starrer, there will be a 90-minute special with Deborah Kerr. Both programs will have British guestars.
The Crosby special is one of the years four he does for ABC while the Kerr show - her first for TV - is so far unsponsored. Neither program can be sold to commercial TV stations here because of the current Equity strike. ABC obtained special permission from Equity to tape these shows on the understanding that would not be offered to the indies.

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QUOTE FROM DEBORAH KERR:

Every woman I play on screen has to stand up to one test: Is the woman a real person, a believable person . . . wheather she is good, bad, or a mixture of both (as most women are, anyway!). Can you believe that she has a head, a heart, and a body? If the answer to these questions is 'yes,' then I have no qualms about accepting the part - providing, of course, that the script and so on are acceptable too!
In the 1959 motion picture "THE JOURNEY" she had a choice of Yul Brynner and Jason Robards,Jrn. - and she took Jason . . . now I ask you . . . is this believable ?

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POWDER PUFF DURBY

Deborah Kerr is "glamorized" before she goes before the camera in "IF WINTER COMES." She follows her American film debut opposite Clark Gable in "THE HUCKSTERS" with the romantic lead opposit Walter Pidgeon in this A.S.M. Hutchinson novel.
Quite a romantic coup for any actress who also stars with Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, Binnie Barnes, 'Dame' May Whitty, Reginald Owen, and Rhys Williams in this directed by Victor Saville, produced by Pandro S. Berman Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture.

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BOSOM BUDDIES

The delightful Thelma Ritter, who spent many seasons on the stage before turning up in Hollywood in 1947, in her first role in "MIRACLE ON 34th STREET," which had too many other charmes to allow her to stand out as a bosom buddy.
In "A LETTER TO THREE WIVES" 1949 - however, she gave a stiffer competition to the likes of Linda Darnell, Paul Douglas, Kirk Douglas, and Ann Sothern. Miss Ritter was the beer-swigging neighbor of Linda Darnell's mother (Connie Gilchrist) and managed to draw attention to herself in every scene she played. She was equally effective in "PICKUP ON SOUTH STREET" 1953 - in which she helped Richard Widmark trap some bad guys and was killed for her trouble.
Well supplied with one-liners, she was Jane Wyman's friend in "LUCY GALLANT," Deborah Kerr's in "THE PROUD AND PROFANE," and Joanne Woodward's in "A NEW KIND OF LOVE."

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DINAH ARRIVES in COSMOPOLITAN

Beverly Hills, California: You can't imagine how delighted I am with being in the August, 1955 Cosmopolitan ["For Fifteen Years Nobody Finer"]. As a cover-to-cover reader since the days when my family were subscribers back in Nashville, I really feel as if I've "made it" now.

--- Dinah Shore Montgomery

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"Lizzie"

Eleanor Parker is a very beautiful actress who should be playing roles similar to Deborah Kerr's. Miss Parker is far less sexless than Miss Kerr, and, with the right sort of guidance, could abtain Deborah's roles and play them with equal grace and more vitality. Instead, she lets herself be used - and used is the word - in such unpleasant and disfiguring things as "The Man with the Golden Arm" and "Lizzie."

Did you know that the most useed room in the Viertel home is Peter's study, which adjoins the bedroom. Books, papers and objet's d'art are everywhere, but the dominant object is Peter's typwriter. In the bedroom are many souvenirs of Deborah's fantastic film career.


During the shooting of "THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV" Yul's birthday rolled around, and the cast and crew gave a surprise party for the popular star. Yul runs through the script with Claire Bloom during the shooting of M-G-M's "Karamazov." This film gave him one of the most difficult parts - but he found it easier than playing himself. "It rhymes with sinner" - Maria Schell was amused at the nameplate put up on Brynner's dressing-room (the following day she found a plate on hers; this one said, "It rhymes with hell"!) He is one of the most completely alive people in the world. In an age when neurotics abound, he is normal, and shows in his incredibly varied achievements just what one man can do if he puts his mind to it. Brynner has been described as "the kind of man other men want to be and women want."


One of Hollywood's most tantalizing star actors of the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s, Robert Mitchum was a performer who never wanted to be a star but who embodied such seemingly contradictory iconic roles as the intelligent loser, the apathetic rebel and the sexy but fatalistic slob, and who later stood out as one of the last working reminders of Hollywood's golden age.
Bob's peak period was from the late 40s through the early 60s, and though he made films opposite such completely inappropiate co-stars as Katharine hepburn "Undercurrent" 1946 and Ann Blyth "One Minute to Zero" 1952 he also teamed briefly but memorably with two stars who highlighted different aspects of his acting persona. In "His Kind of Woman" 1951 and "Macao" 1952, Mitchum's low-key, glumly wisecracking wanderer found a perfect mirror reflection in the sullen, impudent magnetism of Jane Russell as the camera regularly highlighted their equally photogenic chests. Beginning with the touching, two-chaacter WWII story of a nun and a soldier, "Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison" 1957, and peaking with the marvelous study of an Austalian sheepherder who can't settle down, "The S u n d o w n e r s" 1960, Mitchum found another ideal co-star who brought out his gentler, rough diamond qualities, Deborah Kerr.


Here's a Hedda Hopper scoop . . .

October,1952 - Had quite a good time at the Press preview of THE PRISONER OF ZENDAThe audience loved Stewart Granger who has become our number one swashbuckler these days. James Mason got lots of praise, too, for being such an engaging villain - "so ruthless, but so charming," said a woman sitting next to me. I thought I caught a glimpse of Pamela in the lobby but did not see James around.
Chatted with Walter Plunkett who designed the lovely costumes. Speaking of Deborah Kerr, who co-stars, Plunkett said, "It's always an inspiration to design gowns for Deborah - she's such a beauty." Dashed over to Romanoff's where everyone discussed the picture between dances.


The Deborah Kerr Curtain Call
Playhouse for the Performing Arts

 


Greta Garbo and Irene Dunn were stars of the 1930s; Olivia de Havilland, Rosalind Russell, and Greer Garson of the 1940s. Audrey Hepburn, Susan Hayward, and Deborah Kerr did their best work in the 1950s; and Anne Bancroft, Patricia Neal, and Shirley MacLaine in the 1960s. The 1970s were dominated by Ellen Burstyn, Faye Dunaway, and Diane Keaton. The 1980s saw the rise of a new group of actresses, headed by Sally Field, Sissy Spacek, Meryl Streep, Jessica Lang, and Glenn Close. The 1990s have been good for Susan Sarandon (a late Bloomer), Holly Hunter, Jodie Foster, Emma Thompson, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Winona Ryder.