April 3, 2014
In the annals of horrible stage moms, the foreign-born mother to this then almost A-list child and teen star who later made the transition to A+ list leading lady is among the worst. She acted as her pimp, accompanying her from casting couch to casting couch to sleep with men as old as the father of the actress. Two famous A+ list Oscar winning/nominees were among her sex partners.
Foreign-born mother: Maria Stepanovna
A-list actress: Natalie Wood
Famous A+ list Oscar winning/nominees: John Wayne; Kirk Douglas;
Just heart breaking.
ReplyDeleteUgh, Douglas isn't a shock but the Duke is a big fat letdown.
ReplyDeleteEcu.got it.
ReplyDeleteGross. K stew mom inspiration
I would be proud if this blind weren't so damn awful! :(
Deleteremember the reveal about Kirk Douglas beating her because she was trying to act like a wild girl or something? Nothing was mentioned about him paying her etc
ReplyDeleteI remember the one of him raping her and it sounds like her mother set her up for it. " The nerve of her trying to back out! The payment could have been in "...consideration".
DeleteYeah, when she was trying to get the James Dean movie. Shoot. Don't recall the title.
DeleteRebel Without a Cause
DeleteThanks, @Ray!
DeleteI idolized John Wayne growing up. This makes me sick.
ReplyDeleteDawg. So did I. So did I.
DeleteI grew up watching old John Wayne movies with my Pop Pop :-/
This really bums me out.
sad face
ReplyDeletePoor Natalie. :(
ReplyDelete@Derek, I don't remember the wild girl blind, but I do remember the Himmmm post about how Kirk Douglas violently raped Natalie Wood.
ReplyDeleteJohn Wayne, however, is a new one on me.
Count me into the 'How could you John Wayne" club...
ReplyDeleteI don't know about this. Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne were BFFs and she played Wood's mother in Miracle on 34th St. According to O'Hara's autobiography (which has some GOOD gossip in it), she adored Natalie. I don't know if Duke would have risked his friendship with her by screwing someone she adored.
ReplyDelete@Sprink - you're right. It was the Hmmmm reveal about Kirk Douglas. Wasn't there a young actress who was killed by Kirk and his friends?
ReplyDeleteIts the same blind as the rape---basically she was a good girl--but realised she needed to join the boys club to get anywhere with career so started drinking and smoking etc to fit in---even though it was not in her nature and she did not enjoy it etc
ReplyDeleteNooooo not John Wayne!!!
ReplyDeleteSo this enty isn't one of the Himmms, because the way they told it Natalie would never have had sex with KD again.
My god my computer is so slow by the time it pooooooosted you'd all answered by question.
ReplyDeleteSurfer
ReplyDeleteJean Spangler
http://connect.everythingzoomer.com/profiles/blogs/was-natalie-wood-raped-by-spartacus-hollywood-noir
Nice. The Duke must of hit that for The Searchers, when it was 18 and still had some tread on it.
ReplyDeleteSFW
Rebel Without a Cause
ReplyDeleteThat Himmmm post was ridiculous and irresponsible. Posting Natalie Wood's daughter's phone number? Asshole!
@surfer--whoa, I don't remember anything about Kirk and murder (if you say that quickly it sounds like a menu item, but never mind).
ReplyDelete@derek--the Himmmm post says she became interested in the method acting scene and actors (I paraphrase), so loosened up a bit and slept with the director (or producer?) to get a huge role, which I presumed to mean her part in Rebel Without a Cause (which is what Meanie was thinking about).
I dunno, I'm paraphrasing, but it would be easy enough to search for.
Anyway, the Himmmm post specifically said she wasn't prepared to just fuck anyone any time.
Poor poor Natalie. I watched all of her movies growing up as my mom adored musicals.
ReplyDeleteShe always seemed like a sad soul to me. Something about her eyes.
@Karen---likely Maureen O'Hara not only knew about Natalie, but was a victim of the casting couch herself.
ReplyDeleteThe Hmmmmm reveal was that she was violently raped by Douglas and needed to be hospitalized which her mother fought against for fear it would be leaked.
ReplyDeleteDidn't it come to light that her number was in the phone book Mang?
ReplyDeleteI very well could be (and probably am) wrong, I just that was part of the debunking of the Hmmmm legend.
I'll never understand how a mother who carried her child for nine months and labored to give birth can think so little of her own flesh and blood. To know there are animals that show more compassion toward their young!
ReplyDeleteAmen! It sickens me because I worry about my daughter each day in fear that I will not be around to protect my precious baby if an attacker wants to harm her. This makes me sick...the mother should be a protect all when it comes to her children. Mama Bear!
DeleteCourtney Stodden's parents are of the same sick mold.
DeleteMama bears unite! I don't have kids but I am protective of the ones in my life. :-)
DeleteNow we know why she drank.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link, Flora. Interesting read.
ReplyDelete@Mango, I couldn't agree more.
ReplyDeleteexplains why she stayed with Robert Wagner too.
ReplyDeletefuckers.
I normally love old Hollywood blinds and reveals but this just breaks my heart. And it changes how I see john Wayne...poor natalie
ReplyDeleteI've always said she had the saddest eyes, even when she smiled. Poor woman.
ReplyDelete"The Searchers" was released in 1956 when Wood turned 18, but if the thing with Wayne happened on set she would have been 17.
ReplyDeleteHe was drunk through most of the filming so I could see it happening. Shame on him and her mother.
@Trudi: 17 was probably legal in 1956. Lots of states upped their AOC in the early 00's. Around then, some like GA still had 14 as AOC.
ReplyDeleteThis is heartbreaking. Just heartbreaking.
ReplyDeleteAfter the reveal about the Duke blackmailing Bogart for a boat to not release the film of Bogie with underaged girls and boys I stopped admiring him. That was sad. Also Natalie Wood just had a sad life
ReplyDeleteAnd countless stage moms are doing the same thing To. This. Very. Day.
ReplyDeleteAnd not even stage moms do this. It's a sick society.
DeleteTruly sad. So long Duke as one of my heroes.
ReplyDeleteI never liked JW. He enjoyed his power too much in turning people over to the HUAC. They ruined a lot of lives. May they burn in Hell. There was a reason he couldn't keep a wife.
ReplyDelete"There was a reason he couldn't keep a wife."
ReplyDeleteLOL! Yeah, they kept aging.
Good lord! I always heard about Natalie and the rape but never new it was Kirk Douglas. That is horrific!!!! I hope that mother is feeling the suffering she put her daughter through. Sick sadistic bitch!
ReplyDeleteNever liked John Wayne. Now I'm totally okay with it.
Who ever himmmm is he revealed some pretty horrible stuff about Ryan O'Neill that I believe every word of.
ReplyDeleteThose were good times! That's when Gawker was still fabulous and CDNA was very different then it is now. Most of the regular commenters from t ha time period are gone now, or using different user names ;)
Kirk Douglas and Natalie Wood were both filming on the Universal lot in late 1954, when Natalie was 16 (the age at which rape occurred). According to Natalie's sister, the rapist used his producing role on a future project to justify his visiting her trailer. From the mid-50s, Douglas was an uncredited exec. producer on several of his films.
ReplyDeleteHuh huh huh uhhhh huhh haaa ENTY SAID "ANALS"
ReplyDeletePoor, beautiful Natalie. What an awful mother she had.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you Flirty, how in the HELL could any Mother do this????? W in the F?!!
ReplyDeleteMy dad's a huge John Wayne fan (in fact growing up in the west of Ireland back in the day most houses had something of the three Johns: a John Wayne film, a picture of John-Paul II - or John XIII- and JFK's memoriam card). But I thought it was blindingly obvious he was a walking gobshite.
ReplyDeleteIt's not off the grass he licked it; his parents always came across as the grasping type as they named him Marion after an uncle in hopes of getting an inheritance. Uncle Marion seemingly did not reward greed!
John Wayne was a hypocritical piece of shit in every aspect of his life. A coward, a drunkard and an adulterer. It wouldn't surprise me if he abused a child, too. Piece. Of. Shit.
ReplyDeleteGood God. Can we throw all the ones till living in the joint? Please? Makes you wonder which stage moms are doing this today. I hope none.
ReplyDeleteRead the book "Natasha". It's so sad. Her mom was a sociopath, at the very least.
ReplyDeleteWhy did I never know that Natalie Wood was Russian and Ukrainian?
ReplyDeleteKirk Douglas always came off as an utter turd. To this day. His son too.
ReplyDeleteJohn Wayne abused people and he hid behind politics
ReplyDelete