Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Today's Blind Items- Blackmail - Old Hollywood

This reporter was one of the most respected reporters of her time. She landed some interviews that are still considered important a half century later. Some of the interviews she landed were just being in the right time in the right place. Her Hollywood interviews though were her knowing more than everyone else and using that information to get exclusive interviews.

1. There was this permanent A+ list singer who blew off an interview with her. One week later after she told him she would release the story of him having sex with a 13 year old he gave the reporter an interview and gave her a dozen other interviews over the course of his career.

2. She knew all about this closeted permanent A list singer. The singer would always sue people if they hinted he was gay. The reporter had audio recordings of the singer talking to several different men and offering them money for sex. She used that for access and also to keep him from testifying against one of her employers at a libel trial.

3. She launched the career of this permanent A+ list mostly movie actress and in return was privy to every actor and actress in Hollywood who hit on the permanent A+ lister. The reporter is also who introduced her to a permanent A+ list celebrity who would ultimately be her downfall.

70 comments:

  1. sandybrook3:13 AM

    Rona Barrett?
    1-Elvis

    ReplyDelete
  2. zilla13:13 AM

    Hedda Hopper or Louella Parsons

    ReplyDelete
  3. zilla13:14 AM

    Although people were more scared of them than anything else

    ReplyDelete
  4. sandybrook3:15 AM

    2-Bobby Darin?

    ReplyDelete
  5. zilla13:16 AM

    Speaking of respected female reporters, I got to reading Nellie Bly's undercover piece on mental wards at the turn of the century. She was really the bombdiggety.

    ReplyDelete
  6. zilla13:16 AM

    Let's throw Baba Wawa in there just to cover the bases.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Kno Won Uno3:22 AM

    This sounds right because half a century ago is only 1966.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Ettacettera3:24 AM

    I don't know how she could be respected if she used blackmail and threats...

    Anyway, first thoughts..Frank Sinatra, Wayne Newton, Natalie Wood..or Monroe...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Kno Won Uno3:25 AM

    Wasn't Rona always on Merv Griffin?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Kno Won Uno3:26 AM

    I like Natalie Wood for #3

    ReplyDelete
  11. Kno Won Uno3:27 AM

    OMG, she's still alive!

    ReplyDelete
  12. sandybrook3:29 AM

    She was on a lot of talk shows. She was a pretty big name and looked halfway decent too

    ReplyDelete
  13. Angela63:29 AM

    I'm thinking Hopper, she was really despicable.

    ReplyDelete
  14. MontanaMarriott3:29 AM

    2.Liberace?

    ReplyDelete
  15. MontanaMarriott3:30 AM

    3. Marilyn and JFK?

    ReplyDelete
  16. Something Fishy3:30 AM

    Marilyn with JFK for #3. Either Sinatra or Elvis for #1.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Kno Won Uno3:31 AM

    She was one of an army of teeny-tiny, brittle, birdlike women, probably on "diet pills".
    Yes, she was more visually attractive than Totie Fields, but her voice was horrible.

    ReplyDelete
  18. MontanaMarriott3:32 AM

    http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/thedailymirror/2007/05/liberace_sues_c.html

    ReplyDelete
  19. Second the Rona Barrett guess. Google Rona and Anne Helen Peterson for a great article/interview with Rona from a bit earlier this month

    ReplyDelete
  20. zilla13:33 AM

    Very likely her.

    ReplyDelete
  21. zilla13:35 AM

    oops, I missed the 50 years ago part.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Big Blue3:36 AM

    Please don't remind me of that.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ettacettera3:37 AM

    There was a pbs program about her, I think one of their American Experience series ..really interesting..one brave cookie

    ReplyDelete
  24. zilla13:40 AM

    Agreed!

    ReplyDelete
  25. MontanaMarriott3:42 AM

    Writer for Confidential, Aline Mosby

    http://www.elvis-history-blog.com/elvis-aline-mosby.html
    When Elvis choose Randolph Scott over Aline Mosby, he may not have been aware of her lofty reputation in the entertainment press. When she angrily stormed out of Las Vegas, the city’s writers foresaw “explosive repercussions” for Elvis

    ReplyDelete
  26. MontanaMarriott3:45 AM

    Totally forgot about Rona Barrett.....
    https://www.metv.com/stories/what-ever-happened-to-rona-barrett

    Great guess!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Airhead3:46 AM

    not Walters because of the "was", she is still a reporter and is still respected.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Guesser3:54 AM

    More likely than Rona who wished she was respected,but I think she was too close to the celebrities to gain respect.

    ReplyDelete
  29. sandybrook3:58 AM

    thx!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Angela63:59 AM

    Me too : (

    ReplyDelete
  31. BoomBoof4:00 AM

    100%- According to the Wikipedia page for the gossip column Confidential (which she wrote for) Liberace dropped his lawsuit against it.

    ReplyDelete
  32. BoomBoof4:03 AM

    Also, she interviewed Lee Harvey Oswald so that's legit.

    ReplyDelete
  33. guidedog4:25 AM

    Like these guesses.

    Barbara Walters is respected by the public. Professionally she has a reputation for being a viper.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Pink Escada4:27 AM

    OT: For a great read about "old Hollywood" and "old Los Angeles" read West of Eden by Jean Stein. Lot's of juice about Jack Warner, Jennifer Jones, and others. One take away from the book is that you will be happy you have relatively dull, drama free lives. You will not want to trade places with any of these people.

    ReplyDelete
  35. anna from savannah4:29 AM

    The aces Luella had up her sleeve was the fact her husband was the OB-GYN to the starlets. She was the second to know when an actress was 'infanticipating' and the first with the scoop. Hedda, on the other hand, was ruthless and totally professional. Those were the days!

    ReplyDelete
  36. d brown4:47 AM

    Dorothy Kilgallen

    1) Sinatra
    '2) Johnny Ray

    ReplyDelete
  37. Guessing5:25 AM

    Totie Fields!!! I haven't heard that name in decades...I totally forgot about her. Was she part of the permanent Match Game crew? Or was she Hollywood Squares?

    ReplyDelete
  38. Squeege5:29 AM

    Where is the journalism in any of this? She sounds like a filthy blackmailer with low morals to me. Why is Enty celebrating her? What kind of scum doesn't expose a paedophile for the sake of an interview?

    ReplyDelete
  39. Kno Won Uno5:33 AM

    Oh, man....I don't remember. I'm thinking Match Game.
    I thought she was married to a comic - at least they appeared together a lot on Griffin - but her Wikipedia page says she was married to George William Johnston. Now my ancient brain is befuddled.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Hot Cola5:34 AM

    Marlin & JFK for #3

    ReplyDelete
  41. Dynamo5:53 AM

    Rona Barret does makes.

    1- Elvis. I have heard that he had a fascination with preteen girls.
    2- Liberace. For years he fought off rumors he was gay.
    3- Natlie Woods. This does make sense; but so does Marilyn Monroe.

    ReplyDelete
  42. TopperMadison6:56 AM

    Liberace was NOT a singer. He flamboyantly played the piano and told jokes really well.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Sd auntie7:16 AM

    Totie Fields,Phyliss diller and Truman capote were my favorites on Merv Griffin. Ellen and company are boring as hell..

    ReplyDelete
  44. incredulous7:17 AM

    im too young to know who this is.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Sd auntie7:21 AM

    how about Johnny Mathis?

    ReplyDelete
  46. Sd auntie7:25 AM

    Johnny Mathis or sir Elton and his marriages two marriages ?

    ReplyDelete
  47. Kno Won Uno7:52 AM

    The definition of talk show has changed dramatically - and not for the better. Everything's so bland & dull.

    ReplyDelete
  48. I thought the same thing. She knew he had sex with a 13 year old and successfully blackmailed him for her own gain? Wow. Sounds like a peach.

    ReplyDelete
  49. #3 Elizabeth Taylor (Richard Burton)

    ReplyDelete
  50. Guessing9:25 AM

    I remember Truman being on the Merv Griffin show after he wasn't invited to the Oscars for writing "La Cote Basque, 1965." He was BITTER!

    70s daytime names keep coming to me - Charles Nelson Riley, Brett Somers, Joey Heatherton, Paul Lynde, Joann Worley...

    ReplyDelete
  51. bush bunny9:43 AM

    Miss Rona got her start by chasing Eddie Fisher all over NYC before he became a household name. She was the president of his fan club, as well. When he became famous he was really horrible to her and she wrote about this sad episode of her life in her autobiography. Am I completely wrong about the singer? Wasn't it Eddie? Or was it Bobby Darin? Anyone out there as old as I am who can confirm this? The memory (what memory?) is the first thing to go. After the boobs fall to your knees.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Studio5410:06 AM

    I don't recall Elvis ever giving Rona Barrett any interview.

    ReplyDelete
  53. Zilla110:18 AM

    Barbara is retired. That said, this probably is Rona.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Zilla110:19 AM

    By all accounts, Jack Warner was a monstrous asshole.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Guessing10:27 AM

    Nipsey Russel

    ReplyDelete
  56. The timing is right for Gloria Steinem, who of course was a reporter and then later an editor for years. John Lennon was one of her first big celebrity interviews.

    ReplyDelete
  57. Holy shite, y'all. This conversation was like in the early days of CDAN. Thanks!!!

    ReplyDelete
  58. Malibuborebee11:32 AM

    You obviously know nothing about Gloria Steinem.

    ReplyDelete
  59. Claire11:51 AM

    Great guess! I hadn't heard of her but I looked her up and she fits for all of these (if the guesses are correct for those)

    ReplyDelete
  60. LaBomba12:23 PM

    Great guess!

    ReplyDelete
  61. Based on this, https://www.buzzfeed.com/annehelenpetersen/all-the-dirt-on-rona-barrett-the-forgotten-gossip-girl?utm_term=.gg0GaMY1gB#.gg0GaMY1gB
    1 Frankie Avalon
    2 Cary Grant or Rock Hudson

    ReplyDelete
  62. Was Rona the one who always said, "Hello to all of you from Hollywood?"

    She always posed in a 3/4 shot and I remember her talking about some celeb having cancer, calling it "the big C." I thought that was pretty nasty.

    ReplyDelete
  63. emeraldcity4:36 PM

    The Natalie/Barbara time line doesn't fit. Natalie was a child star already in the '40's. I don't think Barbara could have been the one to launch her career she would have been in her teens when Natalie was starting out. Natalie was the top child star in 1947 and Barbra didn't really get any interviewing clout until the '60's

    ReplyDelete
  64. Guessing12:41 AM

    Great story. Thanks for posting.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Guesser1:09 AM

    I know I'm late but nobody mentioned the Gabor sisters or Jayne Mansfield. Yes I'm old too.

    ReplyDelete
  66. Guessing2:54 AM

    Omg, yes, great call. Yeah, it's sad when you're the one saying, "remember when..."

    ReplyDelete
  67. shiba2:37 PM

    1.) any girl who slept with Elvis was in heaven at having been picked by The King, and would never testify against him.
    2.) if he somehow got setup or the girl's parents wanted to prosecute (if they found out) Elvis' record label or studio would pay them off, while Elvis sent her a personally autographed new album.

    There is no heroine who saves the day by exposing the filthy entertainer who seduced a 13 yr old. Everyone already knows, except the adoring fans.

    ReplyDelete

Advertisements

Popular Posts from the last 30 days