Hollywood divas
By Ronald Constantino
WHEN – Let’s get away from local showbiz for a few days and focus instead on the golden years of Hollywood when as they say, movies were movies and stars had faces. When there were DIVAS, looking, acting, and speaking like ones.
Take Katharine Hepburn as seen by her colleagues.
“At the studio (RKO), they called her Katharine of Arrogance. Not without reason, as I would tell you – but why bother? I really have nothing to say about Miss Hepburn which you can print.” – Estelle Winwood
“I was trying the impossible, to make an artificial showcase out of an artificial star (Katharine Hepburn), and she couldn’t handle it. She was hopelessly affected, babbling away like a fool and imagining it was acting.” – Broadway producer Jed Harris.
“I don’t like Katharine Hepburn. She’s holier than thou. She’s like an old preppy with attitude.” – Director John Waters
“Maria Callas is a diva. Anna Magnani is a great actress and star. My mother was a goddess. As to saints, most of them were mythical.” – Luchino Visconte
(Zsa Zsa Gabor is said to be a “trying hard diva,” but let’s listen to what others in Hollywood have to say.)
“Zsa Zsa The Bore. Did I spell that right?” – Elayne Boosler
“Before I ever married two of the three Gabor sisters, I already knew the words ‘acting’ and ‘Gabor’ are mutually exclusive terms.” – George Sanders
“Zsa Zsa Gabor has discovered the secret of perpetual middle age. And then some.” – John Huston
(As regards Zsa Zsa’s age, she used to say she was only 50. A resourceful Hollywood reporter dug up her birth certificate in Hungary. Conclusion: If she’s really only 50, then she reigned as Miss Hungary before she was born.)