C*nt of the Month: Hedda Hopper

I'm really surprised Miss Ryan Murphy didn't do a Hedda vs Louella Feud.

There was a TV movie on the feud in the 80s, R1.

[quote] I'm really surprised Miss Ryan Murphy didn't do a Hedda vs Louella Feud.

He's probably trying to figure out a way to get Charlie Carver's untalented ass in there.

[quote] She was divorced, couldn't type, and was a terrible speller, so it was either gossip or prostitution.

Or both.

All Hollywood gossip columnists worked with intelligence agencies, They were like the secret police of the entertainment industry. The gossipers fed info they collected to the intelligence agencies and the intelligence agencies fed gossip to the columnists and told them if and when they should print it …. or threaten to print it. The columnists could ruin careers and the FBI helped them.

^ "The columnists could ruin careers and the FBI helped them. "

Oh, please, it was all that nasty little queen, J Edgar Hoover, who orchestrated the whole awful truth. Right wing closet cases live to destroy lives as we see everyday in the Republican Party

She wrote that actor Michael Wilding (Elizabeth Taylor’s ex-husband) and actor Stewart Granger were lovers. Wildling sued her and won.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think Hedda (or Louella for that matter) ever literally outed an actor as homosexual. Though she may have hinted at it in a not particularly subtle style, her column appeared in newspapers that were simply too mainstream for audiences of the pre-Stonewall Era. It would have all been considered too horrifyingly distasteful to mention in specific language.

R1, Ryan Murphy did get Hedda Hopper (Judy Davis) into Feud with her helping Joan sabotage Bette’s Oscar campaign.

Hedda '60

Nine episodes about Hedda and Louella.

Essential listening.

Wasn’t her son (aka Paul Drake on Perry Mason) a big ol’ closet case who hated his mother?

[quote] ... Times City Desk? Hedda Hopper speaking. I'm talking from the bedroom of Norma Desmond. Don't bother with a rewrite man, take this direct. Ready? -- As day breaks over the murder house, Norma Desmond, famed star of yesteryear, is in a state of complete mental shock ...

I've seen her in several silent and early sound films (she was in one with Valentino--and another with Ramon Novarro--and would pop up here and there elsewhere). Going by what I've seen, she took modest secondary roles which she always handled well, always poised and able.

R12, A young William Hopper.

Hedda was a major force behind Charlie Chaplin leaving the USA.

The You Must Remember This podcast did a whole season on Hedda and Louella. It was very interesting.

She was a despicable person and I'm so glad history has not let her off the hook about that.

There was this gossip columnist named Jack O’Brian I remember reading as a kid. He never said anyone was homosexual, but he used these really bizarre phrases so you couldn’t miss that he was outing someone, I remember reading the column where he outed Robert Reed. It was obvious who he was talking about and he said that he was frequenting bars with other men and I think he said he was carrying a purse as well.

R19 I was going to ask our DL Hollywood historians what were the things they would say to quietly out people? Was "confirmed bachelor" a de facto term for homosexual? I've heard my 90 year old mother say that about a great uncle of mine, but I don't think she means gay. Would Hedda say stuff like "light in the loafers"? Fuck her anyway. She looks like a fat matron from the 1800s in the photo with the other gossip hag.

OP, it was Joan Bennett who sent Hedda a live skunk in a hat box for Valentine's Day, with a note attached that read, "You stink!" Hedda announced in her column the next day that she had named the skunk "Joan."

R21 Joan was never the same after her husband shot her agent/lover right in front of her.

If Lea Michele were alive back then she would've broke into Hedda's house and shit into all of her gaudy tacky hats.

R22, He shot him in the groin and served jail time for it.

IIRC the Joan Bennett animosity began in the early 1930s when Joan was a young ingenue and Hedda played her mother in a film and, perhaps, Joan was not too kind to her. Years later in 1949 Joan played Elizabeth Taylor's mother in FATHER OF THE BRIDE and Hedda wrote in her column something to the effect that now Joan would experience what it was like to be treated as an aging supporting player and have to wait around on the set all day for her closeups.

I think a lot of the viciousness in Hedda's column was based on resentment and revenge and came from her years as a hard-working but not particularly talented character actress observing bad behavior.

Fun fact: Hedda's real name was Elda Furry.

Joan Bennett was exquisite in “Father of the Bride”.

MARY!

^ Was that an orgasm, dear?

I was better in the remake!