Bacall-bashing on DL

Totally agree with you, OP.

She was a unique star who looked and sounded like no other film actress. And she nearly always looked chic, certainly in the 1950s, which I would consider her peak period with “Young Man With a Horn,” “How to Marry a Millionaire,” “Woman’s World,” “Written on the Wind,” “Designing Woman.”

In all of them she was stunning, sophisticated and usually played a reasoning, sensible, grounded woman, very different than the housewifey, girleen types June Allyson was playing during the same decade.

[quote]She was evidently an unpleasant person in real life. That's not great, but neither was Bette Davis or Joan Crawford or (put Golden Age actor/actress here)

Bette and Joan weren't rude to underlings.

OP, there's also the shit part of DL where trolls attempt to make someone a 'DL icon'. Ugh.

Agree with you OP. I've wondered about the bashing too.

Judith Crown one of the top hair stylists in Hollywood who Bacall always wanted to do her hair stopped working on her because she saw how mean she was. To other people not to her. But she found her pointlessly cruel and no longer wanted to work on her.

I just saw Woman's World on YouTube. I didn't even know it existed. She was beautiful and glamorous.

As a boy I saw her in Applause at the Palace more than a year into its run. Her aura and charisma is filled that huge theater and she was sensational.

So you bring her up again knowing what you're gonna get, OP.

Incidentally, Crawford was not unpleasant in real life. She had a well known reputation for being kind to all except Miss Davis.

She was spoiled by her marriage to Bogart. Everyone loved him and wanted him to be happy so they tolerated her and she could say or do anything. She was already in an affair with Sinatra when Bogie was dying and everyone knew. I think she expected to stay spoiled and entitled being with Frank but he was not going for it.

She was a loud mouth drunk too. I can just hear her boozed up braying now.

r6 I remember a story of Joan having an outburst at a dinner party because the chocolate mousse was served on a paper doily instead of directly on the plate. She accused the hostess of being a cheap floozy that her wealthy husband discovered at a diner.

Well, Joan would know.

Bacall would've been no match for Lucy "Ya call this Highpoint shit coffee?!" *SPLASH*

Lauren was what we called “misunderstood”, dear. Basically, no one understood what Bogie saw in her naive, sophomoric behavior. Perhaps she was an undiagnosed retard……

I wonder if Betty used a strap-on to fuck Frankie?

One nomination. Lost.

You know who loved Lauren Bacall? Lauren Bacall.

Good taste is easy to recognise.

She wanted hearts, not diamonds.

The Place: Orso Restaurant in New York

The Time: early March 1997 a few weeks before the Oscars.

The Comment: Made by patrons at a table between mine and that of a famous actress… “We adored you in The Mirror Has Two Faces and just wanted to say congratulations on your nomination!”

The Response: “Was I talking to you?!?!”

The CUNT: Lauren Bacall

You can think of 10,000 worse people in the business, OP?

Name them, exaggeratrix.

She was so funny as a guest on Dame Edna. If my link doesn't go there, just go to about the 4 minute mark for Lauren's section.

Someone posted this years ago - a former 'hairstylist to the stars' talks about working with Lauren Bacall - pretty interesting.

On a personal level, she seemed awful, but I find her highly watchable and charismatic.

Our family watched Murder on the Orient Express over the holidays, and I loved all of the performances, especially hers, as she’s a linchpin in the story. She’s funny and abrasive, with just enough pathos peeking out of the character that her character is playing.

In a cast full of international movie stars giving terrific performances, she more than holds her own.

R19, perhaps not in the business.

In public life as celebrities?

Sure.

Man she was a huge cunt to everyone. She was hated.

On the episode of "The Sopranos" where's she's mugged and knocked down on the sidewalk, how many of you were cheering for the mugger?

How dare people criticize someone I like! And on datalounge, of all places!

[quote] Incidentally, Crawford was not unpleasant in real life. She had a well known reputation for being kind to all except Miss Davis.

***ahem***

Lauren Bacall is not the Queen Of Film Noir, OP. Get over it.

Pssst—Don’t take her coffee advice.

Todays Nepo Babies have nothing on Bacall, who milked the mystique of being Mrs. Bogart until her dying day.

Lauren Bacall made it thanks to a damaged larynx.

Mentioning the name Lauren Bacall in the same sentence as Bette Davis is lunacy.

Davis praised her in "Applause".

R27 reminds me no thread is complete without it:

I was molested.

Has there been a Bacall biography or even article that ever delved into why she was so mean to people? I mean, the hair stylist flat out said it, so it's not just legend. It would be interesting to know, since she would have left a trail of victims.

Hollywood may not have liked her, but Broadway seemed to.

She won two Tonys for Best Actress in a musical despite not being able to sing, that's very impressive.

Not especially.

she had FLAVVAH

When Bacall was doing Woman of the Year on B'way in 1982, it was all over the place what a bitch she was to cast and crew. My own NYC mother told me someone she knew who was acquainted with someone on the show told her Bacall was next to impossible to work with. THIS had got to be a big reason her career wasn't what she wanted it to be.

[quote]Davis praised her in "Applause".

I'll need a link for that. What I remember was criticism from Davis. I saw the show btw.

Most entertainment celebrities are known at two levels, the surface level of what their work and their public persona, and the deeper level where there are stories of a cheap tipper, a bitch on wheels of a boss, the customer who makes the employees cry, or the charming down to earth sort who saved someone's puppy from a car. Mention an entertainment celebrity -- and particulalrly by way of observation about their surface level -- and anyone who has ever heard a bad word rushes to repeat it. Let a thread get too many flattering posts about an entertainment celelbrity and someone will dig up that some remote and centuries removed branch of the celebrity's family was probably in the slave trade. The pattern is not more relaxed on Datalounge where contrarians are part of teh weave of the fabric.

From my persepctive, Bacall had amazing presence and ease, the camera loved her, she had a unique look, and it was hard not to pay attention when she was on screen. Even in a cheesy coffee commercial, even heard and not seen from another room above background noise, she had a seemingly effortless quality that commanded attention merely by being herself. Without having read her biographies, without having followed gossip about her, it's not difficult to imagine that she might have been a right bitch. It doesn't distract from her image in film and public presentations. One thing doesn't always wipe away another, no more ghan one admirable quality always raises all others.

I see OP's point, to a point, but it's Datalounge.

Last night I ran across 'Women's World' on YouTube and decided to watch. But then when I saw two of my most disliked actors, June Allyson and Fred McMurray, I had to bail during the opening credits.

Betty was excellent in a lot of movies. She was probably good in this one, but I wasn't going to endure cutesy June to find out.

One time while Bacall was visiting Hep she shit her pants. After a few minutes Bacall said “I can’t stand it! I’m getting the fuck out of here!” Then stormed out of the room

June Allyson for Depend

I'm a fan of Allyson and MacMurray but even I have to admit they're pretty terrible in this. But it's worth it for the NY location shots in the mid 50s and the wonderful gorgeous Arlene Dahl playing the ambitious executive wife from hell.

[quote]I'll need a link for that. What I remember was criticism from Davis.

I'll need a link for that, r39.

R40, have you heard on the DL or elsewhere that seemingly good natured Carol Burnett is a bitch? NO.

Case closed.

r39 "What I remember was criticism from Davis"

I'll need a link for that.

r39 "mother told me someone she knew who was acquainted with someone on the show"

Wow, what a solid source. We'll need a link for that.

Right, R48. Bacall was not a bitch, we need 100 sources.

Maybe she was having a bad day…

Just plodded through ‘’Woman’s World’’ no wonder we’ve never heard of it. Becall looked great- like the very first Barbie doll. 1950’s New York was interesting.

R15, I rather doubt Lauren Bacall loved Lauren Bacall.

I think she felt great loss and also guilt at Bogart's death.

Then anger at how Sinatra dumped her (evidently over something she did not do).

And then exhaustion at the behavior and flat-out abuse of Jason Robards (whom she felt genuine affection for).

And I think she felt like shit.

R52 Bacall loved Bacall.

I don't think she felt any guilt about fucking Sinatra while Bogie laid dying of cancer.

Sinatra dumped her for a good reason, she blabbed to the press that they were going to be married when he hadn't even proposed. I love that he kicked her to the curb.

She treated Robards and their son like they were second rate, didn't even mention Sam when she got that pity Academy Award and regretted that until the day she died. Freudian slip, because she didn't forget then other two.

She was a CUNT.

Never liked her.

In the early 80's I saw her being interviewed in Detroit on tv. A caller who was clearly a HUGE fan called her Betty...and she tore him to shreds for it. It was completely uncalled of and even the interviewer pretty much politely told her to take a pill. I never cared for her after witnessing it. If she treated people like that with the camera's rolling, she must have truly been a mastercunt when it was being recorded.

She was very good at acting much like Lucy but that’s entertainment.

She wasn’t mean She was just lively.

Loved her!

R55-Got a link?

She shined, or she shone? Which is it?

She was just a bit tense at times. Ease up on her.

R1 People play what their type is. Why would she play the wife of Glenn Miller or parts like that?

Not only don't I have a link, r59 I don't know the name of the interviewer. I saw it on WNED, the PBS affiliate over in Buffalo (I'm in Toronto) on a weekday afternoon and the show was airing from Detroit.

It’s gone for eve. Betty tore the tape from the camera and cut it up with her own teeth.

Designing Woman

So basically another Bacall thread.

Fred MacMurray was always good when he played shits or weaklings and he is very good in “Woman’s World,” and he and Bacall are completely convincing as a Manhattan married couple disillusioned with themselves and each other.

They’re in a completely different, more adult, more interesting movie than the other two couples — pairings that are never for a moment believable — Cornell Wilde with June Allyson (sickening in this movie and I don’t normally dislike her) and Van Heflin with Arlene Dahl, who’s about as subtle as a mack truck and is built like one.

R67 What's interesting is that Bacall was pretty young in that movie, and I think she's supposed to be the older wife of two of them the group, with older kids. I think she was in her late 20's. Born in 1924. Allyson was born in 1917. (There was a time when they hung out together, also with Judy Garland.) I usually like June but I agree that was not her best role though I didn't find her quite sickening. The whole thing about she and Wilde and the kind of couple they were was overdone. I liked the scene where Bacall and Allyson go to the Loehmann's type discount store though.

*the older (or oldest) wife of the group

Learn about punctuation and sentence structure, R5. Your post would have had a much greater impact with that in mind.

And she loved High Point Coffee's DEEP BREWED FLAVAH!!

She looks like she had big feet.

[quote] Learn about punctuation and sentence structure, [R5]. Your post would have had a much greater impact with that in mind.

Thank you for the feedback. Several fellow DLers and I have taken him in hand and are mentoring him.

The poor thing.

A friend of mine, a highly respected and sought after assistant director, worked on a film with Betty Bacall. The actress would only address the assistant director as "stupid girl". Finally, my friend confronted Ms. Bacall and firmly requested that she cease addressing her as "stupid girl". And like all bullies, Ms. Bacall backed off and addressed my friend by name and from that point-on maintained an amicable professional relationship for the rest of the principal photography of the film. I remember first seeing Lauren Bacall in the the film noir classic DARK PASSAGE when I was around ten years old. I thought she was the most glamorous, smoulderingly sexy woman I had ever seen. And my dad felt the same way about her too. I wonder what made her such a miserable bitch who could look down upon and disparage an essential co worker such as an assistant director? Any psychologists on the DL who could provide any insight??

Anyone see Young Man with a Horn where she plays a lesbian?

[quote]Any psychologists on the DL who could provide any insight??

You need to ask?

She learned all the wrong lessons about how tough the film business is from her gruff, rather e,bittered husband and his friends, all two generations older than she was, and she felt generally bereft and adrift in Hollywood after Bogart’s death.

I can see how it seemed like a scary time, personally and professionally. And I guess the armor she put on then just got thicker and thicker and harder to remove over the years.

For someone whose talent was limited, she had a decent movie and stage career, you’d have thought she would have been satisfied. Had she stayed in Hollywood and toughed it out there, maybe she would have gotten more respect and affection from movie people despite her hardness.

My favorite Lauren Bacall moment. There's a reason they made this.

I enjoyed life then more than I ever had, and I lived it to the fullest. That's because I learned how to pick my pleasures, like coffee.

Jealous, bitches??

Can’t believe she was considered a lock for Mirror has two faces. Caught parts of it again on cable recently and it is at best 90s lifetime movie material. Also for a self proclaimed advocate for women like Streisand,, the movie has such a, sexist, archaic message about beauty and attracting men.

There’s one scene where Bacall’s character is practically apologizing to Streisand’s character for being beautiful. It was embarrassing but Streisand plays it like it’s first rate Ibsen. Tragic she went out on her directing career with this

[quote] Tragic she went out on her directing career with this

It was inevitable because Streisand, as her music amply proves, is completely and unabashedly schmaltzy in her taste. She's only an adequate director, fit for nothinf better than Lifetime but lucky that she got the projects she got because she starred in them which guaranteed them a box office. Today, as she herself has stated, she can't get a project financed. This is probably because her directing style and taste are so out of sync with the times.

[quote]What gives?

What gives? What gives is that many Dataloungers also lived in NYC over at least the last thirty years of Bacall's long life and had opportunities to observe her first hand, or interact with her and got the full experience of the Widow Bogart.

Most have colorful and unpleasant things to report. That's just life, hun!

[quote]When Bacall was doing Woman of the Year on B'way in 1982, it was all over the place what a bitch she was to cast and crew.

Roderick Cook who played Bacall's "Guy Friday" Gerald in the show despised Bacall. A friend of mine was chums with him and on his outgoing answering machine he stated, "I'm not home right now. I'm currently being held hostage at the Palace Theater..."

She wanted farts, not diamonds

Bacall was so goddamn pretentious in interviews. I don’t why she acted so high and fucking mighty when her career was reduced to hawking downmarket, bargain basement crap like Tuesday Morning, Arby’s and Fords.

When I was in college on the East Coast in the mid-1980s, my roommate was in an all-male a capella group that performed in NYC for Leonard Bernstein for some big gala in celebration of him. he came back from Manhattan complaining about what a BITCH Lauren Bacall (who was mistress of ceremonies) was to everyone at the gala. Neither he nor I at the time knew she was already legendary for such behavior.

People lose Oscars for two reasons

1) it’s someone else’s turn

2) they are HATED by the community.

Lauren was #2

Lauren Bacall’s performance in The Mirror Has Two Faces was thin even for a Lifetime Achievement nomination . She have a solid performance, but it was just about her being old and beautiful, that was it.

R88 yup. Binoche won I don’t think won by a huge margin over Bacall, but obviously it was just enough key voters, probably more in the tech branches, to take her down. I imagine she treated a lot of the tech people like shit. But obviously wasn’t confined to just them. While Bacall’s film career was rather sparse, she had decades of her cunt behavior that followed her to that 1996 Oscar voting period. Not to mention the voters that just plain hated the film.

r88 Incorrect

R91 Betty from the grave.

Betty must have been on her EXTRA best behavior around Streisand.

T91, are you, R48?

I remember seeing Murder on the Orient Express on TV when I was maybe 7 or 18. Bacall made her entrance and I asked my mother "who is she?" My mother replied "She's one of the passengers on the train." I said "No, who is she in real life?" My mother said "Lauren Bacall, a lady who was famous back when there were black and white films."

I had always loved watching films and my mother made sure we saw the classics. But something about Bacall's scene made me interested in who was making the films - who the actual people were.

I also remember seeing To Have and Have Not when I was in my early teens and thinking "That's Lauren Bacall?! Holy shit!" I had previously always imagined her as her age at MotOE.

Murder on the Orient Express was the first thing I saw her in as well, r94. I knew she was an old movie star just from the highly theatrical way she moved and spoke. She's not the best actor in that film but I loved watching her.

R91 I’m sorry but you don’t win the Golden Globe, Critics choice and SAG award and have everyone tell you you are going to win, only to lose to an unknown British woman unless you are HATED!

I knew her in the 90s. Butch.

Too uppity. Not great looking, either. I guess people liked her voice that sounded like she smoked three packs a day.

What looks she had faded by her early or mid 30s. The smoking perhaps.

Then she did look fairly good for a mature woman once she was in her 60s

I think she was great looking as a young model. My mother knew a very old man in the clothing business in her retirement community. I believe Bacall met him during her modeling days. Even in his mid 90s he remembered how beautiful she was as a young woman.

I have a few stories of my own which I won't go into because I'm bored with them at this point. But suffice it to say she was a woman of great personality and charisma but with an inexplicably deep mean streak. Maybe she expected to be an above the title star in movies she could carry on her own and never was. She lost out on the film role in her big Broadway success Cactus Flower to Ingrid Bergman. She had only gone to Broadway because she was no longer wanted in Hollywood, And they still didn't want her.

I just watched Woman's World because somebody above brought it up and I had never seen it before. I think this was the first time that I saw Bacall playing a character that was vulnerable.

She’s culnerable in “Written on the Wind” as well.

“vulnerable”

The idea that she "couldn't act" has always seemed laughable to me.

She had a limited range but no more so than many Golden Age performers.

R83, a person unable to tell the difference between "hun" and "hon" is a person whose opinion means terrifyingly little to me.

Pick a note Betty. Any note.

r105 Are you going to be ok?

r84 that made me laugh out loud.

Did you know she was married to Bogie? I'm not sure if Betty ever brought that up.

I think one of her best performances is one of her quietest—opposite John Wayne in The Shootist.”

I was standing quite close to her at the intermission of an off-Broadway show. She, of course, was smoking.

Homeless guy walks up asking the people standing outside for money. She said “no.”

He walked away. Came back 30 seconds later. “Pardon me. Are you Lauren Bacall?”

Bacall: “Yes I am.” She then turned back to her group and kept right on talking.

Absolute cuntery.

r111 Ok, that one sounds 100% ok. I'd have done the exact same thing.

R111 I don't care for her but I'm not sure that story qualifies as cuntery.

At least she didn't give him her immortal "Was I talking to you?!'

I would have done the very same thing r111 what’s the big deal?

As B. J. Perske herself would have told the OP is the two cunts were in hearing range of each other:

"Was I speaking to you? Shut the fuck up."

Here's an interesting article about written a year before her death. This is the best part:

“The other night I was going into a doctor’s office, and some son of a bitch came out of the building, almost knocked me over. I said, ‘You’re a fucking ape!’—screaming at him. He never even turned around. Couldn’t care less, this big horse of a man.”

Almost as good as the Gwyneth Paltrow head in the box.

R75, Are you saying all bullies back off when you firmly request that they stop?

R117 She was on a walker, and a guy almost knocked her down. I'd be angry, too.

[quote]“Can you imagine? It’s the only time I have been in the hospital except for the times when I gave birth,” she says.

Impressive health record, especially if she continued to smoke heavily.

[quote]My favorite Lauren Bacall moment. There's a reason they made this.

I loved shopping at the Robinsons May in the mid 90s.

[quote] Just plodded through ‘’Woman’s World’’ no wonder we’ve never heard of it.

YOU'VE never heard of it.

I was watching an interview with Robert Osborne, who rarely publicly talked shit about anybody. But he said something about her. He gave an example of her behavior at a party. Someone came up to her and said something while she was speaking to someone else, and she just said something rude, like, "Get lost, can't you see I'm talking to someone?"

For r105

Is it Hun or Hon for honey?

Both are correct and you can use either. "Hun" has the benefit of showing the pronunciation while "hon" reflects the word's origin.

The way most people go about it, they use more brains picking a horse in the third at Belmont than they do picking a husband.

Schatze Page was one of the best movie characters ever.

R125 You seem hurt

R122 Yeah but that's not why they made this. She had it coming.

[quote] Can you imagine? It’s the only time I have been in the hospital except for the times when I gave birth,” she says. Impressive health record, especially if she continued to smoke heavily.

She may have been no stranger to out-patient procedures.

Do you know she was married to Bogie?

You don't say! ^^^

I used to play with Betty on her stoop in Brooklyn when we were 8. Even then if a neighbor walked by and said Hello Betty she would reply in the most haughty condescending tone imaginable 'Was I speaking to you!' We would giggle and she would say 'I'm practicing to be a big stah with flavah!'

‘’We’re ready for you Miss Bacall’’

R31 and how did she damage her larynx I wonder?

R31 and how did she damage her larynx I wonder?

R31 and how did she damage her larynx I wonder?

You just keep wondering.

R137 DAMN THIS TIN-POT WEBSITE TECH!

I apologise R137

Did you know she was married to Bogie?

Did you know that when she accepted her pity Oscar she forgot to mention her son with Jason Robards who wasn't a Hollywood star, only mentioning her children with American movie star and legend Humphrey Bogart, as if she never had him making him feel permanently worthless and unloved?

I know they supposedly got along, but I love the idea of Yoko Ono and Lauren Bacall hating each other as neighbors at the Dakota.

Imagine Bacall calling Yoko a cunt for closing the elevator before she could get in; or Yoko screaming and wailing when Bacall started bitching in a co-op meeting about the odor of marijuana coming from the Lennon’s apartment.

To be fair Yoko was the better singer.

R141, add in other residents Roberta Flack and Rex Reed.

I'm most a non-fan of Bacall's, but I have to give her credit for some late-career appearances in offbeat fare like Jonathan Glazer's brilliant BIRTH and Lars von Trier's DOGVILLE and (briefly) MANDERLAY. Nicole Kidman was excellent in the first 2 of those as well.

She gets machine-gunned in Dogville. I liked that.

R144 I also thought Birth was brilliant. One of Nicole's best performances, Bacall was great.

Most of all, that movie belonged to Anne Heche. She was crazy as a loon, but you can't deny she was a terrific actress.

^^Also, what about the end? It still haunts me.

I’m enjoying the love for “Birth” with Nicole Kidman, Lauren Bacall, and Anne Heche on this thread. I saw that movie only last year. I enjoyed it a lot especially the sort of twist at the end (I’ll try not to give it away for those that haven’t seen it still). I’ll admit that I have a bit of a soft spot for Anne Heche since we share the same birthday (May 25th).

I like that Lauren Bacall (say what you will about her as a person offscreen) managed to take on some fascinating, thought-provoking roles towards the end of her life. I’ll give her some credit where credit is due.

I worked as an usher at an off-Broadway theater in the mid 90s. I got to seat Ms. Bacall, and she was perfectly gracious to me. She smiled, said thank you, and asked politely for a program. I even asked her if I could get her anything, and she said no thank you, with a kind smile. I had no issue with her, given my limited interaction with her as a plebe.

But I would also encourage folks to think about the expectations upon old school women in show business. They ALL had to be bitches in order to get anywhere in a man's business. While Bacall's cuntitude was legendary, and more than necessary, we have to remember that much of this behavior was de rigueur for women in the industry at the time.

She had FLAVAH!

[quote] They ALL had to be bitches in order to get anywhere in a man's business.

Let me tweak that a bit: SOME of them thought being cunts was the only way to trample over other women vying for the same work.

She was a vampire.

How could anyone say she wasn't beautiful when young?

When she became hard of hearing later in life Bacall would say, "T'wat's that? I cunt hear you."

She bitched Rex Reed out over the phone when Reed mentioned that Bacall lived at the Dakota speaking on Good Morning America the day after Lennon was assassinated.

R142 Wow that's harsh

Everybody and their mother knew Bacall lived at the Dakota.

I highly doubt my mother knew this, r157.

It's a fucking expression r158

And you're a fucking asshole, r159.

Ok r160

Lauren Bacall bought her 11-room Dakota apartment in 1961 for just $28,000! I shit you not.

I'm certainly no expert in NY real estate prices from back then, but even for 1961 that seems shockingly low for an apartment like that.

It sold for $21 million in 2015.

She once said it was the only good financial investment she made in her life.

She made Barbra cry on the set of that mirror movie.

And she was lucky enough to make enough money to cover the soaring maintenance costs over the years.

It was the other way around, dearest R164.

I thought Mike Walace was the only one to make Babs cry. And it was her best interview. Non of the gushing fandom that she usually demands when interviewed.

Wallace

[quote] But I would also encourage folks to think about the expectations upon old school women in show business. They ALL had to be bitches in order to get anywhere in a man's business. While Bacall's cuntitude was legendary, and more than necessary, we have to remember that much of this behavior was de rigueur for women in the industry at the time.

I'm so sick of reading this shit excuse for some old time stars being insufferable, nasty bitches. I can tell you plenty that weren't. Eva Marie Saint, Theresa Wright, Dorothy McGuire, Audrey Hepburn, Jane Powell, Judy Garland, etc.

True, R169. DL fave Lena Horne was a diva on stage and off (and a good friend of Bacall's, btw), but she always had other people handle the bitchy stuff.

Well people like Mary Martin and Rosalind Russell and Doris Day had their husbands handle the dirty work. Of course Doris's fucked her over and everyone couldn't stand him in any case. What was she doing with him? At least have somebody you can stand looking at in the morning. Though when need be Doris was known to be an iron fist like when she and Grant had a scene in Mink and they both wanted their good side to face the camera. Problem was it was it was the same side on both of them. Grant wanted to be favored. When Doris walked in and saw how the scene was set up she said nothing and went into her trailer. She then asked for Grant to be sent to her. He was there an hour. When he came out it was shot the way Day wanted. And I seriously doubt sex had anything to do with it.

Did Doris Day ever have a good husband? She had four, I think. One beat her senseless.

speaking of husbands.....did you know Lauren was married to Bogie?

I still don't think the only women who didn't need to be bitches in Golden Age show business had husbands who eseentially "did the bitch work for them."

She adored Streisand because she loved to kiss up to people who are richer, more famous and more successful than her. She looked down on the help and anyone like them.

I get the impression that when Bogie died she was the no longer the Hollywood A lister she had been. Always in the big leagues through her marriage to him and she knew it that might have affected her enormously. Her last big starring film was being made when Bogie was dying Designing Woman. She would never again star in such a major studio production. Had it been a huge hit things might have turned out differently. She seems to have lost a lot of her allure with his death and it's not a very good movie. To be honest I don't think even Grace Kelly could have done much with that script which was meant for her. Yes I know there are people who love it. But in it Bacall's limitations are really pronounced such as a hardness and lack of light comic ability and charm which are desperately needed in that role. Minnelli was probably bored and is in journeyman mode which he definitely wasn't with his next films like Gigi and Some Came Running. Maclaine was cruel when she said he was more interested in directing the lamps than the actors. She gives her first really outstanding performance in it. Even one take Sinatra and Martin are good in it.

I think you're right ^^. Until the day she died she continued to invoke Bogie in every interview because she knew people were more interested in him than in her.

Wait a minute. She was married to Bogie?

[quote] But I would also encourage folks to think about the expectations upon old school women in show business. They ALL had to be bitches in order to get anywhere in a man's business.

You know it, toots!

Interesting that Barbra in her autobiography mentions Bacall's limitations as an actress. Barbra thought Bacall had a tendency to "act" rather than be natural on screen, so she tricked Bacall in two sequences, telling her this was just a rehearsal while the cameras were shooting. I doubt Barbra would have mentioned this if Bacall were still alive, but it stood out to me.

Barbara tricked a lot of people over the decades.

r179 Julie Andrews was from a different era.

Julie really came up the hard way and WORKED from when she was a child. Though a total professional I've always heard she was a pleasure to work with.

Honestly R181 what are you doing on DL? Not only do you need to hand in your gay card but you'll need to go through conversion therapy.

R184 Why?

Younger Gen X here and Barbra's never really been a big thing with us.

Actually, NO, R177. Interviewers always ASKED about Bogart. Bacall even complained that it was part of these interviews as if she hadn’t done anything else in 30 years.

OP, mind your own fucking business.

PR is PR.

Now shove off.

She said the same thing about Sinatra, r187. Something along the lines of "they keep asking about this brief thing from 30+ years ago".

Whether or not she brought up Bogie or the reporters did, the reality that he was mentioned all the time meant that she knew he was her calling card and that had to lead to an incredible amount of insecurity. Growing up in the '80s, it seemed like she was always lumped in with other female stars of the Golden Era of Hollywood: Garbo, Davis, Stanwyck, Bergman...yet, Bacall doesn't have the body of work to back it up...save for the films she did with Bogie.

Growing up in the 80s, you probably never heard of her success in the theater, R190.

Below is a link to a very enjoyable longer interview of Bacall by Mark Cousins. I have no inside info about her infamous behavior. I just have fond memories of my grandmother enjoying her movies. I also saw her in Waiting in the Wings.

[quote] Barbra thought Bacall had a tendency to "act" rather than be natural on screen,

Being completely natural on screen means gently raking your nails across your arched throat to express intense emotion.

[quote]Interviewers always ASKED about Bogart. Bacall even complained that it was part of these interviews as if she hadn’t done anything else in 30 years.

You can see why she was so outraged. She had years of stories still to them about filming "Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre" and doing "Wonderful Town" in summer stock.

The best interview she ever did, believe it or not, was with Dame Edna. She came off as a real person with an actual sense of humor. She's really likeable here. Especially in the closing number.

R195 love that

If Streisand says Bacall can’t act, it’s pretty definitive.

Betty used to invite me over on Saturday nights towards the end of her life. It was usually the same films -Yentl or Prince of Tides. Oh, how we laughed!

She couldn't act in that atrocious Streisand movie and she still thought she should have won Juliette Binoche's Oscar. What a twat.

She was the best thing in it besides Brenda Vaccaro, idiot, R199.

The movie is so godawful they just couldn't give anyone near it any awards!

Stop it you guys. Bab’s is no saint and you post like she is Saint Mother Teresa.

[quote] She was the best thing in it besides Brenda Vaccaro, idiot, [R199].

That's like praising her for being the second-prettiest turd in the toilet bowl.

I thought she was good in that. But wasn't that like the worst movie ever made? It's as if Napoleon had made a film about himself.