Disgraced Minor Female Celebs

[VintageKell]

Sybille Schmitz was born in Düren, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, but attended an acting school in Cologne before she got her first role with Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater in Berlin in 1927. This was the height of German Silent film era, but of course 'talkies' were just around the corner, with the 'The Jazz Singer' released in October 1927, and many a career was about to end.

But in 1928, she made her film debut with 'Freie Fahrt', and her role attracted favourable comments from the critics, which meant she got other film roles .... these included a part in Dreyer's 'Vampyr' in 1932, and eventually she got her first leading role in 'F.P.1' in 1932. She then established herself as a prominent actress in the German pre-war and Nazi cinema ... maybe the best known of her string of movies to a non German audience was the Nazi propaganda movie 'Titanic' in 1943 which was commissioned by Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels. Costing more than 4 million Reichsmarks (an equivalent of almost $200 million, in today's currency), it could almost have lost the war in itself, when you think of the tanks that would have bought.

The end of the war, brought the end of her career, she was shunned by the new German film community for continuously working during the Third Reich, and it became difficult for her to land roles. It should be noted that as we have seen on this thread, that wasn't always the case (see Hildegard Knef, Camilla Horn, Olga Chekhova), and many continued on to revive their careers in TV after the war.

She found work difficult and appeared intermittently mostly in supporting roles and her last role was in 1953, in 'Das Haus an der Küste', which brought her 39 film career to an end. She married screenwriter Harald G. Petersson, but they split due to her affairs, and erratic behaviour, and in April 1955, Schmitz was found dead, ostensibly of an overdose of sleeping pills .... but read on .....

Möchten Sie weitere schnitzengruben?:

Her personal life and career were something of a disaster on many levels .... She had wanted to migrate to the US film industry but was considered too "alien looking" (Semitic?) for Hollywood. Although not blacklisted by the Nazis, she was not 'Aryan looking enough', and didn't get some of the roles she might have .... so she was possibly losing out for her dark looks in both film markets.

She had early succumbed to drinking, and this developed into alcoholism after the war. She then moved into drug abuse, with a morphine habit, and these two twin evils eventually fed into bouts of depression, with several half hearted suicide attempts, and the committal to a psychiatric clinic. Her self-destructive behavior included numerous affairs with both men and women (she was a real swinger as they say), and this further alienated Sybille from the film industry and her own husband.

At the time of her death, Schmitz had been living in Munich in a lesbian relationship with a Dr Ursula Moritz, who was allegedly also her drug dealer. According to gossip after her death, Frau Dr, was selling her morphine at an inflated rate, and allegedly kept Schmitz doped up, while squandering the last of her money, scrimped from her earlier career.

Schimtz's family claimed that once the actress proved to be of no use to Moritz, the "good doctor" facilitated her suicide, by giving or administering her enough morphine to overdose without her knowledge, and possibly administering the fatal dose. Impossible to prove of course, although it seems likely she would have given her the injections, being a doctor. After the family complained, one year after Schmitz's death, investigations resulted in charges being filed against Dr. Moritz for improper medical treatment.

Quote:

• "I want to sleep. Forever".

Trivia:

• 'Vampyr' was a strange hybrid movie, as it was the directors first sound film and had to be recorded in three languages. To overcome this, very little dialogue was used in the film, and much of the story is told with silent film-styled title cards.
• 'Titanic', which was meant as a propaganda movie, enjoyed a brief theatrical run in German occupied Europe starting in November 1943, but was never shown in Germany, because Goebbels suddenly realised that the giant sinking ship might be seen as an analogy of Nazi Germany
• Schmitz's final years were used as the basis for Rainer Werner Fassbinder's 1982 movie 'Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss'.

Pictures:

She has no thread, and is just a footnote in the thread of Brigette Helm. Just a few illustrative pictures .... enjoy.

[VintageKell]

Dorothy Kilgallen. Born in Chicago, she was the daughter of the Hearst newspaperman, James Lawrence Kilgallen and she had ink in the blood. So it was no surprise when she dropped out of college to take a job as a reporter for the 'New York Evening Journal', which was owned and operated by the Hearst Corporation.

During a stint living in Hollywood in 1936 and 1937, Kilgallen wrote a daily column that could only be read in New York ... by 1938 she was back in New York in 1938, writing a daily column, the 'Voice of Broadway', for Hearst's 'New York Journal American', which she carried on writing until her death in 1965. It featured mostly New York show business news and gossip, but also ventured into other topics such as politics and organized crime.

In April 1940, Kilgallen married Richard Kollmar with whom she co-hosted a WOR-AM radio talk show 'Breakfast With Dorothy and Dick', from their 16-room apartment at 640 Park Avenue, then from 45 East 68th Street in 1952. She also ventured into TV in 1950, when she became a panelist on the American television game show, 'What's My Line?', and she remained on the show for 15 years, until her death .... Kilgallen's articles won her a Pulitzer Prize nomination during this era.

In 1954 she covered the murder trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard, the guilty verdict of which she publicly challenged. Years later she revealed that the judge in the case had told her toward the beginning of the trial that Dr. Sheppard was "guilty as hell". Dr Shepard's appeal attorney in 1964 uncovered others who backed this assertion of the judges prejudice and he was freed.

Oops:

She had a well known but ultimately destructive affair with the singer Johnnie Ray after her and many older ladies (inc those on the jury), supported him in his second homosexual court appearance. He was supposedly bi-sexual, but in reality was more gay than bi, having been arrested twice and tried once for soliciting men for sex ... his marriage (his wife thought she could "straighten it out.", when in fact many believe that he had a long-term relationship with his manager, Bill Franklin), may have been a cover for this predilection.

Even though the 'New York Evening Journal' could only be read in New York, one of her articles provoked a libel suit from Constance Bennett, "who in the early thirties had been the highest paid performer in motion pictures," according to a Kilgallen biography, "but who was [in 1937] experiencing a temporary decline in popular appeal."

She was described as politically a "Hearst girl," by fellow panelist Bennett Cerf who said she wasn't popular and treated as an outsider by other panellists. He also claimed that she used information elicited during conversations in the dressing room shared by all four panelists, in her newspaper column .... he later said, "We didn't like that."

UFOs:

In February 1954, she wrote in her column that "Flying saucers are regarded as of such vital importance that they will be the subject of a special hush-hush meeting of the world military heads next summer". And she followed this up in May by reporting from London that "British scientists and airmen, after examining the wreckage of one mysterious flying ship, are convinced these strange aerial objects are not optical illusions or Soviet inventions, but are flying saucers which originate on another planet. The source of my information is a British official of Cabinet rank who prefers to remain unidentified. 'We believe, on the basis of our inquiry thus far, that the saucers were staffed by small men—probably under four feet tall. It's frightening, but there is no denying the flying saucers come from another planet'" .... this was re-run in many US newspapers .... it was claimed that the information was given to Kilgallen by Lord Mountbatten of Burma at a cocktail party, but attempts to verify this were unsuccessful. So a load of tosh, soon exposed, however, when you stop and think about it, this story has been running in one form or another on web sites to this day.

Kennedy assassination:

After the Kennedy Assassination, Kilgallen claimed she had conducted an interview with 'Jack Ruby' inside the Dallas courthouse where he was tried for the shooting death of Lee Harvey Oswald, although she never revealed the content of the interview .... somehow she then obtained a copy of Ruby's testimony to the Warren Commission, months before it was released ... she ran the content, and wasn't stopped. She refused to tell the FBI who gave the report to her, and the 'deep throat' was never identified. She later announced that she had possession notebooks containing the evidential information she was about to publish regarding her findings into Kennedy and Ruby, they disappeared after her death (if they ever existed); never to be seen again.

Other controversy:

• In 1959 she alleged that the CIA recruited members of the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro .... it was later shown to be true. It was also later found that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover had been keeping a file on her for 25 years.
• She fell into a feud with Frank Sinatra, following a story he didn't like. He referred to her as the "chinless wonder", and at a show at the Sands Hotel in 1963, he closed the show with the words "As a parting remark, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to leave you with one thought. If you happen to run into Dorothy Kilgallen, be sure you're in your car.."
• She then stuck the boot into performers from 'Nashville's Grand Ole Opry' appearing in concert at Carnegie Hall calling them as "hicks from the sticks", and advising that that "everyone should leave town. The hillbillies are coming". Feathers flew as they queued up to respond.

Death:

On November 8, 1965, Kilgallen was found dead by her hairdresser in brownstone, just 12 hours after she had appeared, live, on 'What's My Line?' ... she normally slept on the fifth floor. She had apparently ingested a fatal combination of alcohol and barbiturates, and possibly had a heart attack. The amount of barbiturate in her system "could well have been accidental" said medical examiner James Luke. Kilgallen's autopsy did not suggest evidence of homicide, so on the death certificate, medical examiner Luke typed "circumstances undetermined" underneath his notation "acute ethanol and barbiturate intoxication." Dorothy Kilgallen was interred in a modest grave at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York and left 3 children.

Conspiracy!!:

A number of figures associated with the JFK assassination and investigation died 'suspiciously' (or not), and these included another reporter Lisa Howard and because of her open criticism of the Warren Commission and other US government entities, and her claims that she was under surveillance, many theories have been put forward that she (and the rest) were murdered.

James Luke is said to have spent 45 minutes at the death scene, according to Kilgallen's Washington Post obituary. The medical examiner's office documented that he had spent an hour and five minutes there. Another medical examiner named Dominick DiMaio signed the death certificate, typing below his signature that he was doing this "for James Luke."

Referring to Kilgallen's death certificate, DiMaio said in a 1995 interview quoted in Midwest Today magazine, "I wasn't stationed in Manhattan [where Kilgallen died]. I was in Brooklyn. Are you sure I signed it? I don't see how the hell I could have signed it in the first place. You got me."

Quote:

In 1965, after her scoop of the Ruby testimony, Kilgallen said, referring to the murders of JFK, police officer J. D. Tippit and Lee Oswald, "That story isn't going to die as long as there's a real reporter alive, and there are a lot of them alive."

Trivia:

• In 1936, Kilgallen competed with two other New York newspaper reporters in a race around the world using only means of transportation available to the general public. She was the only woman to compete in the contest and she came in second. Her book about the adventure, 'Girl Around The World', was the inspiration for the 1937 movie, 'Fly-Away Baby'.
• Her column was eventually syndicated to 146 papers.
• Kilgallen was among the notables on the guest list of those who attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, in 1953.

Pictures:

She wasn't a looker (Sinatra's description was accurate ), but here's a few to illustrate the tale ....







This is the last of my recent series of 'Conspiracy deaths' posts ....

[VintageKell]

Romaine Brooks (b.Beatrice Romaine Goddard) was born in Rome, Italy, the youngest child of a wealthy American family. They divorced and Beatrice was raised in New York by her mother, who was unstable and abused her emotionally. She went to study at St. Mary's Hall boarding school for several years, followed by a convent school. She was with her mother, while she moved around Europe constantly with Romaine's lunatic brother ..... Rich families have their uses and at the age of 19, Goddard left her family and went to Paris, using a small allowance from her mother, she then went to Rome to study 'art'. She also made the first of many visits to Capri in the summer, but she studied art briefly in Paris, but in true traditional 'struggling artist style', she nearly starved and she suffered a physical breakdown, so she went back to her mother, who promptly died, shortly after her lunatic brother had. This left Ms Brooks and her sister independently wealthy, as grandpa's estate passed to them.

She promptly married a fellow artist J E Brooks, but seperated in less than a year, and she travelled to St. Ives on the Cornish coast, where she learnt finer gradations of gray ... her non commercial pallette of life - back in Paris (but now rich), she painted portraits of wealthy and titled women. In 1910 she had her first solo show at the prestigious Gallery Durand-Ruel, and the reviews were effusive. She also was considered an authority on decor and she was often asked to give advice on interior design. Despite her artistic success, she developed mild paranoia, feeling that people were whispering about her, and described herself as a 'lapidé'—literally, a victim of stoning ... an illness that recurred later.

At the beginning of World War I, Brooks painted her most famous work, 'The Cross of France', a symbolic image of France at war, showing a Red Cross nurse looking off to the side with a resolute expression while Ypres burns in the distance behind her, it made her career. In 1925 Brooks had solo exhibitions in Paris, London, and New York but after that year she produced only four more paintings ... she had no financial concerns and stopped drawing completely around 1935. She moved from Paris to a villa outside Florence, Italy in 1937, and in 1940—fleeing the invasion of France by Germany—Barney joined her there, but after the war Barney returned to Paris, while Brooks remained in Italy, becoming increasingly reclusive, and paranoid, fearing that someone was stealing her drawings and that her chauffeur planned to poison her. She refused to open the door when Barney came to visit, and she died in Nice, France, in 1970 at the age of 96.

Oops:

She later claimed that her mother had fostered her out to a poor family living in a New York City slum tenement, then stopped paying the maintenance .... luckily the family carried on looking after her while sinking into further poverty. She said that she did not tell them where her grandfather lived, for fear of being returned to her mother, but eventually the family found him on their own, and she was returned to her family. In adulthood Ms Brooks referred to herself as having been a "child-martyr".... The observant amongst you will have spotted both the 'poor little rich girl', and 'pauper prince' elements of the 'tenement tale', which make it all highly unlikely, but it indicates her thought patterns on her childhood and mother

A Glimpse Of Stocking Was Something Shocking:

• She took voice lessons, and for a time sang in a cabaret ... which would have disgraced her family.
• She then went further and travelled to Rome to study 'art', where she was the only female female student in her 'life class' (it was considered shocking for women to work from nude models, especially men ). Her first experiences of male interest occurred here, when a fellow student left a book open on her stool with pornographic passages underlined, she said that she picked it up and hit him in the face with it, and claimed she was not bothered again.
• Her first solo show at the prestigious Gallery Durand-Ruel, included two nude studies in a provocative choice for a woman artist in 1910

Lovers:

• She married the homosexual artist John Ellingham Brooks .... she never explained why she married him, although his poverty, or her need for cover for her own burgeoning interest in the ladies may both have been motivation. However it was unsurprisingly an utter disaster and after he refused to be seen with her. She had cut her hair and ordered men's clothes for a planned walking tour of England .... but he wasn't that outre, Homosexuality was illegal in the UK, and imprisonable in some cases. So they separated after only a year, and she moved to London, where she used the name Romaine Brooks. Oddly, while in 1903 Brooks had shocked her husband by cutting her hair short and ordering a suit of men's clothes from a tailor, by the mid 1920's bobbed and cropped hairstyles were in and wearing tailored jackets—usually with a skirt—was a recognized fashion, discussed in magazines as the "severely masculine" look.
• While in Paris, she had an affair with the 'Princess de Polignac'.
• She also took 'Lord Alfred Douglas' (Yes 'Bosie', Oscar Wildes downfall), as a lover, with this affair lasting from 1907 to 1910.
• In 1909 Brooks met Gabriele D'Annunzio, an Italian writer and politician, who had come to France to escape his debts. They spent the summer of 1910 in a villa on the coast of France, in a romantic interlude that was only disrupted when D'Annunzio's jealous ex-mistress arrived in town. Their friendship remained strong throughout D'Annunzio's life.
• In 1911 Brooks had an affair with Ida Rubinstein, an actress and dancer formerly with Serge Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, who became obsessed with Brooks. they broke up in 1914, but Brooks painted Rubinstein more often than any other subject, even after the break up.
• In 1914 she met Natalie Clifford Barney the most important relationship of Brooks life - they were lesbian lovers for the rest of their lives but Barney wasn't very monogamous. At one point she gave Barney an ultimatum to choose between her and Dolly Wilde.

Quote:

At age 85, she said "My dead mother gets between me and life."

Trivia:

• Her husband J E Brooks, spent the rest of his life on Capri (where he died in 1929), and for a while, lived there with Mr E. F. Benson, author of the Mapp and Lucia novels.
• Lover D'Annunzio became an Italian national hero, as leader of a fighter squadron, and briefly set up a government, the 'Italian Regency of Carnaro', with himself as 'Duce' after the war.
• Truman Capote, who toured Brooks studio in the late 1940's, described it as "the all-time ultimate gallery of all the famous dyke's from 1880 to 1935 or thereabouts".

Pictures:

She was more often painted than photographed, but here's a few photo's to illustrate the posting.

[VintageKell]

Scout Willis is probably best described as the daughter of mega stars 'Bruce Willis' and 'Demi Moore', but she's trying hard to get rid of that 'daughter of' label. Firstly she has a rich girls career as the 'lead singer' of a pop combo, 'Gus + Scout' (the other name is that of Gus Wenner, son of Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner, who has also performed with Sasha Spielberg). They performed their first gig at Manhattan's Rockwood Music Hall. She apparently urged the band to play through any mistakes by shouting "Let's fucking go with it!" .... and apparently they weren't that bad .... so she only had to shout a few times

Oops:

The other way you can shake off a 'daughter of' label is to attract publicity in your own right .... like being arrested. The then 20-year-old Scout Willis was hanging out in New York City's Union Square, drinking underage, like you do (its age 21 for alcohol in much of the US ), when a police officer approached her and requested her ID. She obliged, but failed to mention that it was faked.

She was arrested and charged with two misdemeanors: criminal impersonation and breaking the city's open container law. She struck a deal in July, and ended up with 2 days of community service with the NYC Department of Sanitation (litter picking to you and I). She was also ordered to stay out of trouble for six months -- which means if she continues to obey all laws through the New Year, she'll be in the clear, as they agreed to dismiss the case entirely if she was a good girl. Apparently this was because of her clean record and outstanding grades at Brown University, and definitely not who her parents are ...... yeah right.

Pictures:

She has no thread, so the usual illustrative pictures .... and please, no additional biographical information unless she's in trouble again ... you can always start a fan thread if she's of interest to you.

[VintageKell]

Winnaretta Singer was born in Yonkers, New York, the twentieth, of the 24 children of Isaac Merritt Singer (an inventor, actor, and entrepreneur, but most importantly the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine Company, where the sewing machines sale to private homes an installment payment basis made the family rich) and one of his many mistresses, Isabella Eugenie Boyer, a French model (if you know what I mean).

During the US Civil War the family moved to Paris, France, where they resided before fleeing the Franco-Prussian War. The family then settled in England, first in London, and then Paignton, Devon (this last move was not apparently occasioned by any war). The family then proceeded to buy their way into the British gentry via their children. Adam Mortimer Singer, became one of England's landed gentry and a sister married Jean, duc de Decazes .... a building at the University of Exeter is named after another brother. When patriarch Isaac died, they decamped back to Paris.

She was a mover and shaker in French society and as an accomplished musician herself, she would become a prominent patron of French avant-garde music, e.g. Erik Satie composed his Socrate as one of her commissions in 1918, as well a patron of the other arts. She also was very public spirited, and an important leader in the development of the provision of public housing in Paris. Her housing project for the working poor, was considered to be a model for future projects. She also commissioned the rebuilding or construction of several public shelters for Paris's Salvation Army.

During World War I, working with Marie Curie, Singer-Polignac helped convert private limousines into mobile radiology units to help wounded soldiers at the front. She left a Foundation 'the Fondation Singer-Polignac' which continues this work to this date. She died in September 1943 in London.

Big Oops!:

Winnaretta was already known in the lesbian groups that encircled the salons of Paris like a giant daisy chain, so it was a big surprise at the age of 22 she married Prince Louis de Scey-Montbéliard .... events progressed very badly after the wedding ceremony. Princess Louis de Scey-Montbéliard, as she was now known, reacted with horror when the Prince tried to consummate the union .... it was widely reportedly that amongst the scenes of the evening, the highlights included the bride's climbing atop an armoire, and then threatening to kill the groom if he came near her, while wielding an umbrella in her hand. Unsurprisingly, five years after the wedding night, the marriage was annulled in 1892 by the Catholic church. Quelle Surprise! ... She apparently had mistakenly thought that the Prince was in fact homosexual, and that they would be each others 'beards' ....

It appears that someone had pointed her at the wrong Prince, but any gal on this thread can tell you that 'one day my prince will come', and sure enough, now correctly orientated by her 'lady friends', she met, and entered into an equally chaste 'lavender marriage', with the 59-year-old Prince Edmond de Polignac (1834-1901), a gay amateur music composer, who was more than happy to leave things that way .... they did however become very good friends.

This left the 'Princesse Edmond de Polignac', as she was now forever known, to pursue her other interests .... open lesbian affairs with numerous women, often they were other peoples wives. In one funny incident, the outraged husband of one of her lovers, once stood outside the princess's Venetian palazzo, declaring, "If you are half the man I think you are, you will come out here and fight me." .... brilliant!

• Polignac had a long relationship with painter Romaine Brooks, which had begun in 1905, and which effectively ended her affair with Olga de Meyer, who was married at the time.
• The composer and conductor Ethel Smyth fell deeply in love with her during their affair.
• In the early 1920's Polignac became involved with pianist Renata Borgatti.
• From 1923 to 1933 her partner was the British socialite and novelist Violet Trefusis, with whom she had a deep but often turbulent relationship.
• Alvilde Chaplin, future wife of the author James Lees-Milne, was involved with Singer from 1938 to 1943; the two women were living together in London at the time of Winnaretta's death.

Trivia:

• Her mother was rumored to be the model for the Statue of Liberty.

Pictures:

She has no thread, so just a few illustrative.

[VintageKell]

Its hard to actually find a place to start with this gal ..... the (destructive) force is strong in this one ....

Jenelle Evans is from Oak Island, North Carolina, and rose to 'fame' if such be the case, in the MTV shows '16 and Pregnant', 'Teen Mom 2' and 'Teen Mom 3' - she was pregnant in 2009 when she first appeared - the father of her child was arrested, calling her from jail and she chose to end their relationship, giving birth later. She was 17 or 18 when the first series aired, and actually 20 by 2012 ... The show is hosted by a Dr Drew (I think) as a pseudo-social-service program .... in fact it apparently just highlights deeply unqualified teenage mothers in full train-wreck mode ... Jenelle was the 'Casey Jones' on the train.

OOPS:

Already in regular trouble before the show aired, she has mugshots going back into her teens. She later ran away from home, and was committed to a hospital involuntarily .... but was found "not to be a threat to herself or anyone else” and was released the next morning.

Her mother successfully instigated court action to gain temporary custody of Ms Evans child (which seems to be a permanent situation, with visiting access denied), and her mother even kicked her out of the house, when when she failed to show up to take care of her child when she was supposed to.

Just a week before the 'Teen Mom 2' show premiered, Evans and her new boyfriend were arrested for breaking into an empty house and smoking marijuana. They were charged with breaking and entering, injury to real and personal property, second degree trespass, and harassment in relation to this event and those surrounding it.

Evans was arrested once again for fighting with one Brittany Truett, who she was convinced was flirting with her man. She landed eight blows to the head, all of which ended up going viral on YouTube. Truett pressed charges against Evans for assault and affray

She was then arrested again for a previous warrant (Brunswick County Sheriff's Office claimed Evans the arrested as a result of an outstanding warrant against her for cyber-stalking. They said Evans turned herself in to authorities after learning about the warrant. It seems to relate to Ms Evans and her old roommate, who has previously accused Jenelle of harassment. Ms Evans was booked on misdemeanor stalking in Bolivia, NC. She has since been released on $1,000 bond after being shackled .... According to the warrant for Jenelle's arrest, the alleged victim -- Hannah Inman -- claims Evans also went to her own fan site, and posted a link to nude photos of Ms Inman. The charges may have been dropped.

She was arrested again on August 8 of last year after testing positive for dope and opiates. Basically she is just waiting for her first long spell in prison ... although according to according to her Twitter account. She recently tweeted: 'Might be opening my very own tanning/hair studio. It will be in Wilmington NC plans are in the makingggg.' In the meantime she was engaged for two weeks to one on-again off-again boyfriend, who has been arrested for assaulting Jennelle. Mind you, she is also shuttling between him and her previous ex, the house breaker.

I am not even sure I kept up with it all ..... Oh, and she posted nude pics of herself on a website, and they went viral as well, around the time she decided to have a boob job to take her up to a full C cup.

Pictures:

She has no thread, so I have dug out a few interesting pictures .... she needs no additional biographical info adding to this thread lads, especially re her 'love life' .... you could create a fan thread for those who really are interested in that kind of stuff.

[VintageKell]

Tamara "Tammy" Lynn Sytch was a high school teenager in the late '80s, where she was a blonde-haired cheerleader with high marks in school. She planned to attend the University of Miami on a full academic scholarship after graduation. During her college time doing pre-med at the University of Tennessee, she also worked as a freelance photographer.

However she went traveling with her then boyfriend Chris Candido, and they needed to make some extra money, so in late-1992, she signed a six month deal with 'Smoky Mountain Wrestling'. She also became a professional wrestling manager, Brian Lee and boyfriend Chris Candido were amongst her early charges. However both Sytch and Candido, left the promotion in early 1995 for jobs with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), then they moved to Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), then the World Championship Wrestling (WCW), and then finallly the independent circuit (2000–to present). Sadly Candido died of complications following an injury, and she then returned to WWE where she is still involved. She is currently writing another personal project — a cookbook ... I do hope that you are making notes of all these initials, as there will be a test later!

Pesky Personal Life:

As usual with the gals here, her personal life is full of melodramas .....

She had a nine month relationship with wrestler Shawn Michaels. In 1997, Michaels accused Sytch and Bret Hart of having an affair, which Hart denied. The accusation began causing marital problems for Hart, which led to a backstage confrontation with Michaels ....

In 1997, Pl*yboy allegedly approached Sytch in regards to posing nude for the magazine, but she declined the offer. According to Sytch, Pl*yboy offered her six figures to pose for them ... a rival, Rena "Sable" Mero, with whom Sytch had real-life feud, later claimed that she knew that Pl*yboy never contacted Sytch for a possible photo shoot ... PB have remained quiet.

However, whats not in dispute is that she did pose nude, and in fact rather more than nude for 'Missy Hyatt's' adult website 'Wrestling Vixxxens'. later in 2007, she claimed that she regretted doing it

By October 2012, she had been arrested a total of five times in a little over a month (including three times in three days), as a result of her repeatedly assaulting her then-boyfriend Damien Darling .... these assaults included allegedly 'putting her boyfriend in a headlock, and pulling his hair', police reports said. She is facing charges including disorderly conduct & violating a protective order.

Quote:

"Would I like to be a doctor right now? Absolutely. Do I regret anything? Absolutely not," she said. "Think about it, I'm in my 21st year in this business. You don't do something for 21 years if you don't have a love for it. Once this business gets in your blood, it's there to stay."

Trivia:

• She attended the same high school as her long-time boyfriend Chris Candido.
• Sytch was rushed to the hospital in 2001 after her appendix burst, which required time off from wrestling to heal, and she returned to studying Medical Technology.
• Sytch dated professional wrestler Damien Darling, but the relationship ended in October 2012.
• A dog lover, she owns three pit bulls and is very involved in animal rights charities.

Pictures:

She has a thread here, so just a few interesting pictures to illustrate the post, and any follow ups (including biographical titbits) to her thread please. Apologies for any dupes .... but there's a lot of nude shots on her thread.

[VintageKell]

As I draw to the end of my last stock of postings on this thread, I feel impelled (or maybe 'dishonour' bound), to close off any loose ends, such as the conspiracy deaths series I recently completed (always with the proviso that they also had other reasons to feature here!). Another such circle is the legendary 'sewing circle' of Paris, and its offshoots, that was presided over by uber dyke, Natalie Clifford Barney.

So here ladies and gentlemen, is Olive Custance who was born in Berkeley Square, Mayfair, London, the only daughter and heiress of Colonel Frederick Custance. Being an heiress with the soul of a poetess makes life choices easy, so an after school career of raging dyke was almost a natural, well part time dyke actually. This was rather like her poetry dabbles, which appear to have primarily served to gain her access to many literary circles (and other circles as well ), although she produced several tomes. In 1900, she published her first book of poetry, 'Opals' which she had written in 1897 and 'Rainbows in 1902.

Oops:

In 1880, she met the homosexual John Gray, who would later become one of Oscar Wilde's lovers, at a party. She fell in love with him immediately, but obviously in an unrequited kind of way, but they maintained a lively correspondence for years afterward, during which time he gave her feedback on some of her early poetry. This was the start of a series of unfortunate love affairs, many of which were chronicled by the participants, and then included in the more 'frank' of their memoirs.

In 1887, she attended the wedding of a Miss Rachel Montgomery, where Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas was also in attendance .... he was the brides cousin, but they don't remember each other from this early meeting when they meet later in their lives ... possibly because they were looking at the opposite sexes.

Her first book of poetry, 'Opals', brought her to the attention of Natalie Clifford Barney, and in 1901 she was invited to Paris, where she and Barney became involved in a lesbian relationship, which Barney later included in her scandalous memoirs.

Also in 1901 she became engaged to an Earl, George Montagu, but was in fact still looking elsewhere for a partner during this engagement ... but in a rather curious direction. So in 1902, polite society in London and Paris was thrown into a gossip scandal, when she upped and abandoned the Earl (incidentally, this was a criminal offence in those days, known as breach of promise, and several court cases had been fought to establish this, although mostly with women victims), for a Lord.

She had first introduced herself by writing to Lord Alfred Douglas (yes the very same 'Bosie' who had let Oscar Wilde down in criminal court), a fan letter in 1901, praising his poetry, then sent him a copy of her book and a bouquet of roses. Impressed, he replied and started arranging clandestine meetings, often at the Carfax gallery, which was partially owned by Wilde's friend and literary executor, Robert Ross. They even spent 10 days together, but then Bosie announced a visit to America in search of an heiress to marry (her engagement and her fathers implacable opposition to any liason with 'Bosie', was considered too much of an impediment to them marrying) .

Apparently at one point Barney, even offered to marry 'Bosie' herself, saying that the three of them could live together in a daring "menage a trois" .... this was a probable scandal too far for Miss Custance. 'Bosie' returned from the US with no heiress, and proposed a runaway marriage, claiming that he realised he could not live without her. In 1902 she married Lord Alfred 'Bosie' Douglas. It was just a year after Wilde's death, and although 'Bosie' was obviously a well known homosexual, he had apparently 'renounced' his homosexuality before they eloped.

Their relationship seems to have been based on his attraction to her cross-dressing boyishness, and hers to his barely-repressed femininity. She wrote this to Bosie in one of her letters : "...tell me you love your little page (errand boy) and that one day you will come back to 'him'." and one of his said "You are a darling Baby and you are exactly like a boy and you know perfectly well that I love you better than anyone else, boy or girl . . . I used to wish you were a boy, now I am glad you are not."

They had a son, but the marriage wasn't a happy one, and in 1914, she left 'Bosie' partly through his numerous libel cases, and his endless conflicts with her father, Colonel Custance, over the custody of their son Raymond and his conversion to Catholicism. But also because the more he repressed his homosexual nature, the less she was attracted. His memoirs included the observation that "she was always desperately trying to recapture the 'me' that she had guessed and seen and loved, and only occasionally finding it concealed under various cloaks".

'Bosie' instantly took up with a rich woman who offered to finance his court battles, Custance begged 'Bosie' for a reconciliation, but he refused to live with her. She never divorced 'Bosie', although they were never to live together again, but they saw each other nearly every day, and remained on friendly terms the rest of their lives. In 1944, Olive died after a long period of illness. Her last few weeks were spent in a state of feverish incoherence, and Douglas was there at her side throughout most of it, sitting by her bedside and holding her hand.

Trivia:

• Colonel Frederick Custance, was a wealthy and distinguished soldier in the British army
• John Gray, who was one of Oscar Wilde's lovers and supposedly the inspiration of novel 'The Picture of Dorian Gray'.

Pictures:

A few illustrative pics .....




Barney, 'Bosie' and Wilde



And as far as I am aware, this post is the last strand of the circle that connects Natalie Clifford Barney, Eva Le Gallienne, Dorothy Wilde, Renée Vivien, Elisabeth de Gramont, Ida Rubinstein, Winnaretta Singer, and Romaine Brooks (Brooks was Barneys' main lover, but there were many others), and concludes the 'daisychain' girls of Paris series.

[VintageKell]

Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart aka 'Fiona Apple' was born in New York City, and is the daughter of singer Diane McAfee and actor Brandon Maggart. A demo tape to her friend who was the babysitter of music publicist Kathryn Schenker, meant Schenker then passed the tape along to Sony Music executive Andy Slater, and (plus no doubt a few string pulls), and she got signed up. Her 1996 debut album, 'Tidal', sold 2.7 million copies and was certified three times platinum in the U.S ... career set.

At a gig at the New York City Roseland Ballroom, she had what AOL described as "music's most infamous on-stage meltdown", after equipment issues left her appearing distraught at the sound quality, apologizing numerous times for the sound and crying in front of the 3,000 audience members.

Oops:

"Criminal", the third single from her debut album, had a controversial music video, in which a scantily clad Apple appeared in a 1970s-era tract house, was played on MTV. Apple later said: "I decided if I was going to be exploited, then I would do the exploiting myself."

In 1997, while accepting MTV Video Music Award for "Best New Artist" for her song Sleep to Dream, Apple said: "This world is bullshit, and you shouldn't model your life on what we think is cool, and what we're wearing and what we're saying" .... she was criticised by both 'The New Yorker' and 'NYRock' who characterized her MTV award show speech as 'ungrateful' and "ridiculous". She responded in Rolling Stone magazine "I just had something on my mind and I just said it. And that's really the foreshadowing of my entire career and my entire life. When I have something to say, I'll say it".

Public speculation about Apple having an eating disorder arose in 1997 with the 'The New Yorker' writing that she "looked like an underfed Calvin Klein model". In a June 2012 interview, it was revealed that Apple had briefly married a French photographer several years ago, "for complicated reasons", that she has never elaborated on ...

Finally, On September 19, 2012 Apple was arrested at a border stop in Sierra Blanca, Texas for drug possession after authorities used drug dogs to search Apple's tour bus and uncovered hashish and marijuana. Reports suggest that Apple admitted that the drugs were hers. She was taken into custody and incarcerated at the Hudspeth County Jail.

She was later released from police custody in Texas after posting $10,000 bail, and in the days following her arrest, she started issuing claims that she was "mistreated" by officers .... one of her 'statements' was during a concert in Houston, Texas, where she gave a bizarre, and rambling statement, telling the audience: "Most of the people were very nice to me. There are four of you out there—I want you to know that I heard everything you did, I wrote it all down, with your names and everything you did and said, stupidly thinking I couldn't see or hear you. I then ripped the paper up, but not before I encoded it".

She wasn't finished, and she then explained, "I’ll make you fucking famous," .... which interpreters of the bizarre suggest was reference to the supposedly corrupt cops. Within days, a spokesperson for the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department responded, saying that Apple should "just shut up and sing".

Trivia:

• Her maternal grandmother was Millicent Green, a dancer with the George White's Scandals, a series of 1920s musical revues similar to the Ziegfeld Follies.

Pictures:

She has a small thread here, so just a few illustrative pictures .... as usual any follow ups whether pictures or biographical information to her thread please






Video:
Here's the video of the rant:

[VintageKell]

Mary Delgado (b. Maribel Delgado) was born in Cuba and is a former Tampa Bay Buccaneers cheerleader ... in 2003 stint as a contestant on Season 6 of ABC's unscripted dating show 'The Bachelor', and she was rejected by the season 4 Bachelor Bob Guiney. But she garnered national headlines in 2004, when she returned to the show in season 6, and received a marriage proposal from a professional bass fisherman, Byron Velvick in the November 2004 finale.

After five years together, Byron Velvick and Mary Delgado separated in 2009, according to reports in Usmagazine.com. She recently listed as her employment, as working as a real estate agent for the Realtors company 'Century 21'. She also hosts outdoors TV shows, does voice-over narration, and told Syracuse.com that she's working with a girlfriend to put together an English/Spanish-language fishing show.

Mucho Oopso:

It was all pretty much down hill from there ... in 2007 she was arrested for domestic battery in Pinellas County, after allegedly punching Velvick. The couple told 'Inside Edition' that the fight had occurred after they were watching an episode of 'The Bachelor' at a friend's home and then disagreeing on whether to leave. Violence then ensued. According to authorities, she punched Velvick in the mouth and was under the influence of alcohol when she was arrested ... apparently Velvick had shook his head “NO” when he was asked if getting married was a good idea ... she hadn't seen it until they watched the show at the friends house

In 2008, she was arrested in Del Rio, Texas, for public drunkenness, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Reports at the time by the Associated Press, she had refused to leave a bar and then got aggressive when police arrived and they arrested her, though she has since disputed the police account.

In august, 2010, she was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence, according to Tampa police records. The 42-year-old was arrested at Kennedy Blvd. and Westshore Plaza and later released on $500 bond

There's kinda a 'drinking thang' going on here ......

Trivia:

• Velvick proposed to the Cuban-born star in Spanish so her parents, who were obviously watching the show, so they could understand what was happening.

Pictures: