Disgraced Minor Female Celebs

[VintageKell]

Tottie Goldsmith is an Australian actress and singer. She picked up the acting bug from her mother actress Rona Newton-John. In the early 1980's she appeared in Australian soap operas 'The Young Doctors', 'Starting Out' and 'Prisoner', and was a panelist on such programs as 'All Star Squares'. From 1986 Goldsmith was one of four female lead vocalists in Australian band 'Chantoozies' ... who weren't big in Japan, but who are currently touring around Australia.

She has done various musicals such as "The New Rocky Horror Show", "Grease", and a farce "Don't Dress For Dinner" when it toured Australia ..... She also acted in TV drama series 'Fire', in police drama series 'Blue Heelers', and in 'The Secret Life of Us' .... before moving in to radio as the breakfast program host on Melbourne radio station TTFM. In 2006 she returned to TV and later was a contestant on the series 'Celebrity Singing Bee'. Finally in 2009 she did a 3 month stint in serial 'Neighbours' before guesting on various shows.

She didn't hesitate to use her looks from early in her career, and she posed nude for art magazine Black+White in August 1996. She followed this up by hosting Sex/Life (a Network Ten copy of an earlier Network nine show (Sex) in the mid-1990s), gaining her a large teenage male fan base.

But the really big Oops moment came in January 2011 she was stopped for alleged possession of cocaine at the Hot Barbecue festival in Portsea, Victoria ... According to a number of reports in various news outlets including News.com.au, Goldsmith was entering the dance-heavy festival when she and another woman were caught with what was probably cocaine, detected by sniffer dogs ..... oddly no arrest of Goldsmith was made, who was said to have later partied in the VIP area at the festival. Onlookers said there was chaos as the drug dogs swept the car park. It is believed people were trying to hide the drugs in panic, including in other people's bags. Police said that they found an "extraordinary" amount of drugs on buses used to ferry people to the event.

Her management company issued a statement .... “Tottie wishes to express her total disapproval and embarrassment that drugs belonging to other people were found in her beach bag. The drugs were not hers nor were they for her use". Police Inspector Shayne Pannell said no one was above the law under these operations, and according to the news reports, she may be forced to undergo a diversion program and seek therapy if she pleads guilty to carrying the drug.

Trivia:

• Her great grandfather was German physicist and Nobel Prize winner Max Born.
• Olivia Newton-John is her aunt.
• Bass guitarist Brett Goldsmith her elder brother.
• Racecar driver Emerson Newton-John her half brother.
• In 2005, she appeared in a 15-second television commercial for Hyundai.
• She released two meditation and relaxation CDs called "Unwind Your Mind" and "Falling Asleep".

Pictures:

She has a thread here already, so only a few illustrative pictures and any follow ups to her thread please.

[VintageKell]

Imelda R. Marcos (b. Imelda Remedios Visitacion Romualdez) was born of a middle class family, and although not rich, she had a comfortable education and background, ending up on her fathers abaca and coconut plantation. She earned a bachelor's degree in education in Tacloban's St. Paul's College but then set out for fame and glory in the very traditional method of the beauty pageants .... and at the age of 18 was crowned the 'Rose of Tacloban'. She later became 'Miss Leyte', and previously, during some Philippine-American Friendship celebrations, she was crowned unofficial "Miss Philippines".

She then worked in the music stores in Escolta singing popular songs of the day to help sell sheet music and records, where she was popular and made profits for her cousin, Daniel Zialcita's store. Her dad wasn't happy when he found out, and charging his relative with 'trying to sell my child' he took her home. She then took voice lessons at the music conservatory of the University of Santo Tomas. She was now on the political, social ladder, and was invited to the parties of Pedro(or 'Pete') Cojuangco , (eldest brother of Cory Aquino) where she was told to wear a flapper dress. She came home ridiculed and slighted by most of the landed scions at the party .... she never forgot, and they would learn to regret this incident.

First Scandal:

Now, there's no getting away from the fact that once we get into the politics she moves into a different league of celebrity, but in these early days, things were slightly different ... Her photogenic face soon graced many of Manila's magazine covers and then came a sour note as a result of a scandal ... Rising movie stars, glamorous high society girls and beautiful delegates from cities and the provinces rushed to join the Miss Philippines contest of 1953. Apparently the early favorites were Alice Fuentes of Baguio, Antonia Tan and Violeta Villamor. Mindanao was represented by a well-known socialite, Gilda Walstrom, (who was then romantically linked to a young Mr Ferdinand Marcos ) ... amongst the other contestants was one Imelda Romualdez who was at the pageant as Miss Manila nominee. The contest was won by Maria Cristina Galang from Tarlac. Then came the controversy due to Imelda Romuladez's complaints about not winning the title. This prompted the then Manila Mayor, Arsenio Lacson to bestow upon her the title of "Manila's Muse", presumably to satisfy her 'connections' and shut her up.

Politics and Scandals:

In 1953, Marcos met then-Ilocos Norte Congressman Ferdinand E. Marcos. After a whirlwind eleven day courtship in Baguio during Holy Week they were married. Between then and 1965, she was constantly featured on the many magazine covers (with or without her husband). She travelled around the entire country to help her husband Ferdinand win the presidency, which he did in December 1965. All was well, with Imelda enjoying the trappings of power such as featuring in countless magazines locally as well as abroad, but the rest as they say is history .... I won't bother with all the details, they are on her link anyway, but a few notable incidents ...

• On December 7, 1972, an assailant, Carlito Dimahilig, tried to stab her to death with a bolo knife during an award ceremony broadcast live on television. Many claimed that whole 'assassination attempt' was staged and as the assailant was shot dead by security police we'll never know, but Imelda required 75 stitches to treat wounds on her hands and arms.
• As a Special Envoy, Imelda toured the nasties (Communist block and Libya for example) with a multi-million expenditure spent on traveling with a large diplomatic entourage using private jets ... she later claimed 'diplomatic successes' justified this.
• Imelda secured the Miss Universe 1974 pageant for Manila which necessitated the construction and completion of the 10,000-seat Folk Arts Theater in less than three months.
• After the assassination of opposition leader former senator Benigno Aquino, Jr. on the tarmac of then Manila International Airport on 1983, Imelda was amongst those accused of ordering his assassination .... the First Lady denied the allegation against her.

In the 1986 snap presidential elections, she supported Marcos in his bid to be re-elected for the presidency against the widow Corazon 'Cory' Aquino .. they lost (eventually) and fled the country ... She returned to the Philippines in 1991 and was eventually voted back in to the Senate again

Personal Financial Excesses:

• These reportedly included five-million-dollar shopping tours in New York, Rome and Copenhagen in 1983.
• Sending a plane to pick up Australian white sand for a new beach resort.
• She purchased a number of properties in Manhattan in the 1980s, including the $51-million Crown Building, the Woolworth Building (40 Wall Street) and the $60-million Herald Centre; and all on a presidents salary ... what a home maker
• Her New York real estate was later seized and sold, along with much of her jewels and most of her 175 piece art collection, which included works by Michelangelo, Botticelli, and Canaletto!

Needless to say, she was immensely rich at the end of all his (est $35bn), but the source of that money is to say the least, shady (Yamashita's gold, she later changed this story, to that of her husband gold trading up from zero to 7,500 tons of gold in the 1950's ... all subject to investigation). She responded to criticisms of her extravagance by claiming that it was her "duty" to be "some kind of light, a star to give the poor guidelines".

Courts:

In 1990, she was acquitted of racketeering and fraud charges in the US. In 2008 Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 26 acquitted Marcos of 32 counts of dollar salting (involving £430m in Swiss bank accounts) due to reasonable doubt. In September 2010, the Sandiganbayan's Fifth Division ordered Imelda Marcos to return 12 million pesos ($280,000) in government funds secretly taken out by her late husband from the National Food Authority 27 years ago ... and so it goes on

Quotes:

"First of all, I am so happy and I thank the Lord that the 32 cases have been dismissed by the regional court here in Manila. This will subtract from the 901 cases that were filed against the Marcose's".

Trivia:

• She is often remembered for her financial extravagance during her husband's political reign, including her collection of 2700 pairs of shoes. Time later reported that the final tally was 1,060.
• She is sometimes referred to as the 'Steel Butterfly' or the 'Iron Butterfly'.
• She is the first Filipino politician elected as member of the Philippine legislature in three geographical locations (Manila, Leyte, Ilocos Norte).
• On her paternal side, her founding ancestor was a Dominican Friar and his mistress.
• Her mother, Remedios Trinidad y de Guzman or Remedios T. Romualdez, a former convent girl in Paco, Manila, was said to have been born out of wedlock, also the child of a friar
• She learned how to sleep while sitting upright with her elaborate coiffure intact for public appearances.
• Her "theatrical" fraud trial involved many celebrities: Marcos' $5-million-dollar bail was posted by tobacco heiress, Doris Duke, a friend from Hawaii; and actor George Hamilton was a star witness for the defense.
• She declined to purchase the Empire State Building for $750m as she considered it "too ostentatious".

Pictures:

Obviously, as a political leaders wife she was later much photographed, but I have searched out some earlier stuff or less well known events (the latest in the mid 70's), when she was largely a national beauty queen and publicity hunting wife of a local / regional politician.

[VintageKell]

Roxana Girnita (or that could be Girne .. translations vary ..sigh), was one of the dancers on Romanian TV's 'Cronica Carcotasilor' show ("The Naggers' Chronicles") which is a popular weekly satire show on Prima TV. She was nick named 'Baby One' (like baby spice).

Then things went wrong in 2003, when 'private' pictures of her having sex were released to the world via the Internet, and although she adopted the old denial its her, and 'anyone could fake them with photo shop' defence .... she lost her TV dancing job and the affair became known as 'baby porn'. Later, she put in an appearance in Pl*yboy magazine. She then married the rock singer 'Ultra T T' real name Titi Bolteanu (his hit album was "Kamikaze"), and disappeared from public gaze.

Apparently she recently believed that all had been forgotten, and attempted a TV comeback by changing her hairstyle to brunette and entering a weather presenter competition on Kanal D as Roxana Balteanu. Unfortunately neither the change of name, nor the looks worked and she was quickly 'outed' by the media .... and so "for reasons of image" Roxana was withdrawn from the competition.

She is now turning her hand to a singing career, featuring on her husbands next album ...

Pictures

Sorry, but the sex tape pictures appear to have disappeared (translation makes it hard to track down images) ... I managed to find some other stuff which I hope you will be satisfied with ....

[VintageKell]

Barbara Britton was an American film and television actress. She signed a film contract with Paramount Pictures in 1941, and her first parts were that same year but her first big film appearance was a small role in the 1942 John Wayne film 'Reap the Wild Wind'. In all she made around 30 movies up until the mid 1950's with her most famous film possibly being 'The Virginian' in 1946, opposite Joel McCrea. However she made a little bit of movie history when in 1952, she co-starred in the first full length commercial 3D feature, 'Bwana Devil' ... 'Avatar' eat you heart out!

She then moved into TV work .... and starred in the 1950's television show 'Mr. and Mrs. North', but she was probably best known for being the spokesperson for Revlon products in the 1950's and 1960's, appearing in recorded ads and commercials, and the then common 'live' spots on shows such as the '$64,000 Question'.

One of Britton's last roles was on the daytime TV-soap One Life to Live in 1979, a year before she died of gastric cancer in New York City, in January 1980, aged 60.

The reason she gets a mention here (apart from being totally forgotten as an actress these days), is that occasionally we move slightly left field on the 'disgrace' requirement. In this case, its when she was involved in another film first ... In 1943 she was making a rather run of the mill movie 'So Proudly We Hail!' ... The film was ostensibly about a group of nurses returning from the war in the Philippines, who then recall their experiences in combat and in love, and its full of stirling patriotism, love in the trenches, and girls being brave in the face of 'the yellow peril'. Now remember this was 1943, its not a dark film noir, and the US was now in the war so the movie was for general patriotic release ... so we are not talking 'Schindlers list'. Anyway, reportedly, she is said to have suffered 'lasting trauma' during its making and had to seek the help of a psychoanalyst to get her over it .... she later married the psychoanalyst ... probably a wise move, would keep the bills down

Now I know that thesps like to 'live their art', but really, this movie has been shown on Sunday afternoon TV without a warning (except possibly about over emoting) .... I admit its a very minor thing to be the first recorded actress, driven to seek 'psychiatric help' for a role she played in a 'B' movie, and I might not have noted it at all, but for the fact that it was such a totally innocuous movie (even by the standards then), and one where she was actually only in a minor supporting role .....

Trivia:

• She took the role of Laura Petrie on a TV pilot program 'Head of the Family', which was retooled and became The Dick Van Dyke Show with the role taken over by Mary Tyler Moore.
• Her oldest daughter Christina Britton became an actress and operatic singer while son Ted appeared on episodic TV.
• Former Sunday-school teacher.

Pictures:

She has a small thread here, so apologies for any duplicates, and as usual just a few illustrative pics and any follow ups to her thread please

[VintageKell]

'DeeDee' Myers (b. Margaret Jane Myers) was an aide in presidential campaign of Walter Mondale back in 1984 after leaving college in 1983, and she remained within the Democratic Party machine where she eventually started working for Bill Clinton - her claim-to-fame and footnote in political history, was in his administration where her next job, gave her the distinction of being the first woman to serve as White House Press Secretary, as well as being the second-youngest press secretary ever .... of course this was under Pres. Clinton

When that glory ended she was the co-host of the CNBC cable show "Equal Time", and she wrote a book entitled "Why Women Should Rule the World" ... the usual rubbish about why women are better than men. A 'fact' not born out by her subsequent career path. She has also done political commentaries on cable and television networks, and was an original consultant to the NBC series 'The West Wing'. She is currently a contributing editor to 'Vanity Fair' (where her husband is the national editor ), and is an analyst for CBS News.

Oops! Moment:

However, what's less well known is that in 1995, while still co-host of the CNBC cable show "Equal Time," she was arrested on a DUI charge and was said to have been driving on the wrong side of the road.

She issued a statement at the time: "Last night, I had a couple of drinks during dinner with a friend. I thought I was O.K. to drive, but I now realize I was wrong. I should have been more careful. I am dealing with the incident through appropriate legal channels. I feel terrible about it and will not let it happen again".

The police said that 'Ms. Myers was behind the wheel of her double-parked car on a residential street in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, and was told to move on by an officer. She drove ahead on the wrong side of the narrow street and double-parked again, prompting the officer to issue the traffic summons, followed by the charge of driving under the influence of alcohol'. For some reason that wasn't explained at the time, she was only charged with a misdemeanor, which is less serious than driving while intoxicated, which is a felony.

Luckily, 'Bill and Hilary' were around to cheer her up ... "He really cheered me up". He said "some funny stuff. He was great. He was wonderful. I really appreciated hearing from them" ... though under questioning she admitted that "There's nothing funny about the arrest, and I don't think the judge in the Washington, D.C., court is going to think there's anything funny about it"..... I believe that the charges were eventually dropped .... maybe because she's a woman, or is it just because of the friends you have?

Pictures:

[VintageKell]

Gail Kane (b. Abigail Kane ), was a stage and silent movie actress. When she finished private tuition she determined to become an actress, and she studied the art of pantomime. She then moved into the mainstream theatre in 1910 in 'Decorating Clementine' a comedy, and by 1914 she was in London performing at the Lyceum Theatre London, and then at the Gaiety Theatre in comedy productions brought to London by George M. Cohan. Despite the start of WWI she remained in London until April 1915. By 1920 she was appearing in at the Broadhurst Theatre in Manhatten and she continued in theatre through out her career .... which seems to have come when her movie career ended.

She had started in movies as early as 1913 when she appeared in a role in 'Arizona' .... and made 34 totally forgettable movies ... rather oddly as she was a stage actress, her voice wasn't considered suitable for the new medium, and her career ended in 1927 with 'Convoy' just before the advent of sound.

Gail Kane died in Augusta, Maine in 1966, aged 80.

As you might expect for a girl on this thread, she had a few less than glorious moments .... in 1918 she filed a law suit against the 'Mutual' film production company asking $33,500 for alleged breach of contract.

Arrest:

But her real 'Oops moment' came in the theatre when she was arrested (along with forty-one others), following a performance of 'The Captive' at the Empire Theater on Broadway in February 1927. The production was in its fifth month when it was deemed indecent, and in violation of Section 1140A of the New York City Criminal Code. This decision was made even stranger by the fact that the play had been tried and acquitted of immorality a short time earlier, by a 'citizen's play jury' (these were apparently set up to try and ensure plays met the law).

The raid was just one of a number carried out by New Yorks 'finest' that night (at least two other productions were raided on the same night. They were 'Sex', starring 'Mae West', and 'The Virgin Man'), and amongst the many others arrested and taken to the 'Night Court' that night were Mae West, Basil Rathbone, Helen Menken, Ann Trevor, Winifred Fraser, John Miltern, and Arthur Lewis.

Helen Menken was comforted by Kane as they made their exit from the court, after she had become agitated by the glare and explosions of news photographers camera flash bulbs snapping away. "Please make them stop", Menken reportedly exclaimed. Authorities promised to repeat the arrests if the plays were not withdrawn or modified to comply with the criminal code

I can find no record of her career after this time ....

Trivia:

• She stood 5'7" tall, weighed 142 pounds, and had dark brown hair and eyes.
• She appeared in the comedy 'Come Seven' which was the first play ever featuring an entirely Caucasian cast in 'black face'.
• She owned a collection of Egyptian scarab beetles considered to be one of the finest in America in 1917. The most valuable of the Scarabaeus sacer is said to have been removed from the tomb of an Egyptian princess of the 2nd Ptolemaic dynasty.
• She collected bathing suits.

Pictures:

Just a few illustrative pictures: I can find no postings elsewhere ...






Fans of obscure Vintage Silent movie stars might like my latest thread here.

[VintageKell]

Julie Donaldson is an American sports anchor. She is a graduate of the University of Florida and then took the tried and trusted method into TV or movies .... she entered the beauty pageant circuit in 1999. She ended up winning the Miss Florida USA title in the state pageant in July 2000 (she was runner up 1999) .... She then competed in the Miss USA 2001 but did not place.

But in 2006 she joined SportsNet New York at the network's inception and has gone on to various sports related TV jobs such as sportscaster on the New York City based network SportsNet New York, Boston, Massachusetts television station WHDH-TV 7 and as an anchor for Comcast SportsNet’s Mid-Atlantic network ... however the bad publicity over a domestic abuse case against an ex (He was jailed), and who had been a 'professional slamball player' for the 'Rumble' (I have no idea what the hell that is, but hey that's what the stories all said ) caused her to leave the sports field for freelance work.

The Missing Memory Card:

Her problems relate to that abuse incident .... during the court case, the 'ex' apparently managed to steal a camera being used in the defence and secrete it in his pants. This theft somehow wasn't noticed at the time, and it wasn't until after he had been back to jail for some hours, that a search of his cell at Barnstable House of Correction recovered the camera.

All might have been well except that the memory card wasn't recovered and guess what? Yes your way ahead of me, she had photos of an indiscreet nature on that memory card. They were allegedly of her and her abusive 'ex' in happier times .... and nekked The sex videos and photos of her and the 'ex' are now believed to be being held on behalf of the 'ex', with the threat of their appearance on the web hanging over Ms Donaldson. The 'ex' denies any knowledge of the missing memory card .... to be continued (when it turns up )

Pictures:

Obviously the pictures are still missing, but I found one or two others. Again, no thread that I could find, so someone could start one.

[VintageKell]

Louise Glaum an American actress. She began her acting career on the stage in stock and stage productions in Los Angeles in 1907. She then toured as an ingenue with a road show in 'Why Girls Leave Home' where she earned $25 a week and furnished her own gowns, which she made herself. When the tour reached Chicago she stayed and performed in the Imperial Stock Company there for a year and a half.

The death of her younger sister caused her to return to Los Angeles in 1911 and she found acting work at a local movie studio. Her debut was in 'When the Heart Calls' and she went on to appear in around 114 movies from 1912 to 1921, when she 'retired' from movies after starring in 'Greater Than Love' and moved to New York. She made only one more movie in 1925 'Fifty-Fifty', and concentrated instead on the stage. Glaum continued to act on the stage and also worked as a drama instructor, opening and appearing in her own theatre in Los Angeles in the mid 1930's. She then mixed acting, directing and producing in her own theatre's until well into the 1950's. She died at the age of 82 of pneumonia in 1970.

So whys she here?

Well she was a somewhat litigious lady, and was tied up with the director Thomas Ince, who regular readers of this thread will instantly recognise as the eventual corpse in the William Randolph Hearst scandal of 1924. She signed for Ince, her first role as a "vamp", and her first starring role in the new five-reel features, was as Mademoiselle Poppea in 'The Toast of Death' in 1915 and played Milady de Winter in 'The Three Musketeers' in 1916 marked her as something of a vamp, although her roles varied. Her contract was for large money, with a salary starting at $2,000 a week and increasing to $4,000 pw, which was a fortune at the time.

On March 16, 1925, she filed suit in the Supreme Court of New York against producer J. Parker Read Jr, for $103,000, and asked for an attachment against money owed him by various film distributors in New York City i.e. that the monies be paid to her. She also stated that J. Parker Read Jr. Productions was in fact a subsidiary producing company for Thomas Ince, and that therefore, ultimately it was he who owed her money. The suit had arisen because she claimed that she starred in several pictures under Read's direction, and that on December 23, 1921, he made a over a promissory note to her for the money due for those movies, payable in four installments. As you may guess, she then found that nothing was paid. Then Parker Read Jr went to Paris in the Autumn of 1923, still without paying her. According to her attorney, Read's departure took the form of a flight from the country and that in order to escape his creditors he had sneaked aboard the liner disguised as a stoker.

As she could no longer get at Parker Read Jr. she then sued the estate of the now late Thomas H. Ince, as he was Read's partner, stating that as Read was insolvent he was responsible for the $103,000, plus another $302,000 for breach of contract.

Sadly, before this interesting case could get to court ... she was defeated by the legal weasels;

• Firstly the Appellate Division, decided that she could not prosecute a suit in the state against the executors under the will of Ince, on the grounds that the New York courts had no jurisdiction over the executors.
• Secondly, when she tried to file suit in California, a copy of the contract was not attached, and with the post of the time, by the time that arrived the time limit for claims had elapsed and the California courts dismissed the suit on technicalities.

Without doubt, this 'swindle' as she considered it, contributed greatly to her decision not to return to the movies, even after the advent of sound (which she considered herself suitable for, with her stage career). As you might imagine, the press were greatly interested in these events, with the Hearst connection, and suit against a dead-man, but the matter died out with her court setbacks.

Trivia:

• Called "The Spider Woman" or "The Leopard Woman" as one of silent screen's most infamous and exotic vamps.
• She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for her work in motion pictures at 6834 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood.
• She starred in small short movie in 1913 "The Quakeress", with William Desmond Taylor who many will recall was the subject of a famous murder, that dragged in many celebrities.

Pictures:

No thread that I could find, so here's a sample of her career .....






Fans of obscure Vintage Silent movie stars might like my latest thread here.

[VintageKell]

Sarah Harding is apparently a pop singer-songwriter, actress and model best known for being a member of the pop group 'Girls Aloud' .... needless to say I hadn't heard of her, but had vaguely heard of the band, so there you are. While waiting for stardom to beckon, she worked as a waitress at Pizza Hut, drove a van, worked in debt collecting and as a BT telephone operator. She performed in pubs, social clubs, and caravan parks to hone her singing as part of a band called Project G.

She auditioned to be a contestant on both the UK talent-search shows 'Fame Academy' and 'Popstars: The Rivals' in 2002. She was successful in getting into 'Popstars: The Rivals' and ended up joining 'Girls Aloud'. They went on to a have a string of 20 consecutive UK top ten singles (including four number ones), and two UK number one albums.

In the same year 2002, she also entered FHM's 'High Street Honeys', the magazine's national beauty contest, and her pictures appeared in the first Top 100, but she later withdrew, upon achieving success on Popstars ....
Harding signed a £100,000 deal to model Ultimo lingerie, and was the face of Coca-Cola Zero upon its launch in Ireland and in 2009, she appeared on MTV's 'Sarah Harding in 24 hours'. She has also appeared in a few film and TV appearances such as St. Trinian's in 2007.

Addictions:

She has entered a treatment centre for depression and alcohol addiction. She is said to have turned to alcohol in a manner that was more than was healthy for her, in order to help her through the 'painful period' following a relationship breakup. She had developed a reputation as a party girl over the years, often being photographed falling out of clubs drunk in the early hours. The final straw was apparently when her fellow band members in 'Girls Aloud' said she would be excluded from the group's tenth anniversary reunion tour next year, unless she sought professional help.

Trivia:

• Girls Aloud are apparently one of the few reality television acts to achieve continued success, amassing a fortune of £25 million ... good job they weren't relying on sales from me.
• Her parents and she has no contact with her father.
• She suffers from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
• She suffers from Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD).

Pictures:

She has a thread here already so as usual just a few illustrative pics, and any follow ups to her thread please

[VintageKell]

Joan Bennett Kennedy (b. Virginia Joan Bennett) is an American writer, and former model, and known as an accomplished classical musician. Born in Riverdale, a neighborhood of 'The Bronx' borough of New York City, she was unlucky in that both of her parents were later alcoholics, which augured badly for young Joan. Educated in a prestigious Catholic college, while she worked towards graduating, she worked as a model in television advertising (her father was an advertising man, and she was a noted beauty) .... this ended when she caught the young 'Ted' Kennedy's eye when he visited the campus for a building dedication in 1957.

They married in 1958, but from the start she wasn't really suited to the Kennedy lifestyle, and she struggled to live in such a pressured environment. With her family history of alcoholism, and the Kennedy families substance abuse issues, it was perhaps no great surprise that she started drinking. This problem worsened considerably after she found that Ted was a serial adulterer like all the Kennedy men at that time ... the Chappaquiddick scandal of 1969 (when Ted drove a car with a teen girl MaryJo Kopechne off a bridge, she died, but he got free), was a tipping point. She was pregnant at the time, but she attended Kopechne's funeral and the court appearance of her husband (When he must have known his presidential chances were finished), but would later miscarry for the third time, and this stress was too much.

Drinking Mishaps:

A series of drunken driving arrests followed, starting in 1974. Allegedly others in the Kennedy clan would mock her 'binges' at the family compound in Hyannis Port, "They used to point at her and say, 'She's a drunk,' while they were all holding a drink in their hands". In early 1978, the couple separated, but friends and observers say the Kennedy's 1982 divorce was generally amicable, and she still retained contact with the family.

After this she gave interviews with 'People' and 'McCall's' magazines confirming her alcoholism and her work to stay sober ... After Joan Kennedy's third drunken driving arrest in 1991, she was ordered into an alcohol treatment program. Her fourth arrest in 2000 on Cape Cod led to two years' probation, and yet another round of treatment.

She moved to homes on Cape Cod, and a condominium in Boston's affluent Back Bay. She has been praised for her frequent charity work, and also as an accomplished pianist ... In 1992, she published the book 'The Joy of Classical Music: A Guide for You and Your Family' to some critical success. But she continued to struggle with her alcoholism, in 2005 she found herself back in the public eye when a passer- by discovered the 68-year-old sprawled on a sidewalk on Boston's Beacon Street in the rain. She was hospitalized with a concussion and a broken shoulder.

Her later years have been dominated by her drinking and other health issues (She was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent surgery in October 2005), and one last Kennedy family dispute over her estate. Her Son Edward had been appointed her legal guardian in 2004, but she got her second cousin, a financial planner to established a trust controlling her estate in violation of her sons' guardianship. He was removed after the Kennedy's took court action ... her affairs are now bound in a new trust overseen by two court-appointed trustees. So I guess she at least broke partially free.

Trivia:

• She was dubbed "The Dish" by brother-in-law John F. Kennedy,
• Apart from a brief relationship shortly after her divorce, she has neither remarried nor pursued another relationship .... who can blame her?

Pictures:

Just a few .....




Oh, and before anyone says, she was only famous because of her marriage: Firstly it matters not how minor celebrity knocks on the door, so she probably could have been included just for the minor fame and publicity that the high profile marriage in to 'American Royalty' gave her. But she was included because she was a TV model at a time when TV was King, and therefore a certain level of fame was guaranteed (so she could have been included just for that). But she also wrote a successful book (so she qualifies on two counts on her own).