Disgraced Minor Female Celebs

[VintageKell]

Katharine "Kit" Cornell was an American stage actress, writer, theater owner and producer.

Cornell is considered by some to the greatest American stage actress of the 20th century (although her main performances were before WWII), and she was nicknamed the "First Lady of the Theatre" by fellow thespian Helen Hayes. Her most famous role was as English poet 'Elizabeth Barrett Browning' in the 1931 Broadway production of The Barretts of Wimpole Street.

She appeared in only one film, the World War II morale booster, 'Stage Door Canteen', in which she played herself and, recited a speech from 'Romeo and Juliet'. However, she did appear in television adaptations of 'The Barretts of Wimpole Street', and the play 'There Shall Be No Night'. She also narrated the Oscar-winning documentary 'Helen Keller in Her Story'.

She certainly considered herself to be a 'star' as later, after she had become famous, she would often bring her productions to Buffalo (her home town) to be seen by friends and family. A Biographer stated, "To show her affection for her hometown, she always walked slowly when she left her hotel, turning her head to smile on everyone on the street, missing no one, so they could feel close to her and be able to say when they got home that night, 'Katharine Cornell smiled directly at me.'"

She married Guthrie McClintic in 1921, however it is generally acknowledged that Cornell was a lesbian, and Guthrie was gay, and their marriage was a 'lavender marriage'. She was a member of the 'sewing circles' in New York, and had relationships with Nancy Hamilton, Tallulah Bankhead, and Mercedes de Acosta, among others.

Trivia:

Cornell is referenced as a plot point in the comedy "The Man Who Came to Dinner". The character Bert Jefferson writes a play, and his girlfriend Maggie Cutler, convinced the play would be a hit on Broadway, gives the play to another character in the hopes that 'Katharine Cornell will produce it'.

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[VintageKell]

Laurette Taylor was an American actress of stage and silent films.

She married her first husband, Charles A. Taylor, around 1900, and they had two children, but they divorced around 1910. In 1912 she married British-born playwright J. Hartley Manners (she remained married to Manners until his death in 1928), who wrote 'Peg o' My Heart', a major and enduring personal stage triumph for Taylor, who toured in it extensively throughout the country. Based upon the play's success a 1922 film version was made starring Taylor and directed by King Vidor.

Taylor's outsized personality, mercurial moods, and eccentricities fuelled by her severe alcoholism became legendary ..... after the death of her second husband she is said to have had a lesbian affair with Eva Le Gallienne (who went through these actresses like a dose of salts! ) and the inevitable links with Tallulah Bankhead.

Trivia:

Noël Coward spent a weekend at the home of Taylor and, inspired by that remarkable visit wrote, in just three days, his devastating, witty comedy of manners Hay Fever (1925) ..... Taylor was allegedly offended by his thinly disguised portrayal of her household, and its said to have caused a serious and permanent rift in their friendship.

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[VintageKell]

Ona Munson was an American actress perhaps best known for her portrayal of prostitute 'Belle Watling' in the 1939 film 'Gone with the Wind'. She first came to fame on Broadway as the singing and dancing ingenue in the original production of No, No, Nanette. From this, Munson had a very successful stage and radio career in 1930s in New York.

She then transferred her talents to movies ... with her first starring role in a Warner Brothers talkie called 'Going Wild' in 1930. However after the acclaim of 'Gone with the Wind' Munson’s career was stalemated and she was typecast in similar roles. Two years later, she played a huge role as another madam, albeit a Chinese one , in Josef von Sternberg's film noir 'The Shanghai Gesture'.

She was married three times, to actor and director Edward Buzzell in 1927, to Stewart McDonald in 1941, and designer Eugene Berman in 1949 ..... but, and you knew there would be a but ..... She was named by Mercedes de Acosta as one of the actresses with whom she had had a lesbian affair in her controversial 1960 autobiography 'Here Lies the Heart' ...... this sexual interest in the ladies was later confirmed by the book "The Hollywood Sewing Circle" by Axel Madsen .... Hmm with all these "sewing circles" there can hardly have been any time for acting

Trivia:

• She introduced the song "You're the Cream in My Coffee" in the 1927 Broadway musical Hold Everything.
  
• For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Ona Munson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6211 Hollywood Boulevard.

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[VintageKell]

Adele Astaire (born Adele Marie Austerlitz) was an American dancer and entertainer.

She was Fred Astaire's elder sister and first dance partner. In 1905 Adele Astaire had a successful vaudeville act with her younger brother, Fred Astaire. They developed it into a celebrated adult career on Broadway and on the London stage. Adele was the bigger star of the two during their time performing together, and she was a special favorite of Great Britain's royalty.

In 1932, after a successful stint with Fred in the revue 'The Band Wagon' on Broadway, Adele Astaire retired from the stage to marry Lord Charles Arthur Francis Cavendish, the second son of the 9th Duke of Devonshire, and moved to Ireland, where they lived at Lismore Castle. In April 1947, three years after her first husbands death she married her second husband, Col. Kingman Douglass, an American investment banker and Air Force officer who was an assistant director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He died in 1971.

She was outgoing and with a somewhat saucy sense of humour .... according to the memoirs of Richard McKenzie (husband of Fred's daughter, Ava), Adele, aka 'Dellie', was playing Scrabble with her brother when he noticed that she had started a word with the letters C-U-N. He protested at what appeared to be an emerging vulgarity, though Adele later told Ava, "I could have been spelling anything! Like cunnilingus" ..... talking of which ...

Yes, she was also named by Mercedes de Acosta as one of the actresses with whom she had had a lesbian affair in her controversial 1960 autobiography 'Here Lies the Heart' ...... this may be a lesbian wish list (sort of 'women I'd like to ....') because this particular claim has never been verified, but, if true, it is believed that it was just a bisexual 'fling'.

Trivia:

She nicknamed Fred "Moaning Minnie" because of his perfectionism.

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[VintageKell]

Tamara Platonovna Karsavina was a famous Russian ballerina, renowned for her beauty, who was most noted as a Principal Artist of the Imperial Russian Ballet and later the Ballets Russes of Serge Diaghilev.

In 1917 she married diplomat Henry James Bruce and she left Russia in 1919 after the revolution, and subsequently continued her association with the Ballet Russe as a leading Ballerina. After settling in Hampstead, England, she began teaching ballet professionally and would become recognised as one of the founders of modern British ballet.

However, she was an aquaintance of the dreaded Mercedes de Acosta who 'outed' Karsavina as one of the dancers with whom she had had a lesbian affair in her controversial 1960 autobiography 'Here Lies the Heart' ...... De Acosta was involved with married Russian ballerina Tamara Platonovna Karsavina throughout her life, after their first meeting in 1920. The two were as much friends as they were lovers, and Karsavina was one of the few who continued to be friendly toward de Acosta following the controversial autobiography being published.

Trivia:

Her brother Lev Platonovich Karsavin moved to newly independent Lithuania, where he was awarded a university chair in cultural history; when the Soviets occupied Lithuania in 1940, he was arrested by the KGB and died in a gulag.

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[VintageKell]

Mercedes de Acosta was an American poet, playwright, costume designer, and socialite ... Four of de Acosta's plays were produced, and she published a novel and three volumes of poetry. She married Abram Poole in 1920, a noted painter and socialite. They divorced in 1935. Both the bride and groom were admitted homosexuals .... the marriage was of the 'lavender' variety.

However she is best known for her claim to have had numerous lesbian affairs with Hollywood personalities including Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Alla Nazimova, Tamara Karsavina, Eva Le Gallienne, Isadora Duncan, Katharine Cornell, Ona Munson, Adele Astaire and, allegedly, Tallulah Bankhead (who certainly put herself about if all these claims are true), amongst others, which she documented in her controversial autobiography 'Here Lies the Heart'. Published in 1960 its revelations, though highly sanitized, effectively 'outed' scores of "Sewing Circle" gals, in both Hollywood and Broadway .... causing much anger, embarrassment, and outrage.

Eva Le Gallienne for example told anyone who would listen that she thought the book should have been called "Here the Heart Lies and Lies and Lies" .... however as she had already been named as "co-respondent" in the divorce of married actress Josephine Hutchinson, she didn't get much of an audience. And as the lesbian Alice B. Toklas, who knew all of those named, wrote to a disapproving friend, Anita Loos, "You can't dispose of Mercedes lightly. She had the two most important women in U.S., Greta Garbo and Marlene Dietrich."

Most of the affairs have later been confirmed through personal correspondence, and many of the affairs were known to Hollywood insiders, but were kept out of the headlines for the sake of the actresses' careers at the time. It still resulted in the severing of numerous of her 'friendships', including that of Greta Garbo. Cut off from many of her lady friends and increasingly in financial straits, Acosta died in relative poverty and obscurity. She is buried with her mother and sister Rita de Alba de Acosta (a fabled beauty best known as Rita Lydig) in New York City.

Trivia:

Mercedes's father, Ricardo de Acosta, had migrated from Spain to Cuba, where he supposedly had led a group of revolutionaries attempting to overthrow Spanish rule. The story goes that he was captured, arrested, and escaped from a firing squad, and fled to New York where he eventually met Mercedes's mother.

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[VintageKell]

Rita de Acosta Lydig was an American socialite reputedly a relation of the Dukes of Alba and regarded as "the most picturesque woman in America." She also wrote one novel, 'Tragic Mansions', under the name Mrs Philip Lydig, a society melodrama described as "emotionally moving and appealing" by The New York Times.

In 1895, aged 19, she became the first wife of William Earl Dodge Stokes, a multimillionaire with whom she had a son, William Earl Dodge Stokes Jr, born January 5, 1896. The marriage was unhappy, reportedly due to Stokes's temper and physical cruelty, and when it was dissolved by divorce in 1900, she received a settlement of nearly two million dollars, a record for the time.

In later years (1922) she testified in court against Stokes, then going through an acrimonious divorce from his second wife, stating that he used to beat her during their marriage.

In 1902 she married Captain Philip M. Lydig, a retired officer in the United States Army. They separated in 1914 and divorced in 1919 ...which lead on to her final indignity ..... In 1921 Lydig announced her engagement to Reverend Percy Stickney Grant, rector of the Church of the Ascension. Their wedding plans were broken off in 1924 when Bishop William Manning refused to authorise the marriage, citing Lydig being a divorcée with two living former husbands .... however it wasn't all bad, Rev. Grant died shortly afterwards, leaving his personal fortune to Lydig, who then spent large sums of money on fashion, art, furniture, and other objects to overcome her grief .... whatever.

But the good times always come to an end, and guess what, she was soon out of money and out of husbands .... she fell heavily in to debt, and was forced to sell her Washington Square home and its contents, but was still declared bankrupt, and died of pernicious anaemia at the Gotham Hotel shortly after, at the age of 54 ....

Trivia:

• Her sister Mercedes de Acosta, a lover of movie star Greta Garbo, was an author, a scriptwriter, and social critic, who also died in poverty.
  
• Another sister, Aida de Acosta, became the first female to fly a powered aircraft solo.

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[VintageKell]

Natalie Mejia is an American singer, dancer and occasional rapper. Mejia is a member of the musical group Girlicious ..... so needless to say, I have never heard of her or her 'all girl combo' ....

Anyways, on March 9, 2010, the Police stopped a 1998 Ford Mustang near Victory Boulevard and Winchester Avenue, because it was allegedly speeding. Mejia, along with a male driver named Peter Asencio, were arrested on suspicion of possessing cocaine for sale. More than a dozen bags of cocaine were found in her purse after the car was searched,and an officer discovered the male driver's license was suspended. Mejia posted $30,000 bail and appeared in court in April 2010 ...

... Where she pleaded guilty to felony cocaine possession and has received a deferred judgment that could result in charges being dropped. Mejia will be required to undergo counseling and attend classes for the next 18 months. If she completes the deferred judgment program, the felony charge will be dismissed ..... imagine if that had been Jill Quigg ... the slammer doors wouldn't have closed fast enough ... but that's justice for you!

Trivia:

She studied dance from the age of nine at the Millennium Dance Complex which is known for instructing Britney Spears ..... no, really, thats what it says!

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[VintageKell]

Jael Strauss was a contestant on "Reality" (are there any other kind these days?) TV show "America's Next Top Model"......her controversial political topic was "Pro Life" ...... she came 5th and was signed to 'Otto Models'

Anyway, her chances of 'making it' were well and truly scuppered when her nakedness was outed on to the Internet ..... In 2007 she “filed an invasion-of-privacy" lawsuit against two men, including her former talent agent, who allegedly published racy photographs of her without her permission .... Now, Jael “alleges that her ex-agent, Christopher Donahue, allowed fellow plaintiff Baptiste to take erotic photos of the then-teenager and then signed off on the book [containing the pictures] without asking for permission from Strauss’ parents,” according to reports[/URL]. She wants “unspecified restitution, as well as punitive and compensatory damages.”

Her lawsuit also alleges that “Baptiste offered Jael alcohol, allegedly to calm her nervousness and to relax her. On returning from the shoot in Malibu to Jael’s residence, Baptiste inquired whether Jael would like to have sex with him. She declined.” The suit says the photos “damaged [Strauss] in the beginning of her entertainment career and caused severe damage to her public image.” ...it was eventually settled.

What's that old adage ... oh yes "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime" .... anyway they are hardly explicit, but if you keep yer knickers on, these things don't happen .... anyway, she has taken her kit off since then.

Oh, and there has been much speculation that she has a drug problem ..... I don't know or care much.

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[VintageKell]

Evelyn Keyes was an American film actress. She is best-known for her role as Suellen O'Hara in the 1939 film 'Gone with the Wind'. Her other claim to fame was her romantic involvement with many of Hollywood's players, and her willingness to tell all.

She entered a beauty pageant or two and worked as a chorus girl before relocating to California at age 20. Shortly after her arrival in Los Angeles, a chance meeting with the legendary 'Cecil B. Demille' led to a Paramount contract. Stories differ as to how she met DeMille. Hollywood folklore has it that she was "discovered" by a talent scout in true Lana Turner fashion while eating at a restaurant; another possibly more believable story has it that she 'connected' with one of DeMille's former writers, which led to an introduction.

In 1938, just prior to the filming of 'Gone with the Wind', she married businessman Barton Bainbridge, her first of four, and she was married to Barton Bainbridge from 1938 until his death from suicide in 1940. However the marriage soured quickly within a year, after she started an affair with Budapest-born director Charles Vidor, who directed three of Evelyn's pictures ... its not clear if Bainbridge's suicide was related to the Vidor affair.

She married Vidor in 1943 but this second marriage lasted only two years allegedly due to Vidor's many infidelities. At Columbia Evelyn hit pin-up status and this sparked a number of war-era pictures. In the post-war years, a third tempestuous and highly combustable marriage (1946-1950) to Hollywood titan John Huston made the tabloid papers practically on a weekly basis. The marriage was described by columnist Hedda Hopper as "An impulsive proposal in a Beverly Hills cafe, a midnight airplane ride to Las Vegas and a 3:30 a.m. appearance before the parson provided the "shooting script" for the surprise marriage" .... they divorced after four years .... She cited 'Incompatibility' as the cause of the split.

Her last (and just as surprising) marriage was to another "Daddy" type, musician Artie Shaw, a notorious womanizer who had already had been discarded by trophy wives Ava Gardner and Lana Turner (and five others) by the time he and Evelyn married in 1957. Evelyn had pretty much put her career on the back burner by this point. Surprisingly, this marriage lasted longer than any of their previous ones. The couple separated in the 1970s but did not divorce until 1985.

Her 'Gone with the Wind' association and two sensationalistic tell-all memoirs in 1977 and 1991 that chronicled her four dicey marriages, numerous affairs with the rich and famous, and negative take on the Hollywood studio system, kept her a point of interest right up until the end. The New York Times reviewed one of these memoirs, "Scarlett O'Hara's Younger Sister" as 'a strange sort of autobiography for a prim Southern girl to have written a sexual odyssey up and down the decades, in which Evelyn Keyes pauses only occasionally to mention a movie she has just started or just finished.'

Among the many Hollywood affairs she recounted in these books were those to producer Michael Todd (who left Evelyn for Elizabeth Taylor), Anthony Quinn, David Niven and Kirk Douglas. She also confirmed the personal cost she paid for the fame by her having had an abortion just before Gone with the Wind was to begin filming, which she thought had left her unable to have children.

In 2005, Keyes sued Shaw's estate, claiming that she was entitled to one-half of Shaw's estate pursuant to a contract to make a will between them. In July 2006, a Ventura, California jury unanimously held that Keyes was entitled to almost one-half of Shaw's estate, or $1,420,000. She passed away at age 91 of uterine cancer at an assisted-living Montecito, California home on the 4th of July, 2008.

Somewhere in all this she included a film and TV career ..... Keyes said of her many relationships, "I was always interested in the man of the moment, and there were many such moments." Indeed she was a quotable woman .."I have often wondered what my life would have been like if I had needed a size thirty-eight bra instead of a modest thirty-four", and "I'm the first to admit that I never achieved my potential as an actress", were two of the better ones.

Trivia:

Her involvement with flamboyant producer Michael Todd ended in tears when during the filming, he broke things off after falling in love with Elizabeth Taylor, whom he later married. The positive thing that came out of it for her was that she had invested most of her money in the picture and was financially set for life as a result.

She has a very good thread here already, so just illustrative pictures only.

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