JANE ELLEN WAYNE is the author of Robert Taylor: The Man with the Perfect Face and eight other Hollywood star biographies, among them Lana, Gable's Women, and Crawford's Men. She lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
"Fun, gossipy...a good (if sensational) entree to their careers and milieus."
"Fun, gossipy...a good (if sensational) entree to their careers and milieus."
The men in Wayne's book-some producers (Louis B. Mayer, Irving Thalberg), but mostly actors (Clark Gable, John Gilbert, Elvis Presley, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, Spencer Tracy)-are, theoretically, connected because they were all big names on MGM's roster. Really, though, they're all here so that Wayne (The Golden Girls of MGM) can dish the dirt, which she does, shovel-like. The Tracy chapter delves into his long history of alcohol abuse and his decades-long relationship (of convenience, says Wayne) with Katharine Hepburn (who, Wayne reports, mothered him while putting up with constant abuse and his refusal to divorce his wife and marry her). Tracy's story is more sad than entertaining, as is the chapter on the miserable decline of Peter Lawford. More tawdry-and fun-are the sections on Gable and Sinatra, where Wayne first shows what unlikely romantic leads they each were (Gable had big ears and false teeth; Sinatra was a "skinny, unknown singer who acted like a celebrity") before getting to the real meat of their careers: who they slept with, when, and if they were any good. Although suspiciously thin on attribution-Wayne has a mysterious, Kitty Kelley-like way with the sources of her more sensational material-this is an undeniably enjoyable selection of Hollywood juice. Photos. Agent, Jeremy Robson. (Mar. 15) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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