A BELTED EARL.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 301, 19 December 1936, Page 5 (Supplement)

A BELTED EARL.

GOES TO HOLLYWOOD.

LORD WARWICK'S HOPES.

WANTS A SALARY TO PLAY WITH. (By SHEILAH GRAHAM.) Charles Guy Fulke Greville, the most noble Earl of Warwick, smiled in superior fashion, smoothed his dark locks and repeated the interviewer's question, "Why am I in the movies? My dear lady, the answer should be obvious to the lowest intelligence. I'm in pictures because I can't make money at anything else." The 20-year-old British peer, bearer of one of the oldest titles in England —his ancestors were building Warwick Castle as long ago as 817 A.D.— came to Hollywood a few weeks begin a seven-year contract with M.-G.-M., for which lie will be paid 300,000 dollars. "I already have enough money to take care of my family and estates in England, but my movie salary will be spent on myself entirely —and anyone I care to entertain." According to an intimate friend, Warwick —or, rather, Mr. Michael Brooke, as he prefers to be known on the screen —will devote part of his movie salary toward arranging a divorce from his wife, the former Rose Bingham, who left Hollywood in a rush a few days before her husband's arrival. Divorce is Quite a Problem. When questioned on this matter, his Lordship raised a frigid eyebrow and said, "You don't really expect me to tell you the truth, do you ? Can you imagine what a certain party would say if she read in the papers that I was divorcing my wife? She'd say, 'So he'll divorce me, will he? We'll see about that!' " British divorce laws are still rigidly against the granting of decrees when collusion is evident, stated Lord Warwick, adding, "Agitation has been going on for the past six years to make divorce easier, but without success. In America everything is much easier— although, of course, all the laws are on the side of women." In spite of which handicap, the earl is in no hurry to return to England'. "I may never go back there to live —if I'm a success in pictures. England's a swell country—and in the past, when I've made trips abroad, I've been glad to return home. But after three days, I was always bored—and glad to get away." He said he was glad he would not have to return to England to see his son, Lord David Brooke, aged just 2J years, who will shortly visit his father in Hollywood. A Certain Ancestress. Boredom has played an important part in Lord Warwick's brief life. He left the Grenadier Guards because he was bored with soldiering. The same motivating factor sent him journeying to practically every country in the world. "What happens if you get bored with ' Hollywood?" he was asked. "I'm not going to," he replied emphatically. "1 like the life here. I have nearly every- ' thing I need—an attractive home in Westwood, all the golf, tennis and badminton I want, and, best of all, a 1 chance to make good in a profitable career. Most of my English friends don't take my film work seriously, they ; prophesy that I'll get bored and move : on somewhere else. But I'm serious, i I'm determined to make a success of ; screen acting."

Lord Warwick is now being tested for a role in "The Emperor's Candlesticks," starring William Powell with Rosalind Russell. Asked whether acting talent had been evidenced in his family, the noble film actor laughed. "We don't talk about it, but one of my ancestors, Barbara Duchess of Cleveland, was an actress before becoming an unofficial wife of Charles 11., by whom she had several children. Of course, Charles legitimatised and ennobled them. They did things better in those days—they knew how to handle situations like that."