Hollywood Says...

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 247, 18 October 1941, Page 15

Hollywood Says...

gEVEN former "Miss Americas" 1 are working as Hollywood extras. ♦ b JJEDY LAMARR is back at Metro J after a fight and suspension of several months. ~ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ] OLIVIA DE HAVILLAND'S first dinner date on her return to I town was with Lew Ayres, who also F visited her back East. 1 4- ♦ ♦ ♦ I J RAN into Theda Bara, first of the J screen vamps, writes Sheilah f Graham, and she tells me: "I was the first woman to smoke on the screen." That was in 1916. *- ,-*♦♦♦ r ]\JAE WEST is a trader in dia- > monds. No, not her own. She a just buys and sells them, and at a ( profit—a big one—if I know Mae, r writes our Hollywood correspondent, s

pALK persists that Charles Chaplin will allow himself to be directed by Frank Capra in "The Flying Yorkshireman, says Sheilah Graham. It's still a good idea. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ J£DWARD ARNOLD probably will play Winston Churchill in the British Warner production, "The Prime Minister," based on Churchill's life. Arnold would have to go to England for the film. Nedless to say Arnold's famous laugh will not be featured. * » » » JIMMY CAGNEY has a clause in his •' j contract insisting on top billing regardless of his feminine star! Which is why his name appears above Bette Davis' in "The Bride Came C.0.D." Cagney also has the right to choose his story, director and cast. He is now conferring with George M; Cohan, whom he impersonates in the film version of Yankee Doodle Dandy." ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ JN "Mr. Jordan Comes To Town," Robert Montgomery's last Hollywood film for some time to come— Bob is now in the navy—he addresses the audience from the screen and says, "I think she (Rita Johnson) is going to faint." Then a thud is heard, and Bob again turns to the audience. "She did." This business of talking to the audience was renewed recently in the Marx Brothers' Western picture. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ JN the stage version of "The Man Who Came To Dinner," the secretary role was subordinate to the male of the title role. But this will be changed in the film version, because Bette Davis is the secretary. Monty Woolley, who created j the lead in New York, probably will repeat for the movie. This will be in the nature of a triumph for Mr. Woolley, who was in Hollywood many years without getting more than "bit" roles, and those only because of his beard!