Gossip Round the Studios

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23850, 28 December 1940, Page 5 (Supplement)

Gossip Round the Studios

Charles La and wife. Klsa Lanchcster —v.io signed her contract recently arc now both employees of Jt.K.O. The Brit Mi pair have settled down in Hollywood permanently. Lan Hunter, ihe actor, is always getting calls from studio story editors to Come in and ■cr then; about bis latest article in a : magazine, while lan Hunter, the wrii.v. gets frecpieut calls from Casting directors to come out and make 6creen tests Producer Gene Markey. recently divorced irom lledy Lamarr. is making sll of his featured players in "You're the One' change their brunette locks to blonde, because be claims blaek hair is in for an eclipse, and a blonde cycle is about to begin again. Hollywood is "wondering il this reasoning is the result oi his recent divorce. W. C. Fields has been quietly writing a movie story with himself as the star. The title right now is "J. Caesar." and for it Mr. Fields has taken liberties with Shakespeare. Says Mr. fields,; "Brutus and Cassius won't murder me. They'll stiletto Anthom instead. Then I —Caesar—will deliver the funeral oration, niy little chickadees.'.' Ihe work will contain a "striptense version of Cleopatra." besides which -T. Caesar "will bull-fiddle while Jiorue burns.' 1

Influenza has taken Allan Jones out of Paramount musical, "Las Vegas Nights," and put Phil Began in, new eont T'leteo. and ex-".singing cop"; Began has Constance Moore as his leading lady. Bert Wheeler as comii and Tommy Dorsev's band over all. Melvvn Douglas' six-year-old son Peter is seriously ill—pneumonia. The star and his wife, former actress Helen Cahngan, have only the one other child, two-year-old Helen Mary. Both youngsters are their own—llo adoptions in this family. Already Hollywood is discussing the idea of making "The Life of Torn Mix." Mix was a personality about, whom a film scenario can well he woven. The studios have an enormous amount of stock film from the old Mix pictures, arid lots of it is usable. Although plans for the picture are in the tentative stage, there's no doubt it will be made if the necessary rights can be procured. Whether you think Jfedy Lamarr can act or not, there seems to be no doubt about her ability at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where she has been signed to a new contract at a considerable salary increase. The studio has lined up a large schedule for her. She steps from "Comrade X" to "Come Live With Me," a story about a refugee who marries an American (James Stewart), and following that she will have a glamour role in "Ziegfeld Girl."