“I'm not always right, but I'm never wrong.”
 
Samuel Goldwyn, via Mary Astor’s Purple Diary: The Great American Sex Scandal of 1936

In the case of Mary Astor, Samuel Goldwyn's instincts did prove correct. Despite the scandalous allegations made against Astor in a bitter custody battle, Goldwyn ignored the morality clause in Astor's contract, refusing to cut her from the cast Dodsworth, in production at the height of the scandal. Reasoned Goldwyn, "A woman fighting for her child? This is good!"

The critics and public agreed, and the success of Dodsworth meant Astor's best years in Hollywood were ahead her, including a starring role in John Huston's classic film, The Maltese Falcon (1941) and a best supporting actress award for The Great Lie (also 1941). Of course, Mary Astor was well aware that in Hollywood, what comes up, eventually goes down. In her memoir, she wrly mapped out the five stages in the life of a Hollywood actor: "Who's Mary Astor? Get me Mary Astor. Get me a Mary Astor Type. Get me a young Mary Astor. Who's Mary Astor?”

See Also: A Quiz: The Goldwyn Touch

“Hollywood, the master of spun-out fantasies, gave up on Christmas with hardly a shrug. A 70 degree Christmas morning put us out of sorts; try saying ‘Merry Christmas’ to someone watering his lawn in shorts. Hollywood has attempted and even succeeded with the impossible many times, but Christmas has never been one of them.”
 
Eve Babitz, Eve’s Hollywood

Image Credit: Naked Hollywood

“Rich men are born with opportunities they can waste. But a poor man?”
 
Balram, The White Tiger

Image Credit: Netflix

“[Andy Warhol would ask] ‘Brig, when is your mother going to have her portrait done by me?’ And I’d say, ‘Andy, my mother would never have her portrait done by you. I don’t want a portrait by you. I can’t stand them. I wouldn’t have one of your portraits hanging on my wall if you paid me a million dollars!’ Maybe that’s why we were so close, because I used to tell him the truth. I never liked his art! He used to offer me his art for Christmas, and I told him I’d rather he get me a washing machine and dryer. And he did! Wasn’t I a fool?”
 
Brigid Berlin, via Kevin Sessums, I Left It on the Mountain

​Name the Doubleday book editor who, when asked whether she would be attending the company sales conference in Dallas, replied dryly, “I think I’ll pass on that one.”

​The answer is after the JUMP.

“One Christmas, David O. Selznick’s present to me was a set of imported Lowestoft, a two-hundred-fifty-piece set from Carole Stupell in New York. In disfavor the next year, I received a five-dollar geranium plant. The price tag still on it.”
 
Joan Fontaine, No Bed of Roses: An Autobiography

“I fail to see why certain society ladies in the horsey set should look so leathery and weather-beaten when the horses they ride are so well-groomed.”
 
Princess Luciana Pignatelli, The Beautiful People’s Beauty Book

“As the sea closed over the Titanic, Lady Cosmo Duff Gordon in Boat 1 remarked to her secretary Miss Francatelli, ‘There is your beautiful nightdress gone.’”
 
Walter Lord, A Night to Remember: The Classic Account of the Final Hours of the Titanic

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons

“A couple of days before I met her, Miss [Jayne] Mansfield attended a tea-party given by Adlai Stevenson as part of the Presidential election campaign. It is considered perfectly normal for a man like Stevenson to meet a girl like Miss Mansfield in the interests of mutual publicity. [But] actually Miss Mansfield regretted the meeting. She was afraid as result of the wide publicity given to this meeting she would be considered a Democrat and, therefore, would not be invited to the Republican parties. ‘That would be a pity, because Eisenhower gives such good parties,’ she said.”
 
Thomas Wiseman, Seven Deadly Sins of Hollywood

“[A] reader, like a pianist, is engaged in an intense creative operation. If you are used to it, you will notice the effort it takes only when you leave off. Put your book aside and switch on the television and the sense of relaxation is instant. That is because a large part of your brain has stopped working. The pictures beam straight into your brain. No input from you is needed. What this means is that a democracy composed largely of television-watchers is mindless compared to a democracy composed largely of readers.”
 
John Carey, Pure Pleasure, A Guide to the 20th Century’s Most Enjoyable Books