Sara Hamilton's Inside Stuff: January 1961

AROUND TOWN:

Shirley MacLaine always has a wistful lonely air about her which may come from the extended separation from her husband Steve Parker who lives in Japan. It also helps to make Shirley a great wistful-aired actress on the screen…

I was told at Warner’s studio that Connie Stevens and Troy Donahue were so good in Parrish, the kids may be yanked from their TV series to make Suzy Slade

Joan Crawford and her daughter, Christina, are both working on the Twentieth Century-Fox lot. But will it heal the breach between them?

ODDBALL BITS:

No, Jeff Chandler’s white hair did not turn black overnight when he heard his former sweetie Esther Williams may wed Fernando Lamas. Jeff had his hair dyed black for his David, the Outlaw movie and was so fascinated with the bizarre effect, he kept it dark—for a while at least. I prefer Jeff snow white.

Suzy Parker may one day turn out to be Gary Cooper’s stepmother in law if she weds 71-year-old Paul Shields, who is Mr. Cooper’s stepfather.

FADS AND FOIBLES:

Jane Fonda’s gold eye shadow with gold mascara touched to the lash tips have all the copycat younger set looking like gold statuettes…

The town is wild for elaborately beaded gowns, with Doris Day taking all the prizes for that long white beauty she wore in Midnight Lace. What a dream… And again, Doris captured all eyes at the Costumers Ball in her short white gown elaborately scrolled in gold…

CRUSHES:

Frank Sinatra has a new love—the city of San Francisco. Frank is so crazy over the place he’s rented a hideaway apartment near the town’s fascinating Chinatown and plans to spend half his time climbing Nob Hill and looking across the Golden Gate bridge…

BOMBSVILLE:

A bomb was dropped recently by one of the industry’s top directors who said, “Liz Taylor is the most important woman star in the industry today. Liz is the one woman star who can command and receive $1,000,000 in salary plus percentages. Liz is the only femme star who can bring a studio head to his knees while snubbing him outright. And no matter what one may think of her personally, she’s the one actress who can be counted on to give a performance worthy of an Academy Award nomination. And her male counterpart? Brando,” he said and quickly left.

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