Debbie Reynolds has co-written a memoir about her long Hollywood career. The book is called Make ’Em Laugh: Short-Term Memories Of Longtime Friends and it’s out November 10th on Amazon. Over the weekend, the Daily Mail had some excerpts from the memoir and if you like vintage Hollywood gossip plus a dash of vintage royal gossip, this may be the book for you. Debbie Reynolds once got goosed by the Duke of Edinburgh! And she knows how Richard Burton and Jean Simmons once had an affair behind Jean’s husband’s back. Some assorted stories:
The Prince Philip story: “The comedian Bob Hope was a friend of mine, so I was happy to take part in a special event to celebrate his 82nd birthday. Because he’d been born in England, this took place in London in 1985. And that’s when I got groped by the Queen’s husband…At the end of the show at the Lyric Theatre, Prince Philip came on-stage to honour Bob for his many achievements, and we all joined him for the curtain call. The Queen hadn’t come along that evening, which may explain what happened to me next. I chatted with Prince Philip a bit after the show and spoke to him again at the reception. He was very charming. He put one arm around my waist, then held my hand. Almost immediately, he was holding more than my hand. He caressed my backside. I had heard that he was famous for his ‘admiration’ of the ladies, but I didn’t expect him to be handling my booty. As handsome as Prince Philip is, I wasn’t sure if he was making a pass or just exercising some royal rights to squeeze the foreigners.”
Bobby Kennedy did the same thing: “Once, [the U.S. Attorney General] Robert Kennedy made a similar move on me while we were dancing — but his grope was less charming than the royal one.”
Shirley MacLaine was a sex goddess: “Shirley MacLaine was a sex goddess. All the boys who kissed the actress, on-screen and off, said she was the best. Her brother, Warren Beatty, also excelled in this department, having dated many of the world’s most beautiful women.”
Regrets: “A few years ago, a reporter asked me if I had any regrets. Aside from the obvious ones — my bad choices in husbands — I told him that I wished I’d had more sex.”
Vintage Hollywood gossip: “Jean Simmons once had a fling with Richard Burton while her husband, Stewart Granger, slept upstairs in their bedroom. MGM was abuzz with gossip about this, so everyone knew that Burton had climbed through the basement window to meet Jean.”
Some of the stories are probably just for those people who know a lot about Old Hollywood, like the people who constantly watch TCM. I’m one of those people, but even I didn’t know that Jean Simmons and Stewart Granger were married AND that Jean Simmons cheated on Granger with Richard Burton. Burton was, as they say, quite the swordsman. Before Elizabeth Taylor, he was known for cutting a wide swath across the London and LA acting communities. As for being man-handled by Prince Philip… well, when he was younger, he was known for having many, many side-pieces. Philip’s type was always supposed to be leggy and blonde though? But he was a randy, inappropriate and gross dude for years. I would imagine that many, many women in England, America, Canada, Australia and more have stories about Philip’s wandering hands.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
i adore Debbie Reynolds. star of my favourite film of all time …SINGING IN THE RAIN. love vintage gossip. it was always more scandalous than the stuff we hear these days. andone who thinks they were more moral will be in the market for a bridge.
I agree, I love her as well. I also adore “Singing In The Rain” and it is up there with “Sabrina” as one of my favorite vintage movies.
I remember Reynolds saying once in an interview, how she worked extremely hard to keep up her dancing skills along side her co-stars, “perfectionist” Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor. I think she did a great job.
So much trivial about the making of that film.
Apparently Gene Kelly made her rehearse for so long for the ‘good morning’ dance sequence that her feet bled.
Also, apparently he was really ill when he shot ‘singing in the rain’ song/dance number with a fever and high temperature.
And also the only way they could make the ‘rain’ show up on camera was to add milk to the water.
And despite seeing it over and over, the scene where the ‘director’ character is trying to get “lena Lamont’ to speak into the hidden microphone still makes me howl with laughter.
My favorite movie too!! Gene K had to be forced to accept Debbie for the movie, but I can’t imagine anyone else in the role.
I read that Donald O’Connor and she talked years later about the movie and she mentioned how angry Gene used to get with Donald. He finally told her that Gene was frustrated with her but knew she would cry so he told Donald he would take it out on him.
I wonder at what point the queen and prince Phillip stopped sleeping together. Their youngest is Edward right? So i guess whatever age he is. She must have cringed every time he came near her knowing what he was up to but she had to shut up, and Philip knew this.. so he carried on regardless.
Men really are gross though… i happen to think that every man behaves like this if he has the opportunity/access and if his wife/girlfriend isn’t around.
Lou,
First off, not every man is highly charged sexually. A lot are like Al Bundy, they enjoy the idea of women but generally prefer just to be left alone to drink beer and watch tv (or play video games or whatever). Second, until recently, both men and women were oppressed by societal expectations of monogamy before love. Both genders do better if they have a chance to explore their sexuality before settling down. But, yes , women in general are more discreet/ less ass-grabby.
She is the Queen not Michelle Duggar, she never had to shut up. If she didn’t want him there he could have quietly been moved to his own estate. From what I read the Queen was madly in love in with him regardless of what he did.
Every man does not sexually harass women when their significant other isn’t around.
She was the Queen back in the time when a queen being divorced just wasn’t gonna happen, so yeah, she had to shut up. Do you not remember the stink caused by Prince Charles divorcing, and that was in the 90s when the world and it’s mother knew that he and Diana loathed each other and were having affairs. Maybe it was easier for her because she understood that a man wasn’t going to be happy with just one woman for the rest of his life. Like the Kennedys, cheating was rampant in her family and social circle. Maybe she was otherwise pre-occupied with her job.
But if she was madly in love with him then it must have hurt twice as bad to know he was screwing around.
I know not all men do, i said those with opportunity and access to women – movie stars, models, socialites etc are gonna screw around if they get half the chance. John Smith who works in Cost Co might not (but probably would if he got half a chance) Might as well be realistic.
Lou
Aren’t there any female employees at Costco for John Smith to mess around with?
Lack of access isn’t even a thing (well, maybe in Saudi Arabia). Anyone, male or female, can find someone to cheat with if that’s their goal.
The #1 reason for not cheating is that a pizza/Netflix/sex with your loved one night sounds like more fun.
Riiiight, because John Smith who works in CostCo has the same access and opprtunity as Prince Phillip who has people to arrange it ninja styles, to collect whoever is his pick of the day, smuggle her into a hotel or a side door in the palace – all Phil had to do was show up, get his rocks off and leave, knowing his side piece would be briefed on what not to say.
A lot of people WANT to cheat, but they just don’t always have the balls to do it because they are afraid of getting caught. Obviously Phillip didn’t have that issue and was VERY hands on with very famous women in public.
You are missing my point
My goodness, Lou, you must have been very badly hurt to think that all men are gross or want to have sex with every woman they see when their wives are gone. That’s really sad.
Hhaha, no, just not naive
I love how Debbie never held a grudge against Elizabeth Taylor for ‘stealing’ her husband. All too often the men are forgiven and the women are branded as whores and marriage wreckers. They remained friends, and genuinely good friends. Even Debbie’s daughter was close with Liz!
she admitted that the marriage was completely dead by the time ET took him away. it was all PR and ego. she wasn’t hurt as much as was portrayed, but she played the game because it had to be done.
Liz and Debbie were the ones who emerged unscathed. Debbie had her ‘good girl’ image solidified and while Elizabeth didn’t avoid criticism it seemed to add to her mystique and didn’t harm her personality. But Eddie (who was a bit of a creep anyway) never recovered.
Didn’t Carrie Fisher once say that she was grateful to LT for getting that bastard Eddie Fisher out of her life? Maybe it was another one of the Fisher kids. I love Debbie Reynolds.
ET didn’t ‘take’ him. That’s the type of attitude i am talking about. You can’t steal somebody’s husband. They leave because they want to and if it’s not Liz Taylor it will be whoever else they can get. When are people gonna wise up to that?
Lou: of course people can’t be ‘taken’, BUT!! in this case, Debbie AND Carrie described the situation as Eddie being ‘taken’ in a scenerio where he wasn’t missed, and they were glad he was gone to become someone else’s problem.
The PR of his leaving *was* a problem, and especially leaving Debbie, the good girl, for the goddess that was ET. Debbie admits that between her and the studio, they played the ‘wronged, abandoned wife’ trope to maximum effect for her career when the truth was completely different and she was glad that he was gone.
Great stuff. Anyone who likes old Hollywood gossip should listen to the You Must Remember This podcast. It’s got such awesome info.
I am addicted to that podcast! Karina is amazing. The newest episode on the “Hollywood fixer” for MGM was jaw dropping.
Debbie is one of the last of that age. An age of Hollywood that gets far too romanticized, but that is sooooo fascinating.
Off to Amazon to my copy! Old school scandalrama.
Great book title! THAT is how you name a dishy Hollywood memoir.
Haha, and to think, Jean Simmons had such refined air about her. I’ve always seen her as the stereotypical “good girl.”
They were all at it, good for her.
The Simmons/Burton affair isn’t new news but that’s a nice detail about him sneaking in the window of the basement while Granger was upstairs! Yowza! That could’ve been very awkward. Though Granger was a cheater too so maybe it would’ve been a ‘we’re all consenting adults here’ scenario.
it”s a good thing the studios kept such tight a lid on the PR of stars because they were ALL at it.
ET didn’t care as much about her public image as people like Debbie Reynolds who was vicious in the lengths she went to portray herself, with studio collusion, as the good girl.
I know! I’ve been listening to an old Hollywood podcast, and I’m blown away by all the affairs, scandals, etc, and how small that world was, all the overlapping relationships and marriages.
Many years ago, I knew a guy who worked for Scotland Yard in London. They were doing a raid on a “Gentleman’s Club” one night, and who should come lurching out of one of the bedrooms in a silk dressing gown, but Phil the Greek. It was all hushed up of course, but this sort of behaviour has long been countenanced by the BRF, and the aristocracy in general. I guess now he is in his dotage, and the narrative has changed, so that Phil is now described as the faithful old consort. None of this stuff is new it seems.
Love vintage gossip. My mother kept a bunch of 1950s clippings (mostly color photos from movie magazines) she collected as a teenager and I studied it well enough to remember Stewart and Jean were married during that decade.
I remember one early or mid 1950s clipping had small photos of celebrity babies that year, and I think all the parenting couples had broken up by 1960.
Remember there was a huge age gap between Anne and Andrew. Rumor was that HRH and The Prince were not sleeping together during this time span and he was roving far and yon.