I Predict A Honeymoon
(by Louella Parsons, circa early 1949)
I am as dead certain that Jennifer Jones will be married to the man she loves, David O. Selznick, and that they will be honeymooning in Europe by mid-January, as I am that my new Schiaparelli gown is no bargain sale house dress. I am also certain that the ceremony will be performed in Paris or London and not in the United States.
But when I put the question direct to the hazel-eyed girl in the smart Dior blouse and skirt having coffee across the table from me, the answer came softly: "I don't know Louella. I honestly don't know. But when I do, I promise I'll tell you."
If I had spent my good time with any other actress without getting a more definite answer to a question intriguing all Hollywood I might have been thoroughly irritated. But, strangely enough for Parsons, the-get-the-story-out-of-'em-if-it-takes-all-night-gal, I was not.
The unspoken things I sense and know about this romance make me realize that Jennifer Jones could no more come out and tell me she is planning to marry her boss and mentor than a lady of royal court would think of announcing marriage plans to a King or a Prince of the realm.
If ever a woman idealized and idolized a man, Jennifer does David. She believes he is a King with a capital K and I must admit she is not alone in her high respect for him. David's ex-father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer, has told me that he considers David is touched with genius.
To the girl who loves him - he is a god, controlling not only her career but her life, her laughter and even her tears. In the long time they have been in love, it has not always been happy for her. It never is for women who give their hearts to brilliant and erratic men. But I think she had rather be miserable with David than happy with any other man.
Oh, she will talk freely about how wonderful David has been to her, what a fine boss he is and how she feels about what he has done for her career as well as the career of every other actor and actress under contract to him.
"He is the most wonderful man I have ever known," she told me the afternoon we met at my home. "He is so instinctively right about everything. His mind is so brilliant - so searching. David never loans out actors under contract to him for pictures he doesn't believe in himself. Money doesn't mean that much to him."
I smiled to myself, thinking how different is her reaction from a certain other actress once under contract to David. This lady had said, "It's nice to work for Selznick - but I'd rather work for myself and keep the money." I did not, however, put this interpretation before my guest.
It had taken a bit of doing to arrange our appointment. Not that Jennifer was hard to get. She had been surprisingly cooperative for a girl who has a reputation for dodging interviews. But a previous appointment had had to be cancelled because I had to bow out after a hot news story and couldn't keep my date with her. By the time we set another appointment, it was twenty-four hours before Jennifer was due to leave town on the first lap of a Veteran's Hospital tour. Therefore, when we finally got together, it was later in the afternoon and a little on the hurried side.
When she came in, I thought she looked extremely rested and fresh for an actress who has been a solid year on one picture - I mean, of course, "Portrait of Jennie."
Her Dior outfit was simplicity itself, consisting of a black jersey blouse and a full red skirt adorned by a wide black belt. When I commented on how chic it was, she laughed easily and said with the enthusiasm of a schoolgirl, "I'm clothes crazy. I admit it." I think she would have liked to stay on the subject of clothes for a long time. It's such a nice safe subject. But I had other ideas. Her approaching marriage, particularly.
She must have sensed this because one of the first things she said after we had settled down over our cups of coffee was: "You know, I'm sure, how I have been criticized for not talking to the press and answering every question hurled at me? Well, that is not because I want to be difficult, or to make it hard on reporters whose job it is to get stories about me. Once a girl has decided to become an actress or a public figure, she has no right to object to questions. An actress certainly must answer questions once a reporter gets to her.
"You mean by not granting interviews you save yourself and the reporter embarrassment, Jennifer?" I asked.
"Exactly," she went on. "Many things in my life I am not free to discuss because they involve other people. I am willing at all times to answer questions limited solely to me, to my work, to my individual plans. But, it is neither fair nor honest to talk about situations involving other people's lives. For this reason alone it has been necessary for me to fight for privacy even though I know if has antagonized many people."
I'll say this for Jennifer, she has fought for her privacy in the right way and not gone out of her way to put on silly publicized dodges they way Greta Garbo and a few others have done. Jennifer has done her best to go about her private life as quietly as possible. She does not attend a premiere on stage or screen and then make a big to-do hiding her face from cameramen. She doesn't attend in the first place.
No press agents heralds her train or plane arrivals to the press only to have her do a marathon race getting away from reporters. She slips in and out of town, usually accompanied by her two sons Bobby and Michael, age seven and eight respectively, as inconspicuously as any housewife.
Those two boys are one subject she will talk about and with pride, I assure you. "I'm never going to take the boys to Europe again," she said. "It's just not right. Even though I had a tutor for them in Switzerland, they lost too much time from their studies and got too far way from their normal routines. I wish you could see them in their uniforms. I've sent them to the Black Fox Military Academy this year, you know."
While I had been talking with Jennifer on the phone arranging our date I had been able to hear the childish voice of one of the little boys in the background calling, "Mommy, Mommy," In her gentle, calm way she answered, "Bobby, dear, I'm talking to Miss Parsons right now, won't you please wait?" To her two young sons this glamorous girl is just "Mommy", someone to have her skirts tugged at and to be cajoled into letting them do as they please.
To other people, she is many different things. I have heard it said of her that she is brilliant, intelligent and an artist. Men who have directed her have called her a wonderful actress. A few catty women have termed her "plenty smart". Others say she is more a girl deeply in love than anything else.
Not many people know that Jennifer has actually known David for seven years. He first saw her as Phyllis Isley at his New York office when she read for him for the lead in "Claudia". With his usual farsightedness, he signed her to a contract but kept her under wraps for two years while she studied quietly at a dramatic school.
They were not in love then. During this time David was deeply interested in Nancy Kelly, beautiful redhead, but he had not yet obtained his freedom from Irene Selznick, the chic daughter of Louis B. Mayer, who has made such an overwhelming success as the producer of "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway. Never can it be said in truth that Jennifer came between Irene and David. When she arrived in Hollywood, she was very much married to Robert Walker. Their two sons were babies and she and Bob were trying their best to get a foothold.
Long before there was any thought of a romance between her and David, she and Bob separated. It is true they went back together again when she felt Bob needed her - but the rift between them was too great to be bridged permanently.
Jennifer never talks about Walker, but I happen to know that when he was in trouble recently, she was greatly concerned. Bob has always been highly strung and extremely nervous, so it is not fair, after their long separation, to blame his front page antics on her. I had heard that she had a long talk with hi after his trouble and begged him for the sake of their children to take hold of himself. But this can only be told as a rumor.
Jennifer has never discussed what broke up their home. Perhaps it was too much ambition under one roof. Fame happened very suddenly to these babes in the Holly-woods. The quick ascent of the girl he had married, Jennifer Jones, Academy Award star of "Song of Bernadette," her first important picture was a big problem for both of them. I believe that Jennifer's feeling for Bob was, and is, a maternal one. Her love for David is the consuming love a woman gives to the big love of her life.
To me, Jennifer is "all woman" which has made it possible for her to put her love for David above any heights she might reach as a star. I honestly believe that if David asked her to give up her career tomorrow, she would do it. As for David - I have known him since he was a little boy and I am very fond of him. Perhaps, like Jennifer, I am prejudiced - but I can understand how she believes that the man she loves is the only human being in the world upon whose judgment she can rely.
"You know," she told me, "he is so smart. On the stage in La Jolla last summer, I realized I was not quite ready for the role I was playing in "Serena Blandish". But he gave me permission to do it, believing it would help me with my screen roles. And, when I am ready to go into a Broadway show, I know he will encourage me in that too. He has such rare understanding."
I also know something else very nice about David that not even Jennifer knows: When Bob Walker was in such grave trouble, David went to the MGM bosses and asked that he be given a trial, pleading his case. But that is all past history. Far more vital is what lies ahead.
"I have decided against making "Trilby," Jennifer told me. "Instead, I'm leaving soon for Europe to make "Gone To Earth" for David, after "Madame Bovary" is finished. That should be ready to start in mid-January or a little later."
And that is when I am betting that they will be married - either before that picture starts or during production!
I felt like saying she could have a field day collecting a trousseau over there but I changed my mind and said she would certainly enjoy the Paris shops now that she admits she is clothes crazy. "Oh, I bought a lot of clothes in Paris last year," she confessed, "and I love them. But if I could have Charles James's clothes exclusively, I wouldn't ask for any better. He made Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Jr.'s trousseau and it is so lovely."
"Hollywood has changed me in one way," Jennifer laughed. "When I first came here, I wore only black. Now, note my red skirt! But red is not my favorite color. I think I like emerald green and yellows best."
I could see then that the case for more private and intimate subjects was closed. When girls get together and clothes come up for discussion, even talk of marriages and careers goes overboard.
But don't forget, I'm the girl who is betting that the romance of Jennifer and David will be culminated by an important "Mr." and "Mrs." announcement soon.
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(by Louella Parsons, circa early 1949)
I am as dead certain that Jennifer Jones will be married to the man she loves, David O. Selznick, and that they will be honeymooning in Europe by mid-January, as I am that my new Schiaparelli gown is no bargain sale house dress. I am also certain that the ceremony will be performed in Paris or London and not in the United States.
But when I put the question direct to the hazel-eyed girl in the smart Dior blouse and skirt having coffee across the table from me, the answer came softly: "I don't know Louella. I honestly don't know. But when I do, I promise I'll tell you."
If I had spent my good time with any other actress without getting a more definite answer to a question intriguing all Hollywood I might have been thoroughly irritated. But, strangely enough for Parsons, the-get-the-story-out-of-'em-if-it-takes-all-night-gal, I was not.
The unspoken things I sense and know about this romance make me realize that Jennifer Jones could no more come out and tell me she is planning to marry her boss and mentor than a lady of royal court would think of announcing marriage plans to a King or a Prince of the realm.
If ever a woman idealized and idolized a man, Jennifer does David. She believes he is a King with a capital K and I must admit she is not alone in her high respect for him. David's ex-father-in-law, Louis B. Mayer, has told me that he considers David is touched with genius.
To the girl who loves him - he is a god, controlling not only her career but her life, her laughter and even her tears. In the long time they have been in love, it has not always been happy for her. It never is for women who give their hearts to brilliant and erratic men. But I think she had rather be miserable with David than happy with any other man.
Oh, she will talk freely about how wonderful David has been to her, what a fine boss he is and how she feels about what he has done for her career as well as the career of every other actor and actress under contract to him.
"He is the most wonderful man I have ever known," she told me the afternoon we met at my home. "He is so instinctively right about everything. His mind is so brilliant - so searching. David never loans out actors under contract to him for pictures he doesn't believe in himself. Money doesn't mean that much to him."
I smiled to myself, thinking how different is her reaction from a certain other actress once under contract to David. This lady had said, "It's nice to work for Selznick - but I'd rather work for myself and keep the money." I did not, however, put this interpretation before my guest.
It had taken a bit of doing to arrange our appointment. Not that Jennifer was hard to get. She had been surprisingly cooperative for a girl who has a reputation for dodging interviews. But a previous appointment had had to be cancelled because I had to bow out after a hot news story and couldn't keep my date with her. By the time we set another appointment, it was twenty-four hours before Jennifer was due to leave town on the first lap of a Veteran's Hospital tour. Therefore, when we finally got together, it was later in the afternoon and a little on the hurried side.
When she came in, I thought she looked extremely rested and fresh for an actress who has been a solid year on one picture - I mean, of course, "Portrait of Jennie."
Her Dior outfit was simplicity itself, consisting of a black jersey blouse and a full red skirt adorned by a wide black belt. When I commented on how chic it was, she laughed easily and said with the enthusiasm of a schoolgirl, "I'm clothes crazy. I admit it." I think she would have liked to stay on the subject of clothes for a long time. It's such a nice safe subject. But I had other ideas. Her approaching marriage, particularly.
She must have sensed this because one of the first things she said after we had settled down over our cups of coffee was: "You know, I'm sure, how I have been criticized for not talking to the press and answering every question hurled at me? Well, that is not because I want to be difficult, or to make it hard on reporters whose job it is to get stories about me. Once a girl has decided to become an actress or a public figure, she has no right to object to questions. An actress certainly must answer questions once a reporter gets to her.
"You mean by not granting interviews you save yourself and the reporter embarrassment, Jennifer?" I asked.
"Exactly," she went on. "Many things in my life I am not free to discuss because they involve other people. I am willing at all times to answer questions limited solely to me, to my work, to my individual plans. But, it is neither fair nor honest to talk about situations involving other people's lives. For this reason alone it has been necessary for me to fight for privacy even though I know if has antagonized many people."
I'll say this for Jennifer, she has fought for her privacy in the right way and not gone out of her way to put on silly publicized dodges they way Greta Garbo and a few others have done. Jennifer has done her best to go about her private life as quietly as possible. She does not attend a premiere on stage or screen and then make a big to-do hiding her face from cameramen. She doesn't attend in the first place.
No press agents heralds her train or plane arrivals to the press only to have her do a marathon race getting away from reporters. She slips in and out of town, usually accompanied by her two sons Bobby and Michael, age seven and eight respectively, as inconspicuously as any housewife.
Those two boys are one subject she will talk about and with pride, I assure you. "I'm never going to take the boys to Europe again," she said. "It's just not right. Even though I had a tutor for them in Switzerland, they lost too much time from their studies and got too far way from their normal routines. I wish you could see them in their uniforms. I've sent them to the Black Fox Military Academy this year, you know."
While I had been talking with Jennifer on the phone arranging our date I had been able to hear the childish voice of one of the little boys in the background calling, "Mommy, Mommy," In her gentle, calm way she answered, "Bobby, dear, I'm talking to Miss Parsons right now, won't you please wait?" To her two young sons this glamorous girl is just "Mommy", someone to have her skirts tugged at and to be cajoled into letting them do as they please.
To other people, she is many different things. I have heard it said of her that she is brilliant, intelligent and an artist. Men who have directed her have called her a wonderful actress. A few catty women have termed her "plenty smart". Others say she is more a girl deeply in love than anything else.
Not many people know that Jennifer has actually known David for seven years. He first saw her as Phyllis Isley at his New York office when she read for him for the lead in "Claudia". With his usual farsightedness, he signed her to a contract but kept her under wraps for two years while she studied quietly at a dramatic school.
They were not in love then. During this time David was deeply interested in Nancy Kelly, beautiful redhead, but he had not yet obtained his freedom from Irene Selznick, the chic daughter of Louis B. Mayer, who has made such an overwhelming success as the producer of "A Streetcar Named Desire" on Broadway. Never can it be said in truth that Jennifer came between Irene and David. When she arrived in Hollywood, she was very much married to Robert Walker. Their two sons were babies and she and Bob were trying their best to get a foothold.
Long before there was any thought of a romance between her and David, she and Bob separated. It is true they went back together again when she felt Bob needed her - but the rift between them was too great to be bridged permanently.
Jennifer never talks about Walker, but I happen to know that when he was in trouble recently, she was greatly concerned. Bob has always been highly strung and extremely nervous, so it is not fair, after their long separation, to blame his front page antics on her. I had heard that she had a long talk with hi after his trouble and begged him for the sake of their children to take hold of himself. But this can only be told as a rumor.
Jennifer has never discussed what broke up their home. Perhaps it was too much ambition under one roof. Fame happened very suddenly to these babes in the Holly-woods. The quick ascent of the girl he had married, Jennifer Jones, Academy Award star of "Song of Bernadette," her first important picture was a big problem for both of them. I believe that Jennifer's feeling for Bob was, and is, a maternal one. Her love for David is the consuming love a woman gives to the big love of her life.
To me, Jennifer is "all woman" which has made it possible for her to put her love for David above any heights she might reach as a star. I honestly believe that if David asked her to give up her career tomorrow, she would do it. As for David - I have known him since he was a little boy and I am very fond of him. Perhaps, like Jennifer, I am prejudiced - but I can understand how she believes that the man she loves is the only human being in the world upon whose judgment she can rely.
"You know," she told me, "he is so smart. On the stage in La Jolla last summer, I realized I was not quite ready for the role I was playing in "Serena Blandish". But he gave me permission to do it, believing it would help me with my screen roles. And, when I am ready to go into a Broadway show, I know he will encourage me in that too. He has such rare understanding."
I also know something else very nice about David that not even Jennifer knows: When Bob Walker was in such grave trouble, David went to the MGM bosses and asked that he be given a trial, pleading his case. But that is all past history. Far more vital is what lies ahead.
"I have decided against making "Trilby," Jennifer told me. "Instead, I'm leaving soon for Europe to make "Gone To Earth" for David, after "Madame Bovary" is finished. That should be ready to start in mid-January or a little later."
And that is when I am betting that they will be married - either before that picture starts or during production!
I felt like saying she could have a field day collecting a trousseau over there but I changed my mind and said she would certainly enjoy the Paris shops now that she admits she is clothes crazy. "Oh, I bought a lot of clothes in Paris last year," she confessed, "and I love them. But if I could have Charles James's clothes exclusively, I wouldn't ask for any better. He made Mrs. William Randolph Hearst Jr.'s trousseau and it is so lovely."
"Hollywood has changed me in one way," Jennifer laughed. "When I first came here, I wore only black. Now, note my red skirt! But red is not my favorite color. I think I like emerald green and yellows best."
I could see then that the case for more private and intimate subjects was closed. When girls get together and clothes come up for discussion, even talk of marriages and careers goes overboard.
But don't forget, I'm the girl who is betting that the romance of Jennifer and David will be culminated by an important "Mr." and "Mrs." announcement soon.
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