Hollywood Gossip

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Nowadays we are used to the most compromising selfies and Facebook and there is very little privacy for so called public persons. This was not the case when Hollywood was set up. One assumed that tinsel town was a sort of Sodom & Gomorrah but one did not know too much detail. All of this changed when Louella Parsons was hired by Hearst because she allegedly supported Hearst’s mistress and protégé Marion Davies. Parsons’ syndicated column for the Los Angeles Examiner and later her Radio Shows reached Millions. No wonder she was instrumental in destroying Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, which was a thinly veiled take on Hearst and Davies. Louella Parsons reigned supreme until 1937, when Louis B. Mayer of MGM and some colleagues decided to have their own provider of gossip in the person of Hedda Hopper who had been a modest actress in silent films.

In 1938 she started her own column in the Los Angeles Times under the title of Hedda Hopper’s Hollywood.
These columnists could make or break the career of an actor, writer or director. Edda Hopper, a staunch conservative, was one of the prime movers in making Charlie Chaplin leave for Europe in 1952.

Directors : Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Production: Wichita Films
Producers: Clara Kuperberg & Julia Kuperberg
Network : OCS
Year : 2016
Running Time : 53 minutes

Casting

Cari Beauchamp
Film Historian

Tony Maietta
Film Historian

Samuel Bernstein
Author of  Mr Confidential