Hedda Hopper was a horrible human being. A failed actress, Hopper found her true calling in life when she started writing 'Hedda Hopper's Hollywood' for the Los Angeles Times in 1938, which was devoted to making the world a worse place. Seriously, she was a comicbook supervillain. Among the many people she victimized in her column were Charlie Chaplin, Joseph Cotten, Cary Grant and Joan Bennett.
Above is a clipping from the Waukesha Daily Freeman in February, 1950, describing Bennett's "gift" of a skunk to Hopper on Valentine's Day. It doesn't mention if the animal was alive or dead, but I suspect Hopper devoured it whole, regardless. The clipping is short, but contains toxic levels of Bitch. One of my testicles crawled into my body the first time I read it.
(Note: Bennett confirmed this story in her memoirs, "The Bennett Playbill.")
5 comments:
I'll bet you know who Hedda Hopper's son was, don't you? (no, not Dennis)
It was the actor from Perry Mason, right? The guy who played Paul Drake?
Yup! Kenneth Hopper. Also played Natalie Wood's dad in "Rebel Without a Cause" and horrible Rhoda Penmark's dad in "The Bad Seed."
This is odd---Wikipedia reports that it was Joan FONTAINE that sent her a skunk. Who writes Wikipedia anyway? Unless Joan Fontaine ALSO sent her a skunk?
It was Joan who sent her the skunk, and in turn, Hedda named it "Joan"!
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