Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

The Hollywood Book of Breakups
The Hollywood Book of Breakups
The Hollywood Book of Breakups
Ebook680 pages9 hours

The Hollywood Book of Breakups

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

Read preview

About this ebook

"Half of all marriages end in divorce--and then there are the really unhappy ones."
--Joan Rivers

Do you suppose that the person who first said "Life is stranger than fiction" might have had Hollywood marriages in mind? Why watch a romantic film starring a leading man and a leading lady when their real-life romances are so much more interesting? It seems that a celebrity's latest film can have a considerably longer life span in the theater than his or her marriage du jour.

One would almost think that Tinseltown has come to embrace divorce as an accepted pastime. Some celebrities have seemingly collected spouses over the years, systematically adding notches in their belts of divorces. Cases in point: Zsa Zsa Gabor (nine), Lana Turner (eight), Elizabeth Taylor (nine), and Mickey Rooney (eight). This list appears to make Jennifer Lopez a mere novice with only three marriages, two divorces, and one terminated engagement to date.

In The Hollywood Book of Breakups, James Robert Parish looks at scores of hot Hollywood romances that eventually fell apart. From the decade-long union of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman to the "just-for-show" nuptials of Rock Hudson and Phyllis Gates to the four-and-a-half-year marriage of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston to the "other woman" divorce of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Parish covers it all--from the burning embers to the fizzling fires of Hollywood breakups. You couldn't make this stuff up--and James Robert Parish doesn't need to. Hollywood writes its own drama when it comes to scandalous breakups.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateDec 20, 2010
ISBN9781118040676
The Hollywood Book of Breakups
Author

James Robert Parish

James Robert Parish is the author of dozens of books about Hollywood and show business, including The Hollywood Book of Death, Fiasco: A History of Hollywood's Iconic Flops, and biographies of many celebrities, including Mel Brooks, Whitney Houston, and Jason Biggs.

Read more from James Robert Parish

Related to The Hollywood Book of Breakups

Related ebooks

Performing Arts For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Hollywood Book of Breakups

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5

1 rating0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    The Hollywood Book of Breakups - James Robert Parish

    Introduction

    It’s a pretty mean town. To think that people care about you in Hollywood or that there’s reciprocity [is to] buy the lie. Many of my friends left me—I can’t get into screenings [anymore]. It was unreal. . . . I miss screenings. I miss my marriage. But I don’t miss Hollywood.

    —Sandra Zober Nimoy, who was wed to actor Leonard Nimoy for 33 years before their 1987 divorce

    On many levels, marriages among Hollywood notables often have been mile-stones in unreality. In a town famous for conspicuous consumption, surface glitter, and ongoing battles to outdo one’s peers, celebrity nuptials frequently have turned into fierce competitions to make the occasion the most elaborate and expensive in the film community’s remarkable history. Being married in an outlandishly grand style—and being united with a person of great wealth, industry importance, and remarkable attractiveness—has long been the goal in Tinseltown.

    Little wonder then that over the decades so many of these superficially perfect unions have (quickly) fallen apart, leading to divorce. However, as with so much in a show business luminary’s life, even the divorce often became a manic race to make it the town’s most spectacular, colorful event. This often included hiring the most prestigious legal representation, embarrassing one’s (ex) mate as dramatically as possible, taking one’s significant other to the cleaners, grabbing custody of the children, and having one’s high-priced publicists spin the public’s perception of the marital dissolution to make the other party look foolish and/or vindictive—and at fault.

    Also to be taken into account in movie star breakups is the public’s attitude, over the years, to Tinseltown morality.

    When moviemaking became one of Hollywood’s primary industries in the early 20th century, the community was renowned for its avant-garde lifestyle, in which the morality code was usually—like it or not—out of step with the rest of the country. Because the film business’s leading forces were so wealthy, powerful, cosmopolitan, and self-indulgent, they mostly did not feel bound by the more conservative conventions of their times. Many show business celebrities felt they could ignore the moral standards of the day, as long as they did not flaunt their behavior too publicly. In other words, the Hollywood crowd believed they had carte blanche to indulge in affairs, which might or might not become known publicly. If a celebrity should follow through and wed his or her love object of the moment, there was generally little compunction about divorcing him or her if things did not work out satisfactorily. After all, the studio could be counted on to handle the messy details of the breakup, often would cover the expenses of the dissolution, and, most certainly, would have its publicity department present the domestic parting to the public in the best possible way.

    Actually, as far as the public was concerned, members of the movie industry were considered to be artists (creative, temperamental, and impulsive), and fans were generally tolerant of these stars’ romantic whims. If a favorite personality should be involved in repeated courtships, marriages, and divorces, the public was frequently less critical of the person than they would have been of an average person’s similar conduct.

    As the country’s morality guidelines loosened and changed in the later decades of the 20th century, a couple’s living together in sin lost much of its stigma—as did the disgrace of marrying, divorcing, and then repeating the cycle. Thus, in Hollywood, movie notables could live openly with their romantic partners without fear of censure. Moreover, they had the financial where-withal to accommodate a tailor-made domestic setup, without any real concern about economic repercussions if it fell apart and required purchasing other living quarters. In these more liberal times, if the celebrity decided to wed his or her lover, there was no disgrace in getting divorced if the couple became unhappy with each other. In fact, in a bizarre way, being married (and divorced) a dramatic number of times in Hollywood became sort of a status symbol that the public found chic, amusing, and, often, fascinating. (Winners in the number of walks down the marriage aisle included Zsa Zsa Gabor and Jennifer O’Neill at nine times, with runners-up Elizabeth Taylor, Mickey Rooney, and Lana Turner at eight times.)

    003

    As with all aspects of the lifestyles of celebrities, romantic successes and failures provided colorful fodder for the media. The latter knew that the public would vicariously relish details about their favorites indulging their lust and amours in the most luxurious ways, with little thought to what might happen thereafter. Should a celebrity try to keep that portion of his or her life private, the public was titillated when the press and paparazzi revealed fresh tidbits of the notable’s secretive romantic life. (Nowadays what would a celebrity wedding be like without media helicopters perched overhead to grab photos of the high-security event and report on all that they saw?)

    004

    In the history of Hollywood there have been many lengthy marriages that became models of positive partnerships. Some past examples—which ended only upon the death of one of the partners—include James Cagney and Frances Bill Vernon (1922-1986), George Burns and Gracie Allen (1926-1964), Joel McCrea and Frances Dee (1933-1969), Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy (1942-1994), Eddie Albert and Margo (1945-1985), Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis (1952-2004), and Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft (1964-2005). Current long-lasting couples in the Hollywood community include Kirk Douglas and Anne Buydens (married 1954), Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara (married 1954), Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward (married 1958), Bob Newhart and Virginia Quinn (married 1965), and Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson (married 1988).

    While such enduring marital unions provide admirable role models for the public, the home lives of these conventional celebrity duos rarely have made exciting media copy and thus largely have remained out of the (tabloid) headlines. For the sake of focusing herein on the more colorful and intriguing love matches from Hollywood’s past and present, these commendable traditional relationships are not detailed within this book.

    005

    Hollywood Breakups includes a selection from various decades of some of Hollywood’s most famous personalities who endured problems (often of their own making) from their grand, this is forever romances. Thanks to oversized egos, inflated bank accounts, and extensive industry influence, these celebrated individuals pursued many different creative options in handling their domestic dissolutions with flair, dispatch, and, often, singular viciousness. As the chapters herein detail, the after-math of the breakup often led the celebrities involved into futures full of unexpected, colorful twists and turns.

    This, then, is the extravagant world of Hollywood Breakups.

    Loni Anderson vs. Burt Reynolds

    I didn’t want to get out of it [i.e., the marriage]; I wanted it to work. . . . [But] I felt like I was emotionally shut down in the lust department; the switch was in the off position. It had nothing to do with wanting anyone else. I didn’t. I didn’t want, period.

    —Loni Anderson

    I’m terrified of marriage. I’m terrified of not doing something so important . . . and at the same time I think you shouldn’t rush into these things.

    —Burt Reynolds

    In the early 1990s, Hollywood show business spawned a rash of astonishing scandals. They involved such diverse personalities as Woody Allen and love mate Mia Farrow, alleged Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss and her mysterious client book full of celebrity names, and megastar singer Michael Jackson, who made global headlines when he was accused of child molestation.

    Rounding out the media circus of the mid-1990s was the Burt Reynolds-Loni Anderson divorce caper. What made this escapade so riveting to onlookers was that both parties—Reynolds in particular—chose to air their dirty (or at least soiled) laundry quite openly. In their ongoing battle for public sympathy and a favorable financial settlement, the couple made the public a participant in their messy conflict.

    006

    SHE was born Loni Kaye Anderson on August 5, 1946 (some sources say 1945), in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the first of two daughters of Klaydon and Maxine (Kallin) Anderson. (Klaydon was a furniture salesman who later joined his dad’s chemical plant business.) Loni grew up in an Ozzie and Harriet-type household in which the family was extremely involved with the local Resurrection Lutheran Church.

    In 1964, Loni, who had been attending the University of Minnesota, married Bruce Hasselbert. He was the brother of a co-contestant of Loni’s in the Miss Minnesota beauty pageant, which Loni had entered as a lark. She had known Bruce for only a few weeks. After three months, they divorced. By then, she was pregnant. She moved back home to await the birth of her child (Deidra).

    At loose ends creatively, Loni participated in local regional theater. There she met actor Ross Bickell, whom she wed on January 28, 1974. She convinced her husband that they should move to the West Coast to have better acting opportunities.

    With her outgoing personality and curvaceous figure, Loni won guest assignments on various TV series. Her leap to popularity came when, after dying her brunette hair blond, she was cast as the voluptuous receptionist on the TV sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati (1978-1982). This led to starring parts in such telefeatures as 1980’s The Jayne Mansfield Story.

    As a TV sexpot, Loni became a relatively high-paid celebrity. It was she, rather than her husband, Ross, who was the family’s big wage-earner. This situation strained their marriage to the breaking point. In February 1981, they separated and soon divorced. He went back to doing regional theater in the Midwest.

    It was also in 1981 that Loni first met the facetious playboy/movie star Burt Reynolds, then 45, when they both appeared on Merv Griffin’s TV talk show. It would be nearly a year before Anderson agreed to a date with Reynolds because, as she later explained, I expected a glib ladies’ man, which he’s not.

    007

    HE was born Burton Leon Reynolds Jr. on February 11, 1936, in Waycross, Georgia, the son of Burt and Fern Reynolds. His Native American father had grown up on a Cherokee reservation, and his mother was of Italian descent. Burt Jr. (or Buddy, as he was called) had an older brother, Jim, and a younger sister, Nancy Ann. When Burt was a youngster, his family relocated to Riviera Beach, Florida, where his father eventually became police chief of West Palm Beach. Bored by life in general and his stern father in particular, 15-year-old Burt ran away from home. But he was apprehended by law enforcers in South Carolina, who shipped him back to his parents.

    As a brawny high school junior, Reynolds joined the football squad at West Palm Beach High. Success in this sport gave him a new purpose in life—being a sought-after celebrity. Burt continued his gridiron activity when he went to Florida State University, but physical injuries resulting from an auto crash ruined his potential as a pro ballplayer. Discouraged, he quit college. After working on a horse ranch, he moved to New York City in the mid-1950s.

    In Manhattan, Reynolds turned to acting, taking classes at the Actors Studio. In 1956, he was cast in a stage revival of Mister Roberts. This led to TV parts, including a leading role on the 1959 TV series Riverboat . However, after one season Burt was dropped from the lineup. Additional TV work resulted in a long stint (1962-1966) on Gunsmoke and, still later, starring in Dan August (1970-1971). By then, Reynolds had made his feature film debut in 1961’s Angel Baby. Throughout the decade he played in mostly low-budget actioners such as 1969’s Skullduggery.

    With his good looks and slick personality, Burt had developed into quite a ladies’ man on the Hollywood scene. But on June 28, 1963, he ended his bachelorhood by wedding the British comedian Judy Carne. Their marriage was plagued by her alleged substance abuse and by his success outstripping hers. The couple finalized an acrimonious divorce on October 25, 1966.

    Burt had a major career breakthrough with the 1972 movie Deliverance. That same year he garnered even greater attention as the nude centerfold in an issue of Cosmopolitan magazine. By then, he was dating entertainer Dinah Shore, who was several years his senior. When that relationship fizzled, the flippant, mustached actor made several movies (including 1977’s Smokey and the Bandit) with a new lady-love, Sally Field.

    Reynolds’s once-serious relationship with Field had already deteriorated when he visited Merv Griffin’s TV chat program in 1981.

    Loni Anderson and Burt Reynolds (in advertisement) costarred in Stroker Ace (1983) several years before their April 1988 marriage.

    008009

    THEY: In the months after encountering Reynolds on Merv Griffin’s talk show, Loni completed her run on WKRP in Cincinnati and went on to other TV projects. It was in 1982 that Burt started seriously dating the now-divorced actress. The following year, Burt cast Anderson in his feature Stroker Ace. Besides discovering that he was a quiet, introspective man with very deep emotions, she revered his brand of Southern-style courtship, which included giving her a Rolls-Royce. In 1984, Loni moved into Reynolds’s Spanish-style Holmby Hills, California, home. Thereafter, she sold her Sherman Oaks house.

    In the mid-1980s, Burt’s movie career crash-dived. Not only was he nearing 50, but he was also the victim of temporomandibular joint disorder resulting from a blow to his jaw during filmmaking. It badly affected his balance and sensory perception for over two years before corrective jaw surgery remedied the situation. It also led to his losing a great deal of weight (he dropped from 200 pounds to 138 pounds). Rumors circulated that Reynolds had AIDS, and this made producers fearful of hiring him. When he did find occasional work, it was generally in flops like 1986’s Heat. He did far better with product endorsements and producing TV game shows like Win, Lose or Draw.

    During this extended difficult period, while Loni remained loyally at Burt’s side, she did a new TV series, Easy Street, which lasted barely a season.

    Finally, on April 29, 1988, after six years as one of Hollywood’s most famous unmarried couples, Anderson and Reynolds wed in an elaborate ceremony on Burt’s 160-acre BR Horse Ranch in Jupiter, Florida. The twosome had made a premarital agreement to keep their existing holdings separate from their community property earnings once they wed. (At the time, the groom’s assets were worth over $15 million, while the bride’s were valued at $1.5 million.)

    Later that same year, Loni temporarily abandoned her career to move with Burt to a waterfront compound (Valhalla) in Jupiter. By early 1989, the Reynoldses had adopted an infant, Quinton. Meanwhile, Burt starred in a new TV series, B. J. Stryker. Although it was short-lived, it paved the way for Evening Shade. That TV sitcom debuted in September 1990 and soon enjoyed hit ratings. Meanwhile, Burt earned extra revenue as a TV spokesperson for the Florida Citrus Commission. As for Loni, she had become a grandmother when her daughter gave birth to a baby girl.

    To the public, Burt and Loni’s marriage seemed picture-perfect. Thus, it amazed many folks when, on June 11, 1993, Reynolds’s representative announced that the couple’s union was irretrievably broken. The press release added, although Burt has the highest respect and regard for Miss Anderson, he feels his priorities and hers have become different. At the time, Loni had no comment.

    Supposedly, Anderson learned of the pending split when Reynolds handed her two tickets to Los Angeles and angrily told her to take Quinton and get off his property. Loni returned to Los Angeles with her son and prepared for her new full-time role on the TV series Nurses. Reynolds, on the other hand, remained in Florida editing a TV movie he had produced, starred in, and directed.

    Within days of this surprise domestic breakup, much of the media were angling for exclusives from anyone who might conceivably know anything about the beleaguered celebrity couple. Onlookers jumped forward with evidence of longtime strain in the high-profile marriage. It was said that Loni or Burt or both were having affairs, that Reynolds was moody, and that Anderson was desperate to get her career back on track. Some insiders insisted that Burt was a loving father and Loni a negligent mother. Others countered that the reverse was the case.

    The Reynoldses’ British servants suggested that it was Burt’s extreme involvement in every aspect of Evening Shade that caused the marriage to deteriorate. One of Reynolds’s football-player buddies, who was trying for an acting/singing career, alleged that Loni once tried to seduce him. According to gossip, Burt and Loni had been husband and wife in name only for well over a year, and he was furious that she had taken on a new TV series rather than be a traditional mother.

    Then Burt went public with an exclusive story to a national tabloid explaining why he was divorcing Loni. The piece was couched in self-serving humility to gain the public’s sympathy. Later, an angry Burt confessed to the media that his marriage was an empty shell and that he had been having an affair for two years with Pam Seals, a Tampa, Florida, cocktail waitress. The actor also suggested that Loni should undergo a truth serum test to reveal exactly how many affairs she may have had during their time together.

    In Reynolds’s ongoing public volley against Anderson, he questioned her excessive spending habits and her supposed extreme self-involvement. During this contentious period, there were constant fresh revelations about the battling duo. As matters progressed, Reynolds came across increasingly as a self-destructive spoilsport. In contrast, Loni took a relatively low-key approach, remaining silent on some occasions and denying wild allegations on others.

    Unfortunately, the Reynoldses’ son, Quinton, was stuck in the middle—a helpless pawn between his parents. (On July 19, 1993, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge awarded Loni full temporary custody, with Burt to have restricted visiting hours.)

    When Loni demanded a $5 million property and support settlement, Burt shared his financial situation with the world. He explained that his chain of Po’ Folks restaurants had gone bankrupt, his real estate holdings had greatly devalued in the current recession, and much of his assets were tied up in artwork and heavily mortgaged real estate. Moreover, he admitted that the Florida Citrus Commission had dropped him as a spokesperson as a result of the rancorous divorce. Meanwhile, the legal dossiers were piling up in Florida, where Reynolds had filed for divorce, and in California, where Anderson later initiated her own suit.

    By the fall of 1993, Reynolds was back working on Evening Shade and had leased a home not far from the Studio City set. Anderson was starring in Nurses and was launching a line of skin-care products. She was still based in the 15,000-square-foot house on a two-acre Bel-Air estate that she and Burt had been leasing since 1990.

    Anderson now told the press that she hoped to put the nasty divorce mess into perspective. Anderson’s gradual emotional comeback was aided by Geoffrey Brown, 44, a Los Angeles attorney whom she met in February 1993 when he handled a legal matter for her. The couple began dating quietly in the late summer of 1993, and by that fall, she and Brown, himself once married and divorced, were a steady item in public.

    By mid-October 1993, Reynolds had calmed down, even apologizing—publicly, of course—for his extremely bad handling of the split, especially his tasteless, snide accusations about Anderson on TV’s Good Morning America. Seeking public support, he asked (on TV, naturally), Don’t I get any credit for the other fifty-seven years where I didn’t do any of that? Where I gave millions of dollars back [to publishers] because I wouldn’t dish any dirt [on past girlfriends]? (Evidently, the star had further thoughts on that matter, because he wrote 1994’s My Life, his tell-all memoir. Loni published her life story, My Life in High Heels, in 1995.)

    In late 1993, Anderson and Reynolds had their first face-to-face talk since their split. The get-together had been court-ordered to work out the basics of their divorce settlement. The meeting ended with Reynolds storming out of the conference room. By now Loni was claiming that her marriage to Reynolds had cost her millions of dollars in lost acting jobs in order to be with him.

    Then, like so many earthquakes, the Reynolds-Anderson furor suddenly abated. Shortly before their scheduled January 26, 1994, court hearing in Stuart, Florida, the sparring ex-mates reached an amicable settlement. Burt would give Loni $1.9 million to purchase a new home, plus about $300,000 from the sale of their summer residence in Highlands, North Carolina. While she was to have custody of son Quinton, Burt was allowed full visitation rights. (Reynolds was also to pay 60% of Loni’s legal fees, plus substantial child support.) Said one of Loni’s attorneys, She’s basically getting out what she brought into the marriage, and that’s fine. She wants to get on with her life.

    As for Reynolds, who had been depressed about the death of longtime pal Dinah Shore (on February 24, 1994), he had another letdown. His romance with Pam Seals fell apart under the strain of his bitter divorce. However, the relationship was later (temporarily) resuscitated. Meanwhile, the pressure of Reynolds’s complex private life caused him to become volcanic on the Evening Shade set, and for a time he threatened to quit the show. The matter became academic when the show was canceled in May 1994.

    In this same period, a far luckier Anderson received thousands of letters of support from fans, and she purchased a $2.275 million house in the Hollywood Hills. As to her tumultuous experience she said, I feel stronger now. I also feel as if I have found myself again. A self I lost. I feel more complete.

    010

    AFTERWARD: Anderson, who has not remarried, found it difficult in the late 1990s and thereafter to keep her career momentum going. She made TV pilots that did not sell, and her TV sitcom The Mullets barely lasted a season (2003-2004). Reynolds, meanwhile, developed into a well-appreciated character lead, winning an Oscar nomination for 1997’s Boogie Nights. He remained much in demand into the new millennium, appearing in a mix of low-budget and A-level features.

    In what seemed like a mini-replay of his breakup with Loni Anderson, Burt experienced an unpleasant finale to his roller-coaster relationship with Pam Seals. In November 2004, he sued Seals, alleging that she was threatening to accuse him wrongly of abuse if he didn’t pay her several million dollars to desist. The next day she brought legal action against Burt, charging abuse and broken promises. In June 2005, the ugly situation was defused when the adversaries settled out of court.

    It all seemed a case of déjà vu compared to the Burt and Loni marital fiasco a decade earlier.

    Pier Angeli vs. James Dean

    More than either of my husbands—I could think only of Jimmy when I was in bed with them. I could only wish it was Jimmy and not my husband who was next to me.

    —Pier Angeli

    I wouldn’t marry her unless I could take care of her properly. And I don’t think I’m emotionally stable enough to do so right now.

    —James Dean

    Then—and later—many labeled the mid-1950s romance between Pier Angeli and James Dean as a tragic replication of the Romeo and Juliet motif. As in William Shakespeare’s enduring drama, here were two young, highly attractive star-crossed lovers whom fate decreed would never live together happily ever after.

    For the charismatic Dean, who became one of Hollywood’s most memorable icons, his affair with screen star Angeli remains one of the more perplexing chapters in his turbulent, brief life. Like so much else about James’s colorful and ambiguous existence, his personal relationship with Angeli cannot be documented well. Although many who actually knew—or claimed to have associated with—Dean in this period have provided their recollections of this amorous coupling, their facts are often sketchy or contradictory.

    As for Angeli, she was always an exceedingly fanciful and high-strung personality. Much of her public commentary about Dean came years after his 1955 death, when he could not refute any of her statements about the extent and dimensions of their relationship. Moreover, by then her memories of Jimmy were embroidered by nostalgia and the life frustrations that led to her own untimely death.

    011

    SHE was born Anna Maria Pierangeli on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia off the coast of Italy on June 19, 1932, 20 minutes before her twin sister, Maria Luisa. Later, Luigi Pierangeli, a construction engineer, and his wife, Enrica, had a third child, Patrizia. In 1935, the family moved to Rome, where they lived well. Everything changed drastically when World War II erupted and caused the family’s daily life to become a perilous struggle. (Reportedly, Anna Maria was raped by an American soldier when she was fifteen.) After the armistice, Enrica, who had acting ambitions before she married, pushed her two older girls into show business careers—much against her husband’s wishes. As actresses, the twins endured a strict, almost harsh, regimen at the hands of their determined mother.

    At 18, Anna Maria made her screen debut in Domani È Troppo Tardi (1950). After she made a second Italian movie, she was signed by MGM for Teresa (1951), which was filmed in Italy and New York. Studio executives back in Hollywood were so pleased with their new find—now known as Pier Angeli—that she was placed under contract.

    While shooting 1952’s The Devil Makes Three in Italy, Pier reencountered American singer/soldier Vic Damone, who was on leave from his MGM contract. (They had first met briefly in Manhattan in 1950.) At a performance for the troops, he coaxed her into joining him on stage while he sang September Song to the audience. There were obvious romantic sparks between the two. The couple dated for a few months, always chaperoned by her stern mother. Before Vic returned to the United States he asked Pier to marry him. However, her mother disapproved, and that ended the situation—for the time being.

    Around this time, Luigi Pierangeli died. His widow quickly moved to Hollywood with her three children. (By then Pier’s younger sister had also become a film performer, billed as Marisa Pavan.) In the United States, Angeli’s movie assignments were often forgettable. Nevertheless, the demure, sensitive, and beautiful Pier had become a favorite with moviegoers.

    Pier was also popular on the social scene. Among others, the petite performer became involved with divorced movie star Kirk Douglas. At several points, the Angeli-Douglas affair seemed serious. However, Kirk grew tired of coping with the fanciful beauty and wed someone else.

    In the spring of 1954, MGM loaned Pier to Warner Bros. to costar with Paul Newman in The Silver Chalice. One day on the Burbank lot she was introduced to 23-year-old James Dean, then working on East of Eden.

    012

    HE was born James Byron Dean on February 8, 1931, in Marion, Indiana, the only child of Winton and Mildred (Wilson) Dean. His father worked as a dental technician at the local Veterans Administration hospital. In 1936, Winton and his family relocated to southern California when Winton was transferred to a V.A. hospital near Santa Monica. After Mildred Dean died of cancer in July 1940, Jimmy was shipped to Fairmount, Indiana, to live on a farm with his uncle and aunt. Being sent away by his dad so soon after his mom’s passing emotionally scarred the youngster for life. By the time Jimmy was in high school, he was intrigued by acting. Already ambivalent about his sexuality, Dean had an intense rapport with his mentor, Reverend James A. DeWeerd. To balance this bond, Dean chased after a female physical education instructor at Fairmount High School.

    After graduating high school in 1949, Dean returned to Los Angeles, where he enrolled in junior college and stayed with his father and stepmother. The situation was strained, and Jimmy moved out once he transferred to UCLA. By the winter of 1951, he had already appeared on TV and dropped out of school. Often childish, frequently rebellious, and always moody, the good-looking young actor attracted a bevy of male and female admirers, which flattered his fragile ego. He made his big-screen debut with a bit part in 1951’s Fixed Bayonets!

    In October 1951, Jimmy moved to New York City to study stage acting. Among his new friends was Elizabeth Dizzy Sheridan, a dancer and singer. For a spell they shared an intense friendship/romance. Between TV performances and classes at the Actors Studio, Dean made his off-Broadway debut in 1954’s The Immoralist. Already Jimmy was gaining a reputation among the show business crowd as the new Marlon Brando. The mercurial Dean was also well known in his social circles for wearing leather, riding motorcycles, having an affinity for S&M male sex, and impulsively wooing, winning, and dropping women. In April 1954, Warner Bros. signed him to star in East of Eden, which began shooting in central and northern California in late May.

    By mid-June 1954, Jimmy was back in Los Angeles on the Warner Bros. sound stages. One day, between filming scenes for East of Eden, he encountered Paul Newman on the lot. (Newman was making his film debut in The Silver Chalice, a costume epic Dean had rejected.) Newman was talking to two coplayers: Pier Angeli and Joseph Wiseman.

    013

    THEY: Legend has it that Jimmy and Pier’s romance ignited almost instantaneously, especially on Pier’s part. She was intrigued by his resemblance to her past lover Kirk Douglas. She said of Dean, I have never been interested in a boy so young. I have always liked older men. . . . But Jimmy is different. He loves music. He loves it from the heart the way I do. Not to be outdone, Jimmy gushed to reporters, Everything about Pier is beautiful, especially her soul. She doesn’t have to be all gussied up. She doesn’t have to do or say anything. She’s wonderful just as she is. She has a rare insight.

    Before long the two seemed inseparable. He visited her on the Chalice set, and frequently she stopped by the Eden sound stages. (He often referred to her as Maw, and she called him Baby.)

    The hoopla of fan magazine publicity pleased both talents’ home studios. Undisclosed then was that the couple often spent evenings in Jimmy’s Warner Bros. dressing room (where he was living until the picture was completed). Eden’s director, Elia Kazan, was also staying on the lot, in quarters next to Dean’s. Kazan detailed, I could hear them boffing, but more often arguing through the walls.

    James Dean and Pier Angeli make a 1954 appearance at a Hollywood premiere not long before the duo broke off their romance.

    014

    Only years later did Angeli talk about some of her private times with Dean. We used to go to the California coast and stay there secretly in a cottage on a beach far away from all prying eyes. . . . We would talk about ourselves and our problems, about the movies and acting, about life and life after death. . . . Sometimes we would just drive along and stop at a hamburger stand for a meal or go to a drive-in movie. It was all so innocent.

    Enrica Pierangeli, a devout Catholic, was displeased by the growing closeness between Pier and Jimmy. It was not primarily (as was touted back then) that she was upset he was not Catholic. Rather, she wanted her firstborn (the family’s chief breadwinner) to find a stable relationship with a mature individual. She was convinced that Dean was not that person. If anything, this strong parental disapproval only drove the pair closer together. It became a game for them to devise ways to be together far from Mrs. Pierangeli’s vigilant eyes.

    In retrospect, some who knew Dean in this period—such as his agent, Dick Clayton—believed the actor was too career-focused to be as intently interested in Pier as the publicity of the day suggested. Although Pier’s flights of fancy had convinced her that Jimmy was Mr. Right, he more than likely regarded her as just a diverting fling. (He was still seeing others during this time.) Often he found himself suffocated by Angeli’s intense emotions. He noted also, We’re members of totally different castes. She’s the kind of girl you put on a shelf and look at. On the other hand, he was drawn to her vulnerability and angst. These qualities appealed to his dramatic nature.

    By early August 1954, East of Eden had wrapped principal photography. On August 10, Jimmy and Pier attended an A-list screening of Gone With the Wind, which was then going into re-release. Decked out in formal wear, they made a handsome couple. However, in private, their relationship was becoming increasingly shaky. One of the issues of contention between them was Dean’s upcoming return to New York to do a TV project. He was anxious to see old friends and escape the Hollywood lifestyle. Pier worried about his being so far away. He fretted, or so he told others, about losing her to a Tinseltown wolf during his absence.

    On August 27, he flew to New York. While he was away, he and Pier kept in touch by phone. Distance did not prevent the couple from arguing frequently. Meanwhile, she was seen in public with a variety of escorts who ranged from French actor Jacques Sernas to recently divorced cinema star Donald O’Connor. When Jimmy returned to the West Coast in September, he reunited with Pier at Lake Arrowhead. Reportedly, the get-together did not improve the couple’s seesawing relationship. On September 22, Dean attended the premiere of Sabrina with movie actress Terry Moore. A few days later, Jimmy and Pier made up sufficiently to agree to attend together the upcoming Hollywood gala for A Star Is Born. But those plans fell apart.

    A few days thereafter, everything changed for the couple. Pier visited the set of MGM’s Hit the Deck. There she chatted with her pal Debbie Reynolds and the musical’s colead, her old flame Vic Damone. Since coming to the West Coast to complete his studio contract, Damone had remained quietly in touch with Angeli. Publicly, he had dated many eligible women, including escorting Pier’s sister, Marisa, to a few industry functions.

    In short order, Pier and Vic renewed their past romance and, suddenly, decided to marry (despite the fact that Damone was currently seriously dating another woman). On the night before announcing her engagement, she told Dean of her plans. However, she did not name the groom-to-be. Jimmy learned who it was the next day with the rest of the world.

    Putting on a good public front, Jimmy told reporters, I won’t try to pretend I’m not sorry—Pier’s still okay with me. Oh well, maybe she likes his singing. I hope they’ll be happy. Off the record he was supposedly quite upset by the turn of events. He was especially annoyed that Angeli had chosen Damone, for whom Dean had little respect, as her future husband. Soon thereafter, Jimmy fled back to Manhattan.

    015

    AFTERWARD: On November 24, 1954, Pier Angeli and Vic Damone wed. Legend has it that during the ceremony, the angst-ridden James Dean sat teary-eyed on a motorcycle (or car) across the street from St. Timothy’s Catholic Church in Westwood, where the couple were being united.

    Following his much-hyped romance with Angeli, Dean made 1955’s Rebel Without a Cause and 1956’s Giant. During this period, he dated actresses Lili Kardell and Ursula Andress and others. On September 30, 1955, the 24-year-old star was killed in a car accident near Cholame, California.

    As for the Angeli-Damone union, it proved stormy. She gave birth to their son in July 1955 and suffered a miscarriage the next year. His moviemaking career fizzled and hers waned. The couple separated several times before she filed for divorce in November 1958, citing mental cruelty. For years thereafter, the pair battled over custody of their son. In 1962, Pier wed Italian bandleader Armando Trovajoli, with whom she had a son. Their marriage floundered, and the couple separated but never divorced.

    In the 1960s, Pier attempted to revive her once-promising film career. However, she was diverted by her recurrent emotional problems, financial difficulties, and substance abuse. By 1971, she returned to Los Angeles from Europe, hoping to make a professional comeback. On September 10 of that year she was found dead in her modest Beverly Hills apartment. The cause of death was an (accidental) overdose of barbiturates.

    During her troubled last years, a distraught Pier Angeli frequently told the press, I am still in love, deeply and eternally, with Jimmy Dean. She recalled wistfully, We were like kids together and that’s the way we both liked it.

    Jennifer Aniston vs. Brad Pitt

    Everybody always asks if we’re happy. Give me a break. We’re married two years. In Hollywood years, that’s forever.

    —Jennifer Aniston

    There is so much pressure from day one to be with someone forever—and I’m not sure that it really is in our nature to be with something for the rest of our lives. Jen and myself don’t cage each other with this pressure of happily ever after. We work it out as we go along.

    —Brad Pitt

    Lots of money, worldwide fame, great beauty, and a successful career. Add into this mix marrying someone of equal stature, and it should be the recipe for a happy and successful union. This is not always the case, as the broken relationship of Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt proved.

    Brad and Jen—as the media repeatedly reminded us—were the golden couple of the new millennium. When the two physically attractive individuals met in 1998, they were riding high with successful careers. He had been twice voted the Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, and the same publication had ranked Aniston and Pitt among the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World. Their July 2000 nuptials were a lavish, smoothly produced celebration costing $1 million. It seemed they were bound for a happily ever after life together. However, in only four years their romantic fantasy would be shattered.

    016

    SHE was born Jennifer Joanne Aniston on February 11, 1969, in Sherman Oaks, California, the only child of John and Nancy (Dow) Aniston. Her father, born John Anastassakis in Crete, Greece, had emigrated to the United States with his family when he was 10. By the early 1960s, he was living in Los Angeles and had become a TV actor, playing minor roles on segments of various series. One of his good friends was actor Telly Savalas, also the son of Greek immigrants. (Savalas was chosen to be Jennifer’s godfather.) Mrs. Aniston was an actress/model with an occasional feature film credit (1969’s The Ice House). Previously married and divorced, she had a nine-year-old son, John, from that union.

    During Jennifer’s early years, the family struggled for financial survival. When it seemed John had exhausted his career options as an actor, he decided to study medicine. Because he was considered an unlikely candidate by American medical schools, he and his family relocated to Athens, Greece, where he began classroom studies for his new profession. A year later, his agent contacted him about a possible role on the daytime soap opera Love of Life. He won the part, and the Anistons returned to the United States and established their home in New York City.

    Jennifer attended the Rudolph Steiner School, where she displayed an aptitude as an artist. Meanwhile, Mr. Aniston had a new acting assignment. He joined the cast of the daytime drama Search for Tomorrow. By then, he had fallen in love with another soap performer, Sherry Rooney, and left his family. In August 1980, the Anistons divorced. Jennifer was overwhelmed by the breakup, believing—somehow—that she was the cause of her parents’ split. The youngster became rebellious, and, later, went through a phase as a punk rocker.

    Jennifer remained in Manhattan with her mother. She attended the High School of Performing Arts, where she studied acting. Because she felt she was not as pretty or as talented as some of her peers, she was very insecure. She graduated high school in 1987, but instead of going to college, she focused on an acting career. While making casting rounds, she supported herself as a waitress. She found work in two off-Broadway plays.

    By the summer of 1989, Jennifer was living in Los Angeles, where her father was a regular on the TV soap Days of Our Lives. Between going on auditions, Aniston worked as a telemarketer, then as a waitress. She resided in a communal living setup in the Laurel Canyon area, bonding with several women who became longtime friends. Eventually, Jennifer won roles on several TV sitcoms (including 1990’s Molloy and Ferris Bueller). She made her feature film debut in 1993’s Leprechaun. Next, she was cast in Muddling Through, but after a few episodes aired in the summer of 1994, the TV comedy faded from the lineup. Meanwhile, her agent sent her on a casting call for a new NBC series, Friends Like These. She was supposed to read for the role of compulsive, competitive Monica Geller, but preferred the part of spoiled Rachel Green, who suddenly must work for a living. Jennifer got the part. The situation comedy (renamed Friends) premiered in September 1994. After a slow buildup, it became a top ten show. Over the next decade, it guaranteed its six lead players a high income and global fame. During production breaks, Aniston launched herself as a leading lady in big-screen features (including 1997’s Picture Perfect and 1998’s The Object of My Affection).

    During Jennifer’s early Los Angeles years, she had a series of boyfriends. For a time, she dated Charlie Schlatter, her Ferris Bueller costar. Next, she was close with thespian Daniel McDonald, a relationship that ended soon before she landed the role on Friends. Her subsequent boyfriend was musician Adam Duritz, a member of Counting Crows. He was followed by veteran actor Tate Donovan (who had previously been engaged to Sandra Bullock). Aniston and Donovan lived together for two years. He played on several episodes of Friends in early 1998, as well as appearing with Jennifer that year in the little-seen feature The Thin Pink Line. In March 1998, the couple ended their serious relationship. (Tate remarked of life with Jennifer, She likes top-notch hotels and luxury, and I like bed-and-breakfasts and riding my bike. That’s the most shallow version of it, but it’s indicative of our personalities.)

    Several weeks after Aniston and Donovan went their separate ways, her talent representatives, with the help of friends, fixed her up on a blind date, hoping it would distract Jennifer from her emotional funk. The date was with Brad Pitt.

    017

    HE was born William Bradley Pitt on December 19, 1963, in Shawnee, Oklahoma, the first of three children of Bill and Jane Pitt. (Brad’s siblings were Doug, born in 1966, and Julie, born in 1969.) Mr. Pitt worked in

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1