Hollywood stars can now do no wrong-
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lived in America for some 40 years, had his U.S. entry permit revoked in 1952 by a State Department that decided he was guilty of "grave moral charges." Chaplin had been branded a Communist sympathizer during the McCarthy which-hunt era. And he had been brought to trial and had established his innocence in a suit. charging violation of the Mann Act (forbidding interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes), a case involving Joan Berry, the 16year-old aspiring actress with whom he would later be involved in a spectacular paternity suit.
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It's hard to believe considering
that Ingrid
the way things are now Bergman met such disgrace in the 50s for having an extramarital love affair with filmmaker Roberto Rosellini, she not only found her Hollywood movie career terminated, but also, her voice, as she recalls, "couldn't even be heard on radio for Red Cross appeals, because they didn't want me to corrupt children." at me
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Today, our children's minds and morals are being molded by an Industry that often gives the impression there's no behavior that's out of place.
It's a town where drugs are so accepted in some circles that some people have taken to carrying artificial powdered sweeteners to parties so they can fake the fact they're not snorting the real stuff where plastic surgeons are making a fortune reconstructing the nostrils of those who have had cartilage eaten away by repeated use of cocaine... and where scores flaunt such usage by wearing 18 carat coke spoons on golden chains around their necks.
It's an industry that can still recall when actions, both on screen and off, were controlled by such rigid morality codes that many suffered the fate of silent film comedienne Mabel Normand, who was banned from films and hounded into oblivion and early death when she was in some vague way connected with the murder of director William Desmond
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.. and actress Mary Miles Minter, when that same unsolved murder cäst her in such an evil light it shattered her image as a symbol of purity and destroyed her career.
It's a community that helped make fashionable the New Morality of the 60s, and which now feels free to behave, and boast about, things that were considered censorous sin.
"Last Tango in Paris" actress Maria Schneider cheerfully makes confession about her bisexuality and experiences with 70 lovers.
"Cabaret" choreographer Ron Fields tells the world, "My homosexuality is a very big part of my life. I've been fortunate because of the business I'm in, and the people I'm surrounded by accepted: it."
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Richard Pryor, Elton John, even Richard Burton join the growing list of those who admit to having had homosexual experiences.
While Hollywood's biggest names, including Paul Newman, Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin, John Travolta and Robert Blake, turn out to support the recent Hollywood Bowl rally for Gay Rights that draws a crowd of nearly 18,000.
Actress Joan Collins can recall that even back in the early 60s Hollywood ran so scared of public opinion she had to keep secret the heterosexual
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affair that was occupying her life. At that time she was living with Warren Beatty and was under contract to 20th Century-Fox, and she
says, "I was ordered by the studio not to discuss my domestic relationship with Warren, which was sheer hypocrisy. While studio executives were promising actresses roles if we'd go to bed with them, we were expected to pretend we were as pure as Little Orphan Annie.”
Today, as Sammy Davis points out, "The word 'morality' has a very strange, confused connotation." Which is why, he says, he doesn't attempt to judge anyone on the basis of what they do or how they behave.
Davis followed such a philosophy a few years back when he took it upon himself to sponsor Linda Lovelace's entrance into Hollywood society while she was riding high on the dubious distinction of being the star of the porno pic "Deep Throat." Her acceptance by that society was perhaps the first stunning example of how standards among the local society have changed.
Not only did she become a favored guest at such events as Hugh Hefner's
celebrity-studded soirees, but e
became such a pet among the industry's elite that some of the ladies of the Thalians charity group were actually planning to make her honored entertainer at their annual ball until Thalian members Debbie Reynolds and Ruta Lee raised their voices in outrage.
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"Notoriety means instant celebrity status today," points out producerturned-top-novelist Sidney Sheldon, who has seen how Roman Polanski and Linda Lovelace have been lionized, and has witnessed the excitement and approval generated by the likes of Elizabeth Ray and Fanne Foxe, who achieved notoriety by capitalizing on affairs with U.S. congressmen.
And if it is difficult for such traditionalists as Sheldon to accept the e new standards (or lack of them) for inclusion into Filmland society, it's becoming even harder for some to keep up with the changing rules of acceptable professional behavior.
For we've gone far afield from the days when performers feared that one rebellious note might sound the death knell to their careers, when even covert rebellion could not only mean the loss of a job, but an industry-wide blacklisting invoked by the small handful of men who controlled Hollywood.
Today it often seems to be the inmates who are running the Hollywood asylum, but it hasn't been that way long.
In 1969 CBS canceled "The Smothers Brothers Show" after the performers made repeated on-air slaps at the government and at the network, which by current standards seems mild.
That same year NBC ended "Then Came Bronson" rather than put up with continued outbursts of temper from series star Michael Parks.
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In 1970 Tony Franciosa was fired from his "The Name of the Game" series because of clashes with management. And that same season Scoey Mitchell found himself a series star without a series, when ABC canceled his "Barefoot in the Park" show before it ever debuted. Because, in his words, he had earned the reputation of "Petulant bad boy."
And in 1971 Elliott Gould was suddenly thrust from the position of much-in-demand actor into persona
non grata industry status that would last for several years after he was accused of causing the ruckus on his "Glimpse of Tiger" set that brought a permanent end to shooting of the film..
NOT NOZE
How those casualties of such recent no-nonsense days must be looking on with envy at what's happening now.
..as
as Richard Pryor calls a press conference on the eve of the debut of his new NBC series to blast the network, and is given use of network facilities to hold his forum Peter Falk is wooed back to making more "Columbo" segments, though his set-side tantrums have become legent, and his insistence on perfectionism so pronounced that the series has been often far over budget and way behind schedule as ABC lures Redd Foxx away from NBC where his repeated feud with' the network and absences from work created countless "Sanford and Son" migraines.
If the ghosts of all those who were once victims of Hollywood's rigid morality code are looking down now, how envious they must be that Roman Polanski has powerful filmland friends who have come to his support and who need not be afraid of doing so.
*1977 Marilyn Beck
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