Wednesday Potpourri -- Garbo, Jackie, Betty Hutton and Peter Dinklage!

"The only perfect body I have ever seen was Lana Turner's...she had it for two weeks in 1947," said famed nutritionist Gayelord Hauser of the MGM star.
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"THE ONLY perfect body I have ever seen was Lana Turner's...she had it for two weeks in 1947," said famed nutritionist Gayelord Hauser of the MGM star.

•I AM getting a big kick out of my readers who remember lines and situations and actors from grand movies of the past. (As Jeff Nickora did the above.)

And speaking of Gayelord Hauser, we old Sagg Pond dwellers from the Bridgehampton of the past, used to lie in wait on the roof of Lee Bailey's house with our binoculars when we heard that "Harriet Brown"-- alias Greta Garbo -- was visiting right next door. Carefully concealed, we'd wait and watch silently as Garbo and her health nut friend, Gaylord, walked together by the Pond's edge, en route to the beach and Atlantic Ocean nearby. Her hostess, our neighbor, used to dread Garbo's annual visit because no matter how hot it was, Garbo insisted on no use of air conditioning when she was in residence.

•RECENT stories about Jackie Kennedy's intimate letters to a priest being auctioned off have shocked those who haven't been keeping up with all things Jackie. There are some "moral" questions, perhaps, attached to a priest being so careless with the correspondence of such a famous person, but the priest himself is dead and the letters are owned by a college. The letters extend from 1950-1963, the year of JFK's death. ("Effectively an autobiography," said one party.) Also, if people didn't have the correspondence of the famous, history would suffer. (Jackie herself burned many of her letters shortly before her death, much to the dismay of some friends and family.)

But how much is really "new" in these missives? I wrote last August about a book titled These Few Precious Days : The Final Year of Jack with Jackie from Gallery Books, by Christopher Andersen. This is a touching look at how unhappy and then happy the Kennedys were in the White House.

We commented then that the book was surprising, touching and full of "gossip," if you will. And it was! The publishers gave it a massive buildup which I feel the book lived up to.

So, I don't think there is much "new" that is revealed in Jackie's private letters but they are, of course, germane to history.

P.S. Now we hear the sale of the letters might not happen.

•WE KNOW from recent events around Tina Flaherty's new book What Jackie Taught Us: Lessons from the Remarkable Life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis that people can't get enough Jackie history. Her recent sell out at Barnes & Noble included -- in person, her dog named Jackie -- barking his approval. And the distinguished Municipal Arts Society is hosting a get together on June 3rd. to celebrate Jackie's legacy. Meanwhile, at a recent symposium on What Jackie Taught Us there was standing room only at the Roosevelt House when Hunter College presented Tina's book. We could have sold 15 times the seats if only we'd had room.

•READER David Cuthbert e-mailed to comment on our thoughts about the 1943 musical extravaganza, Thank Your Lucky Stars. He wrote that we were correct in thinking Ann Sheridan's "Love Isn't Born, It's Made" was eye-brow raising. "You're right; Sheridan's advice to all those sweet young things is pretty audacious, even for war-time."

Cuthbert also says: "Ice-Cold Katie" is one of the best production numbers in any movie musical. It tells a story, it's got a crowd of talented performers and the sets and costumes are spectacular. But did you notice the crummy billing Hattie McDaniels gets? And this was after she won her Oscar. Willie Best doesn't get any billing at all." (Willie was the soldier pining for the indifferent Katie.)

And for fans of this sort of thing, David suggests 1949's Red, Hot and Blue, starring Betty Hutton and -- of all people -- composer Frank Loesser, who wrote Hutton's songs and also plays a gangster trying to bump her off. Hutton's over-exuberant style is hard to take for some modern viewers but she was a huge movie star in her day. Bigger even than Judy Garland. (She would actually replace Garland in Annie Get Your Gun, but Hutton, like Miss G. had issues, and unlike Judy, after her film career faded, Betty was unable to become the iconic concert performer Judy turned herself into.)

•ENDQUOTE: "Stabby, stabby stabby sexy sexy sexy!" That's how Game of Thrones star Peter Dinklage summed up the series that has made him a star. He was talking to an interviewer who admitted to the actor that he's never seen the HBO show.

Peter said a bit more, but it can't be printed. He did keep it brief, however. (After all, how much does a person who's never seen your work need to know?) There are only three episodes left of this seasons GOT and Dinklage will most certainly be up for another Emmy. His trial scene two weeks ago was the clincher.

After the "stabby/sexy" ends in three weeks, it'll be another year before fans find out what's next for the characters they love or love to hate -- if those characters haven't already been killed off in some gruesome manner. (In Westeros nobody dies peacefully in bed at a ripe old age surrounded by loved ones.)

A whole year! Honest, the lords of GOT could learn something about torture from the execs at HBO.

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