Thursday, September 16, 2010

Phony Tony

I bring to your attention the latest autobiography of Tony Curtis. I've seen interviews with him and read other interviews about his declaration that he and Marilyn Monroe had a torrid affair during Some Like It Hot. He further claims that she became pregnant with his baby, not Arthur Miller's. At some point she miscarried. While there were rumors that she looked pregnant (and she usually did) no one was told because Arthur Miller and she weren't close at that time in their marriage. Curtis came out with this after Arthur Miller died. Jack Lemmon is dead. Billy Wilder is dead. Marilyn Monroe is dead. All witnesses are dead.

This man is delusional. Or a devout liar. He hated Marilyn Monroe. Someone asked him what it was like kissing her. He replied, "It was like kissing Hitler." In the scenes that he was in with her -- especially the scenes on the yacht -- he did not look happy to me. He looked the way Olivier looked in scenes with her.

In 1974, he appeared on The Mike Douglas Show as the weekly co-host. On that show I heard him say when asked about Monroe, "I hated her. She gave very little of herself." Ironically, Mike Douglas chose guests that week who knew Marilyn in one way or another. Usually the co-host says who he/she wants on the show that week. But Marilyn upstaged Tony yet again!

Curtis must need the money. There's a photo of Tony Curtis meeting Marilyn before the start of Some Like It Hot. She is smiling at him pleasantly. His face is full of tension, even the arteries in his neck are popping.

The man's a liar. Although she's dead, I think he is "besting" Marilyn Monroe because he lived to tell a story of his phony affair with her. I don't believe a word of it. He's just adding his name to MM's apocrypha.

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