The Power Of Money And Fame

A new coroner’s report on the death of Natalie Wood suggests that she sustained bruises and scratches shortly before she drowned in 1981. Already those rumors about her husband, actor Robert Wagner, being involved but getting off scot-free have started to creep back into discussions about Wood’s mysterious death.

https://twitter.com/rubyhell/status/291076811566219264

Is this another instance where the saying: “In Hollywood if you murder your wife, you don’t go to prison, you just pay a fine” rings true?

We may never know, but it’s certainly not the first time a man of wealth and fame walked free despite incriminating evidence. Here’s a list of other notorious cases:

– Robert Blake:  Arrested and charged in connection with the 2001 murder of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley. Two people claimed Blake had tried to hire them to kill Bakley. Their testimony was ripped apart by Blake’s defense team and he was ultimately acquitted in 2005.

– William Kennedy Smith: Tried for a rape in 1991. Testimony from three women who claimed he had sexually assaulted them in the 1980s was excluded from the trial. Smith was eventually acquitted.

– O. J. Simpson: Perhaps the most infamous out of all these type of cases. Simpson was tried for the murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Police strongly suspected Simpson based on evidence at the scene of the murder. After a legendary trial Simpson was acquitted.

Pomp and youth don’t mix

First Anne Hathaway did the “gauche” thing during her acceptance speech at the Critics’ Choice Awards by pointing out that her first name was misspelled in the Best Actress montage.

Now it appears Jennifer Lawrence made a similarly tone-deaf remark when she accepted the Best Actress nod at the Golden Globes.

Jennifer Lawrence Golden Globes

What does it say?” she asks looking at the statue, “I beat Meryl.”

There was audible rumbling in the audience. Click here to check it out. But according to Access Hollywood she meant no disrespect. The comment wasn’t a dig at the screen legend, Lawrence was trying to channel her inner funny by quoting Bette Midler in 1996’s “The First Wives Club” (was Jennifer even alive when that came out?)

So let me see if I have this right. A 22-year-old quotes a comedy about middle-aged divorcees being dumped for younger women as she accepts an award in which she not only beat Streep but also Dame  Judi Dench (78) Maggie Smith (also 78). How apt!

Perhaps both Hathaway and Lawrence could use a little reality check courtesy of Bette Davis in the classic “All About Eve.”

For those of you haven’t been lucky enough to see the 1950 movie, here’s the gist: Davis plays an aging Broadway star, who takes Eve, a young fan, under her wing. Eventually Davis discovers that docile Eve is actually scheming to take over her life.

Fasten your seat belts indeed.