On what motivated her to get into gossip:
“The main thing in my life is that I was born with a disability (muscular atrophy). That made me feel different. And therefore, my curiosity factor was always up: ‘Why did you say that?’ I’d say. ‘What did you mean by that?’ And by high school, everyone came to me. They’d say things like, ‘Oh, I love this girl so much, Rona, she let me feel her titties!’ Then another guy would come by and say something similar. And afterwards, I realized: I never want my name to be in any man’s mouth like that. I became the confessor. I was the priest.”
On encoding in her gossip:
“You could write in a way that was clever and smart, and people knew what you were saying. Especially the world of gay people, the LGBTs. I think they fell in love with me because I was so honest, in a way, about it, and not making fun of it, but being more like, ‘Come on, you guys, you’ve got to be kidding me.’”
On Rock Hudson (and not outing people):
“I went to his house one night for a cocktail party. And he knew that I knew that he was gay. But he was always so polite — that’s how they were brought up in the studio system: They had to go to etiquette school, and then the PR people made up all of that stuff. But the point was, if he wanted to come out and say it, it was up to him to say.”
On a fight with an executive at ABC:
“He started yelling at me, ‘What the hell are you doing telling everyone how much money a film made over the weekend at the box office! Who in America wants to know that?’ So I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Lemme tell you something. There are only three things in life that people are interested in: money, sex, and power, and not necessarily in that order.’”
The full article is on the long side, but well worth it. Read it here.
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