I had heard about the “biography” Brando Unzipped which was released in 2006 and written by former Miami Herald columnist Darwin Porter and the huge buzz around the lurid details of the late actor’s overactive sex life as well as a photo that was published in the book showing Marlon giving what looks like a black guy (NSFW, kids, he was giving him a blow job).  I have not read the book, but today, in searching for an excerpt from Brando’s autobiography Songs my Mother Taught Me in which he talks about Vivien Leigh during the filming of Streetcar, I came across Brando Unzipped on Googlebooks, and decided to take a read.  What’s reported in this book mainly concerning Marlon and my two favorite people–Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh–made me want to *headdesk*.

It’s well documented that Marlon Brando was a)openly bisexual and not at all ashamed of it  and b) kind of a man whore for lack of better word (he had what, like 10 kids by several different women?).  And granted, this book was written by someone who is trying to revive Hollywood Babylon (a book that reveals everything you never wanted to know about your favorite old stars) but making it have 10 times the shock value Kenneth Anger put in his original tell-all about the “real” dirt in Tinsel Town.  However, even if this stuff is true, I don’t understand why authors feel the need to drag dead celebrities’ names through the mud. I don’t need to know ALL the details.

In Songs my Mother Taught Me, Brando mentions that he was attracted to Vivien Leigh and would have “taken her for a romp if it weren’t for Laurence Olivier” because he admired Larry and didn’t want to “invade his chicken coop”.  Darwin Porter reports about a supposed letter that was sent to one of Marlon’s associates about what Marlon REALLY thought of Vivien Leigh (to downplay what was said, he thought she was hot) and that Marlon actually DID have an affair with Vivien on the set.  Not only this, Porter writes, but he also had an affair with Laurence Olivier.  Do I personally believe this happened?  I wouldn’t be surprised (for the record, I do adore Larry but wouldn’t be surprised if the rumors about his bisexuality were true, however there doesn’t seem to be any conclusive evidence that Olivier’s supposed affairs with certain men–one of them being Danny Kaye–ever really happened).  But do I need to know the sordid details of these supposed affairs (along with Marlon’s affairs with everyone else in Hollywood)?  NO.

Porter “quotes” Vivien Leigh as telling Elia Kazan:

“I must say this for Marlon, when it comes to couples he is an equal opportunity seducer. On many an occasion he rose from Larry’s bed and joined me in mine.”

Reviewers on Amazon say Porter fails to properly cite the excerpts and quotes he uses in his book, which is just stupid in my opinion anyway. If you want people to take your book seriously (or maybe that’s not this author’s goal?), you damn well better support your arguments with proper evidence.

Anyway, I’m rambling. The point of this blog post is that I don’t understand why these authors feel the need to publish such sensationalism (obviously to earn a few dollars off of dead people’s names), and to air these peoples’ dirty laundry. I recently read that Olivier biographer Anthony Holden, is re-publishing his biography (which I hated, by the way, it made me angry) for the sole purpose of revealing new things about just how gay Olivier really was. This makes me sad/angry because look, authors, who CARES if these actors were gay or bi or whatever? It’s Hollywood, ok? They’re dead now, and by sensationalizing “facts” that you “didn’t write about when he was alive out of respect,” you’re just making it into slander by publishing it now that they’re dead and can’t say anything about it. The things that are important to me regarding actors that I really admire, are the contributions they made to film and to their craft, and who they were as a person, not who they supposedly slept with and every single detail that can supposedly be dug up regarding their addictions or their dalliances. There’s a point where you draw the line. What’s the point of writing about someone if you’re only going to focus on the scandals or even make things up? The sad thing is, whether it’s true or not, people who know little about the subject and pick up a book like Brando Unzipped, are going to have that sensationalized tabloid trash as their first and foremost impression of people who were so much more than that. I hate going on youtube, for instance, and seeing comments on people’s videos like “I cant believe this guy had an affair with Danny Kaye.” It hasn’t been proven, and even so, something like that shouldn’t be the focal point of someone’s legacy, and it shouldn’t be the factor that determines how people who never knew these actors in the first place see them today. Instead of being reported as a factual, well researched part of someone’s life story, its often presented as slander.

So dear authors,

*wait for it, these steps up to my soap box are high*

How about, instead of doing your best to air people’s dirty laundry just to get people to buy your book, you instead do your best to preserve the memory of the person you’re writing about. Sometimes people prefer to hold on to a bit of the larger than life image that these stars created. People like Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh did their best to keep their private lives private while they were alive, which is probably one of the reasons why they were so respected. Why do you feel like you have the right to shout it from the top of a mountain? Libel is lame.

No love,

Me.

And to lighten the mood in an extremely random way, here’s Liza Minelli’s greatest role in perhaps the greatest clip ever put on youtube. From Arrested Development: GOB reads the appetizer menu.