++ Hollywood Remembered ++
The Casanova of the 20th Century
By Darwin Porter
A
Hollywood story presently making the rounds—perhaps it’s
gave in to his wife’s wishes. He invited Beatty to the White House
apocryphal—has a child saying, “Daddy, didn’t you used
“to soak up the atmosphere.” But Beatty wired back: “No, I much
to be Warren Beatty?”
prefer you come to Hollywood and soak up the atmosphere here.”
When the White House received that (admittedly imper tinent)
Born in 1937, Beatty is still around and still married to Annette
telegram, Beatty suddenly found himself off the picture.
Bening, whom he met when she was cast in his 1991 Bugsy. The
screenwriter James Toback recalled Beatty’s reaction. “He let out
His list of conquests reads like a Who’s Who in Hollywood—
a growl. A primordial yelp of love, lust, and desire, a sound that
Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Natalie Wood, Candace Bergen,
one would expect a starving man to make at the prospect of fiCher, Brigitte Bardot, Vanessa Redgrave, Mary Tyler Moore, et al.
nally being able to devour a huge and delicious meal.” This roamMadonna, whom he cast opposite him in Dick Tracy, was one
Warren Beatty
ing Lothario seems to have settled, since then, into domestic bliss.
of his most widely publicized affairs. “She had no inhibitions,” he
In the past few weeks, Beatty’s life has been scrutinized under a microscope recalled. The Material Girl really abused him, dragging him night after night to
as never before, with reviews in the nation’s leading newspapers. Three bio- gay discos and calling him a wimp.
graphers have released books on the charismatic star, documenting his many
Jane Fonda thought Beatty was gay after their first meeting. She learned
love affairs: The Sexiest Man Alive by Ellis Amburn; Star by Peter Biskind, and later that he wasn’t. He had high praise for her in the boudoir. “She has this
A Private Man by Suzanne Finstad.
ability to virtually unhinge her jaw like a python that swallows prey much larger
Of these writers, Biskind estimates that Beatty has had at least 12,775 women, than itself.”
excluding daytime quickies, drive-bys, gropings, and stolen kisses. This is an
Beatty seduced Julie Christie shortly after she was nominated for an Oscar
amazing record for a clean-cut, All-American football player from Virginia, who did- for her lead role in Darling. Another of his lovers, the French gamine, Leslie Caron,
n’t lose his virginity till he was 20. He certainly made up since then for lost time. claimed, “Warren always falls in love with girls who have won or been nominatBeatty today is hailed as the “Founder of the New Hollywood,” and even his ed for an Academy Award. Diane Keaton, for example.”
detractors have to credit some of his achievements, such as the groundbreakIn spite of his star-studded list of seductions, he was an equal opportunist.
ing classic Bonnie and Clyde. Originally, his sister, Shirley MacLaine, was set A fan wrote that her husband wouldn’t have intercourse with her any more after
to star as Bonnie. “I would love to have done a kissing scene with my brother breast cancer forced her to have a mastectomy. “Fly to Hollywood; I’ll send a
to see what the fuss is all about. Today, I keep my daughter as far away from ticket,” he wired her. “Tell your husband I’ll do the job for him.” He was a man
Warren as possible.”
of his word.
#
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Listen to Darwin Porter with Anita Finley on Saturday,
May 1 from 5:00-5:30 AM on WSBR 740AM
and on the Internet at www.wsbrradio.com.
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It might be easy to write Beatty off at this point in his career. He has millions
of dollars in investments, a good wife, a loving family, and devoted friends. He
could easily retire. But he’s not completely given up on films, however. He still
wants to play Howard Hughes, even though Leonardo DiCaprio and director
Martin Scorsese beat him to the goal post with their The Aviator. Beatty is considering playing Hughes in his declining, demented years, portraying the period
when he became the world’s most famous (and enigmatic) recluse.
Close friends also claim that Beatty is still interested in politics. He considered, at least for a brief period, running for governor of California against
Arnold Schwarzenegger. Beatty was instrumental in the ill-fated 1984 and 1988
presidential campaigns of Gar y Har t. It was said that Beatty and Har t each
wanted to be the other.
“What he really wants is to become president of the United States,” said a
close friend who doesn’t want to be named. “To those who say he’s too long in
the tooth, I point out Ronald Reagan, another actor. Annette Bening is a great
actress and could play the role of First lady better than Nancy, who was only a
minor movie star.”
In spite of the revelations within those fat biographies presently being digested
and reviewed, Beatty will have the final word: “Whatever you have read or heard
about me, through books or gossip, forget it. I am nothing like that Warren
Beatty. I am nothing like what you’ve read.”
Classics aside, he has also made some of Hollywood’s worst flops, notably
Ishtar, costarring Dustin Hoffman. Beatty’s appearance in the ill-fated film Town
& Countr y virtually ended his movie career. In the wake of its release, Variety
referred to it as “Hollywood’s biggest modern-day flop.” Ironically, in the reviews
of his life, Beatty’s film career seems to play second fiddle to his role as an
international Don Juan.
“Sex was his hobby,” MacLaine said. The best-selling novelist, Jackie Collins,
claimed, “Warren would proposition a chair if it looked at him sideways.” Her
sister Joan, one of Beatty’s early lovers, found him too much man for her.
“Three, four, five times a day, once a record-breaking seven, was not that
unusual for him. And he was able to accept phone calls at the same time.”
I’m just a very normal guy,” Beatty once said. Yeah, right! How many everyday guys do you know who have made love to Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis; her
socialite sister Lee Radziwell; and Christina Onassis, the shipping heiress and
daughter of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie’s second husband?
Jackie had long been attracted to Beatty. According to her friend Truman Capote,
she had this thing for actors, and had had affairs with both William Holden and
Dar win Por ter, formerly a bureau chief
Marlon Brando. At the debut of her affair with Beatty, she’d warned him to be
for The Miami Herald, is an acclaimed
discreet. “I don’t want us ending as fodder for the tabloids.” As might have been
entertainment writer.
predicted in liaisons among the very famous, one night at a social gathering,
His most recent book, from Blood Moon
she approached him from behind and overheard him bragging to male friends
Productions, is Steve McQueen, King of
about his conquest of her. She dropped him that very night and refused to take
Cool, Tales of a Lurid Life. It is hardcover,
his calls, the next day and forever.
466 pages, and costs $26.95. It is available now from fine bookBeatty also struck out with Jackie’s first husband, JFK himself. Jackie had stores and internet sites nationwide.
wanted Beatty to portray her husband in the biographical World War II drama,
For more information on the ongoing literar y opus of Dar win
PT-109. JFK preferred the acting skills and persona of Cliff Rober tson, but Porter, click on www.BloodMoonProductions.com
Darwin Porter